BKCOWPS8.RVW 980322 "Corel WordPerfect Suite 8", Alan Neibauer, 1997, 0-07-882327-7, U$34.99/C$49.99 %A Alan Neibauer alann@worldnet.att.net alann@compuserve.com %C 300 Water Street, Whitby, Ontario L1N 9B6 %D 1997 %G 0-07-882327-7 %I McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Osborne %O U$34.99/C$49.99 905-430-5000 +1-800-565-5758 fax: 905-430-5020 %P 823 p. %T "Corel WordPerfect Suite 8: The Official Guide" As "The Official Guide," this is presumably the documentation that did *not* come with the program. Unfortunately, while there is a chapter entitled "Corel and the Internet," the information on Netscape Navigator is sketchy at best, and almost no mention at all is made of the CorelCentral package. In fact, the addition of CorelCentral seems to have had a significant impact on the Suite overall, and many sections the early part of this book refer to items that no longer appear, or appear in a radically different form. Part one looks at the Suite overall. Chapter one briefly reviews the WordPerfect Suite, WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Corel Presentations, and Corel Photo House. Tools and utilities included with the package are mentioned in chapter two. Oddly, in view of the fact that other functions may be so very different, the coverage of Netscape Navigator 3 in chapter three is presented in such as way as to be almost identical to the same functions in the Communicator/Collabra 4 programs included with the later release. Part two deals specifically with WordPerfect. Chapter four starts off with some of the basics of creating documents and starting to manipulate them. In this quick start guide the multiple methods of accessing functions are not covered. A few of the points, such as selection of toolbars, might better have been left until later in the book, since they could affect the ability of newcomers to follow subsequent material. General editing functions are covered in chapter five. The explanations are clear, and multiple means of access to the same function are grouped together. In addition, the text does address possible shortcomings and concerns, such as times when you may *not* want to use one of the automated functions. It is nice to see such comments in documentation, since these works tend to try to overpromote any function of the target program. The formatting of text, in chapter six, is introduced with a short explanation of how WordPerfect deals with formats, and this reference will likely go a long way to avoiding the problems users normally have in the format arena. Chapter seven is a bit of a grab bag, looking at Web publishing, styles, and templates. It is therefore difficult to see the logic in separating chapter six from eight, which deals with page formatting. Tables and columns are a separate form of formatting covered in chapter nine. Various types of customization are discussed in chapter ten, but there is no mention of how to save or copy customization files, which has become more important with recent operating systems that allow "personal" computers to service more than one person. Chapter eleven moves through form letters and labels. Graphics in a variety of types are the subject of chapter twelve. "Sharing Information," in chapter thirteen, is somewhat of a misnomer, since the transfer of data is primarily only to other programs in the suite. Part three details Quattro Pro. Chapter fourteen explains what a spreadsheet is, and some basic functions. Creating a worksheet, in chapter fifteen, outlines fundamental operations. Editing and formatting might be seen to involve only aspects of presentation, but chapter sixteen also contains functional information such as the use of absolute and relative addressing. Chapter seventeen looks at more presentation aspects. Formulae and functions are detailed in chapter eighteen. Chapter nineteen gives a great deal of space to graphics. Data base functions are covered in chapter twenty. Chapter twenty one is primarily concerned with macro scripting. Parts four and five look at Corel Presentations and other applications. An introduction and basics of Presentations operation is provided in chapter twenty two. Chapter twenty three covers graphics while twenty four covers aspects of slide presentations. Envoy, a type of groupware program, is reviewed in chapter twenty five. Chapter twenty six closes out the book with Corel Photo House. Some areas of the book rise above the usual level of documentation, but much of it runs at the normal, very basic, plane. A good deal of the detailed operations of the various programs could benefit from a more logical reorganization of chapters into functional groupings. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKCOWPS8.RVW 980322