Software Articles

March 12, 2011

Finding Effective Microsoft Powerpoint Tuition

Filed under: PowerPoint, Software — Tags: , , — admin @ 8:04 pm

Depending on how busy a person is Microsoft Powerpoint Training can be very complex and detailed or be as simple as spending an afternoon with the training program offered by the Microsoft company on their website.

There are many colleges and training centers that provide training to individuals seeking Microsoft Powerpoint Training. The purpose of these courses is to provide individuals with the basics of using the program so that they can return to their home or business and experiment with the program. In most of the classes the special functions that are taught are those that are used most by people who use Powerpoint on a regular basis.

Sitting with someone who has used the Powerpoint program for a long period of time is a great way to get effective Microsoft Powerpoint Training. These people know many different functions that a person who does not use the program on a regular basis would not know. They can teach an individual how to get faster results or produce more effective presentations in fewer keystrokes.

If one starts using the program and finds that they need assistance there are access points within the program that will provide short tutorials on a specific function or feature. An individual can click on that icon and be directed to a detailed explanation and walk-through to make the function or feature operate properly.

Many books have been written that provide more exhaustive Microsoft Powerpoint Training. One can purchase a book and learn many of the secrets that are used by programmers and developers that are not made public. By using some simple techniques one is able to create more dynamic presentations.

Microsoft Powerpoint Training does not end. There is always something new to learn with the program and a new method for creating exciting presentation, slideshows, brochures, and pamphlets. When an individual gets to a point where they feel they have learned all that they want to know they can stop.

Microsoft PowerPoint training classes.

Organizing Training For Microsoft Excel Professionals

Filed under: Excel, Software — Tags: , , , — admin @ 7:51 pm

There are a lot of different resources available for Microsoft Excel training. You can find training on how to use all parts of Microsoft excel as well as very specific training on how to use certain parts of Microsoft excel. There are many different excel professionals that provide training and tips about using excel. You can do a lot with excel but most people don’t know how to use certain functions.

The individuals in your company that use excel may have different skill levels and this can make getting a project done difficult as you will need to train different individuals and this can cause problems with productivity. By having everyone on the same skill level you will find it is much easier to complete all of your projects.

Many different job positions require some Microsoft excel knowledge as this include accountants, office managers, small business owners, teachers and students. If you need something for a business career day or other employee training then a seminar on Microsoft excels training can be a great addition. You can learn how to use Power excel, how to create charts, actions that can be used from the data menu and learning how to use pivot tables.

If you don’t have a seminar in your future then there are several online courses on how to use excel. The time length of these courses last from 30 to 60 minutes. The online topics you can find courses are filtering external data, excel macros, importing text files into excel, creating charts, different printing options and other excel features.

There are other books and texts that are Microsoft excel training guides. Many of these books have supplement cds that provide examples and tutorials on using excel. There are even books that can help you gain your certification as an excel specialist or expert.

Some additional and more advanced training can be found for analyzing data and other content, how to manage workbooks, creating data and formatting content and data.

Excel VBA training classes in London.

March 6, 2011

Getting To Know The Microsoft Word 2007 Ribbon

Filed under: Word — Tags: , , — admin @ 9:49 pm

The ribbon is the most important element in the Microsoft Word interface. It contains the vast majority of the commands that the program has to offer. These commands are arranged in a series of tabs. To activate a particular tab, simply click on its name. The commands displayed in each tab are related in some way. For example, the commands in the Home tab are those which are most frequently used in Microsoft Word: commands such as Cut, Copy And Paste and commands for changing the character and paragraph attributes of your text.

The Insert tab features commands for adding elements to your page such as tables, pictures, headers and footers.

The Page Layout tab is home to commands relating to the formatting of the page as a whole, such as the orientation and margins.

The References tab contains a number of options for adding references to longer documents such as tables of contents and indexes.

The Mailings tab has controls for creating mail merge documents. Mail merge involves a combination of a data document, which normally contain a list of recipients, with a main document, which is normally a letter, to produce a series of personalised mail merge documents which can then be sent out to each recipient.

In the Review tab, you will find tools for proofing your document. Here, you can check your spelling and grammar and also you have tools for reviewing a document by inserting comments and then tracking these comments as the document is passed from person to person.

The View tab contains all the options for displaying the document in various ways. It also houses controls for zooming in and out

Finally, the developer tab contains controls for recording, creating and editing macros and Visual Basic.

The controls in each tab are arranged into groups. For example, the groups in the Home tab are labelled Clipboard, Font, Paragraph, Styles and Editing. As always in Microsoft applications, placing the mouse over a control displays a tool-tip. In the case of Office 2007, these tool-tips are pretty extensive. They contain a description of how the control works, what it does and the keyboard shortcut which is equivalent to clicking on that control.

As well as the regular ribbon tabs, Word also contains context sensitive tabs. These are tabs which only appear in a certain context, typically when a certain type of object has focus. For example, whenever you insert a table, you will notice that Word immediately displays two context sensitive tabs relating to tables: Design and Layout. As long as an area within the table is highlighted, these tabs will remain visible and they behave in exactly the same way as the regular tabs. However, as soon as you click outside the table to deselect it, the context sensitive tabs relating to tables will disappear.

Microsoft Word training courses in London.

November 30, 2010

Anatomy Of An Excel 2007 Formula

Filed under: Excel — Tags: , , , — admin @ 11:16 pm

As you probably know, to create an Excel formula, you begin by typing an equal sign: this distinguishes it from other types of data. A formula consists of a series of expressions. There are three key components in these expressions: arithmetic operations, such as add and subtract; Excel functions; and cell references.

To create a formula which gives us the total of two of the numbers in a spreadsheet (say 24 and 12), we could simply type “=24 + 12″. When we press the Enter key, we would get the correct result. However, the formula would have no link to the two cells containing the numbers. If the content of the cells were to change, the formula would still return the old result.

Obviously, what we need to do is to ensure that our formula contains a reference to the two cells in question. The easiest way of doing this is to click on the first cell having typed “=”. Excel then automatically creates a reference to that cell. Next type the “+” sign and click on the second cell to pick up its reference. Excel puts in a reference to the second cell and we then enter the formula either by clicking on the Enter button (on the left of the formula bar) or pressing Enter on the keyboard.

Now that our formula contains a reference to these two cells, any time the cell contents change, the result returned by formula will be updated.

If this was the only way of performing calculations in Excel, formulas would very quickly become extremely long and very complex. To avoid this, we can use Excel’s built-in functions. Functions perform complex mathematical calculations without us having to worry about how the result is arrived at.

For example, imagine that we wanted to total the contents of a hundred different cells. If we relied purely on the “+” sign, we would end up creating a formula with a hundred different arguments; in other words, a reference to each of the cells containing the numbers. Instead, we can use the SUM function.

To use a function in a formula, type “=” followed by the name of the function. Next type open brackets and enter the arguments of the function. The arguments of the function are the values required by that function in order to return a result. In the case of the SUM function, we simply need to specify which cells contain the numbers we want to total. We can do this by clicking or dragging across the cells that contain those numbers.

When you have finished entering references to all the cells containing numbers that we want to total, you can enter the formula. You don’t even need to put in the closing brackets. Excel will do this for you.

Microsoft Excel VBA training courses in London.

November 13, 2010

Microsoft Excel 2007 Column Charts Don’t Have To Be Boring

Filed under: Excel — Tags: , , , — admin @ 10:15 am

In this tutorial will look at the creation and customisation of a column chart. The first step is to select the data that we want to plot, taking care to include any column and row headings. Row headings will be used as the names of the chart series and will be displayed in the legend. Column headings will be used as category labels. If the selection includes two sets of column headings, Excel will automatically recognize this and create two sets of headings on the category axis for us.

The next step is to click on the Insert ribbon tab and from the Column drop-down menu choose the option that we require. The very first option is the omnipresent scattered column chart. Excel creates our chart and places it in the worksheet as an embedded chart. If we want to change it to a standalone chart, click on Move Chart in the Location section and then choose New Sheet and enter a name for the new chart sheet.

Having selected a chart, you can of course customise it to suit your requirements. To change the colour of the columns, simply click once on any column to highlight the whole series and then choose a colour from the Shape Fill drop-down menu in the Format contextual tab. As well as Shape Fill, the drop-down also offers Shape Outline and Fill Effects. The Fill Effects includes preset effects such as shadow, glow and bevel.

There are several subtypes to choose from within the column chart type. The most basic and probably the most widely used is the clustered column chart type. To change the chart type, go to the Design contextual tab and click on Change Chart Type.

In the Stacked Column type, the overall total of all series within each category takes precedence over the individual value associated with each series. The second type of stacked column is 100% Stacked Column. Here, the height of each column becomes 100% and so all columns have exactly the same height. This type of chart shifts the emphasis away from the number or quantity represented by each series to the percentage split between series.

Excel also offers 3-D versions of its three different column chart types. You will notice that these chart tpes are not strictly 3-D charts; they simply have a 3-D effect on the columns. It is the 3-D Column option which gives us an actual three-dimensional chart. Here, Excel adds depth to the chart and places the series along the z axis (the third dimension). The remaining column options are simply variations on these basic themes. For example, if we want to go for a 3-D chart, we might choose to have pyramids instead of rectangular blocks.

Microsoft Excel training classes in London.

September 30, 2009

What PowerPoint Training Courses Should Teach You

Filed under: PowerPoint — Tags: , — Chris Mason @ 6:37 pm

Almost everyone who works for a company has used PowerPoint to some extent or, at the very least, is aware of it. Most people can put together a presentation of some description. However, unless a user makes an effort to learn the program, they will remain at a fairly low level of expertise and be stuck with creating presentations which either look amateurish or, at best, pretty much the same as thousands of other presentations being produced all over the world. One of the reasons for arranging PowerPoint training is to get an insight into the program and to be shown how to use it effectively.

In order to use PowerPoint effectively, you should fully understand the relationship between slide masters and slides. Professional presentations require consistency and the main mechanism used by the program for achieving this is through the use of masters.

Understanding how to work in outline mode is also important, particularly if text and bullet points play an important role in your presentation. PowerPoint allows you to work in outline mode, creating slides, headings and bullet points simply by typing. This mode is great if you are to be the presenter and allows you to compose your speech as create your presentation.

Graphics play such an important role in communication that it is almost certain that at least some of your presentations will require their use. Your PowerPoint training should give you a handle on the various ways of using graphics to add impact to your presentations. You should be shown how to insert and manipulate graphics, resize them, crop them and make them transparent. You should also learn how to use graphics as the background to a slide or to an element on a slide.

Almost all PowerPoint presentations nowadays are given electronically rather than as 35mm slides or transparencies. Therefore, the more tricks you can learn about giving presentations, the better. You need to understand how transitions work and how to set up animation schemes; so that bullet points can fade in one by one and then become greyed out when the next point appears. If you think it will add impact, you might also want to learn how to add video and sound to your presentation.

You should also ensure that your PowerPoint training teaches you how to finalize and package your presentation and that you know how to deliver electronic presentations. You should be able to freeze the screen if you need to or maybe circle an item on a chart as if using a whiteboard. These are all skills that a competent PowerPoint user should have and your PowerPoint training should equip you with these skills.

Click here for PowerPoint training in London or call 0800 1950 502.

Almost everyone who works for a company has used PowerPoint to some extent or, at the very least, is aware of it. Most people can put together a presentation of some description. However, unless a user makes an effort to learn the program, they will remain at a fairly low level of expertise and be stuck with creating presentations which either look amateurish or, at best, pretty much the same as thousands of other presentations being produced all over the world. One of the reasons for arranging PowerPoint training is to get an insight into the program and to be shown how to use it effectively.

In order to use PowerPoint effectively, you should fully understand the relationship between slide masters and slides. Professional presentations require consistency and the main mechanism used by the program for achieving this is through the use of masters.

Understanding how to work in outline mode is also important, particularly if text and bullet points play an important role in your presentation. PowerPoint allows you to work in outline mode, creating slides, headings and bullet points simply by typing. This mode is great if you are to be the presenter and allows you to compose your speech as create your presentation.

Graphics play such an important role in communication that it is almost certain that at least some of your presentations will require their use. Your PowerPoint training should give you a handle on the various ways of using graphics to add impact to your presentations. You should be shown how to insert and manipulate graphics, resize them, crop them and make them transparent. You should also learn how to use graphics as the background to a slide or to an element on a slide.

Almost all PowerPoint presentations nowadays are given electronically rather than as 35mm slides or transparencies. Therefore, the more tricks you can learn about giving presentations, the better. You need to understand how transitions work and how to set up animation schemes; so that bullet points can fade in one by one and then become greyed out when the next point appears. If you think it will add impact, you might also want to learn how to add video and sound to your presentation.

You should also ensure that your PowerPoint training teaches you how to finalize and package your presentation and that you know how to deliver electronic presentations. You should be able to freeze the screen if you need to or maybe circle an item on a chart as if using a whiteboard. These are all skills that a competent PowerPoint user should have and your PowerPoint training should equip you with these skills.

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