Quicken is one of the many convenient ways to keep track of personal finances, but many people are unaware of Quicken's power and end up using only the basic features. And sometimes Quicken seems to raise more questions than it answers: Return of capital from stock? "Net worth"? What are they and why do you need to know about them? Luckily, Quicken 2008: The Missing Manual picks up where Quicken's help resources leave off. You'll find step-by-step instructions for using the most useful Quicken features, including those you may not have quite understood, let alone mastered, such as budgeting, recording investment transactions, archiving Quicken data files, and so on. You also learn why and when to use specific features, and which ones would be most useful in your situation. Quicken 2008: The Missing Manual helps you: Set up Quicken to take care of your specific needs. Follow your money from the moment you earn it. Make deposits, pay for expenses, track the things you own and how much you owe. Take care of financial tasks online, and quickly reconcile your accounts. Create and use budgets and track your investments. Generate reports to prepare your tax returns and evaluate your financial fitness. And a lot more. This book is designed to accommodate readers at every technical level. If you're a first-time Quicken user, special boxes with the title "Up To Speed" provide the introductory information you need to understand the topic at hand. For advanced users, there are similar boxes called "Power Users' Clinic" that offer more technical tips, tricks, and shortcuts for the experienced Quicken fan. For a topic as important as your personal finances, why trust anything else?

Customer Rating:
Summary: Quicken 2008 The Missing Manual
Comment: This is a great book with good explanations to those of us who do not understand all the ins and outs of the financial world and the software that we use. We use it together with Quicken 2008 for Dummies. Both of these books are very helpful references and are used a lot.

Thanks.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Much Help for Mac Users
Comment: Overall the manual seems to be a cutesy rewrite of the users manual and is written for Windows users with no help for Mac users. Although better organized than the users manual in Quicken, it provides no great insights into using Quicken more effectively. For Mac users look elsewhere, this is a windows book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Starter Edition
Comment: I read the fine print that this was for the Premier and Deluxe Edition, but I didn't realize how different they are from the Starter Edition, i.e., panel layouts, etc. Now I either go to one of the other editions, which I don't need or spend a lot of time trying to figure how to make the best of the Help function which is not that helpful.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Delivers as promised
Comment: Considering what a DRY subject lerning how to manage your finances can be this book is well written and easy to understand. In the introduction the author (Bonnie) gives you an email address to use if by some chance you have a question about anything, well I took her up on this and got a quick an accurate response. I was a Microsoft Money user for many years and if it was not for this book I still would be!!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Quite a Good Introduction to Quicken
Comment: I bought Quicken, and then Quickly learned that I needed some help. After buying Quicken 2008 I jumped in and tried doing things like downloading data from my bank accounts and setting up budgets. I was able to do many of the things to get my family finances running in Quicken, but if I had had this book I could have done it much quicker and without as many mistakes.

Quicken the software did not walk me through a bunch of wizards to help me set everything up. There were some wizards and helpful start up things, but I mostly had to work things out for myself. Finally, in frustration, I picked up "The Missing Manual." Then I went through the book from the beginning and either revised my previous work or deleted it altogether and reworked it using the book's advice. If you plan to buy Quicken 2008 then you should definitely pick up this book or something like it.

Now it could go into things a little more deeply than it does. I still have some questions about how Quicken is working, or why it does what it does. Sometimes I have questions that the book doesn't address. Here's an example: I have a paycheck set up with an after tax deduction that makes a payment for me via direct deposit. Even if I give that direct deposit a category, it doesn't seem to show up in my reports as an expense for that category. Why not? I don't know, and this book doesn't get that deep.

I'll need another book, I think, that does get that deep and explains the relationships among the notations and transactions. I need to know more about "if I add a transaction here then where else will it show up?" I do recommend the book if you are new to quicken, but look for something more advanced for when you get this book done.

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