Sometimes, I think a lot of these books just slap a new cover on their publication and make minimal edits to the same recycled material. This book really does cover AE 7 in a complete way for beginners and beyond. I have been working in AE for a couple of years now and I also found it to be pretty handy for featuring the updates in AE7. IMHO, this is the best book of the series...I can think of at least 3 ways this book has changed my work habits. It is clear, logical and well laid out. The only way I wouldn't recommend it is to try to use it with older versions of AE...there really isn't much backward compatibility here. Emphasis is on how to use the newest features, especially the Adobe Bridge and the presets, which is why I recommend it to those who are just getting started in AE.