How Long Does it Take to Learn Office 365?

Like many aspiringbusinesses or communications professionals, you might want to learn Office 365 but worry that it will take too much time. However, Office 365 is relatively simple to learn. Professional classes that teach the basics only last a day for each Microsoft Office program. Expert-level classes take around the same amount of time. With professional training, an individual can become an expert in Office 365 in a few weeks. Of course, this depends on several factors. Keep reading to learn about how you can learn Office 365 and some resources to help speed the process along.

What is Office 365?

Office 365 (also known as Microsoft 365) is a cloud-based subscription service that includes Microsoft Office’s suite of programs along with other online services such as free cloud storage and web hosting. Since Office 365 functions with the cloud, users always have access to their documents so long as they have an internet connection. The service is compatible with PCs, Macs, tablets, and smartphones.

Microsoft Office is a popular suite of productivity programs that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. These programs are used worldwide by businesses across industries for their ease of use, accessibility, and collaboration features. The programs offer a variety of functions, such as word processing, spreadsheet creation, promotional material design, and team management. Office 365 combines these valuable programs into a single service that offers the advantages of online document sharing. Microsoft Office cloud services include Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange.

Read more about what Office 365 is and why you should learn it. 

What Can You Do with Office 365?

Office 365 gives users full access to Microsoft Office’s suite of programs. These include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. These programs allow users to create professional documents and reports, spreadsheets and databases, presentations, emails, and promotional materials. Office 365 also provides Microsoft Office cloud services, including Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange. Businesses worldwide use these programs for workplace productivity, team collaboration, and management. 

Office 365’s collaboration tools allow teammates to edit documents simultaneously in real-time online. Teammates can use the Teams app to text chat with one another and ask questions without leaving their computers. Documents can also be assigned to teammates as tasks and linked in their virtual calendar or Microsoft Planner, making them easily accessible and trackable in their workflow. Documents are shared easily with a link without downloading or emailing files. Office 365 is an essential business asset for facilitating collaboration within and across departments. 

As an online service, Office 365 offers several advantages. Users can access Office 365 from any device without needing the program installed. This enables users to work anywhere they like and prevents them from being chained to any singular device. Files and documents can also be stored online without taking up computer storage. Updates are applied automatically to the software without users needing to download them manually. The online features of Office 365 go a long way toward improving accessibility and usability.

Average Time it Takes to Learn Office 365

Office 365 offers a suite of Microsoft Office programs, these include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. Professional-level classes that teach the basics of these programs last only a day on average for each program. Subsequent levels, from advanced to expert, also only last a day. For example, Noble Desktop’s Excel Level I: Fundamentals class lasts six hours and teaches all the essentials a Microsoft Excel user needs to know. The Excel Level II: Intermediate and Excel Level III: Advanced classes also last six hours. Thus, in three days, an individual can master Excel, one of Office 365’s programs. Noble Desktop offers nine individual Microsoft Office courses in Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and Outlook, all of which can be completed within nine days. 

But there is more to Office 365 for an individual to learn. Office 365 online services include Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Exchange. With each program in Office 365 taking two to three days of professional training to master, an individual could learn the whole of Office 365 in less than one month.

Without professional instruction, learning Office 365 could take anywhere from a few to several months. Your progress will be slower since you’ll work via your own motivation and what free tutorials and guides you can find online. While self-guided learning should be enough to teach you how to comprehensively use the program, becoming an expert will be more difficult as self-guided tools are often outdated. Microsoft Office programs often hold many tips and tricks the average user is unaware of. Thus, finding tutorials for these features will be difficult, if not impossible. 

Other Factors

How long it takes an individual to learn Office 365 depends on several factors. These include whether you attend professional classes or learn on your own, if you seek to learn beginner or expert skills, your personal schedule, and whether you possess previous knowledge of Microsoft Office programs.

Self-Guided or Instructor-Led Learning 

Instructor-led learning is always faster than self-guided learning. An instructor provides structure to the learning process, assigns deadlines, can answer any questions, and guide students through roadblocks. Self-guided learning relies on an individual’s motivation and skill at finding the right tutorials and troubleshooting issues. Thus, self-guided learning will likely take longer.

Beginner or Expert Skills

Most people can acquire basic skills in Office 365 reasonably quickly. Beginner tutorials are also easy to find online. Advanced and expert skill levels will require more time in training, and self-guided tutorials for these levels may be trickier to track down. However, if you seek to become an expert in Office 365 and attend expert training, your progress will be quicker than attempting to learn the same skills on your own.

Your Personal Schedule

You may find it difficult to commit to the time professional classes demand if you have a busy schedule due to family or prior work commitments. In this case, self-guided learning can be a better fit for you. Ultimately, everyone learns at their own pace, and there’s no shame in needing to take longer than someone else. Just be aware that self-guided learning occurs at a slower pace than professional classes. Therefore, learning Office 365 could take you several months rather than one. 

Experience with Other Microsoft Office Programs

Knowing how to use other Microsoft Office programs, such as Word or Excel, is not required to learn Office 365. However, prior knowledge of these programs will give you a leg up in understanding how to utilize the features and functions of Office 365 and slightly shorten your overall learning time.

Level of Difficulty, Prerequisites, & Cost 

Office 365 is relatively easy for most people to learn and requires basic computer comprehension. You’ll find the menus and functions within Office 365 are mostly intuitive for those familiar with computers. However, advanced features and shortcuts are usually hidden in menus and require training or learning tutorials. 

There are a number of free online resources to get started with Office 365. These include introductory courses and task tutorials on YouTube, Microsoft.com, and course websites such as Udemy and Coursera. Thus, beginners wishing to learn Office 365 can start learning at a minimal cost.

Those wishing to become experts in Office 365 to advance their careers will require professional training. Professional courses that teach the individual programs within Office 365 cost around $200-$300 and feature multiple levels, such as beginner, advanced, and expert. Due to the ease of learning these programs, these courses usually last only a day or two.

Read about how difficult it is to learn Office 365.

Watch a Free Office 365 Online Course

Not ready to dive into an entire course? Prefer an overview of Office 365? You can start learning Office 365 for free online. Noble Desktop offers free seminars in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. In the Top 10 Beginner Excel Tricks You Need to Know, you’ll learn beginner techniques that introduce you to Excel and teach you productivity hacks within the program. In the PowerPoint Presentation Design seminar, you’ll learn how to make a professional and eye-catching presentation within the program. These seminars are the perfect method for introducing you to Excel and PowerPoint and giving you examples of the power of Office 365. 

Noble Desktop offers additional Office 365 classes that teach Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook. After these seminars, should you wish, you can continue your education with additional Excel and PowerPoint classes. Bootcamps in both subjects are also available that combine multiple courses into one comprehensive learning package. These courses and bootcamps are open to beginners and guide students to mastery of the programs. 

Read about more free Office 365 videos and online tutorials.

Learn Office 365 with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers in-person and live online training in Office 365. Courses include training in Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook. You can choose between individual classes of various skill levels or bootcamps, which offer in-depth, comprehensive learning. When it comes to becoming an expert in a new skill, bootcamps are a fast and affordable alternative to college. Noble Desktop’s classes are small, taught by expert instructors, and include free retake options.

The Excel Bootcamp guides students from beginner to expert techniques. You’ll learn functions, formulas, Pivot Tables, macros, and additional expert tips and tricks. By the end of the course, you’ll be a true Excel master. The PowerPoint Bootcamp is a similar course that provides complete mastery of the program. You’ll start with the basics of customizing images, shapes, text, and animation before moving on to advanced techniques such as template creation, importing charts from Excel, and inserting multimedia. By the end of the course, you’ll be a wizard at creating professional and visually stunning presentations and slideshows.

If you like the idea of the comprehensive learning offered by bootcamps and are looking for further training in Office 365, NYIM is an affiliate school of Noble Desktop. It provides a Complete Microsoft Office Bootcamp that covers the four major programs – Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook.

Key Insights

• Office 365 is easy to learn and only requires basic prerequisites.
• With professional training, Office 365 can be learned in less than a month. 
• Students with busy schedules can learn Office 365 through self-guided learning, but this will likely take much longer.
• Expert skills take longer to learn than basic skills and are more difficult to learn through self-guided training.
• You can receive comprehensive Office 365 training through an in-person or live online course with Noble Desktop.