Excel tutorials online

[shybearuk]

I work in an IT trainign centre, teaching the computer illiterate of Islington to use PCs on a basic level, and have to write tutorials for most of the Microsoft Office suite. Have done Word, and Excel (easy peasy) and am now working on Access, which is giving me nightmares. I know how to use it, but trying to break it down into small, manageable chunks for people who, half the time, have never even used a mouse before is giving me grief. I'm currently paraphrasing from a Beginners Guide to Excel book that we have (but we only have one copy, so it's no use when we're busy), and am already on document five, all of which are over ten pages long. Does anyone know of any REALLY basic online tutorials, which include WHY things are done a certain way, rather than just HOW to do them, I could point people towards instead? Purely because I spend about five hours a day explaining the logic behind things to people and I'm tearing my hair out. And if I have to explain why you can't use your system username and password to get into your e-mail account to one more technologically challenged housewife, I think I might actually go completely insane and start hacking people up! Thanks in advance for any help :)

[shybearuk]

Sorry for the long question. To reach the answer/submit boxes, just hit TAB when in the answer window...

[shybearuk]

Okay. In order.

The 'computer illiterate' of Islington is who I teach. These are people who have never used a PC before in their lives for the most part, and I don't see that this is a phrase that could be considered offensive. Dictionary.com has this to say about the word illiterate: Ignorant of the fundamentals of a given art or branch of knowledge: musically illiterate.

I didn't say that there was anything wrong with being a housewife. It's just that the majority of my client base are the elderly and people who have no formal job, and thus time to come and study with us during the day.

Nor is the phrase 'Technologically Challenged' offensive. It's actually supposed to be the politically correct phrase to use, according to my work sources.

I am not struggling in my position because of my lack of experience/knowledge. The main reason I AM struggling, is because the funding is not available for us to have more than two members of staff, which also means that neither of us can take breaks, have holidays at present, go on courses, etc. I'm just looking for some ways to make myself and my manager's time a little easier, rather than running around like blue-a*sed flies, constantly repeating ourselves.

[shybearuk]

Part2

Naturally, the part about going insane and hacking people up was meant as a joke. If I really WAS that abrasive, I'd hardly be likely to mention it on here, would I?

I have an excellent relationship with most of my clients. What goes on behind my eyes is my business, and they will never hear me say anything offensive within earshot of them. But sometimes, working with the public can be a singularly frustrating experience, as anyone who has worked in the public sector knows. It's the joy of giving something back to the community that makes it worthwhile though, so I stick with it, and I do the best I can. I'd rather do that than work in an office somewhere, doing something in order to make some fat-cat richer. (That's not a dig at you, smudge, for being/having been a company secretary. It's just not the way I can work.)

[shybearuk]

I never used the word 'mere' before housewife, nor did I say that I am 'always' tearing my hair out. What I said was that I was 'tearing my hair out' at that time (when I was writing the question). The reason being that I had spent over an hour the previous day explaining to someone the difference between an email username and password, and the username and password used to get into our network. I had also done this with the same client the day before, and last week. I had given her a written copy of both the system logon handout that we use, and the e-mail handout that we use, and STILL she was putting her email address in the system logon box. At that opoint, there's not much one can do, except 'tear their hair out', but I still carried on calmly repeating myself, trying to exaplin it in yet more different ways, i.e. the difference between your PIN for a cashcard and the PIN for your mobile phone.

I love my job, truly I do, but sometimes it gets a little on top of me, and that was just one of those days, so I apologise for offending you, as I so clearly had.

I don't want to turn this into a 'smudge vs shybearuk' thread, as there's been enough unpleasantness on Answerbank over the summer, without us bitching at one another, but I hope that this has gone some way to explaining why I said what I said.

[praxis]

How do shybearuk, Excel is a famously annoying program to explain, it's more a way of thinking than a tool, but once your 'clients' get it it will get easier for them and, hopefully, you - stick with it. BTW Smudge - please take the questions submitted here in the spirit in which they were posted i.e. A bloke trying to get some support in what is obviously a very demanding but rewarding job, and not criticising him for his obviously light-hearted comment about 'hacking people up', after all there are people much more worthy of such actions than ICT students of Islington - wouldn't you agree?

[praxis]

Sorry, I meant Access

[Phantaxus]

have you tried any of the interactive training cdroms. I got one called "train yourself access training twin pack" by BVG software training for about �15 that looks to be quite good I know you may not be able to get funding for one copy per pc that you require to be legal but you could get one copy for one pc and use that to increase your own knowledge and point you in the right direction. Also have you thought about setting up an intranet and producing your own web based training materials macromedia have a new product called contribute that allows you to construct web pages with out knowing html and it costs about �70 there is a downloadable demo as well. hope this helps

[shybearuk]

And the same to you, smudge :o)

Phantaxus: Unfortunately, we can't install software on our machines, nor run programs from CDs. It's a 'feature' of the system according to Viglen, who set up and do something which they laughably refer to as 'maintain' them., but thank you for the suggestion.

[anthomson]

I sympathise, I feel the real problem here is that database design is far too advanced a topic for folk new to computing. I think you will also find it difficult to find suitable 'applications' for databases that would be meaningful to your students. Maybe you should look for websites that look at pure abstract database design (relational tables, primary keys, foreign keys, normalisation, queries etc. see link below ), find some good example applications that can be clearly distinguished from spreadsheet applications (an employee database or something similar that will demonstrate relationships and searches), then write your tutorials to teach these concepts using the features offered by Access (easier said than done because Access tends to hide these with its excessive use of wizards etc.). Best of luck.

http://www.business.ecu.edu/users/wittmanw/content
/3063/DBDesign.htm