Times are changing, technology is changing, and this text is changing, too. Do you think the students of today are different from yesterday? There is no doubt about it—they are. On the positive side, it is amazing how much effort students will put toward things they are convinced are relevant to them. Their effort directed at learning application programs and exploring the Web seems at times limitless. On the other hand, students can often be short-sighted, thinking that learning the skills to use the application is the only objective. The mission of the series is to build upon and extend this interest by not only teaching the specific application skills but by introducing the concepts that are common to all applications, providing students with the confidence, knowledge, and ability to easily learn the next generation of applications.

• Same Great Features as the Office XP Edition with some new additions!
• Introduction to Computer Essentials—A brief introduction to the basics of computer hardware and software (Appears in Office Volume I Only).
• Focus on Careers – A new feature, appearing at the end of each Lab, which provides an example of how the material covered may be applied in the “real world.”
• Introduction to Outlook—A lab devoted to Outlook 2003 basics (Appears in Office Volume I Only).
• Topic Organization—The text is organized to include main and subtopic heads by grouping related tasks. For example, tasks such as changing fonts and applying character effects appear under the “Formatting” topic head. This results in a slightly more reference-like approach, making it easier for students to refer back to the text to review. This has been done without losing the logical and realistic development of the case.
• Clarified Marginal Notes—Marginal notes have been enhanced by more clearly identifying the note content with box heads and the use of different colors.
  • Additional Information—Brief asides with expanded discussion of features.
  • Having Trouble?—Procedural tips advising students of possible problems and how to overcome.
  • Another Method—Alternative methods of performing a procedure.
• All Numbered Steps and bullets appear in left margin space making it easy not to miss a step.
• A MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist) Skills table, appearing at the end of each chapter, contains page references to MOS skills learned in the lab.
• References
  • File Finder—Helps organize all data and solution files.
  • MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist) Certification Guide—Links all MOS objectives to text content and end-of-chapter exercises.
• Relevant Cases—Four separate running cases demonstrate the features in each application. Topics are of interest to students—At Arizona State University, over 600 students were surveyed to find out what topics are of interest to them.
• Focus on Concepts—Each chapter focuses on the concepts behind the application. Students learn the essentials, so they can succeed regardless of the software package they might be using.
• End-of-Chapter Material
  • Screen Identification appears in the first Lab of each Application
  • Matching
  • Multiple Choice
  • Fill-In
• Hands-On Practice Exercises—Students apply the skills and concepts they learned to solve case-based exercises. Many cases in the practice exercises tie to a running case used in another application lab. This helps to demonstrate the use of the four applications across a common case setting. For example, the Adventure Travel Tours case used in the Word labs is continued in practice exercises in Excel, Access, and PowerPoint.
  • Step-by-Step
  • On Your Own
• Rating System—The 3-star rating system identifies the difficulty level of each practice exercise in the end-of-chapter materials.
• Working Together Labs—At the completion of the brief and introductory texts, a final lab demonstrates the integration of the MS Office applications and the WWW.