I have a penchant for productivity software, despite not having a real use for it, I find the fact that every user in the world has the same software tools to play with and the only differentiator is how far people push them.
In recent years, I’ve had a go with many different technology companies idea of brilliant productivity software. Google’s Docs and Sheets, Apple’s Pages and Keynote and another one from a company I cannot remember the name of.
But none are of the quality that Microsoft provide with their Office 365 software. It isn’t cheap, with rivals’ products being free in most cases but it works so well that 1.2 billion people use the software.
PowerPoint
This is my favourite aspect of Office 365, the ability to manipulate it and stretch its capabilities to do things that are pretty cool. I was introduced to the software at primary school when I was ten, nobody else seemed all that interested and wanted it over with but I enjoyed it immensely and kept trying to do more exciting things with the software. The ability to animate pictures and do jazzy transitions between slides will never fail to entertain me.
Word
The most popular and well-known aspect of the Office 365 portfolio, which has almost become a by-word for all word processing software. But for me, it is the most boring and replaceable element of the package. It cannot handle pictures particularly well and doesn’t seem to have a defining feature. In fact, I only use it when I absolutely have to and prefer to use the free Windows WordPad for most things.
Excel
The most quietly exciting element of the Office 365 package as many don’t use it to its full potential. Many use Excel to hold their data and complete relatively simple calculations (sum, average, etc) but it has so much more to offer. Things like pivot tables, macros and conditional formatting that are incredibly clever but not often used. I admire Excel, but I don’t see many scenarios when you can use all of its features.
Do you like Office 365 or do you have another productivity software of preference?
Do comment your thoughts below.
Published in Tech
