NWC News Desk

Computer application trainings in Nov. in Cody & Powell

Posted October 24, 2006
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P O W E L L, W y o. - There's still time this year to learn or update skills in QuickBooks, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, basic Internet and computer fundamentals through training sessions offered in November by the Northwest College Center for Training and Development (formerly Workforce Development) in Cody and Powell.

Geared to the particular needs of small businesses in the Big Horn Basin, the three-session training covers the fundamentals of the software program, including customer and vendor transactions, banking and creating a company file. Instructor Lynne Whitmore said, "This software program allows small business owners to gain control of the financial aspects of their business." She said the class provides lots of hands-on training so students are comfortable with the software and concepts before they leave. Cost is $79 per person.

This QuickBooks class is sponsored through a partnership between the Northwest College Center for Training and Development, Wyoming Small Business Development Center, U.S. Small Business Administration and the Wyoming Business Council.

To accommodate busy schedules, training for Microsoft Word 2003 is offered in two formats - as a single all-day workshop or a four-session evening class.

Basic Word training is offered from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3, at the NWC Cody Center for Training and Development, located in the Park County Complex. This class introduces the tools needed to create, edit, print and save a Word document. Starting with the basics, students will first learn to use toolbars, fonts, margins, borders, shading, bullets, clip art, cut, copy and paste commands. They'll advance to columns, tables and templates and in the process learn to use Wizards and the help command, and how to create headers and footers, envelopes and labels.

A "Basics and Beyond" Word class, offered from 9 am -4 pm Thursday, Nov. 30, in Cody, will include an overview of basic features and then move on to more advanced tasks. Attendees learn how to mail merge, work with the graphics and import information from other sources. Word users can build on basic skills and become familiar with some of the more advanced but commonly used skills that are valuable in the professional and personal environment.

Basic Word and Excel are covered together in four 4-6:20 p.m. sessions Tuesdays and Thursdays, Nov. 9-21 at the Cody Center. The Word part will provide attendees with an opportunity to learn the basic functions of this popular word processing software. Topics include creating and formatting a document, adding tables and graphics, and utilizing some of the automatic features available in Word. In the Excel portion, participants learn how to customize Excel, use toolbars, create worksheets and enter formulas into cells. They'll also add charts to a worksheet and use Excel as a database. Saving and printing documents is covered as well. This class is designed for beginners and for those who want to prepare for IC3 Certification to upgrade their jobs or to enter the job market.

"PowerPoint with Pizzazz!" is given in an all-day format from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, in Cody. It covers the fundamentals of PowerPoint design and introduces the many types and uses of multimedia integration into a PowerPoint presentation. Some of the topics covered include creating a custom design template and presentations with special effects, delivering a slide show presentation with music, video and sound, and creating presentations using advanced Visual Basic tools and presentations for Web site broadcasting.

Cost for each of these software trainings is $60 per person.

The Cody Center offers two more introductory classes for beginners and for those preparing for IC3 certification.

Computer Fundamentals, which meets from 4-6:20 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7, guides participants through a series of exercises to become familiar with basic computer terminology, plus hardware and software that is essential to computer users in today's world of technology. Students learn to utilize the settings and elements of the operating system, how to weigh factors in purchasing a computer, how to access online help and many other basic computer functions.

Internet Basics meets from 4-6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28, in Cody as well. It covers e-mailing, Web-browsing, searching (or "googling") and many other features needed to move around on the World Wide Web. Security issues like passwords, secure transactions and more are also studied.

Registration for Computer Fundamentals and Internet Basics classes is $20 per person per class.

More details and information about these and other training sessions are available online by following the "Training Schedule" link here. For more information from the Center for Training and Development e-mail the Powell center or call (307) 754-6062. In Cody, e-mail or call (307) 587-3506. Both offices can also be reached toll free at (800) 560-4692.