Documenting a Day

Documenting a Day

In week two assignment one, I was asked to use four different application software programs to document the events that take place in one day of my life.  These four application software programs were Microsoft Word Processor, Spreadsheet, PowerPoint and Database.  As I explored these four software programs.  I was able to see and understand the different functions of each program.  These programs are setup to use for different task in a work setting or for personal use.

            The first program I used was Microsoft Word Processor.  This program is built with different functions to help type document in the text form.  When I first opened word processor, I was able to start on a blank page.  There are many different options available to modify the text.  These options vary from, text size, text type.  I can make the text bold or italic and even underline written text.  When using word processor for this assignment, I was able to type out the events of my day.  I was also able to make my text look different for some extra effect.  Being able to check the document for spelling and grammar errors (Simpopdf.com, 2019), I was able to check mistakes in my work quickly and easily.  Word processor is good for typing essays and documenting events in plain text.  I made good use of word processor to get my ideas typed out for the rest of my assignment.  The lack of extra features in word processor, makes its use limited when wanting to present more than text.

            Microsoft Excel was the second program that I used to help document a day in my life.  Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application which is a common computer application for representing tables of data like text or numbers (Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S., 2017).  Excel allowed me to document and manipulate the number of hours in my day I spent doing each task.  Excel made it easier for me to show how my day was spent in numbers, percentages and a pie chart.  I was able to make use of the function feature which made it easy to calculate all the hours spent doing each task and showing how they all equaled up to 24 hours.  Excel allowed me to show my day well in numbers, but it does not do well with letting the user be creative.  Excel is useful in a business setting to state facts, using numbers and functions to document different things.

            The third program I used was Microsoft PowerPoint.  This application was useful for me to become creative with the documentation of my day.  PowerPoint allows the user to “create a slideshow of text and graphics, often with animation (Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S., 2017).  When using PowerPoint, I was able to add more animation to the documentation of my day.  I was able to add text with pictures and the application made it easier for me to place pictures and text in different locations on each slide.  PowerPoint would be used more for a person who is presenting a presentation to multiple people and want to catch the attention of the audience.  PowerPoint can be used for good presentations, but it also can be more then needed when only needing to document simple things.  I would be too much when writing an essay or showing statistics. 

            The fourth and final program I used was Microsoft Access.  Microsoft Access is a database management system that can be used to organize data to enable efficient information retrieval (Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S., 2017).  I used Access to present my daily task, while also prioritizing them as high, medium and low of importance of my day.  I used Access for a basic feature it has but Access has many great advanced features.  Access can be used as the front end of a program and the back end of programs like Microsoft SQL Server.  While Access has many features, it made good use for the simple task I was doing like prioritizing my day and saving it as a .zip file.