Product Reviews

My own image of computer-based training has always been a multimedia-rich experience. After experiencing CBT Systems' courses, I realise that bells and whistles are the last thing you're going to get. The courses are aimed primarily at the corporate market, where the majority of desktops have little, if any, multimedia capabilities.

What you do get is a professional set of self-study materials designed to help people become competent users of Office 97 applications. There are 16 courses in all, with Word, Excel and Access getting extensive attention. Beginner, intermediate, advanced and power user courses are available for each. Also, there are single courses for PowerPoint, Outlook and FrontPage, and there's a course covering just the new features of Office 97.

All the courses follow the same format and start with an introduction to the subject. Using a mock-up of the application's screen, context-sensitive information boxes pop up to guide you. To break the monotony, practical tests and extra information appear at random, and you can get help if you have problems. If all else fails, an animated demo shows you what you should have done.

There's also an overall test feature that lets you test yourself on all or any section of the course. Questions are asked randomly so you're not faced with the same old material all the time.

There's not enough room here to provide a summary of each and every disc, so I've taken an example of a course at a certain level of difficulty to give an idea of what you get.

Beginning Excel 97

This course, which lasts about four hours, is for people who haven't used Excel before (but understand Windows basics) and teaches simple spreadsheet operations.

You're shown how to start Excel, told what it's used for, how to get help, and you're introduced to the Office Assistant. The concepts of worksheets, workbooks, toolbars and menus are explained. You're taught how to create a new workbook and navigate and manipulate data in an existing one, including working with rows and columns, as well as entering, copying and moving data. The techniques used to edit and format text, rows, columns and numbers are also demonstrated. Once you've completed a worksheet, you're shown how to preview, print and save it.

In addition, basic formul² are discussed and demonstrated. Among other functions, the SUM function, AutoSum and AutoCalculate features are all demonstrated with clarity. Absolute and relative cell references are explained, and there's a section dealing with date formul². It's a good introduction, but very basic, and so only appropriate for the most spreadsheet-illiterate of users.

Intermediate Word 97

If you're a little more competent than the average technophobe and want to do more than learns the ropes, the intermediate range of CDs offers a bit more of a challenge. For example,

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the first topic covered on the Word disc takes in table creation and formatting. It goes on to demonstrate how to use Wizards to create common types of documents, like letters, fax cover sheets, newsletters, envelopes and address labels, and then introduces more complex concepts. Styles are covered in depth: you're shown how to create your own, as well as using and editing pre-sets, and you also get to learn how to add styles to templates for future use.

Column formats are dealt with in detail and you're shown how to set different tab types. Headers and footers, line spacing, font use, AutoText and using the thesaurus are all clearly explained and demonstrated. The purpose and use of outlines is covered, and you're told how to create and re-organise outlines. The final lessons look at WordArt and the use of Word's drawing tools to create and edit lines, objects and 3D shapes.

This course takes someone who uses Word at the most basic level and introduces them to many of the more powerful and useful tools, taking them up to a higher-an-average level of competence.

Advanced Access 97

This course covers queries and macros. Database queries are a complex subject, so lots of time is spent explaining select, crosstab and action queries. The disc takes you through how to set them up, with and without the help of a Wizard, and how to customise queries. I was impressed with the clarity of the explanations given, which is an important consideration when dealing with such advanced subject matter.

The section dealing with creating and running macros is less impressive. It introduces the subject and shows you how to write simple macros, but fails to go further than a few simplistic two-line macros. Given that this is billed as an advanced course, I'd have expected a little more. And, as usual, there's a quota of exercises on the subject matter covered at the end of the lessons.

Lessons learned

Personally, I prefer learning in a classroom with human instructors and other trainees present. On the face of it this is an expensive and time-consuming training method. Other disadvantages are that the pace of the course is restricted to the slowest student's level, and can vary in quality according to different levels of competence among instructors.

Interactive courses, such as these offerings from CBT, though impersonal and, at times, tedious, let you work at your own speed and ensure a greater degree of consistency in who's taught what. In addition to doing the exercises, you can switch between the course in one window and the application in another to get as much practice as you need.

Another major advantage is that you can split each course into small chunks over a period of time. There's a limit to the amount of information you can take in at any one time, and these courses can be tailored to fit awkward schedules and personal learning habits. Bookmarks can be left in the courses to keep your place, and you can review any section of the course as often as necessary until you're happy that you're fully competent.

In contrast to the BVT NT 4 training videos seen by PC Pro (reviewed issue 35, p199), the interactivity and the overall quality of the CBT courses make them far better and more useful training tools in the corporate environment. There's still nothing better than a live, one-to-one training session, but if time and expense mean you can't do this, these CBT courses are an excellent alternative.