I mentioned last time that I’ve been working on something to do with Word and Excel (and OpenOffice – the free equivalent).
There are two things I should tell you: first of all what I’ve been working on, but also what the point of Word & Excel is – why you’d want to use them!
Well, there’ll be more about why you’d want to use them in the email newsletter on the 15th (Saturday) but for now here’s what I’m doing:
I’ve been working with Ellen (who helped update the recent Next Steps books) to record some videos showing exactly how to use them. You can watch the computer screen to see exactly what to do – and at the same time as you’re watching the screen, you’ll hear about what you’re seeing and what to click on, how to move the mouse and so on.
They start off with the very basics – as if you haven’t used the programs before and don’t even know what they’re for! But they also cover some of the more advanced features if you want to do some fancier things with the programs… as well as some of the features that can make it easier to use them, even if you already know what you’re doing.
The videos are on CDs that play on your PC and they’re off at the company that copy them at the moment. Right now, you can’t order them yet even if you want to… but I’ll be announcing the launch date in the next newsletter.
So best watch out for the newsletter on Saturday – as well as these videos, it’ll have more about the end of Windows XP (what to look for if you’re buying a new computer because of it) and there might even be a short video you can watch online as well…