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Chapter 1
Microsoft® Office Suite What is it? The Microsoft® Office Suite is a well-known collection of desktop applications that includes Word, Excel®, and PowerPoint®. Here’s a summary of the programs included in each of the Office 2010 Suites and approximate pricing as of September 2011. Home and Student Home and Business Office Professional Word
Word
Word
Excel®
Excel®
Excel®
PowerPoint®
PowerPoint®
PowerPoint®
OneNote®
OneNote®
OneNote®
$150
Outlook®
Outlook®
$280
Publisher
Access® $500 In 2007, Microsoft® did an overhaul on Microsoft® Office, completely changing the look and feel of their product. A number of the tools that are featured in this book are available in Microsoft® Office 2007 or later. If you are using an earlier version of 12
Software Technology
Microsoft® Office, some of these tools may not be available to you, however you will still find helpful tips and tricks that can be put to use in Office 2003 and earlier. Overview of Programs in Microsoft® Office Suite Let’s begin by taking a look at each of the applications available in the Microsoft® Office Suite of products. ●● Word is Microsoft’s word-processing program and is used to create various types of professional-looking documents. Businesses can use Word to create client mailings, customer invoices, administrative manuals and many other types of documents and business communications. ●● Excel® is a spreadsheet program that businesses use to manage and analyze data. Excel can be used to track lists of information, such as client or employee records, and can also be used to manage budgets and track expenses. ●● PowerPoint® is a presentation development program. Many businesses utilize PowerPoint® to present information to both employees and clients alike. PowerPoint® is also frequently used as a tool for both classroom and online training as well. ●● OneNote® is a virtual notebook designed to help users manage ideas. OneNote® allows you to store text, images, audio and video. Individuals can use OneNote® to keep track of project ideas, meeting notes and business goals. ●● Outlook® is a well-known email management tool used by many organizations worldwide. Outlook® also includes 13
Rule of Thumb
useful tools such as the Outlook® Calendar, Contacts and Tasks. Businesses can utilize Outlook® to send and receive email, schedule meetings, manage client and employee contact information, and assign tasks or To-Do items to themselves or others. ●● Publisher is a publication design program used to create brochures, flyers, event invitations and other types of publications. ●● Access® is a database tool used to manage various types of records and data. While many of the Office programs are simple to use right out of the gate, creating a database is a skill that requires additional training for most people. For the purposes of this book, we will be focusing on the Microsoft® Office applications that are utilized by the widest range of users: Word, Excel®, PowerPoint® and Outlook®.
Rule of Thumb:
The area at the top of the program window in Microsoft® Office 2007/2010 applications is called “The Ribbon”. The Ribbon is divided into groups of related commands. To hide the Ribbon, double-click the active (currently selected) tab. To unhide the Ribbon, double-click any tab.
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Chapter 2
Microsoft® Word In this section, we will take a look at a number of tools that will help you create professional-looking documents with ease. But first, let’s review the types of business documents you can create with Word. How can you use Word for your business? Word is a word-processing program that many businesses use to create a variety of business documents including client invoices, meeting agendas, newsletters, business plans, proposals, receipts, certificates, memos, employee job descriptions, reports, billing statements, letters, blog posts, administrative/employee manuals, and many, many other types of documents. If you’re not sure where to begin, take a look at the vast number of templates available on Office.com. A template is a reusable pre-designed document that includes the basic structure and document formatting so the user doesn’t have to re-create the structure and formatting from scratch each time. For example: Imagine an invoice that includes your company logo, address and phone number, a place for the client billing and shipping information, and a section that lists items purchased and 15
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the cost. This would be time consuming to recreate each time, so a template can be a huge time saver. There are a wide variety of templates that are accessible directly from within the Word application if you have an internet connection. To view available templates, begin by creating a new document. Word 2010: File tab > New The Office.com template categories appear in the center panel of the window. Word 2007: Office button > New A dialog box appears. The Office Online template categories appear on the left panel. Select a category to preview the templates. Templates are organized into categories including Agendas, Contracts, and Job Descriptions. The templates on Office.com may be downloaded for free and customized to suit your needs. Templates are a great alternative to building documents from scratch. For more information about how to use templates, check out Chapter 5: Using Templates in MicrosoftÂŽ Office.
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Use the free templates on Office.com. It’s a great, free alternative to building your documents from scratch.
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Software Technology
Tools to Help You Create Professional-looking Documents Individuals using Word 2007 or Word 2010 have access to an abundance of tools that will aid in the creation of sleek, professionallooking documents with just a few clicks. Here are a few tools that will provide maximum impact with little time investment. Styles and Style Sets: Styles are special text formatting properties that are given descriptive names such as Title, Subtitle, Heading 1, and Heading 2. For instance, a “Title” style is designed to make text stand out, so formatting properties will include a larger font size, a bottom paragraph border and/or an accent color. One of the benefits of using styles is that you can format text with a single click. If you have not yet upgraded to Office 2007 or later, please note that earlier versions of Microsoft® Word did include some basic styles, but the method for using them is quite different. Thanks to major improvements in Word 2007 and continuing through Word 2010, styles are easier than ever to use.
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Styles let you quickly apply professionally designed formatting to document text with just a few clicks.
Word 2007 and 2010 include multiple sets of predesigned coordinated styles that are grouped together as “style sets”. Style sets are located in the Styles gallery in the Home tab. Each style in the 17