Product Description

Covering all aspects of the ECDL Advanced AM3 syllabus, this step by step, exercise based manual will help you gain the required knowledge. This is the ideal training solution whether you need to learn the entire syllabus or just fill gaps in your existing skills. Data is available to download. The data files allow you to practise the different software features. It is approved by the ECDL Foundation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31745 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-31
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

Customer Reviews

Exceptional Learning Resource!
I couldn't disagree more with the last review on this Word Processing teaching book. I learnt a vast amount of word processing advanced skills with the 2003 version and to brush up and learn where the commands are located on MS Office 2007, I have again reached out for this book. The chapters are clear, precise and there is often a diagram to illustrate where you need to point the cursor in case of doubt. The only thing that is not practical is the fact that it is not spiral bound which is a pain to keep it open on the desk. At the end of each driving lesson there is a revision passage where you are expected to do the exercises on your own without trying to look back and usually they make you do the hardest part of what you have learned so that it is well comprehended. Step by step you built up confidence in the application and what is learnt in Word can also be applied in other software applications.

I have tried learning with other books and online CD's but I come right back to the ECDL driving lessons because knowledge is quickly and confidentally built up with these invaluable books. You also actually work within Word on the computer and not set exercises where you are locked in and have to come out of the programme to test your skills on Word. Some teaching materials do not let you do anything additional if it is not related to the programme. Later on with the more difficult exercises, if you have forgotten something, there is an easily accessible table of contents at the beginning of the book which you can refer to in order to recap or go back to the origins of an exercise. At the very end there is a record of achievement that you can tick off to show whether you have no knowledge, some knowledge or whether you are fully competent. I highly recommend these books for beginners (the normal Word Processing version) right through to advanced and expert levels.

Poor. Very poor.
I know that these books a for a new syllabus but no real thought seems to have gone into the content or it's creation. My first gripe is that, for a book that deals with a fundamentally dull subject, they have done nothing to alleviate the inevitable page turning frustration of having to wade through it. Yes, we have to cover the content but why make it painful? The "Driving Lessons" concept seems trite for the first few subjects and condescending thereafter.

Then there are the content mistakes. Did nobody read and test this book before it was published?

THEN there is the fact that this book just doesn't seem to have taken the best interests of the learner to heart. Yes, it tells you how to do things. Alas, it doesn't tell you WHY to do them. "Just do this, click that and THIS will happen". Fortunately I'm a seasoned old tech-dog that just needs to get the qualification. If I were a "real" student I'd be most confused and frustrated by this approach.

If you are a learning institution looking for standard text books, do your learners a favour and look elsewhere.