A great number of chemists are now using spreadsheets for teaching and research. Numerous articles on the use of spreadsheets in analytical, inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry have appeared in this Journal. For example, the graphing capabilities of spreadsheets have been used to perform a second-order polynomial fit to the electronic absorption spectrum of molecular iodine ( Pursell, C. J.; Doezema, L. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76, 839). Virtually every computer found in a faculty office, laboratory, or student computer lab now comes equipped with spreadsheet software. This effort by Billo, the second monograph to be published recently on Microsoft Excel applications for chemists, is a useful guide for those who know little or nothing about spreadsheets and for those who have their own ideas for spreadsheet applications but require technical training in Excel.

The appendices contain an extensive collection of macros and functions, and the book is accompanied by a 3.5-in. diskette containing worked examples. It is worth mentioning, however, that the macros and functions are written using the Excel 4.0 format. The latest version (Excel 97 for Windows systems) uses the Visual Basic Editor, which replaces macros. Lists of key words used in Visual Basic and new features in Excel 97 are also provided in the appendices.

The book is thorough with respect to basic Excel uses--the first 13 chapters are written in the same manner as the user's guides that accompanied previous versions of Excel. Excellent coverage is given to mathematical concepts that form the basis of advanced Excel applications. Such topics include calculus, differential equations, graphical analysis, and regression. Chapters 14-17 cover chemical applications (e.g., titration curves and kinetics) that rely on the mathematical concepts previously mentioned.

Chapters 18-21 contain worked examples, mainly in the area of analytical chemistry: titrations, spectrophotometry, equilibrium constants, and kinetic data analysis. In most cases, the reader is not led step by step through a particular exercise. Rather, the input, output, and equations are shown, along with the cell references used to obtain the results. The author compares results with those obtained by the use of canned analysis software, demonstrating that Excel functions quite admirably for those who use analysis software only occasionally. Spreadsheet software such as Excel is also the tool of choice for the chemist who wants to truly understand data analysis, thus avoiding the "black box syndrome" of canned software. An added advantage of spreadsheets is the ability they give one to customize these tasks for individual applications.