Scheduling & E-mail Books - Page 6

Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 (Special Edition Using)

Patricia Cardoza

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A must have for new or current Outlook 2003 Users 5 out of 5 stars.
22 of 25 people found this review helpful.

Patricia Cardoza did one fantastic job in the writing of this book on Outlook 2003. I have found it very useful for people that have only used Outlook Express and had stayed away from Outlook due to the fact it felt more complex. Patricia writes in a very neat manner, you almost feel like you are sitting down with her and learning the program as she gives examples of how she uses Outlook 2003 and many of those opened up new ways to use the software. I have gone thru the book twice, first time was skimming it for area's I needed help in and the second time was cover to cover. Both times I got a huge amount of info from and that has made my life with Outlook 2003 much better. Also what I found very interesting and several of my friends commented on this is that I felt like my mind worked somewhat similiar to Patricia as right when I got to a section that I did not understand fully, several questions would pop up in my head as far as how to use these and why and then I discover on the next page, Patricia is addressing those issues. So for me, this is by far the best "real world" book around for Outlook 2003.
Tedd Riggs

Editorial Review:

This is the ONLY book you need to achieve maximum productivity when using this messaging and groupware application! Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 is a business-focused guide to Microsoft Outlook. It focuses on maximizing user productivity with real-world techniques in real-world environments. Topics covered include using Outlook as a personal information manager; collaborating with calendars; staying organized with the Outlook Journal; using Outlook securely; working remotely with Exchange server; programming in Outlook; and using VBA in Outlook.

The accompanying CD includes a FREE copy of Woody's Office Power Pack (WOPR) the #1 enhancement to Office. This software sells for $49.99 but you get it here for free with no obligations attached!

Skype Me!: From Single User to Small Enterprise and Beyond

Michael Gough

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Whether you're a single user or you manage voice communications for a large enterprise, the inevitable change predicted above by Michael Powell of the FCC has now arrived. Skype Me! provides readers with a complete understanding of the technology behind Skype, walks through the steps for getting connected quickly, and then provides IT professionals with instructions on deploying and securing Skype in the workplace.

Get through the Basics Painlessly
Step-by-step instructions get you up and running on Windows, Mac, Pocket PC and Linux devices.

Create Skype Accounts and Begin Chatting Sign up, become listed in the Skype directory, and begin searching for contacts.

Transition Existing Services to Skype Plan a process that gradually replaces those services you currently pay for with Skype.

Expand Skype's Capabilities with Add-ons See how to add voice mail, SMS text messaging, Outlook integration, Web toolbars, and call forwarding.

Extend Skype via Its API
The API itself is divided into two main sections, the Skype Phone API and the Skype Access API.

Use Skype Away from Your Computer
No, you don't need to be at your computer to use Skype. Learn how to connect with your Skype server.

Deploy Skype in the Workplace
Create a system design, accommodate SIP and H.323, and roll out security policies.

Create Business Solutions
Consider the pros and cons of Skype-based help desks, WiFi phones, and other applications.

Configure Firewalls and Network Settings
Make certain that ports, proxy servers, and NAT routers are Skype ready.

How to Cheat at Managing Windows Small Business Server 2003

Susan Snedaker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fine if you don't run into any problems - but that is an unlikely scenario 2 out of 5 stars.
12 of 21 people found this review helpful.

This book is fine for an overview of the features included in SBS but, if you need to set it up, this would not be a book that I would recommend. In fact, I wish I could get my money back.

The author approaches the set-up as if it were almost an out-of-the-box program and does not address any of the potentially major problems that can crop up. - And a lot do - just check out the TechNet newsgroup for SBS on Microsoft's website - http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2003/sbs/community/newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs

The main problem with this book is that so many things can go wrong with SBS and she has only 6 pages on troubleshooting, and it is totally basic - which she admits by naming the chapter 'Troubleshooting Basics' - but what about troubleshooting is ever basic and where is the 'Advanced Troubleshooting' chapter???

Plus, there is no section in this book on troubleshooting the set-up process.

She writes for troubleshooting: "'Repeatedly ask why?'; 'Ask, 'what just changed?'; 'Cut the problem in half'; 'look for a simple solution'; 'gather evidence', 'write things down' etc. -

What? Have none of us gone through a basic science class! What would have been helpful would have been if she went over what CAN go wrong - you know, typical scenarios.

For example, critical elements like the fact that you need to register with a third-party provider a second domain name for your local network, etc. are not covered in the book.

Under 'Domain Name Naming Conventions' the author writes:

"Typically, companies separate their Internet presence from their internal network by using a different extension. If your company already has an internet presence (website), you can use the domain name with the .local or .office extension. If you don't already have an Internet presence, you should consider a domain name that is somewhat descriptive of your business..."

What the author forgets to mentions is that, whatever you choose, you have to register it - EVEN IF you already have an internet presence and EVEN IF it is only for the internal network.

She gives this super-basic overview of domain names when the entire functionality of SBS is dependent on the DNS. I would say that most people picking up this book know already that a internet domain name needs to be registered but what some people wouldn't know is that an internal domain name also needs to be registered. More information on setting up an internal network is not there.

She took the easy way out and she does this through most of the book.

Editorial Review:

If running a Windows Small Business Server 2003 network is just one of your many job responsibilities, this book is for you. It applies the tried and true "80/20" rule to this incredibly complex operating system, providing you with exactly the information you need to install, configure, and troubleshoot the W2K3 features most likely to ruin your day (such as setting user permissions, restoring lost data, and sharing hardware) without having to wade through material you don't need.

ACT! 6 for Dummies

Karen S. Fredricks

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent Book for ACT! Users at All Levels 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

As one of the leading ACT! trainers in the United States, I know what it takes to really teach people the program. And this book has it all. It's clear and concise, and the features are laid out in a logical fashion for incremental learning. The graphics are perfect references to the written text, and readers will have no trouble following along as they learn the features of the program. The author uses plain, descriptive language and doesn't get bogged down in "tech talk." If you want to learn ACT! on your own, this is the book for you!

Editorial Review:

• ACT! organizes customer information in one place, providing instant access to names, phone numbers, addresses, appointments, call histories, follow-up activities, and more
• Explores ACT!'s features, including a ready-to-use contact database with search capabilities; Internet links; mail, fax, and e-mail merge; synchronization with Palm OS handhelds; integration with Outlook and other popular products; report generation; and a customizable database
• Latest edition of this successful title shows business professionals how to use ACT!'s new e-mail features, new active libraries, and improved Internet services and Outlook integration

Inside the SPAM Cartel

Spammer-X

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

If Only He Did Not Play So Fast and Loose With facts 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 11 people found this review helpful.

The Vikings from Monty Python's Flying Circus love SPAM so much, that the mere mention of the word has them break out in song, singing "Spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam!". For e-mail users, there are not many who would give the same response. We get it. We despise it. We wonder how many times we will get the same messages over and over again. But do we truly understand the machinations behind the scenes of the SPAM industry? It is this fundamental question that drives "Inside the SPAM Cartel: Trade Secrets From The Dark Side" (Spammer X, Jeffrey Posluns, Technical Editor, Syngress Press, 2004, 413 Pages). Written by an insider, the book provides detailed information and background but at times falters because of some very strongly stated opinions and facts that are just plain incorrect, as well as a very significant omission.

The book starts out strongly, as the author profiles the typical Spammer he is associated with and moves on to show that their is inherent trust among spammers. This trust, it seems, is based on necessity so that they can help each other make money. Money is part of a larger theme in this book because it is money that drives spammers and the content they deliver. Did you ever wonder why you see less and less pornography spam and increased amounts of messages for home mortgages? Because that is where the money is to be made.

The author makes a strong presentation throughout the book on how SPAM came to be from a simple but fatal flaw in SendMail, taking advantage of an Internet Architecture that was based on trust and not security, to the big money it is today. Consider that even if SPAM filters catch 99% of SPAM, the Spammers are still making money. Why? Because people are buying. The author not only gives an education on the many different types of SPAM, but shows you the tricks of the trade to bypass SPAM filters and get SPAM Messages read. You will also learn how to create a digital forensic trail to create a profile of a Spammer. You will also learn how they create profiles of you and your behaviours. You will also learn how the CAN-SPAM Act works, what is covered under the law, how to comply with the law and the huge legal loopholes that exist in the law that has Spammers scoffing at the law.

Yes the book is comprehensive, but suffers from what this reader considers to be some fatal flaws which take some of the sheen off of the credibility of the author and of the editorial vetting process of the publisher (note that this is not referring to the technical editing, but the editing to validate content. First, it is safe to assume that "Spammer X" is a citizen of a country in the British Commonwealth. How is this known? When you read in his book that the CAN-SPAM Act was passed by "Parliament", it is clear of the author's origin and his lack of knowledge of "big picture" issues. This is further compounded by the author's statement that CAN-SPAM will eventually become international law. This statement misses the point that there is no such thing as International Law that is binding on any country that chooses to ignore it.

The most egregious number that sticks out in this reader's mind comes from this quote in Chapter 10:

"With an estimated 273,706,064 Americans on the Internet...".

When this reader saw that number, some checking had to be done. Keep in mind that this book was written in 1994. According to the 2005 CIA World Factbook, last updated on June 30, 2005, the 2005 U.S. Population is estimated to be 295,734,134. That would mean the author is stating that 92.5% of Americans are on the Internet. This is very amazing when you consider that only 235,404,000 (and change) Americans are over the age of 14, and that only 260,000,000 live above the poverty line.

The reason that this concerns this reader is that if the author has played this fast and loose with these facts, and it was not caught in the editorial process, how can any of the other numbers in the book be trusted? It pains me to say this given my distrust of IT analyst firms, but how can an author who has played so fast and loose with numbers and facts be in a position to criticize anyone else's number?

Finally, I am disappointed that the author devotes a 29 page appendix and numerous references in the book on the anti-SPAM features of Microsoft Exchange, while totally ignoring the built in anti-SPAM features of Lotus Domino 6, which has over 100,000,000 users worldwide. Before writing this review, I asked the technical editor about this. He indicated that it was more than likely a reflection of the experience of the author(s), and that on at least two occasions he had made recommendations to include other products and service types as well. The author and Syngress did not do so, and it leaves this reader feeling a little empty.

Who Should Read This Book?

This book should be read by people interested in SPAM as a topic, information security managers, e-mail administrators, and educators.

The Scorecard

Because of the opinionated presentation, in some cases based on suspect facts and information, I am giving this book two ratings.

For readability, technical education and content: Birdie on short Par 4

For errors, mistakes of fact and opinions: Bogey on a Par 5 Reachable in 2 and playing downwind. The author should not have duck-hooked his drive into the trees.

Editorial Review:

Authored by a former spammer, this is a methodical, technically explicit expose of the inner workings of the SPAM economy. Readers will be shocked by the sophistication and sheer size of this underworld. "Inside the Spam Cartel" is a great read for people with even a casual interest in cyber-crime. In addition, it includes a level of technical detail that will clearly attract its core audience of technology junkies and security professionals.

Novell GroupWise 7 User's Handbook (Novell Press)

Eric Raff

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Complete Users Introductory Guide 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book covers the basics and then some intermediate material to permit you to user Novell GroupWise email. This is a very well written and concise book covering many of the features. Would like to see a full-text/image PDF version be included with the book.

Editorial Review:

Novell GroupWise 7 User's Handbook is ideal for users providing information on the features of the GroupWise 7 client to solve collaboration and communication issues. You will be introduced to the significant new features of the new version of Novell GroupWise through step-by-step instructions. You will master the new version and increase your knowledge of GroupWise from the authoritative source, Novell Press.

Professional Outlook 2007 Programming (Programmer to Programmer)

Ken Slovak

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 1.0 of 5

Outlook 2003 Add-In? No Luck 1 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I had a specific goal in mind when I wrote this book -- to produce a plugin for Microsoft Outlook 2003 (and 2007 in the future) that adds a tab to a calendar item. This tab provides integration with scheduling software for meeting rooms. (not my idea, but not my choice, either).

This book covers a lot of topics that I didn't bother to read, and this review won't be relevent to users who want to learn about VBA and Outlook forms.

The quick summary of what I read is "Microsoft provided feeble interfaces for plugin development, and you have to recreate tons of stuff from scratch. I've done that for you, and here is 50KB worth of code to copy-and-paste into your project."

After typing up a significant part of it over two days, I realized that I had made too many typos to troubleshoot, and I also decided that I didn't really care about all of this minutiae, anymore. So I went to the author's website and downloading the huge blocks of cookie-cutter code that are required to make a plugin of any sort, and just read through the end. However, his sample doesn't compile in Visual Studio 2005, regardless of what I do to try and fix it.

Let's go over how badly this sucks. There is simply no way that you could ever take the code from the book and construst anything resembling the project file which I later downloaded from the author's website. Far too much of the object structure, file structure, references, and namespace declarations were omitted in the book, without so much as a word about it. The code involved is big, and kinda abstract. It's unclear what you need to change to achieve certain results. The example provided might have barely been sufficient to guide me toward my task, to begin with. However, since this one example didn't compile, I was totally stranded.

The architecture of the Outlook plugin is not really explained, although there are "tactical" references to it, sprinkled across a 100 page span that describes bits of code. The object model summary at the end of the book looks basically like a plain text file printed sideways, and offers no "summary" at all, just basically a poorly formatted list of objects, methods and properties.

Now, I can't fully blame the author for providing insights (which must have been painfully learned) into Microsoft Outlook, which just doesn't "want to be modified." However, I'm not inclined to praise the author, either. The parts of the book that I read (about half of it) looked like it was churned out as quickly as the author was able -- maybe a basic narration about bits of code from a single relevent project.

Overall, this is the sub-sufficient level of documentation that seems way too common for the Wrox brand. I would have steered clear, since Wrox always fails me, but there weren't many choices for Plugin Development. I guess I'll blow some more of my company's training budget on the other books, since the Web doesn't really cover this topic, either.

Editorial Review:

• Written by one of the most popular and knowledgeable Microsoft Outlook MVPs, this book fills a void in the market for a professional-level Outlook programming book
• Explains how to use the many new features of Outlook 2007's object model and offers honest advice from the author on how to deal with common shortcomings and pitfalls of Outlook
• Addresses common workarounds for Outlook programming bugs and how to interface with Word, Excel, SharePoint, and Access
• Discusses the new Object Model, Outlook forms, COM add-ins, security, and more

Exchange Server Cookbook: For Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange 2000 Server (Cookbook)

Paul Robichaux, Missy Koslosky, Devin Ganger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ask network administrators what their most critical computer application is, and most will say "email" without a moment's hesitation. If you run a network powered by Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Exchange occupies much of your time. According to Microsoft, 110 million Exchange seats have been deployed, but 60% of you are still running Exchange 5.5. That's a problem, because the difference between version 5.5 and the more efficient Exchange 2000 and Exchange Server 2003 is profound. Don't fret. Exchange Server Cookbook offers you a comprehensive how-to guide to these newer versions of Exchange. You'll find quick solutions for the most common tasks you need to perform--everything from installation and maintenance to configuration and optimization, with proven recipes for the most useful tools and utilities. The book also has solutions to some uncommon tasks (that you may not know are possible) and advanced procedures that aren't part of day-to-day operations. These include tasks for critical situations, such as using a recovery storage group. Our reliable desktop reference even shows you how to write scripts for Exchange management and deployment tasks. That's right. While not every Exchange job can be scripted, many can, and we provide lots of working VBScript examples for accomplishing particular goals. Whatever your particular need, you'll find it quickly, because chapters in this Cookbook are laid out by recipe, with cross references to other pertinent solutions in the book. With this guide, you'll learn:

• The relationship between Exchange and Active Directory
• When to use the GUI, the command line, or scripting
• How to prepare forests, domains, and servers
• How to use Group Policy to control Exchange
• Diagnostic logging, measure performance, and administrative privileges
• Recipient management: user accounts, mailboxes, mail-enabled groups
• Mailbox and public folder database management
• Message routing and transport functions
• Security, backup, restore, and recovery operations

For every question you have about Exchange 2000 or Exchange Server 2003, our Cookbook has the answer--one that you can find and implement without a moment's hesitation.

PC Annoyances, Second Edition

Steve Bass

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In every PC user's life, there's a point when desperate measures must be taken. Some push their PC off a pier or chuck it into a landfill. Others turn their former computing ally into a planter box. But don't give up on your PC yet--help is at hand. This easy to read, accessible book from PC World expert Steve Bass covers the waterfront of PC gripes and gremlins, with fixes for everything from Windows glitches to browsers that won't browse. Each fix is served up in bite-sized portions for quick reading--and even quicker fixing. A revised version of its best-selling predecessor, the 2nd edition offers 50 additional pages and over 120 new fixed annoyances. This reader-friendly book tackles problems related to a wide-ranging number of topics:

Windows--King of Annoyances! learn how to kick Windows in the rear, overcome glitches, take charge of the interface, live with the dreaded Service Pack 2 Hardware--wake up your DSL, tame your notebook, silence your PC's fan, work wonders with your scanner, and save paper Email--from Outlook to Eudora! Defeat spam, avoid mailing list hassles, send big files, manage folders Microsoft Office--learn workarounds for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that help you back up the unbackable and automate data entry Internet--shake up IE, stop Flash, outsmart defaults, control Favorites, add the Google toolbar to Netscape

Plus, you get access to more than one hundred utilities that will help you squash bugs, enhance your email, untangle a system snarl, and much more. If your PC has ever annoyed you (do we see several billion raised hands?), PC Annoyances is for you. With the flip of a page or two, you can fix that faux pas and have your PC purring again.