Daily Tips and Tricks Special Delivery - Microsoft

Copy Data from a Table in a Web Page to Excel If you see a data table on a Web page and you want to import it into Microsoft Office Excel: 1. Copy the URL (address) of the page. 2. In Excel, on the Data tab, in the Get External Data section, click From Web. 3. In the New Web Query dialog box, paste the URL into the Address box. 4. Select the table that contains the data you want to work with, and then click Import. 5. In the Import Data dialog box, indicate where you want the data to appear, and then click OK.

Organize Your Records the Way You Want Them in Excel You can customize how you sort your records by using a filter. To activate a filter: 1. In Microsoft Office Excel 2007, click Filter on the Data tab. 2. To choose your sorting options, click the filter arrow on the column that you want to sort, point to Sort by Color, and then click Custom Sort. 3. Create a customized sort order. a. In the Sort dialog box, under Column, click the drop-down arrow next to Sort by, and choose the field that you want to be sorted. Values should appear in the Sort On field. b. In the Order field, click Custom List. This will open a window that offers an entirely custom sort list. c. In the left pane, list the values (each separated by a comma) in the order that you want them to be sorted, and then click Add. d. In the right pane, select the list you've created, and then click OK. e. In the Sort dialog box, click OK. From now on, your records will be sorted according to your customized list.

Making Your Form Automatically Resize To help your form best use the available screen space, use the Anchoring gallery on the Layout tab. From there you can anchor a control to the right or bottom of your form, or even stretch it. In seconds, you can make your forms automatically resize as your window size varies. Keeping Track of Projects and Team Responsibilities You can create folders within the Tasks folder to keep better track of activities. In Microsoft Office Outlook, begin by creating a Done folder within Tasks, and transfer to it all tasks from My Tasks that you've already completed. You can do this with just one click and without needing to reopen each task. You can then create subfolders within this Done folder to save documents that relate to different types of activities, such as phone calls and visits.

Linking Contact and Task Information You can link contacts with specific tasks. To add individual contacts to individual tasks, click the Contacts button on the lower-left side of each Task form. This opens the address book, from which you can select one or several contacts. You can then add these to the task as links so that the next time you need a particular contact who relates to the task, all you have to do is click the link. If you don’t see the Contacts button on the Task form, here’s how to make it appear: 1. Click Tools, click Options, and then on the Preferences tab, under Contacts and Notes, click Contact Options. 2. Under Contact Linking, select the Show Contact Linking on all Forms check box.

Editing in Print Preview After you have worked on a document in Microsoft Office Word, click the Office button, point to Print, and then click Print Preview. You can still edit in print preview mode: Disable the magnifier by clearing the Magnifier check box on the Preview tab, and edit the document as you want.

Move the Cursor in Any Direction During Data Entry By default, the cell pointer in Microsoft Office Excel moves down when you press ENTER after entering data in a cell. You can, however, change the direction in which the cell pointer moves. 1. Click the Office button, click Excel Options, and then click Advanced. 2. Select the After pressing Enter, move selection check box if it isn't already selected, and then on the Direction menu, click the direction in which you want the pointer to move. Also, when working in a document, you can make the pointer move in the opposite direction from the one you've chosen by holding down the SHIFT key while you press ENTER.

Follow Up on Mail You can flag a message by using the INSERT key. Select the message that you want to highlight in Microsoft Office Outlook, and then press INSERT. This will flag the item and enable you to insert a start date and due date. If your To-Do Bar is active, the item will appear in your task list.

Easy Filtering of Data in a Microsoft PivotTable View There is a better way to select multiple report filters than dragging the filter down to a row. It is quicker to select additional filters directly from the original filter. 1. Select the filter, and then click multiple items at the bottom. 2. The filter selection changes to check boxes. Simply select the boxes you require.

Move PowerPoint Pictures Around Quickly Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 removes the hassle normally involved in adjusting the size and position of overlapping images on slides. You can simply drag one picture over another. The top picture will become transparent, so that you can position it accurately over the other.

2003 to 2007 Sharing Requests In Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, you can view multiple calendars side-by-side. However, before you can view a colleague’s calendar, that person must first share his or her Outlook 2003 calendar by clicking Share My Calendar in the left pane of the Calendar view. With Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, you don't have to wait for someone to share his or her calendar with you; you can invite the person to do it right now. Clicking Share My Calendar in the Outlook 2007 Calendar view opens a sharing request. A sharing request is essentially an e-mail message with two check boxes: One enables you to share your calendar with the recipient, and the other asks the recipient to share his or her calendar with you. When the request appears in the recipient's Inbox, he or she can use the buttons that appear in the Reading Pane to allow or deny your request. Quickly Find the Right Shared Calendar To create calendar groups: 1. In the Navigation Pane at left, click Add New Group. 2. A new group appears at the bottom of your calendars. Give it a name of your choice. 3. Drag as many of your calendars as you want to the new group’s name bar to enter them into that group. To arrange your new group by name: Right-click the group name, and then click Arrange By Name. This is a quick and easy way to find the calendar you’re looking for.

Speed Up Displaying Documents with Many Graphics 1. Click the Office button, and then click Word Options. 2. Click Advanced, scroll down to the Show document content section, and select Show picture placeholders. 3. Click OK. Pictures will be shown with placeholders, markers that maintain the structure of the document without showing the picture itself. Collect Your Favorite Shapes for Easy Access Do you frequently use the same shapes from several different stencils when creating diagrams? Instead of opening several stencils each time you start a new diagram, just save your frequently used shapes to the Favorites stencil for easy access from one location. To save a shape to the Favorites stencil, right-click the shape in its existing stencil, point to Add to My Shapes, and then click Favorites. Notice that, from the Add to My Shapes options, you can also create your own custom stencils and add favorite shapes to those. (After you create a custom stencil, it will appear under the Add to My Shapes options as well.) To access the Favorites stencil or your custom stencils, on the File menu, point to Shapes, and then point to My Shapes.

Create a Project Proposal By using proposals, you can define high-level project plans to provide key project information, milestones, and resource demands. 1. In Microsoft Office Project Web Access, click Proposals and Activity Plans in the left Action pane. 2. On the New menu, click Proposal. 3. In the New and Import section, click New. 4. Enter the name of the project, description, start date, finish date, and plan owner. You can also add details with tasks or resources with a resource plan or build team. 5. Click Publish. You have now created a complete Project proposal, pending approval.

Managing All External Data Source Connections With a Microsoft Office Excel workbook open, click the Data tab, and then click Connections. You can then view the data sources used in the workbook. If you select one, you can also see where that connection is used by clicking the Properties button. This feature is especially helpful when working with online analytical processing (OLAP) cubes via Excel. Check for Hidden Content Before Sharing Your Documents The 2007 Microsoft Office system programs Word, Excel, and PowerPoint include a new built-in Document Inspector tool that enables you to search for and remove potentially private hidden content before sharing your documents. To access the Document Inspector, first save your document. Then, click the Office button, point to Prepare, and then click Inspect Document. Depending on the program you are using, this tool searches for different content types—such as comments, unresolved tracked changes, and headers and footers in Word 2007. Of course, just because the tool finds relevant content (such as headers and footers) doesn’t mean you should remove that content. The Document Inspector finds content that may be hidden depending upon the individual document’s settings or the way you view the document. Review for yourself the content found by the tool to determine if you want to remove it from your document. Keep in mind that some types of content the Document Inspector finds (such as custom XML data) may be required for the document to function properly.

Calculating the Matrix Determinant on the Fly 1. Create a square matrix in Microsoft Office Excel with values. 2. Type an equal sign (=) followed by MDETERM in an empty cell. While typing, you’ll notice that Excel automatically gives you a list of functions beginning with what you have already written. Many more functions are available in Microsoft Office Excel 2007. 3. After the opening parenthesis, select your matrix data. You'll instantly see the determinant being calculated. Excel updates this value if you change the source data.