Microsoft Office 365 Essential Skills

In this Introductory video I describe what the course will cover in broad terms, who it is aimed at and what students will be able to accomplish once they have completed the course

This introductory lecture shows the specific topics covered in the course and is a written outline of the curriculum. The four main elements of Microsoft Office covered are Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint as these are the most common in daily use. The version of Office used in these tutorials is Microsoft 365 - once again, because this is the most common version I encounter in my work.

This introductory lecture gives general tips for getting the most from the course by watching and then repeating the techniques using the practice files included with most tutorials. These files are the actual files used when the recordings were made, so you should have no problem replicating my actions.

I'll be covering Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint in this series, but I'll be starting this tutorial with Microsoft Word. I've chosen to do this because Word is probably the most familiar office program, and this will give me the chance to identify some of the features of this version that are common to all programs in this suite.

We will move on to look at Styles in Microsoft Word in the next tutorial - really useful and essential in a busy workplace, but hardly anyone uses them!

Styles are common in modern web development in the form of Cascading Style Sheets - or CSS - but they have been around in word processing for years. Very few of the people I train use Styles because hardly anyone is aware of them. Those who are usually dismiss them as a fancy way of formatting, but there is so much more to them.

A style is a collection of formatting effects that can be saved and re-used as many times as you want. What makes styles so versatile in this version of Word is the ability to use a hierarchy, so Heading 1 followed by Heading 2, then Heading 3 and so on.

This has real benefits for navigation and structure as we will find out in this video...

In the next tutorial I demonstrate checking spelling in Word, and although you might think you already know how to do this you might find there is more than one way...

If there is one feature of a word processor that distinguishes it from a mere text editor it has to be the ability to check your spelling. There are, as usual, more than one way of doing this, so in this tutorial I demonstrate how to change a single word, and also how you can spell check the entire document in one sitting.

The other essential skill I share in this video is how to turn off the mini-toolbar. Having this little toolbar pop up whenever a word is selected is one of the default actions in Word, but a lot of people - myself included - find it almost as irritating as the infamous paperclip used to be in older versions.

Want to know how? Watch the video:)

Find and Replace has been a feature of word processing since the early days, but in Microsoft 365 it has become a lot more useful.

The new Navigation pane makes it possible to instantly move to another area of the document based on a heading style or a specific word, This makes it of immense value for anyone working with large documents and it is complemented by the next topic we will cover, using lists in Word.

One of the most useful features of word processors is their ability to condense information into a list. This is particularly important online, where people tend to scan rather than read every sentence.

Microsoft Word 355 has a great selection of tools to create lists with - bullets, numbers and multi level lists.

In this tutorial we look at all three, and how you can adapt them to whatever you want them to be.

In the next tutorial we look at how tables can be used as an alternative to lists.

In this tutorial I start looking at the Insert tab and begin with tables. I show you several different ways of inserting a table into a Word document and also how to convert text contained in a text file into a regular table.

There are several handy shortcuts in this video, and as always, the files are available to download and practice within the privacy of your own home or office. Next time, we'll look at inserting charts and pictures.

Enjoy!

In this tutorial we look at two essential skills - inserting a chart and a picture. Inserting a chart is covered in more detail in the PowerPoint module, so to reduce any duplication I create a simple chart in Excel then copy it and paste it into my Word document.

Inserting the picture is a bit more detailed, because although a similar exercise is performed in PowerPoint the Picture tools are slightly different in Word. I also show you how text wrapping can make all the difference to how your picture is presented.

In the next lecture we look at Quick Parts...

The AutoCorrect feature helps keep the text spell checked as we type in Word, but it has a hidden benefit. We can use it to create shortcuts to anything that is difficult to spell, or to remember, or anything that is tedious to type.

In this video I show you how to harness this power for your own benefit and then expand the feature by covering Quick Parts. Quick Parts can contain pretty much anything - not just text, but diagrams, pictures and shapes.

Once they have been added to the gallery they are there for you to use again and again - a real time saver, and definitely one of my Essential Skills!

In this tutorial we look at how a standard document can be saved as a template for re-use with different content.

One of the common bad practices - that of just overtyping an existing document and saving it with a new name - is highlighted, and I explain why I don't recommend using it. What I do show you is how to make the document safe for re-use, and how to put it in a brand new folder in the Template area.

Artificial Intelligence has once again been included in the latest version of Word, and in this tutorial I demonstrate some of the new features it brings. I show you how the Speech to Text engine is now very sophisticated, both as a dictation tool and for reading text aloud; we look at how the Editor claims to improve your writing skills and we finish with a look at Ghostwriter - a paid-for add-in that will suggest improvements to written text.

Take this short quiz to see if you can remember what you have learned...

In the first of the Outlook tutorials we look at the interface and discover where everything is. In this video I am using a computer that is connected to Microsoft Exchange server, but if you are using a computer that is not connected to Exchange you can still add email accounts of other types, for example Pop 3 or IMAP.

Outlook is very useful if you have more than one email account as you can add many mailboxes to Outlook from different providers. For example, if you use a Google or Gmail account you can add that address to Outlook but you can also add email accounts from Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, a company website or just about any other provider.

Once you have connected your accounts in Outlook you can send and open messages, respond to them, forward, delete and manipulate emails all from the one place, plus organise your calendar, add tasks and contacts from a central location making it an indispensible communication tool.

Let's get started...

In this tutorial we continue with Microsoft Outlook and examine sending and receiving emails.

Part of the flexibility of Outlook is the ability to organize messages in folders, so we also cover creating a folder and a sub-folder of an existing one and also how to search the Address book within Outlook for a specific person.

In the third video in this series I continue with email messages and look at changing the view of the inbox from normal to reading view. This collapses the toolbars and magnifies the message window making it easier to read, and you wouldn't believe how easy it is to switch views.

A very important improvement in Outlook was the ability to preview an attachment to an email without opening it - a major boost for security. In this tutorial I show you how to do this safely.

I continue with forwarding a message to another person and replying to a message I have been sent. I finish by showing you how to reply at everyone in a "thread", or conversation as Microsoft calls it.

We move on from email in this tutorial and start looking at the Calendar. I begin by showing you how you can easily change the view of the calendar and navigate to different dates.

We look at the new Schedule view, and I show you how you can see someone else's calendar if you have permission. I make a new appointment and then edit it to add more details and change the time, then introduce the topic of Categories.

These are a great way of identifying items in Outlook, and they can apply not only to appointments and events but to messages and tasks as well. I demonstrate how to do this and apply a category to an appointment, then we look at sharing calendars.

I email my calendar for the coming week to a colleague and finish off by adding an all day event.

We continue with the calendar in this tutorial and firstly add a couple of categories. Next, we set up a recurring appointment for a weekly staff meeting and finish up by scheduling a meeting.

We look at sharing calendars and the scheduling assistant to check availability, then invite attendees and demonstrate how they can accept, decline or propose a new time.

In this tutorial we look at a couple of ways in which you can add a contact - manually or automatically if you have been sent an email. We cover filling in the details of a contact record with information from a signature line, and from information provided by the contact.

One of the essential skills covered is that of adding a new contact from the same company as one of the existing contacts, and that can be a real time-saved.

The tutorial finishes with a look at adding a signature to your profile and assigning it to a specific email address.

As I travel around different organizations in my job I come across very few people who actually use tasks, but those who do use them all the time. In this tutorial I explain the concept of tasks, adding a task via the tasks screen and the To Do bar, and the difference between a category and a flag.

We look at how a task can be marked to show progress and flagged for follow up with a reminder if necessary. I also show you how a task can be given, or assigned, to someone else for completion. We finish by adding a new task manually and then changing the view of all the tasks we have.

One of the most useful features of Outlook is the ability to create automatic replies to any incoming emails. This could be while you are on holiday, away for some other reason or as in this case, while the office is closed. This feature used to be called "Out of Office" and is exclusive to accounts using Microsoft Exchange server, so if you are using a Pop 3 or Imap account unfortunately you won't have access to it.

Outlook is currently in a state of transition, so in this tutorial I outline the different ribbon versions - Simplified and Classic. I also introduce the "Try the new Outlook" button, and show you one example of the new online version that is browser based and features a preview of Co Pilot, the new AI assistant.

I start the Excel series with a very simple example. In the spreadsheet I want to calculate the profit I would make by subtracting one figure from another.

Although there are several ways you could accomplish this, I show you how I would do it and invite you to try it yourself by downloading the spreadsheet that accompanies this series from below this video.

This essential skill has many applications, from adding tax or surcharges to calculating discounts so it is one I had to include.

In this tutorial we are calculating the commission payable to a travel agent, so once again I show you the way I would approach this task.

I finish with a very hot tip - how to repeat the calculation right down the column with the minimum of effort.

This tutorial adds an extra level of complication to the last example, as this time we have to subtract the cost before we calculate the commission. This allows me to demonstrate a fundamental rule, and a very essential skill - the order of calculation.

Excel is pretty smart, but it is still a machine and we have to give it clear and unambiguous instructions if we want it to give accurate results.

This tutorial explains how Excel uses a set of rules to perform calculations in a certain order, and how we tell it which part of a calculation we want done first.

This tutorial is designed for completion by the student, and is consolidation for the topics covered so far.

When you have completed the practice file for yourself you can check your results by watching this video. There are a couple of really useful keyboard shortcuts featured here, and as this is the sort of thing that will elevate your skill from ordinary to slick, I strongly encourage you to try them.

Another essential skill is featured in this tutorial, and that is how to lock the references to a cell address so that it can be copied down a column.

By default, Excel uses pure logic to address cells in formulas and this is called relative cell addressing. But many times, you don't want it to do that - you want to lock the reference to a particular cell if it contains a value, typically a percentage, which is likely to change.

It is absolutely critical to understand this if you want to make the most of Excel, so I tried to express it in as clear a way as possible and as always, urge you to try it yourself.

Formulas and functions - what's the difference?

In this tutorial I show you what the difference is, and demonstrate how in many cases a function will work better than, be easier to enter than, and give a more accurate result than a formula. Formulas obviously have their place in spreadsheets, but this tutorial covers the essential skill of getting the syntax right.

I also share a function that will insert the date - and update it automatically!

This tutorial covers the essential skill of assigning names to cells or ranges of cells. Why would you want to do this? Simple - you can use the name in a calculation.

I demonstrate how you can assign a name to a range of cells, then perform a calculation using the name instead of the cell references. I also show you that a named range can be inside another one, and Excel couldn't care less - it will work just the same.

I also share with you how a named range can be edited and a nifty keyboard shortcut to insert a name into a formula.

In this tutorial I cover an essential skill for anyone who works in a financial role, or anyone who needs to break down trading periods into quarters and half years.

Excel has the ability to automatically insert indexes that allow the data to be displayed in months, quarters, half years and full years - very useful for management summaries etc.

In order to make this work the data needs to be presented in a certain layout, and in this video I explain how this is done and show you a couple of very handy shortcuts in the process...

Wherever there is a large amount of data, one of the essential skills is to be able to sort it into some kind of order.

Excel is perfectly suited to this, and in this tutorial I demonstrate how you can perform a sort on a text, numerical and date field.

I also how you can create a custom sort that allows you to sort on more than one field at a time.

Sorting and filtering data are two essential skills for anyone using Excel. They are similar, but most definitely not the same and the differences are explained in this tutorial.

We look at adding filter tabs to a set of data - these were referred to as Autofilter buttons in older versions - and how the options are so much more sophisticated now.

We look at the search box, how you can filter on more than one field and - hot tip - how you can copy the filtered data and put it on another sheet while maintaining the original formatting.

Cool!

Tables in Excel are a modern version of Lists in older versions, but they are much more powerful.

I honestly believe that tables are the future of data handling in Excel, and, having trained many data analysts, can confirm that this is true.

In this brief tutorial I introduce the concept of using tables in preference to a cell range and show how easy it is to extend the table by adding extra data.

This has wide implications for anyone whose data is likely to grow over time - it will be absorbed in a table, and any existing calculations automatically continued to the new data. Wow!

The subject of structured referencing is touched upon as it is an integral part of table properties.

In this final Excel tutorial I show you haw some of the existing functions have been expanded. As this is an Essential Skills course I just concentrate on one for this demonstration, the new IFS function. I compare it with the older variant and highlight the ease with which nested functions can now be avoided, then we look at the Quick Analysyi button before concluding with the Analyze Date tab.

Anyone can use PowerPoint, right? Even my ten year old niece uses it at school, so it is pretty easy to learn, and yes, it looks good when printed.

But PowerPoint is actually quite a powerful image editor as well as a tool for creating electronic slide shows, and so in this tutorial I cover the interface and the basics.

I also show how you can sreate a presentation from almost nothing - well a simple text file, actually - format it in Microsoft Word 365 and bring the whole thing into PowerPoint in a couple of clicks.

In the second of our tutorials for PowerPoint I introduce you to the new image options available in Microsoft 365, including inserting images from your own device, from the stock image gallery provided or from an online search using Microsoft Bing.

Once we have inserted an image I will show you how Designer, the AI powered assistant becomes available and offers you ready made slide designs that look very professional. In the next tutorial we will examine changing some of the default layouts.

In this tutorial I use another tool in PowerPoint to transform boring bullet points into colourful preset diagrams by converting them to SmartArt. It is now so easy to transform a dull presentation into something you could argue has been created by a graphic artist, and it only takes a couple of clicks!

In this tutorial we look at ways of inserting objects into slide layouts. I then demonstrate how easy it is to take two objects I have already created in Excel, a table and a Chart, and paste them into brand new slides to add further dimensions to our fledgling presentation.

As a visual medium, PowerPoint is tailor made for adding graphical content, whether it is an image, a cameo, or a video and in this tutorial I demonstrate just how easy it is to add a video clip to your slide. As it is a bit dull on its own, we add another element - an Audio clip - to liven things up a bit!

Putting a slide show together is straightforward enough, but to bring another dimension to it you need to add a bit of style. In this tutorial I show you how to do just that - firstly by adding slide transitions so that the show flows nicely, and then by adding a text box to the final slide.

I finish off the tutorial by adding and animation to the text so that it acts as a conclusion to the presentation.

In the last tutorial we added some action to the slides in the form of transitions, but this time I show you how to add animations to really make your presentation sparkle.

We start by animating thhe two objects we added earlier - the Table and the Chart. The Table is a bit of a challenge as it is already an object, but I show you how we can work around this so that we can apply animiation to each row in turn. Next, we animate the chart, and then we apply animations to some of the Smart Art diagrams and  use the Animation Painter tool.

We cover adjusting the speed, direction and trigger for each animation by utilising the Animation Pane so that the animations can be fine-tuned and the timeline previewed.

In the final tutorial of this series we bring the previous sections together and turn this random group of slides into a real presentation. We add animations to the final SmartArt graphics, then when all is completed and saved as a PowerPoint presentation I reveal another essential skill - saving it as a PowerPoint Show. The difference between the two formats is that a presentation can be edited by anyone with PowerPoint, but a Show can't.

So, if you want someone to see the show but not be able to change it, this is how to do it.

In common with the other subject tutorials I have included a final video in an attempt to cover some recent innovations in PowerPoint 365. I mention the galleries now available to obtain content from and demonstrate the use of one of the many Add-Ins now featured, Chat GPT for PowerPoint. I use this tool to generate a complete presentation literally from a prompt, then wind up by showing you how you can now have your narration shown as sub titles or captions on each slide - but that you can show them in another language!

This demonstrates just how far we have come, and how using boring old PowerPoint is now literally anything but boring, it is a world class tool fit for today!