by Gourab Modak

Created on: February 06, 2010   Last Updated: February 07, 2010

Software is a very important for your high school career. Projects using a computer will come more often than you think. Whether you're doing physics or English, you will have to use your computer and various types of software to get stuff done. But even though you're going to use anything from Adobe Dreamweaver to Audacity, the most important piece of software you will use in high school is Microsoft Office.

Microsoft Office is one of the most well known office suites out there today. Manufactured by Microsoft, it has become a worldwide hit in office suites. Microsoft Office (also called MS Office) contains many pieces of important software put together into one suite. There are many versions of the suite, all depending on the target audience. Some of these versions are MS Office Home and Student, MS Office Small Business, and MS Office Ultimate.

Even though some versions of this suite have more software than others, there are always going to be three programs on every version. These are Word (for word processing), Powerpoint (for building eye catching slide shows), and Excel (for spreadsheets and graphs). In high school, you will be using these three programs frequently. If you go to a big school, your English teacher will make you type at least two or three essays in a specific style. With Word, you can do all of this very easily. If you have to do a presentation to the class in any subject, you don't have to fear, Powerpoint is here! With Powerpoint, making a slide show is easy, and the best part is that you can put in professional animations without much work. If you have Algebra or Statistics, you will be using spreadsheets for sure, and if you use Excel, you can make expert quality spreadsheets and graphs easily.

The price of Microsoft Office differs according to the version. If you want to buy Microsoft Office Home and Student, it will cost you $149. But if you go for MS Office Ultimate, if will cost you a whooping $600. Does it sound a little far fetched? Don't worry! Microsoft has a program where students can buy this software for significantly less than the retail price. In fact, the prices are so low, that I was able to buy Microsoft Office Ultimate ($600) for only $93! Sometimes, your school district will provide you with the information you need to get this huge discount, but if they don't, you can also get the discount at http://www.academicsuperstore.com/product/search?qk_ srch=Office&sort_by=searchWeight&srch_cat=282535. It's a great deal, and it's less than the price I bought MS Office.

Even with some tough competition, MS Office is the best office suite. Unlike its competition, MS Office offers advanced tools like a dictionary, translator, and thesaurus in Word, really cool themes in Powerpoint, and detailed spreadsheet tools in Excel. Plus, it has some of the coolest and handy-est software in the industry. Even if you just have the Home and Student version, you're going to find a really cool tool called OneNote. In OneNote, you can take notes as you research something online, keep a virtual diary, or just keep a record of everyday things at school. In the more advanced versions, you will find a lot more cool software that can do amazing things.

High school has no match for academic rigorousness in your K-12 years. More than likely, you will have to use complex software to get some things done. If you have MS Office, you can get most of these things done in a timely and presentable way. Remember, in high school you need to get things done so that you can get yourself into college or the workforce after you're done with your four last years in school. So why not do it right?

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