Excelling at Excel? Easier said than done

The Plain & Simple guide to the new Excel highlights just how far dull old spreadsheet programs have evolved into a dazzling multimedia experience – if you know what you’re doing in the first place. ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK finds his way through both the program and its guide…

Book review

Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Plain & Simple

by Curtis D Frye

Publisher: Microsoft Press 2007)

Paperback: 288 pages

Supplied by Intersoft

I remember the revelation, 15 years ago or so, when I first used Lotus 1-2-3, the granddaddy of Windows-based spreadsheets, to add up a column of numbers. You clicked on a function and, voila, it did the work for you. I highlighted a list of names, clicked a few buttons and, voila, it all went alphabetical. I foolishly imagined that I would never have to toil through lists and numbers again: 1-2-3 would do it all for me.

Of course, a painful awakening followed. Whether I was using 1-2-3 or WordPerfect’s Quattro Pro, or Microsoft’s Excel, I found myself always sticking to the very basics, ever the amateur, and calling on the kindness of spreadsheet whiz kids whenever I needed something more advanced. Eventually I braved the world of charts and graphs, but was never quite happy with the outcome. It all looked so, well, amateur.

Then came Excel 2007, which did pretty much what all its predecessors did. But with such style! Suddenly my graphs were things of beauty, and charts looked as if a graphic artist had taken me by the hand. Amateur no more, I delved deeper, expecting the mysteries of Excel to emerge before my eyes. Alas, it was not to be.

And then a book crossed my desk that looked every bit as good as the new Excel. Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Plain & Simple is exactly what its name implies: an easy to understand guide to the basics of Excel, and a promise of the magic potion that turns it into one of the most powerful software tools ever devised for the ordinary computer user.

However, despite the title of the book, the good stuff doesn’t come easy. The first five chapters, covering 78 pages, deal with the cosmetics of Excel. In other words, how to look good, before you do good. That’s the part that you tend to pick up as you go along, but some of the short cuts are both handy and scenic.

Then comes the serious stuff: formulas and functions. This is where you expect to be allowed into the engine room of Excel, where they mix the magic potions and reveal the incantations that produce astonishing results from little effort. And suddenly, it is just like working with the new Excel itself. It gives you a good handle on the stuff that you tend to pick up along the way, as well as the odd magic formula that would have escaped you had you been relying on intuition until now. But, just as you think it is getting to the heart of the matter, the book moves onto Formatting. In other words, back to making it all look good. Then it’s Printing, and then it’s Customising. Then it’s Sorting, and then it’s Filtering. This may be Plain & Simple, but it sure is Basic as well. The book even contains a major heading error, with every page of the Sorting and Filtering chapter headed Summarizing Data Visually Using Charts – which is in fact the title and topic of the following chapter.

Talking of which, the next chapter, together with the one that follows, on using graphics in worksheets, finally delivers the magic, and will be the highlight of the book for spreadsheet first-timers. Even the reasonably experienced amateur will appreciate the simple process that leads to more effective and attractive spreadsheets. However, don’t expect to become an expert on the basis of this book alone.

Samsung i600 Smartphone

Finally a smart phone that isn’t stupid. Samsung designed the i600 to take on the big boys like the Sony Ericsson M600i and the Blackberry’s, Funny how they ended up calling it the i600 Blackjack.

When the first smart phones were released they where big, slow and difficult to use. The i600 has certainly avoided all those issues. It is a very fast and relatively stylish messaging mobile, with all the features you could ever need.

Is it easy to use?

The i600 runs on Windows Mobile 5 which is not always the easiest or most intuitive phone operating system. In this case Samsung has taken the liberty of changing it slightly to better suit its customers and its phone. And we must report that they have done a wonderful job. Unlike the standard Microsoft Mobile 5 it is easy to use, intuitive doesn’t freeze and is quite honestly a pleasure to use.

What Samsung did is make the i600 a cell phone first then a PDA. This is what all other companies (with the exclusion of the Sony Ericsson) have failed to do. They make the mobile so smart and chock full of features that it is nearly impossible to operate. The Samsung like normal smart phones still has a million features, I have been using it for two weeks now and still don’t know what some of the features are. For example OBEX FTP, what is that? I think it is some sort of FTP Server type thing, but even if I find out what it really is what would I use it for?

The features which I did use constantly was the e mail function, the active sync, calendar, internet browser, alarm clock, notepad, Podcasts, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G HSDPA, and the RSS reader. So as you can see the i600 has all the features that you can ever possibly need.

The message centre handles e-mails with ease, and gets all of the correct settings from outlook using active sync. If you have a windows PC (especially using Vista) the i600 will synchronise all of your Outlook data quickly and easily. The Calendar sync function is especially useful as both your PC and Phone will be identical.

The most unique feature on the i600 is the Podcast downloader and player. This was a smart little feature which enables you to download and play Podcasts. Makes you wonder why nobody thought of this before.

Having Wi-Fi on the i600 was more useful than I thought it would be, instead of using the still relatively expensive 3G HSDPA, have a cup of coffee at Seattle and log on to their Wi-Fi and download and send your mail.

The camera on the Blackjack is not leading edge however, and maybe Sony Ericsson was right to leave it out on the M600i. I expected more that a 1.3 Mega pixel camera from Samsung what they. The picture quality is ok for e-mail or MMS but not for much else.

Does this mobile look good in your hand?

Yes, there is no doubting that this is a large mobile, but it is designed so well that it feels good to hold. The contours of the phone allow it to sit firmly in your hand and make it very easy to operate one handed. The Blackjack is also relatively thin at just 11.8mm so it does not bulge out of your pocket like many of the smart phones do.

On the Blackberry the QWERTY keyboard makes the mobile look very large and utilitarian but Samsung has designed the keyboard on the Blackjack to flow with the lines of the phone. This makes it look sleeker than its competition and quite frankly easier to use.

The i600 comes with two batteries, a normal battery with which you get two to three days of good use and an extended battery which will get you about five to six days of use. That is seriously impressive; most normal handsets don’t give you that amount of time.

Conclusion

The i600 Blackjack is the latest smart phone to hit the market and so far the best. It has all the features that you need and many that you may not immediately use. As this phone is Windows Mobile based it will connect to the office Exchange server or VPN and it makes this phone a good tool for the road warrior.

Samsung has done a great job with its own take on Microsoft Mobile 5, which does make the phone a pleasure to use. If you are looking for a messaging phone that has to tackle your most challenging business needs, then this is the best phone of this type that we have tested to date.

LGE launches Dual HD player in SA

A new Blu-ray disc and HD DVD player combination is to be introduced to the South African market in the third quarter of 2007.

LG Electronics will be launching the “Super Multi Blue” dual-format, high definition disc player in South Africa during the third quarter of 2007. The disc player blends the latest technologies, offering unprecedented flexibility to consumers who seek the convenience of both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD content.

The advanced dual-format high-definition disc player, (BH100) has already been launched in the US market and is the world’s first player with the capability to play both next-generation disc formats, addressing the challenge of the current format war. The player is ideally suited to LG’s expanded lineup of Full HD 1080p plasma and LCD HDTVs, delivering the best video possible in the highest display resolution format.

“We have developed the Super Multi Blue Player to end the confusion caused by the current competition between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. Customers are no longer forced to choose between the two formats,” said Charlie Kim, Product Manager, Digital Media, LGE South Africa. “As Full HD TV is already gaining significant ground, we are hoping that the Super Multi Blue Player will play the trigger role in expanding and advancing both Full HD TV and high-definition DVD market volume together.”

In addition to offering Full HD 1080p picture quality from high-definition discs, the player incorporates interactive functions based on BD-Java, which allows advanced menus and functions to be displayed over the video of Blu-ray discs. It is also capable of accessing and playing audio-video content from HD DVD discs in full HD resolution. Users will still be able to access LG’s software-based advanced menu for HD DVD. Regardless, the capability to play movies in both formats is a huge consumer benefit.

The introduction of the Super Multi Blue player will ultimately eliminate the end consumer confusion and hesitation in the high-definition disc marketplace. The LG unit supports various A/V formats, including MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264 video, MPEG1/2 audio, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital+, DTS and DTS-HD audio, and includes multiple inputs/outputs such as HDMI out, component / composite video outputs, and optical / coaxial / discrete 5.1 channel audio outputs, among others.

The unit incorporates elegant backlit touch sensor buttons along with an ergonomic remote control that gives the user command of the next-generation home entertainment experience.