Automation

Currently I am not employed (paid) by an organization. There is another organization in where I work and the pay is not monetary but yet is rewarding in many other ways. My pay is having a family. I have never really thought about automation in the home until I was tasked with this assignment. Then I started to think about it. There are things that are automated in the home that we use everyday and take for granted. I will discuss a few of the programs that are in my organization that are helping make things a little easier in our home.

One thing that I currently use and have used in the past is the Microsoft Office Suite. Microsoft Office has progressed and has so many features within all of the applications that are automated. The system includes a word processor (Microsoft Office), spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel), email application (Microsoft Outlook), database (Microsoft Access), publishing software (Microsoft Publisher), and presentation platform (Microsoft Power Point). In addition to the Microsoft Office Suite I am able to utilize another automation tool that Microsoft has put out, which a financial package is called Microsoft Money. I will now briefly discuss each of the programs that I am able to use in the most profitable organization that anyone can have.

Microsoft Word is a program that is most commonly used to write reports, term papers and memorandums. It is a very east to use and user friendly word processor where if you need help it is right there at your finger tips. There is even a wizard that will help you with many of the most common tasks that one would need to do and a convenient help feature that connects directly online to find an answer for you. The fact that Word is easily transportable by email and how they set up the feature is very user friendly. While in word and there is a need to email the document you are working on you simply click on an envelope icon that will take your document and automatically put it into an email. While you can still manually open up outlook and add it as an attachment Microsoft has automated the process for you. For college students there is a word count feature, and in the 2007 edition, there are guidelines that help the meet the APA or MLA standards of citing references. The program includes a thesaurus, and a translation feature that allows the user to translate from one language to another. Many different styles of type and features can make reports or information jump off the page. The program allows for tables and graphs to insert within the text and has a bullet and numbering system.

Microsoft Excel. I don't know where to begin. I can say that from playing with the software and trying to learn it is or can be a very sophisticated program. Typically it is used to create spreadsheets. I really didn't know anything about it when I was first introduced to it. We wanted to get a handle on our bills and before we used Microsoft Money, I used a spreadsheet. It took a little bit of time to get used to creating formulas and I am not even close to perfecting it but I have come a long way. This program as well made it very easy to get off of the ground as well. I initially went to the Microsoft Excel help. I typed in the search of home expenses. I saw a template for personal budget. I downloaded the template and starting trying to use it. From the template that was provided, I was able to figure out how what to use the sum feature which is responsible for the addition, subtraction, etc of everything within the spreadsheet. This program allows the user to input data into sort able columns and then turn them into pie graph and bar graphs that is more easily interpreted. Excel is one of the most popular microcomputers.

Microsoft Money. MS Money is personal financial software that is used to help manage my current and future bills, help to plan for our children's college education and our retirement. Trying to save money for five kids to go to college is a challenge but the when I use the college funding aspect of the program it really puts in prospective how much I need to save. Money helps to give a complete financial picture by bringing together all of my accounts. I am able to access my c checking, savings, investment and credit card accounts all can be monitored in one