Making the software work for me.

I recently learned how to make a large poster with nothing but Microsoft Excel and a picture file. This completely blew my mind. The only things I had ever used Excel for before this was accounting homework and plugging in formulas for physics homework. I had no idea a program like Excel could be used for anything but numbers. Then i started thinking about it. "What other programs have stretched to fit my needs?" And i realized that with enough imagination, one could accomplish so much more by thinking outside of the programming. I routinely utilize a program on my Mac called Automator to substitute for an alarm clock. Also, i remember a teacher of mine using PowerPoint to keep grades. Each student had their own slide with their picture and name. He would enter the grade data in a small font, and could easily flip through the slides like a gradebook. With the amount of generic and highly specific technical software available today, all one needs to think is, "What do I need to get done more efficiently?", and the answer is only a few clicks away.