I’m Mike Gurner, otherwise known as Rosoft Mike. Say Rosoft Mike quickly ten times if you’re not sure why and all should become clear.

I’ve been showing people how to get more from Microsoft Office applications since I first sat in front of a copy of Word for Windows 2.0 back in 1992 or thereabouts. I should have realised what I was letting myself in for when Microsoft set their stall out by choosing to name the successor to Word 2.0 the considerably less than logical Word 6.0. Anyway, Microsoft Office products have been a significant part of my life for a long, long time, and I’m generally rather fond of them.

What started as a hobby for me became a job in 1999, then my own business (Rosoft Training was founded back in 2001) and then a way of life. I’ve been delivering Microsoft Office training courses, writing articles, newsletters and books on Microsoft Office, providing Microsoft Office consultancy services to business and generally doing my best to show the world that “Software Shouldn’t Be Hard” from that day to this. I was one of the first Microsoft Office User Specialist Authorised Instructors in the UK and am an active member of the Microsoft Certified Trainer programme. I presented at the Microsoft Certified Trainer Summit in Bucharest in July 2014 and generally try to keep myself busy and active in the Microsoft Office world.

Microsoft make products that are capable of fantastic things. Truly. In case I sound like some sort of evangelist, let me add some balance to that statement. The products are capable of fantastic things, however most people never get near to their full potential. Microsoft are not very good at making their products easy to use, which is something for which I’m extremely grateful. Without that fatal flaw in the majority of their products, I wouldn’t have the career that I have, and you wouldn’t be reading this.

What excites me most about helping people get more productive with Microsoft Office is that the gulf between how most people use the tools and how they could be used is pretty wide. That gives space for some genuinely huge leaps in productivity and capability for most users. I hope you’ll enjoy this book and would love to receive your feedback on what you find in here – please feel free to contact me at mike@rosoft.co.uk