Documenting a Day
This week I documented a typical
workday in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In each application, I
created a list of 10 activities that I perform on a typical day. I wrote a very
basic and simplified description of my workday. I wrote my list differently in
each application.
The version of my day in Microsoft
Word was a short story describing my day through text. I tried to keep the
details of the events brief. I could have added a table like I did in Excel, as
well as pictures of the events of the day, but I felt that those items were
more suited for the Excel and PowerPoint portion of this assignment. However,
Word does have functions available to add pictures, charts, graphs, etc. In a
work or education setting, I usually don’t feel the need, or it’s not required
to add images to Word documents; however, it is possible.
When I used Microsoft
Excel, my description of my day was the most to the point and was more of a
timeline with numbers than anything else, as this part of the assignment lacks a
story. It is just the details of the hours that I spend on each of these
activities and a pie chart for a visual aid. I could have used the Excel table
that I created in my Word document. The table and the pie chart would have made
a more appealing document for the reader. The pie chart would have also worked
nicely in my PowerPoint presentation. There are so many functions that can be
used to create a visually engaging presentation in these applications. I feel
that Excel is best used when trying to explain numbers. If given the choice, I
don’t think I would have used Excel to describe my day. At work we use this
application for lists, dates, and numbers of activities to be accomplished.
I created my PowerPoint
presentation as if I were discussing my day with an audience. I tried to be
short on my text to hold the viewers’ attention and convey the details concisely.
A PowerPoint should contain graphics with brief descriptions in the text. The
pictures that I used were from a government website, as we are not allowed to
take personal photos on this installation. In a real-life scenario, I would attempt to make
the PowerPoint tell a brief story, and the rest I would verbally express to the
audience and allow questions throughout or at the end. PowerPoints are great
for presentations.
I have used all three of
these programs in the past. I do not use PowerPoint as often as I use Excel or
Word, but I have used it several times. All three of the applications could be
used effectively for this assignment. If given the option, with the functions
available to me, I would have chosen a PowerPoint presentation. It is to the point, visually appealing, and has
the best chance of holding the audience’s attention on a topic that may not be
all that exciting to the audience.
Overall, all three applications serve as a
resource to help with productivity and completing tasks. They all serve a
purpose; Word is great for sharing word documents, Excel provides tools to
create spreadsheets with graphs and charts and PowerPoint is best used for
presentations.
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