古语有云，千里之行，始于足下。（好吧，现在更有可能从启动汽车开始，但你明白了。）如果你一次迈出一步，复杂的事情就会变得简单。Microsoft Office Professional 2010是当今向公众提供的功能最全面的Office版本，起初它可能看起来极其复杂。这就是为什么像Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Step By Step这样的书可以让您顺利掌握。让我们在这篇评论中看看它是否能成为一个真正有用的指南。
保持简单
Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Step By Step遵循Step by Step系列中其他书籍的格式，从基本任务转移到更复杂的任务，沿途解释所有内容。与其他循序渐进的(Step by Step)书籍一样，这本书并没有详细介绍使用Office 2010可以做的每一件事(thing one)的每一个细节，而是专注于让人们对他们最常做的任务充满信心。
事实上，由于这是对Office 2010中所有组件的全面概述，并且它必须适合一本不需要健美运动员肌肉学习的书，因此每个组件的描述都明显缩短了。作者提供了一个有用的列表，其中列出了更详细地涵盖Word、Excel、Powerpoint、Outlook和Access的其他(Access)Step by Step书籍。(Step by Step)还列出了其他每一本书的章节标题，因此您可以决定某本书是否值得一读。我认为这是个好主意。与所有软件参考书(software reference)一样，Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Step By Step可以按照您认为最有帮助的任何顺序阅读——或者直接从头开始阅读，或者直接转到您需要的信息。还有一个练习文件的 URL 与书中的材料一起使用，以及如何获得帮助的详细说明。作者首先介绍了所有Office(Office)程序共有的东西。虽然功能区(Ribbon)已经存在了一段时间，但它在Office 2010中再次更新，因此，即使您是经验丰富的用户，最好阅读名为“修改功能区的显示”("Modifying the Display of the Ribbon")和“使用程序环境。” ("Working in the Program Environment.")丝带(Ribbon)_是一开始看起来非常复杂的功能之一，但它旨在使在Office中的工作比旧的菜单系统(menu system)更容易和更直接。
如果您是从Office 2003（或更早的版本）转到Office 2010 ，您肯定会想阅读名为(Office 2010)“使用文件”的章节，("Work with Files,")并使用练习文件完成练习。微软(Microsoft)从Office 2007开始改变了它的文件格式(file format)，并且有一个新格式的列表和一个关于与早期版本的兼容性的解释。如果您需要与使用早期版本的人共享文件，您需要使您的作品与他们的作品兼容，并在兼容模式下(compatibility mode)使用他们的文件。我觉得这本书的解释不够透彻，放在了侧边栏的盒子里(sidebar box)在当前文件格式的详细描述的最后，因此读者很容易跳过或错过。
专注于实践
整本书设置为一系列练习，使用练习文件来解释基本概念。您不一定非要这样做，特别是如果您已经具备基本知识；书中的解释很好地说明了。如果您已经了解基础知识，则可以跳过每章的很多内容，但这些章节可以作为Office 2010工作方式的图解参考。我发现“如果您想了解更多有关此内容，请跳至本节，或查看另一本书”("If you want to know more about this, skip to this section, or look in this other book")的不断评论有些烦人。虽然我可以看到它背后的逻辑，但它让这本书看起来更像是一本“选择你自己的冒险”("Choose Your Own Adventure")的书，而不是一本软件指南(software guide)。Excel章节是最广泛的，它可以很容易地理解普通人想要用Excel做的几乎任何事情。在这里，我绝对推荐使用练习文件，因为它们是熟悉程序的好方法。其他章节更侧重于使用该软件的非常基本的方法，并且“简单”一词经常出现在每个部分的目录中。
也许太简单了？
如果您是Office或其任何组件的完全新手，保持练习简单是获得信心的关键，但我认为OneNote的部分特别简陋，尤其是当它开始时说OneNote的技能伴随着常规采用。目前还没有单独的Microsoft OneNote 2010 分步(Microsoft OneNote 2010 Step by Step)手册可以更详细地解释这个有用的程序，因此这里的简短说明可能不足以帮助新用户获得信心(user gain confidence)。Access部分也是如此。数据库可以很简单也可以很复杂，Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Step By Step非常正确地建议任何需要有关Access的更多信息的人都应该阅读专门用于它的Step by Step书。
判决
虽然Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Step By Step与该系列中的其他书籍一样写得好且简单明了，但它试图在太小的空间内做太多事情。练习文件非常有用，练习绝对可以帮助读者获得(reader gain)所需的技能，但说明绝对是针对新手的，而不是帮助有基础知识的人学习(knowledge learn)更多。如果您想看看这些解释是否是您所需要的，我建议您从当地图书馆借阅这本书。对于已发布完整分步书籍的(Step by Step)Office 2010组件，我认为您会更乐意阅读这些内容。让我们希望微软出版社(Microsoft Press)将在下一版Microsoft Office发布之前发布2010 版OneNote和Publisher的书籍。
Book Review - Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Step By Step
As the old saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. (OK, nowadays it's more likely to begin by starting the car, but you get the idea.) Complex things are made simple if уou take them one step at a time. Microsoft Office Professional 2010 is the most full-featured version of Office that's offered to the general public today, and it may seem overwhelmingly complex at first. That's why a book like Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Step By Step can smooth the way to mastery. Let's see in this review if it manages to be a truly helpful guide or not.
Keeping it simple
Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Step By Step follows in the format of other books in the Step by Step series, moving from basic tasks to more complex ones, explaining everything along the way. Like other Step by Step books, this one doesn't go into every last detail of every last thing one can do with Office 2010, but concentrates on giving people confidence with the tasks they'll do most often.
In fact, since this is a comprehensive overview of all the components in Office 2010, and it had to fit into a book that didn't require bodybuilder muscles to pick up, the descriptions of each component are noticeably abbreviated. The authors provide a helpful list of the other Step by Step books that cover Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and Access in much greater detail. Each of those other books' chapter headings are listed as well, so you can decide whether a particular book would be worth reading. I thought this was a good idea. Like all software reference books, Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Step By Step can be read in any order that you feel is most helpful—either straight through from the beginning, or by going directly to the information you need. There's also a URL for practice files to be used along with the material in the book, and a detailed explanation of how to get help. The authors begin with an introduction to the things that are common to all Office programs. While the Ribbon has been around for a while, it's been updated again in Office 2010 so, even if you're an experienced user, it's a good idea to read the chapters called "Modifying the Display of the Ribbon" and "Working in the Program Environment." The Ribbon is one of those features that looks hopelessly complex at first, but which has been designed to make working in Office easier and more straightforward than the old menu system.
If you're coming to Office 2010 from Office 2003 (or an even earlier version) you will definitely want to read the chapter called "Work with Files," and go through the exercises with the practice files. Microsoft changed its file format starting with Office 2007, and there's a list of the new formats and an explanation about compatibility with earlier versions. If you need to share files with someone using an earlier version you will need to make your work compatible with theirs and work with their files in compatibility mode. I don't think the book's explanation of this was thorough enough, and it was placed in a sidebar box at the very end of a long description of the current file formats, so it would be very easy for the reader to skip over or miss.
Focus on practice
The whole book is set up as a series of exercises using the practice files to explain basic concepts. You don't necessarily have to do this, especially if you already have basic knowledge; the explanations are well illustrated in the book. If you do already know the basics, you can skip over a lot of each chapter, but the chapters can serve as an illustrated reference to the ways in which Office 2010 works. I found the constant "If you want to know more about this, skip to this section, or look in this other book" comments somewhat annoying. While I can see the logic behind it, it made the book seem more like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book than a software guide. The chapter on Excel is the most extensive, and it makes it easy to understand almost anything the average person would want to do with Excel. Here I would definitely recommend working with the practice files, because they're a great way to become familiar with the program. The other chapters focus more on the very basic ways to use the software, and the term "simple" appears often in the table of contents for each section.
Maybe too simple?
If you are a complete newcomer to Office or any of its components, keeping the exercises simple is the key to gaining confidence, but I think the section on OneNote is particularly skimpy, especially when it starts out by saying that skill with OneNote comes with regular use. There is not, as yet, a separate Microsoft OneNote 2010 Step by Step book that would explain this useful program in better detail, so the abbreviated instructions here may not be enough to help a new user gain confidence. The same goes for the section on Access. Databases can be very simple or very complex, and Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Step By Step quite rightly suggests that anyone needing more information on Access should read the Step by Step book devoted to it.
Verdict
While Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Step By Step is just as well written and straightforward as the other books in the series, it tries to do too much in too small a space. The practice files are very useful and the exercises can definitely help the reader gain needed skills, but the instructions are definitely geared toward the newcomer rather than on helping people with basic knowledge learn more. If you'd like to see if the explanations are what you need, I'd recommend checking this book out of your local library. For the Office 2010 components where full Step by Step books have been published, I think you'd be much happier reading those instead. Let's hope Microsoft Press will release books for the 2010 versions of OneNote and Publisher before the next version of Microsoft Office is released.
