Special Edition Using Microsoft Word 11

Rating:
Summary: Rewrite Chapter 25
Review: As a technical writer, I've been authoring XML, XML Schema, and XSL documents for several years. A new project required me to test the capabilities of XML in Word 2003 so I purchased Using Microsoft Office Word 2003. After spending several days working through Chapter 25 I felt like I had climbed Mt. Everest with a 50 pound boulder in my backpack. Here are a few specific examples that led to my poor rating.

The schema example on pages 844-846 should have been included on the CD but no, I had to create a text file and type all the code from scratch.

On page 856, the author congratulates you for constructing your first XML data structure and document but then refers you to another section of the chapter that discusses various ways to save an XML file in Word. You're left on your own to play a save as guessing game. (It's true that you can save an XML file in WordML format but the code is so scary that you'll probably have nightmares after seeing it.)

On page 858, you are instructed to open a document that doesn't exist. On page 866 you're back to the task of writing more code. This time however, you create an XSL file from scratch. The first step asks you to "Use File, Save As to create a new XML file with data only." I don't think it would ever occur to me to use that approach to create a new file in any application. The next step states "Create an XSLT transformation file (.xsl) with the following code." The XSL code contains several namespaces that do not exist in the XML schema. Also, there is a duplication error in the xsl:value-of select statement. Word does not allow you to save a file with an .xsl extension so I had to create the file in an XML editor. If it weren't for my tenacity and experience with XML, I would have given up after the first hour.

I can see why the publisher's disclaimer states that the information provided is on an "as is" basis.

Rating:
Summary: I come to praise Que, not to bury it
Review: I don't have goglobal_2000's experience with XML. (I probably don't have his tenacity either, but let's not get personal.) So I don't know if his criticism is on-point or completely made up. But I think highly enough of Que Publishing's "Using" series in general - and the Word titles in particular - to want to post some praise of its broader merits.

I have perused pretty much every Word instruction manual on the market, and this is the one I'd go with. Most importantly, it is *extremely* comprehensive. Speaking personally, I can figure out how to cut-and-paste for myself. It's programming macros and the other scarily powerful features at the far edges of Microsoft-space that I need my hand held with, and Camarda does it nicely. But as thick as this volume is, it's all muscle - no bad jokes, no time wasting.