Complete office document set
Deliverable: A structured multi-page report with styles and contents, a mail-merged letter run with labels, and a working spreadsheet with charts formatted for print.
Course
DOAP (Diploma in Office Automation and Publishing)
Office software and desktop publishing taught together, so you leave able to run the documents an office needs and the print work a small business needs, not one or the other.
- Duration: 6 months
- Classroom · Online live
- Level: beginner
What you will be able to do
- Produce long, structured documents with styles, references and mail merge
- Build spreadsheets that calculate and present figures accurately
- Design logos, cards and flyers in CorelDraw ready for a printer
- Edit and retouch photographs to a usable standard in Photoshop
- Lay out a multi-page booklet with consistent typography
- Export files to print specification without a reprint being needed
Who this course is for
- Class 10 or Class 12 pass from any stream
- Anyone working in or applying to a print shop, DTP centre or office
- Small business owners producing their own marketing material
- No prior computer experience is assumed
Syllabus
6 modules · 6 months
Module 1. Computer and operating system basics
- Hardware, software and file management
- Windows, folders and organising work you can find again
- Installing fonts and software
- Printers, drivers and common print problems
Module 2. Word processing and documentation
- Formatting, styles and consistent structure
- Tables, images and page layout
- Mail merge for letters and labels
- Templates, printing and PDF export
Module 3. Spreadsheets for office work
- Formulas, references and common functions
- Sorting, filtering and validation
- Charts that present a figure honestly
- Print setup for readable output
Module 4. Vector design with CorelDraw
- Vector versus raster, and why it matters at the printer
- Shapes, curves, nodes and the pen tool
- Text, typography and outlines
- Logos, visiting cards and flyer layout
Module 5. Image editing with Photoshop
- Resolution, canvas and image size
- Selection, layers and masks
- Retouching, colour correction and cleanup
- Preparing an image for print versus for screen
Module 6. Page layout and publishing
- Multi-page documents, master pages and grids
- Typography, leading and readable body text
- Placing images and flowing text
- Bleed, crop marks and preflight before sending to print
Tools and technologies you will use
- MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint
- CorelDraw
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe PageMaker or InDesign
- PDF export and print preflight
Projects you will build
Small business branding set
Deliverable: A logo in vector format, a visiting card and an A4 flyer designed in CorelDraw, exported to print specification with correct colour mode, bleed and outlined text.
Multi-page booklet
Deliverable: An eight-page booklet laid out with master pages and a consistent type scale, images placed at correct resolution, exported as a print-ready PDF with crop marks.
Where this course can take you
- DTP Operator
- Office Assistant
- Graphic Design Assistant
- Documentation Assistant
- Print Shop Executive
Duration, modes and fees
- Duration
- 6 months
- Delivery modes
- Classroom · Online live
- Fees
- Share your details for the current fee
- Fees vary by batch and delivery mode. Ask about the instalment options available for the six-month diplomas.
Placement assistance
Every student gets placement assistance — that is what 100% placement assistance means. It is support for all, not a job for all. We do not promise a specific salary, a specific number of interviews, or placement at any named company, and you should be wary of anyone who does.
What is included
- A place in the monthly placement drive, held every third Saturday
- The readiness programme every second Saturday — mock interviews and preparation
- CV review against the specific roles you are targeting
- Portfolio review, so your project work is presented the way a reviewer will read it
- Access to the vacancy pool employers send directly to the Samyak network
- Guidance on which roles realistically fit your background and which do not
- A place in the next drive, with coaching, if you are not selected in this one
What is not included
- Any guarantee of a job, an interview, or a particular salary
- Placement at a named or partner company
- Applying to jobs on your behalf
- Support before you have completed the course and its project work
- Visa, relocation or overseas placement assistance
Two halves of the same job
Small offices and print shops rarely hire two people, one for documents and one for design. They hire one who can do both.
That is the whole logic of this diploma. The office modules cover the letters, reports, merges and spreadsheets an administrator produces; the publishing modules cover the logos, cards, flyers and booklets a small business needs. Most of the people who take it end up doing both in the same week.
The things that cause reprints
There is a specific and short list of mistakes that make a printer send a file back, and it is almost always the same list.
Wrong colour mode. Images placed at screen resolution. Text left as live fonts the printer does not have. No bleed, so a trimmed edge shows white. Each of those is a wasted print run and an unhappy client, and each is covered explicitly rather than assumed.
The booklet project is specified to make you meet all of them once, in a place where the only cost is doing it again.
Vector or raster, settled early
Almost everybody arrives having made a logo in Photoshop.
It looks fine on screen and falls apart the moment somebody needs it on a hoarding. The fourth module opens by settling this properly — what a vector actually is, why it scales and a photograph does not, and which tool to reach for before you start rather than after.
Where this leads
DTP operator and office assistant roles directly, and it is a reasonable route into design work if you find you enjoy that half more.
If you already know you want to design rather than to run an office, our Graphic Design course spends the whole time there instead, and we will point you at it rather than sell you the broader diploma.
Questions
DOAP (Diploma in Office Automation and Publishing) — frequently asked questions
What is the difference between DOAP and a graphic design course?
A graphic design course concentrates on design thinking, branding and visual craft. DOAP covers the office half as well — Word, Excel, mail merge and documentation — alongside the publishing tools. If you want to be a designer, take Graphic Design. If you want to run the documents and the print work a small office needs, take this.
Will I be able to work in a DTP or print shop after this?
That is the job it is built for. The last module and the booklet project are specifically about the things that cause reprints — colour mode, bleed, resolution and outlined text — because that is where an untrained operator costs a print shop money in the first week.
Do I need drawing ability?
No. Vector design in CorelDraw is construction, not sketching — shapes, curves and nodes assembled precisely. Being able to draw is useful later if you move towards illustration, but nothing in this diploma requires it.
Is Photoshop or CorelDraw more important here?
They do different jobs and the course teaches when each is right. CorelDraw is for anything that must scale and stay sharp — logos, cards, flyers. Photoshop is for photographs. Using the wrong one is the most common mistake we see, and the fourth module starts by settling it.
Enquire about DOAP (Diploma in Office Automation and Publishing)
Three details is all we need. A course advisor will call you back.
Related courses
- Graphic Design
Design principles first and software second, because employers hire for typography and layout judgement — the tools are learnable in weeks and the judgement is not.
- MS Office
The four applications every Indian office runs on, taught around the tasks you will actually be judged on rather than as a tour of every menu.
- DCA (Diploma in Computer Application)
The standard entry diploma for office and computer work — fundamentals, Office, accounting basics and the internet, taught as practical work rather than as a syllabus to memorise.
- Computer Basics
A real beginner course for adults who have used a phone but never a computer for work — files, Windows, internet, email, typing and staying safe online, taught without assumption.
Next step
Talk to a course advisor
Tell us what you want to learn and we will help you pick the right course, batch and mode.