All throughout history, in every corner of the world, there has been a school of thought that has never wavered: A worker is only as good as his or her tools. That might seem too grandiose a statement when people think about writing, because for a long time the way people wrote remained mostly unchanged. That changed when the computer came out, because it made the process easier by introducing programs that became a monumental help to those who used them. This brings us to present day, with the newest iteration of Microsoft Word, and even though it has been out a while, there is still plenty about it that people might be unaware of.
Since the majority of people who use Word are using it in an office environment, plenty of Word’s aspects are revolved around increasing productivity there. First and foremost are the keyboard shortcuts, such as “CTRL+Z” to undo a mistake immediately after it has been made, among the many others. With that being said, it is easy to learn and the folks at Microsoft pride themselves on that. With everyone using the same program and the same general format, the program is aided in helping everyone be more efficient. (Techrepublic.com)
Efficiency alone is not always enough though. It is said a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, but luckily enough Microsoft Word makes it a lot harder to be a weak link. As it was mentioned before, due to its general ease of use and handy formatting layout, Word is not just a great tool for collaborating with people, it almost seems like it is made for it. Being able to have the same format and layout across the board, along with the same file types, fonts, and designs makes any team project easier and aids in making it documents look more professional as well.
With the emphasis on teamwork still in mind, Word also excels (heh, punny) in making sure that there are ways to protect its user’s work material. If someone were overly worried about another person accessing his or her documents without permission, the user can set up passwords and encryptions to ensure that he or she is the only one allowed to view the contents. This can even be set up in a group way, so that the members of a team each have their own password so they can access it as they see fit to modify their section of the work, but will be unable to edit others. While this might seem ludicrous or paranoid to some people, keep in mind the kind of sensitive material that someone might not want a stranger or competitor to see. (Support.Office.com, 2015)
As it was earlier stated: a worker is only as good as his or her tools. In this day and age, with this kind of technology, and with Microsoft Word’s helpful features, being a good worker has never been easier. It is a terrific piece of software that exists only to help in almost any way that could possibly be imagined. Whether someone is just trying to be more productive, or collaborating with project teammates, or just trying to make sure what he or she has stays private, then there is really no better option than Microsoft Word ’13.
