Documenting a Day

Introduction

Microsoft first debuted the Office Suite in 1989 which at that time was only available for the Apple Mac. Within the year, Microsoft became available for both Apple Mac and Windows 3.0. At that time, the Suite only included three options which were Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and was very limited by today’s standards. (Jones, 2019).  Since then, there have been many versions of Office released along with many advancements with applications for both businesses and students. The Microsoft Office Suite is now referred to as Office 365 and includes additional applications such as Access, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Skype for Business. (Posey, 2016). This reflection essay will cover my experience with using some of the applications available with Microsoft Office.

Compare the functions of a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and database applications.

There are many options and functions of the applications available with the Microsoft Office Suite. With the word processor known as Microsoft Word, you can create a document to any specifications or personal liking. Word gives the user the ability to format a document to use different “margins, text size, bold text, italicized text, colors, number of columns, etc.”, according to Vahid-Lysecky (2019), (Chapter 5.1). The document can then be saved and shared via email, file share, or physically by printing the document.

With Microsoft Excel, you can create a spreadsheet that contains information in a table format. Microsoft Excel can format the cells within the document and apply various formulas. According to Vahid-Lysecky (2019), these formulas can “calculate data from other data (like sums or averages), and for creating graphical charts from data.” (Chapter 5.2). There is also the option to format the document to meet specific criteria or personal interests such as font type, size, colors, and many other options. As with Microsoft Word, the Excel document can also be shared with others.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation application that allows for the creation of a slide presentation. Within the PowerPoint document, there is the ability to use a blank document or use many of the free preset templates. The document allows for adding text, pictures, and videos, as well as many options for slide transitions. PowerPoint also has the option to set the slides to advance via mouse click or automatically on a time interval. According to Vahid-Lysecky (2019), many “work or school presentations are often accompanied by a slideshow to help the audience visualize information.” (Chapter 5.3).

There are many database management systems available such as Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Microsoft Access. A database management system, also known as DBMS, “creates, maintains, and accesses database systems.” according to Vahid-Lysecky (2019), (Chapter 5.4). These systems allow for the manipulation of data such as adding, deleting, and editing the data. There is also the ability to run queries on data to retrieve specific data. With the introduction and advancement of analytics, database management systems are widely used across the World to gather and visualize data for many uses from public safety to financial decisions by many companies.

All these applications sound vastly different but are very similar in reference to allowing the end user to configure their document to any specification. Microsoft has given the user the power to adjust and format within these four applications to then share both internally and externally.

Explain the advantages and disadvantages of each application.

Some of the advantages of the applications can be helpful but do have some disadvantages. With Microsoft Word, there is the advantage of inserting a table within the document, but it is limited to the options in comparison with Excel. In reference to Excel, there is the ability to format cells to do specific functions such as sums, percentages, etc., but some of the cells aren’t as easy to format if a more visually presentable document is needed. PowerPoint is a very user-friendly application when creating a presentation. It has the ability to customize the document in any way possible.

In my experience with PowerPoint, one of the disadvantages I have come across is when embedding music and video into a presentation. If the audio and video files are too large, it sometimes will cause a lagging issue in the presentation. Database management systems have many advantages when it comes to working with data. You can edit, insert, and manipulate the data in various ways. The disadvantage is there is a huge learning curve for many of these applications. Unlike some of the other Microsoft applications, some database management systems are not as user-friendly and require some additional training and experience to be able to use them in a productive way.

 

Conclusion

Since the debut of the Microsoft Office Suite, there has been a multitude of advancements within applications for various entities. Microsoft has opened the door to allow many businesses to create professional documentation, spreadsheets, and presentations, and gather data with the use of database applications. This has also created the ability for better communication between students, professors, and professionals with the use of Microsoft Outlook and Teams. My experience using the various application available through the Microsoft Office suite has broadened my knowledge and provided me a starting point on how to utilize the functions and options available within the different applications. It’s through the use of these applications that any entity, both educational and professional can reach a higher level of success.

Resources

Hachman, M. (2020). How Microsoft’s Office app helps with schoolwork, PDFs, signatures and more. PCWorld, 38(10), 97–101.

Jones, L (2019). Microsoft Office turns 30 Years: Why it landed on Mac before Windows

            https://winbuzzer.com/2019/08/01/microsoft-office-turns-30-years-why-it-landed-on-mac-before-windows-xcxwbn/

Posey, B. (2016). Microsoft Office 365 suite.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterprisedesktop/definition/Microsoft-Office-365-suite

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2019). Computing technology for all. zyBooks.