Microsoft Office 97

"Learn to use Microsoft Office 97," says the back of the video jacket for this 45-minute program, but users of Office 97 (myself included) know that a person would have a much better chance of scaling Mount Everest in three-quarters of an hour than learning the sprawling (though productive) Office 97. Instead, what this program offers is bits and pieces of Office 97, but--and this is what I liked--presents it through the eyes of a real user in a real-life situation. The owners of the Ivy Lodge (an East Coast B&B) point out a few nifty things Office 97 can do for promoting a small business, such as using Outlook (the latest addition to the Office suite--currently the subject of much controversy, given the tendency of the program to bring one's computer to a crawl) to maintain customer contacts, schedule meetings through e-mail and fax, and remind users of important deadlines (I personally don't use this last feature, since my computer would, I suspect, be chiming at me every 15 minutes). In addition, viewers will learn how to merge a Word document with an Outlook address list, use PowerPoint and Excel to create a logo and a pricing breakdown for a flyer, and transfer Word and PowerPoint documents and presentations to the Web. Very handsomely produced, if inappropriately named, this program will offer a taste of what Office 97 can do, and is very specifically task-oriented (i.e., it's not for computer geeks). On balance, this is recommended. Also available on CD-ROM, as are the following related titles: Microsoft Word 97: Introductory Skills, Microsoft Word 97: Intermediate/Advanced Skills, Microsoft Excel 97: Introductory Skills, Microsoft Excel 97: Intermediate/Advanced Skills, Microsoft PowerPoint 97 and Microsoft Access 97. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)