A reader named George writes:
Hey Ed,
I guess you were pretty tied up writing your new book about Office 2003. Please let us know when it hits the shelves (I heard something about August 15)…
I got a copy of your Office XP book and earned every possible Microsoft Office Specialist Certification. So kudos to you guys for your excellent work.
PS: I noticed that the new book is quite bigger than the previous one. Are you covering the new Office 2003 members like Infopath and OneNote???
Thanks for the success story, George! Yes, I’ve been pretty thoroughly tied up working on Special Edition Using Microsoft Office 2003. But it’s in the hands of the publishers now, who are feverishly putting in the final touches to get it ready for availability in mid-September. The book covers all the applications in the retail version of Office 2003 Professional. That doesn’t include InfoPath (which is intended for enterprise installations). We do have a small section on OneNote (which is only sold separately and is not bundled with any Office version).
Coincidentally or not, Microsoft announced today that Office 2003 has released to manufacturing, which means it will be available on new computers in late September and in retail packages on October 21. I think they’ve done a good job and will have a lot more to say about it in the next few months.
Ed Bott 