Brad's CDC Microsoft Office Blog

Ch.10--"Powerpoint is useful"

2009-05-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

Geraldine is an owner of a local sporting goods shop. Recently her workers were complaining that they don’t receive enough money on their paycheck and were all threatening to go on strike. She decides to show them why she pays them what she pays them through Powerpoint. She felt that the way she knew how to use Powerpoint could make her employees understand why she pays them what she pays them. Her Powerpoint got her point across beautifully and made her employees understand that they must work harder to get more sales in order to increase their own paychecks.

Ch.9--"Importing Powerpoint slides"

2009-04-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

If your workgroup has created an informative document to accompany a Powerpoint presentation you are able to combine the two so that when going over the Powerpoint you could also read the document. In Powerpoint you go to send to under the file heading and choose Microsoft Word. It then gives you the option of how you would like to send it. For this situation I believe that if you choose the blank lines next to slides option you will be able to incorporate that informative document next to the slides accordingly.

Ch.8--"Photograph as Powerpoint background"

2009-04-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

If the camera that you have has a USB or a way to import the photographs onto the computer then that would be one way to get the photo into the computer. If your camera does not have that kind of capability then you can have your photo printed out. You take that photo and scan it into whatever program you feel most comfortable with. From both of these steps you must save the picture. Once the picture is saved it is simple to make it a background in a Powerpoint show. Go to format then background, scroll down to fill effects, select the picture tab and select picture.

Ch.7--"Inserting video and sound in Powerpoint"

2009-04-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

When creating Powerpoint presentations you can include so many things to make it more appealing to the viewers. One way to make it appealing is by inserting sound and video. Inserting sound and video is as simple as adding clip art or a picture. Open the insert menu, point to movies and sounds and choose what you need. When the sound is inserted Powerpoint asks you how it will be controlled, automatically or when clicked on. Video clips are inserted the same way and common formats for videos are AVI, Quicktime and MPEG.

Ch.6--"Powerpoint, Excel and Word Tables and Charts"

2009-03-25T07:42:00.000-07:00

Word, Excel and Powerpoint are programs that have a wide variety of features. One feature that they all share is the ability to create tables and charts. They all have this feature because tables and charts are very useful tools to have when you are trying to relay information towards someone in a clean manner. It sums up data and makes it easily readable for the reader. All three have the feature so that if you are working in one program you can transfer it into one of the other two with no issues. The three programs work together to make the best charts and tables possible.

Ch.5--"Microsoft Powerpoint also has Find and Replace"

2009-03-19T07:31:00.001-07:00

A feature that I have used before in Word is find and replace it. This chapter in powerpoint let me know that that feature is also available for powerpoints. This is a very useful tool because sometimes there are a lot of slides and you realize you made a mistake spelling a word in most of them. Find and replace it will find that word wherever it is in the document and it will replace it with what you want. This feature will save you effort and time. Both are important when you create a Mircosoft Powerpoint.

Ch.4--"Microsoft Powerpoint in my future"

2009-03-05T07:35:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Powerpoint is a very powerful presentation program. I am using Powerpoint in the very near future because I need to create a powerpoint for one of my classes right now, so I will know how to speed up the process and add things that some people don’t know about. I will also most likely be using is a lot in the next four years for college. Powerpoint allows me to present information in a neat manner that is appealing to a teacher or whomever you show it to. In college I expect there to be projects that need to be turned in and Powerpoint is what I will use. Even after college, I will still be using powerpoint to show things to my business associates or boss.

Ch.3--"Powerpoint was created for.."

2009-02-26T07:06:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Powerpoint was developed to help businessmen create presentations that are more appealing to their associates. It lays out information in a neat, yet productive way. Today Powerpoint is used by not only businessmen, but also students, teachers and trainers. When making Powerpoint the developers had to think of what a business presentation needs to get its’ point across. They had to make feature for tables, graphs, organizational charts and drawing objects. All of these things enhance a presentation. The developers also needed ways for things to be typed in easily without constantly making text boxes. That set them off with slide design all the way to animation schemes.

Ch.2--"Slide Master in Powerpoint"

2009-02-20T07:15:00.001-08:00

The slide master feature on Microsoft Powerpoint is very useful. It is the master slide for slides that share the same layout as that master one. In the master slide you can change things like font, size, alignment or background and Powerpoint will automatically adjust all of the slides that have that same layout. Working with the master slide feature will give your Powerpoint a consistent look. This is very helpful when you are dealing with a slide show that is long. It can format all sorts of things for slides at once.

Ch.1--"View Micrsoft Powerpoint

2009-02-13T07:17:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Powerpoint allows you to view your presentation in several different ways. One such way is the Notes Page view. It shows the each slide as separate things and underneath the slide is room for notes. These notes can be helpful because you can put possible additions to the slide. It can be helpful if you had someone else go over your powerpoint because you can type what you were thinking when you created the slideshow. Those notes will allow that other person to understand where you were coming from.

Ch.20--"Lookup and Forecast Functions along with XML workbooks"

2009-02-05T06:51:00.000-08:00

The final chapter of advanced Excel talks about using formulas such as Lookup and Forecast. It also includes working with XML workbooks. The lookup formula finds data that already exists according to what you put as the table array and puts it where you want. The forecast feature will forecast data for you according to the other numbers in you worksheet. It works sort of like a linear regression because it will predict an outcome. To make a XML workbook all you do is when you save it you go to save as type: XML file. This will allow you to open up that workbook with something like Internet Explorer and you can make changes to it also. This can all go on while you have the workbook open in Excel.

The first project wants you to make a XML spreadsheet and make changes to it when it is open in Internet Explorer. All I did was save it on my drive and opened it with internet explorer and made the changes it wanted me to make. The second project wants you to use the forecast function to predict the number of refrigerator mechanics needed. Then it wants you to create a bar chart of the predicted data. To create a quick bar chart highlight the predicted table and hit F11. Then it wants you to add a linear trendline to the graph. To add one you go to chart and then add trendline.

The activity wants you to use the lookup feature in order to report the incentive pay for each program manager. To make the function work easier you should name the Total Project Completion in Dollars range, Project_Dollars and the Incentive table range Incentive_Table. Now when you use the lookup function put Project_Dollars for lookup value and Incentive_Table for table array.

Ch.19--"Outlines, Grouping, Subtotals and Data Validation"

2009-01-30T07:49:00.000-08:00

Ch.19 for advanced Excel teaches you on using outline, group, subtotals and a bit of review on data validation. To create an outline in Excel go to data then group and outline. You have different options on what you want, such as you can auto outline the worksheet or you can group data as you wish. All you need to do is click on the types of groups or outlines you want. Subtotals are a rather easy feature on Excel. To use subtotals you highlight the data you wish to subtotal and go to data then subtotals. The subtotal feature allows you to subtotal by however you want according to your columns. You are able to find averages, counts and sums. This chapter also has a review on data validation. To use it you highlight what you wish to validate then go to data then validation. Just enter in what options you wish to have. You are able to circle already invalid data by opening the tools menu then formula auditing and then select show formula auditing toolbar.

The first project asks you to create an outline for an Auto Parts company number of parts sold. I did what you needed to do to create an outline and I chose auto outline and it looked good so I kept it. The second project asks you to make subtotals of the counts in each of the regions. Their way of subtotaling their data was not efficient enough so I changed the way to subtotal it. I eliminated all of the headings except for the top heading. I did add in the extra column to classify each item on what division it is a part of. Then I subtotaled it and it was more efficient and it looked better. The activity wants you to create a household inventory so I copied the inventory into Excel and used the sum feature on subtotal to create a subtotal for each category of household items.

Ch.18--"Shared Workbooks"

2009-01-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

Chapter 18 involves shared workbooks. Shared workbooks are used in situations when several people need to work in a workbook at the same time. To share a workbook you go to the tools tab and choose share workbook and you check the box that allows the workbook to be worked on by others. Track changes in these shared workbooks are also a useful thing to have on shared workbooks. To start track changes open the tools menu and choose track changes, and then select highlight changes. You can add who can see the chances and where and when.

The first project wants you to create a shared workbook for GMRE Real Estate. So you open the document, save it and make it a shared workbook. I created three additional shared workbooks and one of those three is going to be the final workbook, the merged. I made the changes to the workbook that it wanted me to do. I saved those three and closed them and left the merged one open. To merge the workbooks you have the merged workbook open and go to tools and choose merge workbooks. You then choose what workbooks you want merged. To choose a lot at once click one while holding the shift button and click the last one you wish to merge. It selects everything in between. The second project is something I have done before. It wants you to password protect the document. To protect it when you save it hit the tools button then general options and type in the password you wish to have it saved under.

Ch.17--"Working with workbooks and consolidating data"

2009-01-26T07:14:00.000-08:00

Chapter 17 explains how to work with multiple worksheets and workbooks. Just as you are able to copy and paste data within a worksheet Excel allows you to move between various worksheets. To copy data betweens worksheets you just copy the data and paste it where you wish. To add more worksheets to a workbook you press and hold down the Ctrl key and put the mouse pointer over one of the tabs and drag it to the right of the last tab and then release the key and the mouse. To rename a tab just double click on it. To print multiple sheets choose the active sheet(s) option on the print menu. A workspace is multiple workbooks and in order to save it you go to file then save workspace. Excel will save all of the workbooks you have up and save them in the workspace.

The first project wants you to create a workbook that has a worksheet for every month of the year. The way to do that is to add more worksheets with the directions above and rename the 12 months the 12 months of the year. The second project is the simplest thing you can do. All you do is open project 17-2a and project 17-2b and save it as a workspace by going to file and save workspace.

The activity wants you to consolidate the data to sum the quarterly totals figures for each department on the Year-End Report. To consolidate the data go to data then consolidate. In the reference section go to the quarter one worksheet and select the totals for each department. And then hit enter, now that data will be consolidated when you hit OK. Do the same for the other three quarters. Go to your Year-End totals and make sure that the first department’s total has the mouse over it and then hit OK. It consolidates the data then adds up the quarterly totals for the departments.

Ch.16--"Templates in Excel and Protection"

2009-01-20T07:28:00.001-08:00

Chapter 16 goes over things such as templates and protection. Making a template is rather easy. All you do is create what you wish to be a template. In order to make it a template all you do is when you save the document is in the save as type scroll down to template. And that’s it. It is saved as a template. To bring up the template you open it just like any other document. You are able to protect things in your document. This is helpful if you are working with people and you only want them to change some cells. To unprotect cells you highlight those cells select format and then cells and choose the protection tab. Unclick the locked option. Now those cells are unlocked. If you wish to lock the whole document you can do so by when you save it choose the tools tab then general options. You now have the ability to save the document so that the only way you open it is with a password.

The first project asks you to create a template for the Lazy Dayse Pie Factory. It says to format the text and that is what I ended up doing. I saved the workbook as a template and then I reopened it to make the first quarterly report for the pie factory. The second project is really simple. All you need to do is password-protect the GMRE Real Estate worksheet. I protected it with the password of CAT. I followed the steps that I listed above.

Ch.15--"Importing and Exporting"

2009-01-15T07:38:00.000-08:00

In chapter 15 of advanced Excel it talks about how to import and export data from Microsoft Excel. If you want to import something from another program you go into Excel click the Open button and from files of type select what kind of file you wish to import. If you are importing from Word then you would select Text files. That is most likely the kind of import I will use. Then the text import wizard appears and you fill in the options you wish to have, just like any other wizard. Another way to import you go to data menu then import external data then new database query. All you do is select the type of file you wish and then select the database. To export Microsoft Excel information you can simply copy and paste it or you can save it as a Text (Tab delimited) format and then open it in Word.

The first project wants you to import a text file into Excel. I went to open and chose text (tab delimited) in order to see where it is on the drive. Then I just followed the wizard and changed things in the data like the column widths and format. I changed the column widths to see all the data at once and I changed the format to make it more appealing. The activity was to import a text file into Excel. I did the same process as what I used for the first project. To know more about the data I calculated the totals from each month.

The second project wants you to export a file from Excel and to put it into Microsoft Word. I did it the simple way by just copying the data while it was in Excel and just copied it into Microsoft Word. I applied an autoformat to the table so it also looks more appealing. The column widths were fine and I didn’t need to change them.

Ch.14--"Macros, Macros, Macros"

2009-01-09T07:48:00.000-08:00

Chapter 14 is all about macros – how to create and use them. To create a new macro, go to the tools menu and then click on macros and select record new macro. For macro name just name the macro the way you wish. In description put what it does and for shortcut key type in a letter a-z and don’t use a key that already has a shortcut. Now click ok and then while the macro is recording do what you want it to do. Whether that is to create a new row or add up a column. Then hit the stop recording button and to use the macro just hit your shortcut key that you assigned earlier. To edit them go to tools macro and macros. When the code pops up you can add or delete what you want. To add something you must type “Selection.Font.Bold = True” is an example.

The first project wants you to create a macro that inserts a column. I just followed the steps I did above except I named it InsrtCol. I ran the macro and it worked. The second project asks you to edit a macro that is already created. I edited it by typing Selection.Font.Bold = True and Selection.Font.Italic = True. The activity wants you to create a macro that totals the columns. I did the same steps as before, but when I was recording it I went under a column and put in the sum formula to total the column. I used the macro to extend it to all columns.

Ch.13--"Pivottables and Pivotcharts"

2009-01-09T06:59:00.001-08:00

Chapter 13 is all about another way to organize data. It is called pivottables and pivotcharts. These pivottables let you rearrange and summarize data. To create a pivottable you go to data then pivottable and pivotchart report. Hit next if you want to create a pivottable then select your range of data and finally select where you would like to put the pivottable report. Then it is almost self explanatory after that because the table shows where you would like to drop row fields, column fields and data items. From there you drag your titles to those positions and it creates a pivottable. And if you wish to create a chart of the pivottable, you just click on the chart wizard button on the pivottable toolbar.

The first project wants you to make a pivottable from the data that it gives. So I went to data then pivottable and began making a pivottable. I hit finish and in the row area in the table I dragged Stock Area to it and to the Data area in the table I dragged Cost to it. Now I have a pivottable of Stock Area and Cost.

The second project is another pivottable except this time when I create the table I also put a classification for the page. It asks me to make the row in the table Last Name and the Data in the table to be Grade Point Average. They want the page to be controlled by Class. They only want the senior’s GPA so I go to the top left where class is and click on senior.

This activity wants me to take data, make a pivottable and then make that a pivotchart. A pivotchart will take a pivottable and turn it into a graph that you wish. It utilizes the chart wizard and takes the data from your pivottable. The graph that it wants is a 3-d graph with a title of Total Product Value in Inventory by Stock Area.

Ch.12--"Scenarios with auditing and correlation"

2009-01-07T06:50:00.000-08:00

Chapter 12 of Excel involves auditing, data validation, creating scenarios and correlation and regression of data. To use the auditing feature you open the auditing toolbar in the tools menu and select formula auditing. Then you click the trace precedents button to check the precedents of a certain cell. Along with auditing you can use data validation to prevent you from making a mistake later. Data validation will allow numbers to be included in your budget or whatever you are doing, but if a number does not fit the criteria that you enter then it does not let you put it in. With data validation you make an input message to remind you why you can’t put some values in the table. Creating scenarios is exactly how it sounds. You can make a scenario to see where your budget would be at or something like that. To add scenarios you go to the tools bar and find scenarios. Excel also does statistical processes such as correlation and regression. You go to the tools menu and choose data analysis and click whatever you wish to do.

The first project is simple. It asks you to take a financial statement and to create a scenario that could happen. I went to the tools bar and found scenarios. I keyed the range B10:B16 and changed B10 and B11 to create a new scenario. I updated it to the screen.

The second project is to create a correlation for the set of data it gives you. To do a correlation I went to the tools menu and chose data analysis and correlation. I highlighted the cells that I needed to correlate and put that into input range. Then I chose an output range to tell the computer where to place the correlation information. I found out that the correlation for this data was pretty bad so it was not necessary to do the regression.

Ch.11--"Autofilter and Advanced Filter in Excel"

2008-12-12T07:06:00.001-08:00

Chapter 11 of the advanced Excel unit goes over how to use Autofilter and advanced filter. They both can be found in data then filter. When you click on autofilter these little arrows are put in each of the headings and when clicked on you can find all of the data that fits the criteria. Such as if you had a column for cost, you would be able to find data that has a certain cost or the top 10 of the list for cost. Also you are able to sort ascending and descending, which is very helpful. The advanced filter is a way to find data in your list and to copy it to another location. Activity 11.1 talks about it more in depth.

The first project asks you to use both autofilter and advanced filter to find information. It says, using autofilter to find products that cost less than $1.00 and print out that page. Next it says to use an advanced filter to find records with a quantity in stock that is less than 100. In activity 11.1 I was asked to do the same thing except with different numbers. So I followed those same steps and put in <100>$5,000.
The final project asks you just to use advanced filter to find products that are available in a small size. Then it asks you to print it in portrait orientation. Then it also asks you to find large sizes that have a sale price greater than $10.00. So that means that the advanced filter will be filtering on two criteria

Ch.10--"Creating and Editing Lists in Excel"

2008-12-04T07:09:00.001-08:00

Chapter 10 involves creating and editing lists. It also shows how to add records to a data list. You can go to data form from under the data tab and typing in new data becomes easier. Editing records is also very simple; you can either use data form or just simply change the cell right on the sheet. You can delete records in a list along with the rest of this. Again you can use data form and delete the information you don’t wish to have. To sort a list go to data and choose sort then sort however you wish.

The first project is very simple. You sort the list by division, then by last name, and then by first name. I did this by going to data then sort. The second project asks you to enter in the data that they show. It says to make it easier you can format the cells as you wish. Then I sorted the data by state then city in order to quickly glance at the subcontractors available in a specific area.

The activity that I had to do was 10.1 and it had a table of information for you to copy in a worksheet in excel. To increase the table’s appearance I applied an autoformat to it and sorted the list in ascending order by Item No. For the cost and selling price columns I formatted them to currency with two decimals.

Ch.9--"Transposing text and modifying charts in Excel"

2008-12-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

Excel chapter 9 talks about how to use auto format, conditional format, enhance appearance of charts and transposing text. Auto format is under the format tab and it formats data that you selected and puts it into a table format that enhances the data’s presentation. Conditional format will highlight any number that you say is either between two numbers, greater than a number or less than a number. It is very useful for identifying numbers that are different from the rest. To enhance the appearance of charts you open the chart toolbar and go to format chart area. You can do things like make its’ corners round or create a shadow effect. There may be times when data is entered in the worksheet in columns or rows and then you realize it would be more appealing if you switched them. That’s what transposing is. You highlight your columns or rows then go to Edit then Paste Special and choose transpose.

The first project makes you format a range of cells and change the date format. (Something that I learned in introductory Excel) Then it asks to take range of cells C4:G14 and paste them in the second sheet. To print the worksheet it says to print it in landscape, which is easily done by going to file then page setup.

The second project asks you to format the sales figures with a $ sign and two decimal places. So I highlighted those cells and went to format cells then number then finally currency with two decimal places. In that same format cells box is a heading that says alignment- that is where I found to make the headings to 45 degrees. The book tells you to merge and center, the title and subtitles only, columns A through D. Then finally I transposed the data in A4:D11 by going to edit then paste special.

The third project has you play around with a chart. It tells you to add a data table to it, to resize it and to change the border style of the chart to rounded edges. To add the data table just open the chart toolbar and choose add data table. To resize it drag one of its’ corners and to change the border style go to format chart area in the chart toolbar and choose rounded corners.

The activity that I had to do was to apply an autoformat to the projected sales data and use conditional formatting to highlight the sales figures that exceed $60,000 for any month and any division. Both of these things can be done by highlighting the cells A4-M12 and go to format and choose autoformat – choose one – then go to conditional formatting in the same heading. Put in cell value is greater than 60,000.

Ch.8--"Charts in Excel"

2008-11-13T07:11:00.001-08:00

There are so many different kinds of charts because in reality there are many different ways to display data. There is not just one or two ways to illustrate something; there is a bunch of different ways to illustrate something. You would use these charts for finding a relationship between two things, looking at percentages and/or to compare different rates. You would use these options in a job where you have to prepare presentations for your boss or for a statistics class in college. At some point in your life you will probably need to make a chart of some data and Excel helps you get it done – and done fast.

Ch.7--"Worksheets and Workbooks"

2008-11-07T07:32:00.001-08:00

When you open Microsoft Excel you have a spreadsheet in front of you and in the lower left-hand corner there are other sheets called worksheets. A workbook is a collection of all those worksheets. To transfer from one worksheet to another all you have to do is click on the worksheet you want to work on. To help identify which worksheet is which you can change its name by double clicking on it and typing what you wish to call it and you can change its color by going into Format then Sheet then Tab Color. You are able to link things from different cells of one worksheet to another. First you have the cell selected enter = then click on the worksheet you wish to link to that spot. Now that worksheet is opened. Finally to link you click the cell in that sheet to your first sheet you just click on it and hit enter. Excel transfers it. You can add cells from different sheets using the same technique except you need an addition sign. Working with different worksheets is made simple in Excel.

Ch.6--"Graphics in Microsoft Excel"

2008-11-03T07:45:00.001-08:00

Just like Microsoft Word you can access graphics in Excel from the Insert menu then Picture and you can choose from file or clip art. If you choose from file you can search within your files for a picture. If you click clip art Excel will find graphics that are accessible from the internet. You type what you want in the search bar. To put it into the spreadsheet point your cursor over it and hit the arrow that appears and click insert. People will add graphics into the spreadsheet to change the appearance of the worksheet. These pictures are even sometimes added to illustrate data in the worksheet. An example is that some companies like to put their corporate logo at the top of the sheet to show who they are.

Ch.5--"Excel and its function formula capabilities"

2008-10-30T07:40:00.000-07:00

Excel gives an advantage to anyone who wants to use mathematical formulas. It has what it calls function formulas that can determine things like the max, min or average of a list of data. If there is a long list of data Excel is very useful because you don’t need to pull out a calculator and type in all of those numbers. In Excel all you do is click on the box you wish to perform a function on and then go to insert then function. Since there is such a huge library of functions Excel can perform you type in a description of the function you want and it searches in its library. Yet another advantage is it tells you how to enter the data in the formula to get what you want. Finding things like standard deviations, sums and averages can be long and hard work, but with Excel it is made easier and more efficient.

Ch.4--"Microsoft Excel in My Future"

2008-10-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

In my future I am looking to be an accountant or a finance guy. Excel will help me enormously when I enter in things like projection sales, revenue and debts. With Excel’s capabilities I will be able to work faster and understand what is going on with these tables easier. My dad is a Vice President of Finance for a company and he says that he uses Excel all of the time. I have seen him, it is crazy how fast he can enter numbers and analyze the tables he creates. Excel’s calculator capabilities are very important when you need a lot of numbers multiplied or added together. I am excited to use the program in the future.

Ch.3--"Microsoft Excel 2008 for the Mac"

2008-10-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

This article from http://www.macworld.com/article/131558/2008/01/excel2008.html is an article about the update to Microsoft Excel 2008. This website is about macs and it relates what is new to Microsoft Excel to those macs. Since Excel is macs leading spreadsheet provider they thought it would be useful to sort of list the pros, cons and buying advice of the new Excel, on their website. A new feature is the formula builder and it says that it is more time efficient. It has a formula AutoComplete so you know exactly what the formula is. With the toolbar icons being in color they are easier to read and to find when working on a spreadsheet. They say a disadvantage is that Excel 2008, just like Excel 2004, doesn’t support Services, so more work is required to use text from Excel in other programs. Their buying advice is: If you have used Excel 2004, you have used Excel 2008.

Ch.2--"Formatting Cells in Excel"

2008-10-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

A new process that I learned in this chapter is the different kinds of cell formats. There are formats for currency to percentages. It is really cool. What you do is highlight the cell/cells that you wish to change its format and go to the format tab and choose cells. Go to the heading number. Read the descriptions for the format names to determine what kind of format you want for your project. For example if you change the format to currency Excel will automatically put a dollar sign in front of the number and it will place the decimal accordingly and put two zeros behind it, just like currency. It can also do fractions. It will display all the numbers you put into Excel as a fraction. This is important to Excel because it makes it easier and faster for someone to type in currencies, fractions, dates and more. It makes it so the person typing does not have to worry about putting a dollar sign or a decimal place into their numbers. You are able to select any number of cells you want for that format and you can have as many different formats as you want. This is good because Excel will allow you to have different formats for different cells.

Ch.1--"Initial Thoughts on Microsoft Excel"

2008-10-14T07:47:00.001-07:00

I am very excited on starting with Microsoft Excel today. It is a program that has so many uses and I wish to know how those uses may help me in the future. I believe that having Microsoft Excel will enhance my ability to type numbers quickly and efficiently. This will be very helpful in college and in my career. My dad has been working with Microsoft Excel for many years and I have seen what he can do with it and I wish that soon I will be showing him some shortcuts and techniques in Excel, even though he has been using it for years.

Ch.8--"What is a Wizard?"

2008-10-03T07:04:00.000-07:00

A wizard on any Microsoft program is a step-by-step instructor on how to do something like mail merge or creating a résumé. The instructor tells you what to do through a dialog box that appears when you click on the wizard. You are sometimes able to do these tasks without using the wizard, but there are a lot of downsides. For one, you may not even be doing something like a résumé right, but when you use the wizard you know you are doing it right because of the step-by-step instructions Microsoft Word gives you. Another downside to doing it yourself is that you are probably much slower because some things are very complex for a user to do by themselves. A wizard is very useful because there are not a lot of people fully understand all the tasks that a Microsoft program can do.

Ch.7--"How to format columns into Word"

2008-09-25T07:01:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in putting columns into a Word document you must go to Format and then to Columns. From there you can choose anywhere from 2 to 12 columns. Once you have chosen your number of columns you are able to change the width in between two of your columns. This is very helpful because you are able to adjust the columns to what you need for your document. Another option on the Columns menu is for Microsoft Word to make columns from where your insertion point is. The program will make columns of all the words that are under your insertion point. This tool is also very helpful if you only need part of your document in columns.

Ch.6--"Graphics in Microsoft Word"

2008-09-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

People would want to use graphics in Microsoft Word because it spices up the document. For something like an invitation it is fun to add graphics to make it look cool and to make people want to go to where the invitation is inviting them to. Graphics in a Word document can also be used to explain or emphasize something. If a company puts a document out that says that everyone needs to be on time in the morning, there may be a picture of a clock to emphasize it. These graphics come from three different places: the internet, my collections on my username and from Microsoft Office’s collections. Since there is three different places that they come from you will be able to get a wide variety of graphics. To put in a graphic you go to insert then picture then clip-art. You search for what you need and you scroll over it to the arrow that will appear. Click the arrow on the picture you want and then you do what you want with it, whether that is to copy it or insert it. Once it is in the document you can format the graphic to what you would like.

Ch.5--"Microsoft Word better than blogger software"

2008-09-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Word has many features that the blog software does not. The one that everyone probably uses is the spell check in Microsoft Word. There are a lot of words out there and it is hard to spell them all, but when you type in Microsoft Word it identifies a word if it is spelled wrong or if the sentence is not complete. In blogs people like to be creative with the fonts and font colors and in Microsoft Word you can change those things very easily. There are things in Microsoft Word like a Thesaurus and Bulleted List made easy. Overall Microsoft Word is user friendly for someone who needs to type anything.

Ch.4--"Microsoft Word in the Future"

2008-09-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

Right now I use Microsoft Word a lot because of all the schoolwork that I have. In the near future I will still be using it a lot because in college there will be even more work to do on Microsoft Word. I will use it for essays and projects. After college I plan to still use Microsoft Word. I will use it to create my résumé and letters. I wish to be an accountant and that will mean I will have a lot of typing to do and Microsoft Word will help me accomplish my goals at my job. It will help with its easy underlined and bolding words.

Ch.3--"A Newsletter in Microsoft Word"

2008-09-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

At www.microsoft.com/mac there is an article on how to lay out a newsletter in publishing view in Microsoft Word. It gives you step-by-step instructions on how to make the newsletter. Step 1 is to set up the master page. The master page contains text and pictures. To maintain a consistent look for all imported pictures you use image drop zone. An image drop zone applies a consistent look to any image that is dropped on to it. Once you finish formatting what you newsletters will look like, you save and as a template so that you can use that same format every time you wish to write a newsletter. Once you have created the template you can start putting what you wish to have on this newsletter.

Ch.2--"Find and Replace it!"

2008-08-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

Before this class started I would always use ctrl+f to get to a word that I needed to replace or just delete. Once I read this section I found out that there was a much easier way to accomplish that. It is called find and replace. If you go under the Edit tab you can find the find word command and just below it is the replace command. It also has a shortcut, ctrl+h. What this command will do is you tell it to find a word in the whole document and you tell it to replace it with another word. The program will search the whole document for that word you wish to replace and it replaces it with the word you wish. It is great and important to Microsoft word; this command will help everyone do a lot of work quicker because sometimes you want to replace one word and make it into a different word throughout the whole document.

Ch.1--"Initial Thoughts on Microsoft Office"

2008-08-25T06:56:00.000-07:00

My initial thought coming into Microsoft Office at CDC was that I will be able to learn and master the techniques of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. That opinion still has yet to change. This class will give me advantages when I need to use these programs in college because after I take this class for a whole year I should be a master at these programs. On day one I didn’t think I would learn anything new, but shortly after I started I learned shortcuts from going word to word and going from the top of the page to the bottom of the page really fast. Coming into the class I did not think that Microsoft Word had so many different operations, but after glancing through the whole book I realized I was wrong. Because there is so much typing in this class I will gradually become faster and more efficient. That will be great for my future career in finance.