0.1 What each app is for
You stop using the wrong app for the job — the commonest cause of painful documents.
Before:nothing requiredUnlocks:01. Excel — First Steps07. Word — Core09. PowerPoint — Core11. Outlook & OneNote12. Copilot Across the Apps
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote each exist for a different kind of work, and the first skill is matching the job to the app. It opens the course because most painful documents start with the wrong choice: a table typed into Word, a report written in Excel, a talk read out from slides. The common confusion is thinking the apps are interchangeable because they look similar; the menus rhyme, but what each one is good at does not. There is also a quick look at the desktop, web and mobile versions, because the one on your machine may not be the full one.
Work through these
Word for prose, Excel for data, PowerPoint for a room, Outlook for messages, OneNote for capture
Each app is built around one shape of information. Continuous prose, a grid of values, a room full of people, a stream of messages, or a place to put things quickly. Matching the shape to the app before you start is what this whole topic is for.
The classic mistakes: a table typed in Word, a report written in Excel, a document read out from slides
The painful documents almost always come from the same few mismatches, and seeing them named makes them recognisable in your own work. A table typed as text and a report built in a grid are the two that cost the most hours later.
Choosing the app before you start, not after
Choosing the app takes ten seconds at the start and costs an afternoon at the end. This item exists because the wrong choice is rarely noticed until the document is nearly finished.
Desktop, web and mobile versions and what each is missing
The web, desktop and mobile versions of the same app are genuinely different products, and something you rely on may not be there. Knowing which one you are working in prevents the puzzled search for a missing feature.
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Links last checked 29 Aug 2026.
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