0.1 What each app is for

What you'll be able to do

Pick the right app before you start typing. Each app is built for one kind of work:

• Word is for documents made of sentences and paragraphs.
• Excel is for tables, numbers and calculations.
• PowerPoint is for slides you show to other people.
• Outlook is for email and your calendar.
• OneNote is for notes and ideas you have not sorted yet.

Before you start

Nothing to download. Open whichever app is nearest: on your computer, at office.com in a browser, or on your phone.

The work

1. Same either way: open Word and type two sentences. Word gives you margins, page edges and spelling underlines without being asked. It is built for pages of flowing text.
2. Same either way: open Excel and look at the empty grid. Excel has no pages. It has cells — small boxes, each with an address made of a column letter and a row number. Use Excel when your work is rows of similar things: names, amounts, dates.
3. Same either way: open PowerPoint. It gives you a slide, sized for a screen at the far end of a room. One slide holds one idea while a person talks. It is not a place to store writing.
4. Same either way: learn the two common mistakes. The first is a table typed into Word with tabs and spaces. Word cannot add up those numbers, and the columns move apart the first time anyone edits. The second is a report written into Excel cells. Long sentences trapped in small boxes are hard to read.
5. Same either way: before your next real task, say one sentence out loud. "This is mostly writing." Or "mostly numbers", or "mostly for a room", or "a message", or "a quick note". Then open the app that sentence names. Changing app after you have typed a page costs ten times more work.
6. Same either way: know your three ways in. The apps installed on a computer have every feature. The web versions at office.com run in a browser and do the everyday work. The phone apps are for reading, small edits and quick notes. Later topics tell you when something needs the computer.

Try it

Take three real things from your week: notes from a class, a list of expenses, something you must explain to a group. Say which app each one belongs in, and why. If an answer is "Word, with a table drawn inside it", think again.

Check yourself