[ Home ]

Work-out What?

Introduction

These pages contain a number of exercises and quizzes for Word, PowerPoint and Excel.   Doing these exercises is a good way of learning how these packages work but, if you're not already familiar with IT, you do need some training before you can start .   This initial knowledge can be got by looking at some of the many books available, using the KnowledgeBank training package which is available in many PC Labs, or using the help within each of the programs.  There is more information on all these alternative options below.

You will probably find it easier to print out an exercise before attempting it.   You can have the exercise visible in one window and, say, Word open in another window and quickly switch between the two.  But it can get confusing and working from a paper copy of the exercise, especially when you're starting, is the recommended approach.

When working through the exercises you may well get stuck.  There could be a number of reasons of this.  The reasons may be interesting, but, more importantly, what do you do when you are stuck?  Here are a few suggestions:

However, if you think something in an exercise is unclear, ambiguous, or just plain wrong, please let me (rkingdon@glam.ac.uk) know (with, if possible, a suggested fix!).  If it's confusing for you then it is likely to confuse others and we should get it fixed, so please don't be slow in coming forward!

Remember, to successfully complete these exercises you need...

Back to Top

Recommended Books and Guides

A number of books are available if you require extra help or a further insight into any of the packages used in this guide.

Notes:

* The ISD Shop (J Block, Ground Floor) sells disks, consumables and publications.

** Current price 1997/1998 session.

University Bookshop

Blackwells Bookshop, located on the ground floor of H Block, has a considerable number of books available on Microsoft Word and Excel for Windows, and literature on Windows if you wish to brush up your skills.

Back to Top

Using the KnowledgeBank Training Package

This IT training package is available from most of the Teaching Labs on Campus.   To run the Package you will need a floppy disk which holds a record of your progress, for example, where you have got to, your scores in the various tests, etc.   This disk is a normal floppy disk but it must first be initialized.  This is done by putting a disk into the A: drive and clicking on the Start button (at the bottom left of the screen) and choosing:

Programs > KNOWHOW Professional Training > Make Data Disk

This operation will create a couple of directories and copy a couple of files onto the disk.  It will NOT remove any of your files from the disk and the KnowledgeBank data will NOT take up much space on the disk.  You only need to do this once for one disk.  This disk should be used every time you use this training package.  It is recommended that you label this disk "KnowledgeBank disk". 

With the KnowledgeBank disk in drive A: you are ready to start the package.  Click on the Start button (at the bottom left of the screen) and chose:

Programs > KNOWHOW Professional Training > Training

Once logged in you see a list of IT programs.  These are the "supported" programs, many have training available for both the current version and an older version.  You start by either double clicking on the IT program name or by selecting the IT program and clicking on the "Training" button.  Note that the training available for the older versions is no less comprehensive than for the current version.

If you are new to the program it is probably best to go through the training material in a logical straightforward way.  This is done by clicking on the Menu button. This shows the major topics covered in the course.  These are called "chapters".   Each chapter takes somewhere between half an hour to an hour to complete.   There is a quiz at the end of each chapter.

If you know the IT program reasonably well, you might like to try the pre-test rather than go through all the training lessons.   This is done by clicking the "Skills" button.  This starts the "Skills Navigator" and you will be invited to sit a 50 question multiple choice test!   After the test you are shown the complete set of topics colour coded into those topics you can skip and those which you appear not to know too well.

Once you have been through the lessons and tried some of the lesson quizzes (they are run by clicking the Quiz button) you may like to have a go at the "Final Test".   To do this click on the large "Test" button.  You will be offered a choice between sitting the pre-test (of the Skills Navigator) or a final test.  Once you have completed the final test, and hopefully achieved a good score, you can print out your own certificate.  This will show which quizzes you took and how well you did on the Final Test.  The overall mark is based on 50% from the average score from the quizzes and 50% from the Final Test.

The KnowledgeBank training courses you should look at are listed below.  To find what each course covers click on the link.  (Use the browser's Back button to return to this page.)

Obtaining Help within the Programs

There are a number of methods for accessing Help determined by your familiarity with the packages.

New Users

We recommend that you initially spend a little time going through the Microsoft's own demo of Office 97 on the Web.  It's on the Microsoft office site. Click on this link and choose "Product Info + Demos", "multimedia Demos", then the Office 97 Professional Edition.  The more relevant part of the demo is under "Get Results".

You’ll then be ready to start the exercises and obtain help as shown below.

Users with some knowledge

Whilst you are working within a package the quickest and easiest way to use the help facility is through the Search feature.

Clicking on the Display button shows help on the selected topic with usually a "Show me" or "How To" demonstration.

In the Office 97 programs you may find the Office Assistant useful.  You can ask "him" questions and he will prompt you with suggestions.  As with many technical subjects you need to know the jargon and what various things are called.  The assistant is quite flexible, for example, if you ask "What are button bars" it will prompt you with a number of options which include help on "Toolbars" which is the correct word you should have used.

ToolTips

If you "hover" over a button, i.e. position the mouse pointer and don't move it for a second or two, a word or two pops up which tells you the name of the button.  This should happen in all the packages you'll be using here.  It makes life much easy when you use the buttons rather than the menu options and have the ToolTip pop-up means that you will quickly remember what the buttons do.

Back to Top

The Quizzes

At the end of each exercise there is a simple quiz on various topics introduced in the exercise.   Typically each quiz has around eight questions, most of which are multiple choice.  You will also find some questions which ask you type in a word or two.   The multiple choice questions "talk" back to you, telling you if you have answered the questions correctly or not.  You can, if you want, have more than one "go" at answering a question.  You will find, however, that your score will be decreased each time you make a choice.  Once you have found(?) the right answer you can have a look at the other choices without "spoiling" your score.  That is, once you chosen the right answer more choices do NOT alter your score for that question.

These quizzes store your marks and show you how well you've done and how well others have done in a quiz as well!  In order for this to work you must first "login" and access these quizzes via the "IT Workout" link on your "Personal Academic Menu".  If you do not do this then the first time you ask for your score from any quiz you will be requested to login (and your quiz result is lost).  Once logged in, the quiz system knows who is taking the quiz and all scores will then be shown and recorded.  If you take a quiz more than once only your best score is shown. You are expected to score at least 80% in these quizzes - remember you can take them as many times as you like!

Going Further

If you want to take your IT skills further you may be interested in knowing more about European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL).  It's "the international standard of competence for computer users".  To get the qualification you need to be familiar with using PCs and know how to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint to the level of the exercises here.  You will, however, have to learn something about databases including the use of a package such as Microsoft Access and know something about computer networks and their use, for example, email and the Internet.

To find out more, here's some information on the ECDL qualification (and its cost).