I just found out that a friend of mine is losing his job after twenty-one years. One of the company owners has passed away and the company is being closed. While my friend is extremely good at his profession, he’s finding that prospective employers want someone who knows Microsoft Word and Excel. At the company which is now closing, my friend used proprietary software to input his reports. While he knows that software inside and out, it’s not Microsoft Office. He’s concerned and is looking for help in learning Word and Excel.

While my friend could hire me for one-on-one Office training, my first suggestion is that he take advantage of the free training offered by Microsoft. There are some excellent tutorials on the Office tutorial sites. These lessons are great for people new to Office and even for people who just need to brush up. This training allows you to move at your own pace, and go back and review as many times as you like. Some lessons even have templates you can download and use to follow along and practice.

Below are links to tutorials on each of the Microsoft Office applications: