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Home > Kinetics Handy Hints
Kinetics Computer Coaching Handy Hints.  A collection of tips and tricks to help make you more productive.
December 19
Copying Styles Using Style Sets - Word 2010

Sometimes documents just don’t seem to format the way you want them to. This can mean a lot of wasted time and mega frustration!

Style Sets in Word allow you to save the Styles you regularly use as a Style Set. You can then easily apply the Style Set to any document. This is handy if, for some reason, the styles you need aren’t displaying in the Style gallery. Style Sets can save you time, provide you with consistent formatting and reduce your frustration.

Once you have saved your Styles as a Style Set, you can apply them to any document you’re working on. You can create as many Style Sets as you like to cover all the different document types and styles you use.

You just need to open a good version of the document that holds the styles you require.

Create a Style Set

  1. Open a document that has the correct Styles.
  2. From the Home tab, click Changes Styles Æ Style Set Æ Save as Quick Style Set
  3. Enter the name of your Style Set e.g. Company Styles
  4. Click Save

Apply a Style Set

1. Open the document you wish to apply the Style Set to

2. From the Home tab, click Change Styles

3. Click Style Set Æ click the name of the Style Set you want to apply

The Style Set will replace the Styles in the document and isavailable for use in the rest of your document.

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November 18
RSS Feeds - Outlook 2010

RSS feeds are a great way to keep up to date with the latest headlines and stories that interest you including all the latest from Kinetics!!! You can view these through your web browser but why spend time switching applications when you can have each feed delivered into its very own folder in Outlook, allowing you to view and manage them like emails. If you see the icon on a page in Internet Explorer there is a feed linked to it. You can even add a feed to a SharePoint list.

Before adding feeds you will need to check your RSS Feed settings in Outlook.

1. Open Outlook

2. Click File

3. Click Options

4. Click Advanced

5. Scroll until you see RSS Feeds

6. Check Synchronize to Common RSS Feeds to the Common Feed List (CFL) in Windows

7. Click OK

Now when you subscribe to a feed using Internet Explorer it will appear in Outlook.

You can subscribe to the Kinetics News feed by doing the following:

1. Open Internet Explorer

2. Display the Kinetics Website www.kinetics.co.nz

3. Click on the toolbar

4. Click Subscribe to this feed

5. Click Subscribe

6. Next time you start up Outlook the feed will appear in your folder list as below

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November 17
Save a PowerPoint Slide as a JPEG file

PowerPoint makes it easy to create and arrange graphics and text. It even enables you to take what you’ve done and save it as a JPEG file. This is really useful when it comes to publishing the content in other documents, on websites or for email distribution.

1. Open your PowerPoint file

2. Display the slide you wish to save as a JPEG

3. Click File

4. Click Save As

5. Select where you wish to save the file to.

6. Enter the File name

7. Change Save as type to JPEG File…

8. Click Save

9. Select Current Slide Only, your slide will now be saved as a JPEG.

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May 21
Screen-Shooting (Making Screenshots in one easy step)

Shoot that screen!

Eek - step away from the shotgun!  The screen shooting I speak of is far less violent.  Oh, and the only bullets around these here parts are bullet points!  Ba-boom!  *

Screenshots (aka screen dumps) are a great way to capture a snapshot of the image you see on the screen.  This can be useful for information that could change or expire, or for copying content from a Web page, or maybe you just want to create a picture to use in your document or email.

Screen shots are static images, so when you take a screenshot of something on your screen, it behaves as a picture does, enabling you to edit it using the Picture Tools ribbon. 

Office 2010 comes with a Screenshot tool as standard, which is tres handy, whether you’re working in Excel, Word, Outlook or PowerPoint.

You can only capture windows that are open on the desktop, so make sure the window you require isn’t minimised.

1.       Click Insert > Screenshot.

2.       You can either select a whole program window that displays in the Available Windows view, or you can click Screen Clipping to select part of a window.

3.       If you click Screen Clipping, the entire window will frost over temporarily, and you can drag your mouse over the window to select the area you wish to screenshot.

Snip that screen!

Uh-oh, now do I need to tell you to put the scissors down?!  Seriously though, you only need scissors when you cut, copy and paste **.

Windows 7 users are really fortunate, they have access to an additional screenshot tool that’s even more powerful than Screenshot in Office 2010.  The Snipping Tool enables you to capture a snip of any object on your screen. 

You can capture the following types of snips:

·         Free form Snip allows you to draw a free form shape around an object

·         Rectangular Snip lets you drag the cursor around an object to form a rectangle

·         Window Snip allows you to select an entire window

·         Full Screen Snip captures the entire screen

Once you snip, the screenshot is automatically copied to the Clipboard and displays in a window.  You can then make notes using a pen and highlighter, and save or share the image.  You can even email the snipped screenshot directly from the Snipping Tool.

*  Oh yes, boy do I love me some formatting jokes – you may have noticed.  Feel free to send me yours:  info@kinetics.co.nz

** Just joking!  Put those scissors down!

 

Tags:  Word 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Excel 2010, Outlook 2010, Windows 7, Screenshot, Snipping Tool, Screen dump, Picture, Ribbon, Snapshot, Image, Picture Tools

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November 15
Are you ignoring Paste Options?

The Paste Options button is often misunderstood, and therefore, it often gets ignored. 

In general, people hate pop-ups; when something uninvited pops up on your screen, distracting you and often sitting on top of what you’re working on, blocking the very thing you want to see, it can be incredibly frustrating.  But Microsoft Office’s pop ups are now built to help, rather than hinder (RIP Clippy).  

In fact, many MS Office pop ups are now built to fade away when you opt not to take advantage of their assistance, which is why a feature like Paste Options is commonly ignored, instead of utilised. 

In Office 2007 and Office 2010, the paste function has been greatly improved, making it easier to ensure you paste the content you require, in the format you require, first pop (up).

Paste Options

The Paste Options button   appears below the newly pasted text, just after you paste it in your document.  Click on the button to open a list of paste options.

The options displayed will depend on the type of content you are pasting, and the program you’re pasting from.  Use this button to decide whether to paste the text using the original formatting, or to change the text formatting to match the surrounding text of the document you are pasting to.

If you’re pasting data from MS Excel, you can specify whether or not you wish to link the data (keeping a connection between the two files) or just display the data as a picture or text.

If the text is pasted correctly into your document, simply move your mouse away from the Paste Options button (or keep typing), and the button fades away.

Set Default Paste

If you find yourself clicking the same option every time (e.g. ‘Match Destination Formatting’ because you are using a template with standardised formatting), you can set this option as your default paste.  Click the option you require, and then click the Set Default Paste… option to from the Paste Options pull down menu.

 

Tags: Microsoft, Office 2007, Office 2010, Paste, Default Paste, Paste Options

 

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September 24
Using Smart Art

SmartArt has been around since Office 2007, helping you to build charts, diagrams and graphical lists.  If you aren’t using it, you really should.  SmartArt is a great way to introduce concepts in a wordy document, and provides brilliant visuals to help staff retain important processes and communications.

In recent coaching sessions with clients from varied industries (lawyers, engineers and food manufacturers), we’ve identified many ways SmartArt can help make a report more readable, encourage staff to comply to processes, and emphasise must-read information in a lengthy doc.

 

Contact us if you want coaching on applying SmartArt to your presentations, reports, spreadsheets and documents. 

 

If you’re already using SmartArt, you may be looking for more colours to select from in the Design tab.  Follow this tip to add more colours the selection gallery.

 

Add Colours to SmartArt Gallery

 

1.       Start a SmartArt diagram by going to Insert > SmartArt.

2.       Go to the Themes gallery. 

a.       Word and Excel: Go to Page Layout > Themes

 

 PowerPoint: Go to Design > Themes

1.       Select a theme from the gallery.  The colour choices will alter for the SmartArt diagram.

 

You can also use the Colors button to select from a palette of colours for themes, or create your own theme colours.

1.       From the Colours button, select the theme and colours for your SmartArt diagram.

2.       Select Create New Theme Colors at the bottom of the Colors list.

3.       Select the colours for your theme and Name the theme.

4.       Click Save.

 

Tags: Office 2010, Office 2007, SmartArt, Tip, Hint, Gallery, Themes, Colours

 

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September 22
The Power of F4 in Microsoft Excel

This shortcut key is so useful, it’s amazing more people don’t know about it!  In Microsoft Excel, F4 will repeat the last action you performed.  So, if you have just inserted a row, and you want to insert another row, press F4. Voila! 

The F4 shortcut key will work for almost any function.  After you perform the function, press F4, and the previous action is repeated, saving you heaps of time.

 

Tags: Excel 2010, Excel 2007, Excel 2003, Shortcut keys, Tip, Hint

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July 28
Recovering Unsaved Documents in Office 2010
We’ve just found a great trick with Office 2010.  It’s the ability to recover unsaved documents.  Just occasionally, you might accidently close a document without saving it.  It seems that I do it more often when I’m up against a deadline
 

Great news – with Office 2010, you can get the file back!  Simply drop into the ‘backstage’ (File) menu, click on ‘Info’ then hit the ‘Manage Versions’ button. 

 
Unsaved Document Image1
 

From the menu, pick ‘Recover Unsaved Documents’.  You’ll now get a window up with your unsaved files.  Simply click on the one you want and there it goes.

Unsaved Documents Image 2

 
 
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June 21
Save your frequently used table in the Quick Tables gallery

Works for: Word 2007, Word 2010

You can save a table that you have designed and refined for your needs, so that you can use it again and again.  At last, that awesome-looking table you spent ages slaving over can be saved, reused and marvelled at by others, many times over.

1.       Create the table, apply formatting and refine the table columns and rows to your specification.

2.       Select the table.

3.       Go to Insert > Table > Quick Tables and click Save Selection to Quick Tables Gallery.

The table is saved in the Quick Tables Gallery for easy, future access.  You can delete any unwanted tables by right mouse clicking over a table in the Gallery and selecting Organize and Delete…

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June 17
Using an email address in your email signature

Works for: Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010

You probably already know that you can set your email signature in Outlook, making it easy to provide the recipient of your email with relevant contact details, such as your company website, fax number and direct phone number.  You can also add your company logo or any relevant image to the signature.

But, here is something you should double check, especially if you have set your signature by copying an example sent by one of your colleagues (perhaps your office manager has sent a sample signature for you to copy, edit and save to use as your own). 

At recent coaching events, I’ve noticed that some users have copied the correct format and layout (following their company’s standards for email signatures), but have inadvertently left the email address hyperlinking to the wrong address.  Even if you overtype the email address with your email details, the actual hyperlink still points to the original email address.

To resolve this:

1.       Go to Options > Mail > Signatures

2.       Select the hyperlinked email address

3.       Ensure Text to display displays the correct email address

4.       Ensure E-mail address displays the correct email address

5.       Click OK to save any changes you make

 

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