Select Several Objects At Once
In MS PowerPoint, you can select several objects with one click and drag of the mouse.
Replacing the old “Shift + mouse click (repeated over and over on each individual object) routine” we have the lovely and wonderful one click and drag option.
Most people are aware of this neat little trick on the desktop. Where you click on the desktop, hold down the left… Continue reading
More Watermarks Please
As a follow up to last week’s tip on watermarks in MS Word, let’s take a look at watermarks in PowerPoint.
Since we discussed the “Why” questions related to watermarks in the last issue, let’s get right down to business.
For a watermark on a single slide:
The first step is to either navigate to a pre-existing slide or create a blank slide.
Now insert the “perfect”… Continue reading
One Sentence At A Time Please
Ever find yourself trying to highlight just one sentence?
What are you doing?
Trying to drag the cursor to just the “perfect spot” to get it all but not too much?
Or maybe you’re using Ctrl + Shift + arrow keys to get one word at a time?
Did you click at the beginning of the sentence, hold down the shift key and then… Continue reading
Using Watermarks In MS Word
Now that you know what a watermark is, would you like to know how to create one?
It’s a good way to turn this…
into this…
Sound like a great idea? Yeah, it did to me too, so let’s get started.
The first thing we should do is to change our view to Print/Page Layout. (If we don’t, we won’t be able to… Continue reading
Watermarks? Where’s The Leak?
Hold on—no need to call the insurance company—we’re talking about watermarks on MS Word Documents.
What’s a document watermark?
Glad you asked—thanks for helping out since I thought we’d cover that topic today.
I figure the best definition comes straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth (or in this case the little paperclip guy who’s my Office Assistant).
A watermark is, “any text or graphic that when… Continue reading
Spiffy PowerPoint Handouts
Have you ever given a presentation in MS PowerPoint and found yourself wishing that you had an easy way to put together a handout for your audience to follow?
If you’ve been to training sessions where the presenter uses PowerPoint then you may know what I’m talking about.
Those wonderful pages that have all the slides (which means you get all the content without frantically scribbling every… Continue reading
MS Excel Keyboard Shortcuts
Here’s a few quick MS Excel keyboard shortcuts.
MS Excel Text Into Columns
Have you ever found yourself wondering what in the world possessed the person who created your MS Excel file to put both first and last name in the same cell?
Now how are you supposed to sort that list alphabetically by last name when first name is listed first?
The answer is that you can’t—you have to separate the first and last names—somehow…
But… Continue reading
I thought it might be time for another keyboard shortcut installment for those users who really love learning a mouse-less way to accomplish their tasks.
Today I thought we’d focus on MS Outlook.
Here’s a few of the most common tasks and the keyboard shortcuts you need to get the job done ASAP.
One Key Pasting In MS Word
Ever find yourself continually pasting the same item over and over?
Tired of constantly needing the mouse or the Ctrl + V combination?
Wish you had a quick and easy one-key paste?
Well, you can – if you’re not to attached to the Insert key. (The key that toggles between new text overwriting old text and new text being inserted between old text.)
Want… Continue reading
Counting Rows In MS Excel
MS Excel will count your highlighted columns or rows for you.
Have you ever found yourself trying to count the number of highlighted columns or rows (maybe to set formatting, borders, etc.)?
It’s annoying – isn’t it?
I’ve actually caught myself with my finger right on the monitor trying to get an accurate count. (Bad idea since it disturbs the dust… Continue reading
Pain-Free Spiking
Now that you have some idea of what an MS Word spike is let’s get to the part of how to use one.
An Electronic Desk Spike?
You know, a desk spike… the metal spike on a desk that you impale papers on to keep them handy and in place.
(Granted, I never used one for two reasons. First, the idea of having a hole in the middle of a page doesn’t sit well with me. And second, between my lack of coordination and my bad luck I’d probably put the thing right… Continue reading
No! You Can’t Change My File!
Have you ever created a file that was basically a form—something someone else could fill in and save under a different name—but not change the original form?
Or maybe you have a file you repeatedly fill out and want to prevent yourself from saving over the original.
Previously we’ve discussed passwords for files and that is one option for the situation.… Continue reading
My Files Have Property?
Well, not exactly.
Your files don’t own property (obviously) but they do have properties.
So what are file properties?
In general file properties are simply details that help identify your file.
Details? What details?
Well—things such as title, author, date created, last date modified and other statistics.
One way to see the properties of a file you can either go to the File menu, Properties choice… Continue reading
40, 39, 38, 37…
Tired of seeing your pages come off the printer in this order?
How much time do you spend reversing page order?
Ever find yourself wishing that you could get the printer to print in the “correct” order? Just imagine it – you reach into to the printer, pick up your pages and (lions and tigers and bears) oh my – page one is on top!
If… Continue reading
Formatting Information in MS Word
MS Word will tell you the formatting information of any paragraph you choose.
Yep—that’s correct.
It will tell you, with only a couple of clicks, information concerning formatting of a paragraph.
This can help if you’ve got a document that someone else created and you need to check on formatting. It summarizes information—saving you the aggravation of tracking this stuff down from different areas of… Continue reading
Picture Perfect Envelopes
In connection to a tip I ran last week about changing the font, in MS Word, on an envelope or label, a reader wrote in wondering how to add pictures to envelopes.
Good question!
So this week I went in search of an answer—and thankfully, I found one.
(I also figured that if one person is interested enough to write in then there must be others that… Continue reading
But I Don’t Want To Print The Whole File!
Have you ever found yourself trying to print only a few pages of a long file?
Maybe you made changes to only one page and need just it—not the other 42.
Sound like a familiar situation?
If your answer is “Yes!” then here’s the solution to your problems.
Next time you go to print and need only a portion of the… Continue reading
Toolbar Reset
In several issues of MS Office Tips & Tricks we’ve covered many different ways to alter your toolbars.
Have you made some changes that you regret?
Maybe you’ve made enough of them that you’d like to “wipe the slate clean” and start over with a particular toolbar.
Or, maybe someone else has recently made changes that you’d like removed.
Is there a way to return to the original… Continue reading
Accessing The Recently Used File List With Your Keyboard
As we all know, in the MS Office programs there’s a list of recently used files at the bottom of the File menu.
Most people access these with the mouse—not a bad way, works well—but did you know that you can accomplish the same task with just a few keys?
No?
Well, you can, so let’s get to the “how” part.… Continue reading
Now Where Did I Put That File? What Did I Call It?
Ever find yourself wondering these exact things?
I know I have and it’s a big pain when I’ve lost something I’ve recently worked on but can’t seem to relocate.
If you’ve gone through this, then you already know how quickly files seem to rotate off the Recently Used File list at the bottom of the File menu.
Then… Continue reading
List of More Keyboard shortcuts for MS Word
Here’s another installment to add to your ever-growing list of keyboard shortcuts for MS Word.
Give these a whirl—they could come in very handy!
Justification Shorcuts:
Show Me The… Formulas?
I don’t know about you but when I’m trying to proofread a document I usually need to go through a hard copy. For some reason seeing things in printed form will usually help with that whole process.
So, what do you do when you’re trying to proof an MS Excel worksheet?
You can print it out, but let’s face it. What you get in the printout… Continue reading
Double-Click = Best Fit
As many MS Excel users are aware you can highlight a column and through the Format menu, Column sub-menu you can choose the AutoFit Selection choice. What this does is make the column just wide enough to fit the longest piece of data in the selection.
It’s a great thing—no guessing necessary to make the data fit.
However, we all like a faster way and for… Continue reading
Jazz Up Your Tables In MS Word
How would you like, with only a couple of clicks, to change this ordinary MS Word table
into this…
or maybe this…
or any of over 3 dozen styles?
Sound too good to be true?
Well, maybe it does, but let me assure you it is 100%, absolutely true!
Want to know how?
Yeah—of course you do. After all… Continue reading
PowerPoint Key Combinations
For all my keyboard enthusiasts I thought I’d include a short list of key combinations that are for MS PowerPoint.
Editing Shortcuts (In addition to the regular shortcuts for copy, paste, bold, Italics, etc…):
