Was it worth it?
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010Was it worth it to study for my Microsoft Office 2003 Certifications. In short, YES! Although almost as soon as I got the 6th one the State upgraded to Office 2007 which had some big changes. At first I resisted but as the Borg say “resistance is futile” and besides once you get used to the new layout there are some really great things that 2007 can do.
Office 2003 had it’s quirks and made a great tool to learn the advanced topics such as mail merges and charts but 2007 is easier to use. I studied for months to learn all the ins and outs of Pivot Tables and Mail Merging and the time was well spent even though I no longer use the older program. I now use both Mail Merge and Pivot Tables liberally at work. In fact it has changed how my unit does things dramatically saving time and energy for the unit.
One letter at a time for addresses and labels is just too tedious for a grouping of 30+ letters that have to go out once a month… a half day’s work for one person… what a waste that was! We now mail merge large mail outs that have to go snail mail and just today got the go ahead to mail merge to email! What a time & money saver that will be!
Hand counting specific forms and then reporting on it without graphics to aid in understanding… a thing of the past! Our databases can generate the reports and Excel tweaks the results into something visual that can be understood easily by laymen!
Will I seek the 2007 or the 2010 certifications? I’m unsure right now but I know having a deeper understanding of the more advanced features is well worth the effort of learning!
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Sue Darby, BS Business, MOS
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