EZ Printing
Need to print a recently used document? Don’t waste the next 2 minutes of your life opening up Word, Excel, Notepad etc, then digging around for the document, finally opening it up, hitting the print button, and dealing with any dialog boxes that may pop up. I have a faster way you’re gonna love! Try this:
Click the Start button, My Recent Documents. Right-click the
Comments | Filed under: Printing Help |
Sound(s) Fun!
Want to have a little fun with your sounds?!
XP users will once again go to Start , then Control Panel . Click on the Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices link.
On the next screen, you’ll see an icon for Sounds and Audio Devices under “or pick a Control Panel Icon”, click there.
A screen should pop up that lets you change your sound scheme or create… Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: Multimedia |
Q:
In Windows XP I’ve seen pointers that turn into cute little dinosaurs, musical instruments- all sorts of things. How do you do that?
A:
It’s really not hard at all. Plus it’s a fun way to make waiting for things to load more bearable.
In Win XP, you’ll first go to the Start menu, then the Control Panel … Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: Desktop Enhancement |
Clearly We’ve Got Some Options
So… you’re working in MS Excel with some data and you’ve got some changes to make.
If you need to delete data you would simply highlight the cells and hit the Delete key.
But, let’s suppose that you don’t want the data deleted but instead want the formatting removed. What do you do then?
You could spend time reformatting the cells or undoing whatever formatting… Continue reading
Q:
What does SSL mean?
A:
SSL, or Secure Socket Layers, is what makes secure sites secure.
Here’s how it works:
When you log onto a secure server it communicates with your browser for a few seconds. During this communication, it sends your browser encryption information that only it and your browser can read.
Once this encryption… Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: Computer Terms |
Undo / Redo Many Steps At Once
Many of us know about the Undo and Redo buttons located on the Standard toolbar. (Left arrow is “Undo” and right arrow is “Redo”.)
What do you do if you’ve got a lot of steps to undo?
Do you click the button again and again until you are finally returned to the place you’re looking for—or, do you hit Ctrl + Z
Comments | Filed under: MS Office Help |
Dates Done Your Way
OK, so you’re frustrated with the standard Excel date formats and you’re looking for a way to meet your needs.
Well, be frustrated no more!
Today we’ve got just the information you need to make Excel to do things your way.
First you need is to select the cells that should be in the date format.
Now go to the Format menu, Cells choice. (Ctrl +… Continue reading
Dates In Excel
I’m sure by now you’ve realized that when you type a date into MS Excel the program seems to magically know what it is and treats it as such.
Cool—less work for us.
But have you ever wished the date was in a different format?
I mean, maybe you want just the month and day—10/15 for example. Or maybe you’re looking to have something like 15-Oct-03.
Well… Continue reading
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
Ok, so we know that Excel can graph (also known as charting) our data for us and I’m assuming you’re interested in the “how to”. So, let’s dive right in:
The first thing you need to do is to select the data range you want to chart. You need to highlight all data and along with the column and row labels.
With the… Continue reading
Comments Anyone?
Instead of several emails with ideas, you’re looking to get back the presentation with everyone’s comments right on the slides. So, you email it to one person and as they finish their ideas it goes to the next person then eventually lands back in your mailbox.
Makes sense, but where are the ideas?
Well, in the file, of course.
Now all you need is the “know how” for… Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: MS PowerPoint |
Input, Input — Too Much Input
It seems to me that more often than not PowerPoint presentations are created and / or presented by many people. While one person may have done most of the actual computer time, the content and presentation are often a shared responsibility.
So what’s the process?
Let’s see… there might be a discussion about content (maybe not) and then someone goes back to their computer… Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: MS PowerPoint |
Lost In Worksheets
Have you ever found yourself feeling lost while trying to move a worksheet inside a huge workbook?
I mean, you’ve got 20 or 30 worksheets and you’re trying to click on the sheet tab and drag it to its new home. So now you’re patiently waiting for the tabs to scroll by while you continue to hold that mouse button.
Oops—you just flew by the location you… Continue reading
Moving Right Next Door
As I’m sure we all know, you can re-arrange worksheets in an MS Excel file with a simple click-hold-and-drag of the sheet tab.
But, did you know that you can also move worksheets from one workbook to another using the same method?
No?
Well, good news—you can, and it’s really as easy as it sounds.
First, open both workbooks. (The one with the worksheet and… Continue reading
MS Excel Charts Done Your Way
OK, so you’ve made an absolutely beautiful Excel chart but you’re seeing a few things that you’d like to change.
Maybe you’d prefer a different font for the text.
Maybe you need a smaller font on some of the labeling so Excel will display all the category names.
Maybe you have money amounts graphed and all the “.00″ on the end are just too… Continue reading
Fix It With A Click, Click
Last week (back on Tuesday, November 4) we discussed charting—often called graphing—data in MS Excel.
We covered the basics of using the Chart Wizard and by the end we were in a position to quickly create some pretty slick looking stuff from our raw data.
Sounded great!
Everyone’s happy.
Or not…
What if you had gone completely through the charting process, had a beautiful… Continue reading
Zig or Zag—Which Way?
So, you’ve got this huge worksheet in MS Excel you’re trying to print and it seems that the pages are coming out completely scrambled.
Now what’s wrong with this stubborn machine that’s causing this to happen?
Honestly—nothing.
It’s all in the Page Setup choices you make.
What was that I heard you say?
You didn’t make any choices in Page Setup that would cause this chaos?… Continue reading
Vanishing Gridlines
Here’s a good tip that comes from a reader’s question regarding those pesky vanishing gridlines.
We all know that in MS Excel you can go into the Page Setup window (File menu, Page Setup choice) on the Sheet tab and check the box to have Excel print the gridlines with your data.
But what’s going on when those gridlines just aren’t showing up?
Another computer glitch?
Probably not.… Continue reading
Custom Shows In MS PowerPoint
Well, if you’ve come this far than you’ve decided that MS PowerPoint’s custom shows might be the thing for you and I bet you’re ready to dig right in.
So let’s get to it.
The first thing you need to do is to open your presentation.
Now you’re looking for the Slide Show menu, Custom Shows choice. (Alt then D then C will get you… Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: MS PowerPoint |
One Slide Show—Many Uses
What do you do when you have to take an MS PowerPoint presentation tailored for one audience and alter it for a slightly different audience?
I mean, the bulk of the presentation material will be the same but you’ve got to accommodate some differences.
Maybe the presentation is two hours long and you’ve got to do the job in just one hour.
Or… maybe you’ve got… Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: MS PowerPoint |
Link It Up
So, it seems that we’re all ready for our adventure into the land of MS PowerPoint hyperlinks, so I’ll get the ride underway.
Besides having the presentation open, you need to decide where you need to make a jump.
“Jump where?” you ask.
Well, just about anywhere you might need to go—another slide in the show, a custom show, a URL on the web, a different presentation… Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: MS PowerPoint |
Choose Your Destination
Let’s see—a beautiful beach somewhere with a warm tropical breeze…
Keep dreaming.
Unfortunately, I’m not talking about a vacation destination (sorry to let you down). I’m talking about a destination in or out of your PowerPoint presentation that doesn’t happen to be the next slide.
We all know about hyperlinks in Web pages—got to love all links—just a quick click and boom, you’re off to the next… Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: MS PowerPoint |
Typos Be Gone!
OK—so we all have them.
You know, those nasty little typos we make time after time after time.
It seems that no matter how we may try to train our fingers to do a better job, the outcome is always the same.
Oops—hit the wrong key! Now we need the Backspace key to get rid of it and finally we can carefully type it the right way.… Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: MS Office Help |
Changing the Normal Template
We’re all here to find out how to make changes to the Normal template – so I think we should get right down to business.
Step 1: Locate and open your Normal template.
Comments | Filed under: MS Office Help |
Working With The Norm
Do you find yourself constantly making the same changes in MS Word over and over again? (Things like tabs, paragraph settings, etc… whatever you need to get the job done right.)
Frustrated with all the repetitive work?
Yeah, me too.
Want a better way—maybe a way that has all blank documents delivered to you with these settings ready to go?
Was that a “Yes!” I heard?… Continue reading
Time For A Font Change-Up
It’s beautiful!
You’re MS PowerPoint presentation is “picture perfect”.
Well… almost.
You just happen to be looking it over and realize that maybe your choice of font wasn’t the best decision.
But then you think of all the time it could take to make a change. Yeah, too much. This font will just have to do.
Too bad—now that you’ve gone down this… Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: MS PowerPoint |
Relocate In Seconds
Last month (November 4 and November 13, 2003 to be exact) we discussed charts—also known as graphs—in MS Excel. During the creation of the chart we had to pick a location, in other words, where did you want Excel to put the graph?
You had two choices: you could embed it as an object in a worksheet or you could… Continue reading
Give The Assistant A Vacation
Tired of the Office Assistant popping up every time you turn around?
Want to access the online help directly – no middle ‘man” needed?
Well, if you’ve got a new version of Office (sorry – this isn’t in the 97 version) then you’re in luck!
To get the little guy to take a semi-permanent vacation then here’s the scoop.
First, you need to get to… Continue reading
Comments | Filed under: MS Office Help |
