Learn Microsoft Word and Excel 2010 - review of GCF LearnFree.org

GCF LearnFree Online is a tutorial site for, among other things, Microsoft Office 2010. It works well for anyone who needs the basics or for those who casually use word processing programs but haven't learned to take advantage of the many features available.

Word, Excel, and Power Point tutorials are divided into three sections each: Basics, Common Tasks, and Doing More. These sections are each further divided into several lessons of five or six pages apiece of well-illustrated, clearly explained information. The first page of a lesson is a short introduction, the second page starts with a video that goes through all the information and steps that follow. Here's a sample page from the site:

The text includes tips that aren't necessarily in the video, helpful extras that make daily work tasks quicker and easier. For example, in the Excel lesson on "Filtering", the text adds the tip that you can uncheck the box next to "Select All" to quickly uncheck all the boxes. In some cases this is quicker than unchecking the ones you don't need because the list may be too long. You then check the one or two you do want.

In the Word lesson on Column breaks, you are shown the obvious way to divide the page into columns. The lesson continues to show what will most likely happen to a new user and the next step to take to correct it.

The last page in each lesson is called the Challenge page. It is set up as a numbered series of tasks that can be performed on a document from your own library or on a practice document you can download (very quickly, only 1-2 seconds) from the Challenge page itself.
Using a document you already have is fun; in the Word lessons you experiment with your document, organizing it, making it look more professional, or just making it more interesting to look at. If you have no documents or spreadsheets yet, because you don't yet know how to make them, the examples GCF makes available for download are excellent and easy to work with. You perform the same or very similar tasks as presented in the lessons. If you prefer, you can click through to the last page and open the example right after watching the video. That way you can work on the practice document as you read through the lesson instead of waiting for the Challenge page at the end.

GCF's site is very well-designed and easy to follow with plenty of "white space" so the pages are easy on the eyes. The voice of the teacher on the videos is clear, the reasons for the steps are made obvious and the action the student should take to perform the task demonstrated is clearly explained, then immediately shown. The pace is just right - you won't get lost trying to keep up; neither will you get bored waiting. If you need a second look at something, it's easy to pause the video or back up a page but you probably won't need to very often. The lessons are clearly labeled which is good for going back to do a lesson again if you do have trouble or forget how to do something.

This site can be used to introduce middle-schoolers through adults to Microsoft Office programs. The tutorials are set up in a way that allows success and encourages further exploration of the programs on your own.

There are many other tutorials on the site as well, lessons that can be used for kids or anyone learning English; for instance, there are tutorials on finding items in a grocery store, counting change, or filling out job applications. You can practice Open Office, learn about using the internet, social media, Apple, or telling time. My experience is learning MS Word and MS Excel so far though I've played with the others a little just to explore the site. It's been a very helpful site and I definitely recommend it.

I've started the Power Point lessons on this site and have learned a lot, it makes it so easy. I did want to mention though, that I've seen more and more typos in this section. The reason I want to mention it is because it amused me to find them in the Spelling and Proofing section!