| Warning: You are viewing this page with an unsupported Web browser. This Web site works best with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later, Firefox 1.5, or Netscape Navigator 8.0 or later. Learn more about supported browsers. Crabby's six degrees of Office Online Help
 Crabby Office Lady Let's take a look at the various choices you have when it comes to either getting assistance for a thorny problem or just learning a new skill. Office Online provides many avenues from which to choose, so please don't write to tell me that we never help. Subscribe to Crabby's columns Read all the Crabby Office Lady columns Get the Crabby Office Lady's book I've been going to the same hair salon — Headlines — near my house for more than three years. The place itself is nice without feeling like some of the other elitist salons nearby. The stylists are friendly and helpful, and the owners know both me and my daughter by name. All in all, it's a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours getting my ... getting my .... well, never you mind. Suffice it to say I go every couple of months. (OK! Every six weeks!) Since I've been going there, Steve, the owner, has been periodically sending out an e-mail newsletter to the clients of the salon. At first, the newsletter was all text; it didn't have any color and it certainly didn't match the very nice Web site of the salon. So, being the forthright and blunt person I am, I commented on it. Then I pointed Steve to Publisher, and voilà — he was smart enough to figure out that he could do a very nice newsletter in Publisher. Of course, that in turn brought up many questions regarding size, resolution, colors, and so on, so Steve would occasionally e-mail me to ask me questions. I finally had to stop enabling him and point him to all the content we have on Office Online. It surprised me that Steve was unaware of Office Online (I mean, if you're an Office user, don't you need to go somewhere for some help once in a while?). But it got me wondering how many other folks were in the same boat. So, this week is devoted to explaining what we do and how we do it.
Note I do realize that, technically, if you're reading this, you already are on Office Online. However, maybe you get my columns via RSS and they're the only thing you read. Or maybe you were unaware of training possibilities or demos on the site. Whatever the case, I'm fairly certain you can find something of interest in this column. If you already know everything about everything, then get up and out of your chair and go outside and do something to promote world peace or just ... your family's peace. Crabby's six degrees of Office Online HelpSometimes when you're stuck on a problem using an Office program, you need help and you need it NOW (not unlike the "I need it NOW!" urgency for a very nearby public restroom for your recently potty-trained two-year-old). You just want to be able to type a word or a phrase into search and have your answer immediately returned in the form of a simple, short article that explains it all. Other times you might like to watch someone show you how it's done, although it isn't always possible to wander the hallways and look for an unsuspecting coworker to enlighten you. Office Online offers a multitude of ways to get "show me now!" help as well as other types of assistance. Today I'll cover six of them. Degree #1: Topics and articlesA long time ago, before Office Online was the way we know it now — chock-full of ways of getting assistance — we had help topics and articles to help solve your problems and teach you how to get the most out of your Office programs. And for a while, that was enough — because it worked. This type of content gets right to the heart of the matter: You ask a question, we provide an answer, usually in a procedural manner: 1) Do this; 2) then do this; 3) finally do this; and 4) rejoice because your problem is solved. Of course, we still have a multitude of topics and assistance articles on our site to help you become more efficient at your work. And it's no mystery why we have so much of this content on our site: People have gotten used to getting their information this way, and it works. Hop on over to the Help and How-to Home Page on Office Online, jump right in and ask a question in the Help and How-to Search box. Or, in the left navigation, under Help by product, do what I like to call "whisk and whittle": Choose the program that you need help with and be ferried away to the home page of that product, where you can pare down the search results to the specific program that is vexing you. You'll get articles that offer scenarios and those that walk you through a process one step at a time. You'll also get an opportunity to check out other kinds of content. And what might those be? Keep reading. Degree #2: Columns and other featured contentAs you may imagine, I'm quite fond of columns. I started writing the Crabby Office Lady column more than six years ago, with the goal of offering Office users a different way of learning — in a style that was a bit more personal. I like to paint a picture while I try to solve problems. And I'm not the only one who does this. The bi-weekly Office Hours column offers tips and ideas on different, Office-related topics every other week from a company-wide smattering of Microsoft employees. And don't think that insiders don't deal with the same software issues that you do; in fact, their jobs depend on it. But what these resourceful Microsofties come up with is pretty amazing. And let's not forget about the Inside Office Online blog, which covers everything from asking you, our customers, how we can improve our "help" content, to making sure you're up-to-date on the newest templates and downloads. If you'd like for us to stay in touch with you, sign up for the Office Online Newsletters, sent to you monthly — hot and fresh. It's a great way to stay on top of what's new, what's coming up, and even what you've been missing. Degree #3: TrainingBy now you've surely heard about our training courses. They're free, they're incredibly useful, and they'll teach you things you never even knew were possible. Some of us learn by reading, some by watching, and some by doing. Office training courses let you do all three — all within a timeframe you control. The folks who come up with these training courses are experts in their field. For instance, the Word training course writers know everything there is to know about Word; they'll train you in the fine art of using bulleted and numbered lists while making sure you know how to best use tables in your documents — and they offer no fewer than three courses to teach you. Same holds true for the training courses in Access, Excel, PowerPoint and just about any other Office program — if you need to learn it, chances are a training course has been developed to teach you. Yes, the training course creators are masters at anticipation: Before you even thought you might need to know how to do something, a course has been created for you. Degree #4: DemosOur video demos are one of the most popular types of content on the site. A great way to learn is to watch how it's done. Demos are short, they're easily loaded, they also come with a "How to do it" text format, and then they link you off to other content that helps you get to work. So once you watch how it's done, you can try it for yourself. Interestingly enough, a majority of these demos were created based on feedback that our customers sent us. And, since I already mentioned that everyone learns differently, there are a variety of types of demos from which to choose:
Degree #5: RSS feeds that will send you a combo of stuffDegree #4 and degree #5 are related. They both SHOW you as well as TEACH you. But they have one more thing in common: You can get demos and training courses sent right to your doorstep (or, rather, your RSS reader, such as Outlook 2007) every other week. As the folks who put together the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds for training and demos say, "Why go out when you can order in?"
If you're not clear on what RSS is or how to get it, take a look at some of these resources:
Degree #6: Get Started Tab for Excel, PowerPoint, and WordThe Get Started tab is a download — a free add-in — for Office PowerPoint 2007, Office Word 2007, and Office Excel 2007. After you download it, it adds a Get Started tab to the Ribbon (part of the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface) in those three programs (see the far right tab). From this tab you can easily access the free content on Office Online, such as training courses, video demos, and other Office Online content designed to help you learn these three Office programs. On that tab is also an interactive–command mapping tool that shows you where to find the Office 2003 commands and buttons in Office 2007. (If you ask me, this is one of the best parts of this add-in. Many of you have had a bit of trouble ramping up on the new design of Office 2007; this gives you a happy little jump start.)
No more cryingNow that I've offered you six individual ways of getting help for all your Office programs, those somewhat hostile letters had better cease coming to me. I am prepared to make nice now and hope we can all be friends. And if you can think of a seventh way to get help, more power to you, brothers and sisters, let me know at crabby@microsoft.com. "In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these." — Paul Harvey About the authorAnnik Stahl, the Crabby Office Lady columnist, takes all of your complaints, compliments, and knee-jerk reactions to heart. Therefore, she graciously asks that you let her know whether this column was useful to you — or not — by entering your feedback using the Was this information helpful? tool below. And remember: If you don't vote, you can't complain. Subscribe to Crabby's columnsRead all the Crabby Office Lady columns Get the Crabby Office Lady's book |
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