Does anyone know of any good low cost videos and/or CBT's for Office 2003 and Windows XP? Looking for some basic material for my wife. She is going to take an online start starting in August that uses this "Microsoft Office 2003: Brief Concepts and Techniques" that is suppose to cover Windows XP and Office 2003.
Microsoft themselves has some free beginner's training video/audio on their website. Here's some for various Office 2003 apps: Beginner's Training for Office 2003 - Excel - Microsoft Office
Free Online Learning at GCFLearnFree.org Free instructor led courses courtesy of goodwill. There are actual assignments graded by a real person. Good for CEUs if you can find any utility for them. They maintain reference of you taking the class and the CEUs are reviewed by IACET so in some cases they may actually be resume worthy.
Perhaps I might suggest reviewing the decision for taking such a class? Xp/2003 are TWO versions out of date now, and the newer ones look radically different.
Professor Teaches The Professor Teaches is excellent. Check it out. Computer Training Software | Learn Computer Programs & Skills | Computer Training Courses
But isn't windows XP still the most widely implemented operating system? I also suspect that 2003 and before still are more widely distributed than 2007. That said, X is right, 2007 is very different from its predecessors in a way and extent that has not been seen before in the product line; however, I think somebody who is acclimated to windows XP will find the transition to Vista and 7 easy enough. Most of the changes in the user interface are superficial in the sense that they are similar in location and functionality. Don't forget, you will still find old hardware and software in many business settings. If it aint broke don't fix it. You have no idea how often I see windows 2000 computers on networks (even on newer computers!).
The two options my wife has for the computer class is a 4-unit course in either Windows Vista and Office 2007 or Windows XP and Office 2003. In our company of 8,000, are machines are installed with either windows 2000 and windows xp, and office 2003. Most people I talk with in the insurance industry is pretty much the same os/software system. I have always noticed in the past 18 years insurance companies have always been around two versions behind because of the Claims Filing system and other software that we use for our jobs. I decided to have her use Windows XP and Office 2003 for the reasons rickyjo mentioned. I do appreciate the links, and plan to work with her between the summer and fall semester to get a head start prior to start of fall semester.
It's not just surface issues, if she learns about the Microsoft management console and all the snap ins and spin-offs one actually uses for fixing/trouble shooting, and more advanced topics, you will find striking similarities under the hood in XP and Vista and 7 as well. And what isn't the same is near enough that google will solve the problem. Best of luck!
