Sample chapters

CompTIA A+ Rapid Review: Networking

• Apr 15, 2013
• To help prepare for the A+ 220-801 and 220-802 exams, this chapter from CompTIA A+ Rapid Review (Exam 220-801 and Exam 220-802) provides an overview of network cables and connectors, network devices such as routers and switches, wireless connections, and common protocols used to control traffic over a network. It also provides scenarios for configuring connectivity for different types of networks as well as functions and features of various devices.

CompTIA A+ Rapid Review: Printers

• Apr 15, 2013
• To help you prepare for the A+ 220-801 and 220-802 exams, this chapter from CompTIA A+ Rapid Review (Exam 220-801 and Exam 220-802) explains the differences between the various printer types and summarizes the associated imaging process. It also provides installation, configuration, and maintenance scenarios.

How to Install and Upgrade Windows 8

• Apr 15, 2013
• This chapter from Exam Ref 70-687: Configuring Windows 8 shows how to plan effectively for installing or migrating to Windows 8, how to install the operating system in a trouble-free manner, and how to migrate user files, settings, and programs to the new operating system.

Planning Your Report Design in Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services

• Apr 15, 2013
• The purpose of this chapter from Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services is to help you think about how to prepare for the report development process. Knowing who will view reports and how they want or need to interact with reports has an impact on how you should design those reports.

Taking Notes to Another Level with Microsoft OneNote 2013

• Apr 15, 2013
• You can do all sorts of things with Microsoft OneNote 2013. In this chapter from Microsoft OneNote 2013 Plain & Simple, learn how to work with handwritten notes, create an outline, insert pictures, take screen clips, and work with audio and video notes.

Using Formulas and Functions in Microsoft Excel 2013

• Apr 15, 2013
• This chapter from Microsoft Excel 2013 Plain & Simple shows you how to work with formulas and functions in Microsoft Excel 2013.

Adjusting Slide Appearance in Microsoft PowerPoint 2013

• Mar 15, 2013
• For Microsoft PowerPoint 2013, you now have several built-in design elements that you can use for your presentations. These design elements, including slide layouts, themes, theme colors, and theme fonts, offer an inherent consistency that comes as a result of a common look and feel. This consistency means that you don’t have to be a graphic designer to prepare an attractive presentation.

Developing Cloud Applications with Windows Azure Storage: Blobs

• Mar 15, 2013
• Paul Mehner offers a thorough understanding of how to securely perform data operations against the blob storage service.

Essential JavaScript and jQuery

• Mar 15, 2013
• In this chapter from Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3 Training Guide: 70-480, you learn how to create objects, which are an important aspect of JavaScript, use objects to create entities, which are passed to and from the server, and to encapsulate functionality that you want to modularize. This chapter also introduces jQuery, the answer to writing browser-compatible code. Although jQuery doesn’t solve all browser-compatibility issues, it does solve most of the day-to-day issues that you encounter among browsers.

Exploring Microsoft SharePoint 2013: Social Computing

• Mar 15, 2013
• Social computing is a big investment area in SharePoint Server 2013, which now offers Facebook-like and Twitter-like functionality. This chapter describes the new social functionality; explores the three hubs, Newsfeed, SkyDrive, and Sites; and briefly looks at the integration of Yammer with SharePoint.

Mailing Paper or Pixels with Microsoft Word 2013

• Mar 15, 2013
• In this chapter from Microsoft Word 2013 Plain & Simple, learn how to print envelopes, create mailing labels and business cards, send a document by email, and execute a mail merge.

Managing a Calendar in Microsoft Outlook 2013

• Mar 15, 2013
• In this chapter from Microsoft Outlook 2013 Plain & Simple, Jim Boyce explains everything you need to know about using the Calendar in Microsoft Outlook 2013.

Managing Contact Records in Microsoft Outlook 2013

• Mar 15, 2013
• In this chapter from Microsoft Outlook 2013 Step by Step, learn to organize the contact records into an individual address book, import a fresh set of contact records into a custom address book, and then export a subset of the records, create a contact group and send a message to a subset of the group, locate specific contact records by using the Search feature and the commands available on the new Search tool tab, and finally, personalize the content of an electronic business card.

Microsoft® Excel® 2013: Using Power View

• Mar 15, 2013
• In this chapter from Microsoft® Excel® 2013: Building Data Models with PowerPivot, you learn the capabilities of Power View. We are not going to explain all the features in great detail, at least partly because there are plenty of good books and resources where you can learn much more information about Power View. Our goal here is to introduce this new tool and show the most important information about the role it plays in graphical exploration.

Selecting Data Using Queries in Microsoft Access 2013

• Mar 15, 2013
• Andrew Couch shows you how to work with Queries in Microsoft Access 2013.

Analyzing Your Excel 2013 Data

• Feb 15, 2013
• Learn how you can use Excel to analyze and share the data you’re gathering. You can use features such as sparklines and conditional formatting to show in an instant how the data trends look, or you can construct formulas by using Excel’s functions to perform simple or complex calculations with your numeric data. Excel also makes it easy to report on and share your data via Power View Reports and PivotTables.

Build Your First Windows 8 App with Microsoft Visual C# and Visual Basic

• Feb 15, 2013
• This chapter from Build Windows 8 Apps with Microsoft Visual C# and Visual Basic Step by Step teaches the complete cycle for creating, testing, and deploying a simple Windows 8 application. You will learn about the available templates and how to describe the application using the manifest. Finally, you'll add the code to implement the search contract using a provided template.

Creating Your First Table in Microsoft SQL Server

• Feb 15, 2013
• In this chapter from Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Step by Step, you will first learn the importance of implementing and enforcing a naming standard. From there, you will be introduced to the various data types that are supported by SQL Server. Then you will create your first table using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and Transact-SQL (T-SQL). Finally, you will use the same methods to add constraints and keys to your tables.

Overview of Microsoft SQL Server 2012

• Feb 15, 2013
• In this chapter from Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Step by Step, you will examine the components and features of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and determine how they fit into your installation.

Overview of Windows PowerShell 3.0

• Feb 15, 2013
• Microsoft Windows PowerShell 3.0 is a significant improvement for the Windows network administrator. This chapter, from Windows PowerShell 3.0 Step by Step, explains PowerShell basics and then goes on to install, run, and get help with PowerShell. It continues by showing how to run and get help with cmdlets and configure PowerShell to run scripts.