Microsoft Office Software has been around, in one version or another, for more than a decade. Wethat is, Woody and Edhave been writing about Office since the very beginning. In books, on the Web, and in magazine articles and e-mail newsletters, we've guided lost souls through the Office labyrinth, held Microsoft's feet to the fire over bugs and security breaches, and passed out praise for the many innovations that the Office development team has delivered through the years.

In previous editions, we focused on the needs of people using Microsoft Office Software in the office. For those books, we focused on budgets, annual reports, e-mails from the boss, and other staples of dull corporate life.

This edition is different. Microsoft Office Software Student and Teacher Edition is packaged and sold for people who plan to use it at home. Although its individual parts are identical to those found in the Office version used in corporate settings, the day-to-day tasks you're likely to tackle are a little different. That's why, in this book, we've shifted the focus to explain how you can use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook to produce school reports, family newsletters, and projects for civic and social organizations. Of course, if you want to use the same technique to sneak in a little work on the weekend, we won't tell.

The audience may be different, but the depth of our coverage hasn't changed. We still assume you're smart, curious, and able to figure out the truly basic stuff on your own. We show you how to use and customize the common parts of Office 2003toolbars, task panes, and other interface elementsso that when you learn how to customize one Office program you can transfer the same skills to others.

Office 2003 still has odd inconsistencies, as well as bugs, features that don't work as advertised, and basic interface elements guaranteed to drive expert users crazy. But as we researched the third edition of this book, we were pleasantly surprised to see how many longtime Office annoyances have finally been fixed. Office 2003 isn't perfectnot by a long shotbut it is indisputably the most stable, usable, and productive version we've ever worked with.

Some of what you see in Special Edition Using Microsoft Office 2003 will be familiar to you if you've worked with an earlier edition of this book. We've gone through every chapter, sentence by sentence, testing, verifying, updating, revising, and adding a wealth of new information to ensure that this book is accurate and absolutely up to date.