Joel T. Fagsao
There are still a few things we could still squeeze out from what think we already know. This still holds true for computer applications. Information technology really continues to evolve.
Alas for those of us who think that the computer training we took about five years ago is okay and believe that there is nothing more to learn are in for a big surpise. Many things have happened and improved over time. For a word processing application I started with DOS based Professional Write and also Word Star. For spreadsheets application Lotus 123 was quite fast. Then Bill Gate’s company Microsoft started Windows Operating System (Windows 3.1) coupled with a suite of applications from Microsoft Word to Powerpoint. We had Word 97 then and I have not yet gotten over MS Office 2007, Microsoft is releasing this week MS Office 2010.
That’s how ancient I am in the world of computers. Through the years I can darn say that “wow, I got to have a first hand experience of the developments in the world of computers.” Sadly, my very first laptop, my trusty IBM conked out- I lost sleep. I think my IBM felt sad and lonely when I had it stay on its leather case undisturbed for many months-because I had been spending more time with my HP Special Edition notebook.
Through the years, Microsoft Office Suite has improved considerably. Today, your MS Word, Excel and other favorite appliations have adjusted to the demands of the workplace whether it is a small business, a government agency or a large corporation. For companies who prefer to have their employees work at home instead of wasting time commuting from their home to the workplace (think traffic or bad roads), work at home would be a better option. I have also been harping before about wasting taxpayer’s money by having to commute to your regional office when you can now have a meeting, collaborate on a document by using communication tools available online. In fact, a chat tool can be used to get staff disperesed in provincial offices to get together and discuss or work out solutions to problems without having to be physically present in one place. I have had a lot of times, wished that management in my place of work finally realize that today’s tools for work can be a real time saver and also a resources saver.
At work, we need to collaborrate on certain files such as our division monthly reports. Normally, what we did earlier was to send the file via e-mail from one staff member to another. It was tedious and a time waster considering that one has to download the file attachment from his or her e-mail and forward the file to another person and so on. I tried searching for a solution and introduced Googledocs, an online collaboration software. Googledocs enabled everyone at work- to work on one file. It seemed to be the right solution but Internet access speed in this part of the world is not quite at par with world standards. Access to the document we were working on online crawled almost to a halt. Worse, there was this issue on competency that you have to deal with. If all your co-workers have varying degrees of competency in their computer operations knowledge then it would be a problem. I was putting off small fires here and another small fire there. Well, some did not know how to attach files to an e-mail, another one would be asking- “how do I add a row of numbers?” It takes time and a lot of patience to learn new things and it also takes commitment.
Undaunted, I tried MS OfficeLive. I may begin to sound like I am promoting Microsoft’s free online collaboration software- but wait a minute, can “we just for once, love Microsoft?”
MS Office Live lets you share a document that you can invite your co-workers to work on together. It is just like passing around your paper work to the rest of your co-workers for their comments and inputs. The beauty of MS Office Live is that you can preview the works of others and if you want to edit or contribute your inputs to it, you can download and work from your popular MS Office Word application. Here’s how it works. Let’s take a look at this scenario. In office XYZ, the staff members of division A need to submitt their monthly report. In this case, Divison A will only submitt one file containing the reports of accomplishment of all staff members in that division. Using MS OfficeLive, one staff member registers online for a free MS Office Live account by going to www.officelive.com Once in Office Live, he or she can now create a workspace. The workspace is like sharing your work desk to the rest of the group in your office. In the case of division A, the division report is done in MS Excel. The file created in MS Excel is then uploaded to the workspace in MS Office Live and the members of division A are invited through their e-mails. When the division members accept the invitation , they can now start collaborating on their report online. The thing with MS Office Live is that it does not allow for simultaneous document editing (which is a nice feature of Googledocs-best when you have a fast internet connection). In MS Office Live, you take turns editing. When two or more try to edit on a single document a warning message goes on.
MS Office Live was easier to work on considering that the group members were already familiar with applications like MS Word or Excel. By downloading an add-in program to your Microsoft Office Suite one can work on a share document right on the computer and save it automatically to the group’s workspace (online). Within the day, we are able to finish our report by working on a single document and eliminate the hassle of having to pass the file from one e-mail to another.
If you do intend to try this out in your place of work, do it first with one division and expand later to all other divisions if MS Office Live can serve well your needs. This coming June (16), Microsoft Corporation has announced that it will now integrate MS Office Live with Skydrive. With Skydrive you will no longer need flash drives to store your files because Skydrive provides you a large (free) storage space of at most 25GB online. Each staff member can register for an account with Office Live and share his or her documents for collaboration. Students working on a project can use this approach. Even a basketball team who want to set a particular goal may find MS Office Live useful. Yes, any kind of work that needs to be done by a group or a team will find MS Office Live a convenient tool. Now if the things I talked about may still sound vauge to you then its high time to get to savor again the thrill of working with computers. You can choose to get stuck in Solittaire or improve on your skills and work smarter by taking the time to learn again. Since when was the last time you had a computer applications training?
Register for a continuing education seminar to learn more about working smart with your computer. Visit Xijen College of Mountain Province, Inc (near Bontoc General Hospital) for more information or send a text query to 0908-151-1870.