Volume 5, Issue 1





































HELP Yourself!

In my opinion one of the least used features of Microsoft Office is the Help facility.  The Office Assistant, your personal software coach, is more often turned off.  People tell me it is in their way.  Well this little “annoyance” watches you work and “pipes up” when it sees you doing your work the slow, long way.  If an experienced user and trainer like me uses the Office Assistant why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of this Help feature?  If you right click on the Office Assistant you can set options on how much and what kind of help you will be given. I like the option “Show Tip of the Day at Startup”.  It is constant reminder of how you can “work smarter, not harder”.  Here are just a few examples of some of the tips:

Outlook

  • When asking other to vote, you can customize the name of the voting buttons.  On the View menu, click options, and in the Use Voting Buttons box, type the names you want on the buttons, separated by semicolons.

  • To quickly move text, select the text, and then click on the text and drag it.  To copy text, hold down the CTRL key while dragging.

Word

  • To start a new line without starting a new paragraph press SHIFT + ENTER

  • To repeat most commands and actions, press F4 or CTRL + Y.

Excel

  • If you want to freeze a row(s) at the top of the window, select the row below it, and then click “Freeze Panes” on the Windows menu.

  • To print column titles on each page, click Page Setup on the File menu, and then click the Sheet tab.  In the “Rows to Repeat At Top” box, select the worksheet rows.

PowerPoint

  • You can change the font for every slide in your presentation by changing it on the Slide Master.  To go to the Master, point to Master on the View menu and then click Slide Master.

  • You can convert Clip Art into a drawing object so that it can be manipulated.  Right click on the picture and choose Grouping > Ungroup.

What is amazing about these tips is that the majority of the users that I teach do not know these tips and only learn them when I get the opportunity to tutor them.

People also tell me that they find HELP hard to use.  Well the more you use it the better you will become at it.  Remember you can press the F1 function key at any point to get help.  You can also click on the Office Assistant and type your question in plain English.

Another useful tip:  if you aren’t sure how to proceed right click on whatever it is you are working on i.e., text, cell, slide, or message.  There is a good chance that the command that you are looking for is on this context-sensitive pop-up menu.

And if you can’t figure it out yourself you know who to call or better still e-mail.  I will get your e-mail message on my Blackberry.  If you need an immediate response preface your subject line with the word HELP.  I will try to get back to you immediately, even if I am teaching.

Maryse Godbout

 

PREVIOUS ISSUES
April 2001 - Backups
October 2001 - Office XP
April 2002 - Spring Cleaning
September 2002 - Digital Cameras
January 2004 - The Best Kept Secrets of MS Office

Tips N' Tricks

Word - Press TAB to promote (increase indent) a bullet with your Insertion Point at the beginning of the paragraph.  Shift+TAB to demote (reduce indent) bullets.

Excel - Double click a border to go to end of data range in that direction

PowerPoint - Use cursor arrows to nudge objects a small distance

Outlook - Contacts list:  type the starting letters of a contact's last name to navigate to that contact's card

Internet Explorer - Type a + directly in front of a word to indicate it is required; type a - to omit that keyword from your search

BlackBerry - Capitalize a letter:  hold that letter for at least two seconds.

 

Outlook’s Backup Tool

 If you are using Microsoft Outlook for your e-mails, contacts and calendar events, like I do, then you might want to consider using a backup facility add-on that comes from Microsoft.  (If your company has an Microsoft Exchange server you needn’t be concerned about backing up your Outlook but this might be of interest to you for your home computer.)  In my case “my working life” is all contained in my Outlook which is actually one file.  It will be called Mailbox.PST or Outlook.PST, depending on your operating system and resides in one of the following folders by default:

Windows 98 »  C:\Windows\Local Settings\Application Data \Microsoft\Outlook

Windows 2000 or XP » C:\Documents and Settings \Profile_Name\Local Settings \Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Think about how upset you would be if that file were to become corrupt.  A few months ago I “caught” a virus which hijacked my Outlook PST file and made it unusable.  I reverted to my backed up PST file and was up and running within minutes.  I recommend you consider installing this add-on.  If you enter “pfbackup” in Google you will get about 986 hits.  The add-on has been updated for Outlook 2003.  It is quick and easy to install.  Afterwards you can set the options on how often you want to backup.  I do it on a daily basis because my information changes a lot in one day.  The backup occurs when you exit Outlook.

Then you have to consider where you are going to keep this precious backup file.  Personally I keep it on an external media to my hard drive.  One has many options these days.  The cost of external hard drives and CD burners has significantly come down in the last year.  The other thing that I have bought lately is a USB mini drive.  This is not recommended as your primary backup device.  It is however much more convenient for transferring files and pictures than burning CDs.  I recently purchased a 512MB SanDisk Mini Cruzer at Costco for $60.  No more diskettes for me!  It is Plug & Play so as soon as you plug it into a computer it is designated a drive letter and you can copy, rename and delete files like you do on your hard drive.  It is much faster than burning CDs.

 

Maryse Godbout, B.Ed.
514-457-6301
       

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