Get to Know the Software

Learn just the essentials to create effective documents quickly and efficiently

A few years ago, people writing reports would jot down stuff on bits of paper or cut up things they have typed and hand these to a typist or secretary to tidy up.

Things don’t tend to happen much like this today. Authors of reports are far more likely to have to create their own text files, create their own illustrations, and then insert the illustrations into the text file ready for printing. This is certainly the case with students, and is increasingly the case in organisations.

This means that all authors must learn the essentials about software in order to create a creditable document. Also, because of the availability of software, people receiving documents have far higher standards about what they are prepared to accept.

This is a challenge, but not an insurmountable one. Even people who do not regard themselves as computer-literate can learn enough about software to enable them to produce documents quickly, efficiently and effectively. This is due, in part, to the fact that most software is very well designed and consistent in how it is presented.

Software is also forgivable — it is designed so that errors can usually be quickly corrected. And most software packages contain stuff you can happily ignore without it jeopardising its effective use. All of this means that it just needs a little practice to become sufficiently competent to do a really good job.

Check out our video on Getting to Know Software.

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