Are you faced with challenges of teaching computer rookies alongside technology hotshots in your classroom? The Illustrated Series may be for you! Our signature two-page spread design, succinct lessons and flexible content will help your students learn the essential Microsoft Office 2007 skills they need to succeed in the classroom and beyond.

Our new Microsoft Office 2007 texts feature a new case study company called Quest Specialty Travel - an adventure, culture, and educational travel company - that provides a practical scenario for students as they learn skills.  

The Getting Started with Microsoft Office 2007 unit introduces students to the common features of Office 2007 that are shared across applications, such as the Ribbon and Office button. This new unit allows students to jump right into the lessons of each unit, instead of repeatedly reviewing basic functions.

Redesigned Integration units make it easier for students to understand how to work with the software applications together. Based on instructor feedback, students will now complete the lessons using data files, instead of having to create the files from scratch. This new approach makes it easier for students to absorb each lesson’s concepts.

Real Life Independent Challenge exercises have students create documents they can use in their everyday lives, such as a resume, a budget, and a personnel database. For example, one exercise has students use Word to format a report with the MLA style guidelines. These exercises have many practical uses and can be transferred out of the classroom and into the student’s life.

Have you seen the new Illustrated Series textbooks for Office 2007? Share your thoughts with us by clicking on the comment button below.

Have you ever wondered about how we develop courseware for new Office releases? Work on the Illustrated Series books for Microsoft Office 2007 started long before we even had our first glimpse of the software!

We began by sending surveys to all of the instructors using our Microsoft Office 2003 books. The surveys asked questions about almost every aspect of our Office 2003 books, including overall content, individual applications, and End-of-Unit exercises.  We followed up on those survey comments by talking to many instructors individually.  

In addition to the surveys, we formed an Advisory Board of seven enthusiastic instructors using the Illustrated Series, who committed to providing us with great feedback through out the entirety of the intensive development process.

These Advisory Board members met through a series of phone conversations facilitated by Christina Kling-Garrett, Senior Product Manager, and Marjorie Hunt, Senior Acquisitions Editor. The Board provided their input, insight, and thoughts on a variety of topics such as the table of contents, cover design, and interior design, as well as carefully reviewing actual manuscripts.

From the valuable feedback we gained from the Advisory Board and surveys, we were able to implement some great design and content changes in these new books. We look forward to sharing these changes with you in future blog posts.

We are extremely grateful to both the Advisory Board and the participants in our surveys who took the time to help make our books easily useable and highly-effective in teaching students.

We can truly say that instructors like you helped to shape these products!