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WHERE IN THE WORLD IS WOODY
LEONHARD? Woody was born in McLean, Virginia,
in August 1989, when an experimental NSA artificial intelligence program
abended. The resulting core dump, transferred to a PC, took on a life of its
own. In his first three days, "Woody" (as the dump became known)
fried six different PC users, found his way to the Web, and has been posting
insufferably ever since. Don’t mess with him, ya know? "Woody" adapted a
random number generator and, with the aid of various human and semi-human
counterparts has produced 22 computer books, including Woody Leonhard
Teaches Microsoft Office 2000, Special Edition Using Microsoft Office 2000,
The Mother of All Windows 98 Books, Word Annoyances, Outlook Annoyances,
Excel Annoyances, Office Annoyances, The Hacker’s Guide to Word for Windows,
The Underground Guide to Word for Windows, Windows Programming for Mere
Mortals and The Mother of All PC Books. "Woody" is responsible
for WOPR, an award winning Microsoft Office add-on, available exclusively
with Que’s various Special Edition Using Office titles. He’s also a
Contributing Editor at Ziff-Davis’ Smart Business magazine (formerly PC
Computing), where the powers that be haven’t the slightest idea of his
true nature. In conjunction with carbon-based contributors and editors from
all over the world, he publishes a half-dozen electronic newsletters: Woody’s
Office Watch, Windows Watch, Palm Watch, and several more. You can subscribe
by visiting the Woody’s Watch Web
site. The newsletters are free, and worth every penny. More than half a million people
subscribe to the Woody’s Watch newsletters. More than one hundred pieces of
Woody-offal have appeared in various magazines. More than a hundred thousand
copies of his books are floating around, dishing out happy bibliotherapy to
hapless Windows and Office users. You can fool some of the people
all of the time, eh?
OK, OK –
HERE’S THE MEATSPACE VERSION Writer, Editor Woody has earned an
unprecedented eight Computer Press Awards, from the Computer Press Association, and two
Neal Awards, from the American
Business Press. He’s a Contributing Editor at Smart
Business (formerly PC Computing, circulation: 1,000,000+) where he
writes features, reviews, and help articles. He’s particularly well-known for
his participation in the Windows Superguide series 1,2,3,4,5,
and his features on Windows 6
and Microsoft Office. Publisher Woody publishes several
electronic newsletters. The flagship of the series, called WOW (Woody’s
Office Watch), covers Microsoft Office. WOW prides itself on its editorial
independence and willingness to talk about the nitty-gritty of Office, warts
and all. It’s another product of Woody’s far-flung network of friends,
edited, assembled and distributed by Peter Deegan in Australia. Woody also publishes a
semi-weekly newsletter on Microsoft Windows called WWW (Woody’s Windows Watch). Like
WOW, WWW specializes in the whole truth about Windows. Ditto for Woody’s
Access Watch, and Woody’s Project Watch, which are aimed at (surprise)
Microsoft Access and Microsoft Project users; Woody’s Office for Mere Mortals
(for beginners); Woody’s Palm Watch (for Palm and Palm-like handheld
computers); and the WOT series of Woody’s Office Tips. Combined circulation of
the Watches stands at more than 500,000, a number that’s been increasing
almost exponentially since the newsletters were launched in October 1996. Woody was the publisher of a
monthly dead-tree publication called Woody’s Underground Office Newsletter
— a literate, witty, no-holds-barred excursion into the Microsoft Office
netherworld, aimed at Office power users and power user wannabes. While WUON
garnered much critical acclaim7,
it proved a dismal financial failure. Software
Developer Woody leads an eclectic,
electronic gang of WordNerds who created and peddle WOPR, Woody’s Office POWER Pack,
"The #1 Enhancement to Microsoft Office." WOPR won Windows
Magazine’s prestigious Win100 Award in 1993 and again in 1995 as one of
the top 100 Windows software products; WOPR also took a PC Computing
Best of the Internet Award in 1996 as the best Word Add-On. WOPR has been
featured in more than a hundred magazine articles, reviews, and books, from
Singapore to Croatia, and most places in between. It’s now available
exclusively as a bundled adjunct to several Special Edition Using
Microsoft Office books from Que. Cybernut Woody started kicking around the
Internet in 1974, when ARPAnet connected a loosely organized group of
military researchers with educational institutions and degenerate grad
students. (One guess which group he fell into.) Woody maintains a high profile
on the Web: Woody’s
Office Portal , managed by Webmeister Claude Almer, appears
at www.wopr.com. It’s a one-stop shop for Office gurus and guru wannabes.
Drop by and check it out. Woody prefers e-mail to any
other form of business communication, and speaks HTML as a second language. Woody’s Books Special Edition Using Office
XP (Que, 2001, with Ed
Bott), the ultimate, comprehensive Office reference, from two guys who know
where the bodies are buried; Woody Leonhard Teaches
Microsoft Office 2000 (Que,
1999), the only introductory Office book that covers everything you need to know
to make Office work; Special Edition Using Office
2000 (Que, 1999,
with Ed Bott), the highly acclaimed single best source of information about
Office 2000 (also available in an Office 2000 Small Business Edition flavor); The Mother of All Windows 98
Books (Addison
Wesley Longman, 1998, with Barry Simon), which digs deep into all the Win98
features; Woody Leonhard Teaches
Microsoft Office 97 8 (Que, 1998), the first introductory Office book that dared
to tell the truth; Word Annoyances (O’Reilly Associates, 1997, with Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee),
the inside scoop on making Word 97 less of a pain; Excel Annoyances (ORA, 1997, with Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee), sudden relief
from recalcitrant Excel 97 spreadsheets; Office Annoyances (ORA, 1997, with Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee), the taming of
the other parts of Office 97; Outlook Annoyances (ORA, 1998, with Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee), tackling the
toughest Office application; The Mother of All
Windows 95 Books (Addison-Wesley,
1996, with Barry Simon), A Recounting of Mom’s Intrepid Journey Into the
Depths of Windows 95, the only complete Windows 95 reference, includes a
companion CD and a bonus CD, plus The Mother of All Windows Registry Books; The Underground
Guide to Telecommuting
(AW, 1995), How to
Leave the Rat Race Behind, the first book to tackle the "hard"
parts of telecommuting and TC technology; The Mother of All PC Books (AW, 1995, with Barry Simon), Wherein Mom’s Mordant
Minions Muck in the Multimedia Madness, includes two companion CD-ROMs; The Underground
Guide to Word for Windows (AW, 1994), Slightly Askew Advice from a WinWord Guru,
the original “no bull” Word user’s manual; CD-MOM, The Mother of All Windows
Books, CD-ROM Edition 9(AW, 1993, with Barry Simon), the first
mainstream computer book to ship with a companion CD-ROM; The Mother of All Windows
Books (AW, 1993, with
Barry Simon), Being A Compendium of Incantations, Imprecations,
Supplications, Mollifications, &c, Known to Appease the Daemons Within
Windows, an indispensable guide for novice and guru alike; Hacker’s Guide™ to Word for
Windows 10 (AW, 1st ed., 1992,
with Vincent Chen; 2nd ed., 1994, also with Scott Krueger), the ultimate
WinWord power user’s reference; Windows 3.1 Programming for
Mere Mortals 11 (AW, 1992), an off-the-wall look at
Windows programs through Basic-colored glasses; Hacker’s Guide™ to the
Univers (Pinecliffe
International, 1991), the electronic WinWord cult classic. Series Editor Woody edited two series for
Addison-Wesley, the Underground Guides
(11 books) and the Hacker’s Guides
(3 books). He was responsible for developing both series from concept to
final production, found most of the writers, and took on technical edit of
many of the books. Personal Woody earned a B.A. in
Mathematics, Summa Cum Laude, from Whitman College in Walla Walla,
Washington, and an M.S. and A.B.D.12
in Computer Science from the University of Colorado. He’s a member of Phi
Beta Kappa, an Eagle Scout, lifetime member of the American Numismatic
Association, and former VP of the Association of Shareware Professionals. His
publicity
photo can be found in the March 1998 issue of PC
Computing, at the beginning of an article called “Woody’s Windows
Clinic.” Woody was one of the first
Microsoft Consulting Partners, and a charter member of the Microsoft
Solutions Provider organization. He is a one-man major Microsoft beta testing
site, and delights in being a constant thorn in Microsoft’s side. He’s traveled extensively in
Asia – where he’s had private audiences with several remarkable people,
including the Dalai Lama and Mother
Teresa – and in the Middle East, North America, Europe and Africa. Woody spent five years
(1979-1985) in long-range computer planning for Aramco – the big oil company
in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia – where he developed an acute sense of the absurd.
In 1985 he moved back to Colorado, and lived on a mountain top for 16 years. In
early 2001, Woody moved to Phuket Island in southern Thailand, a magical place
of warmth and enchantment. He shares his shack with his 13-year-old son, who’s
a formidable computer jock in his own right, and their two all-American mutts,
Chronos and Ginger. Woody’s currently working on two
books: an action-adventure novel set in the Middle East; and a self-help book
for battered fathers coping with addicted spouses and a US legal system that
brutalizes children caught in vicious divorces. 1 Computer
Press Award: "Windows Superguide" Best How-To Feature or Series,
First Place, 1996 (with Wendy Taylor and Ed Bott) 2 Computer
Press Award: "Windows Superguide" Best Product Analysis Feature or Series,
First Place, 1996 (also with Wendy and Ed) 3 Neal
Award: "Windows Superguide" Best How-To Article, First Place, 1998
(with Christine Wendin and Ed Bott) 4 Neal
Award: "Windows Superguide" Best How-To Article, First Place, 1999
(also with Chrisie and Ed) 5 Computer
Press Award: "Windows Superguide" Best How-To Feature or Series,
First Place, 1999 (also with Chrisie and Ed) 6 Computer
Press Award: "Hacker's Guide to Windows 95" Best How-To Article,
Runner-up, 1998 (with Liesl Noble) 7 Computer
Press Award: Best Newsletter, First Place, 1997 (with Lee Hudspeth and T.J.
Lee) 8 Computer
Press Award: Best Introductory How-To Book, Finalist, 1999 9 PC Magazine "Top 100 CD-ROM,"
1994; 10 Computer
Press Award: Best Advanced How-To Book, Software, First Place, 1994; 11 Computer
Press Award: Best Introductory How-To Book, Software, First Place, 1993 12 Academic
jargon for "All But Dissertation," i.e., he completed all the
coursework and aced the tests for a Ph.D., but never did finish his thesis.
Go figger. |
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