Imagine a single book that covers Microsoft Office XP's versions of Access, Excel, FrontPage, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher and Word.

And there you have it: Microsoft Office XP - Inside Out.

My hands still hurt from holding this 1,582-page tome that is bordering on the obsessive. Do people really need to know all this stuff?

If there was one manual that really does need to be on every Office XP user's bookshelf it is this one. Not because anyone would use all aspects of XP but because when you cannot do something on a computer you need a good clear guide to making things happen before frustration makes you chuck your machine out of the window.

The manual is full of well-written text and clear diagrams that really do bring Office XP to a level that can be understood by a beginner.

I would not recommend Microsoft Office XP - Inside Out as a scintillating read but the chapters on PowerPoint techniques come together to form a stand-alone master class in presentations and how to create them.

Brilliantly presented with plenty of screen grabs that demonstrate the various functions and make it absolutely obvious what to do next.

A chapter on advanced presentation formatting has a huge number of useful tips and tricks to make presentations more interesting. Having suffered a slow death by PowerPoint on more than one occasion, I now feel confident that I won't cause unnecessary suffering to anyone else.

The rest of the book is just as good and offers a massive insight into the latest developments inside the Office XP suite of programmes.

The price is acceptable and actually represents astounding value for money. With this much information easily to hand there is no excuse for wasting precious time again.

Price: £32.99.

Contact: www.computerbooks.uk.com or 0800 0921 554.

Feel good factor: 9 out of 10.