Blog Post 3 - Application Reflection Essay

This assignment for this week has been enjoyable and engaging. I’ve had the chance to work with multiple applications to describe a day in my life. I used Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Access. Microsoft Word is a word processor application, used in the creation of formatted text (Vahid & Lysecky, 2017). Formatted text is just a fancy term for text that can be different sizes, fonts, styles, and colors. Microsoft Excel is an application used for entering and sorting data. Information is entered into cells, and those cells are organized by rows and columns. Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation application. PowerPoint allows a user to insert text and graphics and into slides and create animations and transitions, making the final product an engaging presentation. Finally, Microsoft Access is a database application. The user inputs data similar to Excel, and the information is saved in a way that allows the user to keep track of entries.




Each application has its advantages and disadvantages. Microsoft Word is great for students writing essays, like this essay. Word allows the user to create a document using different text fonts and sizes and is perfect if the user wants to convey written information. Word has limitations, especially when it comes to inserting graphics. While the option is there, when inserting a graphic into a document, the formatting can be messed up causing the text to appear in distorted. Excel is perfect for data entry. I used Excel to track the time spent on each task throughout the day, calculate what percentage of the day I spent on each activity, and arrange the tasks based on the time spent. Excel allows the user to input formulas and calculates numbers based on the data inputted into cells. It can be difficult for users to remember formulas, however, causing some troubleshooting for the user if they are unfamiliar with the commands. I used PowerPoint to create a fun presentation about my daily tasks. Creating slides using templates is easy and allows the user to create a dynamic looking presentation. It was fun to create transitions and animations for the graphics and text in the different slides. One disadvantage I encountered though was the feeling of being overwhelmed by all the different customization options, which made the application feel cluttered. Lastly, similar to Excel, I used Access to input my daily tasks and ranked them by priority. Access is used for storing information about unique items and is best used in an inventory situation. Access allows the users to input information about different items in an “inventory” and store them based on a unique identifier such as a UPC. A disadvantage to Access would be that it is such a specialized application. Access will normally only be used to keep an inventory of some sort, limiting what information can be put in, so most users may find Excel a better option for data entry.

Based on this assignment, I felt the best application to use to document my day would be Microsoft Word. Excel would be a close second. The reason I chose Word is that I was able to describe my day instead of listing just the tasks as I did in Excel. I find Word to be more engaging and it allows the user to immerse themselves into my activities.

Each application has its use. Another scenario for Word would be a situation where someone is writing a book and needs to format the text a certain way. A scenario for Excel would be if a user wanted to keep track of grades or a budget. A scenario for PowerPoint is when a user had the task of giving a presentation to a peer group or executives. Lastly, a scenario for Access would be in a retail environment like items that Amazon sells, or in my case, a database that T-Mobile keeps that records all the phone numbers, using the phone number as the unique identifier (Vahid & Lysecky, 2017).



References

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2017). Computing technology for all. Retrieved from zybooks.zyante.com/