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How To Use MS Office - Better!

Featured Tip - Printing  Word List Commands

Did you know that you can print out MS Word Keyboard Shortcuts?  Yes, you can. Some shortcuts that you use often, like Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste are common. We don't forget those.  However, those little keyboard tricks that are very useful, but we may not get to use often, can be hard to remember. So, Word has this little macro that you can run to place a table of shortcuts in a Word document that you can save or print for future use.

To print out a list of MS Word shortcuts follow these simple instructions:

  1. In the application, left-click Tools from th menu bar
  2. Left-click on select Macros
  3. Select Marcros again
  4. In the Macro Dialog Box, click the drop down list for Macros In
  5. Select Word Commands
  6. In the list of macrs, select ListCommands
  7. Left-Click the Run button
  8. Select All Word Commands

Power Point Tip

Changing The Case of Existing Text 

Quick ways to change the case of existing text in PowerPoint Making changes to existing text can be a bother if it  involves changing the case. You may have originally planned to present a slide's text all in uppercase, but after you see the results, you realize that it would be much more effective if the text were in both upper case and lower case.

You could go back and retype all of the text to change the case, but fortunately, there are easier ways to select text and change its case.

  1. Select the text that you want to change highlighted then choose Format 
  2. Select Change Case to open the Change Case dialog box
  3. Select from five case options:
    • Sentence case capitalizes the first letter of the first word in a sentence
    • The lowercase and UPPERCASE options are self explanatory
    • Title Case capitalizes the first letter of each word
    • tOGGLE cASE is the exact opposite of Title Case
  4. Select your option then click OK

All of the highlighted text changes according to your selection. When you need to change the text to a case other than Title Case or Toggle Case, then there's an even faster method.

  • With the text selected, hold down the [Shift] key and press [F3]

Each time you do this, the text cycles between Sentence Case, Lowercase and Uppercase. When the text case is formatted the way you want it, simply stop pressing the keys and click outside of the selected area.

Excel Tip

Fill a Cell with Characters Regardless of Its Size

There may be times when you'd like to use a string of characters to completely fill a cell. For instance, let's say that you have a range that contains numbers. If a value of zero is entered, you want the cell to be filled with dashes. You can accomplish this by creating a custom number format.  When defining a custom format, the asterisk character (*) is a formatting code that creates repeating characters. Place the asterisk character before the character you want repeated. The repeated character completely fills the width of the cell, regardless of how wide the cell is or if it gets resized.

To create such a custom format:

  1. Select a range you want to work with
  2. Choose Format from the menu bar
  3. Select Cell 
  4. Click on the Number tab 
  5. Select Custom from the Category list box
  6. In the Type text box, replace the current entry with 0.00;-0.00;*-;@
  7. Click OK.

A custom number format is comprised of up to four parts. The first two parts define the formats positive and negative numbers, the third section defines the format for zero values, and the last section defines the format for text entries. In our example, positive and negative numbers are displayed using two decimal places with significant zeros, zeros are replaced with dash characters and text is displayed exactly as entered.

Access Tip

Shortcuts for Quickly Deleting Text Data

Chances are you already incorporate a number of keyboard shortcuts that save you from having to use the mouse to select characters when you want to delete text from a control. For example, pressing [Ctrl] and the left or right arrow keys will move your insertion point one word to the left or right. Pressing [Ctrl][Shift] with the arrow keys actually selects the words. These shortcuts let you quickly navigate and select text, but there are other shortcuts designed to aid in deleting text that are less well known:

  • [Ctrl][Delete] Deletes all text to the right of the insertion point
  • [Ctrl][Backspace] Deletes the word to the left of the insertion point

Outlook Tip

View a Web page from Microsoft Outlook

To view a Web page from Outlook 

  1. Display the Web toolbar by choosing View, then selecting Toolbars
  2. Select  Web
  3. In the Location text box, type the URL and press [Enter]. 

The Web page is displayed within the Outlook window. Close the Folder List for more room to display the Web page.

You can easily add the displayed Web page to your list of Favorites by choosing Favorites

  1. Select Add To Favorites
  2. Make sure the Save In location is the Favorites folder and click OK.

When you've finished surfing the Web, open your Inbox or other folder by clicking on its shortcut in the Outlook Bar or by choosing View, then Go To and selecting the folder. If you open a Web page in Outlook and then decide you'd rather view the page in your default browser, choose File, then select Open In Default Browser from the menu
bar.

Application Install Tip

Save Space on Your PC by Removing Online Services

During installation, most versions of Windows install a desktop shortcut called Online Services, whose files you can use to install one of several online services for your computer. But once you've chosen to install one of the online services (or chosen not to), the desktop shortcut and corresponding files can be deleted to save you 1 MB of hard drive space. Although this might not seem like a lot of space to save, in the long run every little bit counts. Plus, it's a good practice to remove unused programs and shortcuts from your system to keep your computer running efficiently.

To permanently remove Online Services from your computer:

  1. Delete the desktop shortcut, and then launch Control Panel
  2. Double-click on the Add/Remove Programs icon 
  3. Select the Windows Setup tab
  4. From the Components list box, scroll down and select Online Services and click Details
  5. Deselect the services you don't want, and then click OK.
  6. Click Apply, and then click OK to close the dialog box

Do You Have A Tip?

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