The Microsoft Office Specialist: Microsoft Word 2016 is the intermediate certification that helps the candidates to demonstrate their skills in Microsoft Word and Word environments. The applicants who are rooting for a career in the IT sector should consider this certification as it will also encourage them to complete their tasks independently and get expertise in Microsoft Word.

Eligibility Criteria

There is no formal prerequisite for this designation, and it is designed for anyone interested in enhancing their knowledge of Microsoft Word. Hence, you just need to have a fundamental knowledge of the Word environment to apply for the certificate.

What Is This Certification?

A designation like this can be achieved by passing the Word 2016: Core Document Creation, Collaboration, and Communication or 77-725 Exam. In a nutshell, you should have knowledge, skills, and abilities of Microsoft Word features and functionalities to pass such an exam and grab the certification.

Microsoft 77-725 Test Details

This exam validates the candidate's knowledge of the Word environment, its correct application of features, and creating the professional document so you will be able to showcase your skills in editing documents for a variety of situations and purposes. The 77-725 evaluation also focuses on a basic understanding of Microsoft Word and how to prepare a well-drafted Word document using the advanced features. To add more, this exam comes in English, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, German, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, French, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Korean, Portuguese, Romanian, Polish, Turkish, and Thai just to mention a few. Also, you need to pay $100 for the registration for such a test but this is not the fixed price as it varies from one country to another. Lastly, you can schedule the actual test with Pearson VUE by visiting their official site.

What Domains Are Included in Microsoft 77-725 Exam?

The candidates need to put effort into preparing for the exam objectives to perform well in the final evaluation. As a rule, a better understanding of the tested domains can lead candidates to outstanding results so you need to master the following:

• Create and manage documents (25-30%);
• Make tables and lists (20-25%);
• Format text, sections, and paragraphs (25-30%);
• Insert & format graphic elements (20-25%);
• Create as well as manage references (5-10%).

The first tested area focuses on creating and managing documents. In particular, it includes the concepts of creating a document using templates, inserting text in it, and editing it by adding more file info from external sources. You will also be tested on navigating through a document that involves searching for texts, adding hyperlinks, making bookmarks, and moving to a specific object or location in a document. Moreover, such a topic focuses on formatting a document by modifying the page setup, applying style sets, inserting page numbers, making use of document themes, and formatting page background elements. Finally, you should know how to customize options, views for documents, and save them for print.

The second section involves making tables and lists. Thus, the candidate’s knowledge of creating tables, sorting table data, configuring cell margins, converting tables to text, and making tables by specifying rows and columns will be checked. The applicants should also know how to apply the table styles, define a custom bullet character, increase list levels, continue list numbering, and set number values. Moreover, creating a numbered or bulleted list and changing bullet characters are also included in this domain.

The third portion focuses on formatting text, sections, and paragraphs. Particularly, it covers inserting the text and paragraphs by finding as well as replacing text in a word document. Besides, it deals with cutting & pasting the text using AutoCorrect and inserting the special characters in the document. The candidate should also have an understanding of formatting text and paragraphs by applying different fonts and utilizing the Format Painter. Thus, to highlight the text, you can choose the color and mark the specific part of the document. Such an area further discusses applying in-built styles to text and changing text to WordArt. Last of all, the candidate should know how to order and group text together with paragraphs so that you could format text in multiple columns, take column breaks, and change page setup for a section.

The fourth objective describes inserting and formatting graphic elements. In detail, it puts the attention of candidates on inserting graphic elements that mainly involve shapes, pictures, screen clipping, and text boxes. You should also have an understanding of formatting the graphic elements that include applying the artistic effects, removing picture backgrounds, formatting objects, wrapping text around objects, and adding alternative text to objects for making it accessible. Furthermore, your knowledge about inserting and formatting SmartArt graphics will be tested in the actual exam.

The fifth and last tested topic talks about creating and managing references and includes creating as well as managing the reference makers that focus on inserting footnotes and endnotes, making a bibliography, modifying it, inserting citations for bibliographies, adding captions, and changing caption properties. The candidate should also demonstrate their knowledge of creating and managing simple references, which discusses the references in detail and tests the candidate's skills in inserting a standard table of contents, dealing with a cover page, and updating a table of contents.

Career Opportunities

The candidates can apply to several job roles after accomplishing the 77-725 test. Currently, Microsoft Word is the requirement of almost all jobs so the candidates can apply for the positions such as:

• Office Manager;
• Collections Manager;
• Logistics Specialist, etc.

When it comes to median compensation, the salary of the Microsoft Office Specialist is $54,689 per year as revealed by PayScale.

Certification Path

The candidates who achieve the Microsoft Office Specialist: Microsoft Word 2016 certification could then apply for the Microsoft Office Specialist: Microsoft Word 2016 Expert to enhance their knowledge and skills in Microsoft Word. Alternatively, they can opt for the mid-level Microsoft Office Specialist: Word Associate (Word and Word 2019) designation which can be followed by the Microsoft Office Specialist: Microsoft Word Expert (Word and Word 2019) certificate.