Advanced Word workshops
by Paul Anderson and Sara Kitaoji AE
The Editors NSW branch ran two online workshops on Advanced Microsoft Word for Editors in February, presented by Denise Tsagaris via Zoom. The Windows course was held on 4 and 6 February; the Mac course on 13 and 18 February. Each course comprised two three-hour sessions.
Denise is a highly experienced trainer and consultant who has taught Microsoft Office applications for more than 20 years. Her qualifications include a Bachelor in Adult Education and she is a Microsoft Certified Professional.
A comprehensive training manual/workbook and a folder of exercise files were emailed to participants before the first session. There was no set pre-work, but participants were invited to send specific questions for Denise in advance.
Denise ran the sessions using Zoom’s ‘share screen’ option. She and the class worked through a selection of the exercises together. It was useful to have two screens: one to view the Zoom meeting, the other to try the exercises and test things out. The workbook was not worked through, as such — it is more a useful manual for future reference. This meant that extensive note-taking was not needed during the sessions.
The topics covered in the workshops included:
- creating custom styles
- customising a table of contents
- creating a template and attaching it to an existing document
- creating and using cross-references
- creating complex headers and footers
- creating a custom dictionary
- protecting documents
- using built-in Word features for accessibility
- mastering tables.
Unfortunately, one session had to be postponed because of a tech glitch with Denise’s computer. We are grateful to the participants for their understanding and flexibility.
Each session was highly interactive and informative, and we learnt many new tricks. Denise patiently and expertly responded to questions throughout each session and even added some bonus topics.
Sara Kitaoji, Robert Rowe and Susie Pilkington assisted behind the scenes. We thank Claire Kelly, Professional Development Officer for Editors Victoria, for her assistance during the first session of our Windows workshop.
We are delighted that these popular workshops led to further collaboration with other branches of IPEd. Editors Victoria ran a second series of the Windows workshop in March, and another branch is considering a third series.
For more information on our workshops, please contact Sara Kitaoji, Professional Development Coordinator, at ednsw.profdev@iped-editors.org.