I have never used a Professor Teaches tutorial, but this one was sent to me as part of the Amazon Vine program for review. Here's my take on it:

Inside the box is one DVD with 16 interactive tutorials with over 800 lessons to hone your computer skills. The lessons are divided into Office tutorials which include Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Outlook 2010, Access 2010 and Publisher 2010 with three advanced tutes for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. On the Windows 7 side there's Ultimate, Professional, Home Premium and Internet Explorer 8 with three advanced tutorials for Ultimate, Professional and Home Premium.

I felt the program took a long time to download and I question the advantage of having so much space tied up on one's hard drive (150mb per application). However, once loaded the program is intuitive and easy to follow with realistic simulations that provide an accurate learning environment. It's also interactive which allows the user to perform... Read more

I approached this product eager to learn all sorts of new tricks for working with Office 2010. I haven't had any training in Office since I first learned it years ago, and I thought this would be a great way to make sure I was taking advantage of its range of services. However, I found my enthusiasm waning rapidly just trying to set up and load this program. There is a rather involved registration process (why?) which took at least 15 minutes. Then the program itself is rather clunky-- it doesn't load onto the computer per se-- it just stays in a relatively little box on your screen (if there was a full screen option, I missed it). You have to click on each lesson separately and then it takes you slowly through each step. I found myself clicking rapidly through the screens to just past all the basic info. Bottom line: you need to be prepared to devote hours to this training. I'm sure it's thorough, based on what I saw, but quite frankly, I lacked the patience for it. I found... Read more

I strongly believe in multimedia interactive learning programs. I've passed difficult certification exams thanks to this true method of learning. I find this method a difficult but sure way to learn. Professor Teaches is a respected, strong brand in computer training.

I got frustrated during the incredibly long installation. First, the steps of the installation were so long that I started to suspect problems with the CD. The program hung up to the extent that I couldn't even get Task Manager up. I had to eject the CD and abort installation. Therefore, I decided that since installation is such an ordeal, I'd install and use only one tutorial at a time. That was a disappointment until I realized that each tutorial could have been a separate program, and each tutorial has a distinct subject.

I started with Word 2010. Sure enough, I found that I didn't know the program as well as I thought. There are lots of basic things even an experienced user can learn... Read more