Bored out of my brains 'dry' learning Word, Excel & Outlook, any suggestions?

[OddJobBobAJobBob]

Found a job I'd love that needs 'proficiency' in Word, Excel & Outlook, so I've been teaching myself from a book. None of it is particularly difficult and I reckon I have a decent grasp on the basics of all three now but it's difficult to take my learning to the next level without having company data to play with & not knowing exactly how they use these packages. I'm applying for the job because it requires other (rare) skills too that I have in spades. They don't require any certificates in these packages, though I suspect they might test me on the day. Any suggestions to help make learning less 'dry'? There are endless possibilities with these packages...

Volunteer at a local charity.

You can find free Office training online, I just found this site as an example. I've used other sites like this when I needed to find out how to do something specific, and the training does seem to have data you can practise on.

I would just say that you have it on the application form.

(assuming it is not a complex financial modelling situation - some of that is v compex, and I struggle with it as a finance director).

Good luck!

Hmm, that's tricky without knowing the company (I used to teach all these and every company used them differently). Do you have the software? If so, just play. If not, no idea, sorry!
My advice would be to experiment using 'your life' - so, Outlook - find out how to make a mailing list of your family, another one of your friends.
Word - write a letter, format it, make it look funky. More advance... do a mail merge! For that you can use Excel to create your data of names and addresses.
Excel - just get a good grasp on the formulae.

I'd also add that working out how to use pivot tables (Excel function) is a good idea, they have a lot of applications.

Vlookups and sumifs for excel are flavour of the month

Inserting and editing a table in word.

www.teach-ict.com. Go onto the legacy site (bottom right) and then choose video tutorials. They are awesome