Word & Excel

Today we were required to do a number of menial tasks using Microsoft Office - generally used for secretarial purposes.
Task one: Use Microsoft Word to "Track Changes" and "Mail Merge".

Tracking changes - a basic tool that allows one to see any edits to a document since turning it on. Essentially foolproof, there's not really anything (that I can conceive at least) that can go wrong with this. Got through it in a minute or two.

Mail Merge - more complex, more time consuming, one of the most boring uses of Word that exists. Took a few minutes to get through the task - writing a basic application letter and inserting a couple of people to send it to, no real difficulties.

Task Two: Creating a basic spreadsheet in Excel and making a couple of formulas, graphs and macros to go with it. Excel looks complex but it's a pretty basic system - glorified calculator. Macros took a bit longer than the rest, but it's all relatively easy once you know what you're doing.

Each task had a section at the bottom about people complaining about losing hours of work in office from not saving regularly; these people should play more computer games. Every gamer has experienced a crash after hours of monster killing. A few years of this will drill into anyones head the bonuses of saving every five minutes. Constantly hitting CTRL+S is automatic after every sentence these days.

Part Two: Compare MSN/IM to a 3D chat environment.

The basic differences I've noticed between communication on instant messengers in comparison to 3D chats is the level on which people communicate. Instant messaging tends to be more intimate and involved, with deeper and more personal conversations, whereas in the 3D environment, people are distracted by things they can see and do, and the conversation suffers as a result. 3D can be interesting for a while, but it generally gets boring and somewhat morose. It's also harder to find someone to talk to, as everyone else is also walking around looking for people. In 2D chat, you just click the name and off you go.