Microsoft Word 2007 - Inserting a Caption in a Word Document

When you insert tables, pictures and other objects in your Word 2007 document, you may want to add a caption to it. The caption can help you refer to the object within the document.

Follow these steps to insert a caption for your table or picture.

1.  Select the object

2.  On the References ribbon, click Insert Caption

4.  In the Label box, select the type of label type

5.  In the Position box, specify the placement of the label

6.  In the Caption box, insert any additional information

7.  Click OK

8. Click in the caption text box to edit and format your text.

Speed Up Your PC: Automate Your Computer Maintenance Schedule

Most people do one of the following when their computer begins to slow down (besides get angry):

1. Speed up their computer by buying more memory.
2. Try to tweak their computer's settings.
3. Give up. They figure that their computer is old, there's nothing else they can do, and it's probably time to buy a new computer.

All these solutions can help increase PC speed. However, what's to keep your newly blazing PC from slowing down again after a couple months or years? A badly fragmented hard drive will bring even a top-of-the-line new computer to a grinding halt.

One option is to create a preventive PC maintenance plan...

To continue reading this article from Microsoft at Home, click here

7 Ways to Work Faster on Slow Connections

There is nothing like trying to work when your Internet connection is slow. It's tougher to send email, more difficult to send files to co-workers, and it's frustrating wasting time while you wait for web pages to appear. And even with the proliferation of broadband Internet connections, there are still times you may be working on a slow connection. You might be traveling, working out of your office, still using dial-up, or your broadband connection may be acting up. But there are things you can do.

This article will show you how to increase your productivity when your connection is slow. Many of these steps are also good tips for how to increase the speed of browsing and sending and receiving email.

Click here to find out how to increase your productivity.

Microsoft Excel 2007 – Short Cut Keys

Short cut keys are a great time saving tool. Below are some new ones that I’ve used lately. Try them!

Ctrl+D copies cell above

Ctrl+S saves workbook

Ctrl+Z undo

Ctrl+Shift+Down Arrow key select cells below

Ctrl+Shift+Up Arrow key select cells above

Ctrl+Any Arrow key takes you to the last used cell in a range

Improve Your Memory

It seems to be a complaint that I make frequently and hear frequently - "My memory is gone!"  I read this trick at The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur site. I'm going to give it a try. You try it too and we'll compare results!

Memory Trick

The site was recommended in a LinkedIn answer as a good site for small business people.

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 - Preview a Slide and Make Edits at Same Time

Did you know you can preview your slide slow and make edits at the same time? Yes, you can. Hold down the Control Key and Click on the Show Slide (Screen) button and PowerPoint will open a small window that will display the slide as it will look in presentation mode. You close the preview window by clicking the Esc key.

When you see something you need to edit, just click on the edit slide and make your edits. A small box will appear that says “Resume Slide Show”; click on that to continue previewing your presentation. This is much easier than running the show and going back to the edit mode.

What a great time saving tool.

Microsoft Excel 2007 & Word 2007 – Turn on Clipboard Feature

We all know the shortcut to copy and paste by using CTRL+ C and CTRL+V. But do you know that you can turn on the clipboard feature in 2007 in a full panel view and use it to speed up the copy and paste activity?

By turning on the clipboard feature, this will allow you to see everything that you’ve copied and be able to scroll down to select which item you would like to paste over and over again.

To turn this feature on:

1.  Go to the Home Tab on your ribbon.

2.  Click on the arrow to the right of clipboard. Your clipboard
     now appears in your screen.

To turn this feature off:

1.  Click on the “x” in the upper right hand corner to close this window.

Microsoft Word 2007 – Obscure Keyboard Shortcuts

All of us have our favorite keyboard shortcuts for formatting text, for example Ctrl + B for applying boldface, Ctrl + I for applying italics, Ctrl + U for underlining, and maybe Ctrl + L to left-align text.

Below are some obscure keyboard shortcuts. These will save you some time looking around the dialog boxes looking for the appropriate options.  Try them!

Keystroke Function

Ctrl + Shift + D      Double underline the selected text

Ctrl + ]                   Increase the size of selected text by 1 point

Ctrl + [                   Decrease the size of selected text by 1 point

Ctrl + =                  Toggle subscripting for selected text

Ctrl + +                  Toggle superscripting for selected text

Ctrl + Shift + Q      Apply Symbol font to selected text

Ctrl + Shift + N      Apply Normal style to current paragraph

Ctrl + Alt + 1         Apply Heading 1 style to current paragraph

Ctrl + Alt + 2         Apply Heading 2 style to current paragraph

Ctrl + Alt + 3         Apply Heading 3 style to current paragraph

Ctrl + Shift + L     Apply List Bullet style

Ctrl + 0 (zero)       Apply or remove space above current paragraph

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 - Recoloring Art

PowerPoint now has the capability to recolor an image such as a photo in much the same way as you have been able to do in Publisher.

The Recolor tool appears on the Picture Tools, Format tab. When you have a picture selected; click the recolor option in the adjust area to preview the duotone effects, which range from dark variations to light variations.

Once you are in the Format Picture tab, you can also adjust the contrast, brightness, change the shape of the picture, add a border, etc. Play around with it to see all the options that are now available to really make your pictures “pop” in your presentation.