Tips For Microsoft Office Home Edition

Introduction

It's almost misleading to call the productivity suite Microsoft Office Home edition, as if there is a huge difference between the Professional, Small Business and other editions. The major difference is the inclusion and exclusion of various applications.

For example, almost every version of Microsoft Office includes Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Households as well as students commonly use a basic word processor to write personal letters as well as essays. Although modern spreadsheet applications can serve as high tech databases, at its core it is still a grid of cells that are arranged in rows and columns; people can create tables and graphs using the basic functions and features in a spreadsheet application.

Microsoft also includes other applications that the common user might benefit from using. For example the OneNote application helps people organize data in a way that suits personal needs. For example, people use the Internet for research purposes and people can use it organize blurbs of information from various websites. Microsoft also includes the PowerPoint and Outlook application in some releases of the Home edition for Office. 

No matter which application you use in Microsoft Office Home Edition, you can keep a few tips in mind to make the experience enjoyable and productive.

Step 1

Be sure to perform regular software updates form the Microsoft Office Home Edition. Many users would not think that a simple word processor or spreadsheet application could harbor a virus or carry out malicious activity on a Windows PC, but it is possible. These updates are similar in fashion to the updates offered by Microsoft for its Windows operating system. You may have to actively select Microsoft Office updates, as they may not be among the critical and important updates.

Alternatively, you can access updates from within every application using by clicking on the Microsoft Office orb logo.

Step 2

Set the document recovery options for 1 minute instead of the default 10 minutes in the Microsoft Office Home Edition. Applications like Word and Excel can back up versions of your documents as you create them. If the application crashes or your computer shuts down unexpectedly, you can at least have a backup of everything you typed out or created, a minute ago. Anything under that time frame may be lost.

Step 3

Be sure to remember your license and product activation key so that you can install Microsoft Office Home Edition. Many households go through a new laptop PC every year, but a newer version of Office might not get released until every two to three years.

Tips

Keep your Microsoft Office Home Edition installation CD in a safe place.

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