Office 2007 training

littlehoops

Hi my work has asked me to start training up our staff on office 2007. which i dont mind doing. they are going to send me on a course to learn how to comunicate with a group of people. i guess like a train the trianer course.

What i was wondering is if anyone could help me with like training plans or how i would go about doing it. i have had a google search but did not find much free ideas. i kind of want to get a plan sorted with what i am going to do and say and maybe a workbook.

what do you guys think?

Thanks in advance.

Hoops

astorrs

Well before you can begin developing a training plan, the best advice I can give you is to learn more about your student. Some of this you may already know and some of it you'd be wise to work with the users to clarify your understanding:

• Are the users new to Office 2007 or have they used a previous version (and if so what version)?
• What applications in the Office suite are primarily used?
• What are some of their most common uses of those applications? (i.e. there is no point teaching people about functions of an application they never use as a part of their job, better to focus on what they need)
• What challenges do they encounter with the existing version/application and how might the new one help them (if applicable)?
• etc.

You're trying to find the common ground so you can develop a training plan that will cater to the median user. Others may have a different approach, but that's how I'd start to tackle it.

littlehoops

Thanks for the quick reply.

most of our users have office 2003 experiance.

The office apps they use are Word, Excel, Outlook and some people use PowerPoint.

most users use asic word feautures, excel can be more complex because they are mostly estimators.

I believe most of the problem is that they are used to using office 2003 and they find it hard to find new stuff.

i was thinking about doing a few lessons on each program. maybe having a few sample files and get them to complete it to see what they can do.

i am just realy not sure how to start this.

Thanks again for your help

brad-

littlehoops wrote: »

I believe most of the problem is that they are used to using office 2003 and they find it hard to find new stuff.

If you have the ability to show 2k3 and 2k7 side by side, that would be great.

If not, screenshot many of the typical menu options in 2k3, and use 2k7 to show them where the new area are.

Explain the medalion, show them the quick access toolbar, show them the little arrows associated with the task groups...in many cases hitting that button brings up the exact same window that 2k3 has.

Its going to be dry going through the file menu, like alot of trainers do...but if that quote up there is the primary problem, they will learn best by doing it themselves.

littlehoops

cool Thanks. i use windows 7 at work with xpmode so i have both 2003 and 2007 thats a well good idea.

Thanks any more?

TheShadow

I had written a lengthy reply but the net went down where I am. You have gotten some good ideas and I don't remember what I typed now. One thing not covered for your newbies is that you probably want a workbook. I have taught several of these classes from beginner to expert nice side money. Here is the book I would recommend for lab, homework etc. Made by DDC now a division of Pearson the people that own the Vue testing center franchise. I have used their books all the way back to office 98 and adults seem to do well with them. Here is the general purpose one.

Pearson - Learning Microsoft® Office 2007

Hope it stays up for 5 more seconds

NetworkingStudent

littlehoops wrote: »

Hi my work has asked me to start training up our staff on office 2007. which i dont mind doing. they are going to send me on a course to learn how to comunicate with a group of people. i guess like a train the trianer course.

What i was wondering is if anyone could help me with like training plans or how i would go about doing it. i have had a google search but did not find much free ideas. i kind of want to get a plan sorted with what i am going to do and say and maybe a workbook.

what do you guys think?

Thanks in advance.

Hoops

I have never used 2003, but here are some tips that I thought might help you.
Highlight the differences between 2003vs 2007
Here is a document that will get you started:
Microsoft Office 2003 vs. Office 2007 - a knol by debbie wang
Use Microsoft project manager to track the progress of your training project.
Microsoft Project - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Here is an interesting website I found that gives training for excel, word ect ect and..it’s free
Microsoft Excel 2007 Tutorial?Free & Online
Good Luck
I hope this helps
PS-Is there a reason you're not upgrading to office 2010?

TheShadow

I am assuming this will be your first time at this. Here is a little program that you will find invaluable if you are going to use a projector and you have people scattered about saying that they can't see. It is the closest thing to a graphics tablet without having one.

Zoomit by Mark R. of system internals now with Microsoft

ZoomIt

If I can help anymore just yell.

RobertKaucher

I would also suggest getting a small group of people together to help you. There must be a few people who are already familiar with Office 2007 from home use. These people can act as your buffer so that you are not answering every single question from every user.

HeroPsycho

If they are former Office 2003 users, make sure to give them this link. It's a godsend...

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx

RobertKaucher

HeroPsycho wrote: »

If they are former Office 2003 users, make sure to give them this link. It's a godsend...

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx

And Excel:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA101491511033.aspx

brad-

Interview the some of the people that will attend. Find out what they want to know, and what they have problems with.

Jonny70

I would take your list of core tasks that your office uses Office programs for and do a series of training around each different technology with a focus on the most relevant/applicable tasks.

Do a few sessions for each technology (ex: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook). Allow people to opt into the ones that they wish to attend based on what programs they use. Offering more than one session per technology will ensure that people are able to attend the one's that they want.

For some tips on how to structure your training you can check out the Microsoft online training guides.