But which one is better to use? Well we’ll compare both on various points and see which ends up the victor.

1. Free Online Storage Space.

If you are looking for lots of online storage space then you need to use the Office Web Apps. Sharing storage with SkyDrive, it offers a huge 25GB of free online storage for your documents. These documents can be set to private so that just you or you and your friends can access them or you can share them publicly which gives anybody access to them.

Google Docs offers only 1GB of free storage which, although is alot, pales in comparison with the Office Apps.

2. Live editing.

Sometimes it is best to have many eyes to be able to look at a document and edit it together, especially if one of the people is elsewhere. Google Docs allows you to do this, as well as allowing the editors to talk between each other in the group chat as they edit the document.

Office Apps also allows multiple people to edit the document, but only allows them to do it one at a time. If somebody tried to access the document whilst it was being edited by somebody else then they would get a message saying that the document cannot be opened.

3. Supported File Types.

In Office Apps, you can only open, save or edit documents created in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote.

Google Docs gives you all of these and more which make Google Docs a clear winner for the modern day user.

4. Features.

Google Docs has many features in its Word Processor which make it extremely useful such as the spell-check as you type, ability to insert tables into your text and add footnotes.

The ability to reinstate a past version of the document if you have found that something has changed which you don’t want is also a useful function which can be done using the Revision History.

The Spreadsheet in Google Docs seems to be even better, offering lots of features and options which you would find useful when creating a spreadsheet.

With Office Apps, Microsoft seems to have put Word on a strict diet and have unfortunately left out some of the features which people enjoy such as footnotes, line-spacing and much more, leaving just the bare basics to play with

They seem to have also fed Excel with the same diet, having Functions (such as Formulas) axed from Office Apps as well as other functions like graphs.

Whilst Office clearly has the space advantage, Google Docs users get more features to choose from and this ultimately hands the crown of Web Document Editing to Google Docs… at least for now.

Want to learn more about the diet-free Office? Then come on one of our Office Training Courses!

When running a business, keeping on top of your cash flow by keeping track of your customer’s payments is a number one priority. Because otherwise your business loses money and invoices go unpaid and lost.

This will in turn have a devastating effect on the health of your business because whilst small businesses can survive for a short time without sales or profits, if there is no cash flow then the business will die.

To keep track of the invoices of your customers there is software available out there such as SAGE. It is highly likely that most big businesses will already be using this or has an existing system in place.

But what if you are only a small business? The cost of the software can be expensive. Did you know that you can also use Microsoft Excel to do this task?

That’s right; Excel can serve as an effective tool to manage your finances. You can create your own simple template noting all your invoices and their due dates. Alternatively you can download a correct template such as this Small Business Cash Flow Projection Template from Microsoft.

Don’t let your business fail just because of poor handling of finances. Make the most of the tools at your disposal and watch your business flourish.

If you would to know more ways in which Excel can help you, take a look at our Excel Training Courses.

Want to know more how Microsoft Excel can help you? Click on Microsoft Excel Articles. 

In Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft have introduced the new Text Effects button which gives the user the chance to add Word Art style effects to their text, but without turning the text into a graphic.

To access these text effects, you go to the Home tab and select Font. This will add a text effect button which you use to add the effects.

To get a set of effects that doesn’t appear in the pop-up Text Effects gallery, click the lower right corner of the Font group to launch the Font dialog box, and then click the Text Effects button at the bottom for a complete set of options.

2. Try some Calligraphy in your documents.

In Microsoft Office 2010, you get the chance to use effects to change text to make it look like fancy calligraphy work. To do this you have to experiment with the fonts as some don’t change as much as others.

To start experimenting, click the lower right corner of the Font group to launch the Font dialog box, and then select the advanced tab to access settings for custom kerning (character spacing), ligatures, and stylistic sets, which create the extended swirls that will achieve the calligraphic look with some of the fonts.

3. Use artistic effects on your pictures.

These artistic effects can be used to change your normal photos to make them look like drawings or painting and can add an artistic flare to the document itself.

To try out these new artistic effects, simply click the Artistic Effects button in the Picture Tools ribbon and then hover over the effect you wish to try out. Be prepared to wait a few second to preview some effects, however. To try different intensities and transparencies of effects, select the effect and click the Artistic Effects Options button at the bottom of the preview gallery.

4. Play videos from the internet in your PowerPoint presentations.

If there is a video that you would to use in a PowerPoint Presentation and it is only available online, there is now the option to play the video through PowerPoint if you play the presentation on computer with an internet connection.

In order to do this, just copy the embed code from the site, open the Insert tab on the ribbon, and click the Video button in the Media group on the far right. Then click Video from Web Site in the pop-up menu, and paste in the embed code.

5. Insert screenshots quicker and easier.

With Microsoft Office 2010, it is now even easier to insert screenshots of any windows that haven’t been minimized into a document.

To do this, go to the Insert tab; click the Screenshot button in the Illustrations group to get a pop-up window that shows all open windows. Click the one you want to capture and the screenshot will appear in your document, ready for any editing you need to do.

With E-mail being one of the major ways both individuals and businesses keep in contact with one another, one of the most important things to do is back-up your emails. Although it takes only a few minutes, it can save your business hours of time if something does go wrong. If you use Microsoft Outlook to manage your email then depending on which version of Outlook you are using it is fairly straight-forward to create these back-ups.

Microsoft Outlook 2007 Users:

Step 1: Click the File menu on the top toolbar and select Import and Export, this will prompt the Import and Export Wizard to show.

Step 2: Select Export to a file and then click Next. You then choose Personal Folder File (.pst) and then click Next again.

Step 3: The Personal Folder should now be highlighted. If not, select Personal Folder. You then double click on Personal Folder to collapse everything. Ensure that you have checked the Include Subfolders option and then click Next.

Step 4: You can leave the default name in the Save Exported File as or rename it if you prefer. Then if you select Browse, change the location you want to save the file to one which you can find easily such as the Desktop. Then click Finish.

Step 5: You can either choose to add a password to your file for extra security or just click OK and the process is complete.

Using Outlook 2003 instead of 2007? Read this blog: Back-up Your Outlook (Outlook 2003 Users)

Looking for more Outlook Hints and Tips

New level of limits

Microsoft Office Excel 2007 supports 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns. The number of rows has increased from roughly 65536 to 1.1 million; the number of columns has increased from 256 to over 16385! Columns now end at XFD instead of IV.

Office Excel 2007 also supports up to 16 million colours, which enhance visual appearance of graphic elements.

Improved sorting and filtering

Excel has always included sorting and filtering tools. With Excel 2007, the sorting and filtering options have been expanded. For example, you can now sort data by colour or by up to 64 levels (previously, you were limited to 3 levels).

Data can be filtered by colour or by dates. The AutoFilter dropdown list now displays more than 1000 items to choose from and multiple items to filter are available. Filtering capabilities can also be applied to data in PivotTables.

Powerful data visualisation tool

Do you need to highlight data when you are over or under budget or want to draw attention to the important data from a huge list?

With enhanced conditional formatting features you can highlight trends in your data, find the highest and lowest data, find exceptions and annotate data into categories. Using colour scales, data bars and performance indication icons will help you to achieve this.

Easy to use PivotTables and Pivot Charts

No need anymore to drag data into drop zones, just select the fields that you want to see in a new PivotTable field list.

And after you’ve created a PivotTables enjoy easy sorting and filtering data within PivotTable data or apply conditional formatting.

PivotCharts are also much easier to create than before. The chart formatting that you apply will be maintained when you make changes to the PivotChart, which is a significant improvement from previous versions of Excel.

New Functions are added

Microsoft Excel 2007 has 343 functions with 51 new functions. New functions mainly are within 2 new categories – Engineering (39 functions) and Cube (7 functions). The remaining five are IFRROR, AVERAGEIF, AVERAGEIFS, SUMIFS, COUNTIFS

So, really Excel 2007 is the must to upgrade for everyone using Excel. And you know that Excel training will help you to learn those tricks to make your business life easier.

Want to know more how Microsoft Excel can help you? Click on Microsoft Excel Articles.

Before you start the diagnostics:

• Run the diagnostics when you do not need to use your computer
• Make sure you are connected to the Internet
• Close other programmes
• Make sure you have Microsoft Office installation disk in case there are problems and your program will need an access to the disk to repair

If Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Access are still working then to start the Microsoft Office Diagnostics follow the steps:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options (or Excel Options or PowerPoint Options or Access Options)
2. Click Resources
3. Click the Diagnose button
4. Click Continue, and then click Run Diagnostics.

If InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Project, SharePoint Designer, or Visio are still working then to start the Microsoft Office Diagnostics follow the steps

1. On the Help menu, click Office Diagnostics.
2. Click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

If any of the above programmes has crashed so badly that they not start, you can run Office Diagnostics from the Start menu.

1. In Windows, click the Start button
2. Point to All Programs, then to Microsoft Office and then to Microsoft Office Tools
3. Select Microsoft Office Diagnostics

To check which tests are available read Tips and Tricks: Microsoft Office 2007 – Why Use Microsoft Office Diagnostics?

Want more tips? Click on Microsoft Tips & Tricks

You can select the text vertically. In order to do that, just hold down the <Alt> key on a keyboard whilst you are selecting the text as usually. You will get this result.

Now you can apply any formatting to it (here we selected Chicago font style).

Although in the example above we selected text at the beginning of the lines, you can make vertical selections anywhere on the page.

Want more tips? Click on Microsoft Word Tips & Tricks

Microsoft Office Diagnostic is a tool included in Microsoft Office 2007 pack, allowing you to run a series of diagnostic tests that can help you discover why your computer is crashing. These tests will either solve problems directly or may help you with the ways to solve them.

These are the diagnostics that are run:

Setup Diagnostic – Files and registry are checked for errors occurring due to viruses or by hardware that is faulty or incorrectly configured. While running for about 15 minutes, the test may require the original installation source.

Disk Diagnostic – Hard disk is examined for errors logged by the Windows system and SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) feature of your hard disk (if provided by disk drive manufacturers) to notice potential hard disk failure.

Memory Diagnostic – Random Access Memory (RAM) is verified for integrity.

Update Diagnostic – Your computer is tested as to whether it has the latest updates installed to make Microsoft Office more stable. You can install updates from Microsoft Office Online.

Compatibility Diagnostic – Different versions of Microsoft Office are checked for conflicts, as two different versions of Office installed on your computer can cause instability.

Check for Known Solutions – The crash report is tested and checked against the database of Microsoft’s crash cases for available solutions.

To find out how to run diagnostics, read How to Fix Errors Using Microsoft Office Diagnostics.

So why do IT professionals react against the idea of Access as a possible database solution?

Reason 1: It grows

Access is frequently used for everyday work activities – even when a larger, more powerful system is available. Sometimes a relatively small-scale Access database outgrows its original purpose to become central to an organisation. The challenge at this stage for IT professionals is to put a lot of work into revamping or upgrading the Access database. This is where some of them get grumpy. They want to know why the system wasn’t developed with a more sophisticated platform from the start. But unless you’re good at reading tea leaves, it’s not easy to look into the future and see how important an Access database is going to become for a company. The secret at this stage is to adapt the database to suit the changing needs of the business.

Reason 2: It needs support

The average Access database isn’t created by an IT professional. It’s set up by anyone from an office administrator to a sales manager. Any person who needs to store, manage and analyse information, basically. Which means it’s often not seen by an IT professional until there’s a problem. The glitch might be due to too much information, lack of training or the need for a new feature. The IT person might be called on, but not want to help because of the complexity of sorting it out. This is why in some companies, IT departments have banned the use of Access. But this is missing the point. The best approach is to assess how Access could work as an asset for an organisation.

Reason 3: It’s not professional

IT professionals can be tough critics. Some of them see Access as a toy instead of a real database and won’t use it. This could be something to do with the fact that a lot of Access developers are from a non-programming background. Unfairly, this prevents IT professionals from recognising the potential of Access. Perhaps they’re a little bit jealous. After all, Access is the most popular desktop database on the market.

Reason 4: It’s too easy

What’s wrong with something being easy to use? A lot, according to some people. Believe it or nor, there are IT professionals out there who won’t use Access precisely because it’s too simple to use. Daft, isn’t it? That’s exactly why clever people use it. It’s flexible, fast and it can help resolve a range of issues.

Reason 5: It’s not strategic

Access is so versatile it’s often the basis for a database used by just a few people. This type of database usually has one clear purpose and gets on with the job. In contrast, at enterprise level, an organisation will use highly complex, powerful and expensive to develop databases to drive its needs. Some IT professionals have a problem with organisations that don’t use these powerful databases at all levels. But why apply one answer to a whole range of different issues? After all, a flexible approach can help an organisation get the best out of IT, at every level.

To do – stop using scraps of paper

Do you have scraps of paper with ‘to do’ tasks scribbled on them? Confusing isn’t it? And bits of paper have an uncanny knack of getting lost just when you need them. Keep it together with a Word activities checklist.

Keep track of the kids

Everyone knows that taking care of little ones requires extreme organisational resources. Even a trip to the local park can feel like an outing for an ‘A’ list celebrity. There are the bags, the toys, the clothes, the demanding dietary requirements….and that’s before you even get to the park! Why not create your own checklist to keep all those child-related chores on track?

Dream a little dream (and make it happen)

You know the saying – “What gets measured gets managed.” Create your very own dream checklist to state your goals and keep tabs on how close you are to them. Whether you’re working hard towards your ideal home or that perfect job, a checklist can help you clarify exactly what you want. And that should get you closer to your goal.

A gift for giving

Every year we know when those important birthdays are due, not to mention Christmas. But most of us still find ourselves rushing around the shops at the last minute to find the perfect present. How much would a present shopping checklist reduce your stress levels? You could even build in your time and budget for when the sales are on and grab the perfect present and a bargain at the same time!

Something for the book lovers

Still wondering where that favourite book went? Wish you could keep track of all the books you’d like to read in the future? Once you’ve got the knack by taking one of our Microsoft Word courses, you can create your very own Word checklist to keep track of your fiction, your non fiction and that new biography you’ve been wanting to read for ages….

There are so many other ways you can put Word checklists to good use. From preparing for big life changes like having a baby, to everyday essentials like keeping track of your bills. And all that gives you more time for a sit down and a nice cup of tea…