The Microsoft 77-726: Word 2016 Expert: Creating Documents for Effective Communication exam is the only requirement for the Microsoft Office Specialist: Microsoft Word 2016 Expert certification and a part for the Microsoft Office Specialist 2016 Master designation. The latter one implies passing 2 more compulsory exams 77-728 and 77-729, and one of the two elective exams, known as 77-730 and 77-731.

What you should know about exam 77-726 is that it measures a candidate’s expert skills in using Word 2016 advanced features for document and content management, as well as advanced formatting.

Intended Audience

The Microsoft 77-726 exam targets a wide range of professionals, including editors, project managers, business information workers, educators, among others. Moreover, this exam is open to everyone who wants to learn more about Microsoft Word 2016. If you are a student following an educational program or studying for your Information Technology exam, the knowledge tested in the certification exam will come in handy as most assignments now require you to complete them using Microsoft Word. Apart from that, passing the 77-726 test will be beneficial if you are a management assistant or an accountant as the knowledge of Microsoft Word 2016 is critical for these roles.

Exam Prerequisites

There are no particular prerequisites for the Microsoft 77-726 exam. However, it is recommended to have at least 6 months of hands-on experience with Word 2016 and a good understanding of the numerous sophisticated features. It is crucial that interested candidates review the exam objectives before taking the actual exam. This will ensure that they have a thorough understanding of the exam structure.

Exam Details

The 77-726 exam includes 26 questions that you are to complete within 50 minutes. You can get a pass status only after achieving 70% of the correct answers. The exam will cost you $100. Once you’ve completed your preparation and are ready to schedule the test, go to the official exam information given on the website and complete the registration process.

Detailed Overview Of Exam objectives

The Microsoft 77-726 exam will assess an individual’s knowledge of four domains described below:

Exam Domain 1: Operating The Document's Settings And Options

This part will check your skills to operate documents and templates, prepare documents for review and manage document changes. To be more precise, you should be able to modify existing templates, operate different versions of the document, be able to compare several documents, change the default font of the application. In addition, you should be able to enable macros in a document as well as work with the hidden ribbon tabs. In addition, you should be proficient in restricting editing, and protecting a document with a secure password. To add more, you should possess skills to add and manage comments, track and operate changes.

Exam Domain 2: Designing Advanced Documents

Within this topic of the 77-726 certification exam, you will be asked to demonstrate your proficiency in executing advanced editing and formatting. This includes the ability to find and replace text with the use of special characters and wildcards, set advanced options of page setup layout, find and replace styles and formatting. You will also be evaluated based on your skills in setting paragraph pagination options, linking text boxes, as well as fixing style conflicts with the use of Paste Options. Moreover, the domain will require you to create styles, including paragraph and character styles.

Exam Domain 3: Making Advanced Reference

This subject area focuses on your skills in creating and managing indexes. Specifically, you will be asked to show that you are capable of creating indexes, marking index entries, as well as updating indexes. The topic will also measure your proficiency in creating and managing references. This includes customizing a table of contents, creating and adjusting a table of figures, inserting and adjusting captions. Another subtopic of the domain will evaluate your ability to manage fields, forms, and Mail Merge operations. This comprises skills in adding custom fields, executing mail merges, adjusting field properties, inserting merged fields, managing recipient lists, and previewing merge results.

Exam Domain 4: Making Customized Word Components

The topic aims to check your competency in creating and adjusting building macros, blocks, and controls, including creating Quick Parts, inserting and configuring content controls, managing building blocks, as well as creating and adjusting simple macros. The skills in creating custom style sets and templates will also be measured. You will need to demonstrate your ability to create custom font sets, custom color sets, custom themes, and custom style sets. Lastly, you will be required to show that you know how to prepare a document for accessibility and internationalization. This involves the ability to configure language options within a document, manage various options for +Heading and +Body fonts, add alt text to document components, as well as apply global content standards.

Career Opportunities

In today's business world, knowing how to draft a document is a must, and it's a skill that employers look for when hiring new workers. Hence, being Microsoft Office Specialist 2016 Master or Microsoft Word 2016 Expert can provide you with a competitive advantage over your non-certified peers. Holding this accreditation, you will be an ideal candidate to work in positions like Public Records Specialist, Operations Administrator, Staff Accountant, Employee Relations Specialist, Office Manager, Database Specialist, etc. The average salary that you can earn holding the Microsoft Office Specialist: Microsoft Word 2016 Expert certificate is around $82k, while the achievement of the Microsoft Office Specialist 2016 Master accreditation can bring you an average annual pay of $75k, according to 2017 IT Skills & Salary Report by Global Knowledge.