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A couple of months ago we received our copy of Office 2010, so it must be about time we start blogging about it!  Sparklines is a new Excel feature which we’ve been impressed with. Basically they’re miniature charts that fit into a single Excel cell to allow the user to view individual trends at a glance.  A feature such as this is ideal when managing money, e.g. to assess how expenditure for different items has varied over a year.

Here’s how to create Sparklines:

1. Click on the ‘Insert’ tab and locate the ‘Sparklines’ box
   
2. Next you must select the type of Sparkline you wish to use by clicking on either Line, Column or Win/Loss
3. Finally in the ‘Create Sparklines Box’ you need to select your data range and location range
   

A neat feature I’m sure you’ll all agree

Week four of the Quick Tip Shortcut Series.  This week we have Excel Shortcut Keys.  We think that it is worthwhile remembering a few of these shortcuts because they are bound to come in useful!  Please Note: Some shortcuts may not work in Excel 2007.

Microsoft Excel Shortcut Keys:

F2 – Edit the selected cell
F5 – Go to a specific cell
F7 – Spell check selected text and/or document
F11 – Create Chart
Ctrl + Shift + ; – Enter current time
Ctrl + ; – Enter current date
Alt + Shift + F1 – Insert new worksheet
Shift + F3 – Open the Excel formula window
Shift + F5 – Bring up search box
Ctrl + A – Select all contents of worksheet
Ctrl + B – Bold highlighted selection
Ctrl + I – Italicize highlighted selection
Ctrl + C – Copy selected text
Ctrl + V – Paste
Ctrl + D – Fill
Ctrl + K – Insert Link
Ctrl + F – Open find and replace options
Ctrl + U – Underline highlighted selection
Ctrl + Y – Underline selected text
Ctrl + O – Open options
Ctrl + N – Open new document
Ctrl + P – Open print dialog box
Ctrl + S – Save
Ctrl + Z – Undo last action
Ctrl + F9 – Minimize current window
Ctrl + F10 – Maximize currently selected window
Ctrl + F6 – Switch between open workbooks/windows
Ctrl + Page Up + Page Down – Move between excel worksheets in the same document
Ctrl + ‘ – Insert value of above cell into current cell
Ctrl + Space – Select entire column
Shift + Space – Select entire row
Ctrl + W – Close Document

Next week our topic is Microsoft Outlook Shortcut Keys!

Disclaimer: pctoolbox.co.uk cannot be held responsible for any problems that are caused from using the shortcuts.  All shortcuts work to the best of our knowledge.

This week it week three of the Quick Tip Shortcut Series.  The topic for this week is Microsoft Word Shortcut Keys.  We think that it is worthwhile remembering a few of these shortcuts because they are bound to come in useful!  Please Note: Some shortcuts may not work in Word 2007.

Microsoft Word Shortcut Keys:

Ctrl + A – Select all contents of the page
Ctrl + B – Bold highlighted selection
Ctrl + C – Copy selected text
Ctrl + X – Cut selected text
Ctrl + N – Open new/blank document.
Ctrl + O – Open options
Ctrl + P – Open the print window
Ctrl + F – Open find box
Ctrl + I – Italicize highlighted selection
Ctrl + K – Insert Link
Ctrl + U – Underline highlighted selection
Ctrl + V – Paste
Ctrl + Y – Redo the last action performed
Ctrl + Z – Undo last action
Ctrl + J – Justify paragraph alignment
Ctrl + L – Align selected text to the left
Ctrl + Q – Align selected paragraph to the left
Ctrl + E – Align selected text or line to the center
Ctrl + R – Align selected text or line to the right
Ctrl + M – Indent paragraph
Ctrl + T – Hanging indent
Ctrl + D – Font options
Ctrl + Shift + F – Change Font
Ctrl + Shift + * – View or hide non printing characters
Ctrl + <– (Arrow Left) – Move one word to the left
Ctrl + –> (Arrow Right) – Move one word to the right
Ctrl + Arrow Up – Move to the beginning of the line or paragraph
Ctrl + Arrow Down – Move to the end of the paragraph
Ctrl + Del – Delete word to right of cursor
Ctrl + Backspace – Delete word left of cursor
Ctrl + End – Move cursor to end of document
Ctrl + Home – Move cursor to beginning of document
Ctrl + Space – Reset highlighted text to default font
Ctrl + Alt + 1 – Change text to heading 1
Ctrl + Alt + 2 – Change text to heading 2
Ctrl + Alt + 3 – Change text to heading 3
F1 – Open help
Shift + F3 – Change case of selected text
Shift + Insert – Paste
F7 – Spell check selected text and/or document
Shift + F7 – Activate the thesaurus
F12 – Save As
Ctrl + S – Save
Shift + F12 – Save
Alt + Shift + D – Insert current date
Alt + Shift + T – Insert current time
Ctrl + W – Close document

Next week is Shortcuts for Microsoft Excel!

Disclaimer: pctoolbox.co.uk cannot be held responsible for any problems that are caused from using the shortcuts.  All shortcuts work to the best of our knowledge.

This weeks quick tip is about how to work with files that have been emailed to you! Sounds simple to some but I am often asked “Where has my file gone? I definitely saved it…”. After a bit of digging I find that the user has just opened the file directly from the email and while the file has been saved, it is just not where they expect it to be!

If you open a file directly from an email and save it once open it will be saved in a Temp directory much like a Temporary Internet File.

So, here is the tip!

When you get sent a file through and you wish to open it to work with, please ensure that you save it to your documents folder or desktop first and then open it from there, rather than opening the file directly from your email client. Saving should be as easy as Right Clicking on the file and choosing Save As! But it will depend on your email client

We hope that helps!

Here are 10 top tips which we think will make you an Office 2007 formatting genius!

1. Reuse styles from an existing Word document, just click the Office button- ->New- ->New from existing format. Choose your word document and click ‘Create new’. This essentially makes a copy of the original document that you can modify to your hearts content without affecting the original.

    

2. Save a Style Set in Word. Style sets are things like font styles, font sizes, font colours, page layouts all together in one set ready to use. Just select change styles on the ‘home’ tab on the interface in Microsoft word. Click ‘Style Set’ –> ‘Save As Quick Style Set’. Then just simply name it and click ‘Save’.
3. Use Word 2007′s Pre-styled Text Box’s. Office has made some of the formatting easier for you with a selection of pre-styled text boxes. To use a pre-styled text box click insert on the fluent menu interface, click ‘Text Box’ and then choose your desired style.
4. Give your Word documents an Office Theme. All you need to do is click the ‘Page Layout’ tab on the fluent interface in your Word 2007 and click ‘Themes’. Then select your desired theme by clicking on it. Some examples are, ‘Flow’ and ‘Aspect’.
5. Change the Zoom on Excel, PowerPoint and Word with a Slide. Its now ultra easy to adjust the zoom on you Word, Excel or PowerPoint 2007 documents, all you do is slide the Zoom Bar from the bottom right hand corner of your screen.
6. Excel 2007 Page Layout View. Click the ‘View tab’ then Page LayoutView’. It is a very easy way to check what you can fit on each page when it comes to printing and also to add a header/footer.
7. Make you Excel 2007 Data into a Table. Just choose the data you wish to be made into a table. Click ‘Format As Table’ from the ‘Styles’ group of the’Home’ tab. Pick the table style you want and then Excel automatically creates and formats the table for you.
8. Create PowerPoint slides from Word 2007!? It sounds quite surreal doesn’t it! In PowerPoint 2007, select the ‘Home Tab. Click ‘New Slide’ –> and then ‘Slides from Outline’. Double-click on the Word file that you want to copy. Then select the ‘Outline tab’ on the left hand side of the screen in PowerPoint to get rid of any unwanted text.
9. Create your very own custom PowerPoint 2007 slide layout! Select the ‘View’ tab in PowerPoint 2007, then click ‘Slide Master’. Scroll down and click just below the last layout. Click ‘Insert Layout’ in the ‘Edit Master’ group which is in the ‘Slide Master’ tab. Delete any unwanted placeholders and then select ‘Insert Placeholder’. Click the ‘Office Button’ –> Save As then choose a ‘PowerPoint Template’ from the ‘Save As’ Type field.
10. Re-use slides from a SharePoint slide library. On the home tab click on the arrow beneath ‘New Slide’. Then click ‘Reuse Slides’ followed by ‘Open A Slide Library’ which is in the reuse slides area. Now double-click the SharePoint site where you saved the slides.

Time to answer some questions that are frequently asked about Microsoft Office 2007:

Q: Is it possible to open Office 2007 documents in different versions of Office?
A: Yes, there is a free Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 file formats which enable other users to view, save edit etc documents in Office 200, XP or 2003. For more on how to install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack click here and for more information on how to use earlier versions of Excel, PowerPoint and Word to open and save files from 2007 Office click here.

Q: Can I save my documents in older Microsoft Office formats?
A: Yes you can. Simply click the office button on the top left and choose Save as, then just pick the earlier version of your 2007 Office system application e.g. Excel 97-2003. You can lose some information by doing this though. So to check if anything, what will get lost, select Prepare–>Run Compatibility Checker.

Q: How do I check if I have any problems in my Office 2007 system?
A: Office 2007 comes with its very own built-in diagnostics tool, which you’ll find by following these simple instructions: Start–>All Programs–>Microsoft Office–>Microsoft Office Tools–>Microsoft Office Diagnostics. Then just follow the on screen instructions which will give Office a check to make sure everything is running healthily.

Q: How can I change a program’s options?
A: You can change with all of the 2007 Office system applications by selecting the Office button from the top left hand corner of the screen when the program is open. Then just select the Options you wish to change from the button at the bottom of the window. Spending the time to go over the sections carefully is recommended as it will save you a hell of a lot of time and effort in the long run.

Q: Is it possible to back up my Office 2007 system settings?
A: Windows Vista includes the Microsoft Office system settings with in the back-up tools. If you wish to transfer them to a PC instead you can use ‘Windows Easy Transfer’. You can find both by doing the following: Start–>All Programs–>Accessories–>System Tools.

Anymore post ‘em ‘ere and we will see what can be done.