Book Review: Excel 2010 The Missing Manual [O'Reilly]
We have a very active forum here on eggheadcafe.com and one of the topics that is
consistently a leader in posts and replies is the Excel topic. Microsoft Excel
is used by millions of private and company users to handle everything from shopping
lists to advanced multi-sheet financial calculation workbooks. And of course,
most users never even scratch the surface, usually only learning what they must
as a minimum.
That's why I was glad to see Matthew MacDonald's new book, "The Missing Manual".
This is truly what I believe is the first really comprehensive book about Excel
2010.
The book is divided into seven parts:
1. Worksheet Basics
2.Formulas and Functions
3. Organizing Worksheets
4. Charts and Graphics
5. Advanced Data Analysis
6.Sharing Data with the Rest of the World
7. Programming Excel
Within these seven broad areas, there are a total of 29 detailed chapters that will
take you from absolute novice to expert " ExcelSpert".
Overall, Matthew's book is very well organized, making it easy to use as a reference
manual while you are working with Excel. The very first thing you'll learn is
how to collapse the Excel Ribbon and even to use Excel 2003 shortcut key combinations
(yes - they're still there).
I've done a lot of pretty fancy programming with Excel - including macros and entire
VBA programs "behind the scenes" But I have to say, before I opened
this book I must have been a complete novice -- this guy has packed more tips,
tricks and information about Excel 2010 into "The Missing Manual" than
anything else I've seen. The last chapter, "Programming Spreadsheets with
VBA" is a real gem.
At 871 pages (including index), Excel 2010 - The Missing Manual is a real blockbuster
for every user from Soccer Mom to CPA financial analyst. This remarkable book
has a sticker price of only $39.95 - easily worth twice that price.
Highly Recommended. It even has a "Missing CD" you can download, and plenty of examples on the publishers site.
Thank you.