No one can deny that as far as office-related applications are concerned, Microsoft Office is still the most popular office application suite available in the market today. Microsoft’s long-standing protectionist attitude toward their products have earned them such a bum rap from many of the open-license advocates that a lot of people are wary to even venture into the Microsoft website for fear that if they have an unlicensed software on their computer, some kind of evil-empire-like software probe would somehow detect it and do harm to their computers.

            This is really sad because the website offers a plethora of information that can make using Microsoft applications a breeze and the person using it, more productive.  I find it sometimes frustrating when someone submits a soft copy of a document, workbook or presentation after working on it for long hours, when they could have done it for a quarter of the time if they only knew how to use the applications more efficiently.

            I’ve always been a Microsoft Office user, so even when I shifted from Windows to Mac, I continued using MS Office even when there were alternatives. I just found that I was more comfortable working in the MS Office environment—and being familiar with the functions and features made the move from Windows to Mac almost seamless. In addition, since everyone uses Microsoft Office, it makes collaborating and sharing files very convenient. And now that any Office file can be opened in both Windows and Mac environments, working in both platforms is a no-sweat affair.

            Using Microsoft Office every day does not automatically make one an expert user—unless you really put some effort into learning how to make full use of the available components. There are so many features and shortcuts that can make your work a lot faster, but not everyone knows they’re even there.

            For me it’s the keyboard shortcuts that simplifies the steps and makes me finish work faster. In the office, it is my knowledge of these magical shortcuts that impress both my colleagues and my bosses, and they are amazed when I tell them that I learned all these tricks online, on the Microsoft website. It just takes a few minutes a day to learn something new from this one website, and I promise you’ll be impressing everyone with your MS Office prowess in no time.

            If you’re working in the Windows environment, checkout the MS Office support page www.office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/default.aspx to learn new tips and tricks, and to download new stuff including templates and clipart.

            The Help and How To section of the site is very useful because it has topics on how to improve productivity in using MS Office from the basic to the intermediate level. So even if you just want to learn most basic shortcuts like: cut (CTRL X), paste (CTRL V), undo (CTRL Z) or redo (CTRL Y)—which work universally for all of the office applications, or if you want to learn more advanced features in Word like how to create a form that users can fill out and prepare it for distribution (www.office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA103351351033.aspx) you will find the instructions in the how-to section.

            If you do a lot of repetitive steps in MS Excel, wouldn’t it be great if you could automate some of the steps and make your work go faster and less tedious? If you didn’t know that this was possible in Excel, then you’ll probably be surprised to learn that this feature has been available in MS Excel even before MS Office 2000. And it is amazingly simple to do.  All you need to do is learn how to record your steps and assign it as a macro, which you can learn how to do by going to this link: www.office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP100141111033.aspx.

            Whether you’re a new user or just want to see the new features of MS PowerPoint 2007, www.office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102184981033.aspx provides very useful information in the new Office 2007 user interface. The training courses you will find in this page range from the very basic to advanced sessions prepared by third-party providers.

            What is even nicer about the Microsoft Office support page is that it deals with each version independently so you know that the instructions in the Office 2007 section will work for that version of the application suite. If you use an older version, you can have the support you need by just clicking on the link, and searching for the topic.

            Since shifting to Mac, I now go to www.microsoft.com/mac/default.mspx for online support. A few weeks ago while attending a boring seminar in a venue that had WiFi connection, I browsed the Microsoft how-to pages and searched for keyboard shortcuts for MS Excel. I learned that by pressing Ctrl+Option+Return, I could add a new line in the same cell. This is a trick that I have been trying to discover on how to do efficiently from the time that I started using Excel more than 10 years ago, and had to do the hard way by adding spaces until the pointer automatically moved down to the next line. The problem is every time I adjusted the column width, the text placement also changed. But now, by just pressing a three-key combination, I can do it quickly and the text stays exactly where I want it in the cell, even when I readjust the column width.

            Another shortcut I wanted to know ever since I shifted to Mac was the keyboard shortcut equivalent of F4, which toggles the formula reference style from absolute, relative and mixed reference in MS Excel. I was just happy to learn that it is the command+T key combination that did the trick.

            I was so amazed with the list of available keyboard shortcuts that I bookmarked the page for the next time I needed to do something fast in Excel. I know that I could not memorize all of the shortcuts immediately but with constant use, they will soon become second nature to me and help me work a lot faster.

            I have to say that I’m barely scratching the surface of what these pages have to offer. I haven’t even explored the other applications yet, but I fully intend to do more exploring for the Word and PowerPoint support pages to learn some more new impressive tricks. Even if you just swiftly scan these office pages you will see that it also offers training courses that walks you through the more complex processes for each office application.

            After my forays into this cornucopia of MS Office knowledge, I realized that if I seriously wanted to learn how to use any flavor or version of MS Office with more efficiency, I don’t need to spend thousands of pesos buying all the how-to books; all I need is my computer, an internet connection and time to explore the Microsoft office website. I promise you won’t just get sucked into the dark side if you visit this site. You’ll soon become a firm believer in the powers of Microsoft Office suite, and the amazingly simple steps that can make your work a lot easier but with more impressive results. n