Applications Books

This particular series of instructional books (meaning the "QuickSteps" series) has always been one of my favorites -- they're concisely written in short paragraphs with decent descriptive pictures to help anyone learn just about any type of software application.

While I found this book to be fairly complete, I'd still only recommend it as a desk-side reference manual to use along with Microsoft tutorials themselves. While it is a cleverly written book that is not as cumbersome to use as other reference books on the market, it does not address all of the finer points of Excel.

All in all, it's a great reference book, and let's face it, sometimes it's just easier to review a chapter a few times to digest material rather than stare at a computer screen until you become cross-eyed.

All in all, I'd probably give this book a 4.5, but since that's not an option, I'll have to stick with 4 stars.

I manage a medium-sized network and support a large number of fairly savvy users. That is, most users know how to do their specific tasks very well and are willing to learn new things. But they are not willing to sit down with a book full of dense text. This is where the "Quick Steps" books come in handy. I keep a number of these books on hand and when a user requests assistance, I give them one of the books with the appropriate page bookmarked. Steps are outlined in full color with lots of pictures and pointers and tips. Additional information is set off in side boxes so users can learn more if they choose. What I have found is that once a user completes a task successfully, they get fairly excited about the experience and browse the book to learn more. The books really stimulate users to experiment with things they would not normally bother to learn. And that is where this book excels. It is a "browser." Users don't feel like they need to start at the beginning and read through to the end. I get lots of grumbles when I ask for the book back so I can pass it on to others.

This book is also great for new users. I tell them to spend a few hours working through the steps, which are easy to follow and can be done at a fairly fast pace. Most users think the full color layout is fun to work through. The down-side is that like any book, space is limited, especially with the fully-illustrated format, so you're obviously not going to find everything in these books, but I do feel they contain a good balance of material and are appropriate for corporate libraries.

Marty (the concept author for the Quick Steps series) and I are fellow writers and that is how I learned about these books. I must say that they have helped my users enormously and relieved my support task. Hey, it's the 21st century. Anyone working in an office should know how to work with operating systems and common applications. Most people can do that if they have easily accessible references and refresher material like these books. Thanks to Marty for developing the "Quick Steps" concept and to McGraw-Hill for publishing this series.

I'm a soon-to-be-graduating Psychology student at the University of Washington and I am writing this review from the perspective of some one using excel in Social Sciences.

I found this book extremely suited to my needs...each step was very clear and precise and it was easy to find the chapter or section that was most applicable to what I was working on.

It covered all of the functions of Excel that I have used in my classes thus far. Although my intro. classes had a very brief introduction to the functions I needed, as I progressed into higher level classes and used more and more Excel I found that I needed additional specific instructions for my work. This book was very helpful in that way, and saved me the bother of forever emailing questions to my professor, as I had done before I received the book.

I actually used Excel the most to analyze the significance of data from an experiment that I had designed and to graph the results. This required quite a few steps and it was helpful to have a guide to look at as I went as opposed to trying to guess what came after the basic skills I had previously learned.

I also lent this book to a friend who works in American Ethnic Studies and used Excel to organize and make tables of data for her thesis. The American Ethnic Studies major has no background in science, so was in the position of having absolutely zero knowledge of Excel. However, with this book alone, she was able to complete the Excel portion of there thesis without any additional help.

From a student's point of view, this is a great resource if your field involves any use of Excel.

I don't use Excel all the time. But when I do I don't have time to troubleshoot problems.

This hands-on, user friendly book has helped me conquer Excel. The text is readable and well organized. The visuals are clean and fully support the instructions.

I found that you can start from the beginning and teach yourself EXCEL with simple step by step instructions or you can flip straight to your topic of interest and further build your skills. This is a great tool for all levels of expertise.

I am an infrequent Excel user, so I needed a good reference book that is well indexed. That's exactly what I got with Excel 2003 QuickSteps. It's easy to find what I need when I want it. It's very well illustrated and contains a lot of great tips. The author does an excellent job of explaining the material.

This is an excellent book if you want to strictly pass the PowerPoint 2000 MOUS exam. If you have basic knowledge of PowerPoint and want something similar to a practice test, this is the book for you. I would recommend using this book as a supplement with more in-depth books to pass the exam. The end of chapter practice questions on the CD-ROM are very similar to the real test. I ended up scoring a 984 on my exam practicing with this book.

This is a great book for stictly passing the MOUS exam if you already have basic knowledge of PowerPoint. This book is written more like a practice test and should be used with a more in-depth book to study for the exam if your starting from scratch. But if all you want to do is pass the exam, this book is for you. The end of chapter review questions and CD-ROM exercises are very similar to the real exam. I ended up getting a 984 on my exam practicing with this book alone. But once again, I would only suggest this book to people who are already familiar with PowerPoint.

If you are an average or above average Microsoft user and want to pass this exam -- this is the book for you! This book gives a good overview of PowerPoint skills and has good review tests at the end of each chapter. I only use PowerPoint occasionally but had no problem scoring a 952 out of 1000 on the exam. I also learned a great deal about the program that will help me on future presentations.

This book does not cover basic Microsoft skills. So if you don't know how to cut and paste or copy and save files (minimum skills), want to learn more about PowerPoint AND pass the test, I would suggest a more detailed book.

Crammed for 1.5 hrs before the test and passed.

General Knowlege of Windows + This Book = Certification

I used this guide after briefly referring to a third-party manual and scored 952/1000 on the exam--three days before, I'd never even used PowerPoint. Some people think study guides should be as comprehensive as a manual but the truth about the MOUS exams is that, most of the time, the more advanced knowledge you have, the more likely it is that you'll get tripped up interpreting the tasks. Klippert provides an excellent, easy to read and refer to guide that tells you exactly what you need to know. The accompanying CD is brilliant with practice documents for everything, including finished solutions so that you can check your work. What this guide has that most others lack is focus--which is all you need to pass the exam.

I like Kate Gregory's writing style and her ability to get very complex and detailed information presented in an interesting and informative manner. I especially appreciate her ability to describe the interop capabilities of utilizing both managed and unmanaged C++ code. This book is the best that I have found in explaining this complex subject in a clear manner. This book is a little too complex for a beginner.
I do not normally write book reviews, but this is an outstanding book by a very proficient author.

I've purchased serveral books on .NET and this is the first I have finished. I really liked the fact that the book was short and to the point. This made for a quick read.

One of the surprising things in the book is how she takes some time to explain her methodology to application development and give some great examples. You won't find that in any other book.

If you're a C++ programmer looking to move into .NET I highly suggest this book as your first read. You won't be dissapointed.

This is an excellent book to start learning C++ .NET 2003. As with many people out there, I find myself often disappointed with the Microsoft on-line help and especially with the fact the many examples are only in VB.NET or C#.NET. I am one of those guys that goes to the local Book Superstore and sits in the corner reviewing several books on a subject trying to find a good selection. If you want to learn C++ .NET, I challenge anyone to go find a copy at a bookstore and look through it. I think you will buy it like I did.

Kate Gregory does an excellent job in describing how to work with Managed and Unmanaged C++ with .NET. She also provides excellent overviews on many aspects of C++.NET. The book doesn't cover everything about C++.NET, no single book possibly could. It will always depend on the target audience. But this is a great book for the beginner and intermediate developer. Her writing is clear and concise with example code that is easily understood.

Bottom line - If you want to learn C++ .NET - CHECK OUT THIS BOOK!

This is a very good quick read text to use in moving from C++ to Mananged C++ or .NET. Very clear writing with succinct examples.

I've been programming in C++ since the borland D.O.S version, and now I'm inside the .NET world. I think this book is good enough to understand the changes between versions

My approach to this book has been dictated from curiosity for this new technology more than for the implementation side of it. Mobile IP is a field where I have very little knowledge of this technology and needed to gain some background on it. My point of view will therefore ignore the configuration examples used in the book.

The authors did a great job in writing the book in a very simple English and using an informal style, which helps the reading by not making the text too tedious.

The first couple of chapters gave me a good overview of the basic principles of Mobile IP. The illustrations used in the book are very helpful to better explain the concepts described in the text. Some were a little too confusing because of all the acronyms and several times I had to give a quick glance at the pictures to resume myself the situation. The third chapter goes on with security issues that come back in almost all of the rest of the book. The fourth chapter goes in detail on how to set up a lab environment to apply the concepts explained in the rest of the book.

The following chapters show some basic case studies of mobile IP applications: Campus Mobility, Metro Mobility and Cisco Mobile Networks. These chapters require a good knowledge of tunneling, VPNs, routing and wireless concepts.

The last two chapters were more interesting for me as chapter 8 talked about scalability of the mobile IP solutions and the differences between different forms of IP addressing. The last part of the chapter shows some basic troubleshooting techniques. Chapter 9 called "A look ahead" is very valuable because it describes the various techniques discussed to bring the mobile IP technology to meet the IPv6 standard and what the idea of Cisco is in this area.

The book is thought as a companion book for studying and has the usual end-of-chapter questions that help the reader to check his understanding of the last things learned. The answers given in the Appendix A to all the questions are very explicative and help to review the entire concepts seen in the book.

A good book that has given me the basic understanding of the theory of Mobile IP. I suggest it both for those who want to have a look at Mobile IP and also to those who want a deeper understanding of the topic. A real-world case study would have given this book a top class touch.

Mobile IP Technology and Applications (ISBN 158705132x) is an introduction to IP mobility using an open-standard protocol called Mobile IP. There is a distinction made between true mobility and just "traveling" between different connections. This protocol enables users to keep their IP, stay connected, and allow others to find them while roaming between networks and equipment. In addition, detailed examples using real-world situations illustrate the applications of this technology. Advanced topics include reverse tunneling, firewalls, NAT, VPNs, authentication, scalability, and QoS.

Stefan Raab and Madhavi W. Chandra, authors, share their experience designing and developing network solutions using Mobile IP. Their credentials are impressive and give the learner confidence in the information they are imparting.

This book is designed for network administrators who are familiar with IP routing, protocols, applications, and Cisco IOS. Even though the real-world situations are generic, the configuration, troubleshooting, and management are explained using Cisco IOS. IT personnel who want to implement mobile technology can definitely benefit from this book as it explains the basics thoroughly before giving detailed examples and explanations. The index is complete; there is not a glossary. At the end of each chapter are review questions, so this book could easily be used in a classroom or in self-study. There are two appendices: one contains the answers to the chapter questions and the other contains the SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) MIB (Management Information Base) objects supported by Cisco IOS Mobile IP.

Raab and Chandra organized their book into nine chapters, each of which is a facet of Mobile IP. After an introduction of concepts and requirements of mobility and wireless networking, a detailed discussion of the Mobile IP protocol includes features, functions, and components. As with any network today, there are security concerns with protocol authentication and dynamic keying. The material presented in these early chapters is used in the scenarios in following chapters.

Mobility solution examples are provided for basic topologies, client-based Mobile IP, high availability, AAA servers, reverse tunneling, firewall and NAT traversal, and integration with VPN technologies. Basic configuration is introduced which leads into integration topics of redundancy, QoS, and VPN. The management and operation discussion leads to Home Address, scalability, and server management.

Future trends and uses for Mobile IP conclude the topics of this book: layer 2 integration challenges, Mobile IPv6, unstructured mobility, and ad hoc networking.

This book follows the linear, logical model of textbook organization that progresses from basic facts, to advanced topics, and concludes with end-to-end solutions. The authors feel that this book also enables someone to jump in at any chapter and navigate the subject by features and environment in which they are interested. They have created cross-references to assist readers who do not want to use the book in linear form. This works well for users with previous knowledge of the subject.

The examples, figures, and illustrations are clear, concise, and designed to help learners understand a complex subject. Cisco IOS knowledge is prerequisite, although the authors' expertise and explanations give logic behind implementation and options.
This book deserves a rating of 5 (highest) and is recommended for IT personnel wanting to move into true "mobility."

Mobile IP Technology and Applications
Reviewer: Glenn Bradley, Senior Network Engineer
Reviewer Certification: CCDA, CCNA, CCNP, ISSP

The authors have given us a text that serves as an excellent introduction to Mobile IP technologies. Using real-world scenarios limited enough in scope, they convey how Mobile IP is currently being used and hint at the size of an offering it is destined to become.

I would have liked to see a little more focus on the trend of Mobile IP in the `contained' workplace. However, the examples of PDA's, laptop's, fleet service applications, etc. are well laid out, easy to understand and presented in an order that leads the reader from an introductory approach through some reasonably high level discussion.

Like most recent Cisco Press books I have been looking at there is a minimum of page-flipping, back and forth to get from the text to the figures and tables. This may not seem like a monumental accomplishment but if you go through as many books as I do; the little things can become quite annoying. I should also mention here that another of my peeves; poor editing, is NOT present. Good solid references, annotations, etc.

If you are planning on getting into the Mobile IP world, or already have and feel you've missed something, I would highly recommend this book. It is actually an enjoyable read (for those of us who enjoy technical books) and I believe you'll find yourself breezing through so keep a highlighter or some post-it's near by to mark the high points.

In summary; a well written, readable text beneficial for entry level `enquiring minds' but thorough enough to serve as a reference for folks who are already deploying this technology.

Good book, strong coverage of Mobile IP. I definitely recommend this book to someone who is interested in Mobile IP basics, or who is planning to deploy a mobile IP solution. The authors build from the basics quite well. The first couple chapters effectively present the basics of Mobile IP. As should be expected, a basic routing knowledge is assumed on the part of the reader. This is certainly appropriate for a topic such as mobile IP. The background on wireless technologies provides enough detail to support the subsequent discussion, but does not become a pure tutorial on wireless infrastructure. The illustrations and examples are straightforward, and add value to the discussion.
The organization of the chapters allows the experienced reader to skip forward to an appropriate chapter. The discussion on the lab configuration is particularly helpful. It saves much of the time we often spend defining the lab environment to be practical and yet reflect enough of the real world to be useful. The evolution to larger, real world class environments is certainly of value. The insight to actual deployment of a solution helps to bring lab data into context. The examples and considerations in the latter part of the book, chapters 5-8, address many of the issues actual deployments may encounter. The ability to address as many of these issues during planning, instead of discovering them during the initial deployment certainly can make enabling a mobile solution less challenging.
Chapter 9 was of specific interest because we have a pending migration to IPv6. Any amount of insight into IPv6 world is of value.
On the negative side, the title is slightly misleading; the "Applications" referred to in the title is the application of mobile IP, vice applications that run over mobile IP. The subtitle is to the point "Real-world solutions for Mobile IP configuration and management."

I like the approach that this book takes in laying out the principal concepts of Mobile IP. There is good discussion about many of the realities of useful mobile ip implementation including handoff scenarios, address bindings and security associations. The latter chapters will be especially useful for those who already have their mobile ip merit badge. Worth the price of admission, I recommend this as a useful and practical study guide.

Excellent Book in Power Electronics and Motor Drives, May 4, 2002
Reviewer: Prof. Cong Wang from China Univ. of Mining and Tech., Beijing, China
Prof. Bose, author of the book, is well-known in the world in the field of power electronics, and it is an honor to review his book. The book is a masterpiece contribution in power electronics and drives area. I was teaching his previous book "Power Electronics and AC Drives" (1986) for more than 10 years in my undergraduate and graduate classes. In 1999 our University published the Chinese Version of his another book "Power Electronics and Variable frequency Drives"(1996), I was one of the translators. I was delighted to see this updated, expanded and technologically enhanced book. It will now easily replace his previous book. It is difficult to imagine that anybody else other than Prof. Bose can write such an authoritative book. The writing style is superb, and difficult things have been expressed in clear language.

The book covers almost everything in power electronics and motor drives. It starts with power semiconductor devices, and then covers different classes of converters. The induction and synchronous motor drives (with control and estimation) have been discussed in detail. Finally, the special feature of the book is coverage on artificial intelligence applications in power electronics which have not been treated in any other book on power electronics. There is a separate Problems Manual of the book. I should recommend the book in undergraduate (Senior) and graduate courses in all universities.

The book provides detailed information about modern power electronics and drives. It covers latest power circuit topologies and control techniques. The book is well illustrated with easy to read schematics, waveforms, and comparison tables.

The book attracted my interest for its unique assortment of contents in power electronics, and modern concepts of motor start and speed controls. It covers various principles and applications of AC-DC-AC conversion and AC-AC conversion possible to use for the motor controls with adequate mathematical, graphical and text contents, e.g. rarely seen families of curves/characteristics pertaining to motors. The AC-AC conversion is evolving and has a good chance for the wider application in the future since its hardware is lighter with potentially fewer overall switching devices; therefore, it is attractive to ship, aircraft, etc. applications. This Author's vision certainly deserves the highest rating for his creation.
The areas that might have been included are, for example: Harmonic filters and their principles and applications in the energy conversion. For example, the hybrid filters, and various topologies of passive, active and hybrid filters as applied to energy converters or motor drives. These are presently heavily focused on by the Power Quality specialists."

The reader need only be well grounded in the theory and practice of DC-DC converter design. If so, this grand survey course opens the way to the much larger world of AC power conversion. The impressive breadth of scope is attained within a reasonably modest length (<700 pages) due to the use of telling figures and diagrams, and the author's gift for getting right to the point: what does it do; how does it do it; and what are the advantages/disadvantages versus competing topologies. The presentation seems to include just sufficient detail to enable rapid evaluation of each approach for a given purpose, but never so much detail as to bog down the pace.

Unlike many academics, the author appreciates both elegance of approach and practicality of implementation given available technology and devices. Thus, some topologies are included "for completeness", some are described as "widely used" in large-power industrial applications, and yet another might be described as having "an extensive literature" but few or no commercial products, etc. This will be a valuable up-to-the-minute reference for working power electronic engineers as well as students.

Power electronics evolved, taking root and growing into a blossomed tree, inch by inch, from thyristors to transistors to DC drives to microprocessors to advanced converters to AC drives to sensorless control and estimation to AI (artificial intelligence) based control with much more to still come.
Power electronics and variable frequency drives are multidisciplinary fields in electrical engineering. Therefore, a book that encompasses such comprehensive knowledge has to be written by an author who has a visionary engineering knowledge. Prof. Bose is a celebrity, he has been investigating and contributing for this field for more than 40 years and have been contributing widely with more than 150 papers, 21 U.S. patents, 6 books, tutorials and keynote addresses throughout the world. His comprehensive understanding of such field is unique; this book is really recommended if you want to learn what is modern power electronics and ac drives!

If I could only put one multimedia learning book on my bookshelf, this would be it. The "General Principles" section provides one of the best overviews I've read of Behavioral, Cognitive, and Constructivist approaches to learning (although I do think they misrepresent the Instructional Systems Design process and treat it as a purely Behavioralist approach). This section also presents an excellent overview of the learning process. The book moves on to discuss methodologies and learning sequences at an unparalleled level, including a brilliant discussion of simulations and educational games. The book closes with an overview of an approach to Design and Development that's worth reading, but far less valuable than the previous sections. Of all my design books, this one has the most dog-eared pages and underlined text; the chapter-level bibliographies alone are worth the book's price! Anyone looking to delve deep into multimedia design for learning should have this book on his or her shelf.

This is an excellent text in terms of coverage and pacing. If you are interested in human-computer interaction, this is a 'must have' text. What astonished me about this book is that it covered more issues in HCI than many dedicated user interface design books. The text admirably blends practical considerations with theoretical concerns and trends. It strongly focuses on motivational issues surrounding users of learning packages(an area largely ignored in the bulk of standard HCI texts). Don't pass over this book.

I just find it very well put together.. It takes you through the various facets of designing a course/presentation that will actually be used and useful.

Had to buy it for a class; execellent resource for it's target audience. Make sure you're a memeber of that target audience (instructional technologists) before you buy :)

The first clue as to the value of a book is the number of editions. Generally, the true standards in a field will continue to live and be revised. This book is the standard for multimedia design and production. The foundations and theory that are explored in the beginning are as valuable as the detail in the production process that is explained. The most significant aspect of this book has to be the detail concerning methods, especially instructional simulations. Simply a must have for anyone in the field of multimedia who is looking to develop products that go beyond the traditional page turner.

I took Dr. Guthrie's Hebrews class at Union. Of course, we used this book. I found it to be quite good. Guthrie is a good scholar, but his passion is not simply the academics of Christianity. He is deeply concerned with the spiritual elements as well. His commentary, as well as his classroom lectures, while including the technical stuff, aims for application. Guthrie is not a dusty theologian; he seeks to engage the reader in the text so that God might speak to them through it.

I just finished helping to lead my small group through Hebrews during the past year. When preparing lessons, I consistently found this to be the most useful of the commentaries I owned. The author consistently does an excellent job of helping to show the overall structure of the book, and how individual sections support his main goal of encouraging his audience to persevere in their faith. He offered several applications and examples that I found particularly profound and insightful.

This is not a typical commentary in format, and I wouldn't recommend this as a sole text for a study in Hebrews. The format for the series is not well-suited fo the book of Hebrews overall. Guthrie, however, produced an outstanding commentary in spite of this. I would highly recommend using this work alongside a more traditional commentary. It will enrich your study and deepen your appreciation for this magnificant part of the New Testament.

I used this volume for a 13 week Sunday School study of Hebrews, along with multiple other references. This is the one from which I learned the most, and I used it extensively to guide my approach in challenging the class to make life changes with regards to living a life of faith. Easy to read, thorough, and highly practical.

I usually don't think of commentaries as an easy read. My understanding and appreciation for the book of Hebrews has definatly changed after reading this commentary. I especially enjoyed the bridging contexts and contemporary significance sections that go along with each chapter. I have a much better appreciation on why it is important to understand the background behind the text before we apply it to our everyday lives. Guthrie does a great job of unpacking this book and explaining it in a way in which you can understand it's significance and apply it to our lives in a way that does not distort the original meaning.

This is a wonderful commentary that contains a great deal of biblical application. I have used it for sermon illustrations, and Guthrie does an excellent job in explaining the text and applying it to today's contemporary world. I have a richer appreciation of Jesus Christ's eternal Melchizedekan priesthood, and I have fallen in love with the rich rhetorical masterpiece that is the epistle to the Hebrews. Guthrie knows what he is talking about grammatically, and he is obviously well read in such Christian heavyweights as C.S. Lewis, Yancey, ten Boom, and Lucado. A sheer delight!!

This book is so much more than a list of Photoshop options. It tells you how to do the things that as a photographer you will probably be doing a lot of, not all kinds of theoretical stuff that you will probably never even think about doing. That said, there's too much pre-press and print industry material for my taste. But the photography-relevant material is first-rate.

There's nothing else out there that comes even close to this book as an encyclopedic reference to Photoshop CS3. Losing Bruce Fraser is a terrible blow to all of us who've relied for decades on his ability to make complicated subjects understandable, but David Blatner is keeping up the tradition and it appears that Conrad Chavez is a valuable addition to the lineup.

The chapter on color settings in this book is worth the price of admission all by itself. If you do serious work with CS3 you NEED this book. Sit down and read it all the way through, highlight revealing passages, and make notes on the blank parts of the front pages. When you finish you'll have the whole story at your fingertips. Like most CS3 users I work with a subset of Photoshop most of the time, but when I'm faced with an unusual problem I can dive into this book and come up with the solution in a minute or two. Once you've done your homework on the book you won't want to be without it.

This book surpassed all my expectations, it was made for serious professionals, and that's what I wanted. Although I'm only an amateur photographer and Photoshop enthusiast, I'm enjoying the book, but because I'm very curious and exactly because I love Photoshop so much I wanted to understand everything about it.

If you are also an enthusiast/amateur but don't care about how this marvelous program works, you better get an easier book with canned "how toos". This book also has step by step guides, but on the top of it they explain every single detail of how everything works.

The authors give very in depth explanations on color theory, color management (I had a hard time on this), color spaces, exactly what is a digital image, etc. Although I found this all fascinating, as I already said I had a hard time trying to understand some concepts about color management, but my guess is that if you are a professional you will understand it better.

They also explain Bridge and Camera Raw. I understand why they included these 2 programs in the book (they work together, although CR is actually a plugin), but I could live without it, mostly because there are more in depth books about CR, like Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Real World), by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe (I love this guy, check out his videos on CR at the Luminous Landscape website). If you don't plan on buying a specific book on CR, then the chapter about it is a good introduction.

The most fun part is of course on Photoshop itself, covered in a brilliant, flawless way, with everything you could wish for and more.

The book is massive, more than 700 pages, and is written in a nice, light but serious way. They won't waste your time and patience on endless silly jokes like Scott Kelby. For someone like me, whose mother language isn't English, I could understand everything and the reading flowed smoothly.

Very in-depth explanation of Photoshop CS3. A lot more detailed and advanced than most Photoshop books. This is really a resource or reference book and not a book that you can just sit down and read through like Scoot Kelby's book on CS3 for digital photographers, but it is far more informative and in-depth than Kelby's book.

Excellent book for those wanting to set up colour workflows. In depth explanations based on practicle applications. This is not a step by step guide for those wanting to learn photoshop

This book was a welcome break from the manual that comes with version 7.0. Very easy to understand the basics and it also contains alot of other stuff. I needed to create some reports quickly and this book really helped.

The best on the market you will find. The book is very easy to follow and chapters are very nicely arranged. Good work.

My company purchased Crystal Reports as the main utility for pulling data from our large relational database. I had never seen Crystal before much less used it. I got my hands on this book today at 12:30 p.m. By 1:17, I was pulling data and manipulating reports like a pro. I would recommend this book to anybody who has to learn Crystal in a hurry.

The company i work for purchased Crystal Reports for a report conversion proyect and i had never used this software before and in couple of hours i was creating some basic to complicated reports. I recomend this book for anyne who need to get hands on fast.

This book was an excellent start for Crystal. I can actually read the huge technical Crystal Report books and understand what they are reffering to. It helped open the door to a whole new world.

Well worth buying, extremely handy, tons of information very much organized for you

Of course this book cannot be compared to " A course of modern analysis ", but as a book in special functions, it have served its purpose. I would also like to make a tribute to Richard Silverman for translating ( not just direct traslating, he translate in a style make it readable to English world. )

This is a book which I cannot say much about except for the unusual thoroughness, accompanied by detail and depth in treatment of the underlying mathematical properties and applications of Special Functions.

Lebedev is the quintessential mathematical expert in applying Special Functions to problems in Physics and Engineering, being that he can illustrate all important concepts clearly and umambiguously with carefully prepared diagrams as well as words. I was able to cite the solution of the a problem involving a propagating electromagnetic wave along a transmission line for an important Engineering course project. For such a problem, Lebedev offers a far more detailed and precise solution with given Special Functions than anything I have ever seen in other books of the same nature with the possible exception of a specialized treatise by an MIT EE faculty member on applied electromagnetism. He also comes across as meticulous in derivations of solutions to problems worked out compared to many other authors whose works I have read. This is because he hardly ever skips an important step in deriving a solution for any given problem by leaving it out for the reader's imagination. Yet we know Lebedev as perhaps a mathematician who may not be realistically expected to come up with such complete and exhaustive solutions to practical or real-world problems, worked out with clarity as well as precision and depth. There are numerous other examples which he worked out for different applications (e.g, Legendre's and Laguerre's functions) invariably after he took pains to delineate the various mathematical properties of the Special Functions utilized to obtain the closed-form solutions. He also covers various mathematical functions which may not be as familiar to many engineering practitioners but nonetheless have an important place in applied mathematical analysis. In a sense, he saves them for occasions when we as readers may need to probe further into unfamiliar territory.

So if you are looking for depth and precision in analysis of physical problems in Engineering and Science, or are trying to cope with reaearch problems in Applied Mathematics, try out this book by Lebedev. It can initially come across as difficult to understand, but Lebedev expects the reader to follow along through diligence. It is almost one of a kind, being that it is very clear and lucid without noticeable loss in depth and mathematical rigor. I highly recommend it because I believe that few other books can even come close in offering good examples in solutions to real-world problems and, at the same time, demonstrate the power of Special Functions in applications. Of course, it is also very inexpensive.

As the title indicates, the book is designed with the goal of application front and center. That said, it is also important to note that the theoretical background is developed with full mathematical rigor. You can easily see this from the fact that whenever an infinite series is differentiated, its uniform convergence in the region of interest is always established beforehand. And this is just one example.

Now, given the fact that special functions is a vast subject, and the fact that the book is barely 300 pages long, it is obvious that the theoretical coverage, though rigorous, has to be reined in. By this I refer to the fact that most functions are developed from the point of view of series solutions to differential equations, while solution by contour integrals in the plane is basically absent. But then again, it doesn't matter how you develop the functions, the key is to know their properties and be able to apply them. The book will show you just how to do that. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

For a more broad-based theoretical coverage, I recommend Whittaker and Watson (but of course), and the book "Special Functions" by X. Z. Wang. These two books complement each other like lovers.

Yet another excellect translation by Silverman. I've only been in possession of this book for a few days but it's already becoming a favorite mathematics text. Not a pure mathematics text but certainly a very thorough, lucid and most certainly enjoyable discussion of applied mathematics with a particularly engaging discussion of the solution of partial differential equations (Laplacian, Poisson etc.) by means of separation of variables and integral transforms. Along the way it develops the theoretical essentials of gamma functions, exponential integrals, orthogonal polynomials, Bessel functions, spherical harmonics among others. Clearly written with an emphasis on explaining the process of discovering solutions rather than merely presenting particular solutions (though it does have enlightening examples). IMO, well worth the price.