Role of Applications

The many uses of Microsoft become very apparent when completing the One Day in My Life assignment. Each application has its unique purpose and can even work in tandem with each other. However, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have their disadvantages and advantages. Let’s explore those and some scenarios that show the best use of each.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Microsoft Word

Word is simple and allows the user to create many documents, such as academic papers or business flyers. “Beyond formatting, a modern word processor also supports insertion of drawings and images” (Vahid & Lysecky, 2017, p. 5.1). Although you can insert things like tables, they are not easy to work with and do not look as good as a table in Excel.

Microsoft Excel

Excel has many functions that enable the user to do many things, such as creating a schedule or a financial register. “An important spreadsheet feature allows a user to type a formula in a cell to compute that cell’s value based on other cells’ values” (Vahid & Lysecky, 2017, p. 5.2). However, the formulas and the formatting of tables can be complicated for many to learn.

Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint’s interactive design catches the audience’s attention and allows the user to create beautiful presentations. “Presentation apps may also contain multimedia tools to enable the integration of audio or video within a slideshow” (Vahid & Lysecky, 2017, p. 5.3). A downside to the design of PowerPoint is the user must flip through many slides to get the same information one could get with a one-page word document.

Recommendation

Regarding the One Day in My Life document, the most appropriate application would depend on what you are using it. Excel is the way to go if you are trying to relay statistical information. However, if you want to use it as an example of how everyone should spend their day, PowerPoint would be more suitable. Word is useful when you want to relay your thoughts or create a draft for an email.

Scenarios

Word: A business needs to get the word out for a big sale next week and hire a Graphic Designer to design a flyer to advertise the sale. It then calls the Printers and has 500 flyers printed and posted around town. The Graphic Designer could use Word to design the flyer.

Excel: The same business needs to hire an accountant to manage the books, calling up the local CPA. The CPA gathers all the paperwork for the last fiscal year and digitizes the business’s finances. The CPA could use Excel to create this digital booking system.

PowerPoint: A lower-level agent at an architectural firm wants to present their superiors with an idea they feel will significantly benefit the company. They work hard to research every bit of information they will need before asking to show their bosses. The agent could use PowerPoint to organize this information in an appealing format.

After exploring the advantages and disadvantages and possible scenarios, we can see that each Microsoft application has its purpose and can create fun or professional Documents. It is up to the user to determine which of these applications will best enable them to relay the information in the form that they want.

References

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2017). Computing technology for all. zybooks.zyante.com/