Four down, seven to go

So far I have taken four Microsoft Office 2007 certification courses:

• Essentials of Windows Vista
• Getting Started With Microsoft Excel 2007
• Performing Calculations with Microsoft Excel 2007
• Getting Started With Microsoft Office Word 2007

and have learned the following:

1.  Merely owning and using the software for the two years it's been out does not make one evenly knowledgeable about it.  I might have guessed about this, but now I know for sure.  Spending this time was a good idea just to make me a more productive user, let alone the objective resume lingo benefit

2.  I don't mind retooling myself for new software releases.  Not sure if this is because I have some intrinsic easily retrofittable brain (being raised through the early development of personal computers), or because I put more weight on understanding the overall organization, than the detail of exactly where to find something today.  Maybe those are the same thing.  Maybe it has to do with being a librarian's child.

3.  There are a lot of cool features that I don't use enough.  Particularly Word keyboard macros.  Cue notalgia for the old WordPerfect days of speed formatting, pre-mouse.

4.  I want to learn much more about Excel, particularly more of the "whys" of what all this stuff is good for - ought to paw through Tim Ferriss' site again.  It's also much more fun to use Excel when the range naming makes sense.

5.  Microsoft engineers are apparently fans of The Price Is Right - many of the "self-tests" at the end of each module are in a Tile Game form.  Complete with sound effects.

6.  Wasabi peas are my new favorite study food.

I have access to eleven first-tier courses in this series, which will also "get me started" and teach "essentials" of Outlook and Powerpoint, two more programs I've been using for nigh on a decade.  Humbling experience, this, but also empowering.

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