learning microsoft office

[FnG]magnolia;24655975 said:
The OP wants to understand the basics of the Office suite to allow him to go for office roles and you're suggesting that he learns programming languages and SAP before becoming a contractor? :o
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As a jobseeker you should be able to find a free ECDL course somewhere. This should cover the basics. I believe there are also 'advanced' ECDL courses available to go into more detail.
 
As mentioned above, most people in office jobs are merely "proficient" in Office (turn on computer, type, save, print). Unless you can get yourself a recognisable qualification, I'm not sure how much help learning Office would be to you on a CV, as all you'd be able to say is that you're really proficient!

I learned HTML and CSS while I was jobseeking. While I never used it officially at work, it was nice to be the person they asked to do little tweaks here and there, and was something slightly more unusual on the CV than most people had. I appreciate that people above have been berated for suggesting that the OP learns to code, but learning basic HTML is a little different to learning ERM systems and SAP!
 
I've learned most of the stuff I can do with office, through work and having to use the software. You end up learning more that way and being able to use it to your needs, rather than using it in the programme designers ways. Even learning things like macros etc... you do by trial and error, and google can help with those things too.

Stating you're proficient, or have advanced knowledge of a common suite of tools isn't a negative, but it won't put you on the top of the pile. :)
 
I would only really advise it if there was a particular job you were aiming for that required a lot of advanced excel stuff.

Most of the Excel stuff you will need to do in most jobs is pretty basic and the more advanced stuff is pretty easy to google, I've created some great spreadsheets with crazy calculations and macros just by googling each thing.

There are jobs out there where it would be nice to have advanced knowledge before starting the job so you don't have to learn whilst you're starting but as others have said it's not something that's really going to help on the CV or interview front too much unless it's a specific job.
 
I'm perfectly fine with the old Office interface, 2003 being the last version. However, there was a time when I had to support 3000 customers running Office 2007 and I could never get my head around that ribbon. My memory is long term, to the point that I have very little capacity for change. That said, I have been able to comprehend most software changes and operating system changes. I'm even fine with Windows 8 Metro! However, I think that the ribbon goes one step too far. Are there any memory tactics or guides for using that?
 
Learn Mail Merge and pivot tables... they're probably the only two useful things I've ever had to support, other than the usual page break, font size etc rubbish.
 
Monserrat said:
I'm perfectly fine with the old Office interface, 2003 being the last version. However, there was a time when I had to support 3000 customers running Office 2007 and I could never get my head around that ribbon. My memory is long term, to the point that I have very little capacity for change. That said, I have been able to comprehend most software changes and operating system changes. I'm even fine with Windows 8 Metro! However, I think that the ribbon goes one step too far. Are there any memory tactics or guides for using that?
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I just found that using it more frequently got me more used to it.

The frustration for me is I use ribbon at home and 2003 at work and because I use them both for differenty things my knowledge of where things are is lacking in certain areas in one but not the other.

I hated the ribbon at first but the more I use it the more I get used to it.
And when I found (quite early on I might add ;) ) that I could just hover the mouse over the ribbon and use the scroll wheel to change tabs things became a whole lot more fluent. :)
 
Freefaller said:
Stating you're proficient, or have advanced knowledge of a common suite of tools isn't a negative, but it won't put you on the top of the pile. :)
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But it does give you the edge over the other applicants/job seekers that prefer to watch Jeremy Kyle or play WOW all day. If you want an entry level position in book-keeping/accounts assistant role having a good knowledge of Excel is a useful thing to have, especially if you know VBA.
 
An office course will teach you a lot of useless rubbish about powerpoint and access, two programs that are rarely used in an office environment, from my experience anyway. Word is pretty straight forward for anyone out of the box, so is excel unless you need macros and advanced formulas.
 
I've recently been using pivot tables and found them relatively easy toone you know a ffew things, really powerful tool for trending and analysis of massive tables of data..
 
OP you don't need to pay anything. The job centre can refer to you to free courses and you even get a certificate out it. There's loads of them.

Ask your advisor about it. I remember being referred to TLE and 5E for different courses.
 
MooMoo444 said:
An office course will teach you a lot of useless rubbish about powerpoint and access, two programs that are rarely used in an office environment, from my experience anyway. Word is pretty straight forward for anyone out of the box, so is excel unless you need macros and advanced formulas.
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Where do you work that does not use Powerpoint?
 
I thinwk you're sensible to want to learn how to use the full range of the Office suite, but paying for DVDs is silly. You can learn everything from tutorials online. I just google stuff at work and everyone is awed when I have an answer for them.
 
MooMoo444 said:
An office course will teach you a lot of useless rubbish about powerpoint and access, two programs that are rarely used in an office environment, from my experience anyway. Word is pretty straight forward for anyone out of the box, so is excel unless you need macros and advanced formulas.
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Powerpoint seems pretty widely used in an office environment to me, albeit by a smaller group of people than Outlook, Word etc. It's almost the de facto standard for static slideware presentations and my organisation often uses it as part of training, update meetings, client workshops, sales, marketing etc etc.
 
*update*

managed to get a neighbour to give me an office 2010 license key
as he had quite a few for his company :)

there are probably more office's using 2010 at the moment anyway
and once i feel proficient in each package, ie word etc i will get myself
an office 2013 (365) license and update my skill set.

I've started with word and learnt a lot ( doing 4 hours a night ) so i
could potentially get an office job soonish before i have learnt all the other stuff.

thanks for the tips guys.
PS: anyone want an office gimp? lol (north west ) :D
 
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