Tips For Everyday: Microsoft Office Suite

Showing posts with label Microsoft Office Suite. Show all posts

9/10/13

Tip #112 - Printing Specific Pages

100 (or more) Computer Tips in 100 (or more) Days

Tip #112 - Printing - just the pages you want!

So printing may sound like an easy activity. You're looking at the document, you go to the File menu or use your keyboard command (Ctrl p on the PC or Command p on the Apple) and up comes the print dialog box. You click the print button and walk to the printer. Why would I feel the need to write anymore about the topic. Well I was just helping my husband print a variety of pages from a PDF he downloaded and I was able to print five of the eight pages all at the same time.

Before I printed the document I scrolled through it and realized that he only needed to print some of the pages, the rest were advertisements or instructions that he didn't need. I made note of the pages to print and then brought up the print command. Rather than going with the default "All" pages, you need to click in the "Pages" box. If you want a range, type the first page number followed by a dash and then the last page number. For non consecutive pages, type a page number followed by a comma and then the next page number. As you can see in the screen shot, I wanted to print pages 1, 3 and then 5 through 7. This sure beats printing each page or group of pages separately!

So how easy is that? If you look carefully you will find in all documents the ability to enter specific pages rather than printing the whole document.

Happy Computing!

Diane

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Diane McKeever, the writer of 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days, by subscribing to her Facebook posts or visiting her web page, www.dianemckeever.com .

8/9/13

Tip #110 - Special Characters on Apple

100 (or more) Computer Tips in 100 (or more) Days

Tip #110 - Special Characters on Apple

My Apple friends have been feeling neglected by my posts. Hopefully they will be happy to find out how to insert special characters (such as accented letters, copyright symbols, foreign language punctuation, etc) into their documents. Here is a printable list so that you can have it handy when you need to insert any of these characters.

You might find that if you just print this page the sheet will print too small. If that's the case you should right-click (Ctrl click) and choose "Save As" to save the picture to your hard drive and then print from there. If you have trouble doing this please send me an email (diane@dianemckeever.com) and I will send a full size version of this chart to you.

If you have an iPad or iPhone you don't need this list. Hold down your finger on any vowel and a list of accented characters will pop up! Brilliant!

Happy Computing

Diane

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

7/25/13

Tip #108 - Microsoft Office's Quick Access Toolbar

100 (or more) Computer Tips in 100 (or more) Days

Tip #108 - Microsoft Office's Quick Access Toolbar

When the 2007 version of Microsoft Office came out there was a lot of user frustration. Everything was moved off the menu area that people had come to know and love, or at least know if not love. The menus were gone, replaced by tabs and ribbons. As users became more familiar with the new interface they realized that familiar actions took a few more clicks than they used to but accepted, grudgingly, the new reality. But there is hope!

Microsoft left one customizable area in the Office suite, the Quick Access Toolbar. The Quick Access Toolbar is located along the upper left side in all of the Microsoft Office programs. This handy toolbar is very easy to customize and it is a place I head to when setting up client's computers. The first item I add to the Quick Access Toolbar is "Quick Print". Adding Quick Print enables the user to send the current document to the default printer to print one copy...all without seeing the print dialog box! Yea. You want two copies, click the button twice. This is the same "Print" button we had on the toolbar for years before the big change.

Other options I like to add are "New" to create a new document with one click, "Open" to bring up the Open dialog box and, my all-time favorite, "E-mail" which will attach the open document to an email, even if the document has not been saved! I really love the E-mail button. It will work on most computers but not if you're using a public computer such as at a library.

Depending on how the client uses specific programs I will often add the "Sort" buttons in Excel and the "Format Painter" in Word. The picture below is of my Quick Access Toolbar, see how I've added my favorite icons.

Adding items to the toolbar couldn't be easier. Move your mouse on the down triangle on the right side of the Quick Access Toolbar and click. A menu of the most popular tools will appear. Click as many of these tools as you would like. The tools will be displayed in the order that you click them so give that some thought. You might uncheck some and then recheck them to change the order on the toolbar. If you don't see your favorite tool listed then click on the "More Commands" option. Every single command is listed here.

When adding icons to the Quick Access Toolbar, you might consider adding options even though they are currently available on a tab. Keep in mind that the Quick Access Toolbar is visible no matter what your current tab might be so rather than changing to a specific tab just so that you can click on an option, add it to the Quick Access Toolbar and you don't have to change tabs.

I hope customizing the Quick Access Toolbar makes it easier and quicker for you to use the Microsoft Office programs.

Happy computing!

Diane

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

7/17/13

Tip #107 - Excel Pivot Tables

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Tip #107 - Excel Pivot Tables

Pivot tables are one of the most powerful features in the Excel program. They make it child's play to summarize and analyze large spreadsheets of related information. You can select which columns of information should be included in the analysis. Generally the pivot table is displayed on a separate worksheet in the document for easy reference.

The information in your worksheet should be continuous with no blank columns or rows. Blank columns and rows indicate to Excel that information on one side of the blank area is not related to information on the other side. I am going to be working with over 1,000 rows of sales information that is includes the product, customer, salesperson, region, quarter and amount. Creating related tables to analyze this type of information used to be time consuming and tedious. With just a few clicks this will be accomplished very easily. To see a video of how to create pivot tables in Excel scroll to the end of the page.

The data on the left pivots into the report on the right using the Pivot Table feature

To Create a Pivot Table:

1. Open the file that has the data you would like to analyze. Click any cell that has data in it so that Excel will know which area of the worksheet the data is to come from.

2. From the Insert Tab select Pivot Table. The Pivot Table dialog box will appear. You should not have to make any adjustments because Excel should have automatically identified the cell range and you would like the pivot table to appear on a new sheet.

3. Click OK. The pivot table appears on a new sheet. The new sheet has been inserted to the left of the previously selected sheet.

4. Drag the fields from the pivot table list on the right side of your screen down to the report filter/column/row/values boxes below the list. Do not use the check boxes. If you do use the check boxes Microsoft will just put the items where it thinks you would like them...not necessarily where you want them.

Drag fields down to the Report Filter, Column Labels, Row Labels and
Values fields to create the Pivot Table Report

If you don't like the order that the information in the pivot table is being grouped you might consider switching the order of the fields around. If you have more than one field in the column or row box, drag one field above or below the other to change the order.

One thing to note, there are no formulas in pivot tables. As a result, if you change the data that the pivot table is based on you must use the refresh button on the Pivot Table Tab.

That's it! You now have a Pivot Table. Move the fields around until you get the report you need.

Happy computing!

Diane

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

7/2/13

Tip 105 - Alt Code Reference Sheet

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Tip #105 - Alt Code Reference Sheet

Have you ever wondered how people inserted special characters such as smiley faces, hearts, arrows, etc. into their emails, Tweets, Facebook posts or worksheets? They probably used Alt codes to accomplish it.

Alt codes have been around for decades and were used by early programmers. I have compiled a list below for your use. For best results you should save the picture by clicking on it with the right mouse button and choosing "Save Image As" or "Save Picture As" and saving it on your desktop. You can then double click the image on your desktop and print from there.

After this was posted my Apple friends were very sad that they couldn't do this fun stuff with the Alt key. There are a few alternatives for them that I wanted to include here. Rather than doing a new tip card I've included links to a couple of websites where Apple people can get help on this. Check out this page for accent codes that you accomplish with the Option key, sometimes in concert with the Shift key. Here's a second resource that shows you how to make the Character Palette available to insert special characters. Hope this helps my Apple friends.

Happy Computing!

Diane

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

6/27/13

Tip #104 - Push Pin Office Documents

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Tip #104 - Push Pinning Documents

I can't believe I forgot this really important tip that will help you re-open frequently used documents.

Microsoft Office has always kept track of recently opened documents and you could see a list of the four most recent documents at the bottom of the File menu. In 2007 Microsoft expanded this list to display the last eighteen documents. At the same time they included the option to pin a document to the list so that it would never roll off, making it a cinch to open frequently used documents again.

When you visit the File tab in the 2010 and 2013 Office programs (or the Office Button in 2007), you'll notice that when you click on Recent on the left panel two columns appear to the right. The left column contains recently used documents, the right column displays recently visited folders. Both of the columns have push pins available to the right of each entry. Click the pin once to "pin" the document/folder to the menu.

This feature is particularly outstanding for those of you who are in a network environment where you have to do many clicks to navigate to network drives. Those drives are available now with one click.

Happy computing!

www.dianemckeever.com

5/12/13

Tip #101 - Recap of the Keyboard Shortcuts

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #101 - Recap of the Keyboard Shortcuts

Thank you for taking this journey with me. I hope that you have taken away a few time-saving tips. These tips will be produced in both a book format as well as an interactive PDF complete with video links. I’m working on the videos now and will let you know when they are available.

Happy computing!

Undo	Ctrl + z
Cut	Ctrl + x
Copy	Ctrl + c
Paste	Ctrl + v
Print	Ctrl + p
New	Ctrl + n
Open	Ctrl + o
Save	Ctrl + s
Top of document	Ctrl + Home
End of document	Ctrl + End
Select All	Ctrl + a
View Desktop	Windows + d
Switch Programs	Alt + Tab (Command on Apple)
Find	Ctrl + f
Repeat Action	Ctrl + y
Lock desktop	Windows + l
Opens the Run Program Dialog	Windows Key + r
Minimize all windows	Windows Key + m
Maximize all windows	Windows Key + Shift + M
Find files on your computer	Windows Key + f
Open Windows Explorer/My Computer	Windows Key + e
Duplicate Objects	Ctrl + drag
Help	F1

Remember on the Apple use Command for the Ctrl key.

Happy computing!

Diane

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

5/10/13

Tip #99 - Excel Finding Duplicate Records

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #99 - Excel Finding Duplicate Records

I just had to compare two email lists. One was my Gmail contacts and the other was my Outlook contacts. I exported both of them to a file, deleted all but the name and the email fields and copied and pasted them into one file, but then what? Many of the names were duplicates but how to weed them out? Then I remembered the Find Duplicates feature in Excel!

This easy-to-use feature is on the Data tab, Data Tools Group (Data menu for Apple users). When you click the Find Duplicates option a window comes up asking in which columns you want to find duplicates. In my case I indicated only the email column but if you were trying to find all the duplicate records for people in the list with the same first AND last name, you would check those columns instead. Than click the OK button. Poof, duplicates have disappeared. Excel will give you a report showing the number of duplicates found.

Remember, Excel deletes the duplicate records without confirming it so you might want to make a backup of the file before you delete the duplicates.

Happy Computing!

Diane

View Diane's Webpage for more tips.

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

5/8/13

Tip #97 - Excel – Concatenating Cells

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #97 - Excel - Concatenating Cells

When managing list data in Excel it’s often necessary to combine the contents of one or more fields. The Concatenate function will accomplish this task for you.

Concatenate is a function in the Text category.

Imagine that you have a list that contains the first name and the last name of individuals. Of course you want to separate this information into individual fields for sorting purposes but you might want to have them combined for exporting to a mail merge or for name tags. In this example we’ll take the last name, add a space and a comma and then insert the first name.

First you’ll want to insert a new column or use the last column in your list to combine the names. Next click the Insert Function button on the formula bar. From the Text category choose Concatenate and click OK.

In the Function Arguments dialog box enter the cell address for the first Last Name in your list. In the Text2 box enter a comma and a space (to separate our last name from the first name) and in the Text3 box enter the cell address for the First Name. Check the Calculation Result area to make sure it looks the way you want it to and then click OK.

All you have to do now is fill it in down all the cells and of course you’ll do that by clicking on the cell that has the formula, moving your mouse to the lower right corner of that cell where the little fill handle is and double clicking the fill handle. Bam! The formula is copied down in all of the cells.

Now you can throw the word Concatenate into conversations and people will think you are a genius.

Happy Computing!

Diane

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

5/7/13

Tip #96 - Excel Filtering

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #96 - Excel Filtering

When working with lists in Excel it’s sometimes necessary to view a subset of the list. I have a list of members in an organization that I keep in alphabetical order. There are times that I would like to view only the people who joined in a particular year or who have been members 10 or more years. To hide all of the rows that don’t meet my criteria I use the Filter feature in Excel.

You can access Filtering from the Home tab, Editing group or from the Data tab, Sort & Filter group. When you turn filtering on from either of these locations, you will see the program puts a pull down menu at the top of each column. When you click on these you will see the menu has been populated with all of the unique values in the column. Using the check boxes you can select the values you are looking for and then click OK. Repeat this process until you are viewing only the records you need.

Keep in mind that using these filters, you are able to copy and paste only the visible records. I often use this technique when I want to email a specific group of people. After selecting the email addresses and copying them I switch to Outlook and paste the names in the Bcc box.

Note that on the Filtering pull down menus, in addition to the unique data listed at the bottom, there are options for sorting the records. I often save my files with the Filters turned on because I use them so often.

Remember when you’re setting up your lists, it is important that your lists do not have any blank columns or blank rows. It’s OK if some of the cells don’t have data but keep the rows and columns consecutive so that Excel recognizes contiguous data.

Happy Computing!

Diane

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

5/6/13

Tip #95 - Office's Vanishing Tools

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #95 - Office's Vanishing Tools

The new ribbon user interface on Office 2007 and 2010 is quite fancy, and once you get used to it, it's a lot of fun to use. One of its few downsides is that it's tall – far taller than a traditional toolbar. If you’ve got a 25 inch monitor that’s fine but if you're working on a laptop or are otherwise pressed for screen space, it can sometimes be handy to collapse the ribbon and make it as compact as a regular menu.

To collapse it, simply double-click one of the ribbon's tabs, such as Home. The whole thing will instantly shrink down to the line of tabs, hiding the options. Clicking a tab will temporarily expand it back allowing you to make a selection. After you have made your selection the ribbon will again be hidden.

A double click on any one of the tabs again will expand the ribbon to its original size.

Happy Computing!

Diane

Don't forget to click the Subscribe to 100 Computer Tips in 100 Days via email link on the right side of the screen so you get email alerts when Diane adds a new post.

5/4/13

Tip #93 - Excel Scenario Manager

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #93 - Excel Scenario Manager

We're opening a sweet treats shop and want to
be able to create a variety of success scenarios.
The values in D4 through D8 are our variables.

A helpful tool in Excel that allows you to store a variety of scenario models is the Scenario Manager. You create and save different groups of values and then switch to any of these stored scenarios to view different results.

Once your base values are entered into a worksheet
you then create an alternate scenario by naming it...

...and then defining the values that should be entered
for that scenario.

All of the scenarios you have defined will be available
in the Scenario Manager. Clicking on a scenario in the
list and clicking the Show button changes the information
in the worksheet.

For example, suppose are opening a sweet treats store and you wanted to find out your profit using different sales figures. You can use the Scenario Manager to create multiple scenarios on the same worksheet, and then switch between them. For each scenario, you specify the cells that change and the values to use for that scenario. When you switch between scenarios, the contents of the cells change to reflect the different values. It is helpful if you name the cells that you are going to be changing. To create scenarios:

Open a worksheet and put in all of the information for one scenario (see the sample worksheet).
From the Data tab choose What If Analysis and Scenario Manager.
Name the scenario and click OK
Enter the variables in the cells for that scenario and click OK.
After you have created all the scenarios that you need, you can create a scenario summary report that incorporates information from those scenarios. A scenario report displays all the scenario information in one table on a new worksheet.

Clicking on the Scenario Summary Report option in the Scenario
Manager results in a report showing all of the scenarios on
a new worksheet.

It is a good idea to name the cells that are to be modified or the report will list the cell addresses and not the names as they are in this finished report. Review Tip #67 if you've forgotten how to name cells.

This tip probably benefits from having a video to view. I will be taping these after all of my tips have been posted. I’ll let you know when the video is available.

Happy Computing!

View Diane's Webpage for more tips.

5/3/13

Tip #92 - Rolling Through Office Ribbons

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #92 - Rolling Through Office Ribbons

Because the Ribbons of options first introduced in Office 2007 were continued in Office 2010, it’s safe to say that Microsoft will probably keep them around. As you probably know, clicking once on one of the tabs changes the ribbon you are viewing. While this is not difficult you might be interested in trying another way to roll through the ribbons

With your mouse on the ribbon area of the screen, roll the wheel on the mouse. Rolling the mouse toward you moves you through the ribbons from left to right, rolling the wheel away from you activates the ribbons from right to left. This is a particularly helpful tip if you don’t quite know which tab an option is on.

Happy Computing!

View Diane's Webpage for more tips.

5/2/13

Tip #91 - Three Finger Salute

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #91 - Three Finger Salute

The three-finger salute refers to the original PC-compatible system command to reboot or restart a computer by pressing three keys simultaneously: Control, Alt and Delete. The

three-key combination is specifically designed to be impossible to execute with one hand in order to avoid the potential for accidental reboots.

When a program freezes or “hangs up” on your computer, you might not want to restart the whole computer but only the one program that isn’t responding. Using Ctrl+Alt+Delete will result in a selection of choices that varies by the version of the operating system you’re using. One of the choices will be “Start Task Manager”. This is a good starting point to identify what programs are running and which might have gotten “stuck”. Click on the troublesome program in the list and then click the End Task button. Now you have to be patient. Clicking End Task multiple times does not make the computer respond quicker, in fact just the reverse is true. Multiple clicks slow down the process. You may get a another window saying the program is not responding. Just ignore it. If the program does not end in five minutes, you have my permission to choose Restart from the start button or hold down the power button and turn your computer off.

Ctrl+Alt+Delete is not a keyboard shortcut for anything on the Apple. However, in Mac OS X Server logon screen, pressing Control+⌥ Option+Delete (the Option key is the equivalent of Alt key on a Mac keyboard) will show an alert saying "This is not DOS." Now who says programmers don’t have a sense of humor?

The Apple system does have something comparable to the Task Manager for programs that will not Quit. ⌥Option+⌘Command+Esc will force quit applications.

Happy Computing!

View Diane's Webpage for more tips.