MS Office Tips - Constantly updated

[amrit1]

Need A Little Backup?

Do you have important Excel files that would create nothing short of chaos and disaster for you if you were to lose those files?

Now I'm sure that you regularly make copies of these files just in case - but wouldn't it be nice if Excel could help us out a bit on this score?

Yeah - I thought so too so I did some research…

I found in the options of Excel's Save As window a little backup for our very important files.

To take a look you'll need to go to the Save As window, Tools menu, General Options choice.

At the top of the Save Options window that opens you should see a checkbox for something labeled as "Always create backup".

Should you choose to check this option and click OK what will happen is obvious. Every time you save, after the initial Save As, Excel will create a backup file too - automatically.

Yes - it's that easy to get Excel to lend a helping hand.

Now - I did do some experimenting with this and found that the backup always seemed to be one version of the file behind. In other words - the latest changes were saved in the actual file and the backup file was saved without the newest changes. This could be useful in the "Oh man, I really messed up this file" arena.

Also, to actually see the backup when trying to open it you'll need to change the type of file you're looking for in the Open window. You could try All Files or you could scroll way to the bottom of the list where you'll find Backup Files listed. Either way - the backup is not listed among your usual files. It's called "Backup of xxxxx".

Just one more strategy to employ in the never-ending battle against lost data.

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File Open With Startup

Do you have a workbook that must be opened first thing everyday when you start up MS Excel?

Wouldn't it be nice if Excel would simply open that file for you when you first start the program?

If you're thinking that this would save you time each day, then maybe this is the tip you've been waiting for.

There's no special setting in Excel and nothing fancy to do. The whole trick is simply where you save the file.

When Excel starts, it looks in the XLStart folder. If a file is in there, it is opened as the program starts up. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it.

So, to have your special file(s) open as the program starts, simply locate your XLStart folder and save the file to that location. (While each computer system is unique, I can say that my XLStart folder was located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10. This may be enough to give you a direction to head in when trying to locate your folder).

Keep in mind that the file is now stored in the XLStart folder, so any older versions of the file located elsewhere will not be updated when you save. Only the file in the new location is updated each time since it's the one the program that actually opens.

Yep, that's really it. A quick save as to the XLStart folder is all it takes.

Now, I do have a couple of quick notes on this one.

First, this trick works with multiple files. You don't have to pick the most important one. If there are two or three files in XLStart, it will open all of them.

Next, for those of you who are file backup minded and are afraid that you'll forget to backup the ones in this out-of-the-way location, I've got a way around the problem. I found that I could accomplish this same trick using shortcuts to the files. Simply create a shortcut to the file in its original location, then move the shortcut into the XLStart folder.

That should do it. Just another way to take control of your own Excel universe.

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Mouseless Calendar Displays

I'm sure that most users of MS Outlook's calendar feature know that they can quickly choose to display a day, work week, seven day week or a month with just a click of the mouse on either the View menu or the appropriate button.

Some of you may know that you can choose any number of days to display by highlighting them on the Date Navigator (the small monthly calendars displayed in the upper right corner).

So, if you know about all of that, how about if today we cover some key combinations to accomplish these tasks? Maybe a quick tip for those readers who are looking to be less mouse dependent?

* To display a month, try Alt + = (equal sign).
* To display a week, use Alt + - (minus sign).
* To display between one and 10 days, combine Alt with the number key that corresponds to the number of days you want to see. (You have to use the numbers on the standard keyboard, the numeric keypad will not work). To see one day, use Alt + 1, for five days use Alt + 5 and ten days can be displayed with Alt + 0. Well, you get the idea.

All of these key combinations display a range of dates based on the selected date in the Date Navigator. So, if you're looking for current and immediate upcoming information, be sure to have the current date selected in the Date Navigator.

And that's all there is to it! The calendar display is literally at your fingertips.

 

[amrit1]

Linked vs. Embedded Sound

Do you use a lot of music in your PowerPoint presentations? Do you then use these presentations on a different computer?

Ever had a problem with the music? Maybe the music you've used isn't on the new computer and you didn't know that you had to copy that file too. Oh no, what do you do now?

Well, you could always train yourself to copy sound files or you could take a minute or two to find out what rules PowerPoint is playing by and then see what options you have.

I vote for the second choice since it puts the knowledge and power in your corner, so let's take a look at what PowerPoint is doing behind the music scene.

Here's the deal: PowerPoint has a setting in the Options window that's a cutoff for sound file size. Below the specified file size, PowerPoint embeds the file into the presentation. (No need to copy embedded files to the other computer, because it's already in the presentation file).

This, of course, means that sound files larger than that size will be linked to the presentation but not a part of its file. (Linked files must be moved with the presentation file).

To make changes to this cutoff file size, you'll need to go to the Tools menu, Options choice.

Once in the Options window, you're looking for the General tab.

There's an option that says "Link sounds with file size greater than xxx Kb." This is the setting you need to pay attention to. If you want larger sound files to be embedded (increasing the size of your presentation file), you can increase this number so that the files you're using are below the cutoff.

When you've made whatever change you deem necessary, click OK.

Voila! To embed or to link, it's all up to you.

 

[ismart]

Changing Colors of Spelling and Grammar Underlines : One of the built-in tools for Word is real-time spell-checking and grammar-checking. Using the default configuration of the program, Word displays potential spelling errors with a wavy red underline and potential grammar errors with a wavy green underline. This presents a problem for people who may be red-green color blind, as they will not be able to tell which type of error is which on-screen. The solution would be to change the colors of the underlines, but Word doesn't provide a built-in way to make the change.

One possible solution is to play with the color settings for Windows as a whole. You can go to the Accessibility Options (in the Control Panel) and click the Display tab. Near the top of the tab you can turn on the High Contrast option, and you can click the Settings button to tinker with the display options. You may need to experiment a bit, but this approach could give desirable results not just in Word, but in other applications as well.

You can also use the Support.dot template, provided with various versions of Word, to change the underline colors for both spelling and grammar checking. It appears that the Support.dot template makes this particular change possible in Word 2000, Word 2003, and Word 2007. The template is not installed by default with Word; you will need to use the Setup program to install the template, then you'll need to perform the following four discrete steps:

Start Word without any add-ons running (using the /a switch from the command line).
Open the Support.dot template.
Use the options presented by the template to change the SpellingWavyUnderlineColor setting and the GrammarWavyUnderlineColor setting.
Close Word and restart the program normally.
The way you install the Support.dot template and perform the four steps depends on which version of Word you are using. The best instructions for how to accomplish them is included in Microsoft's Knowledge Base, at the following addresses:

Word 2002: *support.microsoft.com/?kbid=284845
Word 2003: *support.microsoft.com/?kbid=820917
Word 2007: *support.microsoft.com/?kbid=925597
In checking the Word 2007 link, it seems to lead to a "page not found" error in the Knowledge Base. As of the time of this writing, this particular page is listed as still valid in the Knowledge Base search engine, so it could be that the page was temporarily taken down or that it is being moved to a different location in the Knowledge Base. You can always search in the Knowledge Base for the name of one of the settings (step 3, above) to see which articles address those settings.

SOURCE:*wordtips.vitalnews.com/