Blog post
Our Favourite Resources for Mastering Microsoft Office
October 22, 2015
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Microsoft Office can offer some very powerful tools if you know how to use them.
The Master List
Investintech.com may just have compiled the most comprehensive list of Microsoft Office resources on the web. You could lose yourself for hours in these tips and tricks, which range from keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Word to formatting text and numbers in Excel spreadsheets and more.
PowerPoint
- MotionTraining offers a series of Microsoft Office video tutorials. If you're new to Powerpoint, check out their PowerPoint Tutorial for Beginners videos.
- PC Magazine consistently offers useful resources to expand your mastery of Microsoft Office, including its 17 Tricks to Master Microsoft PowerPoint. The mag's first tip: change the file extension to open PowerPoint instantly when in a meeting. "We've all seen too much of presenter's laptop screens, full of messy icon-strewn desktops or unread emails, as they try to start a PowerPoint presentation," the article points out. "Get right to it by naming the file with a .PPS (or .PPSX) file extension. That's a PowerPoint Show, and a quick double click on it goes right into the slideshow, not PowerPoint editing mode. Click Esc to exit the slideshow."
Word
- TechWelkin founder Lalit Kumar has a running list of Microsoft Tips and Tricks to Increase Productivity. He first published the article in 2012, but he continues to add to it as he discovers more useful tools.
Excel
- If you're an Excel newbie, check out PC Magazine's 10 Essential Microsoft Excel 2010 Tips for Beginners.
- Or, take your use a step further with the magazine's 20 Excel Tips for Becoming a Spreadsheet Pro.
Access
- QuackIt offfers a step-by-step walkthrough of Microsoft Access with its tutorial.
- Writing for Database Journal, Danny Lesandrini shares his Top 10 Productivity Tips for Microsoft Access 2010. If you feel you've reached the limit of online resources for teaching yourself Access, Lesandrini points readers to the book Access Solutions: Tips, Tricks, and Secrets from Microsoft Access MVPs.
"Etc."
- Even if you don't feel you can learn anything more from these tips and tricks, there's no need necessarily to go out and buy a how-to book, either. The Concordia Library offers a range of books on using Microsoft Office in its catalogue.
- Doctoral Writing SIG often features posts from academics who try out other productivity tools. For example, in this post philosopher Thomas Hodgson makes the case for trying Pandoc instead of Word for your research writing.
- Microsoft offers a series of 15-Minute Webinars on their site which you can peruse at your leisure.