Is Microsoft Office a Hard Class?

Overall, Microsoft Office applications are not difficult to learn. It takes just a few hours to get started with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook, and you can learn enough to begin using the programs for regular tasks. Of course, learning to use advanced features takes longer and can be more challenging.

What is Hard about Learning Microsoft Office?

Among the difficulties with learning Microsoft Office applications is unlocking the advanced design functions associated with individual programs, such as layering and animation tools for PowerPoint or using Excel to perform advanced statistical analysis. Some people may find that picking up skills for customizing a presentation or composing a document is much easier than initially thought.

Microsoft 365 subscribers can get familiar with using some of the primary functions for applications like Excel, Word, or PowerPoint before moving on to the challenge of learning the advanced features of any of those programs. Training for the more advanced functions, such as performing data analysis with Excel or customizing design features with PowerPoint, will demand hours of practice and concentration.

How Can I Make Learning Microsoft Office Easier?

Noble Desktop offers seminars like Top 10 Beginner Excel Tricks You Need to Know and PowerPoint Presentation Design to introduce users to these powerful programs. Microsoft also offers free tutorials to help you get started with Microsoft Office. These are grouped by subject and are available on the Microsoft 365 website.

This kind of content can be helpful to get an idea of what is included in Microsoft Office and how the individual applications work, but this isn't the fastest way to learn Microsoft Office skills. It can be difficult when you are a beginner to know what information is the most important and what the best practices are. Instructor-led classes can get you there much faster.

You can also find Microsoft Office classes on-demand subscription platforms like LinkedIn, Coursera, and Skillshare. These are pre-recorded sessions that you can watch whenever and wherever you want. If you are highly motivated, you can learn Microsoft Office skills this way, according to your own schedule. One drawback of on-demand classes is the lack of a live instructor to answer questions, which can slow down the process. Also, it can be difficult to tell how up-to-date the information is and old information can slow down your learning process.

Best Ways to Learn Microsoft Office Without Difficulty

The best way to make learning Microsoft Office easier is to take a bootcamp course. These courses are short, intensive sessions that can take you from zero skills to accomplished Word or PowerPoint users quickly. These classes begin with the basics and build on that knowledge over one or two days. This can teach you specific skills in a chosen application, and get you started faster than wandering around the Internet looking for answers.

Each class takes a deep dive into one application or several, and assignments are designed to help you gain a complete understanding of the subject by the end of the class. Bootcamps are also great for people who have some experience with Microsoft Office and want to fill in some gaps. Bootcamp courses can help you build your productivity skills in order to find a new position.

Learn Microsoft Office Skills with Noble Desktop

Whether you want to learn Microsoft Office skills for home tasks, school work, or to find a new job, you can find many course options. These 6 - 12 hour courses are available in person in New York City or live online from anywhere.

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.