Week 4 Discussion – Organizing with Microsoft Excel Templates
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Initial post due on Wednesday with replies due by Saturday, 11:59pm (MT) end of week 4 (60 points)
Due Dates and Participation Requirements
Learning Objectives Covered
- LO 04.01 – Discuss Microsoft Excel’s real-world applications
Career Relevancy
Employers are often excited to find candidates who have proficiency with MS Excel. This ubiquitous business tool is utilized in many different career fields and used to track inventory, expenses, costs, and virtually everything to manage a business’s finances. Excel also has many uses outside of financial applications, and this assignment is specifically geared toward helping students to use Excel for personal and professional functions.
Background
This week’s discussion post will cover organization tips for using Microsoft Excel. In the previous three weeks, the citations and references were provided. This week you will get to use a reference for a Microsoft Office Excel Templatefrom the Office.com website.
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel has proven itself to be one of the most popular programs that businesses rely on today. Many people mistakenly believe it is just an accounting program and that it may not be useful in their specific field of work.
An article titled com/blog/5-key-uses-of-excel-in-the-work-place” class=”external” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>5 Key Uses for Excel in the Workplace (Links to an external site.) begins with this powerful statement: “Microsoft Excel (Links to an external site) (Links to an external site.) is perhaps the most important computer software program used in the workplace today. That is why so many workers and prospective employees are required to learn Excel to enter or remain in the workplace” (Ruparel, 2014). Please read the article to find out some of the business uses of Excel:http://learn.filtered.com/blog/5-key-uses-of-excel-in-the-work-place (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)
Reference
Ruparel, A. (2014, August 7). 5 key uses of Excel in the workplace. Retrieved from Filtered: http://learn.filtered.com/blog/5-key-uses-of-excel-in-the-work-place.
Exploring Microsoft Excel Templates
You still may be thinking, “Will I ever use Excel in my job?” A great way to explore this is to look at the many templates available. You may want to start by re-watching the Week 4 Working with Templates video.
Begin by opening a blank Excel spreadsheet. In the upper left click on “File,” then drop down to “New.” You will see many template options to choose from on the page. You can create schedules, home inventories, calendars, to do lists and much more.
Explore the templates on the main page. Next, click on “Personal” in the suggested searches at the top of the screen. Look at all of the different uses for Excel.
For our discussion this week, we will be using Planners and Trackers (Links to an external site.) templates for life events. Using Microsoft Excel under File > New, click on Lists > Planners and Trackers (Links to an external site.)and pick any template that interests you. Some example templates found there are:
- Activity Tracker (Links to an external site.)
- Calorie Amortization Schedule (Links to an external site.)
- Family Vacation Itinerary (Links to an external site.)
- Fitness Plan (Links to an external site.)
- Funeral Planning Checklist (Links to an external site.)
- Diet and Exercise Journal (Links to an external site.)
- Student Assignment Planner (Links to an external site.)
- Video Game Tracker (Links to an external site.)
- Wedding Budget (Links to an external site.)
- Weekly Meal Planner (Links to an external site.)
Remember, this week you need to include a citation and reference. Refer back to the week 1 and 2 discussions for a review, if needed. You may reference any outside source, or you may choose to reference a template from the Microsoft Website. The format below is the basic website reference, without an author:
Name of webpage. (Year Published). Retrieved from: Complete URL.
Sample Reference
Microsoft Family vacation itinerary. (n.d.). Retrieved from Microsoft: https://templates.office.com/en-us/Family-vacation…
Remember, if no date is available to use the abbreviation n.d. to indicate no date.
(Microsoft Family vacation itinerary, n.d.)
Prompt
After selecting and exploring a template, answer the following questions:
- Which Excel template did you choose and why?
- How would this template help you to be better informed and more successful when planning this type of an event?
- Did using this Excel template suggest any other uses of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to you?
- How has this exercise changed your opinion of Microsoft Excel? If it has not, explain why.
Reply Requirements
Per the Due Dates and Participation Requirements for this course, you must submit 1 main post of 150+ words, 1 APA citation and reference, as well as 2 follow-up posts of 50+ words. Responses can be addressed to both your initial thread and other threads but must be your own words (no copy and paste), each reply unique (no repeating something you already said), and substantial in nature. Remember that part of the discussion grade is submitting on time (20%) and using proper grammar, spelling, etc. (20% per post).
See SHARC for sample APA-formatted discussion post (Links to an external site.)
The files below are PDFs showing A-level work by fellow students. The examples are provided to illustrate the quality of work needed to get an A on this task. Copying from the samples is considered cheating. Use the examples to inform your plan to create your own work. Look at the pieces for writing quality, use of citations, weaving outside sources and the author’s position together, ability to meet the goals of the task, and cohesion.
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