Daily Tips and Tricks Special Delivery - Microsoft

Get the Right People in a Meeting from the Start You can clearly indicate in a meeting request who is required for a meeting and who is only optional. 1. In the meeting request, click Invite Attendees and add all relevant names (including the conference room if applicable). 2. After the names have been resolved, click Scheduling. 3. For each name, determine Required or Optional status by clicking the small red arrow next to each name. 4. Indicate the conference room as a resource (and it will be automatically added as the meeting location). Also be sure to include the meeting agenda in the invitation, rather than in a separate e-mail message.

Pre-define the Format for Pasting in Word 2007 In a Microsoft Office Word 2003 document, each time you paste some text or an image, you can select the format (source formatting, destination formatting, or text only) by clicking the clipboard icon. In Microsoft Office Word 2007 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, you can still do this manually or, more conveniently, set the default paste formatting mode. Here’s how: Go to Advanced Options or click the Set Default Paste option when the clipboard icon appears, and then set your preferences. The pasted text and images will now be formatted automatically according to your settings. Enter a Fraction in a Cell Microsoft Office Excel can display, and take data entry as, fractions as well as decimal numbers. To enter a fraction, simply prefix it with a zero and a space. So to display the fraction one-third, type 0 1/3. This will display 1/3 but will have an underlying value of 0.33333333.

Using the To-Do Bar You can organize your daily activities by using the new To-Do Bar in Microsoft Office Outlook. The To-Do Bar, located on the right side of your Outlook Inbox, brings together tasks, calendar information, and e-mail messages flagged for follow-up into one view. Now you don’t need to switch back and forth between your Inbox, diary, and task list.

Create Random Numbers Sometimes it's useful to have random numbers in a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet—even if it's just for creating test data. To put a random number in a cell, type the formula =RAND(). For bulk random numbering, copy that formula to a large number of cells—each will be random. Reuse Tables in Word To save a table in Microsoft Office Word for reuse in the future: 1. Select the table that you want to save. 2. On the Insert tab of the Ribbon, click Table, point to Quick Tables, and then click Save Selection to Quick Tables Gallery. 3. In the Create New Building Block dialog box, give the table a name, classify it with some basic parameters, and then click OK. To reuse a saved table: 1. Position your cursor where you want to insert a saved table. 2. On the Ribbon, click Insert, click Table, and then point to Quick Tables. 3. From the list, click the table you saved previously. This table will now be inserted into the document.

Creating Forms To assist with data entry, Microsoft Office Access 2007 offers different types of forms. To create a simple form: 1. Open the table that has the fields you want to include in your form. 2. On the Ribbon, on the Create tab, click Form. The split form is new to Office Access 2007, and it enables you to see both a datasheet view of your data and a traditional form view of your data at the same time. You can use the splitter bar to adjust the size of the datasheet. Dragging Your Files to Outlook When you select a file and drag it to Microsoft Office Outlook, the action that Outlook takes depends on which folder you place the file in. If you drag the file to the Tasks folder, Outlook will create a new task with your file attached. If you drag it to the Calendar folder, Outlook will create an appointment where you placed the file, and your file will be attached. If you drag it to the Mail folder, Outlook will create a new e-mail message with your file as an attachment.

Add More Levels of Undo You can go back farther in Microsoft Office PowerPoint to undo actions. 1. With PowerPoint open, click the Office button, and then click PowerPoint Options. 2. On the Advanced tab, change the Maximum number of undos from the default 20 to any number from 3 to 150. Generate a PivotDiagram from Excel Data In Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007, you can now generate a PivotDiagram from data such as a Microsoft Office Excel worksheet. A PivotDiagram has very similar functionality to an Excel PivotTable, but it displays your data graphically. To generate a Visio 2007 PivotDiagram, on the File menu, point to New, then point to Business, and then click PivotDiagram. Follow the wizard steps to select your data and generate your PivotDiagram page. If your source data is in an Excel 2007 table, you can generate the page even more quickly from Excel. To do this, click in the Excel 2007 table and then, on the Table Tools Format tab, click Export, and then click Export Table to Visio PivotDiagram. After the diagram page is set up, click in the PivotDiagram pane to add categories or values to your diagram, and Visio automatically generates the shapes with applicable data.

2003 to 2007 Document Information Panel When you pause your mouse on your document in Windows Explorer, does it list the author as someone you worked with five years ago? If you started with an existing document, the document property information is probably out of date. With Microsoft Office 2003 documents, most people don't take the time to right-click the file in Windows Explorer, click Properties, and then edit the document information. With the Document Information Panel in Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 and Office Professional Plus 2007, you can edit document properties directly in the program. 1. Click the Office button, and then click Prepare. 2. Click Properties. The Document Information Panel appears below the Ribbon. 3. Enter the appropriate information and save the document. Keep in mind, search engines like the ones included in Windows Vista and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 use document properties to deliver search results that are more relevant. So if you want to make something easier to find, make sure your document properties are up to date. Choose a Signature for Different Recipients in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 If you want to use a different e-mail signature for different recipients (a different one for coworkers than for customers, for example), you can change your signature with two mouse clicks. Right-click your signature, and then click the other signature that you want to use.

Windows Update Windows Vista tracks your system and can be configured to automatically install important updates at a time that is convenient for you. 1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. 2. Under Security, click Check for updates. 3. Click Change Settings in the left navigation pane. 4. Enter your desired configuration. Zooming to Fit a Selection 1. Select the range of cells that you want to focus on. 2. Click the View tab, and then click Zoom to Selection.

Create Tables to Your Own Specifications Want to add a table with specific dimensions to your Word document? Here’s how: 1. Position the cursor on the area of the document where you want to insert your table. 2. On the Insert tab of the Ribbon, click Table, and then click Draw Table. 3. Define the table size. Right-click to select the area where you want the table to appear. 4. Use the mouse to draw the internal table lines the way you want them. To erase any lines you've drawn by mistake, press the SHIFT key, and the pointer will change from a pencil to an eraser. Note: The design tools in Microsoft Office Word 2007 give you plenty more features—for example, the ability to create other tables within those you've already designed.

Copying a Worksheet Here’s how to copy a worksheet to another place in your Excel workbook: 1. Click the tab of the worksheet that you want to copy. 2. Leave your mouse pointer on the tab. 3. Press and hold down the CTRL key. 4. Press and hold down your left mouse button and drag the worksheet that you want to copy to the left or right. Watch for the little black arrowhead that follows your mouse pointer as you drag left or right. 5. When you release the mouse button, Microsoft Office Excel inserts a copy of the worksheet where the arrowhead is pointing.

Customize Your Quick Access Toolbar In each 2007 Microsoft Office system program where you see the Ribbon (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and parts of Outlook), you also see a Quick Access Toolbar, which appears by default above the Ribbon, beside the Office button. To add the commands you use most to the Quick Access Toolbar in each program, right-click a command on the Ribbon, and then click Add to Quick Access Toolbar. You can also click the arrow that appears at the right edge of the Quick Access Toolbar, and then click More Commands to open the Customize tab of the Options dialog box for the program you are using. In this box you can add commands that don’t appear on the Ribbon, or create a custom Quick Access Toolbar for an individual document or template. Use Search to Find E-Mail Messages In Microsoft Office Outlook, e-mail search helps you locate messages by keyword or phrase. You can also use search folders to find mail by type of message. To locate specific keywords or phrases within e-mail messages: Type a word or phrase in the Search box at the top of your Outlook Inbox. The search starts automatically as soon as you stop typing. Search results will appear in the main window of your Inbox. To return to your normal Inbox, click Clear Search (the green ×) to the right of the Search box. You can enable search folders from the mail pane on the left of your Inbox. To expand the folders tree, click Search Folders. Outlook comes with three default search folders: For Follow Up, Large Mail, and Unread Mail. To add new search folders, click File, point to New, and then click Search Folder. To build a custom search folder: 1. Click Search Folder, and then either click a predefined folder name, or scroll down and click Create a custom Search Folder. 2. Click Choose, give the new folder a name, and then click Criteria to fill in the search terms.