Published 22 Oct 2018

A Beginner’s Guide to Microsoft Office: Why is it Important to Know?

by CoursesOnline Contributors

Being fluent in Microsoft Office is now an essential requirement for the business world. From processing meeting notes to PowerPoint presentations, you are expected to use it from day one. Our courses are designed to take you from beginner to expert and fast-track your career.

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Many graduates may think that they already know Microsoft Office pretty well. If you took a non-technical course like English, you may have typed up all your assignments and navigated a couple of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. However, can you honestly say you have taken a beginner’s guide and studied how to use it properly? Have you ever spent a couple of minutes staring blankly at the screen confused at how to do a simple function?

The average person would have taught themselves how to use it at school or college and are learning their way through it point by point as they go along. They will usually know the simplest methods, or whatever is essential to finish the job. It is crucial to go back to basics to get a complete grasp of this vital tool and boost your IT savviness.

Online Microsoft Office training courses offer a wide range of qualifications that can be completed at home and at your own pace. They will enhance your skills and take your employability rate to the next level, proving that you are more than the average user. We have a varied selection of programs and specialist training, such as Microsoft MCSA certification.

Completing these step by step will demonstrate a serious business impact to your company and fast-track your career to expertise level. ‘Competency in Microsoft Office’ will no longer be just a tagged bullet point on your CV, but a demonstrable skill that will impress colleagues.

Build upon a few basic hacks in Microsoft Word that will make your life easier and boost productivity. These tips and keyboard shortcuts will improve your time management and make a professional impression even during the simplest of tasks. (Note: These tips are for MS Word 2015 version)

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If you ‘re trying to master Microsoft Office or simply want to find a couple of tricks to make things easier for your next project, these tips are handy to keep track of and more importantly, bookmark!

Selecting
Most people will know you can highlight the whole text by [CTRL + A], but you can also hold down the [ALT] key and select random parts of the text, such as lines in the middle of a paragraph.
Formatting
If you are copy and pasting something that has a completely different format. You can also select [Merge Formatting] when pasting. If you are working with multiple formats, you can also highlight the text with the format you like, click [Format Painter] and then highlight the new text. This will transform it into the desired format. You can also highlight the new text and use [CTRL + Space] which will change it to basic 12-point Times New Roman– the most common format for Word documents.
Compare
You can compare and contrast two separate Word documents on the same screen. This will save you time navigating between tabs or trying to shrink and resize them to fit together. Go to [Review > Compare> Compare two versions of a document]. This will allow you to view two documents at the same time. This is very useful if you are working with multiple documents on the same project.
Edits
If you haven’t used it before ‘Track Changes’ is a very useful tool when multiple users are editing the same document. You can see how each person has edited each word and added new ones. You can also have a running comments box to communicate. Another useful tool when editing, especially for a long document is by using [Shift + F5]. This will allow you to jump to the most active parts of your text.
Replace
Simply go to [Home>Replace] or [CTRL+H]. This will bring up a box where you can put in the word you want to change and the word you want it to be. You can even click on the ‘More’ option to choose different font and styles. The ‘Find’ option is also useful for just finding a specific word or phrase you have used: [CTRL+ F]. There have been stories about users spending hours going through hundreds of pages, just to change the use of one word!
Check
You can check word count and how much time you have spent on a document in File> Properties. File is also where you can lock your document for your own purposes.
Quick Shortcuts
For bullet points- type in an Asterix and click space [* + Space].

For simple functions you can usually guess. It involves highlighting, clicking CTRL and a letter for the desired outcomes. Here are a variety of basic and underused shortcuts:

Bold – [CTRL + B]

Italics – [CTRL +I]

Underline – [CTRL + U]

Cut – [CTRL + X]

Centre Text – [CTRL + E]

New Document – [CTRL + N]

Decrease Font Size – [CTRL + [ ]

Increase Font Size – [CTRL + ] ]

Microsoft Office will be one of the most important skills in your career path. Don’t fall behind! Build up your expertise with our training courses to demonstrate your business readiness.

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