Ready to level up your Microsoft Office skills? This year's U.S. National Microsoft Office Champions share their expert tips for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Today's students grew up with computers, mastering Office apps early on. Microsoft recognizes this talent through its annual U.S. National Microsoft Office Championships, where top students compete in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
LifeHacker interviewed recent champions, including Forrest Liu (2013 Word), Joshua Garrelts (2016 Word), Anirudh Narayanan (2013 Excel), John Dumoulin (2016 Excel), Dheya Madhani (2016 PowerPoint), and Dominic Allain (2013 PowerPoint). Here are their battle-tested techniques to make you work like a pro.
Word is ubiquitous, but mastery requires smart shortcuts. These tips from champions will sharpen your skills.
Forrest Liu, 2013 Word Champion, shares this gem: Hold Ctrl while highlighting to select multiple non-adjacent text sections simultaneously.
Similarly, hold Ctrl and click anywhere in a sentence to select it instantly.
The Quick Access Toolbar defaults to Save, Undo, and Redo. Customize it for power-user efficiency.
Click the dropdown and choose More Commands to add tools like spell check or email sharing, as favored by 2016 Word Champion Joshua Garrelts.
Excel Champions Anirudh Narayanan (2013) and John Dumoulin (2016) both swear by one powerhouse feature.
Excel's Conditional Formatting dynamically highlights data based on values. Start with a dataset, like IMDb ratings for The Simpsons episodes.
Highlight data, go to Home > Styles > Conditional Formatting.
Choose New Rule for precision.
Set a three-color scale: Format style to 3-Color Scale, Types to Number, and custom Values (e.g., avoid red for 7+ ratings).
Click OK for instant visual insights.
PowerPoint shines in expert hands. 2016 Champion Dheya Madhani and 2013 Champion Dominic Allain offer these essentials.
Ensure fonts travel with your deck: File > Options > Save > check Embed fonts in the file.
Manage overlapping objects easily. Insert icons, then in the Layout tab, open Selection Pane.
Select, reorder, or multi-select with Ctrl for perfect layouts.
Turn notes into slides: Format Word doc with headings, select text with Ctrl technique.
In PowerPoint: Home > New Slide > Slides from Outline > Insert Word file.
Tweak visuals for a ready presentation.
Dominic Allain advises visuals over text: Use images, charts, videos. Leverage PowerPoint's multimedia strengths to engage audiences.
Office pros never stop: Champions honed skills through practice. Explore shortcuts and features to optimize your workflow.
Got a pro tip or need help? Share in the comments!
