The Wonders of
Microsoft Word

How to master advanced Word skills to create beautiful, professional, structured documents

with Sharon Connolly

Communication and IT skills trainer, and professional image consultant

Most of us use Word every day, much of the time for long documents like complex reports, minutes, manuals, annual reports or technical documentation. Do you sometimes feel stressed because you don't have a strong, confident command of how to use the software? Do you sometimes feel there must be an easier way, but you don't know how?

If that sounds familiar, then this workshop is for you. Of course, we can always 'get by' and find a solution to work around any challenge. However, this workshop will make your life easier by removing the stress associated with your everyday work, as well as increase your productivity and professionalism by showing you how to perform seemingly complex tasks with ease.

You'll find the IT workshops at ST Training Solutions a little different. Our trainer, Sharon Connolly, doesn't just tick off boxes; she mixes up the topics to include items that she has been asked about most frequently in her 20 years of IT experience. She will also show you lots of shortcuts and best practice guidelines that will improve your productivity and efficiency.

Join us in this unique, first-of-its-kind fusion of Word topics to make you into a super-skilled Word specialist.

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is designed for those who use Microsoft Word every day and have a good command of basic Word functions. This is not for beginners, but rather it's for those who want help relieving the stress of creating complex documents, like reports, manuals, annual reports, technical documents and user forms.

This workshop is also excellent for anyone responsible for setting up and enforcing branding and standards within their organisation. If your mission is to standardise the look and feel of all your documentation and create easy to deploy templates, then don't miss this unique workshop.

Workshop Objectives

Understand the key elements of good design and layout.
Design, create and manipulate heading styles for consistent document formatting.
Create the essential elements of manuals and reports such as Tables of Contents, Appendices and Cross referencing.
Top and tail your document with page numbers, headers and footers that stay in the right place and show the right details all the time every time.
Tame the document beast by breaking large documents down into small, manageable chunks that also stay true to the whole document.
Control and track multiple edits by multiple people, and always have the latest version of a document with version control.
Design and create standard templates so that you can create perfect documents quickly when you are busy.
Ensure consistency throughout your department by enforcing your brand, and allow those with less technical skills to achieve a high standard of documentation.
Create online forms with protected areas. If you are responsible for collecting data from other people you can restrict and refine what you collect, making it easy for you to get the right data, and making it easy for them to supply you with the right data.
Get a sneak preview of Word macro technology - made simple. If you have ever wanted to create your own template wizards you will learn how to do this without having to be a programmer. Shhhhhh! Don't let the technical department know!

Methodology

The training is hands-on and instructor led. Each participant will have his/her own PC and will work though practical exercises to ensure everything learned is absorbed effectively and can be put into practice straight away. A comprehensive manual and shortcut cards are also included.

Workshop Highlights

Basic design concepts

The grid system for layout and formatting
Understanding serif and sans serif fonts
Use of white space and graphics for visual impact in documents

Using and managing styles

Using the built-in styles for quick consistent formatting
Modifying styles and creating new ones matching your corporate brand or personal preference.
Chaining styles to improve consistency, and saving time by linking heading styles to one another
Assigning shortcut keys and buttons to styles – this saves time, and is also excellent for deploying advanced templates to inexperienced users
Adding styles to templates

Document management

Adding a table of contents
Marking index entries and creating an index
Table of authorities
Appendices
Table of figures

Headers and footers

Different headers and footers for facing pages
Changing headers and footers with sections
Adding watermarks and graphics in headers and footers
Linking header and footer text to styles

Tracking changes

Monitoring changes to a document with revision marking so you know who has made the changes within your document.
Accepting or rejecting the changes
Version control so you are sure everyone is looking at the most up-to-date copy
Document Compare – comparing documents to see what has changed without revision marking

Very large documents

Master and sub-documents. Create documents that exist as single stand-alone files, but also combine to create a larger document with continuing page numbers and headers and footers
Outlining – expand and collapse headings to more easily focus on the part of the document you are currently working on and easily re-organise sections in your documents

Creating document templates

Using Fill-in forms to protect areas of your document and ensure you collect the correct information in the correct places
Using Word fields, such as Ask and Ref to automatically fill in information throughout a document
Using VBA to create an user form (wizard) to collect information and place it in your document

The Wonders ofMicrosoft Word