The Tax Preparation Blog

Question: What are the best study guides for MS Word & Excel 2003 certification for one with little experience?

I need to learn Word and Excel to improve my resume as a tax accountant; I want to learn both and get certification within 2-4 months. Can you recommend any of the study guides to use for the MS 2003 series?

Answer: There are a few places to get some help. It depends on your preferences, and what style of book you would learn best from.

The first place to start would be a good bookstore (i.e. Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc.) Check out the MS Press series of books entitled Step by Step. This books are actually designed to walk you through the topics necessary to pass the MOUS exams. They are very tightly coupled to the exam, they provide good real-world examples, and they serve as a very nice reference book for years to come.

The other sources would be Element K courseware ( http://elementkcourseware.com/welcome.do ) and Thomson Course Technology ( http://www.course.com/catalog/default.cfm ). These companies provide the classroom instructor-led materials used in corporate America every day.

I used to do corporate training classes all over Massachusetts. I would use these manuals almost interchangeably. The downside of them is that you would need to buy one workbook for each level in each program. For instance, there is one workbook for Intro to Excel, another for Intermediate, and another for Advanced. There may be more, such as Macros and VBA. You will have to check out the offerings at each companies’ site.
Of the two companies, the Thomson books are more realistic and are very colorful with lots of screen shots. THe Element K books are less appealing, but they are extremely detailed in their descriptions of each step in each exercise.

In closing, I would go the Step by Step route first. And by all means, stay away from the ‘Dummies’ series of books. If you are serious about learning this stuff, then get some serious books.

Good luck!

Tri-State Tax & Accounting, Refunds USA welcome new tax team members

Dan Hanson and Kristy Hurley have joined the staffs of Tri-State Tax & Accounting and Refunds USA. Hanson was born and raised in Austin and has lived in Austin for the last 29 years. He has a bachelor of science degree in accounting from St. Cloud State University.

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