Computer skills

Introduction

As part of your studies, you will be required to complete several assignments, which may include essays, reports and dissertations, presentations and posters, and you may need to include some data analysis or prove an understanding of how to store, organise and manipulate numerical and other forms of data. You will need to use a word processing software, such as Microsoft Word, and you may be required to use a presentation software, such as Microsoft PowerPoint and a spreadsheet application like Microsoft Excel. Check the guides below to improve your skills using the applications listed below.

The guides have been prepared using Office 365. Office 2019 and Office 2016 will be very similar, although some of the functions may not be available or be in different locations. If you need help with an older version of Office, please contact cst@beds.ac.uk.

Cyber security awareness

If you would like to find out more about staying safe online, please read the cyber security awareness guidance by ICT.

Self-help guides available for download

Our guides are available as Word documents. If you need an alternative format, please email cst@beds.ac.uk.

Microsoft Excel

Our self help guides explain how to do short tasks in Excel. You can find additional resources, such as video training, tips and templates on the Microsoft support site.

Edit or rearrange chart data

You can find more detailed instructions and examples in our workbooks.

Microsoft PowerPoint

Our self help guides explain how to do short tasks in PowerPoint. You can find additional resources, such as video training, tips and templates on the Microsoft support site.

Action buttons

Applying animations to text and objects

Applying timings to slides

Changing the slide background

Viewing presentations

You can find more detailed instructions and examples in our workbooks.

Microsoft Word

Our self help guides explain how to do short tasks in Word. You can find additional resources, such as video training, tips and templates on the Microsoft support site.

Adding captions to images and tables

Apply a style

Bulleted and numbered lists

Changing the spacing between lines

Creating a table of contents

Creating a table of figures

Creating tables

Editing images

Formatting different sections

Header and footer tools

Headers and footers

Indenting paragraphs

Inserting images

Introducing the ribbon

Modifying a style

Page numbering

Shortcut keys and buttons

Understand the backstage view

Using section breaks

You can find more detailed instructions and examples in our workbooks.

Microsoft Outlook Web

Log into your student email

Archiving emails

Automatic forwarding

Creating a signature

Other software and materials

ECDL

We no longer offer the ECDL qualification to students; however we still have many resources available if you wish to use them. Please email cst@beds.ac.uk if you need access to these resources.

If you are interested in achieving the ECDL or ECDL Advanced qualifications we recommend you contact Cranfield University.

Microsoft Teams

Please note that the University does not currently use Microsoft Teams as a teaching tool. It is however, available for students to use to create informal groups. Microsoft Teams training material is available directly from Microsoft.

MindGenius

Create mind maps or plan, schedule and manage your projects with MindGenius. If you need to install the software, see the instructions for downloading and installing MindGenius. You can download our Getting started with MindGenius workbook and all the exercise files it uses from the CST workbooks page.