What word processing program is used in your office? What one feature do you love/loathe most about it? What are the advantages of PDF documents over word processed documents?
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About Me
- James in Bologna
- Bologna, Emilia-Romagna region, Italy
- Thanks for stopping by and reading the 'bo-log'. In January 2017, I upgraded my MCA (Master of Creative Arts) at the University of Technology Sydney to a PhD. The project, 'Masculinity on Trial', looks for Australian masculinities lost in the establishment of the Anzac hegemony during WW1. From March to July 2017, I am being hosted in Italy at the University of Bologna on an ErasmusPLUS doctoral research writing scholarship.
10 comments:
Hi there
MS word is the program we use for word documents and there are a couple of features I really like are
• spell checker (just make sure it’s set to the right country)
• ‘track changes’ so that if you have complex document (e.g. contract) going back and forth between people you can see what has been amended
• Find and replace feature – which allows you to search for word or set of words (e.g Atlantic Pacific American Express) and replace it throughout the document with the touch of a button to ‘APX’
• Formatting and tables so you can space everything out and make it clear and easily understood
• Being able to bring in images to make the document more appropriate to the audience (e.g. photo’s of the APX ‘Acme’ team if we’re doing a document to Acme) as well as graphs and other visuals to make you convey your message more effectively
PDF documents allow you to provide a copy of the document but in a read only version that can’t be formatted – this means you can protect the information and ensure there is no doubt what was/wasn’t included when you sent it.
The other good things about PDF documents is that they’re normally smaller file sizes so they don’t clog up your sent items/inbox limit
Thanks Brent -think you've just about covered it !!
I'm self taught on MS Word as it was never part of the curriculum when I was at school. When I left college in 1984 we had one computer room containing 3 PCs but I'm not convinced anyone knew how to use them! So there is no doubt I've still a huge amount to learn.
I like formatting as I like to ensure my documents are well laid out and easy to read.
But! I personally loathe spell check! Maybe because spelling, grammar and proof reading were beaten into me by my mother, it's not a feature I use! My main issue with spellcheck is it's too easy to select the wrong word - so often 'definitely' is corrected (incorrectly!) to defiantly..just one example of many which bug the hell out of me !!!
Hello
Well Brent you certainly have covered this topic thoroughly and I dont wish to repeat you too much on this one.
MS Word is the word processing program used at APX. On my Laptop I actually use OpenOffice which is very similar to Word but is free version for poor travel agents who cant afford the update their license on MS Office.
We travel agents very rarely get in to using Word however since becoming a Team Leader I have had to self-teach myself much like Margot.
I do like the fact everything is fairly easy to find in Word and it doesnt take much to pretty up a document once you have the main body typed out.
I am a huge spell check fan due to my poor Hutt Valley education, however it does encourage you almost to be lazy as you can count on spell check later down the track when completing the document.
One thing I really dislike is the different view formats and due to our citrix environment it seems to default to a different lot of settings depending on which server you login to. Read format annoys me when you get only a handful of lines per page. Also with spellcheck you have to be careful you are not getting US spelling e.g authorization and color.
PDF Format is great for travel documents as its read only and doesnt allow the traveller to alter there details recieved in event of a dispute.
Also I like the "snaphot" copy and paste function in PDF for pasting into emails and word docs.
Margot, I wont be as brave and state the year that I left school but I don’t think we even had one computer in the school. And no I am not that old that we were using slate boards.
MS Word 2003. When I started this job my experience with MS Word was to use it like a type writer and I virtually never used any of the functions. I have come a long way since them….well at least I think I have. The more I learn the easier producing a good document becomes. The nice thing of working in a team of 7, where we are using word all of the time, is that we all know different functions of word and are constantly assisting each other and expanding our knowledge.
I have to admit that I don’t like “tracking changes” but that is only because I don’t know how to use it. I think I should make that my next challenge and investigate how it works.
PDF is great to maintain the integrity of the data that we send our clients as the recipient cannot change the information without creating a new document.
Hi
As everyone else has said, we use MS word at APX. the one feature i do like is the spell check. i'm a terrible speller and need all the help i can get. the edit replace feature is also a great time saver.
One thing i don't like about MS word is the formatting of tables. It makes inputing financial tables a frustating experience for me.
The main advantage of PDF documents for me, is that you can not amend the information. this great for financial information to ensure the integrity of the data.
Yes Brent I think you have answered this question quite comprhensively! I understand how the Spell Checker can sometime steer you in the wrong direction But Margot, unlike you I could not go without the spell checker! If anything my spelling has declined because of its existance!
We use a variety of documents here in Auckland operations. PDF, word and RTF (rich text format).
The main advantage of PDF is that you cannot doctor it ie no changes. It is a read only document which is why all our invoices are in PDF format for obvious reasons. And PDF looks nice too. Word is the opposite i.e. can be changed. This is especially handy for those clients that request their itinerary in a format that can be changed so that they can add in all sorts of other information. Drawback is that word does not look as good. We can easily change what format we send our itineraries also, just a click of a button.
Spell check – I also really love this programme. For me it really works as it highlights the words right away and is very easy to correct. I always slow down when I’m in spell check mode as Margot quite rightly pointed out….you really can select the wrong word. You do have to ensure you are defaulted to English NZ and not for example English US or English UK as there is a slight difference.
Overall I am much the same as everyone else in that I have had little training on word/excel etc as when I was in school many moons ago there where no computers. I have had to learn on the job so I definitely have come along way. I would love to learn more so that I can produce more creative documents. I find that the information I send out is a little boring in the same format every time, but if I knew more I could make it much more interesting.
As everyone has mentioned word would be the program used, and covered most of the features.
I love the shortcut keys for the Microsoft Office suite of programs. It is the little things that make life easier that I really enjoy, the control + C etc etc.
PDF documents are great when you don’t want anything to be changed, but not so good when things need to be edited. Recent example would be our company manual on the intranet in a PDF document and I needed to add the name to the CEO letter page and couldn’t!
Wow - posting late (sorry!!) means that everyone else answers for you!!
As discussed (8 times already) MS Word 2003 is used at APX. Personally, I really like this package, although my knowledge of other products is limited.
The main things that Word offers me include:
- Synonyms (changing the word to a more appropriate one)
- Spell Checker (you've probably already seen my spelling is terrible!)
- Paste (adding tables and graphs for reports)
- Find and replace (as per Brents blog - priceless!!)
PDF's are fairly new to me. I see them as a very 'safe' way to send documents (as they are read only and can not be doctored), however there have been times where I wish I could have changed the document!
Again, as per other blogs, they are smaller file sizes to send than fully loaded word documents.
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