Don’t have a web page editing program? Don’t know HTML? No sweat. Anyone can write an email—so why not use Outlook Express to design your web page.
Huh?
That’s right. If you can make a rich text email you can save it as a web page. It won’t be the fanciest site on the net, but at least you’ll have something up.
*Before we get started, you… Continue reading
It’s A Date! Or maybe a week of dates? Better yet, make it a whole month!
Ever find yourself working on a project, proposal or some other item and you really need a calendar to write it all out?
Wait! Idea!
What about a calendar where you could type in your deadlines and other important info so it’s neat, clean and easily revised?
Sound good?
Yeah, I agree. It just… Continue reading
Finding The Task Pane To Be A Pain?
If you’ve got a newer version of MS Office and find yourself disliking the Task Pane that automatically appears on the right side of your screen every time you open a program then I’ve got just what you’re looking for.
One way to disable the Task Pane is to uncheck the “Show at startup” option at the bottom.
Another way is… Continue reading
Have you ever found yourself trying to make a perfect square or circle using the drawing tools for a rectangle or oval? Or maybe you’re trying to draw a perfectly horizontal or vertical line?
Did you find yourself eyeballing the measurements and angles hoping you were getting close?
Did you know that it’s possible for you to use the drawing tools to make these perfect shapes without all the guesswork?… Continue reading
Here’s another quick key combination to use in MS Excel.
This one allows you to highlight an entire row or column with just two keys and no mouse!
You can then combine this information with the Shift + Arrow keys to… Continue reading
Paint the file red…
…or blue, or whatever formatting you need.
Have you ever found yourself constantly applying the same formatting options over and over again in a file? Maybe you’re changing a font size, bolding and underlining line after line after line.
Getting tired of all the highlighting of text, change font size, click bold button and then click underline button over and over again?
Want a one button… Continue reading
In the newer versions of MS Office, you may have noticed that the menus are set to only show the most recently used choices. I really like the feature most of the time but there are times when I just need to see the whole menu, especially when I’m searching for something.
By now most people have figured out that to see the whole menu you have to click on… Continue reading
Have a contact in MS Outlook that you need to visit in person?
Looking for driving directions?
Yeah, you could go online and enter all the address information into a website and be on your way. But, you’ve already got the address typed into Outlook, why would you want to enter it all again.
Idea!
You could try to copy / paste the information to the web. But, then again… Continue reading
There are many ways to navigate through an MS PowerPoint presentation but here’s a few quick key strokes that can save you some wasted mouse-to-keyboard time.
In the Normal View…
Ever need to calculate the number of workdays left until a deadline?
Did you pull out your ever-present calendar and begin counting?
Oops, lost count! Start over.
Or not.
What about letting MS Excel do the counting for you?
If you
Every time you’ve ever tried to edit a document in MS Word while a window (such as the font formatting window) is open you get nowhere. That window just sits there, open and waiting. You certainly aren’t going to make any changes to the document until you’ve made your choices and either clicked OK or Cancel.
Hard to believe that the Find window behaves differently?
Yeah, I thought so too… Continue reading
End The Button Confusion
Have you ever noticed that many of the custom toolbar buttons you’ve added have the exact same image?
I have—I added a button that takes me to the New window you see when you use the File menu, New choice in MS Word.
Unfortunately, it’s identical to the New button that opens a blank document from the Normal template.
So, what can you do?
Change the… Continue reading
Now Where Did That Zero Go?
Here’s a good tip sent in by a reader regarding numbers with leading zeros.
If you’ve ever entered a number with a zero in the first place(s) you probably became very frustrated when you realized that Excel takes those zeros off the number.
For example, if you type in 01234 then, left to its own devices, Excel will put 1234 into the cell.
That’s… Continue reading
See Online Help Better
Have you ever found yourself squinting to read the topics in the MS Office Suite online help?
I don’t mean the Office Assistant list of ideas, but the actual help windows with all the information. (The one that comes up once you’ve selected a topic.)
If the answer is yes, then my next question is: would you like a way to alleviate the squinting problems?
Yeah—I… Continue reading
Formatting That Demands Their Attention
Do you ever find yourself looking for a way to make something really stand out in a Word document?
I don’t mean just a bigger or different font—I mean a way to put something on the page that can’t be ignored.
There are lots of things you can do (bolding, Italics, AutoShapes, etc…) but maybe turning this
into this
is… Continue reading
There’s More To Text Than Just Black & White
I’m sure most of you know that you can change font color.
However, the way I’ve seen a lot of people complete this repetitive task is to go to the Format menu, Font choice, Font tab then choose a color from the drop-down list in the middle of the screen.
Now, if the font color was changed before the text was… Continue reading
Playing The Name Game
I’m glad to see that you’ve decided to come along for this little adventure.
I think the best place to start will be with a better understanding of what it means to name ranges of cells in Excel.
Basically, naming a range (or a single cell for that matter) is to give Excel a meaningful word (or words) that you will refer to the selected set… Continue reading
Use A Title In Formulas
Did you know that when you have a title at the top of a column of data that you can use that title in formulas—instead of the cell reference.
For example:
Let’s suppose that you have two columns labeled “Original Price” and “Discount”. Now let’s say you want to create a third column that calculates the sale price of the… Continue reading
Be The Master Of Your Excel Lists
Now that you know what an Excel list is, let’s take a look at how to create a list that’s all your own—in other words, a custom list.
You have several options for the creation of a list. One has you type the list into the Custom Lists tab in the Options window and the other allows you to highlight the cells that… Continue reading
Lists In MS Excel
Excel has lists?
Yes, it does. (And fortunately they’re not “to do” lists!)
Have you ever noticed that when you type “Monday” in a cell and then use the fill handle (the little box in the lower right corner of the cell highlight) to drag down you get the rest of the days of the week?
Usually the fill handle will copy data if there’s only… Continue reading
Turn Many Into One
“E pluribus unum” was the original motto of the United States—since it is National Flag Week, I thought I might mention that in light of today’s tip.
Here’s the scenario: you’re working on a table of data in MS Excel and you’re trying to put a title over the entire table.
What do you do?
I’ve watched a lot of people cope with this situation, and… Continue reading
What Was That Function Again?
Ever find yourself working in MS Excel and realize that the function you’re looking for is right on the tip of your tongue – or fingers in this case?
So… here you go again, you’ve got to open the Paste Function window. You’re probably taking your hands off the keyboard and back to the dreaded mouse to get to the Insert menu, Function choice. Or… Continue reading
Be Gone Monster Buttons
If you’ve ever created a new toolbar button from a macro or some other command that doesn’t’ possess an icon, then you’ve probably been disturbed by the length of the text on the button.
In some cases, macros in particular, the button can be an inch or two long trying to accommodate an incredibly long name you don’t want or need.
The big question is: how… Continue reading
Do you find yourself constantly entering the current date and / or time in MS Excel?
Wish you had a quick key combination to get the job done for you?
Yes?
Good-because that’s what you’re going to get.
Next time you’re
Quick Slide Margins – Part 2 – MS Excel
As a follow-up to the last issue, I thought it might be relevant to discuss quick margin adjustments in MS Excel.
As with Word, you can set margins in the Page Setup (under the File menu) on the Margins tab.
Works well—but, as you may already know, in Excel you have to go to the Print Preview to take a look… Continue reading
Close It Up In A Hurry
Here’s another piece of information for the function key enthusiasts.
I checked this one out in MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Access and found success in all four.
Here’s the deal…
Just a couple more tricks to put on your keyboard list.… Continue reading
Quick Slide Margins In MS Word
Just picture it—you just finished working on a document that you really need as a one-page memo. Unfortunately, it ran over to page two.
What do you do?
One solution is to adjust margins.
So… some of you go to the File menu, Page Setup choice, Margins tab, make your adjustments, then click OK.
Sounds good—but when you return to your document you find… Continue reading
