BKTMOAWB.RVW 940202 Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Heather Rignanesi, Marketing, x340, 73171.657@Compuserve.com P.O. Box 520 26 Prince Andrew Place Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 or Tiffany Moore, Publicity tiffanym@aw.com Bob Donegon bobd@aw.com John Wait, Editor, Corporate and Professional Publishing johnw@aw.com Tom Stone, Editor, Higher Education Division tomsto@aw.com 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-822-6339 617-944-3700 Fax: (617) 944-7273 "The Mother of All Windows Books", Leonhard/Simon, 1993, 0-201-62475-3 U$39.95 Like the "Hacker's Guide to Word for Windows," (cf. BKHGTWFW.RVW) this is primarily meant for those who are into playing, and those who want to tinker with the program's guts. This is not to say that there is not a lot of very useful information here--there certainly is. It is, however, buried in a lot of jokes, opinions, and fooling around. When you find yourself in a jam, you are not likely to be able to find any help fast. Actually, probably the best time to get this book is before you buy Windows -- or even a computer. There is a great deal in here that is only marginally applicable to Windows operations, but which is handy when considering how best to set up a system. Some of the ancillary information is decidedly odd, such as a fairly large section describing Compuserve. Yes, guys, I know online systems are fun. Possibly even useful. And you even mention mail to the Internet. Ever hear of WIN3-L? comp.sys.os.ms-windows? The biggest headache with Windows is printing. Oh, Windows takes care of all that automatically? Fine. Until it stops. There are chunks of printer information strewn throughout the book: some of them may be helpful. In the same way OLE in a network situation can drive you around the twist. Again, you will have to pick your way through lots of points (including a description of a powerful and potentially disastrous OLE link editor). When looking for specific information, you *must* use the index--the table of contents is useless. Obviously, these guys know their stuff. One could, however, wish that they had organized it to make it more accessible to the working computer user under pressures and deadlines. Oh, and yes, guys, I passed the IghorStone. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKTMOAWB.RVW 940202 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Oct. '94) Springer-Verlag