They are soft-covered books packaged nicely in a cardboard holder. I found this to be very convenient using one of the books. This makes it easy to put on your lap while using it, something I found comfortable and don t usually do. The set is referred to as a Visual Reference. It is that indeed.
Every page has lots of diagrams with descriptions of all the dialog boxes.
I was impressed by the editorial style, easy to read and printed with some color. The diagrams are in blue as well as black, white and grey, making the instructions very clear to follow. It is definitely a task-oriented reference guide. The books vary in size with Word being the largest containing 336 pages. Access has 275 pages, Excel has 273 and Outlook has 205.