First, the promise: Because Microsoft Office 97 is an integrated suite of applications, your spreadsheet, word processor, database, presentation graphics program, and personal information manager not only share a common user interface, but allow you to share data among the programs seamlessly.

Now the reality: Despite marked improvements from version to version, there is much in Office 97 that remains annoying. Maybe it's the fact that identical user interface options are implemented differently -- and sometimes are not implemented at all -- in individual Office applications. Or maybe it's that Office is too integrated; there are pan-Office "sticky" settings that, when set in one application, affect all other Office applications too.
Office 97 Annoyances takes a look at these and other annoyances and shows how to get rid of them so that you can get your work done more easily and efficiently. For instance, the book shows you how to:

• Configure the Office Shortcut Bar to provide an effective tool for accessing your Office applications and documents
• Customize the toolbar of each Office application except Outlook so that it reflects the way that you work rather than the needs of Microsoft's marketing machine
• Use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) as a macro language to control the behavior of the individual Office components, in the process removing many of their annoyances

Sometimes, you can't do anything to improve Office's integration -- or lack of it. But you can reduce your annoyance level simply by knowing where Office's integration is most problematic. Office 97 Annoyances also arms you with knowledge in the following areas:

• The pan-Office "sticky" settings
• Shortcomings in the Office Binder, an integration utility developed to address shortcomings in Office integration

Office 97 Annoyances is for the users who want to be as productive as possible when using Office 97. Learning which Office annoyances you can and can't eliminate will save you countless hours (and endless aggravation) when working with Microsoft Office 97.