How to Do Just About Anything on a Computer

It's probably inappropriate that the authors chose CompuServe's e-mail services as their sole example of Internet mail--it's not typical, and more people will need to know how to use Outlook Express. The same goes for Web browsing. Despite these troubles, this book distinguishes itself with its carefully illustrated procedures for such common home-computing tasks as creating party invitations (with Microsoft Word) and helping kids do research for school. Well-written, paragraph-length labels clarify the contents of full-color photos and drawings. Some advice is a bit weird--you'd be hard-pressed to make a kitchen floor plan in Word, as this book recommends--but it's enough to get you started in home computing with Windows. --David Wall

Topics covered: Microsoft Windows 98 and programs that run under it, for home users with very little prior knowledge of computing. Readers find out about basic computer parts (such as the keyboard and the mouse) and learn how to use them, then see how they can use Windows software to perform useful tasks, such as creating a family budget and monitoring health records.

Product Description
Written in clear, plain language, this user-friendly illustrated guide will help you make the most of your PC. A CD-ROM is included to help you execute the projects in the book; these include résumés, invitations, a family budget planner and more.

And, having completed a few of the useful but easy projects, my enthusiasm transmuted into gratitude and respect, for HOW TO DO JUST ABOUT ANYTHING ON A COMPUTER is the most invaluable and accessible book of its kind I've ever seen, designed for those who dislike obscurity and who, conversely, enjoy clarity, lack of prententiousness and extreme utility.

Such excellence of communication is the Reader's Digest hallmark, and this magnificent book is a premier example of a story well told - and a superb guide to unleashing your computer's awesome power.

As you turn its pages, you are taken on a vivid tour that makes your computer your servant rather than your master. It, literally, puts you in the pilot's seat. No longer will your home computer merely be used to churn out those tedious Christmas Round Robins, but you'll find that it will, with the aid of this book, sprout wings and whisk you into the New Millennium with a host of engaging projects.

Now you can engage your wider family with an impressive full-colour family magazine instead of the Round Robin. And it will be enhanced by the inclusion of home-scanned photographs of little Sally's first walk. Within minutes you'll be turning out professional letterheads, creating menu planners or eye-catching CVs. Indeed, as the title suggests, you and your family will now be able to turn out 'just about anything'. Amazingly, this book shows you how to use your computer to compose music, paint pictures and much more!

You'll be taught how to use Internet - in minutes rather than hours! - and shown how to do historical research. It will lead you step-by-step (and, thankfully, picture by picture) through such arcane obscurities as how to inject more 'oomph' into your PC, how to maximise disc space and how to chase away those naughty viruses.

This book does everything a major and thoroughly entertaining computer course would do - and is suitable not only for the beginner but also for the middle-weight and the advanced user. As a face-to-face course could cost thousands of dollars, the value of this book is, accordingly, immense.

And in comtemplating the myriad of uses readers would find for this book, I thought at once of how teachers would find it invaluable, for they are always seeking clear and well-organised classroom material. This book is ideal for them - not only for instructional use - but also as an essential inclusion in every school or college library.

The Reader's Digest have a knack with language and have found a formula for reaching the great, vibrant majority of mankind. This book exemplifies these skills, for it is as accessible and as appealing to ten-year-olds as it is to post-docs. Created, I'm told, partly in response to the growing need of baby boomers to learn skills they missed in their youth, this comprehensive book will surely satisfy their needs handsomely.

Congratulations, Reader's Digest, for opening the doors to the wonderful world of computers for the vast mass of mankind - and for having so sensitively considered the fears of technophobes!


Familiar format for seniors   December 16, 2001
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

I purchased this book for my senior parents who have in the past year bought not one, but two new computers. Brave as they are, computer jargon is new to them, and sometimes I am hard pressed to help them out long distance. It was great to find this book that looks SO MUCH like the red Reader's Digest Do-It-Yourself book that has occupied my father's bookshelves for as long as I can remember. That familiarity is bound to feel something like climbing a new mountain in a pair of comfortable old jeans.


Familiar format for seniors   December 16, 2001
3 out of 6 found this review helpful

I purchased this book for my senior parents who have in the past year bought not one, but two new computers. Brave as they are, computer jargon is new to them, and sometimes I am hard pressed to help them out long distance. It was great to find this book that looks SO MUCH like the red Reader's Digest Do-It-Yourself book that has occupied my father's bookshelves for as long as I can remember. That familiarity is bound to feel something like climbing a new mountain in a pair of comfortable old jeans.


CLEARLY ILLUSTRATED - EASY TO FOLLOW & GRASP - BUT - WHO'S STILL USING WINDOWS 95   September 23, 2006
Heather L. Parisi (Pekin, IN USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

IN A NUTSHELL: DESPERATELY NEEDS TO BE UPDATED

Quicksilver hasn't changed as fast as computers and a chameleon couldn't keep up with personal computing over the last twenty years. Therefore, why should one be surprised to find this wonderfully insightful how-to personal computing handbook, a bit obsolete.

The problem with this text is simply that it needs to be made into a new edition, since reading through it leaves an anxious kind of nostalgia as though all of this happened about 100 years ago.

WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT: BEFORE WINDOWS 2000 - USB - BURNING CDs & BROADBAND INTERNET CONNECTIONS

Accepting the fact that this book, featuring Windows 95, modems, old fashioned serial port connections and the like could never have been published before being a bit obsolete, it is still useful to people just getting the hang of personal computers -- like my 86 year old mother. In most cases, whatever computer they have or have had will be around there household as long as it works. So Windows 2000 and other newer applications may not be essential or even relevant for the Grandma Bunny in your lives.

HELPFUL FOR BASIC HOME COMPUTING INCLUDING INTERNET COMMUNICATION VIA A MODEM

Everything in this book is easily understood and comes with a lot of illustrations and practical advice. In essence, this book can act as a surrogate computer tech for people who have recently decided to delve into personal computing for the internet and possibly to communicate with family - long distance. Everything you need, including a handy CD to plug into your PC comes with this book and it can be quite a security blanket while your getting started. Even a troubleshooting section is included a covers most of the most likely problems in computing along with most of the solutions that may be predicted. Though broadband connections and burning CDs are not even mentioned here, most people just getting into PCs are probably getting the internet via a modem and aren't thinking about burning CDs yet.

IN 2000 THIS TEXT WAS $49.95

Writing letters, using Windows Works, PowerPoint and other Windows programs are illustrated and reinforced by the CD that is included. For people that are not in need of the cutting edge applications and programs this book and the helpful CD that is included is a real steal today at just $1-2 plus S&H. It is also highly available from public libraries, which is where I found the copy I have read.

BOTTOM LINE: A UPDATED EDITION IS SORELY NEEDED BUT THIS IS STILL A USEFUL AID