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.