This book covers nearly everything a user needs to know about working with SAS. It can be used by newcomers to SAS, but it is also suitable for experienced users who are switching from one of the other operating systems to Windows. (See my final note on that issue.)

The book uses a stringent structural scheme throughout, which will help readers navigate through its different parts. It makes heavy use of screen shots, and step-by-step instructions for tasks, which helps the reader stay on track when looking for specific commands, or for information about what the graphical user interface (GUI) looks like for a specific task.

After a short introduction about Windows handling (which also contains the most relevant section about where SAS stores SAS-specific files), the real SAS and Windows stuff starts. The author begins by explaining basic SAS tasks, like getting SAS help, editing SAS files, and using SAS Explorer. Editing and working with files is explained in more depth in chapter 3; another chapter, chapter 7, explains features of the enhanced editor. The next chapter explains job handling. After this is a chapter on printing, followed by one on how to personalize SAS to your needs. With chapter 8, “SAS Output Delivery System,” the hardcore stuff starts, and for me this is where the real value of the book comes in. This chapter explains how to create output, and adapt it. Chapter 10 explains the essentials of the Enterprise Guide, the tool that most SAS users will use to handle their SAS tasks. Chapter 12 will be particularly interesting for those who want to integrate SAS calls by using batch files, although there are more elegant ways to do this available in SAS. Chapter 14 has a very good explanation of how one can exchange data between SAS and other Windows applications, a task not unusual for statisticians, who receive data from heterogeneous sources. It also explains the method of data exchange via dynamic data exchange (DDE) or object linking and embedding (OLE), which might be useful for integrating results into WinWord. The final chapter addresses the interconnectivity aspect of SAS, namely, connecting the PC with another machine running the SAS kernel, the typical client-server situation. This aspect is well explained via several examples, and the explanation is really helpful. This chapter is one of those I liked most in the book.

Overall, the 15 chapters are very well and logically organized, with each one starting with a short overview of its contents. They are followed by five appendices, a glossary, and a comprehensive index. Advanced users of SAS will mainly be interested in reading from chapter 8 onward.

There is not much more to say about this book; it is easy to read, and covers everything one needs to know to work with SAS on Windows. The book is well suited for beginners in SAS on Windows; obviously, the target group is not those who already know SAS and Windows.

One minor criticism regards the first chapter, about Windows handling in general. The chapter is very short, and there is another section about the Windows Explorer in Appendix 3; it might be better to move this chapter to an appendix as well. The chapter offers minimal information for the knowledgeable Windows user, and, for readers who don’t know Windows, it is much too short.

Interestingly enough, the book does not contain a chapter or appendix on how to install SAS on Windows, which, in my experience, is not a trivial task (in particular, the installation of the Enterprise Guide turned out to be a hurdle, due to wrong path names in the installation I had to use). You get so many CDs with SAS that a support guide could be a very helpful addition to this book; I recommend adding this in the next edition.

Since the book extensively uses screen shots, it can also be used by readers moving from other operating systems, as a short reference on how to handle Windows-specific items. What may be worth thinking about for the next edition is an appendix that explains differences among operating systems, and how to handle them in Windows. This would help prevent the reader from being forced to scan through the book looking for this specific kind of information.