Tracy van der Schyff

#Office365Challenge – Today I’ll abuse an Office 365 post to chat about something I’m truly passionate about. Eloquence. And yes, Microsoft Office actually helps you with that. As mentioned before I’m an Afrikaans girl from South Africa – and my #ikigai (passion / profession / mission / vocation) requires me to speak / write English at least 95% of the time. Make no mistake, there is no language that allows you to express yourself more beautiful than in Afrikaans, but I doubt I’ll be seeing an Afrikaans versions of Microsoft Office / SharePoint soon. “Dit sou voorwaar ‘n riem onder my hart en wonderlike seëning wees.” (A blessing which will bring joy to my life.)

Most of the Office Products allows you to right-click on a word (1) and use synonyms (2) to find similar words, or even use the Thesaurus (4) to find even more (5). As English is not my first language, I tend to reuse and abuse words I know best (like, awesome, said, very, amazing, good) – which does not always have the desired outcome. Using Synonyms has helped me a lot to not only express myself better, but also learn new words.

I wrote a similar post a few years back – Empowering stuff for great people #3 – The (dying) Art of Eloquence and below I’ll share some more resources to help you become more eloquent and improve your vocabulary.

Express your feelings better with this Vocabulary Wheel:

50 Sophisticated Words You Should Start Using Instead
– Cyber Substitutes,  Better Buzzwords,  Underage Upgrades,  Professional Pick-me-ups,  Romantic Retools,  Dignified Descriptors

45 Words to use instead of “Very”:

28 Words to use instead of “Awesome”:

How to Stop Saying the Word “Like”:
Words to replace “Like”:
Akin to
Almost
Approximating
As if
Resembling
Seemed to sense
Similar to
Such as

Eloquence
The words leapt off the page and wrapped themselves around her like a blanket warming her soul, caressing her most fragile thoughts, and comforting her fears.

They took hold of her shrivelled heart and made it feel beautiful, hopeful, and alive.
Her heart leapt from her chest as the words had leapt from the page

and all of a sudden the words asked her heart to dance
and her heart quietly agreed.

– Kels, June 23, 2014

Spelling is diffcoult challonging hard. Don’t be that person….

Overview of my challenge: As an absolute lover of all things Microsoft, I’ve decided to undertake the challenge, of writing a blog every single day, for the next 365 days. Crazy, I know. And I’ll try my best, but if I cannot find something good to say about Office 365 and the Tools it includes for 365 days, I’m changing my profession. So let’s write this epic tale of “Around the Office in 365 Days”. My ode to Microsoft Office 365.

Keep in mind that these tips and tricks do not only apply to Office 365 – but where applicable, to the overall Microsoft Office Suite and SharePoint.