Can I Learn Microsoft Office For Free?

Yes, you can learn some basic Microsoft Office skills concepts for free, but mastering advanced features will require more formal training. Free seminars and tutorials are a good introduction, but classes are the best way to learn Microsoft Office skills. 

What Free Resources are Available for Learning Microsoft Office?

Free resources can help you start learning Microsoft Office. Seminars and step-by-step tutorials are a good way to familiarize yourself with the basic functions.

Free Seminars

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. There are also numerous free tutorials on YouTube.

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.

Podcasts

There are also many podcasts that discuss Microsoft Office products. Some titles include "What's New in Microsoft 365," "The Practical 365 Podcast," "Office 365 Distilled," and "Microsoft Mechanics Podcast." These presentations are useful for keeping up with new developments in the field.

Blogs

Blogs are another free resource for people who are looking for an introduction to Microsoft Office. Like podcasts, blogs are also a good way to follow changes in Microsoft products. Some of the top Microsoft Office blogs are "Practical 365," "Collab365," "Content and Code," "The Microsoft Blog 365," and "Share Gate."

How to Make Use of Free Microsoft Office Resources

While free materials won't teach you everything about Microsoft Office, they are still useful. In addition to providing an introduction to the applications, you can use free seminars and tutorials to prepare to take a class, delve deeper into a subject, or find out about new developments.

If you would like to explore what Microsoft Office can do, you can watch prerecorded seminars and listen to podcasts to get an overview of the field. Free resources can help you learn the basic functions, which can give you a head start when your class begins. 

Another use for free resources is to dig deeper into functions that might be a challenge like some of the more advanced Microsoft Office features. If you want to learn more about conditional formatting, VLOOKUP, Pivot Tables, or how to use Excel for data analysis, free resources can get you started.

Limitations of Free Resources

While they are free, seminars, tutorials, podcasts, and blogs can only go so far when your goal is to master Microsoft Office. In some cases, their focus is too broad to cover topics completely, and in others, they are too specific.

Introductory videos can give you an idea of what Microsoft Office can do, but they don't go into enough detail for you to learn how to use Excel for data analytics or find out some of the nuances of professional-looking PowerPoint presentations. There is no one to answer questions if you don't understand something or rephrase points you don't understand. 

Podcasts and blog posts can have the opposite problem. The audience for these resources often has a lot of experience with Microsoft Office and the topics can be beyond beginners. This isn't true of all podcasts and blogs, but you can spend a lot of time sifting through material to find something relevant to you.

What to Do After Utilizing Free Microsoft Office Resources

After watching some introductory seminars, your best bet for gaining the Microsoft Office skills you are looking for is to take a class. You can choose between shorter bootcamp classes and certification courses that are designed to cover multiple applications.

Classes like Noble Desktop’s Microsoft Office Fundamentals Bootcamp can help you learn Microsoft Office more easily than trying to teach yourself for free. In-person classes have instructors who can answer your questions and give you help when you need it. They are easy to find in large cities, but if you live in a smaller town or rural area, it might be more difficult. Live online classes run at the same time as an in-person class but are available from anywhere, with some students in the classroom and others logging on via video conferencing.

You can also find self-paced classes on subscription platforms like LinkedIn, Coursera, and Skillshare. These videos are recorded, like the free tutorials, but go into much more depth. The drawback of these classes is, as with free seminars, the lack of a live instructor.

While classes with a live instructor do have a cost, they are worth it. Instructors are experienced Microsoft Office users who know the best techniques and can steer you clear of pitfalls. Class assignments are designed to reinforce what you are learning. 

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.