Appleworks 6: The Missing Manual - Softcover

Elferdink, Jim; Reynolds, David

3.23

13 ratings by Goodreads

9781565928589: Appleworks 6: The Missing Manual

Softcover

ISBN 10: 156592858X ISBN 13: 9781565928589

Publisher: Oreilly & Associates Inc, 2000

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If you prefer a more streamlined alternative to the bloat and complexity of Microsoft "sport-utility" programs, AppleWorks 6 is the stealth office suite. Hugely popular in classrooms, colleges, and small offices, it's got word processing, graphics, database, web design, spreadsheet, and slide-show functions in a single, beautifully integrated application.Every year, AppleWorks arrives in the hands of four million Apple iMac and iBook buyers. There it sits on the hard drive, a masterpiece of smooth integration and clever interface design, accompanied by templates, art libraries, and fonts--and no printed instructions.AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual is the book that should have been in the box.It covers:

What's new. The authors place special emphasis on easing the transition into the new AppleWorks 6 interface, its Internet hooks, the Starting Points window, and the new Presentation module.
Part by part coverage. The early chapters delve very deeply into the six core AppleWorks modules, including 85 pages on the word processor alone.
Power tools. Much of AppleWorks's power comes from its macros, templates, assistants, customizable Button bar, and web-based clip-art libraries.
Document exchange. AppleWorks 6 can no longer export Word and Excel files. But this book covers exchanging documents with other programs, versions, and platforms--and includes a 25% discount coupon for MacLink Plus, which restores the file-conversion feature.
Troubleshooting. Because this book isn't an Apple publication, the authors freely acknowledge the program's weaknesses--and offer workarounds. Witty and jargon-free, AppleWorks 6:The Missing Manual treats AppleWorks as the serious productivity tool it is. With over 250 illustrations, a 2,000-entry index, and a menu-by-menu explanation of every command, AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual is as smoothly put together as AppleWorks itself.

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Review:

Too many writers of books about software let the software determine how they organize the material. If the File menu contains commands A, B, and C, the writers put A, B, and C in the same chapter, regardless of whether they're functionally similar. AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual is organized more logically, tackling the functional units--including Internet integration, macro programming, and table creation, among others--in separate chapters. It's an approach that makes sense for AppleWorks, in which the spreadsheet module can be used to create tables for word processor documents and all the modules rely on a common graphics editor. For those who want to know what a particular menu command does, there's menu-by-menu documentation in an appendix.

You get the requisite instructions: explicit steps to follow if you want to transpose rows in a spreadsheet, for example, or export button graphics for use in Web pages. Other procedures, like making calculations that refer to cells in multiple spreadsheets, are explained in text. "Workaround Workshop" modules call attention to shortcomings in AppleWorks (such as its two-palette limit when you're working with colors) and explain how to get around them (use a custom palette). Throughout, the instructions are engaging and fun to read. --David Wall

Topics covered: AppleWorks 6, the multipurpose office-productivity suite for Mac OS; the suite's capabilities, comprehensively--including word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, databases, and presentations; how to create documents and databases from scratch, as well as from existing materials.

About the Author:

Jim Elferdink is the author of Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual and iWork '05: The Missing Manual, and co-author of AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual. He also owns Macs for the Masses, a Macintosh consulting company. In former lifetimes a commercial photographer, farm owner, carpenter, and cabinetmaker; currently he enjoys gourmet cooking, digital photography, and racing sports cars. College introduced him to the Mac Plus and to comely professor Joy Hardin. He bought one and married the other. They share a home in the redwoods of far Northern California.

David Reynolds is the executive editor of MacAddictmagazine.

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