Office Tools

Application software that assist users in regular office jobs like creating, updating and maintaining documents, handling large amounts of data, creating presentations, scheduling, etc. are called office tools. Using office tools saves time and effort and lots of repetitive tasks can be done easily. Some of the software that do this are −

• Word processors
• Spreadsheets
• Database systems
• Presentation software
• E-mail tools

Let us look at some of these in detail.

Word Processor:

Software for creating, storing and manipulating text documents is called word processor. Some common word processors are MS-Word, WordPad, WordPerfect, Google docs, etc.

A word processor allows you to −

• Create, save and edit documents
• Format text properties like font, alignment, font color, background color, etc.
• Check spelling and grammar
• Add images
• Add header and footer, set page margins and insert watermarks

Spreadsheet:

Spreadsheet is software that assists users in processing and analyzing tabular data. It is a computerized accounting tool. Data is always entered in a cell (intersection of a row and a column) and formulas and functions to process a group of cells is easily available. Some of the popular spreadsheet software includes MS-Excel, Gnumeric, Google Sheets, etc. Here is a list of activities that can be done within spreadsheet software −

• Simple calculations like addition, average, counting, etc.
• Preparing charts and graphs on a group of related data.
• Data entry.
• Data formatting.
• Cell formatting.
• Calculations based on logical comparisons.

Presentation Tool:

Presentation tool enables user to demonstrate information broken down into small chunks and arranged on pages called slides. A series of slides that present a coherent idea to an audience is called a presentation. The slides can have text, images, tables, audio, video or other multimedia information arranged on them. MS-PowerPoint, Open Office Impress, Lotus Freelance, etc. are some popular presentation tools.

Database Management System:

Software that manages storage, updating and retrieval of data by creating databases is called database management system. Some popular database management tools are MS-Access, MySQL, Oracle, FoxPro, etc.