|
An easy read with clear instructions and a great index. Well worth your money either veteran or newcomer. Troubleshooter's delight.
I found the manual to be very helpful. The product does not come with any written instructions, so this manual becomes a necessity.
(Not too much). Even veteran Quicken users need help when they update to a new version. "Power Users Clinic" boxes offer technical tips, tricks and shortcuts for the more experienced user. Just as Quicken seems to balloon as it adds annual bells and whistles, the 2009 Missing Manual is nearly 75 pages longer than last year's edition.
In addition, black and white illustrations abound, providing screen shots that help you visualize instructions. However, unlike some of Quicken's additions, these are valuable and highly understandable pages, covering what has become a pretty complex program. And for those upgrading from an earlier version, there's a whole section in the Introduction that describes what's new this year. If you don't consider yourself an experienced Quicken user, the best solution is a good book. But even back in the days when most computer programs came in a box with a bound User Manual included, rarely were they as comprehensive, clear, and amusing as this one. But special boxes titled "Up To Speed" add basic information in more detail to clarify an issue.
There also are "Frequently Asked Question" boxes, covering such things as where on earth your data fIles are kept by Quicken, and "Troubleshooting Moment" boxes, covering panic-causing incidents like the sudden loss of a window. Actually, there are more box titles than this, but all of them are useful, and the tips they offer are very valuable.
(Not to mention the fact that some of those old manuals lost something in the translation from an original unknown language). In response to these needs, Bonnie Biafore continues her jargon-free, step-by-step instructions in this volume covering Quicken 2009.
As a fairly experienced Quicken veteran, I found it fun to just leaf through the book and read the special boxes fIrst.I picked up some tips I'd never heard before and found other information that I never saw documented before. To my jaded eyes, the true gift of this book is that the author not only tells you WHAT Quicken does, but WHY and HOW it's done, as well as why you might want to use the feature she's describing.This Missing Manual is divided into fve parts: Getting Started; Getting Down to Business (follows your money from paycheck, to deposit and spending, to reconciling accounts); Tuning your Financial Engine (budgeting, tracking assets, debt and investments, planning, using Quicken reports and tax planning); Quicken Power Tools (customizing Quicken, protecting your data, exporting and importing data); Appendixes (keyboard shortcuts, guide to Quicken resources, and installation and upgrading instructions).The book is written to accommodate readers at all levels of Quicken knowledge.
The main text discussions are aimed at beginner or intermediate users. As O'Reilly says of its "Missing Manual" books," this is the book that SHOULD have come with the program".
Biafore presents us with a must for your bookshelf and sanity when using Quicken.
As with my other reviews, I recommend browsing the Quicken "how to" book until you find the one that seems logical and demonstrative to you and buy that. But, they have a corner on the market because no one else will take the time to do the simple programming to create a decent competitor.
It is not well laid out. It, like other "missing manual" books I reviewed, contains a mishmash of topics jumbled together in less than logical order.
I gave the book a 3 star, because I don't know what to think. Quicken is a junk product.
But, compared to the "Quicken for Dummies" books, it is more consistent, has better examples and illustrations. It may not be the author's fault.
So the author may have been hamstrung with the material she had to work with. But, ethics would require you to then purchase that copy from the establishment in which you did the browsing.
The maker of Quicken 2009 definately left me with many unanswer questions of just how to begin. It didn't help that they offered to answer my questions (at an additional expense)because I wasn't even elightened enough to ask good questions. The book was very helpful and was well done. It was indeed The Missing Manual.
|
