A query re computer software knowledge and workplaces?

[Sojourner]

Greetings All,

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction!

Long story short, I have minimal computer knowledge, at school we had "Amstrad" and "BBC" computers, I was apprenticed into a trade and never needed to use a PC for work purposes, I currently have a job where I do have a PC yet it is predominantly used for an inhouse programme called PRISM, I am reasonably confident in the use of the WORD programme, yet it falls away pretty rapidly after that as I have had no formal training in anything else.

I am in a position where I am giving serious thought to a career change, yet realise that in order to do so I will no doubt have to update my skills in this area and I am unsure of which programmes are likely to be the base requirement for a new job? I have seen Excel and Powerpoint before but have never used either of them before, but assume they probably would be ones to look at.

Can anyone give me any advice on what are likely to be the most popular programmes in workplaces and what they are used for?

I am planning to look into some formal training but want to have done some research first so any suggestions you can offer would be more than appreciated!

[zipzap]

All depends on what kind of job you're talking about but from what you've written I'd imagine some of the MS Office suite (esp Word, Power Point, Outlook, Excel) would be kinda mandatory. Chuck in an image editing tool (anything better than Paint would be a good start) and maybe Adobe Acrobat for your PDF files? Check out your local newsagency, they usually have lots of good, cheap handbooks on basic software. And of course there are loads of tutorials on the interweb to be had for nix.

[Mic]

Youtube has some very good tutorials on a range of programs.

[prowling panther]

Greetings All,

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction!

Long story short, I have minimal computer knowledge, at school we had "Amstrad" and "BBC" computers, I was apprenticed into a trade and never needed to use a PC for work purposes, I currently have a job where I do have a PC yet it is predominantly used for an inhouse programme called PRISM, I am reasonably confident in the use of the WORD programme, yet it falls away pretty rapidly after that as I have had no formal training in anything else.

I am in a position where I am giving serious thought to a career change, yet realise that in order to do so I will no doubt have to update my skills in this area and I am unsure of which programmes are likely to be the base requirement for a new job? I have seen Excel and Powerpoint before but have never used either of them before, but assume they probably would be ones to look at.

Can anyone give me any advice on what are likely to be the most popular programmes in workplaces and what they are used for?

I am planning to look into some formal training but want to have done some research first so any suggestions you can offer would be more than appreciated!

Is this the PRISM program you are talking about?
GraphPad Prism: Scientific graphing, curve fitting and statistics.
Combination of basic biostatistics, curve fitting and scientific graphing in one program. Available for Windows or Macintosh.
If it is, then you have some knowledge of the power of the computer, how to get it to do other things is what you need to know as well.

As mentioned before a good knowledge of Word processing[MS Word], a Spreadsheet[MS Excel], presentations[MS Power Point], Data Base[MS Access] , mail merge etc would be an must to know, you already know how to build a web site, so you have an idea of what is needed there

In the It or computer industry is similar to wanting to be a motor mechanic and only having an adjustable wrench and a set of metric spanners or in the building game, a spirit level and a hammer, they are all necessary but wont get you to far.

Learning how to use Power Point is easy enough, so is Access, a spread sheet is more involved and Desktop Publishing can be very complicated to say the least, and of course a Word Processor is simple enough to just write a letter or two, but as you know it is more powerfull than that, getting the best results from these programs takes a lot of time and experimentation if you dont have a good teacher.

Possibly South will win another Premership before you get to learn all about those 5 programs fully

Go for IT

[Dog_ger]

Back in the old days we opened the programme then hit F1.

Used to be "help"?

Unfortunately you need to know the correct termoligy of what we are looking for....

I purchased a quick reference guide.

Made me into a PRO of computers.

Everyone looks for me when they have problems on their computer.

Computers are much easier than my job....

PS My job is working with women.....

OH DEAR....