Professor Teaches Microsoft Office XP Plus

Discount Price: $41.25

Customer Reviews:

A big sigh of relief.......thanks for carrying this product! [Posted on 2002-05-01]
Professor teaches Office XP was a great choice for me. I needed to polish up on my Microsoft Office skills because I'm looking for a new job. I'm an administrative assistant. Word and Excel are staples, but I wanted to know more about Access and Powerpoint in order to "sell myself" to a prospective employer. Also, getting tested for PC skills before hiring is now commonplace. In 9 days (one disk per day), I brushed up on Excel and Word, and I feel very confident about being tested on Powerpoint, Outlook and Access! And I can also say that I know the latest features offered by Office XP!

Lousy Training [Posted on 2003-10-21]
Maybe it is because I have spent much of my working life training people to work using a computer that I dislike this package so much. It is very superficial training for a new person. There is no training by actually doing outside of minimal entries in answer to a queston. One certainly does not feel "educated" after completing the course. Many aspects are ignored and there is no manual to use to pursue a greater understanding of what is not covered.

Good for the Professor [Posted on 2003-10-31]
The Professor Teaches Microsoft Office XP Plus is a valuable tool for people new to the programs or those with a good deal of experience.

The work is introduced at a good pace and is explained well from the first lesson to the last.

Excellent way to learn the fundamentals of Office XP [Posted on 2005-03-10]
The nine main lessons in this package are each on a separate CD. The lessons are:

1) Word 2002
2) Excel 2002
3) Access 2002
4) PowerPoint 2002
5) Outlook 2002
6) Internet Explorer 5.5
7) Windows Me
8) Windows 98
9) Windows 2000.

Each of the lesson groups is further subdivided into several sub-lessons, all of which take a substantial amount of time. For example, the lessons for Word and the estimated times to completion are:

1) Introduction to Word, 90 minutes.
2) Creating and Editing Text, 90 minutes.
3) Formatting text, 90 minutes.
4) Working with layout and design, 80 minutes.
5) Enhancing documents, 80 minutes.
6) Tables, printing and web pages, 90 minutes.

The estimated times for the other lessons are comparable.
I found the time estimates to be very reasonable averages. I generally completed them in about ten minutes less than the given time. The lessons are composed of a series of screenshots, at times you click on the next button to move on and other times you click or double-click on the appropriate section of the screenshot. This mimics what would happen if you were using the product. Each lesson is narrated, and the voice moves at a slow steady pace, well within the bandwidth of any listener. There is a summary at the end of each lesson followed by a short, scored quiz.
While these applications have far too much functionality to be completely covered in over nine hours, the coverage is reasonable. I regularly teach in the community education department of the local community college and the coverage is similar to what is done in our comparable classes of sixteen hours.
Each lesson also contains a glossary that allows you to click on a term and see the definition in a text field. It is also possible to click on a letter and move to the segment of the glossary that begins with that letter. There is also a subject index, where you can double click on an entry and the lesson segment that covers that topic will run.
While at times it may move slower than you like, these lessons are an excellent way to learn the fundamentals of these applications. You can move at your own pace, skip what you find dull and go back to what you didn't understand. Moving on by clicking or double-clicking the appropriate location in the image gives it a realism that other CD based tutorials lack. It can be used for self-study, supplemental reinforcement or as a primary learning tool in a formal class.

Published in Mathematics and Computer Education, reprinted with permission.

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