Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office is a software which was developed by Microsoft in 1988. This Office suite comprises various applications which form the core of computer usage in today’s world.

MS Office Applications & its Functions

Currently, MS Office 2016 version is being used across the world and all its applications are widely used for personal and professional purposes.

Discussed below are the applications of Microsoft Office along with each of their functions.

1. MS Word

• First released on October 25, 1983 
• Extension for Doc files is “.doc”
• It is useful in creating text documents
• Templates can be created for Professional use with the help of MS Word
• Work Art, colours, images, animations can be added along with the text in the same file which is downloadable in the form of a document
• Authors can use for writing/ editing their work.

Since MS Word is one of the most used programs of the Office Suite, some basic information regarding its creation and development has been given below:

• Charles Simonyi, a developer and Richard Brodie, a software engineer, were the two creators of MS Word
• This program was initially named “Multi-Tool Word” but later, was renamed as MS Word
• It was introduced in 1983
• Word for Windows is available standalone or as a part of MS Office suite
• MS Word for Mac was introduced by Microsoft as Word 1.0 in 1985.

Basics of MS Word

Let us first understand some basic aspects of Microsoft Word.

 

What is MS Word?

Used to make professional-quality documents, letters, reports, etc., MS Word is a word processor developed by Microsoft. It has advanced features which allow you to format and edit your files and documents in the best possible way. 

Where to find MS Word on your personal computer?

Follow these simple steps to open MS Word on your personal computer:

Start → All Programs → MS Office → MS Word.

What are the uses of MS Word?

MS Word enables users to do write-ups, create documents, resumes, contracts, etc. This is one of the most commonly used programs under the Office suite. 

How to create an MS Word document?

To create an MS Word doc, follow the steps mentioned above to open Microsoft Word. Then once the program is open, click on “File” followed by “New”. This opens a new doc where something new can be created.

Features of MS Word

Now let us read more about the features and components of an MS Word doc file in detail.

The image given below shows the different elements and categories which are available in MS Word doc:

• Home

This has options like font colour, font size, font style, alignment, bullets, line spacing, etc. All the basic elements which one may need to edit their document is available under the Home option.

• Insert

Tables, shapes, images, charts, graphs, header, footer, page number, etc. can all be entered in the document. They are included in the “Insert” category.

• Design

The template or the design in which you want your document to be created can be selected under the Design tab. Choosing an appropriate tab will enhance the appearance of your document.

• Page Layout

Under the Page Layout tab comes options like margins, orientation, columns, lines, indentation, spacing, etc. 

• References

This tab is the most useful for those who are creating a thesis or writing books or lengthy documents. Options like citation, footnote, table of contents, caption, bibliography, etc. can be found under this tab.

• Review

Spell check, grammar, Thesaurus, word count, language, translation, comments, etc. can all be tracked under the review tab. This acts as an advantage for those who get their documents reviewed on MS Word.

Apart from all the above-mentioned features, the page can be set in different views and layouts, which can be added and optimised using the View tab on the Word document. Margins and scales are also available for the benefit of the users. 

Uses of MS Word

Given below are the different fields in which MS Word is used and simplifies the work of an individual:

• In Education: It is considered as one of the simplest tools which can be used by both teachers and students. Creating notes is easier using MS Word as they can be made more interactive by adding shapes and images. It is also convenient to make assignments on MS Word and submitting them online

• In Workplace: Submitting letters, bills, creating reports, letterheads, sample documents, can all easily be done using MS Word

• Creating & Updating Resume: One of the best tools to create your resumes and is easy to edit and make changes in it as per your experience
• For Authors: Since separate options are available for bibliography, table of contents, etc., it is the best tool which can be used by authors for writing books and adjusting it as per the layout and alignment of your choice

MS Word Shortcut Keys List
Shortcuts	Uses of Shortcut keys
Ctrl+A	Select All
Ctrl + B	Bold
Ctrl + C	Copy text
Ctrl+I	Italicize highlighted selection
Ctrl + F	Find
Ctrl + H	Find and replace
Ctrl + J	Justify paragraph alignment
Ctrl + X	Cut selected text
Ctrl + N	Open a new/blank document
Ctrl + O	Open
Ctrl + P	Open the print window
Ctrl + K	Insert link
Ctrl + U	Underline highlighted selection
Ctrl + V	Paste
Ctrl + G	Find and replace options
Ctrl+Shift+=	Set chosen text as superscript.
Ctrl+=	Set chosen text as a subscript.
Ctrl + L	Align selected text or line to the left
Ctrl + Q	Align selected paragraph to the left
Ctrl + E	Align selected text or line to the center
Ctrl + R	Align selected text or line to the right
Ctrl + M	Indent the paragraph
Ctrl + T	Hanging indent
Ctrl + D	Font options
Ctrl + Shift + F	Change the font
Ctrl + Shift + >	Increase selected font +1
Ctrl + ]	Increase selected font +1
Ctrl + [	Decrease selected font -1
Ctrl + Shift + *	View or hide non printing characters
Ctrl + (Left arrow)	Move one word to the left
Ctrl + (Right arrow)	Move one word to the right
Ctrl + (Up arrow)	Move to the beginning of the line or paragraph
Ctrl + (Down arrow)	Move to the end of the paragraph
Ctrl + Del	Delete the word to the right of the cursor
Ctrl + Backspace	Delete the word to the left of the cursor
Ctrl + End	Move the cursor to the end of the document
Ctrl + Home	Move the cursor to the beginning of the document
Ctrl + Space	Reset highlighted text to the default font
Ctrl + 1	Single-space lines
Ctrl + 2	Double-space lines
Ctrl + 5	1.5-line spacing
Ctrl + Alt + 1	Change text to heading 1
Ctrl + Alt + 2	Change text to heading 2
Ctrl + Alt + 3	Change text to heading 3
Shift + F3	Change case of selected text
Shift + Insert	Paste
F4	Repeat the last action performed (Word 2000+)
F7	Spell check selected text and/or document
Shift + F7	Activate the thesaurus
F12	Save as
Ctrl + S	Save
Shift + F12	Save
Alt + Shift + D	Insert the current date
Alt + Shift + T	Insert the current time
Ctrl + W	Close document

Mouse shortcuts	Description
Click, hold, and drag	Selects text from where you click and hold to the point you drag and let go.
Double-click	If double-clicking a word, selects the complete word.
Double-click	Double-clicking the left, center, or right of a blank line makes the alignment of the text left, center, or right aligned.
Double-click	Double-clicking anywhere after text on a line sets a tab stop.
Triple-click	Selects the line or paragraph of the text where the mouse is triple-clicked.
Ctrl+Mouse wheel	Zooms in and out of document.

2. MS Excel

MS Excel is a commonly used Microsoft Office application. It is a spreadsheet program which is used to save and analyse numerical data.

• Majorly used for making spreadsheets
• A spreadsheet consists of grids in the form of rows and columns which is easy to manage and can be used as a replacement for paper
• It is a data processing application
• Large data can easily be managed and saved in tabular format using MS Excel
• Calculations can be done based on the large amount of data entered into the cells of a spreadsheet within seconds
• File extension, when saved in the computer, is “.xls”

How to open MS Excel?

To open MS Excel on your computer, follow the steps given below:

• Click on Start
• Then All Programs
• Next step is to click on MS Office
• Then finally, choose the MS-Excel option

Alternatively, you can also click on the Start button and type MS Excel in the search option available.

What is a cell?

A spreadsheet is in the form of a table comprising rows and columns. The rectangular box at the intersection point between rows and columns forms a cell. Given below is an image of a cell:

What is Cell Address?

The cell address is the name by which is cell can be addressed. For example, if row 7 is interested in column G, then the cell address is G7. 

Various editing and formatting can be done on an Excel spreadsheet. Discussed below are the various features of MS Excel. 

The image below shows the composition of features in MS Excel:

• Home
  • Comprises options like font size, font styles, font colour, background colour, alignment, formatting options and styles, insertion and deletion of cells and editing options
• Insert
  • Comprises options like table format and style, inserting images and figures, adding graphs, charts and sparklines, header and footer option, equation and symbols
• Page Layout
  • Themes, orientation and page setup options are available under the page layout option
• Formulas
  • Since tables with a large amount of data can be created in MS excel, under this feature, you can add formulas to your table and get quicker solutions 
• Data
  • Adding external data (from the web), filtering options and data tools are available under this category
• Review
  • Proofreading can be done for an excel sheet (like spell check) in the review category and a reader can add comments in this part 
• View
  • Different views in which we want the spreadsheet to be displayed can be edited here. Options to zoom in and out and pane arrangement are available under this category.

MS Excel is widely used for various purposes because the data is easy to save, and information can be added and removed without any discomfort and less hard work.

Given below are a few important benefits of using MS Excel:

• Easy To Store Data: Since there is no limit to the amount of information that can be saved in a spreadsheet, MS Excel is widely used to save data or to analyse data. Filtering information in Excel is easy and convenient.
• Easy To Recover Data: If the information is written on a piece of paper, finding it may take longer, however, this is not the case with excel spreadsheets. Finding and recovering data is easy.
• Application of Mathematical Formulas: Doing calculations has become easier and less time-taking with the formulas option in MS excel
• More Secure: These spreadsheets can be password secured in a laptop or personal computer and the probability of losing them is way lesser in comparison to data written in registers or piece of paper.
• Data at One Place: Earlier, data was to be kept in different files and registers when the paperwork was done. Now, this has become convenient as more than one worksheet can be added in a single MS Excel file.
• Neater and Clearer Visibility of Information: When the data is saved in the form of a table, analysing it becomes easier. Thus, information is a spreadsheet that is more readable and understandable.

3. MS PowerPoint

MS PowerPoint is a program that is included in the Microsoft Office suite. It is used to make presentations for personal and professional purposes.

• It was released on April 20, 1987
• Used to create audiovisual presentations
• Each presentation is made up of various slides displaying data/ information
• Each slide may contain audio, video, graphics, text, bullet numbering, tables etc.
• The extension for PowerPoint presentations is “.ppt”
• Used majorly for professional usage
• Using PowerPoint, presentations can be made more interactive.

Features of MS PowerPoint

There are multiple features that are available in MS PowerPoint which can customise and optimise a presentation. The same have been discussed below.

• Slide Layout

Multiple options and layouts are available based on which a presentation can be created. This option is available under the “Home” section and one can select from the multiple layout options provided.

• Insert – Clipart, Video, Audio, etc.

Under the “Insert” category, multiple options are available where one can choose what feature they want to insert in their presentation. This may include images, audio, video, header, footer, symbols, shapes, etc. 

• Slide Design

MS PowerPoint has various themes using which background colour and designs or textures can be added to a slide. This makes the presentation more colourful and attracts the attention of the people looking at it.

This feature can be added using the “Design” category mentioned on the homepage of MS PowerPoint. Although there are existing design templates available, in case someone wants to add some new texture or colour, the option to customise the design is also available. Apart from this, slide designs can also be downloaded online.

• Animations

During the slide show, the slides appear on the screen one after the other. In case, one wants to add some animations to the way in which a slide presents itself, they can refer to the “Animations” category. 

Uses of PowerPoint Presentation

PowerPoint presentations are useful for both personal and professional usage. Given below are a few of the major fields where PPT is extremely useful:

• Education – With e-learning and smart classes being chosen as a common mode of education today, PowerPoint presentations can help in making education more interactive and attract students towards the modified version of studying

• Marketing – In the field of marketing, PowerPoint presentations can be extremely important. Using graphs and charts, numbers can be shown more evidently and clearly which may be ignored by the viewer if being read

• Business – To invite investors or to show the increase or decrease in profits, MS PowerPoint can be used

• Creating Resumes – Digital resumes can be formed using MS PowerPoint. Different patterns, photograph, etc. can be added to the resume
• Depicting Growth – Since both graphics and text can be added in a presentation, depicting the growth of a company, business, student’s marks, etc. is easier using PPT

4. MS Access

• It was released on November 13, 1992
• It is Database Management Software (DBMS)
• Table, queries, forms and reports can be created on MS Access
• Import and export of data into other formats can be done
• The file extension is “.accdb”

Microsoft Access – An Overview

Components of MS Access

The main usage of MS Access is for accounting. Since it is Microsoft’s primary accounting database, it can be used to manage invoice/bills, manage accounts, keep an eye on credit and debit, etc. 

When we create a document of Access, data can be stored and accessed easily through multiple components. There are seven major components of MS Access database. Discuss below are the same in brief:

• Tables: A table in Access is similar to any other tabulated data in the form of rows and columns. However, when adding data to a program to create a table, all the information entered must be correct as if any incorrect data is entered the processing may become slow or may not give the correct answer. The appearance of the table may look similar to the one formed in Excel with column heading and titles.
• Queries: Once a table is created and the user or programmer is looking for a calculated output, then it is called queries. This may include filtering, calculating, sorting, updating, etc.
• Relationships: As the name suggests, when more than one table is added, the relation or connection between them can be achieved. There three ways in which the connection between the tables can be determined:

Benefits and Limitations of using MS Access

It was Microsoft’s first database software, and came along with a lot of advantages and convenience for its users. At the same time, there were limitations to it. Discussed below are the benefits and limitations which came along with MS Access usage.

Benefits:

• Easy to create database within lesser time duration
• Used a very comprehensive programming language which made it user friendly
• With each revised version, new options and features were made available to the users for their convenience
• It is easy to install and then easy to understand its working
• Importing data was easy
• Graphical user interface made it easy to use

Limitations:

• Not too many people can use the same database at a single time. This may affect its speed and efficiency
• The same database was tough to use with different Operating systems
• Better database systems can be used for confidential data 

Q 1. What is the definition of MS Access?

Answer: Microsoft Access is a database management system (DBMS) that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. 

Q 2. What are the uses of MS Access?

Answer: MS Access can be used to develop application software and is generally used by data architects, software developers and power users. Following are the major uses of MS Access:

• Manage accounts and bills
• Store data in the form of tables and edit or customise them later as per the requirement of the user
• It can be used to make our websites
• Comparing data or finding a relationship between the existing data can be done using Access

Q 3. What are the major components of MS Access?

Answer: The major components of MS Access are as follows:

• Tables
• Queries
• Relationships
• Macros
• Forms
• Reports
• Module

Q 4. How many types of databases are there in MS Access?

Answer: There are two types of database in MS Access:

• Flat File Database: When the data is stored in the form of a plain text file and cannot incorporate multiple tables. 
• Relational Database: When the data is stored in a form that the data items are related to one another. It supports multiple tables which organise the text in rows and columns.

5. MS Outlook

• It was released on January 16, 1997
• It is a personal information management system
• It can be used both as a single-user application or multi-user software
• Its functions also include task managing, calendaring, contact managing, journal logging and web browsing
• It is the email client of the Office Suite
• The file extension for an Outlook file is “.pst”

One of the biggest advantages of using MS Outlook is that it can serve the purpose of both, a stand-alone application and also a multi-user software. It can be used by an individual as an email client-server and also by an Organisation which requires shared features like a mailbox, calendar, appointments, etc. 

Evolution of MS Outlook
Version	Specification
Outlook 97	Released on January 16, 1997 It had replaced the existing Microsoft’s email clients including Exchange Client, Schedule+ etc.
Outlook 98	Released on June 21, 1998 It was freely distributed with books and magazines to cope up with the latest Internet standard Involved usage of HTML mail
Outlook 2002	Released on May 31, 2001 Introduced in Office XP Brought in new features like coloured tables, hyperlinks, autocomplete and MSN messenger integration
Outlook 2003	Released on June 27, 1999 Desktop alerts for emails were introduced Filtering of mails to skip spam Expandable distribution list Unicode support
Outlook 2007	Released on January 27, 2007 Feature to preview the attachments was introduced Excel, Word, PowerPoint files were now supported by Outlook Features like calendar sharing, export of PDF and XLS files, unified messaging support, etc. were also added to the application
Outlook 2010	Released on July 15, 2010 Group messages could now be shared The feature of social connector, where the files could be shared on social networking platforms was introduced
Outlook 2013	Released on January 29, 2013 A reminder to ask the user to attach files with mail was introduced People hub Compression of Outlook data file Improvement in start up performances
Outlook 2016	Released on September 22, 2015 Almost similar features, only cloud computing was added
Outlook 2019	Released on September 24, 2018 Filtering and sorting of mails became easier Supported a focussed inbox Multiple time zones could be added

The major functions of MS Outlook have, however, been discussed in detail below:

• It makes communication easy and sending emails is just a click away. Various attachments in different formats can be added to these mails
• Since it is an organising and managing application, it provides features to set up appointments and meeting using calendar and setting up reminders for the same
• All the mails sent or received can easily be tracked if the correct settings have been added to the application
• For Organisations, setting up activities as a team is easy with Outlook. You can easily share and collaborate with other members of your team or group
• Similar mails are interlinked automatically which forms a mail thread of such emails.

Components of MS Outlook

The image above shows the MS Outlook Ribbon where all the components and options which can be used to work on this application are given. This Ribbon is based on the latest version of MS Outlook and made the program more useful and interactive for its users.

Options to create new mains, set up calendars or appointments, replying or forwarding a mail etc. can all be done using the features present of the ribbon. 

There are also options like “New” and “Delete” where new mails or meetings can be set and deleting the existing or old and junk mails can be done.

But, one must know to use MS Outlook, a proper set is required and logging in using an email id is also mandatory. If the application is being used by an Organisation or a group of people, the setup is already done. But for individual or personal usage, MS Outlook needs to be set up as per the user’s requirement.

MS Outlook – Shortcut Keys
Shortcut Keys	Function
Alt+H	Go to Home tab
Alt+S	Send a message
Ctrl+2	Go to calendar
Ctrl+M	Check for new messages
Ctrl+1	Switch to mail view
Ctrl+3	Switch to the contacts view
Ctrl+Shift+B	Open the Address Book
Ctrl+Shift+A	To create an appointment
Ctrl+Shift+L	To create a contact group
Ctrl+Shift+Q	Create a meeting request
Ctrl+Shift+N	To create a note

 

6. MS OneNote

• It was released on November 19, 2003
• It is a note-taking application
• When introduced, it was a part of the Office suite only. Later, the developers made it free, standalone and easily available at play store for android devices
• The notes may include images, text, tables, etc.
• The extension for OneNote files is “.one”
• It can be used both online and offline and is a multi-user application.
•