Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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If you read the rest of InformIT.com, you may have noticed that my fellow Guide colleagues in other sections have discussed their ideas for continuing education and career advancement in their respective fields. This week I thought I would take a stab at following their lead and discussing some of my thoughts in the MS Office space — from a personal and then a more professional perspective.

Like most of my computer knowledge, my introduction to MS Office and subsequent training began almost entirely self-taught. I was working at a multimedia facility in West Los Angeles, focusing on high end graphics, animation and video when I was able to get a copy of the software in the eighties. As a Liberal Arts major I came into computers late in life, and my main strength has been my ability to chronicle and explain my own approach to software and how it relates to getting stuff done.

So naturally my first foray into Office was getting comfortable with MS Word for writing documents and scripts, and I based my initial knowledge on inevitable comparisons with my former word process of choice, Word Perfect.

As I do with any computer program, my main focus is never on learning the software. This experience is a great example — I began by doing projects like writing letters and short documents and eventually progressed to more complex formatting projects like scripts, envelopes (which are still a challenge) and labels.

The point I want to make is that as an IT pro or trainer a key task is often to motivate the end user to actually progress in their mastery of a program like Word or the other Office applications. This can most effectively be done by demonstrating the amazing productivity and sense of accomplishment that comes with mastering a practical task, rather than learning a program A to Z.

For example, if you take the secretaries and administrative assistants in an office and simply show them how to make their bosses happy by using templates, macros and building blocks to get work out the door faster, they will be motivated to move on to other tasks because they will get immediate value (raises).

Similarly in your own efforts to upgrade your skills I cannot overestimate the importance of doing projects or other tangible and practical application of software tools.

Once you have developed a set of skills in one program, inevitably you will be moved to explore others, and again you will be so motivated by your previous accomplishments.

For example, you may get users to master Mail Merge in Word initially by creating a small relatively useless database or mailing list from which to merge. But once the value proposition is clearly established, you can move users to using Excel as a simple flat file database or list, with a form for data entry. Then some of the more adventurous users will go to Access and try its contact manager template, and on they go.

In terms of your own skills level upgrades, the other area I highly recommend, even beyond reading my Guide or other books, is to do some training and teaching.

My own skills advanced exponentially when I took on the challenge of becoming a teacher for Learning Tree International and their course on Office 1997. At the time I was confident only in MS Word, a bit of Outlook, and some Excel. But by making myself get the skills to teach, I gained a great deal of confidence. More important, my experiences with real end users in the classroom taught me more about these products, and how they actually function in the real world, than I could ever have learned from books.

With respect to Office it also taught me that the real value of any Office expert is in his or her understanding of the integration of these tools and how they can work together. Mail Merge is an obvious example; when the Internet and email exploded, this became a matter of using attachments in Outlook to distribute and share Office documents, including spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations.

Interestingly the general Office course is no longer offered at Learning Tree — it could not be justified by most enterprises at a high end price. Let this be a message for you in your decision whether to specialize or stay general(see below).

I would urge any IT professional or trainer in this field who wants to keep skills up, learn new skills, gain confidence and increase their value to their enterprise to do two things:

Observe and research how the end users are using Office tools in their daily tasks on a very precise and practical level
And
Design a training program, either in a classroom, webinar or other online program or even just creating a guidebook or manual and deliver hands on training.

Not only will your end users love you for your in depth interest in their needs, they will reward your efforts with a greater understanding of the subject matter than you could ever gotten by sitting on a help desk or just administering new installations and licenses.

Take a cue from Dilbert and get out of your office or cubicle — see what's happening in the real world and particularly look over the shoulders of your end users and see how you can help.

A secondary benefit of teaching and training is that you can become proficient in presenting and public speaking. If you can overcome your natural fears along these lines you will increase your value to any employer significantly. It is amazing how many people let their phobias keep them from developing these skills and they are so in demand that you can frequently get into "train the trainer" programs to learn public speaking just by showing initiative and interest in such an area.

Even if you can't get the benefit of a video training program, making yourself teach others, perhaps as a volunteer or at a community college, will make you hone skills you never knew had, and also give you confidence that you really know your material.

I should mention that getting an MOUS (Microsoft Office Specialist) certification can also be of significant value as is any certification. To strengthen my resume I used not only my Learning Tree credentials, but also courseware from other sources like New Horizons.

Besides our own site here at InformIT, you can also avail yourself of career oriented resources at other sites like Tech Republic and Certiport.

But remember that taking the certification route, while quite valuable as establishing your credibility in the field, is like being back in school — it is test taking oriented.

Beyond MOUS, Microsoft has career oriented resources right in its Office web site, including templates for job seekers in Word and methods for tracking your progress in Excel using spreadsheet templates.

As you advance you will reach a point where you may need to decide whether to specialize or remain a general Office expert. While I have been able to reasonably well specializing in a relatively "easy" program like PowerPoint I would suggest that the really prestigious opportunities will go to those who can hone their skills in the developer fields for Excel, Access and even Visio.

This takes you full circle to the area of practicality — because Office professionals who become developers have to zero in on specific corporate or other enterprise needs to develop successful applications, or the newer area, web services.

Obviously the same time honored people skills of listening and caring, along with good work habits, are essential to anyone seeking to advance in the field of Microsoft Office in either IT or training. But I would maintain that the key for setting yourself apart in this field is in understanding the practical applications of the various tools in the Office suite. By continuing to solve specific projects and perform significant tasks to keep both your own skill set current, and to establish your value for the sake of your own confidence, you can greatly enhance your professional standing and your career prospects.

Online Resources

Building Career Success Skills, by Theodore Pietrzak; Mike Fraum

Take Charge of Your Career, by Annabelle Reitman, Ed.D.

Microsoft courses offered by Learning Tree International

Microsoft Office Specialist Certification Benefits on the Microsoft Learning website

Career advancement resources at Tech Republic

Microsoft Office Specialist certification info from Certiport

Get started on your job hunt with Word templates from Microsoft Office Online

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