publishing and books

I was disappointed. While the book was well organized and would help people get started, but it failed to answer common problems that I encounterd. Several examples:

If you open a second document, the multi-page icons at the left bottom of the page are missing. No where does the author tell you how to get them back. If you are dealing with a multi-page document (such as a chapter of a book)these icons are essential.

Second, I found that certain Word Perfect files (but only certain ones)could not be imported using the "place" command. It turns out that PageMaker supports importation from Word Perfect only through Word Perfect 8 (current version is 11).

I had problem sizing pictures, resulting in the picture being skewed rather than changing size proportionately.

My PageMaker software was new so I had free access to technical support for 90 days so I got answers. But I would have thought a 600 page book would have had the answers.

Also, the book would benefit from a more complete index.

Overall: helpful, but disappointing book.

I picked this book up at the bookstore because it was big, and because unlike all the other books, it had nothing but Windows screenshots. Most of the other ones were 90% Mac pictures, which does the 99% of people who use Windows no good.. :)

Beyond that though, this book is simply great. It goes into great detail on every tool, but is not overwhelming. I have never used pagemaker before, and after about 10 hours with this book (to go thru 400 pages worth) I feel like I know exactly what I'm doing. I definately recommend this book.

When I ordered this book, I was excited to see how the author explained PageMaker 7.0. Much to my dismay, she only refers to Windows users. The only mention of Mac is how to convert Mac files into Windows files. I was very disappointed. I think it's probably a great book for the Windows users. However, if you have a Mac, don't waste the money. There are far too many differences between the 2 platforms for this book to be of great value to the Mac user. It's too bad. The author could have really had a great reference had she just taken the time to illustrate both systems.

Also, no where on the cover or in the book's description does it say that it's written just for the PC/Windows user. Is this just an accidental oversight? I wonder how many Mac users have bought this book thinking it would also include Mac info. Very misleading.