Boot Up Projects

This is a follow-up to Rick Maybury's best-selling first book Boot Up which dealt with solving computer problems. Here he's telling you how to put your PC to good use with a number of suggestions for sensible everyday projects.

He begins with the word-processor - the unsung hero of the IT revolution - and its ability to produce letterheads, labels , and even business cards. Then there are tips on design and layout which include newsletters and even Christmas cards. Most of the time he sticks closely to programs available within Windows, but strays beyond from time to time - recommending for instance the excellent Paint Shop Pro for graphics manipulation.



Everything is explained in a straightforward manner. He's very much Microsoft oriented. Word is the default setting for most of the examples he discusses. This is reasonable in that Word has the biggest market share, but I don't think it would have hurt him to be a little more generic. He pushes users beyond the basics into graphs, spreadsheets, tables, macros, and graphics, then image manipulation. There are also lots of good tips on page numbering, default settings, and special fonts.

On Internet matters he very sensibly begins by explaining how to change your browser. Thousands upon thousands of people are probably stuck with the browser which was foisted on them by the installation disk from their Internet Service Provider, so this is advice which will be warmly welcomed by the people at whom the book is aimed. On using the Net he covers finding individuals, creating a family tree, accessing newsgroups, and learning the rules of Netiquette.

This leads logically into the realms of building your own web site, where he shows you how to adapt ready-made templates to suit your own requirements, then send your pages up to a server. This is all made to seem much easier than it actually is, but he's right to encourage his readers to give it a go.

As in his first book, each chapter is followed by real life questions from his Telegraph column, and he ends with voice recognition technology, upgrading your PC, installing CD writers and DVD players, and adding more memory. However, the part I liked best of all was his final collection of quick tips on everything from troubleshooting printer problems, keyboard shortcuts, creating new taskbars, to making faster Net connections.

This is an excellent companion volume to Boot Up, and a cheap and cheerful guide for beginners who want to go beyond computing basics.