On the cover of this book are the words "User Friendly", and they are appropriate, for the book is written in the manner that Que uses in all their "Using...." titles. Detailed step-by-step instructions with lots of pictures of the dialog boxes that open with each step. Office 97 is a huge application and the book is divided into six parts, covering the four programs, one on getting started and how to use the book, and finally one on putting it all together. It is not a book that you read from cover to cover, and then forget where the important parts are located. The Table of Contents is broken down into many detailed parts, convenient for quickly finding just the work that we want to learn.

Parts one and six cover the generalities and common functions in the four programs and how they can be used together. Each of the other four parts cover in detail the programs Word97, Excel97, PowerPoint97 and Outlook97.  They are extremely well written and contain many tips, shortcuts and hints to using the applications quickly and efficiently. On every page, the steps are listed, and windows opened by the action are shown, so you can see the results of your keystrokes and mouse clicks.

My favorite sections in the book are the paragraphs titled "Plain English Please!", where explanations of the previous parts are given just that way...in plain English, with words that we can understand....not computer- speak. Another favorite are the "Q & A" sections, where typical errors and improper actions are given with the appropriate corrections.

The author writes in the Introduction that it’s worth flipping through the chapters, looking at the headings, and searching out references to the things that you want to do, and that the publishers went to a lot of trouble to make sure that those interesting ideas would leap off the page and catch your attention as you browse. I believe that they have succeeded, and this book will be of great use to everyone.