If you're after an introductory book, Nikolai, there is:
Visual QuickStart Guide: Microsoft Word for Macintosh 2004, Maria Langer,
Peachpit Press. It is a good introduction at the basic level.
If you are looking for more detail, beyond the "quick guide" level, there is
a wider choice:
Macworld Microsoft Office 2004 Bible, Bob LeVitus and Dennis R. Cohen,
Hungry Minds Inc., is an example of a good reference book if you want to go.
In a similar vein is Office 2004 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual, Mark
Holt Walker, Franklin Tessler and Paul Berkowitz, Pogue Press/O¹Reilly
Associates and, by the same publisher, Office 2001 for Macintosh: the
Missing Manual, Nan Barber and David Reynolds.
If you want more comprehensive coverage, books on Word for Windows are more
comprehensive than Word for Mac books. There are not many major differences
beyond the appearance of the interfaces.
The more detailed manuals available include Word for Windows manuals such as
Que Corporation¹s Using Word [year] series and Wiley¹s Word [year] Bible
series. The Word 2000 versions are better for Word 2004 users than the Word
2003 books.
Word Pocket Guide, Walter Glenn, O¹Reilly & Associates is an excellent,
condensed, well-written, mainly question-based book for intermediate and
advanced users of Word.
Taming Microsoft Word is a good introductory book available in PDF form from
the website of the author, Jean Weber
(
www.jeanweber.com/books/tameword.htm). Price is $15.00 Australian (about
$10 US). Again, don¹t be concerned that it¹s for the Windows versions. Make
sure you download the Word 2000 version, though, not 2002, if you¹re on a
Mac.
At an advanced level, Word Hacks: Tips and Tools for Taming your Text,
Andrew Savikas, has many good ideas.
Book recommendations are also at:
http://word.mvps.org/Tutorials/BookRecommendations.htm
Bear in mind one disadvantage of most books about Word: possibly out of
perceived or actual commercial pressures, they rarely discuss bad features,
bugs and problems, especially ones that are persistent or wide-ranging in
their effects. Newsgroups are the place to learn about Word, warts-and-all!
Cheers,
Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================
* SUGGESTION -- KEEP REVISITING AFTER YOU POST: If you post a question, keep
re-visiting the newsgroup for several days after the first response comes
in. Sometimes it takes a few responses before the best or complete solution
is provided; sometimes you'll be asked for further information. Good tips
about getting the best out of posting are at
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/AccessNewsgroups.html and
http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari you may see a
blank page and have to hit the circular arrow icon -- "Reload the current
page" -- two or more times).
============================================================
Hi Nikolai,
clicking 'Templates' as
category opens the template as template, not as document based on this
template.)
Not here it doesn't. True, the dialog says Open, but it creates a new
document, assuming you are really going through the Project Gallery. I must
say, the Project Gallery seems fairly user-friendly to me. Maybe the missing
step in the example you give might be clicking the triangle to expand the
categories into subcategories?
But anyhow, resources for beginners. It depends on what you mean by
beginner, really. What are you having problems with?
This site is for WinWord, but for beginners who have never used Word,
probably the best thing out there.
http://shaunakelly.com/word/concepts/introduction/index.html
There is a $5 Take Control of Word 2004 ebook, but that assumes basic
familiarity with Word.
http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/word-1.html
There is "Bend Word to Your Will", a sort of secondary help system, though
it goes well beyond beginner level.
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html
The opening screen of the Help also has a "What's New" and "Discovering MS
Office" topics, which may be more useful than searching for specific topics
(I've not read them myself).
Alternatively, post specific questions here.
hello. would there be any useable manual, handbook, introduction, seminar
Š for beginners to be introduced into word for mac (2004, in my case)? I
know there's the help function, but it is simply unusably bad.* I know of
the O'Reilly Edition, of course, but I'm hoping for some ressource out there
on the net Š if anyone knows, I'd be most thankful.
* (Saying things like: " Create a document from a template: [Š] On the File
menu, click Project Gallery. Click the category for the type of document you
want to create, and then click the template you want. You can also create
your own templates."‹Which is either really badly put or straightforward
nonsense, because clicking the category for the document (Blank Document)
doesn't offer access to one's own templates; and clicking 'Templates' as
category opens the template as template, not as document based on this
template.)
