Microsoft Office for the curious and the confused

Many people have Microsoft Office on their Windows or Mac computers but use only a tiny fraction of the features. Often, they spend hours struggling to complete tasks manually that could be accomplished quickly and efficiently if only they knew more about the powerful toolkit they own.

The course aims to teach how to use a wide range of features, including:

• General – on-screen controls, using/customising toolbars, printing, saving & organising documents, screenshots, keyboard shortcuts, accessibility tools – magnifier, zooming, dictation (speech-to-text) & narration (text-to-speech)

• Word – page layout, formatting, fonts, styles & templates, find & replace, spelling & grammar checking, tables, pictures & drawings, mailmerge

• Excel – page formatting, simple formulas, built-in functions, charts & forms, lookups

• Outlook – creating & managing folders, setting up diaries, Zoom meetings, managing contacts & mailing lists, mailmerge, managing multiple mailboxes, tasks & reminders

• PowerPoint – slides, animation, drawing diagrams, creating photo albums, leaflets & posters.

Experience and equipment

This course is only available online, and attendees are expected to have some experience of using Zoom and be able to participate by asking questions, so having a working microphone is essential. (These are usually in-built on modern computers). A working camera is preferred but not essential. Attendees must have a copy of Microsoft Office (2010 onwards, including 365).

Because of very heavy demand, we will initially focus on Office on Windows 10 and 11. There is currently a waiting list.

Current activities

In early 2024, we will cover general aspects of Windows and Microsoft Word. After this, we will move on to look at Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

In the future

The course will be re-run to include Macintosh or iPad users and people using LibreOffice.