Are Microsoft Office Classes Worth It?

Microsoft Office is a collection of productivity applications for individuals, families, small and medium businesses, and larger enterprises. Tools included in Microsoft 365 include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, and OneDrive, for producing documents, creating spreadsheets, preparing presentations, writing emails, and more. Learning Microsoft Office skills can help you organize your personal records, improve school performance, or find a new job.

What Can You Do With Microsoft Office?

Microsoft Office is a bundle of applications that work together to let you accomplish your goals and make your life easier. The Family and Personal version includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for writing letters, tracking a budget, or creating a slideshow for the family reunion. Many Business versions are available to allow you to organize email and keep a calendar, use an AI-powered assistant, and work together with Teams. The Education version keeps you organized with a digital notebook and apps to write papers, create spreadsheets, and produce presentations.

A Microsoft Office class can help you find a job, start a new career, or boost your confidence. One reason to increase your Microsoft skills is because the programs are used worldwide for writing and editing, creating financial spreadsheets, managing databases, or collaborating with a team. Advanced Office skills can put you ahead of other applicants in the job pool, and a Microsoft Certification is an industry-recognized way to advance your career.

Advantages of Taking a Microsoft Office Class

Microsoft Office classes will teach you how to use the different component applications included in the bundle, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, and OneDrive. Knowing how to use Microsoft Office can help you find a job as an Office Manager, Administrative Assistant, or Bookkeeper. These skills are also important for Accountants and Data Analysts. 

Having a Microsoft Office Certification on your resume tells employers you have the training to handle daily office tasks like writing, editing, creating financial spreadsheets, managing databases, or collaborating with a team. Learning Microsoft Office can give you an edge over other job applicants and increase your job prospects. Even if you only plan to use Microsoft Office at home or school, a bootcamp or certification course can give you the advanced skills you need to complete your work faster and easier. Here are some specific skills covered in a Microsoft Office course.

Word

From keeping a daily diary to writing a novel, you can use Microsoft Word for all of your document production. Word does more than help you write and edit documents. It will check spelling and grammar, let you add photos and images, and includes a collection of templates to help you create resumes, business cards, newsletters, brochures, and social media posts. The latest version includes Microsoft's new Copilot AI Assistant for writing assistance. 

Excel

Set up a budget, take inventory, keep lists of clients, and more with Excel. This spreadsheet program lets you Input data into individual cells, organize the worksheet into rows and columns, and perform calculations and computations according to preset or custome formulas. Excel lets you create graphs, tables, and charts for home or business.

PowerPoint

It's easy to create entertaining and informative presentations with Microsoft PowerPoint. You can choose from many different templates or create your own according to your personal style or brand. Add text, drawings, photos, or videos to the slides, and then choose transitions or animations to add punch to your presentation. When you save your file to OneDrive, you can access your presentations from any device anywhere to easily share and collaborate with others. 

Outlook

Despite more recent developments, email remains one of the most effective marketing tools out there. Microsoft Outlook helps you manage email, update a calendar, organize files, and schedule meetings easily and efficiently. Outlook can also help you stay focused and avoid distractions with an Ignore feature, and lets you set alerts that make sure you never miss an important message. Stay on top of your business with Outlook, whether you are at home, in the office, or on the go.

Teams

In today's new remote work environment, Microsoft Teams lets you work together with colleagues, hold meetings, and share files. The Whiteboard feature is a collaborative workspace where you can share ideas in real time. Bookmark important messages to access them later on and attend meetings on your phone or desktop. Teams is the perfect tool for any team looking to boost productivity and stay connected.

OneNote

Many people rely on a little notebook for taking notes and jotting down reminders. OneNote lets you do that digitally from different devices like laptops, desktops, tablets, or phones. You can organize the notes however you want or move them around and make them easier to find later. You can also add images to OneNote. Just snap a picture to remind yourself of a task or item you need to remember.

OneDrive

Microsoft provides 1 TB of cloud storage on OneDrive with every Microsoft 365 subscription. This is plenty of storage for files that you want to store safely and share with friends or colleagues from anywhere on any device.

What to Look for in a Microsoft Office Class

When you are trying to decide which Microsoft Office class to take, think about what you want to do it. Do you want to learn Word to write papers for school or to find a job in an office environment? Are you interested in learning Excel to keep track of home expenses or to get started in a career in data analytics? Other considerations might be when classes are offered, what the learning environment is, how much the course costs, and what course alums say about the class in ratings and reviews.

Specific Application vs. Broad Approach

One thing to consider is the focus of the class. Are you interested in a broad overview of the programs included in Microsoft office or are you looking for an in-depth course on one application? If you want to get an idea of what you can do with Microsoft Office, an overview course will do that, but if you want to learn advanced tools like the MailMerge feature in Word, you should choose a bootcamp class on that application.

Convenient Schedule

Another point to consider when choosing a class is when it is scheduled. Does the program offer a choice of times for classes? Are sessions only offered Monday through Friday during traditional business hours, or can you choose to take a class in the evening or on weekends? Choose a class that fits into your personal schedule so that you can keep up with your family and work commitments while taking classes.

In-Person or Live Online

The class setting is another consideration when signing up for a Microsoft Office class. If you prefer a traditional classroom setting, you can find in-person classes through a tool like Noble Desktop's Classes Near Me that lists Microsoft Office classes in your local area. If you live in a small town or rural location, you can still take a class with a live instructor by attending via Zoom. You can ask questions, get help if needed, or get to know other students, just like an in-person class. 

Cost

Before signing up for a class, look at your budget. Quality instruction can be costly, but learning Microsoft Office skills is an investment in the future. Whether you are taking a class to help you find a new job, get better grades, or create a personal budget, a Microsoft Office class can give you the skills you need.

Ratings and Reviews

Ratings and reviews can give you an idea of what other students thought of the course. While each review is based on the reviewer's personal experience, if you read a collection of responses from graduates and current students, you should get an idea of what the course is like.

Is it Worth Enrolling in a Microsoft Office Class?

Learning Microsoft Office skills can help you organize your home office, complete your projects, and get better grades at school. It can also help you get a job. While there are very few jobs that list a particular Microsoft application in the title, job descriptions routinely mention Office skills. 

Any office job will require familiarity with Word and Excel at the very least. A job that has scheduling duties will require Outlook. Jobs that include budgeting or inventory responsibilities will ask for Excel skills. If you look through the offerings on an employment website, you will see that Microsoft Office skills are useful in many positions across numerous industries. Some examples of jobs that require Microsoft Office skills include Administrative Assistants, Office Managers, Data Analysts, Accountants, Bookkeepers, Teachers, Legal Assistants and Paralegals, and Project Managers.

Learn Microsoft Office Skills with Noble Desktop

The Microsoft Office Fundamentals Bootcamp from Noble Desktop helps you gain the skills you need in essential Office applications like Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook. These four applications are used every day by businesses all over the world, and learning how to use them efficiently and effectively can help you start a new career. Instruction includes an overview of the Excel workflow, how to format worksheets and add visual effects, and how to create graphics. The course also covers creating PowerPoint presentations by choosing layouts, adding content, and running a slide show. In the Word class, you will learn how to navigate through documents, add images, and create tables, lists, and notes. Finally, the Outlook class will cover automated email searches, managing a calendar, scheduling, organizing contacts, and tracking correspondence. You get a 15% discount when you sign up for the 4-day bootcamp instead of taking each class separately. 

Microsoft Office Intermediate Bootcamp from Noble Desktop takes up where the Fundamentals class stops. You will learn about Excel Pivot Tables, advanced functions like VLOOKUP, and how to make your workflow smoother and faster with automation. The PowerPoint module covers creating reusable templates, how to import files from Excel, use multimedia and layered objects, and record a slideshow. The Word section covers automation tools, custom document styles, and productivity features. Finally, the Outlook class shows you how to configure email accounts, perform advanced searches, control spam, and manage calendars and contacts.

The Complete Microsoft Office Bootcamp from Noble Desktop will make you an Office expert. This advanced course offers 54 hours of instruction in PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, and Excel. The course goes from introductory material through advanced to give you comprehensive training in these important business skills.

Noble Desktop offers Outlook Bootcamp for new users who want to understand how to use this Office application for sending email and scheduling appointments to increase productivity. Learn about customizing, automating, and managing your email accounts, plus optimizing your calendar and organizing your contacts.

If you want to build confidence in your document preparation skills, Word Bootcamp from Noble Desktop can help you get there. This comprehensive class can take you from beginner to expert in as little as two days. Learn how to navigate through Word and format documents; work with text at the sentence and paragraph level; insert images, tablets, lists, and citations; track changes; customize document style; and use forms and mail merge features.

Noble Desktop's three-day Excel Bootcamp will take you from absolute beginner to expert in a few days. The course starts with the basics like performing calculations, creating graphs, formatting, and printing. Move on to more advanced features like pivot tables, VLOOKUP, SUMIFs, and advanced database functions like INDEX and MATCH. This course is available in person in NYC or live online from anywhere.

PowerPoint Bootcamp is a two-day course from Noble Desktop to help you learn PowerPoint basics like creating layouts, adding text, images, shapes, SmartArt, and more. Work with tables and charts to organize information in your presentations. Day two delves into more advanced features like how to create a reusable PowerPoint Theme/Template to make an easily updatable, engaging, consistent presentation. Add excitement with animations, add video, and learn how to manage large presentations with sections and custom shows.

Excel Level 1: Fundamentals from Noble Desktop covers the basic concepts of Microsoft Excel. This course covers how to do calculations, create graphs, format worksheets, and print or share them in Microsoft Excel. Class assignments are designed to help you practice concepts based on real-world examples as you learn them. Students also receive exclusive reference materials as part of the class. This course is available in person in NYC or live online from anywhere.

Noble Desktop's introductory PowerPoint Level 1 course covers the fundamental concepts of this popular presentation software. Learn how to create new presentations, choose slides and add content, add pictures and graphics and learn to adjust them, how to use SmartArt, draw lines and shapes, align objects, insert tables and charts, add transitions, and learn to run the final presentation. This course is available in person in NYC or live online from anywhere.

Microsoft Word is one of the world's most popular word-processing programs. This introductory Microsoft Word Level 1 course from Noble Desktop covers the fundamental concepts and skills, including preparing and sending mass letters, labels, and emails with one click, introductory formatting, and shortcuts to save time on routine tasks. This course is available in person in NYC or live online from anywhere.

Noble Desktop's Microsoft Access Level 1 will help you keep your Microsoft Office work organized. Access is a database program that can organize and manage data. You will learn to join, sort, and filter data from different tables, use forms to view, access, and input data, and create and format reports. The class will also cover designing a relational database, joining tables, validating data, using advanced queries, and organizing and customizing your database.