Microsoft Office Online training courses consist of lessons about Microsoft Office programs and cover specific features or activity areas. Most courses take anywhere from 15 to 50 minutes to complete, but because they are self-paced, how long a course takes is ultimately up to you.

In addition to taking the lessons, you'll have a chance to practice in the program that you're learning about. For example, if you take a course about Microsoft Office Excel, a practice session will open in Excel, along with instructions to help you as you work. You'll also be able to test yourself at the end of each lesson. Each lesson, test, and practice session is optional. You can take an entire course at one time, complete it over a period of time, or just take the parts you need at a given time. You can use the courses as training for new skills, or as a way to refresh skills that you use just once in a while.

To get more information about the parts of a training course and to learn some best practices for using them, click the links below.

---

• Course table of contents

• Lessons

• Audio

• Animation

• Practice sessions

• Tests

• Feedback and ratings

• Quick Reference Card

---

Course table of contents

Each course includes a table of contents that you can use to see what the course is about and quickly jump from topic to topic. To see the topics included in a particular lesson of a course, click the plus sign next to the lesson heading.

You can go directly to any page in a course by clicking its topic title.

 Top of Page

Lessons

Each course consists of one or more lessons. Lessons cover specific features or activity areas in Microsoft Office programs and may contain audio, art, and animations.

Audio

How much audio a course contains depends on the version of Microsoft Office that the course discusses:

• For the 2007 Office release, all lessons are spoken.
• For Office 2003, unless a course title explicitly states "all audio" in the title, audio is limited to the Overview page and the first page of each lesson.

In all versions, spoken text is displayed on the screen for you to read at your own pace.

Tip   Because the audio plays automatically when you open a course, if you take a course in an open work area, you might want to mute the audio or use headphones if the sound could disturb your neighbors.

Control when the audio plays

You control when the audio plays by using the Play/Pause, Stop, and Mute buttons located at the top of the window:

• To stop the audio from playing on a particular page, press Stop .
• To stop the audio from playing on all pages, press Mute . To restore the sound after muting, press Mute again and then press Play .
• To replay audio at any time, press Play .

Control audio volume

How you control volume depends on the version of the course you're taking. For courses about the 2007 release (and for some Office 2003 courses), you use the Decrease volume and Increase volume button controls located at the top of the window.

For most Office 2003 courses, you control the audio with a Volume slider control located above the audio text.

Troubleshoot audio

If you don't hear the audio, check to make sure that you haven't accidentally turned the volume down too low; also check the state of the Mute button. If the volume and the mute settings are as you expect them to be, there may be a problem with your computer, your computer may not have a sound card, or the page that is displayed might not include audio. Or, you may be using an unsupported browser.

To learn more about which browsers are supported for Microsoft Office Online, see Browser Requirements.

For help troubleshooting general audio issues, see Resources for Troubleshooting Sound Problems in Windows XP.

 Top of Page

Animation

Some courses may include animations, which require the Macromedia Flash Player. If the player is not already installed on your computer, depending on your security settings, you may receive a message asking if you want the installation. If you download the player and you have a slow Internet connection, the training course may appear to stop responding for as much as a minute while the player is downloaded.

In certain situations, if you are using Netscape as your browser, the Play and Rewind controls above an animation may not work. If this occurs, right-click the animation and then click Play to view it.

 Top of Page

Practice sessions

At the end of most lessons you'll get a chance to practice in the program you are learning about. A Microsoft Office program will open along with instructions to help you as you work. You must have the appropriate version of the program installed to be able to complete the steps for that practice session. For example, if you are taking a Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 course, you must have Office FrontPage 2003 installed on your computer to be able to open and follow the steps for that practice session.

For more information about troubleshooting practice sessions, see Troubleshoot Office Online training practice sessions.

 Top of Page

Tests

There's a short test at the end of each lesson. After you answer any of the questions for a lesson, a green check mark appears beside the name of that lesson in the table of contents. This helps you to keep track of your progress while the course is open.

If you close and then reopen a course, the check marks are gone, but are added again if you retake a test. Test results are not scored.

 Top of Page

Feedback and ratings

At the end of a course, you can rate the course and give us feedback about it if you'd like to. When you rate a course, your rating is averaged in with the ratings of other learners who also rated the course. The rating on the Overview page indicates the average score that people who took the course gave it; you'll also see the average rating when you browse or search for courses on Office Online. Courses are rated on a scale of 1–5 stars, with 5 stars being the highest rating.

After you rate a course and submit feedback, you have the option to change your responses by clicking the Change button on the Feedback page. If you change your rating or answers to the feedback questions for a particular course, your previous responses are updated with the new ones. If you exit a course and return to it later, your feedback and ratings will no longer be displayed. However, you may rate the course again and submit feedback.

 Note    If you go to the Feedback page before you've completed all of the tests for a course, you'll see a message that says, "Have you completed all the lessons that you're interested in?" Although you do not have to complete the tests, this message appears as a reminder that you have not completed one or more of the lesson tests.

The feedback form is intended to help us improve existing courses and to create new ones, but individual questions or concerns cannot be answered. For help with a specific Microsoft Office product, click Contact Us at the bottom of any Microsoft Office Online page.

 Top of Page

Quick Reference Card

Each course has a Quick Reference Card that you can print to take away from the course. To see the Quick Reference Card, click Quick Reference Card in the table of contents.

You can print the Quick Reference Card right from the browser window: Click File, and then click Print.

Go to Training Home Page

 Top of Page