Books

This page is dedicated to information about my books and other publications. I’ll be adding to it periodically.

Just a quick note for now about the Formatting Legal Documents With Microsoft Office Word 2007 book. As you know, the book is available on Amazon.com as well as on Lulu.com. The Lulu page offers a preview that includes, among other things, the entire Table of Contents. The Amazon page doesn’t provide a preview, but Amazon’s shipping charges tend to be considerably lower than Lulu’s. Therefore, I typically advise people to take a look at Lulu to get a fuller idea of what the book covers and then make the purchase on Amazon. (Lulu, as the manufacturer, supplies the books in both cases.)

Here is the link to the book’s Lulu page.

And here is the link to the book’s Amazon page.

The book has received favorable mention (twice) on software consultant John Heckman’s web site and on the Connected Lawyer web site run by Bryan Sims. You can view their comments by clicking the following links:

Formatting Legal Documents With Word 2007 (from John Heckman’s blog)

Word Tips (from Heckman’s blog)

More Word Tips (from The Connected Lawyer)

I’m also working on a second edition of the book. That edition will incorporate a few new sections, including one about using mail merge to create a sheet of labels addressed to different individuals. In addition, it will expand on some of the existing tutorials. What I might do is make the modifications available as a supplement (at a significantly lower price than the whole book) so that people who have purchased the first edition can benefit from the updates without having to buy another copy of the book.

I’ve thought about putting together a supplement with instructions about creating pleading paper to meet the requirements of different jurisdictions (for example, Oregon and Illinois). Whether I’m able to find the time is an open question, given my various other projects.

Also in the planning stages is a follow-up book about Word 2010 (Formatting Legal Documents With Microsoft Office Word 2010). I am currently testing the public beta of Word 2010. My hope and intention is to publish the book close to the time that Word 2010 is released, which supposedly will be in the second quarter of next year (perhaps June).

The other book I’m working on currently is tentatively entitled Computers for Seniors. As I have mentioned elsewhere, it will be based at least in part on my handouts for the various “Computers for Seniors” classes I’ve been teaching for UCLA Extension and The Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning for the past three years. Despite the working title, the information in the book should prove helpful to anyone — of whatever age — who wishes to become computer-literate and proficient at tasks such as creating simple documents, composing and sending e-mail, and performing basic troubleshooting and computer maintenance. With luck, I’ll finish the book by the end of the year.

Completely unrelated to the topics I focus on in this blog, but perhaps of interest to some of you, I have just published a 2010 calendar — also available on both Amazon and Lulu — featuring some of my photographs of Lyon, France. I took the pictures in 2006 and 2008. The calendar, which consists of images of the medieval part of the city known as “Vieux Lyon” as well as of its gorgeous rivers and parks, makes note of both American and French holidays. I have decided to split the proceeds for the calendar 50:50 with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, a very worthwhile organization that is working on treatments and — with good fortune — cures for those two terrible blood disorders.

You can view — and/or buy — the calendar (the cover and four preview pages) on this Lulu page. The Amazon page, which doesn’t feature a preview, is located here. As mentioned above, Amazon’s shipping charges tend to be lower than Lulu’s, but Lulu frequently offers discounts (usually on weekends) that can offset those costs.

If you would like me to put you on a mailing list so that I can notify you when one of my new books is about to go to press — or if you have some constructive suggestions for future publications — feel free to drop me a note at either compusavvy2 AT earthlink DOT net (yes, that’s the digit “2″ after the word “compusavvy”) or my dedicated “publications” address, publications AT compusavvy DOT com. (I’ve “disguised” both addresses as a means of thwarting spam-bots.)