Choosing The Correct Chart

     Microsoft Excel allows us to plug in massive amounts of data into a worksheet that is easy to read and understand.  Excel also has many tool that allow us to organize and understand the data.  Charts built into Excel are one of those tools that can do it for us.  There are many charts to choose from, so many that it may be hard to determine which is the correct one to use.  Of course, we can edit these charts to best suite our needs by changing the colors and sets of data that are included in them.

    One of the many charts types we can use in Excel are Bar Charts.  These types of charts are helpful because they allows us to visualize and understand large sets of data easily.  These charts are best used when you have data that is independent of each other or when selecting data from certain categories.  Line charts are also a type of chart that we can insert into our Excel Worksheets.  These charts are best used when we want to measure change over time with data that is separated by even time intervals.  Another popular chart type is the Pie chart.  These are best used when we want to measure the proportions of each category to the whole.  These three chart types are some of the most common ones you will run into but there are plenty to choose from.  Just make sure you are using the correct one to represent your data accurately.

    You may be wondering how we access all of these amazing charts?  Its actually very simple once you know where to navigate to.  With Excel running, select the Insert Tab.  Right along the middle of ribbon, you will see the option called Charts.  From here we can go with the most popular ones or select the more charts option to see additional charts that are available to use.  Do not be afraid of trying something new, if you are unsure of what chart to select, hover over the name for a second and a window will pop up with a brief description of the chart.

Good luck and go out there and transform those long data sets into beautiful works of art. 🫡

The Dictionary Of Synonyms

     Ah yes, the Thesaurus, a relic of the past that was once paired and sold together with the Dictionary.  Also known as The Dictionary Of Synonyms, thesauruses can be sold as a physical book but in this case, I will focus on the built in feature in Microsoft Word.  It is a little different from spell check as this feature does not underline any words in red or blue that would normally signify a misspelling or grammatical issue, for this reason, the user has to be able to think when using this feature.

    Here is an example of using the thesaurus. We begin by using Microsoft Word to write a simple sentence like "Alonso was mad that he could not stay home and play video games".  since the word mad is common word, lets see if we use something else. If we highlight it and right click, we get a few options, one of which is "synonyms for "mad".  Once we click on that, a new window pops up to the right of the screen and on this new window is a list of alternate words we can use.  Look through the list and once you have the appropriate word, right click on it and select insert.  This will replace the highlighted word with the newer, fancier word.  Lets use this feature to replace the word mad and a few others to fabricate a new sentence below.

Alonso was in a towering rage that he could not stay in his quarters and disport in video games.

    The Thesaurus is simple, easy to use function built into Microsoft word that allows the user to replace common words with words that refine the message that is being conveyed.  The best way to use this feature is during the review process of creating a document, once the spelling and grammar issues are addressed.  We want to look over the document to make sure we are not repeating too many words, or if we can change the tone of the document by using alternative words.  Next time you have to write a document, see what words can be changed to revitalize your work and so you stand out.

Tracked Changes: Keeping Track Of The Good And The Bad

         Microsoft Office has thousands of features, too many to lean in one class.  Some of these features are easily displayed for us in the Ribbon, while others you have to navigate through a few windows before finding what you need but they all serve their own unique purpose.  Tracked changes is under the review tab and as discussed in 3.6.1, this feature offer users the option to keep track of changes made to a document when collaborating with other people.  This function is very important for many reasons.  It helps keep track of who made what changes to a document so the team can stay accountable.  You can also send the files over to friends or co workers so they can review and make suggestions.  This feature also makes it very easy to identify the changes made to a document and gives us the options to accept changes made or revert back to the original format..

    When working with many people, it becomes challenging to keep track of who did what and the changes have been made to a document.  Fortunately, the Tracked Changes option in Microsoft Office solves that problem for us.  Tracked changes monitors and displays who and what changes were made to a document in way that is easy to see.  This is important because it allows us to recognize the individuals that make positive contributions as well as the ones who are not on the same page.  Of course, these changes are not permanent and can be ignored.

    Again, this feature is very important to help keep track of changes made to a Word document when collaborating with people.  It gives us the change to praise the good and fix the bad or......just reject all the changes and send it. 🥳🤘

The Web That Connected The World

         The web that connected the world is a complex structure that involves the brightest minds from many disciplines coming together to change the way humans interact, create and exchange information. It changed the way we shop and how we get our entertainment as well as many other ways that we could only dream of 30 years ago.

    The Internet is a vast collection of networks that communicate with each other.  Computers who share one network can talk to each other as well as other computers that may be in a different networks since networks can also communicate with each other.  The connections between computers can be wired using cables and modems, or wireless using radio waves.  There is no control center for the Internet. Instead, it is a distributed networking system, meaning it is not dependent on any individual machine. Any computer or hardware that can send and receive data in the correct fashion can be part of the Internet.  All data sent over the Internet is translated into pulses of light or electricity, also called "bits," and then interpreted by the receiving computer.

    Internet Service providers do not manage the internet, they manage the access point to get into the interconnected network.  Since so many devices can be connected to one network, it is important to have firewalls in place as a way to protect computers outside of a private network to access data that is not intended for them.

    When we connect to the internet, the experience is usually great unless our connection strength inst the best.  It has become such a routine part of our lives that today's world would not function the same without it.  I'm thankful for the great minds that came together to create the internet and allow us to experience a life being more connected.