From the course: Working with Computers and Devices

Similarities between Office products

From the course: Working with Computers and Devices

Similarities between Office products

- [Instructor] One of the advantages of using a suite of applications that are designed to work together is that you'll find similar features and layouts within them, making it easier to get your bearings and to find the features you want to use. For example, in the office suite of applications, which includes programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, all of which I have opened here, you can see how similar they look, especially in this area have tabs at the top of each window called the ribbon. Notice that at least the first three tabs in each app are labeled the same. We have file, home and insert. Both Word and PowerPoint have the Design tab next, but the layout and the way the ribbon works in each app is very similar. I'll expand Word for a moment here. Each tab gives you access to lots of tools and features. Under the Home tab in Word, you'll find the cut copy and paste commands, as well as the tools for changing the font size or color of text. And we'll find those same options in PowerPoint and Excel. Here's cut, copy and paste. And here's where we can change the font, the color and size of text. So again, if you know where these features are in one Office app, you'll be able to easily find them in other Office apps. Now, of course, because these are three different apps with different purposes, you'll find other specialized tools and features under the other tabs specific to those apps. But they're all organized logically into the tab categories. For example, in Excel, there's a Formulas tab, where you can apply functions to your spreadsheets to automatically calculate the values in certain fields, or in PowerPoint, there's an Animations tab to apply animated transitions between the slides in your presentations. Another consistent feature of the ribbon across the Office applications is the ability to collapse it. Just double click any tab to collapse the ribbon. And that frees up more space to work with your documents. Click any tab to temporarily reveal its contents. And when you click away, it will collapse again. To bring the ribbon back, just double click any tab again. So once more when working in Office, you should be able to find your way around and locate the tools and features you need by exploring the ribbon. And as you get more familiar with its layout, you'll be able to work more efficiently in other Office apps as well.

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