Tips for Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Other Applications

Overview of Microsoft Office

Most likely to have generalist discussions about the Microsoft Office suite, when to use the different applications, and some alternatives.

Selecting the Right Application

Knowing WHAT application to use is almost as important as knowing HOW to use each application. We've probably all been on the receiving end of a Powerpoint presentation that's page after page of text or the recipient of a Excel form that asks for lots of subjective description and explanation. Sometimes, it just makes you scratch you head.

Identifying the right tool for the problem you will analyze can save hours of work and frustration. Noted below are descriptions and suggestions to help you determine when it is most appropriate to use either Excel, Access, Word, or Powerpoint. Your productivity will be magnified even more, if you can become adept at moving information between applications, for example, using Access to manage a large data set, but outputting specific query results to Excel for further modeling and manipulation and then linking the data to a Powerpoint table or chart.

Application	Description	Advantages	Disadvantages
Excel	Data manipulation and analysis program for which the user provides cell-based data and instructions to produce numerical and graphical output. Good for complex calculations on a limited data set.	Cell-based model creation Ability to model "what-if" scenarios Comprehensive graphing and print formatting functions	Basic functionality for novice users (extended greatly if you know macros) File size limitation: 256 columns, 65,536 rows, 255 worksheets
Access	Data storage and retrieval program for which the user provides record and table based data and instructions to produce numerical, textual (typically tabular) and graphical output. Good for simple calculations on a large dataset.	Structuring complex and interrelated data Structuring complex queries on data Structuring flexible forms and reports	Substantial setup time for structuring data and creating tables Can't easily manipulate data in individual cells
Word	Standard word processing package used for composition of nearly any type. Best used when the content is mostly textual, but Word can also support extensive tables as well as imported or embedded content from Excel and PowerPoint.	Easiest application with which to compose, edit, and format text Consistent text styling at all levels Excellent commenting and reviewing tools When writing larger documents, indexing and navigation tools make documents easier to navigate.	Data changes may require extensive manual rework Graphical content can be somewhat hit and miss
PowerPoint	Industry standard for presentation packages and supports a wide range of graphical and video content, formatting, and charting options. Typically find that PowerPoint requires more organizational discipline and control to ensure conformity to standard layouts and formats.	Fairly easy to use at a basic level; some degree of proficiency or support required for more advanced page composition	Lack of review and collaboration tools make version control critical Easy for authors to fall into trap of multiple text-heavy pages Easy for authors to go overboard on animations, sounds, and other formatting