Reflections on Microsoft Office Applications

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Role of Applications Reflection Essay

 

Miguel Artache

The University of Arizona Global Campus

TEC 101 Fundamentals of Information Technology and Literacy

Professor Amr Elchouemi

May 9, 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

One encounters word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, and database application in the business world. Each application has its unique advantages and disadvantages based on given scenarios and situations. Each of us encounters these applications in one way or another. Understanding each application allows you to work through tasks quickly and know the proper application to apply. I will delve into each application through my reflection essay and outline the framework.

Word processing applications such as Microsoft Word are the market letter in anything that requires processing letters, mailing labels, and forms with check boxes and fillable sections for any business-related paperwork. Any Windows workstation comes loaded with Microsoft Word as a bundle. The Apple platform has partnered and developed a MAC version with Microsoft. With Word, you can choose a variety of fonts and bold italicize, or underline words and sentences, drawing attention to the reader. I often use the built-in PDF writer with Word to create PDF documents from my word documents. As Microsoft Word dominates the word processing arena, it does not do well with designing spreadsheets. You can create a chart that looks like a spreadsheet, but the data will be static. In other words, you can calculate or apply formulas to see variations in data.

Continuing with Microsoft Office products, the spreadsheet application Microsoft Excel is a business favorite, especially dealing with numbers. Excel is broken down into cells. Alpha letters run across the top, starting with A, and then one starts down on the left side of the spreadsheet. The power of excel is data formulas and trending data. For example, you could determine the amount of time with an activity. If you have 24 hours in a day and have an activity that took two hours, you could calculate the percentage of time spent on that activity using the division formula. Excel is excellent for creating charts to represent data. In my career, when I was doing project management, I created an activity list of everything that must be done in a project. I had columns for owners, activity, and due by, completion status, and notes. I was able to keep track of all the activities from a single spreadsheet and apply color to cells for critical and completed items. Microsoft Excel can be used to find relationships with a given dataset. However, it is limited. You can’t correct the query to pull data. That’s where database applications come in.

Database applications allow the retrieval of data through the use of queries. There are two types of databases. There are a few types of database structures. The first is a relational database. A relational database stores information and has a primary key of unique information that ties data together. For example, you can have primary key 1234, and the data associated is John Smith. Next, you have 5678, and the data associated is Jane Smith. Object orientated database for an object versus information. SQL (Structured Query Language) is the preferred language for querying databases. You can use freeware applications such as MySQL to query Oracle and Microsoft Access Databases. Using a query language, you can write select, where, and group query statements to display data from databases. Or you can use an insert command to create new data in a database. Database applications and querying languages take lots of time to learn. Understanding the language is paramount to creating and querying databases effectively.

Understanding how to represent information to a group of people or your manager is an important skill. Presentation applications such as PowerPoint are powerful and can leave an everlasting appreciation on the audience. Many people, including myself, don’t spend much time using presentation applications. However, climbing higher in the business world is a requirement. PowerPoint allows you to represent your information using slides and various effects to make your presentation pop. PowerPoint allows you to animate picture movement to your slides, transitioning between slides using different transition animations and presentation modes. Presentation mode allows you to go full screen, click on the following slides, and invoke your animations to make your presentation come alive. One disadvantage of PowerPoint is that slides can get too busy with animations and details. The presenter must remember that you want to provide high-level details as talking points and connect to your audience through conversation.

Microsoft Excel was the most appropriate application because of the activity and time. I could have used a database application. However, Excel is my preferred choice for documenting my day. Microsoft Excel does a great job of creating planning lists. For example, you could use excel to create a party planning list to document everything you need to purchase and prepare.