Oct 03 2008
Computer Skills
People with strong computer skills have an advantage in the whole going back to school thing…
and presumably, anyone that finds this blog has at least the basics down pat.
But a lot of people seem to over estimate their skill level, especially when it comes to MS Word
Some of the best features for students include:
- Turning features on/off (how to make Word stop annoying you)
- Table of Contents, cross references, and indexes
- Using section breaks (that’s what you need to have different headers & footers in your document; also useful for page layout
- Comments
- Auto-correct (allows you to make very cool short cuts - anything that you use repeatedly can be made into a short cut)
- Customized toolbars (If there is something you do a lot of, put the button out where it’s handy)
- Templates
- Track Changes (an excellent editing tool)
A little bit of time spent learning how to use your word processing software better can add up to a lot of time savings later.
When I did my computer programmer analyst program, for example, I spent WAY too long typing tables of contents … no one ever told me that Word could do that for me, and I never thought to go look.
It wasn’t until I actually had to teach MS Word that I discovered most of the features I now use all the time.
Somewhere along the way, I found the Crabby Office Lady …as you can tell by the number of links above which go to Crabby’s columns, I like her work…. not only does she write very entertaining columns, through them, I learn about the things I never thought to try.
I use several of the tools you mention every day. Others I consider a mixed blessing at best. There are features built in that are a struggle to overcome, even for the most literate of users. It’s one reason why I favor Word Perfect; it has the reveal codes command that lets you clean off crap you never knew you had.
Still, I am an advocate for playing with a program. You never know what you might learn.