Matthew MacDonald – författare

Puzzles and brain twisters to keep your mind sharp and your memory intact are all the rage today. More and more people -- Baby Boomers and information workers in particular -- are becoming concerned about their gray matter''s ability to function, and with good reason. As this sensible and entertaining guide points out, your brain is easily your most important possession. It deserves proper upkeep.Your Brain: The Missing Manual is a practical look at how to get the most out of your brain -- not just how the brain works, but how you can use it more effectively. What makes this book different than the average self-help guide is that it''s grounded in current neuroscience. You get a quick tour of several aspects of the brain, complete with useful advice about:

Learn about the built-in circuitry that makes office politics seem like a life-or-death struggle, causes you to toss important facts out of your memory if they''re not emotionally charged, and encourages you to eat huge amounts of high-calorie snacks. With Your Brain: The Missing Manual you''ll discover that, sometimes, you can learn to compensate for your brain or work around its limitations -- or at least to accept its eccentricities.Exploring your brain is the greatest adventure and biggest mystery you''ll ever face. This guide has exactly the advice you need.

Microsoft Excel continues to grow in power, sophistication, and capability, but one thing that has changed very little since the early ''90s is its user interface. The once-simple toolbar has been packed with so many features over the years that few users know where to find them all. Microsoft has addressed this problem in Excel 2007 by radically redesigning the user interface with a tabbed toolbar that makes every feature easy to locate and use. Unfortunately, Microsoft''s documentation is as scant as ever, so even if users can find advanced features, they probably won''t know what to do with them.

Excel 2007: The Missing Manual covers the entire gamut of how to build spreadsheets, add and format information, print reports, create charts and graphics, and use basic formulas and functions. Like its siblings in the Missing Manual series, this book crackles with a fine sense of humor and refreshing objectivity about its subject, guiding readers through the new Excel with clear explanations, step-by-step instructions, lots of illustrations, and friendly, time-saving advice. It''s a perfect primer for small businesses with no techie to turn to, as well as those who want to organize household and office information.

Compared to industrial-strength database products such as Microsoft''s SQL Server, Access is a breeze to use. It runs on PCs rather than servers and is ideal for small- to mid-sized businesses and households. But Access is still intimidating to learn. It doesn''t help that each new version crammed in yet another set of features; so many, in fact, that even the pros don''t know where to find them all. Access 2007 breaks this pattern with some of the most dramatic changes users have seen since Office 95. Most obvious is the thoroughly redesigned user interface, with its tabbed toolbar (or "Ribbon") that makes features easy to locate and use. The features list also includes several long-awaited changes. One thing that hasn''t improved is Microsoft''s documentation. To learn the ins and outs of all the features in Access 2007, Microsoft merely offers online help.

Access 2007: The Missing Manual was written from the ground up for this redesigned application. You will learn how to design complete databases, maintain them, search for valuable nuggets of information, and build attractive forms for quick-and-easy data entry. You''ll even delve into the black art of Access programming (including macros and Visual Basic), and pick up valuable tricks and techniques to automate common tasks -- even if you''ve never touched a line of code before. You will also learn all about the new prebuilt databases you can customize to fit your needs, and how the new complex data feature will simplify your life. With plenty of downloadable examples, this objective and witty book will turn an Access neophyte into a true master.

Quickly learn the most useful features of Microsoft Office 2007 with our easy to read four-in-one guide. This fast-paced book gives you the basics of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access so you can start using the new versions of these major Office applications right away.Unlike every previous version, Office 2007 offers a completely redesigned user interface for each program. Microsoft has replaced the familiar menus with a new tabbed toolbar (or "ribbon"), and added other features such as "live preview" that lets you see exactly what each option will look like in the document before you choose it. This is good news for longtime users who never knew about some amazing Office features because they were hidden among cluttered and outdated menus.Adapting to the new format is going to be a shock -- especially if you''re a longtime user. That''s where Office 2007: The Missing Manual comes in. Rather than present a lot of arcane detail, this quick & friendly primer teaches you how to work with the most-used Office features, with four separate sections covering the four programs. The book offers a walkthrough of Microsoft''s redesigned Office user interface before taking you through the basics of creating text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases with:

Fast-paced and easy to use, this new book teaches you the basics of Excel 2007 so you can start using the program right away. This concise guide shows readers how to work with Excel''s most useful features and its completely redesigned interface. With clear explanations, step-by-step instructions, lots of illustrations, and plenty of timesaving advice, Excel 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual will quickly teach you to:

Unfortunately, Microsoft''s documentation is as scant as ever, so even if you find the features you need, you still may not know what to do with them. But with this book, you can breeze through the new user interface and its timesaving features in no time. Excel 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual is the perfect primer for small businesses with no techie to turn to, as well as those who want to organize household and office information.

This fast-paced book teaches you the basics of Access 2007 so you can start using this popular database program right away. You''ll learn how to work with Access'' most useful features to design databases, maintain them, search for valuable nuggets of information, and build attractive forms for quick-and-easy data entry.The new Access is radically different from previous versions, but with this book, you''ll breeze through the new interface and its timesaving features in no time with:

One thing that hasn''t improved is Microsoft''s documentation. Even if you find the features you need, you still may not know what to do with them. Access 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual is the perfect primer for small businesses with no techie to turn to, as well as those who want to organize household and office information.

Web services are poised to become a key technology for a wide range of Internet-enabled applications, spanning everything from straight B2B systems to mobile devices and proprietary in-house software. While there are several tools and platforms that can be used for building web services, developers are finding a powerful tool in Microsoft''s .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET. Designed from scratch to support the development of web services, the .NET Framework simplifies the process--programmers find that tasks that took an hour using the SOAP Toolkit take just minutes.Programming .NET Web Services is a comprehensive tutorial that teaches you the skills needed to develop web services hosted on the .NET platform. Written for experienced programmers, this book takes you beyond the obvious functionality of ASP.NET or Visual Studio .NET to give you a solid foundation in the building blocks of web services, and leads you step-by-step through the process of creating your own.Beginning with a close look at the underlying technologies of web services, including the benefits and limitations, Programming .NET Web Services discusses the unique features of the .NET Framework that make creating web services easier, including the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and the namespaces used in .NET programming. Filled with numerous code examples using the C# language, the book leads you through some of the more challenging issues of web services development, including the use of proxies, marshalling of complex data types, state management, security, performance tuning and cross-platform implementation. The book also covers:

Think you have to be a technical wizard to build a great web site? Think again. For anyone who wants to create an engaging web site--for either personal or business purposes--Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual demystifies the process and provides tools, techniques, and expert guidance for developing a professional and reliable web presence.

Like every Missing Manual, you can count on Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual to be entertaining and insightful and complete with all the vital information, clear-headed advice, and detailed instructions you need to master the task at hand. Author Matthew MacDonald teaches you the fundamentals of creating, maintaining, and updating an effective, attractive, and visitor-friendly web site--from scratch or from an existing site that''s a little too simple or flat for your liking.

Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual doesn''t only cover how to create a well-designed, appealing, smart web site that is thoroughly up to date and brimming with the latest features. It also covers why it''s worth the effort by explaining the rationale for creating a site in the first place and discussing what makes a given web site particularly aesthetic, dynamic, and powerful. It further helps you determine your needs and goals and make well informed design and content decisions.

Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual includes a basic primer on HTML, working with JavaScript, and incorporating services like Paypal''s shopping cart, Amazon''s associate program, and Google AdSense and AdWords. It delivers advanced tricks for formatting, graphics, audio and video, as well as Flash animation and dynamic content. And you''ll learn how to identify and connect with your site''s audience through forms, forums, meta tags, and search engines.

This isn''t just another dry, uninspired book on how to create a web site. Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual is a witty and intelligent guide for all of you who are ready to make your ideas and vision a web reality.

Google.com is one of the most popular sites on the Internet and is used around the world by millions of people every day. Sure, you know how to "Google it" when you''re searching for something--anything!--on the Web. It''s plenty fast and easy to use. But did you know how much more you could achieve with the world''s best search engine by clicking beyond the "Google Search" button?

While you can interface with Google in 97 languages and glean results in 35, you can''t find any kind of instruction manual from Google. Lucky for you, our fully updated and greatly expanded second edition to the bestselling Google: The Missing Manual covers everything you could possibly want to know about Google, including the newest and coolest--and often most underused (what is Froogle, anyway?)--features. There''s even a full chapter devoted to Gmail, Google''s free email service that includes a whopping 2.5 GB of space).

This wise and witty guide delivers the complete scoop on Google, from how it works to how you can search far more effectively and efficiently (no more scrolling through 168 pages of seemingly irrelevant results); take best advantage of Google''s lesser-known features, such as Google Print, Google Desktop, and Google Suggest; get your website listed on Google; track your visitors with Google Analytics; make money with AdWords and AdSense; and much more.

Whether you''re new to Google or already a many-times-a-day user, you''re sure to find tutorials, tips, tricks, and tools that take you well beyond simple search to Google gurudom.

When Microsoft introduced the Visual Basic .NET programming language, as part of its move to the .NET Framework two years ago, many developers willingly made the switch. Millions of others, however, continued to stick with Visual Basic 6. They weren''t ready for such a radical change, which included an object-oriented environment similar to Java. They liked the old Visual Basic just fine.In an effort to win over those diehard VB6 developers, the company has included a new version of VB.NET in its upcoming next generation release of the Visual Studio .NET development platform. Visual Basic 2005 comes with innovative language constructs, new compiler features, dramatically enhanced productivity and an improved debugging experience. The language''s new version is now available in beta release, and Microsoft is encouraging developers to give it a test drive.Visual Basic 2005: A Developer''s Notebook provides the ideal test track. With nearly 50 hands-on projects, this practical introduction to VB 2005 will bring you up to speed on all the new features of this language by allowing you to work with them directly. The book summarizes the changes that VB 2005 brings, and tells you how to acquire, install and configure the beta version of VB 2005 SDK. Each project or experiment explores a different feature, with emphasis on changes that can increase productivity, simplify programming tasks, and help you add new functionality to your applications.This one-of-a-kind book also offers suggestions for further experimentation, links to on-line documentation and other sources of information, and practical notes and warnings from the author.The new Developer''s Notebooks series from O''Reilly offers an in-depth first look at important new tools for software developers. Emphasizing example over explanation and practice over theory, they focus on learning by doing you''ll get the goods straight from the masters, in an informal and code-intensive style. For those who want to get up speed with VB 2005 right away, this is the perfect all lab, no lecture guide.

The dominant spreadsheet program and one of the most widely used software applications in the world, Microsoft Excel is unbelievably powerful--and can be downright intimidating. If you''re new to Excel or among the many existing Excel users who are dazed and confused by all that the program can do (and by how little it has actually done for you), Excel for Starter: The Missing Manual is your ideal resource.

For everyone who wants to quickly get up to speed on Excel to create, organize, and present household and/or office data and information, this smart new guide delivers just the essentials: it concentrates on the must-have information and the best, most practical Excel features that people like you can use to maximize your productivity and minimize your spreadsheet confusion and frustration.

Excel for Starters: The Missing Manual demystifies spreadsheets and explains how to use them most effectively and efficiently. Clear explanations (with lots of examples), step-by-step instructions, helpful illustrations, and timesaving advice guide you through all the most common and useful features of Excel 2002 and 2003--including how to build spreadsheets, add and format information, print reports, create charts and graphics, and use basic formulas and functions.

Sure, there are plenty more thorough, more massive Excel books on the bookstore shelves. But why wade your way through a swamp of details you''ll never need--or want--to use? Let author Matthew MacDonald, an educator and software developer who also wrote the highly popular Excel: The Missing Manual, be your trusted guide as you learn which Excel features will serve you best and which are best ignored.

Utterly practical and refreshingly funny, this down-to-earth guide gives you nothing more (and nothing less) than what you need to make Excel do exactly what you want it to do. It''s a quick read you''ll want to keep on hand for reference again and again.

Think you have to be a technical wizard to build a great web site? Think again. If you want to create an engaging web site, this thoroughly revised, completely updated edition of Creating a Web Site: The Missing Manual demystifies the process and provides tools, techniques, and expert guidance for developing a professional and reliable web presence.Whether you want to build a personal web site, an e-commerce site, a blog, or a web site for a specific occasion or promotion, this book gives you detailed instructions and clear-headed advice for:

This isn''t just another dry, uninspired book on how to create a web site. Creating a Web Site: The Missing Manual is a witty and intelligent guide you need to make your ideas and vision a web reality.

Quickly learn the most useful features of Microsoft Office 2007 with our easy to read four-in-one guide. This fast-paced book gives you the basics of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access so you can start using the new versions of these major Office applications right away.Unlike every previous version, Office 2007 offers a completely redesigned user interface for each program. Microsoft has replaced the familiar menus with a new tabbed toolbar (or "ribbon"), and added other features such as "live preview" that lets you see exactly what each option will look like in the document before you choose it. This is good news for longtime users who never knew about some amazing Office features because they were hidden among cluttered and outdated menus.Adapting to the new format is going to be a shock -- especially if you''re a longtime user. That''s where Office 2007: The Missing Manual comes in. Rather than present a lot of arcane detail, this quick & friendly primer teaches you how to work with the most-used Office features, with four separate sections covering the four programs. The book offers a walkthrough of Microsoft''s redesigned Office user interface before taking you through the basics of creating text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases with:

Puzzles and brain twisters to keep your mind sharp and your memory intact are all the rage today. More and more people -- Baby Boomers and information workers in particular -- are becoming concerned about their gray matter''s ability to function, and with good reason. As this sensible and entertaining guide points out, your brain is easily your most important possession. It deserves proper upkeep.Your Brain: The Missing Manual is a practical look at how to get the most out of your brain -- not just how the brain works, but how you can use it more effectively. What makes this book different than the average self-help guide is that it''s grounded in current neuroscience. You get a quick tour of several aspects of the brain, complete with useful advice about:

Learn about the built-in circuitry that makes office politics seem like a life-or-death struggle, causes you to toss important facts out of your memory if they''re not emotionally charged, and encourages you to eat huge amounts of high-calorie snacks. With Your Brain: The Missing Manual you''ll discover that, sometimes, you can learn to compensate for your brain or work around its limitations -- or at least to accept its eccentricities.Exploring your brain is the greatest adventure and biggest mystery you''ll ever face. This guide has exactly the advice you need.

When Microsoft introduced the Visual Basic .NET programming language, as part of its move to the .NET Framework two years ago, many developers willingly made the switch. Millions of others, however, continued to stick with Visual Basic 6. They weren''t ready for such a radical change, which included an object-oriented environment similar to Java. They liked the old Visual Basic just fine.In an effort to win over those diehard VB6 developers, the company has included a new version of VB.NET in its upcoming next generation release of the Visual Studio .NET development platform. Visual Basic 2005 comes with innovative language constructs, new compiler features, dramatically enhanced productivity and an improved debugging experience. The language''s new version is now available in beta release, and Microsoft is encouraging developers to give it a test drive.Visual Basic 2005: A Developer''s Notebook provides the ideal test track. With nearly 50 hands-on projects, this practical introduction to VB 2005 will bring you up to speed on all the new features of this language by allowing you to work with them directly. The book summarizes the changes that VB 2005 brings, and tells you how to acquire, install and configure the beta version of VB 2005 SDK. Each project or experiment explores a different feature, with emphasis on changes that can increase productivity, simplify programming tasks, and help you add new functionality to your applications.This one-of-a-kind book also offers suggestions for further experimentation, links to on-line documentation and other sources of information, and practical notes and warnings from the author.The new Developer''s Notebooks series from O''Reilly offers an in-depth first look at important new tools for software developers. Emphasizing example over explanation and practice over theory, they focus on learning by doing you''ll get the goods straight from the masters, in an informal and code-intensive style. For those who want to get up speed with VB 2005 right away, this is the perfect all lab, no lecture guide.

The dominant spreadsheet program and one of the most widely used software applications in the world, Microsoft Excel is unbelievably powerful--and can be downright intimidating. If you''re new to Excel or among the many existing Excel users who are dazed and confused by all that the program can do (and by how little it has actually done for you), Excel for Starter: The Missing Manual is your ideal resource.

For everyone who wants to quickly get up to speed on Excel to create, organize, and present household and/or office data and information, this smart new guide delivers just the essentials: it concentrates on the must-have information and the best, most practical Excel features that people like you can use to maximize your productivity and minimize your spreadsheet confusion and frustration.

Excel for Starters: The Missing Manual demystifies spreadsheets and explains how to use them most effectively and efficiently. Clear explanations (with lots of examples), step-by-step instructions, helpful illustrations, and timesaving advice guide you through all the most common and useful features of Excel 2002 and 2003--including how to build spreadsheets, add and format information, print reports, create charts and graphics, and use basic formulas and functions.

Sure, there are plenty more thorough, more massive Excel books on the bookstore shelves. But why wade your way through a swamp of details you''ll never need--or want--to use? Let author Matthew MacDonald, an educator and software developer who also wrote the highly popular Excel: The Missing Manual, be your trusted guide as you learn which Excel features will serve you best and which are best ignored.

Utterly practical and refreshingly funny, this down-to-earth guide gives you nothing more (and nothing less) than what you need to make Excel do exactly what you want it to do. It''s a quick read you''ll want to keep on hand for reference again and again.

This fast-paced book teaches you the basics of Access 2007 so you can start using this popular database program right away. You''ll learn how to work with Access'' most useful features to design databases, maintain them, search for valuable nuggets of information, and build attractive forms for quick-and-easy data entry.The new Access is radically different from previous versions, but with this book, you''ll breeze through the new interface and its timesaving features in no time with:

One thing that hasn''t improved is Microsoft''s documentation. Even if you find the features you need, you still may not know what to do with them. Access 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual is the perfect primer for small businesses with no techie to turn to, as well as those who want to organize household and office information.

Think you have to be a technical wizard to build a great web site? Think again. If you want to create an engaging web site, this thoroughly revised, completely updated edition of Creating a Web Site: The Missing Manual demystifies the process and provides tools, techniques, and expert guidance for developing a professional and reliable web presence.Whether you want to build a personal web site, an e-commerce site, a blog, or a web site for a specific occasion or promotion, this book gives you detailed instructions and clear-headed advice for:

This isn''t just another dry, uninspired book on how to create a web site. Creating a Web Site: The Missing Manual is a witty and intelligent guide you need to make your ideas and vision a web reality.

Compared to industrial-strength database products such as Microsoft''s SQL Server, Access is a breeze to use. It runs on PCs rather than servers and is ideal for small- to mid-sized businesses and households. But Access is still intimidating to learn. It doesn''t help that each new version crammed in yet another set of features; so many, in fact, that even the pros don''t know where to find them all. Access 2007 breaks this pattern with some of the most dramatic changes users have seen since Office 95. Most obvious is the thoroughly redesigned user interface, with its tabbed toolbar (or "Ribbon") that makes features easy to locate and use. The features list also includes several long-awaited changes. One thing that hasn''t improved is Microsoft''s documentation. To learn the ins and outs of all the features in Access 2007, Microsoft merely offers online help.

Access 2007: The Missing Manual was written from the ground up for this redesigned application. You will learn how to design complete databases, maintain them, search for valuable nuggets of information, and build attractive forms for quick-and-easy data entry. You''ll even delve into the black art of Access programming (including macros and Visual Basic), and pick up valuable tricks and techniques to automate common tasks -- even if you''ve never touched a line of code before. You will also learn all about the new prebuilt databases you can customize to fit your needs, and how the new complex data feature will simplify your life. With plenty of downloadable examples, this objective and witty book will turn an Access neophyte into a true master.

Microsoft Excel continues to grow in power, sophistication, and capability, but one thing that has changed very little since the early ''90s is its user interface. The once-simple toolbar has been packed with so many features over the years that few users know where to find them all. Microsoft has addressed this problem in Excel 2007 by radically redesigning the user interface with a tabbed toolbar that makes every feature easy to locate and use. Unfortunately, Microsoft''s documentation is as scant as ever, so even if users can find advanced features, they probably won''t know what to do with them.

Excel 2007: The Missing Manual covers the entire gamut of how to build spreadsheets, add and format information, print reports, create charts and graphics, and use basic formulas and functions. Like its siblings in the Missing Manual series, this book crackles with a fine sense of humor and refreshing objectivity about its subject, guiding readers through the new Excel with clear explanations, step-by-step instructions, lots of illustrations, and friendly, time-saving advice. It''s a perfect primer for small businesses with no techie to turn to, as well as those who want to organize household and office information.

This collection of reusable ASP.NET components serves two purposes. First, the components are ready to use, so you may add exciting features to your own ASP.NET websites. Second, each component''s design and implementation is discussed, and you''ll discover tips and tricks applicable for developing your own controls.

Controls can be cut and pasted or used as templates for you to build your own controls. And the 15 included controls (programs) cover a broad range of situations, providing you both working coded solutions to your problem and the rationalization behind those solutions. Overall, this highly anticipated book provides immediate solutions to range of common problems.

Pro ASP.NET 1.1 in VB.NET aims to be the definite reference for working developers in the field. Its compendium format covers every topic you are likely to come across in your day-to-day work, from handling data through to configuration and deployment.

The books goal is to act firstly as a tutorial guide that can be read from cover-to-cover, then secondly as a reference book that you can scan quickly to retrieve the answer to a specific problem as you work.

This book puts to use hard-won, real-world VB .NET experience, and demonstrates it clearly through numerous diagrams, screenshots, and working code samples.

ASP.NET 2.0 is Microsoft''s principal standard for creating dynamic web pages on the Windows platform. ASP.NET 2.0 boasts a range of important new features that make it superior to any Windows web-presentation technology that has come before it. A few of these are:

These, combined with improvements in everything from speed (ASP.NET 2.0 pages are faster to both write and serve), administration , data access, security and scalability make ASP.NET 2.0 the leading force in .NET web development.

Seasoned .NET professionals Matthew MacDonald and Mario Szpuszta explain how you can get the most from this ground-breaking new technology. They cover ASP.NET 2.0 as a whole, illustrating both the brand-new features and the functionality carried over from previous versions of ASP. This book will give you the knowledge you need to code real ASP.NET 2.0 application in the best possible style.

Renowned author Matthew MacDonald combines careful treatment of the API with detailed user-interface design principles. Further, this book incorporates C# and the final beta of .NET 2.0. The result: thorough coverage of Windows Forms and GDI+ namespaces for .NET programmers! You will become equipped to design state-of-the-art Windows interfaces and program graphics, and learn how to create your own controls.

As a developer, you must know more than just how to add a control to a window. You must be able to create an entire user interface framework that''s scalable, flexible, and reusable. This book is not a reference manual. Instead, it contains detailed discussions about user interface elements that you''ll use on a regular basis.