Digital technology has changed the way we live and the way we see the world. It has changed everything about the business world. Most of the jobs you can get today to require you to know at least the basics of using Microsoft Office. Most of the time, your work will enable you to use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Microsoft Office proficiency is a standard requirement for practically every job application and even in businesses. Moreover, Microsoft Office abilities topped the top 20 most desired skills and abilities. It involves an understanding of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Despite this, many of us still need help using several Microsoft Office features. You will learn in this post how to enhance your abilities with Microsoft Word and the other tools that come with Microsoft Office.

What is Microsoft Office?

The Microsoft Office Suite is a collection of software programs and online services created by Microsoft. It’s the go-to platform for products that streamline the user experience across the board, increasing efficiency and productivity.

Approximately one two hundred and thirty million million individuals throughout the globe use Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office is available in various home, business, and enterprise bundles. Microsoft’s many software and service offerings fall under those categories.

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How Prominent Is It?

According to statistics, Microsoft’s worldwide sales reached 110.36 billion USD in 2018, and the company’s desktop Windows operating system had an 82.88% market share worldwide. In 2016, Microsoft said that they had 60 million active monthly Office 365 commercial customers at the time and that they were adding approximately 50,000 small business customers to this monthly.

In addition, Microsoft had seen over 340 million downloads of its Office Mobile applications, which is phenomenal growth compared to the 100 million downloads seen only six months before the start of 2016. It should give you a general understanding of how widespread Microsoft Office usage is, even in businesses.

Now you are aware of the benefits of developing your Microsoft Office skills.

Let us know the apps and services everyone usually uses and some simple and valuable tips to develop your skills and become proficient.

The Essential Microsoft Office Apps and Services

Word

A word processing software that allows you to enter text and content into word documents. You may edit its layout to suit your needs or preferences. Various formatting options are available, including bullet points, numbers, footnotes, and images.

Excel

Microsoft Excel, often known as a worksheet, is a spreadsheet tool with cells organized in rows and columns. This program allows you to organize, arrange, compute, filter, and sort data. To show data, you may also create pivot tables and graphs.

PowerPoint

This application generates clear, persuasive, and professional slide presentations. It lets the user construct presentations ranging from simple slides to complex ones.

Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is a program for keeping track of personal information that can use to send and receive emails. It can manage appointments on a calendar, as well as projects, contacts, and notes.

OneNote

The many features of this app make it useful for a wide variety of tasks, including note-taking, link management, picture storage, and more. Shared notebooks in OneNote may be accessed from anywhere worldwide, thanks to the Internet or a local area network.

OneDrive

OneDrive is a cloud-based file storage and hosting service that allows you to create backups of your data using the cloud storage service provided by Microsoft.

Teams

Microsoft Teams is a tool for chat-based team communication. You can conduct document sharing, virtual meetings, and further business communications tools.

Microsoft Office proficiency only needs mastery of some Microsoft Office applications and services. You only need to select and understand the applications and services you will use in your work and improve your ability to use the essential apps.

How can you improve your Microsoft Office skills and become an expert?

Here are some ways to use Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint, three of the most valuable programs in Microsoft Office.

Improve your Microsoft PowerPoint skills.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a good presentation program that lets you make slideshows that look good and can be used for many group projects. If you know PowerPoint and its many valuable add-ons well, you’ll always be able to give great presentations.

Here are a few suggestions for your PowerPoint presentation.

Strive towards the middle of the road by avoiding PowerPoint’s default, free templates unless that’s what you’re going for. You can use one of the many accessible web templates, such as those featured in 24Slides.
Format Painter copies all formatting from one item to another. It saves time by eliminating the need to change and keep all element settings.
You may create massive changes to your presentation’s style by selecting a new theme from the list in the Themes section of the Design tab.
Create dynamic backdrops for your PowerPoint presentations to let them stand out.

Improving Your Microsoft Word Skills

Microsoft Word is the app that people use the most. The easy user interface is most likely one of the reasons. But Word does much more than let you type and change the text. Below are the tips and tricks to get the most out of the Microsoft Word program and save time.

Shortcut keys for Copy, Cut, and Paste

To copy – CTRL + C
To cut – CTRL + X
To paste CTRL + V

Once you’ve mastered these three shortcut keys, you’ll be pleased with how much time you’ll save by not using your mouse or touchpad to copy, cut, and paste the text.

To select a text:

To select all of the text in the Word document, use Ctrl + A on your keyboard.
Double-click the initial letter of the Word you want to pick to select it.
Make three rapid clicks anywhere in the text to pick the whole paragraph.
To choose a specific line of text, use the shortcut keys Shift + down arrow or Shift + up arrow.
Use the shortcut keys Ctrl + Shift + down arrow or Ctrl + Shift + up arrow if you want to select a whole paragraph.

Other shortcut keys

Pressing Ctrl + K will insert hyperlinks into your content.
Simply entering three hyphens and pressing Enter will produce a horizontal line.
By clicking Ctrl + Backspace, you can delete an entire word or phrase.
You may undo your most recent update by using Ctrl + Z.

Improve your Microsoft Excel skills.

Microsoft Excel is the most used Excel spreadsheet application. It is used in various fields, such as business, management, education, and more.

Some of the shortcut keys in Microsoft Word can use in Microsoft Excel. However, this software has various unique and valuable purposes that you may use to make your job simpler and quicker.

Here are some tips covering the basics.

Select File > Import External Data and click New Web Query to convert data from a website into a spreadsheet.
Click Data > Filter > Autofilter in a massive spreadsheet to automatically sort and filter data.
Select the first blank cell in the column, then press “Alt + = ” to quickly input the Sum formula. This shortcut will add up the contents of a column or a set of cells.
Using the AutoCorrect and AutoFill features on the Tools tab, you may reduce the number of typos and spelling errors you produce while typing. Excel can create your calculator, financial reports, spending trackers, predictions, and other tools.
Are you aware that Excel has more features you can use? Moreover, you may create calendars and timetables and display data visualization.

Final Thoughts

You would want a better grasp of something for your career or study. So, look into Microsoft classes online that you can take at your convenience from home or when you have a little downtime at work to further educate yourself. Moreover, you can check the Microsoft office trial to decide what’s better for you.

Tips to Develop Your Skills in Microsoft Office