Several years ago I got involved with the local elementary school where our children went to school. For years they had scrapbooked by hand every page of the yearbook. It was either taking several parents with several different styles and no flow to the yearbook or the last year of hand scrapbooking the yearbook there was one person that put in hundreds of hours. At that point it was time for someone else to take over the yearbook. We didn’t have any skills of hand scrapbooking, but had some computer experience and figured that the yearbook could be done in fewer hours and be nicely done on the computer.

Now, the question was what program to use to create the yearbook pages. They had to be able to be saved in a certain format and we wanted something that would give flexibility to make the pages look bright, colorful and fun for the students to look at. We considered purchasing expensive programs that are used by the professionals. The trick was that we had to learn a whole new program and that it was out of the budget. Then we got looking at what programs I had on my computer already. I was really surprised to find that Microsoft had a program that would do everything we wanted and it was on my computer. I had that computer for 3-4 years.

We now had a program that I could do the yearbook in and it was capable of doing everything we wanted, but I had no idea how to use all of the features. So we dove in. We started on page one and it was very boring and not very many features on the page. Then as I went page to page I would learn something new. So, guess what happened by the time I got to page 60 of the yearbook. I had learned so many features that the pages looked drastically different. So, now I was going back to page one and redoing things.

How many times have you faced that type of a situation? If you have been in that situation you are either laughing or feeling the frustration you faced when you did that project. Now, as the years have gone by and I have continued to do the yearbook I have learned more and more, but I am still learning more features every time I do a page. I am now realizing there are some big things I could have done different to have been more productive with my time and to have created the yearbook to the best of my ability. Microsoft is wise and recognizes that people need quick help and offers Microsoft online training.

With Microsoft online training you can get quick tips or take the time to learn the program completely if you are going to continue use the program like I have with the yearbook. Don’t make the same mistakes I have made over the years and take that few minutes or one time chunk of time to really learn the Microsoft programs with Microsoft online training so that you can save you time in your daily activities.

BrainStorm (http://www.brainstorminc.com/) is your Microsoft Online Training source leading industry provider of Microsoft online training and onsite software training. Art Gib is a freelance writer.