Excel 97 Secrets

With Excel firmly established as the most popular and powerful spreadsheet program around, you might expect Microsoft to slack off a bit. Excel 97 Secrets, however, proves that the folks up in Redmond have not been idle. In this in-depth guide to Excel 97's most advanced features—including many not covered in the official documentation—Excel know-it-alls Patrick J. Burns and Alison Barrows reveal tips and techniques to boost you right to the top of the learning curve.

With Excel 97 Secrets, you get up to speed quickly no matter which earlier version you've been using. Burns and Barrows orient you and provide clear explanations and practical examples of how to

• Take advantage of 16 levels of undo (if only life were so easy?)
• Publish worksheets and workbooks on the World Wide Web, for everyone on the Internet to see or for only your workgroup or organization to see
• Use enhanced PivotTables (they're not only more powerful now, but also they're easier to use)
• Enjoy near-WYSIWYG editing
• Run queries in the background
• Build formulas using more natural labels rather than abstract cell addresses
• Share workbooks with your workgroup—and cobble together budgets and proposals more easily than ever before
• Increase productivity by automating tasks with Visual Basic for Applications

Plus, Excel 97 Secrets comes complete with a CD-ROM packed with outstanding shareware, freeware, demos, and VBA programming utilities.

Alison Barrows has taken the long route to ...For Dummies® writing, most recently thinking she would have a career in economics. A serious computer user since high school, she found herself irresistibly drawn into technical support, training, and documentation with help from friends who are...For Dummies authors.

Since finding herself in a career as a writer, Alison has authored or coauthored seven books for IDG Books including Dummies 101®: WordPerfect® 8 For Windows® and Excel 97 Secrets®. During her career in technical writing and training, she has designed and written software courses and taught hundreds of computer users how to make computers work for them. In addition to writing books, Alison teaches custom computer courses and writes technical documentation and training material.

Alison has a master's degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School at Harvard University and a B.A. from Wellesley College. In real life, she loves to sing, watch Star Trek (the newer versions), cook, and dabble in yoga, rock climbing, and Ultimate Frisbee. She currently lives in Boylston, Massachusetts, with her husband, Matt, and the newest member of the family, their Portuguese Water Dog puppy Jake.; Patrick J. Burns is an established author whose work in the computer field also includes the development of software packages for major publishers and private businesses. Author of the best-selling books Microsoft Office 95 Companion (Ventana) and Windows, Word, and Excel Office Companion (Ventana), he has written and contributed to over 30 other books. A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Burns is a world-wide traveler who has lived in Europe and Asia. He is founder and a principal of Burns & Associates, Inc., based on the north shore of Lake Tahoe in Incline Village, Nevada.