Windows 7 and Office 2010

By the time staff return on September 1st, the Academy will be using Windows 7 and Office 2010, a new Operating System and Productivity suite, replacing Windows XP and Office 2003. For many of you this software will be familiar from your home PCs, but for some they will be completely new. The challenges and opportunities thrown up by each one are very different.

Windows 7 simplifies Windows for the user, (see video) but also adds some easy-to-use tools that improve the experience for expert and light users alike. The look of Windows 7 will be familiar to previous users of Windows, whilst pinning, snapping, jumping and snipping (see video below) will quickly become the quick ways of doing things that used to take you ages.

Office 2010 is more of a challenge. Much better software than previous versions, it is designed to present all the most frequently used commands quickly and simply. The problem is that at first look, it appears that what they've done is hidden everything! This can confound even expert users on first view but some dedicated furtling around will help. Our training session on September 1st will help this process - I promise. If you want to pursue another path to enlightenment then try downloading Microsoft's own learning game to help you navigate Office
 - Ribbon Hero 2 .