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MS Office Notes
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Computer Awareness is an important part of many competitive exams, this question might not only
be asked in a different section for Computers but can be asked in the General Awareness section.
Having an in-depth knowledge of Computers and its various applications is important in order to
get a hold over the section through a proper understanding of this topic. Questions from this topic
can be asked in various competitive exams like SSC, UPSC, IBPS PO,, NABARD, Banking exams and
others which might test one’s knowledge of Computers and its applications. Here, we would be look-
ing at different aspects related to the Microsoft Office or MS Office, which is one of the commonly
and widely used applications by people across the globe for writing documents to create graphs for
Statistics.

What is Microsoft Office or MS Office?

Microsoft Office or MS Office can be seen as a form of a collection of an array of office-

related applications. Each of these Office-related applications has been created by the team of devel-
opers at Microsoft to cater to different uses. Microsoft in 2019 launched the latest version of its
cloud-based computing platform of MS Office called Microsoft 365. The first suite of MS Office con-
taining various applications was launched in the year 1988, and since then different versions and a
total of 16 suites have been released by Microsoft the latest being the MS Office 19 which is for of-
fline use unlike Microsoft 365 which is for online use.

MS Office Notes - Overview

Given below is the brief overview of the MS Office Notes.

 Microsoft Office is a closed-source software office suite containing different applications.

 It was first launched by Bill Gates on 19th November 1990 soon after the launch of Mi-
crosoft Windows.
 The first version of MS Office Contained MS Word, MS Excel & MS Powerpoint. While these
are called as the Applications, Microsoft Office is called as a Software.
 Following table provides the list of Applications launched by MS Office:

First
Application Main Function
Launch

Creating
MS Word 1983
text files

Creating
MS Excel 1985
Spreadsheets

MS 1990 Creating

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Power Point Presentations

Database
MS Access 1992
Management

Emailing &
MS Outlook --
Work Calendar

MS OneNote 2003 Keeping Notes

Desktop
MS Publisher 1991
Publishing

Video
Skype 2007
Conferencing

Out of these applications, MS Word, MS Excel & MS Powerpoint are used the most across
the world. Let us now have a look at these separately.

MS Office Notes - MS Word

Microsoft Word is the most convenient software used for creating text files. These text files
can be edited and transferred from the author to others and edited by them too. This is how
word window looks

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like: As a word
processing application, there are the following functions available in it:

 To process any commands on the existing text in Word, first, you need to select the text.
To select any text, you need to place the cursor before the word and press Shift+Right arrow.
Alternatively, you can place the cursor after the word ends and press Shift+Left Arrow.
 From Home Menu, you can copy/cut the existing text & paste it to some other place in the
same document or in the other document. The other processes that can be performed from
‘Home’ menu are changing fonts, size, colour, Case, alignment, spacing etc. Bullets & Num-
bers, Paragraphs can also be introduced from the same menu. You can look for a particular
word in the document by clicking on Find from Home menu or simply Pressing Ctrl+F.
There is an option of replacing that word too.
 From ‘Insert’ menu, files apart from text can be inserted in the document. E.g. images,
screenshots, tables, links & hyperlinks, charts, shapes, equations, special symbols, headers,
footers & page numbers
 From Design menu, you can obtain pre-decided templates of fonts & font sizes for heading,
subheading & other text of the document. That helps improve readability of the file quickly.
 Page layout option provides you with a chance to change spacing before the paragraphs,
indents and general margin spacing of the page.
 From References option, you can insert Bibliography & Citation of the texts in different
formats like MLA, APA but for that, you need to insert list of books you have referred.
 Review option helps you check spelling & grammar errors in the document & protect the
document from being edited by non-trusted users.

Now that we have looked at basics of MS Word, now let us move on to MS Excel.

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MS Office Notes - MS Excel

MS Excel is used for processing the data that is in tabular form and then perform mathematical
functions on it in order to analyze it. This is what Excel window looks like:

MS Excel performs following basic functions:

 In MS Excel, there are rows and columns. Intersection of rows and columns forms a cell. So
each of the cells is an individual unit of data. Each cell has a cell address which is the number
of row and alphabet of the column it appears in. No two cells have the same address ever.
 Home & Insert menu of MS Excel is similar to MS Word. You can change the formatting of
the content from home & include pie charts, tables and other files related to data from insert
menu.
 The unique functions that MS Excel has are Formulas & Data. You can perform the for-
mula on data in order to analyze it quickly. You have to select the cells for that and one cell
becomes one unit of data. So if you select 10 cells and apply an average formula to them, you
will get an average of data put in those 10 cells.

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 To apply a formula to any data, you need to select it without any space. Then in the
function bar, you need to type '=' and the abbreviation of the formula you wish to apply.
 From Data menu, you can perform functions without changing the original data. You can fil-
ter & sort data without changing it. Eg. You can sort the data in alphabetical order.
 Right from basic functions like addition & subtraction, you can perform complex sta-
tistical functions like correlation & t-test. Moreover, you can convert them into Pie charts
or graphs within moments. This makes data analysis easy.

MS Office Notes - MS Powerpoint

MS Powerpoint is an application which provides you slides and run a slideshow.

 Firstly, In Powerpoint, there are slides. You need to add content to them to make presen-
tation. From Home menu, you can add new slides, decide their sequence, layout, de-
sign & other word processing functions like font change, size change etc.
 From Insert menu, you can add media to the slides to enhance your presentation.
 Design menu offers you with ready-made templates & background designs for slides
that make the presentation look very attractive.
 Transition & Animation are the unique functions of Powerpoint. These menus offer
different options in which the text appears on the slides & transition from one slide to
other.
 Finally, From Slideshow menu, you can view the final form of the slideshow. You can
start the slideshow from the first slide or the slide that you are editing. Also, You can also
set display time for each slide from 'Slideshow' menu.

Other Important Microsoft Functions

MS Office - Microsoft Outlook

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i)The MS Outlook application is a Personal Information Manager or in simple words, it is a

form of a personal organizer like managing dates, tasks and others.

ii)Its primary work though is to send and receive emails. Outlook came into existence in the
year 1997 and was launched as a part of Microsoft Office Suite of 1997.

Note: MS Outlook is an application one needs to pay for to use while creating an email on
outlook is free of cost.

MS Office - Microsoft Publisher

i)Microsoft Publisher is a Desktop Publishing Application and works as an entry-level

Graphic Design application.

ii)Though on the onset it may seem similar to MS Word it has a greater emphasis on Page
layout and Design. It can be used to create basic templates, cover pages and logo designs.

iii)The first version of Microsoft Publisher 1.0 was released in 1991. The file extension of
files created by using Microsoft Publisher is .pub.

MS Office - Microsoft Access

i)Microsoft Access functions as a Database Management System ( DBMS ). It helps users to

be able to analyze humongous amounts of information and manage data in a more efficient
way.

ii)The application works through storing information which is related together and creates
connections between different things to make a holistic and more easy-to-use database.

iii)It is an important application used for Data-entry by organizations. The first version of
Access was released by Microsoft Corporation on 13th November 1992.

iv)There are a number of file extensions depending on the file formats, the most common
being the .adn extension.

MS Office - Skype

i)Skype is one of the most used applications for the purpose of telecommunications between
computers through Video Chats and Voice Calls between Computers, Tablets, Mobiles and
even through devices like Xbox One.

ii)The application also supports the exchange of messages between the respondents and al-
so can be used for the purposes of Video conferencing.

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iii)Originally founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom from Sweden and Janus Friis from
Denmark.

iv)It was on the 29th of August, 2003 when the first Beta version of Skype went public. Mi-
crosoft Corporation would go on to acquire Skype Communications for a sum of $8.5 Billion
in 2011.

It is important to know about Computers and the different applications associated with it.
Through this article, we looked at MS Office or Microsoft Office and the various applications
which are used for different purposes. Knowing about this topic is important for various
Competitive exams like SSC, UPSC, IBPS PO, NABARD, Banking exams and other Competi-
tive exams where questions from this topic can come in the General Awareness Section. As-
pirants can download the Testbook app for more updates and tips to prepare for their com-
petitive exams. People who want to get exclusive benefits can check out our Testbook offers.