Technical Skills for VA's: Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is the productivity suite that has the tools for any task that a virtual assistant might need to perform. Whether you’re looking at creating a text document, spreadsheet, presentation, or collaborating, Microsoft 365 has an application for it. Microsoft describes 365 as “the productivity cloud designed to help you pursue your passion and run your business. More than just apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Microsoft 365 brings together the best-in-class productivity apps with powerful cloud services, device management, and advanced security in one, connected experience” (Microsoft, 2022, what is Microsoft 365 section, para. 1). Mastering this skill can be achieved through various learning tools such as courses in Microsoft 365 on LinkedIn learning, or tutorial videos on YouTube, and of course practical hands-on experience.

Microsoft Word

More than just a word processing application, Microsoft Word can be utilised to create manuals, catalogues, pamphlets, and other various business documents. As Nick Brazzi, a LinkedIn Learning author explains, you can use Microsoft Word for many projects, that would otherwise take more specialized applications like Adobe InDesign (Brazzi, 2021, 02:51). Depending on the version of Microsoft Word you are using, there are various courses on LinkedIn Learning to help master your skills in using this application. Alternatively, a search for Microsoft Word on YouTube yields many videos which are available with varying levels of aptitude ranging from basic such as Microsoft Word Tutorial (Stratvert, 2019, 22:33), to more advanced functions.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel has “an amazing amount of tools for organizing, formatting, and processing data” (Brazzi, 2021, 1:03). Creating spreadsheets to store large amounts of data is only the beginning of what this application can do. You can also create charts, graphs, and other ways of expressing data. As Nick Brazzi explains, “Excel files have become almost a standard for storing information like this, so many applications are able to import and export information using Excel files” (Brazzi, 2021, 1:26). Like Word, depending on the version of Microsoft Excel you are using, there are various courses and videos available to help master your skills. Kevin Stratvert gives a great video on Excel Tutorial for Beginners available on YouTube (Stratvert, 2019, 31:12).

Microsoft PowerPoint

More than just a presentation application, Microsoft PowerPoint can also be used to create other visual material. As Nick Brazzi explains, creating a chart in PowerPoint is easy to work out as opposed to a dedicated visualization application which would be more expensive and come with a greater learning curve (Brazzi, 2021, 0:52). PowerPoint can also be used to create videos or animations. Like Word and Excel, there are various learning tools available on LinkedIn Learning as well as YouTube which will allow you to master your skills in creating stunning visual material as well as presentations.

Collaborating with Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 applications allow you to share documents and collaborate with clients and coworkers. One of the Microsoft 365 applications, Microsoft Teams for example allows you to chat, file share, and have virtual meetings all within a single application. Teams also allows for co-authoring, which allows multiple people to open a file and edit the same file over the internet all at the same time (Brazzi, 2021, 1:22). Kevin Stratvert gives a video: Microsoft Teams Tutorial in 10 min via YouTube (Stratvert, 2021, 9:46). This as well as other videos will allow you to master your skill in communicating and collaborating through Microsoft 365.

In my previous Blog, I talked with virtual assistants and entrepreneurs Marianne and Sarah, both of which preferred using Microsoft 365 for their productivity tasks over other applications because of the ease of use and familiarity that Microsoft 365 has. Sarah lists Microsoft 365 as one of the many productivity tools used by her organization (https://www.cvap.biz/software).By utilizing the above learning tools, and exploring the functionality of the applications firsthand, an aspiring virtual assistant can quickly and easily become a professional at using the Microsoft 365 suite of applications.

Check out Nick Brazzi on LinkinedIn Learning for his course: Microsoft 365: Choose the Right Tool for the job as well as other courses in Microsoft 365 as well as Kevin Stratvert's many videos on YouTube for more how-to knowledge.