I’ve put together some answers to commonly asked questions about Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Outlook 2010.  If you have an earlier version, you can still do all of these but the instructions or screen displays might be slightly different – but it would be easier for you to upgrade!  I hope you find these tips helpful.  They certainly help keep me organised in an efficient and stressless way.

[box style=”rounded” border=”full”]

SOMETHING EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW: CUTTING AND PASTING SHORTCUTS

Have you ever tried to right click on a piece of text or something on a website only to find that you can’t cut or copy it?   Usually a message like ‘forbidden’ pops up.   Even for websites and documents that you can right click and select ‘cut’ or ‘copy’ try the following shortcut instead – it’s quicker and easier.  Highlight what it is you want to cut or copy.   Now press CTRL and letter C to Cut/Copy and then CTLR and letter V to paste it to where you want it.

Click here for the 20 essential PC shortcuts you will ever need to know[/box]

Ramesh Mehay

[toggle title_open=”MICROSOFT WORD” title_closed=”MICROSOFT WORD (click to open me)” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]

CHANGING CAPITALS TO LOWER CASE

• I have a large document that’s written entirely in capital letters. Is it possible to change it so that it’s shown using lowercase letters an uppercase at the beginning of sentences?
•  Simply highlight the passage you want to change, or to select the whole document, hold down the Ctrl key and press A. Then hold down Shift and press F3. This will cycle through the various case options. The first convert all the text uppercase, so you may not see any difference. Still holding down the Shift, press F3 again, which will change everything to lowercase. Press F3 a third time (still holding down Shift) and this will convert the passage to what word calls sentence case (capitalised first letters) – the rule that is observed when writing titles.

USING PORTRAIT & LANDSCAPE MODES IN THE SAME DOCUMENT

• How do I use portrait and landscape orientation in the same document?
• Select the pages or paragraphs that you want to change to portrait or landscape orientation.
• On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Margins > Click Custom Margins > On the Margins tab, click Portrait or Landscape > In the Apply to list, click Selected text.

SYMBOLS LIKE TICKS, CROSSES AND BOXES

• How can I quickly insert a tick symbol into a Word document?
• Basically you need to assign what is called a keyboard shortcut.
• Click on the insert menu and then on symbol: in this case the tick can be found in the Wingdings font > Find your symbol and left click once and then select the shortcut key button > Left click in the text box labelled “press new shortcut key” and press the keyboard shortcut you would like to use > Make sure the save changes in option is set to normal.dot otherwise the changes will not appear in new documents, only the current one > Click on “save” and then click on close > Click on cancel to close the insert symbol window.

ADDING MULTIPLE ROWS INTO A TABLE

• How do I insert multiple rows into a table in Word 2007?
• A shortcut for doing all of this: first highlight multiple blank rows then press Alt + A + I + A repeat this again until you have the right number of row you want
• You can also assign a new shortcut key for inserting multiple rows in a table. Click on the Tools menu, click Customize > Click Keyboard > Under Categories, locate table > Under Commands, select TableInsertrow > Place the cursor under the box, Press New shortcut key > Type the shortcut key suitable for you. Just like u can use Ctrl + Shift + I > Click on the Assign button on the right side > Click Close.

[/toggle]

[toggle title_open=”MICROSOFT POWERPOINT” title_closed=”MICROSOFT POWERPOINT” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]

ANIMATING YOUR PRESENTATIONS

• Click here to see the help file that will help you animate your presentations and captivate your audience more.

EDITING THE MASTER SLIDE

• If you want to insert an image that appears on all the slides or change the font colour for all slides you would do that on the slide master.  In other words, use the slide master to make global changes on all the slides in your presentation. Accessing the slide master as follows.
• To see the slide master, you display master view > Click on the View tab as shown > In the “Presentation Views” group, click on the Slide Master button.

POWERPOINT SHORTCUTS

• To give a presentation, only a few keys are needed during the actual presentation – this will help the presenter to concentrate on the job of presenting rather than focusing on mouse acrobatics.
• The presentation (PPT file) can be opened with a simple double-click.
• F5 starts the presentation with the opening slide.
• The next slide can be reached by hitting the space-bar, the previous slide with the backspace key.
• The presentation can be closed with ESC.
• An overview of function keys for the presentation mode can be called up by pressing F5.
• By the way, did you know that pressing the letter B blacks out the PowerPoint screen – helpful for when you want your audience to focus on you and the discussion rather than the screen in front of them.  Try it out.
• Click here to see a useful summary of the most useful shortcut keys for PowerPoint.

[/toggle]

[toggle title_open=”MICROSOFT OUTLOOK” title_closed=”MICROSOFT OUTLOOK” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]

CREATING AN EMAIL SIGNATURE

• An email signature is useful because it automates closure without you having to laboriously sign off each time you reply or create an email.   Others can also search their inboxes for emails from you by searching on your e-signature.   Click here to find out how to create an email signature.

 ADDING A DELAY FUNCTION TO YOUR EMAILS

• How many times have you sent an email only to realise a few seconds later that you wish you could retract it?  Perhaps you missed off an attachment, forgot to include someone else in the list or perhaps you simply replied to an emotive email to hastily with stuff you really didn’t mean.   Using the “Defer” rule in Outlook allows us to set up a rule that essentially pauses all message delivery for up to 2 hours after you click the Send button.  This gives you the window of opportunity to recover and amend your initial email.  Click here to find out how to use the ‘Defer’ rule in Outlook.

OUTLOOK IS RUNNING SLOW

• Click here to see the help file associated with this problem.

I CAN’T SEE SOME OF MY CONTACTS WHEN INTENDING TO SEND AN EMAIL TO THEM

• This problem usually happens if you’ve got several contact ‘subfolders’.  One of those contact subfolders is not showing.  Follow these steps to reveal them.
• Go back to contacts > Right click the folder that isn’t showing > Click properties > Click the “Outlook Address” tab  > Check the box that says “Show this folder as an e-mail address book” > Click apply then Click ok.

CATEGORISING CALENDAR ITEMS

• Categories are used to group related items together. In the Calendar, Categories can be used to classify types of meetings (e.g., committee, professional development, etc).  Categorising calendar items means you can search and list items under those categories for a set period at a later date. This is useful, for example, if you wish to review say how much sick leave you have taken (providing, of course, one of your categories was “sick leave”).  Click here to learn more

GSYNCIT FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE A GOOGLE MAIL ACCOUNT

• This is a great piece of software for synchronising your contents and calendar in Microsoft Outlook with your Google mail account.  Why this isn’t already a feature provided automatically with the super giants Google, I will never understand. After installing gSyncit and starting Outlook you’ll find a new toolbar available to configure gSyncit and synchronize your calendars. You can manually synchronize your calendar or have it automatically sync on a preset interval.

[/toggle]

[toggle title_open=”UNDERSTANDING THE INTERNET” title_closed=”UNDERSTANDING THE INTERNET” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]

URLs

• Click here for a brief guide to URLS

SEARCHING THE WEB

• Click here for a brief guide on how to improve your internet searching

WEB VALIDITY

• Click here for quick tips on how to determine web validity (i.e. whether the website you’re looking at is trustworthy or not)

[/toggle]

[toggle title_open=”MICROSOFT EXCEL” title_closed=”MICROSOFT EXCEL” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]

HIDING A STYLE SHEET PAGE

May be you have several pages on your excel spreadsheet, some of which you want to hide from others.  For example, perhaps you’ve developed a rota in excel, but there are notes to remind you about various things when it comes to updating the rota – but things you don’t wish others to see.  Here’s how to do it.  Remember, it simply hides the page – anyone can unhide it.  So, if you’re after a quick way of hiding data that isn’t too sensitive, then this is ideal.  Otherwise, search the internet for a more secure method.

For example, let’s say in your excel rota spreadsheet you want to hide the worksheet ‘Maternity’, this is how you do it:

To hide it:

• Open the rota file > Select the Maternity worksheet > On the home tab, click the Format tab and then select Hide& Unhide and then select Hide Sheet > Voila!

To unhide it (so you can edit the file again)

• Open the rota file > On the home tab, click the Format tab and then select Hide& Unhide and then select Unhide Sheet > Select the worksheet you wish to unhide (in this case, Maternity) > Voila, it’s all back again.

[/toggle]

[toggle title_open=”MISCELLANEOUS” title_closed=”MISCELLANEOUS” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]

• Click here to learn how to create iPhone ringtones from your favourite itunes music files.
• How can I separate my audio books from music on itunes?

[/toggle]