Learning MS Word

[dthomsen8]

My wife has a new computer (for Christmas), and is taking a college English course in January. Any thoughts on how she can learn to use MS Word 2003 better, without asking me all the time? (I use MS Word 97 most of the time, myself.)

My wife is not so good at learning from books, compared with courses or anything heard rather than read.

[Michael Rowley]

DT:

'My wife . . . is taking a college English course in January'

She won't need much for writing essays etc. beyond the basic stuff for producing 'proper' sentences in a font she likes. So show how to remove most of the junk on the standard toolbars (it's only there to demonstrate some of things Word can do)—and put icons back again, because she's bound to find some that are useful after all. Most of the basic things, like opening a file & saving it, and doing spelling checks, are available via the keyboard.

[Andrew B.]

You could buy a training CD.

[BobRoosth]

I'd set up a normal.dot to suit her primary needs, turn off most of the automatic formatting (other than smart quotes), explain the basic formatting icons on the tool bar and turn her loose. Make sure she knows how to name her files so she can find the later and that she needs to save every few minutes.

I often tell my clients to make a note about anything that seems to difficult and ask, because there generally is a simpler solution. I also tell them to work for while on a real project, then ask for help. That way my suggestions are connected to real needs.

You and I can probably go on for hours about various features. Little of that will stick if the student doesn't ahve a need for the information.

Good luck.