By accessing, gathering and summarizing information, school staff can effectively respond to the wide variations in the mental and physical capacities, levels of interest, learning abilities, achievements, purposes and values of students. Use of General Office Software Applications for the office are the most widely used by school administrators. Databases that are being used to store student and personnel information. Databases also provide search engines that save a considerable amount of time for administrators. Spreadsheets that store and update tables needed for budgeting, projections and planning.
Spreadsheets are powerful tools because the table's cells can be interrelated.
Changing the contents of one cell affects the contents of all related cells. Users can make hypothetical entries into some of the cells, and see the effects of these entries on the table as a whole. Today, the usage of general office programs is widespread, thanks to falling prices, and they provide a great deal of flexibility. General software programs are often part of a package that includes other useful office programs, such as time management, e-mail, presentations, the Internet, Web page design and encryption. Currently, Microsoft Office 97 and ClarisWorks Office are the most popular programs.