If you don’t consider yourself an experienced Quicken user and aren’t availing yourself of the help we offer during GGCS Quicken SIG meetings, or you need help between meetings, the best solution is a good book. (Although the really BEST solution is to join the Quicken SIG AND have a good book.)
Even veteran Quicken users need help when they update to a new version. In response to these needs, Bonnie Biafore continues her jargon-free, step-by-step instructions in this volume covering Quicken 2009. Just as Quicken seems to
balloon as it adds annual bells and whistles, the 2009 Missing Manual is nearly 75 pages longer than last year’s edition. However, unlike some of Quicken’s additions, these are valuable and highly understandable pages, covering what has become a pretty complex program. And for those upgrading from an earlier version, there’s a whole section in the Introduction that describes what’s new this year. (Not too much.) To my jaded eyes, the true gift of this book is that the author not only tells you WHAT Quicken does, but WHY and HOW it’s done, as well as why you might want to use the feature she’s describing.
This Missing Manual is divided into five parts: Getting Started; Getting Down to Business (follows your money from paycheck, to deposit and spending, to reconciling accounts); Tuning your Financial Engine (budgeting, tracking assets,
debt and investments, planning, using Quicken reports and tax planning); Quicken Power Tools (customizing Quicken, protecting your data, exporting and importing data); Appendixes (keyboard shortcuts, guide to Quicken resources, and installation and upgrading instructions).
The book is written to accommodate readers at all levels of Quicken knowledge. The main text discussions are aimed at beginner or intermediate users. But special boxes titled “Up To Speed” add basic information in more detail to clarify an issue. “Power Users Clinic” boxes offer technical tips, tricks and shortcuts for the more experienced user. There also are “Frequently Asked Question” boxes, covering such things as where on earth your data files are kept by Quicken, and “Troubleshooting Moment” boxes, covering panic-causing incidents like the sudden loss of a window. Actually, there are more box titles than this, but all of them are useful, and the tips they offer are very valuable. In addition, black and white illustrations abound, providing screen shots that help you visualize instructions. As a fairly experienced Quicken veteran, I found it fun to just leaf through the book and read the special boxes first...I picked up some tips I’d never heard before and
found other information that I never saw documented before. As O’Reilly says of its “Missing Manual” books,” this is the book that SHOULD have come with the program”. But even back in the days when most computer programs came in a box with a bound User Manual included, rarely were they as comprehensive, clear, and amusing as this one. (Not to mention the fact that some of those old manuals lost something in the translation from an original unknown language!) Biafore presents us with a must for your bookshelf and sanity when using Quicken.
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