OpenOffice: It’s All About The Keys
Many people much prefer using key combinations over the mouse when completing their work.
Some just find that it takes way too much time to keep removing their hand from the keyboard to accomplish something with the mouse. Mostly I agree, it seems that 9 times out of 10
The other day we took a quick look at the difference between Office 2007 and Office 2010 when it comes to easily saving a file in PDF format.
Today I’d like to look at a way you may even like better – and this one works on both versions!
What we’re going to do is to look at
Previously we’ve taken a look at how Office 2007 offers you the option of saving a file in PDF form. (Click here to view that article)
In that version of Office it was put right out there in front of your nose in the Save As choices for the Office Button.
But, if you’ve taken… Continue reading
In spite of what it sounds like we’re not discussing a murder mystery or some Nancy Drew book… today we’re discussing a quick switch between upper and lower case characters.
“Characters?” you may ask.
Yep – that’s the term that OpenOffice uses instead of font.
So when you’re looking through things trying to find something you won’t see commands to format… Continue reading
Looking for another way to say it?
Need a synonym? Need it quick?
Well, then I have a little treat for you…
Next time you need a quick word, try a right-click.
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Yep, that’s all it will take. Just right-click over the word for which you need the synonym. (You don’t have to select the word – just… Continue reading
Previously we’ve talked before about the templates available at OpenOffice.org – which is really a great thing – but what if you’re looking for more than they have to offer?
Maybe you saw a presentation done in MS PowerPoint that had a really great design and learned that it was a free template download… but… you’ve got OpenOffice Impress so does that mean that you’re… Continue reading
Marvin asks:
I was doing a spell-check the other day and I accidentally added a word that wasn’t spelled right to the Dictionary. Can I get rid of it or do I just watch for the misspelled word?
A:
Hi, Marvin, thanks for asking about this – I hadn’t ever even thought about it. I’ll bet my dictionary couldn’t win a lot of… Continue reading
Did you know that there’s a faster way to enter cell references in Excel formulae? I’m talking about a way that doesn’t involve typing cell addresses. Did you know?!
Interested? (Yeah, I thought you might be!)
Here’s the scoop.
Next time you’re entering a formula and you get to a cell reference (like A5, for example), instead of typing A5, use… Continue reading
As I was perusing my Office 2010 SmartArt gallery I noticed that there were quite a few new designs which got me to thinking…
When we create SmartArt and then save the file to use in Office 2003 or earlier it becomes a static picture in the file. No more editing – what you saved it as is what you’re stuck with until you can get back… Continue reading
Many people I know dislike spreadsheets because they are “math”… which to them is way worse than “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”
So, in their never-ending endeavors to keep their minds free of math they tend to use a lot of tables to organize information.
Most people when creating tables automatically go to the Insert menu, Table choice and then use the… Continue reading
If you’re a fan of the SmartArt feature in Office 2007 then you may have experienced the frustration of trying to select a single shape in the diagram.
Or worse yet, when you’re looking to select several shapes and you have the Ctrl + click thing down, too bad you keep accidentally clicking on something already selected… which deselects it, of course.
At this… Continue reading
Previously we discussed the Gallery, the place where where OpenOffice keeps it’s pictures. Today we’re going to look at how to add your own collection to the Gallery.
After all, it’s much easier to grab a picture from the Gallery then it is to repeatedly use the Insert menu, Picture, From File over and over again. I have no desire to keep locating the pictures each time… Continue reading
Woo Hoo!
I now have Office 2010 and it’s time for me to explore… I just love that part.
What’s the first change you noticed?
OK – if you came from a version prior to the 2007 Office Suite then you had the whole “Ribbon shock” that lots of people went through the first time they had to deal with it… Continue reading
Do you have a PowerPoint presentation containing slides that you just wish you could make into your screensaver?
Maybe you had a presentation sent to you containing a bunch of pictures of the grandkids.
Or maybe you’d just love to create a screensaver out of a variety of your favorite quotes.
Either way, if it’s in a PowerPoint presentation, we can… Continue reading
Have you tried to insert a picture or two into a document yet?
I bet you went to the Insert menu, Picture choice and then found this:
From file or from a scan?
Doesn’t OpenOffice have something to offer?
Yes – it does but it’s not there that you’ll… Continue reading
OpenOffice Impress: To Wizard or To Not Wizard
When you start your first presentation in OpenOffice Impress you’re going to be faced with a decision:
Use the presentation wizard or not?
Basically, do you want help setting a few things up before the presentation is created or do you want to start with a completely blank sheet?
If you choose to use the wizard then you’ll simply need to follow… Continue reading
Sometimes we’re looking to lock down a file in order to keep others out… not just a “don’t change it” thing but more of a “none of your business” situation.
In the vein of “better safe than sorry” I believe that it’s a good idea to know how to make that happen, just in case you find yourself needing to keep others out of sensitive information.… Continue reading
So, have you seen this pop up from the corner of your eye yet?
That’s your friendly neighborhood Help Agent, compliments of the people at OpenOffice.org.
He’s a crafty little guy whose only purpose in life is to help you out – specifically, he’ll appear when he thinks that you’re completing a task where you may need some assistance.… Continue reading
Recently a reader wrote in asking if formulas can be used in Word 2007 tables – good question!
The “good” answer is YES they can, and while some may question the reasons you might want to use Word for calculations I can see your point.
If the primary purpose of the table is to present non-numerical information and you simply need one or two… Continue reading
Let’s talk about paragraph spacing in our Word documents…
Specifically, let’s discuss what happens when you need just a bit more space before a particular paragraph.
What do you do?
Do you track down the paragraph formatting in either the Format menu / Page Layout tab of the Ribbon? Make the change for just
To extend our previous discussion about Data Bars to show how a piece of data in a list stacks up against the rest I thought that we might take a look at the conditional formatting options within the Top/Bottom rules.
Basically, they’re rules you can use to visually point out the top (top values, top percent of items, above average, etc.) and/or the bottom items in a… Continue reading
Here’s a cool trick for custom presentation backgrounds that really has a ton of possibilities… basically, there’s a setting that allows you to take whatever is on the clipboard at the moment and turn it into a slide background.
Which means you can use any Clip Art, SmartArt, graphic or screen shot. If you can select and copy it then we can paste it from the clipboard… Continue reading
Sometimes you just need to see how the data stacks up.
You’ve got a string of numbers and you need to visually see how they compare.
Is one value way bigger than the rest? Are they distributed fairly evenly or at most of the numbers higher than the others? Lower than the others?
Whatever you need to… Continue reading
OK – so I’m not able to give you PowerPoint for free but I can direct you into a few sites for free presentation templates…
I don’t know about you but I’m always looking for something “new” to use – I’m a teacher and I have the same audience day after day (for at least 180 days of the year!) and rotating through the same old set… Continue reading
Recently a reader sent in a question looking for an easy way to enter today’s date in a worksheet cell.
Good question.
I first went looking for something as simple as a quick key combination – but alas, I did not find one.
But as I researched the issue I did find something that isn’t too time consuming.… Continue reading
Ever find yourself staring at a section of and Excel worksheet and feeling your eyes cross as you look and look for something in particular.
All those cells, all those numbers… I can feel the headache coming on now… it can just be too much sometimes!
Want a quick way to view that range of cells up close and personal? Maybe a way that… Continue reading
If you’re like me then when MS Outlook let’s you know that you’ve got a new message you usually see an envelope down in the bottom corner of your taskbar (the system tray).
I happen to have a love/hate relationship with that little envelope.
I love that it let’s me know that a
