Book recommendation for Excel 2007 for noob

[Alex Ferenstein]

I'm not actually an Excel noob, but compared to a seasoned Excel user, I
might as well be.

I'm looking at three books for Excel 2007:
1. Excel® 2007 Bible (Wiley) by John Walkenbach
2. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Inside Out (Microsoft) by M. Dodge and Craig
Stinson
3. Using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 (Special Edition Using) by Bill Jelen.

I've only been able to see 2 and 3 in shop. The latter seems more complete,
for example, I compared VLOOKUP explanation in both and the latter had more
explanation and examples. However, I hate the latter's large (almost bold)
font and the fact that I have to purchase a PDF of the book separately
whereas the former seems to include it (for free) on the enclosed CD.

Can I have other people's recommendations?

 

[Wild Bill]

I'm looking at three books for Excel 2007:

1. Excel® 2007 Bible (Wiley) by John Walkenbach
2. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Inside Out (Microsoft) by M. Dodge and Craig Stinson
3. Using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 (Special Edition Using) by Bill Jelen.

I've only been able to see 2 and 3 in shop.

You can view the excerpt of Walkenback's latest book at
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470137665.html

Others can give "official" recommendations but here are some peripheral
comments about the authors based on past works:

Dodge & Stinson: I'm unfamiliar with them but they have extensive
bibliographies, like each of the other authors.

Jelen: You can email questions to the author (him) and he may answer
them on a podcast, and he runs a website (www.mrexcel.com) frequented by
experts that have his book(s).

I feel Walkenbach is the most entertaining while maintaining efficacy
(even has a consistently fascinating blog,BTW). He also participates
quite valuably in these newsgroups.

Speaking only for Jelen and Walkenbach, they have solid reputations as
pulling no punches in weaving in the gotchas, downsides and workarounds
as they cover the traditional basics of Excel.

I've often been plagued by fonts being too small - I've never heard of
them being too large!

 

[ilia]

Another "noob" title I can think of that's out so far for 2007 is the
For Dummies. You can expect the quality of the Dummies series; I
haven't read the whole thing, but it seems like the explanations are
in terms simple enough for a beginner, and it's pretty short compared
to your other selections. There's also a Dummies "Just the Steps",
but that's not up my alley.

Microsoft Press has the Excel 2007 Step-by-Step - those are usually
more rudimentary than the Inside Out series. I have not seen this
one.

The Jelen title you're referring to is geared towards users shifting
to Excel 2007 from earlier version. You'll find quite a bit of
information here that's irrelevant to you if you have little to no
experience with prior versions. From the Jelen news coming out
recently, I've gathered that he's in the process of updating his Learn
Excel from Mr. Excel for 2007 - that's definitely one worth reading,
if you can bear with the large fonts.