Documenting A Day

I documented a day in my life and ended up using three programs from Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Each of these programs has strengths and weaknesses. 

Word is an excellent tool to use for journaling. It enables users to use their words to create a snapshot of their day. It can be used to insert tables and do minor table formatting but not complex calculations.

screenshot of word representation

On the other hand, Excel is an excellent tool for creating tables and formulas and making fairly complex calculations.  It also enables graphical representations, in this case, a pie chart, to graphically capture the different segments of the day and present them in one easily understood form. One downside of Excel is that it cannot be used as a word processor, so journaling would not be possible.

screenshot of excel representation

PowerPoint helps create slide shows that can be used in presentations. Data that has been entered in Word and Excel can be copied over onto the slides. However, PowerPoint cannot be used for word processing, calculations, or graphical representations – except for the presentation of the already processed or analyzed data. In this way, a user can utilize all three separate programs to deliver different presentations of the same data. 

screenshot of powerpoint representation

A database, e.g. SQL, could have been used to capture and present this information in all three formats without switching from program to program. The user would then input different commands, directing the program on what to do with the data entered. This way, the database would have calculated percentages, summed totals, and created graphical representations and reports. All these could be used in PowerPoint presentation slides.

To use SQL though, users need to learn programming skills and know what commands to use to accomplish their end-goal.

REFERENCES:

Wang, H., & Wang, S. (2023). Teaching Tip: Teaching NoSQL Databases in a Database Course for Business Students. Journal of Information Systems Education, 34(1), 32–40. https://doi.org/https://jise.org/Volume34/n1/JISE2023v34n1pp32-40.pdf

Khan, W., Kumar, T., Zhang, C., Raj, K., Roy, A. M., & Luo, B. (2023). SQL and NoSQL Database Software Architecture Performance Analysis and Assessments—A Systematic Literature Review. Big Data & Cognitive Computing, 7(2), 97. https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc7020097

Microsoft Office is easy to use and does not require any level of programming to understand. According to Wang, Microsoft Office, especially Excel, has one great advantage over databases like SQL, in that MS Office does not require any programming skills and can therefore be taught and used by anyone. (Wang, 2023).