Documenting a Day

 In one form or another, I have been utilizing these applications for over 20 years in my career. This suite of tools can be utilized from Microsoft Office, Google Workplace, or through a combination of other third-party tools and suites such as LibreOffice, FreeOffice, or WordPerfect. There are many more, but those few are some common ones after Office and Google. These tools are an important part of technology and business.

Word Processor

I have used Microsoft Word more than any other word processor software over the years. The software is incredibly easy to immediately begin writing. This can be internal memos, a technical document or book, the first draft of an email before it is sent out, or many other uses in which text will need to be formatted. At its most basic definition, it is a “common computer application for creating formatted text.” (Vahid & Lysecky, 2017, Chapter 5.1). It does this task very well as someone who uses the program can do while they type out the document or much later. Its greatest advantage is that it will create a document that can be emailed or printed and look very good when it is a lot of text such as a memo, letter, or book. While its greatest disadvantage would be that it is not a very good program for data or analysis. An analyst could use Word to create a report that is shown in a meeting, however, that is also a weakness for it as other tools are better designed for presentations. Word processor programs are now readily available on every computer and smartphone to some degree (Covaleski, 2020). This means that anyone can write something up and save it from any location where they have access to their computer or device.

Spreadsheet

When it comes to Excel, Microsoft’s spreadsheet program, I have a personal love and hate relationship to it. The reason for this is that it is incredibly easy for anyone to create a spreadsheet and this is both a good and bad thing to someone who works with data and information. In my career, I use spreadsheets to assist me with cleaning up data that must be moved into a database. If I am given a spreadsheet of data that someone wants me to analyze or store for later use this always requires me to normalize the data, or fix missing and/or incorrect data. This can be the biggest time sink depending on how much data someone sends me. I can analyze data, I can create charts and graphs that show me trends and meaning in the data. Its format also allows me to manipulate data in its two-dimensional rows and columns format (Mazzei, 2020). Where it has a disadvantage is that it is not very good for showing someone else the meaning behind this data. Giving someone a spreadsheet with a few charts and graphs means that you are leaving the analysis up to someone else. One use in my own career of spreadsheets was that it allowed me to see geo locations of telecommunications equipment and I was able to bring it in and join it with data on historical problems. Using this information a plan could be made to send repair technicians to specific areas of a city and resolve problems before they could cause bigger issues. I later was able to chart the geo-locations in a Tableau report and use the SUM of the problems to show the density of the problem represented by color and a circle. The redder the color and the larger the circle on the map, the more we should investigate that area.

Presentation Software

PowerPoint is a wonderful program for a presentation. Highlighting insights from a spreadsheet and bringing in important past announcements or notes from a Word document allows someone to give a presentation and talk face to face with someone and bring meaning to what the other applications may be bringing to the conversation. While the software does a really good job at this, it does a poor job with analysis as there are limited data tools. A high-level analysis could be done within PowerPoint, but it is better to do it within Excel and bring this into the presentation once it is done. As a word processer, these presentation tools would fall flat as well. While some formatting can be done and a memo or brochure could be created within one, it does not have the formatting capabilities to properly print this information. Too much text will either create another slide or shrink on the page to try and fit into the slide. Presentation software could work for a single-page document with some graphics however if you wish to create a cover sheet for something or print out a small sign. 

Recommendation

When it comes to documenting my own day, I would turn to a word processor. I like to journal and when I write I tend to do it in great volumes. I can get a bit wordy. If I wanted to show how I spent my day in hours, I would use a spreadsheet. If I wanted to explain to someone, I would do a presentation. To just write my thoughts, my successes, and opportunities for growth I need to get the finer details of my thinking out on paper. A word processor is important for this task.

References

Covaleski, R. (2020). Word processor. In Salem Press Encyclopedia. https://search-ebscohostcom.proxylibrary.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=87322528&site=edslive&scope=site

Mazzei, M. (2020). Spreadsheet. In Salem Press Encyclopedia. https://search-ebscohostcom.proxylibrary.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=87322527&site=edslive&scope=site

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