Keep Your Eyes Open in MS Office 2010!

The Vanishing Tabs

Everyone should feel comfortable by now in Microsoft Office's user interface that they introduced in 2007...but I find there's still a lot of confusion about it. I'm going to post a few blogs about the interface in the hope that it will stop the suffering!

One of the most important features is that there are additional "tabs" of tools that seem to randomly appear and disappear. It's not that random, it's based on what is selected in your document. In the three pictures below you'll see what is available on the tab bar based on whether or not the picture is selected.

In the first picture the cursor in in the text. As a result, the tabs end with the View tab. In the second picture a picture is selected so the Picture Tools --> Format tab is available. While it is available in this picture it is not the active tab. Click on the Format tab makes it active. See the third picture which has the Format tab active.

So the important thing to remember is to keep your eyes on the tab area in Microsoft Office. Tabs will appear to "come and go" but you need to be aware of what is selected in your document.

Hope this helps.

 

Selecting Text Without Dragging!

No More Dragging to Select Text

Since the introduction of the mouse, people have been holding down the mouse button and dragging across text to select it. While it is a method that works, most of the time, it is the least efficient method. One of the joys of teaching is that I get to see the reaction when people learn new things. One of the first things I show new Microsoft Word users is to double click on a word to select it. If you decide to replace the word all you have to do now is type the new word! If you want to remove the word, just press the Delete or Backspace key. The word and the space after it come out neatly.

If you want to select a paragraph to copy or delete it, triple click the paragraph, just as Dorothy did in the Wizard of Oz. See, wasn’t that easy?

To select a sentence, hold down the Ctrl key and click anywhere in the sentence. Brilliant!

Have you ever dragged your mouse through the document because you wanted to select a few pages and when you got close to the end you released the mouse button and now you have to start all over? Or you dragged too far and have to start all over? Well you need the Click – Shift + Click method. Here’s how this works. You click once at the beginning of the text you want to select. Scroll down so that you can see the last of the text you want to select. Hold down the Shift key and click at the end of the text. Everything from the first Click through the Shift Click will be selected. Sometimes this takes a little practice but it’s well worth it. This trick works in most programs. Try it and let me know.

I’ve saved the best for last. If you want to change the font or size or spacing for the entire document, no dragging is required. You can select the whole thing by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + a. Now don’t you feel more efficient?

Just to summarize, here's a list of the keyboard shortcuts:

Word: Double click
Paragraph:  Triple click
Sentence: Ctrl + click
Document: Ctrl + a
Variable: Click -- Shift + Click

For more tips visit my website at: dianemckeever.com. If you would like to see your questions answered here, email me

Saving in different file formats in MS Office 2007/2010

Sharing Files With People Who Don't Have Office 2007!


Starting with Office 2007, Microsoft changed the file extension for all their Office programs. The file extension is the three letters at the end of a file name that tells the computer which program to use to open the file. Microsoft added an "x" to the file extension to make it four letters, rather than the traditional three. So a Word document now has the extension of .docx and an Excel document has an extension of .xlsx. This extra letter is to differentiate the Office 2007/2010 document from previous versions of the program. The problem is that if you have Office 2003 or older you will not be able to open a file with the .docx or .xlsx extension. You'll have to ask the person who send you one of these newer file formats to do a Save As and change it back to the older file format. Another option is to go to the Microsoft website and look for a conversion program that you can download to convert the Office 2007/2010 file into the earlier versions. I have done this for many of my clients with mixed success, it probably works 50% of the time...I don't know why.


If you are the person who has Office 2007/2010 and you need to save the file in the earlier format, it's very easy to convert it back to the earlier version. You click on the large, colorful Office Button in the upper left corner of your screen (in Office 2010, click on the File tab) and choose Save As and come across to "Word 97-2003 Document". This converts your current document into the earlier format for sharing. Your document will now be in "Compatibility Mode". There are some new features which will not be available to you while you're in this mode, but most people won't notice the missing features.


If you are a person who had to frequently share documents it's kind of a pain to have to remember to do the Save As and choose the proper file type. An alternative is to change the default (standard) file format from .docx to .doc. This is very easy to do and does not require a degree in computer science.


1. Click on the colorful Office Button in the upper left corner of the screen (in Office 2010, click on the File tab). 
2. Down at the very bottom of this menu you will will see "Word Options". Click it. 
3. On the left side of the window you will see a series of words, click on "Save". 
4. The choices on the right will change and you will see the very first choice is "Save files in this format" with a pull down menu to the right. It probably says "Word Document (.docx)". Click the pull down menu and choose "Word 97-2003 Document (.doc)". 
5. Click OK to leave this area. 


Note: Use this same procedure with Excel except that you will be choosing "Excel 97-2003 Document (.xls)"...but you probably figured that out already. PowerPoint also has this issue. 


So, problem solved. All your documents will now be saved as .doc rather than .docx and you don't have to make that change each time.


Come back often to check out my blog. Even better why don't you subscribe and they you'll be notified when I post a new tip. You can also go to my website: www.dianemckeever.com and click on the Hot Software Tips link. Please feel free to pass this along to anyone who might like it.

Office 2007 UI (User Interface) OR What the Heck Did Microsoft Do!

Where Did Microsoft Put Everything!


As a software trainer I rejoiced when Microsoft came out with Office 2007 including new versions of their popular software, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Why? Because everyone was going to need training to understanding it! It's been a boon to my business! Let's talk about some of the changes and I think you'll learn to love...or at least not hate...the changes.


(click on picture to see larger view)

When you open any of the Office 2007 programs the first thing you'll notice is that there are no more menus. They have been replaced with a series of Tabs. When you click on a Tab it reveals a Ribbon, what were called toolbars in the previous versions. The Ribbons have been divided into Groups. Within the Groups there are Options.


The Tabs are organized roughly the way the menus were in previous versions of Office. The goal of the tabs is to give you a graphical interface to find features of the program. For those of you who are missing your good ol' dialog boxes, they're still around, just a little harder to find. If you look carefully at some of the groups you'll notice a small square box on the lower right side of the groups. Look at the picture above and in the Font group look to the right of the word Font. When you click this box it will bring up the old dialog box that you would have gotten when you went to the Format menu, Font in previous versions of the program.


Another change that's giving new users trouble is finding where Microsoft put the File menu and the Save, Print, etc options. Those are now available when you click the Office Button, the large, round colorful button in the extreme upper left corner of the screen...see it there on the screenshot above? When you click on it you'll find most of your File menu favorites.


The dandiest new feature is the quick access toolbar. This is just to the right of the Office Button we were just talking about, you'll see the Quick Access Toolbar. This is my favorite feature because it allows me to add ANYTHING I want to the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar). When you move your mouse to the right side of the QAT you'll see the tool tip that says "Customize Quick Access Toolbar". Clicking on it will allow you to add your favorite items. If you don't see your favorite command listed here you can always click on "More Commands..." and find your favorite. The value of the QAT is that it's available all the time no matter which tab you are currently viewing. I've added Quick Print, Print Preview, New, Format Painter (if you don't use this check out my other blogs), Open and a few other options I used all the time. You can see my QAT in the picture above.


Here's a hot tip...if you want to easily scroll through the ribbons, move your mouse up to the ribbon area on your screen and roll the scrolling wheel on your mouse to scroll forward or backward through the tabs.


Hope you feel a little better about Office 2007. Look for other blogs here about getting more out of your Microsoft Office software. Come back often to check out my blog. Even better why don't you subscribe and they you'll be notified when I post a new tip. You can also go to my website: www.dianemckeever.com and click on the Hot Software Tips link. Please feel free to pass this along to anyone who might like it.

Comparing Sheets in an Excel Document

Creating New Windows to Compare Sheets

Don't you wish that you could look at two sheets in the same Excel document at the same time? Well you can! The trick is that you need to create an additional window for the document and then you can tile the windows, easy-peasy. Here's what you need to do.

1. Open your Excel file.
2. From the Window menu (Excel 2003) or on the View Tab, Window Group (Excel 2007) choose New Window. You should note that the title bar has the same name as your document but with a "2".
3. Now choose Window menu --> Arrange All --> Tile --> OK (Excel 2003) OR View Tab, Window Group, Arrange All --> Tile --> OK (Excel 2007)
4. You have a window on the left of your screen and one on the right. You can now flip between the two windows displaying different sheets in each.

When you make changes in one window those same changes will be made in the other because it's the same document except that it's being displayed in two windows. Cool!

BTW, this tip also works in Word so that you can view different parts of a document at the same time!

Come back often to check out my blog. Even better why don't you subscribe and they you'll be notified when I post a new tip. You can also go to my website: www.dianemckeever.com and click on the Hot Software Tips link. Please feel free to pass this along to anyone who might like it.

Using The Format Painter

Here's a Time Saving Tip:

Microsoft included a dandy tool on the toolbar a few versions ago that people are still not using. This tool is the Format Painter and it can be found in all their programs. By format I am talking about the font, size, color, alignment (center, left, right, justified), bold, underline...anything that changes the look and placement is called format. This tool looks like a paintbrush and is in the same area on your toolbar as the cut, copy and paste buttons.

The Format Painter, as its name implies, "paints" the format of text from one place to another. I always recommend to people to just type their document and not format it as they go. When you're finished your document it's very easy to go back and use the Format Painter to apply the format to a paragraph or to selected words.

Here's how you use the Format Painter:

1. First select and format a word or group of words.
2. Select one of these formatted words (you can do this by double clicking on a word).
3. Click the Format Painter tool on the toolbar.
4. Click on the word that needs the format.

Note: If you click once on the Format Painter you have one use. If you click twice on it you have unlimited uses.

So if you had subheadings in your document all you have to do is format one of them, leave that text selected, double click the Format Painter button and paint that format on all of the other subheadings! Brilliant! When finished using the Format Painter click the button again once or press the esc key.

Check out my website www.dianemckeever.com to see more tips. If you have any Microsoft Office questions, please feel free to post them.

Auto Correct – Making it work for you

Word has had auto correct in the program for a long time. As you type it is looking for programmed words and changing them automatically. If you type “teh” Word will automatically change it to “the”. There’s a whole list of these changes. You can add to this list to make it easy to insert frequently used phrases. If you work for “United International Workers Society of Great Britain” and you have to type the name all the time you can program Word so that if you type “uiw” it changes it to the entire name. Here's how:

1. In Word 2007** click on the round colorful Office Button in the upper left corner.
2. Click on the Word Options button.
3. On the left side click on “Proofing”.
4. Click on “Autocorrect Options”.
5. In the “replace” box type “uiw” and in the “with” box type “United International Workers Society of Great Britain” (or your own information).
6. OK your way out of the dialog box. (BTW, while you’re in that area look around for other changes you might want to make)

Now open a new Word document and type your replace characters and hit the space bar! Ta dah!

Taking this one step further, you can insert formatted text. I don’t have a letterhead template document because I have autocorrect formatted to insert my name, address and other information all at once formatted in a specific font and centered. You type the information and format it in a Word document. Select the text and then follow the steps above. Try it.

**In Word 2003 for Windows (or any version of Word for the Mac) go to the Tools menu AutoCorrect Options (AutoCorrect)

For further tips go to Diane’s website: www.dianemckeever.com