Free MS Office Courses & Certifications Online

Microsoft Office or MS Office is a suite of productivity software applications developed by Microsoft Corporation. It includes programs for both personal and professional use, with the core applications being Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Additional applications like Access, Publisher, and OneNote are also part of the MS Office suite. MS Office has become the global standard for office productivity software which is available both as a traditional desktop software package and as a cloud-based service called Microsoft 365.

Software Included in MS Office

MS Office includes the following software that come with different functionalities:

• Microsoft Word is a word-processing application that is included within Microsoft Office. It is a software used for creating, editing, and formatting text documents. The software comes with features like spell check, formatting tools, templates, and the ability to insert images, tables, and other elements, making it essential for writing reports, letters, and other documents.
• Microsoft Excel is a type of spreadsheet software through which users can organize, analyze, as well as visualize data. It can perform complex calculations, apply formulas, create pivot tables, and charting tools. These features make it invaluable for financial analysis, budgeting, and data management.
• Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation software using which users can create professional slideshows. It includes tools for adding text, images, animations, transitions, and multimedia elements, making it popular for business presentations, educational lectures, and creative projects.
• Microsoft Outlook combines email management, calendar scheduling, contact organization, and task tracking in one application. It's widely used in professional settings for communication and time management, with features for meeting scheduling, email filtering, and contact management.
• Microsoft OneNote is a digital note-taking application that allows users to create, organize, and share notes. It supports handwriting, sketching, audio recording, and the ability to insert various types of content, making it useful for students, professionals, and anyone needing to organize information.
• Microsoft Access is a type of database management system that helps users store, organize, and retrieve large amounts of data. It includes tools for creating forms, reports, and queries, though it's typically used more in specialized business contexts.
• Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application focused on page layout and design. It provides tools for creating marketing materials, newsletters, brochures, and other publications with a focus on visual design and typography.
• Microsoft Teams is a part of the Microsoft 365 suite that integrates with Office applications to provide features including video conferencing, chat, file sharing, and collaboration for creating virtual workspace. 

List of Free MS Office Courses

Here is a list of free MS Office Courses that students can enrol in to learn how to use different software. Do note that enrolling in these courses is great if you want to just want to acquire the skill. In case, you need to validate your skills for professional purposes, you will need to enrol in an MS Office course with certification.

1. Microsoft - Work Smarter with Microsoft Excel 

Those who want to use Microsoft Excel for organizing, analyzing, presenting and storing data should enrol in this course. Students will learn to create new spreadsheets, work with basic formulas and functions. By the end of this course, students will learn to create advanced formulae as well as analyse data with functions and pivot tables. 

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2. Macquarie University - Excel Skills for Business: Intermediate I 

Through this free course, students will learn to manage large datasets and create meaningful reports. As the course progresses, they will learn about working on multiple worksheets and workbooks, text and date functions, data summarization, tables, pivot tables, charts and slicers. 

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3. Skillup - Get Started with Word Processing Applications: Word 

This is a free MS Office course that is great for beginners who want to learn the basics of word processing. Those who want to leverage MS Word to work more productively should enrol in this free course. Students will learn to work with features such as layouts, tables, headers, footers and templates. The course will also teach how to work collaboratively with online documents.

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4. Effective Business Presentations with Powerpoint 

Those who want to create professional-level presentations must enrol in this MS Office course. The important principles of Microsoft PowerPoint that can help in creating effective visuals and slides will be covered in this course. How a set of Excel charts can be used in PowerPoint will also be covered in this free MS Office course.

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5. Diploma in Microsoft PowerPoint 2019 - An Introduction 

This free course helps in leveraging the features of Microsoft PowerPoint 2019 version. Students will learn to format text, insert shapes and graphics as well as select, group and edit objects in a slide. They will also learn ways to create SmartArt and then create a Flowchart using SmartArt.

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Step-By-Step Learning Journey of Microsoft Office Suite

It is also important to understand which software must be learnt first to ensure that every software can be leverage optimally. Those who learn MS Office suite software in a chronological order will be able to understand the details of each one. Here is an infograph to understand this:

Those who want to expedite their work task and get more productive must learn most of the software included in MS Office Suite. These software can ensure that your work maintains professional standards and still be done before others can complete it.