IS 101 Second Attempt

     I took this same course more than a year ago but I didn't earn a good grade (poor planning and execution on my part) However I can happily say I learned a lot more this time and glad I decided to retake this course. I probably won't ever take a course on a Saturday morning I learned it was very difficult to fit into my schedule, I thought I wasn't going to have any troubles but it seems like my life always had me occupied during Saturday mornings. I enjoyed doing the PowerPoint presentation especially since we were able to choose the topic, I'm confident I dramatically improved my skills in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. 

Using Slide Masters

     I found slide masters to be very useful, I never knew that existed and I presented many PowerPoints during high school and some in college. It's ideal to use slide masters to make all changes to your slides at once but it was a little confusing to maneuver at first even with LabSims I would often make mistakes on certain options in slide master mode for example I know I accidentally added a slide master into the slide while I was in slide master mode a couple of times. I actually enjoyed doing the LabSims for slide master I will definitely be using this option at my next presentation. 

Conditional Formatting

 I go back to my time in the Marine Corps once again, I had an OIC (Office in Charge) drag me and two of my peers into his office and taught us conditional formatting however I can't say I 100% paid attention but I'll never forget thinking "how does he know all this stuff and why." I never did get my answer but I assumed since he was an officer he must have taken a course in college on the subject which brings me to the current time. Now I'm the one taking a course on Excel and I just wish I could go back in time to show everything I learned. I regret not being mature enough to understand the tools that were in front of me during my active time in the Marines. I find conditional formatting to be essential in creating any worksheet that involves progress because it's such an easy thing to identify and follow, for example, the way we learned to use it in our Excel workbook was if reports were still not submitted after 2 days the rule would make that cell red. 

Hate Headers

All college essays require headers, of course I was probably introduced to it in high school but at that age I probably didn't care for it. Now in college the amount of header editing I was doing was annoying me, during this class I learned that you can actually save a template header. That was the one thing I'm so happy I learned from this class I can't believe I was writing a whole new header each time I wrote an essay for a class. I also learned more about footers which I was not too familiar with, after learning more on how to use it properly I doubt I would use it unless required. This section in LabSim personally impacted me the most I know it sounds crazy since there was tons of new material I learned doing the labs but the header section is something that would bug me all the time I always did the header portion once I was all done with my essay, this is a skill that I can certainly pass on to my sister as she begins college next year.

Introduction to Office Applications

I can't pinpoint my first experience with Microsoft Word but I know at one point I was exposed to it during school. Unlike college (at least for me) most essays in high school were done by hand it was really only during a big project or final did we use Microsoft Word but even then my knowledge was at the bare minimum the same goes for PowerPoint. I believe most people are aware of office applications and if forced can probably navigate through the basics. As an HVAC technician, I have not touched any office applications however during my deployment that was my ultimate exposure to Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, and OneNote. It was a little embarrassing having an older gentleman in his 50s teaching me (a 22-year-old) how to use these office applications and although I did find it so complex and boring at the time, I'm so thankful for learning those skills.