tips and tricks 25 useful microsoft office tips as wonderful as microsoft office is, many of its...

Tips and Tricks

25 USEFUL MICROSOFT OFFICE TIPS

As wonderful as Microsoft Office is, many of its most powerful features are hidden away, buried several levels deep in a menu (or hidden in sort of plain sight in the ribbon), and it's impossible to learn about them if you don't know where they are. This Workshop will reveal many of those helpful features.

GENERAL TIPS

Works with all Microsoft Office software

• Customize quick access tool bar

• Search for a string of text

• Select all text

• Zoom with your mouse’s scroll wheel

• Pin a document or folder to the recent documents list

• Windows 7's Built-in Speech Recognition

Customize quick access tool bar

• To start, click press and hold the 'CTRL' key on your keyboard. Continue holding the 'CTRL' key and press the letter 'F' on your keyboard. Once you have clicked 'CTRL + F' a search bar will appear. Now type the word or phrase you want to find into the search bar.

Doing this will highlight all instances of the specific word you typed. This useful trick works in all types of Microsoft Office documents and web pages!

SEARCH FOR A STRING OF TEXT

• To start, click press and hold the 'CTRL' key on your keyboard. Continue holding the 'CTRL' key and press the letter ‘A' on your keyboard. Once you have clicked 'CTRL + A' all of the content will be highlighted.

• It’s also accessible on the Home Tab of the ribbon!

SELECT ALL

1.Hold down the CRTL key

2.Move the scroll wheel up or down to zoom In or Out.

ZOOM WITH A MOUSE’S SCROLL WHEEL

Pin a document or folder to the recent documents list - Great for quick access!

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WINDOWS 7'S BUILT-IN SPEECH RECOGNITION

1. Open Speech Recognition by clicking the Start button

2. Clicking Control Panel, clicking Ease of Access, and then clicking Speech Recognition.

3. Click Set up microphone.

4. Follow the instructions on the screen.

OUTLOOK

• Send/Receive All Folders

• Mailbox Clean up tools

• Add an external email inbox into Outlook (AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo)

SEND/RECEIVE ALL MESSAGES

In most cases, e-mail messages are sent automatically whenever you click Send in the new message window, and received at several possible times, including when starting Microsoft Outlook, at automatic intervals, and upon manual Send/Receive requests. This is useful if you’re logging out at the end of the day and you want to be sure a message isn’t stuck in your inbox.

MAILBOX CLEAN UP TOOLS

ADD AN EXTERNAL EMAIL INBOX INTO OUTLOOK (AOL, GMAIL, HOTMAIL, YAHOO)

HOW TO USE YOUR EXTERNAL EMAIL VIA OUTLOOK

WORD• Search for Comments, Pictures, and Tables

• Read Mode

• Change the default line spacing

• Show/hide hidden formatting symbols, paragraph marks, and section breaks

• Word talks “Speak selected text”

• Review tab: Comments, show final mark up

• View 2 word documents side by side

• Compatibility with Earlier Versions

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YOU CAN NOW SEARCH FOR MORE THAN JUST TEXT. YOU CAN SEARCH FOR PICTURES, COMMENTS, OR EVEN TABLES!

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READ MODE - THE BEST WAY TO READ A DOCUMENT, INCLUDING SOME TOOLS DESIGNED FOR READING INSTEAD OF WRITING.

• Click View > in the Views group > click Read Mode.

• Goes Full Screen

• Double-click an image to enlarge

• Free of distractions as most buttons are hidden

CHANGE THE DEFAULT LINE SPACING

SHOW/HIDE HIDDEN FORMATTING SYMBOLS, PARAGRAPH MARKS, AND SECTION BREAKS

WORD TALKS “SPEAK SELECTED TEXT”

REVIEW TAB: COMMENTS, SHOW FINAL MARK UP

VIEW 2 WORD DOCUMENTS SIDE BY SIDE

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COMPATIBILITY WITH EARLIER VERSIONS

• You can save the file as a Word 97-2003 document. This changes the file extension from .DOCX to .DOC. This means users who have not upgraded to version 2007 or higher will be able to open it with downloading a viewer.

POWERPOINT

• Saving a Slide as an image

• Print screen, paste into a PPT slide, then insert arrows

• Print multiple slides on 1 page - including the notes

• New Default Slide Size

• New Look Presenter View

• In PowerPoint, you can save the presentation as an image file.

SAVING A SLIDE AS AN IMAGE

PRINT SCREEN

PRINT MULTIPLE SLIDES ON 1 PAGE - INCLUDING THE NOTES

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NEW DEFAULT SLIDE SIZE

• Much of the world’s TVs and video have gone to widescreen and HD formats, and so has PowerPoint. In previous versions, the slide ratio was 4:3. In PowerPoint 2013, 16:9 is the new default, but you can change this on the Design tab.

• If you work with slides in older versions of PowerPoint, or are presenting on older

• monitors or projectors, you’ll want to change the slide ratio back to 4:3. To do so, Click Design > Slide Size and then choose 4:3.

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NEW LOOK PRESENTER VIEW

• Note that Presenter View no longer requires multiple monitors. Now you can rehearse and use all the tools in Presenter View from a single monitor without hooking up anything else.

• The Presenter View enables the user to plan ahead by displaying notes about the slide and providing a preview of the next, and offers various other controls, including a pen tool for drawing the audience’s attention to a particular slide or detail.

EXCEL• Text to Columns – delineate via special characters or fixed width

• Removing duplicate values – check for and delete specific cells with duplicate values

• Instantly reveal formulas and general number format of all cells

• Comparing 2 or more Excel spreadsheets simultaneously

• Create a table from a list

• Freeze a row in your worksheet

• Printing Tips – Set print area, narrow margins, shrink to fit

TEXT TO COLUMNS• Text to Columns – delineate via special characters or fixed width

REMOVING DUPLICATE VALUES• Removing duplicate values – check for and delete specific cells with duplicate values

• Show all formulas and the general number format of cells

• Saves you time because you don’t have to move the cell pointer to check each formula one-by-one.

INSTANTLY REVEAL FORMULAS AND GENERAL NUMBER FORMAT OF ALL CELLS

• You can open two instances of Excel INSTEAD of multiple files on top of each other in the same Excel application.

• To do this, simply open Excel by double clicking the icon on your desktop and open the first Excel file you want to use. Minimize this window and move it to the right screen. Then go back to the desktop, double click the Excel icon once more, another separate Excel window will open.

COMPARING 2 OR MORE EXCEL SPREADSHEETS SIMULTANEOUSLY

TABLES • To make managing and analyzing a group of related data easier, you can turn a range of

cells into a Microsoft Office Excel table (previously known as an Excel list). A table typically contains related data in a series of worksheet rows and columns that have been formatted as a table. By using the table features, you can then manage the data in the table rows and columns independently from the data in other rows and columns on the worksheet.

ELEMENTS OF AN EXCEL TABLE

• Header row By default, a table has a header row. Every table column has filtering enabled in the header row so that you can filter or sort your table data quickly.

ELEMENTS OF AN EXCEL TABLE

• Banded rows By default, alternate shading or banding has been applied to the rows in a table to better distinguish the data.

ELEMENTS OF AN EXCEL TABLE

• Total row You can add a total row to your table that provides access to summary functions (such as the AVERAGE, COUNT, or SUM function). A drop-down list appears in each total row cell so that you can quickly calculate the totals that you want.

FREEZE HEADERS• To freeze a row in your worksheet, highlight the row where you wish all rows before the highlighted row to

be frozen or locked, go to Window>Freeze Panes and you will see a line appear across your worksheet. Everything above the line is frozen and will remain in view when you scroll down your worksheet.

SET PRINT AREA

NARROW MARGINS

SHRINK TO FIT

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QUESTIONS/ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

One-on-One Training

• Email EdTech@wilmu.edu to set up a one-on-one training session with an instructional technologist.

Lynda.com - Online Training

• Lynda.com has online training tutorials for over 150 software applications. Once you have an account, you can access these high-quality training tutorials that are taught by industry experts and available 24/7 for convenient, self-paced learning. Request an account at: www.wilmu.edu/edtech/training/lynda.aspx