October 28, 2010

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 - Quickly Apply Transition Affects

Transition affects can help you make your presentation stand out.  In previous versions of PowerPoint, it was not easy to apply transition affects. However, in PowerPoint 2007 it is much easier.

1.  Click on the Animation Tab in the ribbon.

2.  A drop menu appears with pictures of all the
    different types of transitions that are available.

3.  Drag your mouse over the different types of transitions
     to get a preview of how it will look on the slide.

4.  Find the transition that works best for you, and
     click on it.

What an easy way to make your presentation look professional.

October 26, 2010

Microsoft Word 2007 - An Easy Way to Navigate Through Your Word Document

When you're working on a long document, it is easy to lose your place. And you can spend a lot of time scrolling through your document to find a particular section. In Word 2007, there is an easy way to navigate through your document. You can turn on the thumbnails view.

To turn on thumbnail view:

1. Click on View in the Ribbon.

2. In Show/Hide section, select Thumbnails.

On the left side of the screen, a pane will open containing thumbnails of your document's pages.

With thumbnails view, you'll see small pictures of each page of your document. The thumbnails are too small to read. However, you'll see the general layout of the pages, including pictures and other objects. Also, each thumbnail is numbered, so you can easily jump to a specific page.

When you click on a thumbnail, Word will automatically open that page in the main document area. You can begin editing without using the arrow keys to move the cursor or using the scroll bar.

It’s a great time saving tip. Try it the next time you have a large document.

October 21, 2010

4 Tips for Safely Conducting Research on the Web

Surprisingly, basic safety is often ignored by people using the web to research information quickly and efficiently. If you use the Internet for research of any kind, you could be exposing yourself and your company to hidden dangers such as the unauthorized transfer of confidential information. And no one wants to be the person responsible for a companywide computer network shutdown.

Whatever your reason for using the web, there is a smart way to conduct research on it: with an alert eye and a vigilant approach. Use these four tips to help protect yourself and your company from prying eyes and malicious programs.

Click this link to continue reading this article.

October 19, 2010

Microsoft Excel 2007 - Combining Text from Different Cells

Did you know you can combine text from different cells into one cell?

The “&” symbol consolidates text information in the same way as the “+” symbol adds numbers. The space between quotation marks adds a blank character between the separated texts. If you don’t need blank spaces, then take out the blank spaces in your formula.

It is easier for me to show you this tip in the following example:

1. In cell A1, type the text Your

2. In cell A2, type the text Computer

3. In cell A3, type the text Lady

4. In cell A5, type the formula: =A1&" "&A2&" "&A3

Voila! You now get the text Your Computer Lady in one cell A5.

October 14, 2010

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 - Turning Web Addresses into Hyperlinks

By default, when you enter a hyperlink into a Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 presentation the program automatically turns the address into a hyperlink. Many people appreciate this feature, especially if they email presentations to others. If someone wants to visit a site mentioned in the presentation, they merely have to click a link instead of retyping a web address into their browser.

However, the automatic hyperlinking of an address also turns the text color to blue and places an underline under the address. For visual reasons, if you are presenting a slideshow to a group you may not want web addresses to stick out so much. This feature can be disabled as follows:

1. Click the "Office" button.

2. Click "PowerPoint Options".

3. The "PowerPoint Options" dialog box appears. Select "Proofing"
    in the left pane.

4. In the right pane, click "AutoCorrect Options".

5. A language-specific AutoCorrect dialog box appears. Click the
    "AutoFormat As You Type" tab.

6. Underneath "Replace as you type", uncheck "Internet and
    network paths with hyperlinks".

October 12, 2010

Microsoft Word 2007 - Remove Extra Space Between Paragraphs in Word 2007

Word 2007 will add a space between paragraphs by default. This space cannot be removed by using the backspace key, and, it can be difficult to find the option to remove the space.

If you don’t want Word to add the extra space, you can turn it off. However, you will need to turn it every time you open a new document unless you alter the Normal.dot template.

To turn off the space between paragraphs, follow these steps:

1. On the Home ribbon, find the Paragraph section

2. In the bottom right corner of the section, click the button to
    show the Paragraph dialog box

3. Select “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style”

4. Click OK

You can remove the space between paragraphs you’ve already typed in your document. Simply select the paragraphs and then follow the above steps.

October 7, 2010

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 - Password Protect a Presentation

Have you ever wanted to password protect your presentation because you share a computer with someone, or you have confidential information in your presentation that should not be viewed by others?

There is a way to put a password on your PowerPoint 2007 presentation.

1.  Click the Office button.

2.  Choose Save As.

3.  In the bottom left corner of the Save As dialog box, click on
     the Tools button.

4.  Choose General Options.

5.  Enter your password. Please ensure you keep a record of your
     password.

October 5, 2010

Microsoft Excel 2007 - Add Today's Date to an Excel Spreadsheet

Have you ever forgotten what day it is today, but you need to put today’s date in your Excel spreadsheet? The TODAY function is one of Excel's date and time functions that is used to add today's date to a spreadsheet.

Just type in any cell =TODAY( ) and today’s date will appear in that cell.