NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article
Crash Course Word 95
A Book Review by Max Beasley - September 97

Crash Course Word 95 by Mike Murach & Associates is an excellent course for busy people who want to learn Word 95 as quickly as possible.

It is composed of three chapters. Chapter 1 teaches how to create, print, and save a document; Chapter 2 teaches essential word processing skills, and Chapter 3 teaches three features that help you work like a PRO.

Chapter 1 starts with an introduction to Word 95 and teaches the components of the Word window, how to remove the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar from the display, how to use toolbar buttons and lists, how to work with the TipWizard, and how to change the view. The first chapter then goes on to teach the basic skills for creating a document;i.e., how to enter text, how to move the insertion point with the keyboard or the mouse, how to select text with the keyboard or the mouse, how to delete or replace text, how to apply bold, italics, and underlining, and how to insert the current date. The rest of the first chapter teaches how to use the commands in the file menu by teaching how to open, close, save, and print a document, how to change the file display in a dialog box, how to start a new document and how to exit from Word. The chapter also contains four exercises to help you learn Word faster. You are then given a perspective summary of the chapter.

Chapter 2 teaches ten editing skills;i.e., how to use shortcut menus, how to undo or redo actions, how to move and copy text with commands, with drag and drop editing, and from one document to another, how to check your spelling, how to use the thesaurus, the AutoText feature, and the AutoCorrect feature. It also teaches how to format characters, paragraphs, and pages. It teaches four skills for special purposes such as how to highlight text, how to create and print an envelop, how to insert symbols into a document, and how to use the AutoFormat feature. The chapter ends by teaching four skills for working with multi-page documents, such as headers and footers, how to use the Find command and the Replace command, and how to use the Text Flow tab of the paragraph command. Chapter 2 also ends with a perspective summary.

Chapter 3 teaches you how to use templates, how to create and use styles, and how to create and work with tables. It teaches template concepts and how to start a new document from a template, how to work with a document that's started from a template, how to start a new document from a wizard, and how to create a template from an existing document. It teaches styles by teaching style concepts and terms, how to apply a style to a paragraph, how to create or modify a paragraph style, how to use the style command to work with styles, how to use the Organizer to work with styles, and how to use Outline view with heading styles. It teaches how to create an empty table, how to enter and format the text in a table, how to change column widths, how to select cells, rows, columns or an entire table, how to insert or delete rows or columns, how to copy or move cells, rows, columns or an entire table, how to merge or split cells or tables, and how to apply borders or shading to a table. Chapter 3 also ends with a perspective summary.

This book is most informative and enjoyable and I know that I will be returning to it many times in the years to come. And, maybe the best part is the price: $15.00 list price and with the user group 40% discount makes it $9.00. That's almost stealing. Order now!

Hope to see you at the next meeting!

Mike Murach & Associates, Inc.
2560 West Shaw Lane, Suite 101
Fresno, California 93711-2765
209-275-3335, Fax 209-275-9035
800-221-5528

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