There is a focus on applying real-world techniques to solve everyday business problems in this edition. It will provide the most extensive coverage ever found in one book on Microsoft Excel's functions, as well as professional modeling, charting, and formula techniques. No other Excel book on the market provides as much essential intermediate to advanced-level coverage.Topics covered will include: Building Charts with Excel Professional Charting techniques Using Formulas and Functions Using PivotTables & PivotCharts Creating Gantt Charts Combining Excel with Other Office Applications

Patrick Blattner has authored Special Edition Using Microsoft Excel 2000, Microsoft Excel 2000 Functions in Practice, and Special Edition Using Microsoft Word and Excel in Office 2000. He has written about Excel in PC Computing Magazine and has spoken about it on ZDTV's live call-in television show "Call for Help."

An Excel evangelist, he deals with real-world business information problems daily. He has made a career out of working for some of America's most respected companies. A member of The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, he spent several years in interactive media development with Disney Interactive. Most recently, he is working in product development and strategy for AOL Time Warner's CompuServe brand.

Bill Bruns is a veteran of finance and data retrieval in the Information Age. For six years, he has been a technical editor for Que, working on at least 75 books related to the Internet, Web servers, HTML, and Office applications. Bill is the chief financial officer for Jacob Marlie Financial, Inc. (http://www.jacobmarlie.com), a Web-based invoicing and collections agency for fraternal organizations. He also serves in a volunteer capacity as chapter advisor and treasurer for the Gamma chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon's Board of Advisors at the University of Illinois. Currently, he is the Assistant Director for Business Systems at the University of Illinois' College of Medicine.

Previously, he ran administrative computing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Originally planning to work in television production, his interest turned to computers while working on an undergraduate internship at Square One TV, a children's mathematics show produced by the Children's Television Workshop in New York City. Bill holds bachelor's degrees in Telecommunications and English Literature from Indiana University, a Masters of Public Administration from New York University, and is a Certified Netware Engineer. Bill, his wife Debbie, his daughter Marlie, and his bearded dragon Cookie currently reside in Champaign, Illinois. You can reach him at bill@jacobmarlie.com.

Ken Cook operates his own software training and consulting business, which he formed in 1989 in the central New Jersey area. He specializes in developing Microsoft Office custom solutions and training Microsoft Office as well as sales automation software for Fortune 500 companies. Ken's writing experience includes developing a custom training curriculum for his clients. Prior to consulting, Ken worked for five years at Prince Manufacturing, where he held marketing and operations positions that exposed him to all facets of the corporate environment. Ken holds a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Syracuse University.

John Shumate is a Decision Support Consultant for Anteon Corporation of Fairfax, Virginia. He earned his bachelor's degree in Data Processing Management from Strayer College in Washington, DC and taught computer programming and systems analysis courses for George Washington University's Information Systems certificate program. He has 18 years of experience implementing business intelligence systems as a consultant for large businesses and Federal government agencies and has published over 30 articles on OLAP, data warehousing, and enterprise reporting as a long-time Contributing Editor to eWeek Magazine.