Your tech team says it’s time to replace your computer and poof!  One day there’s a shiny new computer on your desk and everything you’re used to seeing is different.  Train.msu.edu/lynda to the rescue!

With the University’s access to Lynda.com, you can get basic or advanced training on many software programs you use every day.  In the course Word 2010 New Features, you can watch a 3 minute video on the differences between Word 2007 and Word 2010.   Did you know you can customize the ribbon of tools at the top of your screen with the options or even Macros you use most?   Editing images in your Word documents is easier, too.  Word 2010 moves the image editing tools right into your document, from cropping the image to touching it up without ever leaving your document.

In  Excel 2010 New Features, you can compare Excel 2007 to Excel 2010.  As with Word 2010, the tool  ribbon is customizable for the features you use most.  One of the best new features is “Paste Preview” where you can see how your document will look before you paste and have to ‘undo’ something that creates havoc with your documents.  “Slicers” let you search and filter pivot tables so your documents look more like a web page.  And for you math, physics and engineering folks out there, ‘Math Equations’ lets you format your data nicely.  One of our favorites (see image) are ‘Spark Lines’, tiny little charts that fit into a cell on each line, giving a snapshot view without creating a whole new page with charts.

We discovered these features watching less than 6 minutes of video.  Each course is divided into small sections so you only watch what you want to learn.  Go to http://train.msu.edu/lynda/ for more information.

MSU no longer sponsors Lynda.com memberships but individual memberships are available at Lynda.com.