I find that when I’m staring at a blank canvas or a nice and blank “new document” I don’t have a good idea of what direction I could be heading with my thoughts or needs. If you start with a template and see what other people have done with the tool you’re using, it can help get your own gears of creativity spinning and give you an idea of what’s possible with the application you’re getting started using.

If you’re trying to learn what one of the Microsoft Office applications are capable of, starting with a template is a great way to see the power and features of the app.

You can look through templates based on themes, industry or in our case of learning a new program, by “Program Category”. The Microsoft Office Online website has templates available in the following apps:

• Microsoft Office Access
• Microsoft Office Excel
• Microsoft Office InfoPath
• Microsoft Office OneNote
• Microsoft Office Outlook
• Microsoft Office PowerPoint
• Microsoft Office Project
• Microsoft Office Publisher
• Microsoft Office Visio
• Microsoft Office Word

So, whatever the business app you’re more than likely trying to learn, Microsoft probably has a template to help get you started.

Post from: EveryJoe

Use Templates to Help You Learn a New Office Program

Are you being as efficient at using Microsoft Word as you can be? Do you know many of the keyboard shortcuts you can take advantage of so you don’t have to move your hands off the keyboard and onto the mouse? It surprises me how many times I work with individuals and when I do even the simplest keyboard shortcuts I hear "How’d you do that?!"

The Internet4Classrooms.com website has some common Microsoft Word shortcuts that are the standards for use that you’ll probably find yourself using at least once almost every document you create.

There are shortcuts for quickly formatting your text, moving around your document, editing text and finding areas of text to reuse in other sections of your Word document.

It’s not just about keyboard shortcuts either. Do you find yourself always changing the default spacing, font, margins or other settings in your document before you really get started? Do you always insert a header/footer design or perhaps a company logo?

All of these things can be saved as preferences or automated to some degree. What would you like to know how to do? Let me know in the comments and I can work on putting together some tutorial posts to help you and share with the rest of our readers.

Image: Custom graphic by Jason Bean

Post from: EveryJoe

How To Get Use Microsoft Word Faster and More Efficiently