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So I got a new position at work and will be using Office much more heavily, I was using it on occasion for things not especially critical to my work but will now be using it heavily every day. Also, I will be using 2010 instad of 2003 so there are pretty major UI changes. I am looking for books that cover 'everything' without being too dumbed down seeing as I'm pretty computer savvy in general.

The program I will be using most heavily is Excel, for data analysis. I am familiar with what I would say are basics but my former skills have atrophied. I got this already: http://www.amazon.com/Excel-2010-Bible- ... 660&sr=8-1 for Excel and it seems pretty good so far. If there is a vastly better Excel book, let me know.

I am still looking for a 'general' Office 2010 book. There isn't as much universal good or bad reviews for the general ones. I would like to brush up on more advanced Word and PowerPoint techniques in particular but don't want to buy a whole suite of books for the Office suite so would like to get a 'general' one. A lot of the general ones seem kind of dumbed down though. I know they won't be as in-depth as program-specific ones but that's OK for everything except Excel.

Finally, a good book on Lotus Notes would be nice as well. Maybe this isn't even worth it, I don't know, but being able to do some more advanced things in Notes would be nice. I am not in IT so won't be programming per se, but a good book on what is possible in Notes, even if it includes programming stuff, would be fine. I may do some basic things like scripting though...I'm not really sure what Notes has in that regard.

Just to go to this website: http://www.nerdbooks.com/

...and plug in your search criteria (lotus notes = 53 books / office 2010 = 50 books).

Now why anyone would need a book on Lotus Notes is beyond me. You just "use" it just like anything else.

I haven't used Notes in quite a while, but from what I recall it is a bit quirky. While I probably wouldn't pay for a book myself, I can see how some people might want one.

just brew it! wrote:

Notes... but from what I recall it is a bit quirky.

Heh, where I work we use Notes as the main application. The lucky ones (myself included) get to use Office. But we got a special word for Notes. POS.

But on topic, if you're looking for a "general" guide to Office, have you flipped through an "Idiots guide to Office"? That for sure would help customize you with the ribbin UI and go in a bit of depth for Office. At least get you up and running. It wouldn't do much for the advanced features though.

That being said, I find "F1" and Bing (Google) work wonders at solving all my Office needs.

Microsoft has some pretty good training and how-to's online in support (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/train ... spx?CTT=97), and yeah, F1 augmented by a search engine is pretty helpful.

If you want to do some Excel programming (VBA), I haven't found a good resource for that, and I would probably get a book.

My experience has been that the books that are most accessible initially aren't good for reference once you're more proficient.

So I may just stick with the Excel book....it is the program I will be using the VAST majority of the time. The book I got is pretty good as far as covering from basics, for bruch up, to pretty advarnced stuff short of maybe full-blown VBA programming. I can recommend that book for anyone who likes having dead tree references, it covers everything from basic introduction, to advanced features, to basic VBA programming.

I'm fine with Word, PowerPoint is the only program I haven't used in ages but I don't see an immediate need.

We do use Lotus Notes for a lot of stuff, from basic email to meeting scheduling and project coordination. (Unfortunately...it really is a piece of poo.) I just don't know that buying a book on it is worth it versus just asking coworkers. I think for now I will lay off on additional books unless there is a stellar general Office 2010 book someone can specifically recommend.

Thanks!

MadManOriginal wrote:

We do use Lotus Notes for a lot of stuff, from basic email to meeting scheduling and project coordination. (Unfortunately...it really is a piece of poo.) I just don't know that buying a book on it is worth it versus just asking coworkers.

For poo, there's always this: http://www.ihatelotusnotes.com/

And the never-fails-ya-wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Lotus_Notes

But let's be realistic now. I entered a new job about 4 years ago. Much to my dismay, they forced Lotus Notes (and Sametime) on its employees. Take it or leave it.

Having no experience with IBM's Lotus suite, stuff like basic email and scheduling meetings are no-brainers. Never got into project coordination since we use Microsoft Project. And besides that, I am not a Project Manager.

Moral of the story is, you don't need a book for Lotus. There's Google, co-workers, and plain o' experimentation!