In computer news this week,

Remember the old days, when you would get a book with your new software program?

That old lady in the hamburger commercials years ago used to say "Where's the beef ?" Today, in the modern world of pentium pc's and software for the new millenium, we say "Where's the books?"

One of the bigger changes in the PC industry over the years has to do with learning how to use your new programs. In the early days you got a big hard-to-understand book which most people were unable to comprehend. This created a completely new market - the 3rd party book market. Books written by people who used the programs - not by the software techies who wrote the program. Traditional bookstores added a whole new section - computer books. These books were understandable and easy to learn. It became a given in the industry that the software publisher's book were almost useless, and businesses would automatically go out and by a 3rd party book for their new program.

Now, very subtly, there's been a new trend in the industry for several years - no books with your new programs, particularly if you upgrade. Microsoft Office and Office Professional are examples of this new trend. If you bought Microsoft Office 95, you were able to upgrade to Office 98 for a few hundred dollars. Then you may have upgraded to Office 2000 recently. You got a cdrom disk to install the new office suite, but if you look for the books, you won't find them.

New programs - supposedly with so many new features that it is worth upgrading to them - but no books. What's wrong with this picture?

One time I searched through all the documentation that came with a new upgrade, and I did find a coupon that would allow you to buy the software publisher's books for the new program, but the delivery date was 6 weeks, and the book price was considerable.

Some software publishers actually say - with a straight face - that their new software is so easy to learn that anyone can learn it using the online help included in the program. Yeah, tell me another fairy tale.....

People want to learn new features quickly. A book has a table of contents and an index so you can find what you want to learn about quickly. Online tutorials are a weak substitute for a book. There are learning videos available, but the quality varies greatly, and you have to fast forward to the topics you're interested in. And you need a vcr. With books you just turn the pages quickly. There are lots of classes taught by private companies and schools, but you have to leave your workplace and learn over a period of time. You can only absorb so much information in a single class. Then if you don't use your new knowledge right away, you forget it. There are also online training computer videos which also vary in quality.

So what do most people turn to? The most popular series of computer learning books is and has been for several years now the Dummy series. Generally these books are very easy to learn; have clear examples and tutorials, and often come with a learning cd with a lot of useful templates and other software. They usually cost around $ 20 and are widely available.

This series has been so popular it has replaced most of the more technical 3rd party training books. In fact, the Dummy series now covers many other areas aside from computer learning, including blues, opera, and sex for dummies.

So when you purchase new software, you might see if it comes with a book, but you also want to make sure there's a book on the new program readily available, even if it's for dummies.

For Raw Bytes, this is Frank Delaney

POB 222 Spangle, Wa 99031 (509)245-3736 Email: fdspokane@aol.com