Empowerment Technologies – Productivity Tools & Advanced Features

A set of Q&A flashcards covering major concepts from the Empowerment Technologies lecture, including productivity tools, mail merge, animations, hyperlinks, image integration, embedded data, advanced Excel formulas, best practices, and common challenges.

What are “productivity tools” (productivity software)?

Software used to create professional-quality documents, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, charts, and more.

Which three Microsoft applications are considered the core productivity tools and what skill does each target?

Microsoft Word – writing skills; Microsoft Excel – numeracy/data skills; Microsoft PowerPoint – presentation/visual skills.

Which Microsoft Office program is a word-processing tool for creating and editing text-based documents?

Microsoft Word.

Give three key formatting or editing features found in Microsoft Word.

Possible answers: text formatting (fonts, styles, spacing), inserting images/tables/hyperlinks, spell-check & grammar, templates, Track Changes and Comments.

Which Office application is designed for managing, calculating, and analyzing numerical data?

Microsoft Excel.

Name three powerful features of Microsoft Excel used for data analysis.

Formulas & functions (e.g., SUM, IF, VLOOKUP), charts/graphs, pivot tables, data sorting & filtering, conditional formatting.

Which Office tool is used to design slide shows that combine text, images, video, and other media?

Microsoft PowerPoint.

List two multimedia elements you can insert into a PowerPoint slide.

Images, videos, audio, animations, charts, tables, SmartArt, hyperlinks, etc.

What is Mail Merge in Microsoft Word?

A tool that combines a main document (template) with a recipient list to automatically create many personalized documents.

In Mail Merge, what are the two main components?

1) Main Document (template) and 2) Recipient List/Data Source (e.g., Excel table).

Give two common outputs you can create with Mail Merge.

Personalized letters, certificates, emails, envelopes, labels, invitations, name tags.

What is label generation?

Automatically creating multiple personalized labels from a label template combined with a data source.

In PowerPoint, what does “animation” mean?

Applying visual effects that make text or objects appear, move, or change dynamically during a presentation.

What are the four basic animation categories in PowerPoint?

Entrance, Exit, Emphasis, Motion Path.

What does “timing” control in PowerPoint animations?

When an animation starts and how long it lasts during the slide show.

Where do you go in PowerPoint to add Custom Animation effects?

Slide Show (or Animations) tab → Custom Animation → Add Effect.

Define a hyperlink.

Clickable text or object that jumps to another location such as a web page, file, slide, or email address.

How are hyperlinks usually displayed by default?

Blue and underlined text.

After highlighting text in PowerPoint, which context-menu option do you choose to turn it into a hyperlink?

Hyperlink.

List the four main destination types you can choose in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.

Existing File or Web Page; Place in This Document; Create New Document; E-mail Address.

Name two extra hyperlink options available when right-clicking an existing link.

Edit Hyperlink, Open Hyperlink, Copy Hyperlink, Remove Hyperlink.

Which three picture file types are most commonly used in Word documents?

.JPG (.JPEG), .PNG, .GIF.

.JPG files can display up to how many colors and are best suited for what kind of images?

About 16.8 million colors; best for full-color photographic images.

Which image type supports transparency and simple animation but only 256 colors?

.GIF.

Which image type (non-animated) was developed for fast web transfer and supports ~16 million colors?

.PNG.

What is ClipArt?

Typically .GIF line art or drawings used as generic visual representations that can be inserted into documents.

What are Shapes in Microsoft Office?

Printable objects (lines, arrows, callouts, etc.) that can be inserted to illustrate or enhance a document.

Define SmartArt.

Pre-designed sets of shapes used to graphically represent processes, hierarchies, or relationships.

Why would you insert a Chart into Word?

To present data graphically in reports, correlating numbers visually for easier comprehension.

What does Word’s Screenshot/Snipping feature allow you to do?

Capture and insert part of the screen or an entire window directly into the document.

What is an embedded file?

A file stored within another document so it remains self-contained, can retain its format, and may be opened/edited from the host file.

Give one example of an embedded file inside another document.

An Excel chart embedded in Word, or a video embedded in a PowerPoint slide.

In Excel, what does a formula always begin with?

An equal sign (=).

What does the AVERAGE function do?

Calculates the arithmetic mean of a range of numbers by dividing their sum by the count.

Which Excel feature quickly inserts a SUM function for a contiguous range?

AutoSum.

Which function adds values that meet a specific condition?

SUMIF.

How does COUNT differ from COUNTA?

COUNT counts cells containing numbers; COUNTA counts all non-empty cells (numbers, text, logical values, errors).

What does COUNTIF do?

Counts the number of cells in a range that satisfy a given criterion.

Which function joins two or more text strings into one?

CONCATENATE (or the modern CONCAT / TEXTJOIN).

Describe the purpose of the IF function.

Returns one value if a condition is TRUE and another if FALSE, enabling conditional logic.

When would you use VLOOKUP?

To search for a value in the first column of a table and return related data from another column in the same row.

Which Excel feature created with Data Validation restricts entries to a preset list?

Dropdown list.

Why is it important to "understand your tool" according to best practices?

Knowing core features, limits, and updates prevents misuse and allows informed, effective application rather than treating tools as black boxes.

Name two common challenges associated with productivity tools.

Learning curve; tool overload; distractions; internet dependence.

Give two typical limitations of productivity tools.

Not one-size-fits-all; data privacy risks; costly premium features; over-reliance can erode personal skills; technical bugs/crashes.