ASK AMY: Zoom with Mouse

This is a mouse tip that appears to work in most Microsoft Office Applications and now that I know about it, I don’t know how I’d get along without it.

I stumbled upon this a few weeks ago and it was so simple that I thought maybe everyone knew it but me. But when I asked a few people, they were surprised too.

If you want to zoom in on a particular item (a word, a picture, or other object.) using the mouse, hold down the CTRL key and roll the mouse wheel forward. To zoom out, hold down the CTRL key and roll the mouse wheel backwards. Easy! 

I find this really helpful when working in Microsoft Publisher.

ASK AMY: Filling a Shape with a Picture

After last month’s tip appeared (Cropping a picture to a Shape), I was asked if I could fill a shape with a picture. Here are the steps to accomplish that. This tips works in PowerPoint, Word, and Publisher:

1. Select the shape you want to fill with a picture and add it to your document. Select the shape so that it has selection handles displayed on each corner and each edge.

2. The Drawing Tools tab has been added to the tab line.

a. Click on it and from within the Shape Styles group.
b. Click on the Shape Fill button.  A gallery displays:

3. From the gallery,

a. Select Picture. The Insert Picture dialog box displays.
b. Navigate to where the picture you want to insert into the shape is saved.
c. Select it and click on the Insert button. The picture fills the shape.

Before:

 

After:

 

Ask Amy: Cropping a Picture to a Shape

Cropping a Picture to a Shape

These steps will work in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint version 2010

1. Select the picture to be cropped to shape. It will have round selection handles on each corner and square selection handles ion the middle of each side.
2. Click on the Picture Tools Format tab.
   
   
3. Perform the following steps:
1. Click on the bottom of the Crop button
2. From the drop-down menu, select Crop to Shape.
3. Make a Selection from the Shapes Gallery. In our example, we chose Trapezoid.

The picture will be cropped to the shape:

 

Ask Amy: PowerPoint SmartArt Tip

When I’m working in PowerPoint is there any way to turn a bulleted list into a piece of SmartArt without retyping it?

1. Yes, select the bulleted list to be converted to SmartArt.
2. Right click on it.
3. From the shortcut menu, select Convert to SmartArt.
4. Make a selection from the gallery of SmartArt shapes.

Your bullets are converted into SmartArt and quickly go from this ….

To this:

Ask Amy: Want to make the background to a picture transparent?

How to make the background to a picture transparent using MS Office

 

In Office 2010, you can do it in PowerPoint, Word, Publisher, and Excel.

• In Word:

Select the picture, click on the Picture Tools Format tab and then within the Adjust group, click on the Color button. From the menu at the bottom, select Set Transparent Color.  The mouse changes shape to something resembling a pencil. Click the mouse on the pictures background to make it transparent.

• In PowerPoint:

Select the picture, click on the Picture Tools Format tab and then within the Adjust group, click on the Color button. From the menu at the bottom, select Set Transparent Color. The mouse changes shape to something resembling a pencil. Click the mouse on the pictures background to make it transparent.

• In Publisher:

Select the picture, click on the Picture Tools Format tab and then within the Adjust group, click on the Recolor button. From the menu at the bottom, select Set Transparent Color.  The mouse changes shape to something resembling a pencil. Click the mouse on the pictures background to make it transparent.

• In Excel:

Select the picture, click on the Picture Tools Format tab and then within the Adjust group, click on the Color button. From the menu at the bottom, select Set Transparent Color. The mouse changes shape to something resembling a pencil. Click the mouse on the pictures background to make it transparent.

Ask Amy: Useful Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

You can use keyboard shortcuts in every office program. Here are four Excel Shortcut Keys that we find extremely useful:

Keys	Action
CTRL + ; (semicolon)	Enters the current date into the selected cell
CTRL + : (colon)	Copies the current time into the selected cell
CTRL + ' (apostrophe)	Copies the data from the cell directly above into the selected cell
ALT + + (plus sign)	Is the same as clicking on the AutoSum tool

Ask Amy: How to delay sending an e-mail message

Recently I was asked if is possible to create an email and have it sent at a later time and/or date. The answer is “Yes.”

This handy feature allows you to create an email and delay its delivery for hours or even days.

1. Create an email message.
2. Click on the Options tab.
3. Within the More Options group, click on the Delay Delivery button. The Properties dialog box displays.
4. Within the Delivery options area, the “Do not deliver before” options should be checked. If not check it.
5. Select the date and time for the message to be delivered.
6. Click on the [Close] button.

Ask Amy: How do I remove all formatting in Microsoft Word?

I was recently asked how to remove the formatting from a paragraph

I gave the answer I have given for years which is, “Select the paragraph and press the CTRL+SPACEBAR keys.” Only to be told that didn’t work.

Well it works for some things. For instance, it removes the attributes of bolding, underlining, or italicizing. But what if you want to get rid of all the formatting? Follow these steps:

1. Select the text to be stripped of all formatting. If it is the entire document, press CTRL+A to select it.
2. Click on the Home tab.
3. Within the Styles group, click on the Launch button to display the list of Styles.
4. From the top of this list, click on Clear All. All the formatting is removed.
5. Close the Styles list.

Ask Amy: PowerPoint 2010 Animation Painter

New to PowerPoint 2010 is the Animation Painter.

The Animation Painter is used to copy animation from one object to another and works very much like the Format Painter found in Word and even in PowerPoint (Home tab, Clipboard group).

Using the Animation Painter

1. Select an object that has the animation you want to copy to another object.
2. Click on the Animations tab.
3. Within the Advanced Animation group, click on the Animation Painter. The mouse becomes a white arrow with a paint brush next to you.
4. Click on the object you want to transfer the animation to.

Note: You can copy the animation between objects on the same slide as well as between objects on different slides. This tool can really save you a lot of time and mouse clicks.

Amy Pearson is a Senior Instructor for Summit Training, the author of the Ask Amy column that appears on Summit Training's monthly newsletter, and editor of the both the Summit Training and Connect Learning newsletters. Amy is a Microsoft Office MOS and has been providing Microsoft Office training both in the classroom and online for more than 15 years.

Ask Amy: How to Update Your Browser's Cache

This month’s tip is a result of working with Adobe Certified Dreamweaver instructor Melissa Piconne. Melissa is an Adobe Certified Instructor teaching a broad range of Adobe classes including Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and InDesign. She is an accomplished information technology professional with extensive experience in user interface design, usability, navigation and look and feel. She has designed created both physical and digital media websites, animations, video games and print media.

Update your Browser’s Cache

When you surf the web, your browser stores pages in the form of Temporary Internet Files – or cache – so that when you re-visit websites they load faster, and may even be available off-line.

It became apparent that our website urgently needed some repair and updating, so we turned to one of our Instructors, Melissa Piccone, for help. Melissa did a great job repairing and updating the website, but when we visited the site, we didn’t immediately see the changes that she had made – so Melissa gave us this tip, which you can try:

1. Visit a website that you have visited before, for example, ours: www.summit-train.com
2. Prior to updating our site, our homepage listed Office 2003 and 2007 courses & courseware (both at the bottom and in the right sidebar of the homepage). After updating, we now also list Office 2010. Do you see it? If not, you will need to refresh your browser’s cache by using Melissa’s tip: Hold down the ALT key while clicking on your browser’s Refresh button.
3. Now do you see it? Your browser’s cache has been refreshed for our website.

We will be keeping Melissa on her toes with more changes to come, so when visiting our site, remember ALT+REFRESH!

Amy Pearson is a Senior Instructor for Summit Training, the author of the Ask Amy column that appears on Summit Training's monthly newsletter, and editor of the both the Summit Training and Connect Learning newsletters. Amy is a Microsoft Office MOS and has been providing Microsoft Office training both in the classroom and online for more than 15 years.

Ask Amy: Windows 7 Minimize Tip

Ever want to Minimize all Open Windows at Once? Here’s how…

By Amy Pearson

In Windows 7 it is very easy to minimize all open Windows at once. Simply click once on the Show Desktop button at the far right end of the taskbar. All open Windows are minimized and the Desktop is displayed. At this point you can click on the Taskbar to display any window you want to work with or if you want to return all the windows to their open position, click on the Show Desktop button a second time. 

Amy Pearson is a Senior Instructor for Summit Training, the author of the Ask Amy column that appears on Summit Training’s monthly newsletter, and editor of the both the Summit Training and Connect Learning newsletters. Amy is a Microsoft Office MOS and has been providing Microsoft Office training both in the classroom and online for more than 15 years.

Different Ways to Display the Hidden Formatting Marks in Word

By Amy Pearson

There are two ways to display the hidden formatting marks placed into Word when keys such as the SPACE BAR, TAB, or ENTER keys are pressed.

Generally the hidden formatting marks are displayed by clicking on the Home tab and within the Paragraph group clicking on the Show/Hide button.  This method displays all the hidden formatting marks which include the ones listed above plus several others. The table explains the hidden formatting marks.

The first figure below shows how a portion of a document appears when the Show/Hide tool has been used to display the hidden formatting marks. Frequently, Word users want to see only the paragraph marks.  The second figure below side shows only the Paragraph marks displayed.

To display only Paragraph marks, take the following steps:

1. Click on the File tab (in Word 2007 click on the Office button).
2. From the Navigation bar, select Options (in Word 2007, click on Word Options). The Word Options dialog box displays.
3. From the Navigation bar, select Display.
4. From the Always show these formatting marks on the screen area, select Paragraph marks (Figure 2).
5. Click on the OK button. In the document only the hidden paragraph symbols are displayed.

Creating Customized Shapes in PowerPoint 2010

Ask Amy November 7, 2011
by Amy Pearson

One of the new features of PowerPoint 2010 is the ability to create custom shapes. You can do this by taking one or more separate shapes and combining them in one of four ways – union, subtract, combine, or intersect. Our Figure shows how an overlapped circle and star behave when each of the four different options is applied.

Although using the union, subtract, combine, or intersect commands is quite simple, finding them is a little more difficult. They are not automatically available when you install PowerPoint. They must be added to either the Quick Access Toolbar or one of the Ribbons.

To customize either the Quick Access Toolbar or a Ribbon, right click on the Ribbon and from the short cut menu, select either Customize the Quick Access Toolbar or Customize the Ribbon. Once the PowerPoint Options dialog box displays, from the Choose commands from drop-down list, select All Commands and then find Shape Combine, Shape Intersect, Shape Union, and/or Shape Subtract and add them to the Quick Access Toolbar or group on the desired Ribbon.

For specific details on working with the Quick Access Toolbar or Ribbon visit our blog and on from the bar on the right hand side, select March and then choose “Adding a Command to the Quick Access Toolbar.”

Amy Pearson is a Senior Instructor for Summit Training, the author of the Ask Amy column that appears on Summit Training’s monthly newsletter, and editor of the both the Summit Training and Connect Learning newsletters. Amy is a Microsoft Office MOS and has been providing Microsoft Office training both in the classroom and online for more than 15 years.

Ask Amy

Question: I have Outlook 2010. When I click on the Print button, it prints the entire email. Is there any way to only print one page or a range of pages?

Answer: Yes. Click on the File menu, to open the Backstage view.  Then click on the Print Options button. This opens the Print dialog box for your printer. From here you can choose to print the Current page or a range of pages.

Ask Amy

Question: I just moved from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2010. The option to send someone a “Bcc” is not available. I can't find it anywhere. How do I go to turn on the “Bcc” option?

Answer: “Bcc” can be turned on through the Options tab. The trick is, you must have a message open for the Options tab to be displayed. Follow these steps to turn on the Bcc option in both Office 2010 and 2007.

1. Open a new message.
2. Click on the Options tab.
3. Within the Fields group, click on the Show Bcc button. Once Bcc is turned on, it remains on for all new messages.

Ask Amy

If you are working in Word and you want to find a synonym (a word with a similar meaning) for a word in your document, select that word and press the SHIFT+F7 keystroke combination.  A pane opens with a list of possible words that can be substituted for the selected word. This works in all versions of Word.

Ask Amy

Question: Recently I created a large worksheet and was asked to make the “final” worksheet easier to read by shading every other row. However, it wasn’t really “final” and I ended up removing and reshading the worksheet more than once. Is there an easier way?

Answer: Yes, there is a way to do this so that the shading always affects every other row no matter how may rows you insert and/or delete.

Excel 2007 and 2010

1.    Highlight the area that is to contain shaded rows. Don’t skip this step because the dynamic updating will only work within this range.

2.    Click on the Home tab.

3.    Within the Styles group, click on the Conditional Formatting button.

4.    From the menu, select Highlight Cells Rules.

5.    From the shortcut menu, select More Rules… The New Formatting Rule dialog box displays.

6.    From the Select a Rule Type: list, select Use a formula to determine which cells to format. The bottom half of the dialog box changes.

7.    In the Format values where this formula is true: edit box, enter: =MOD(ROW(),2)=0  .

8.    Click on the [Format] button. The Format Cells dialog box displays.

9.    Click on the Fill tab and select a color for the shading. Lighter colors work best.

10. Click on the [OK] button to close the Format Cells dialog box.

11. Click on the [OK] button to close the New Formatting Rule dialog box. Every other selected row is shaded.

Excel 2003

1.    Highlight the area that is to contain shaded rows. Don’t skip this step because the dynamic updating will only work within this range.

2.    Click on the Format menu and click on the Conditional Formatting button. The Conditional Formatting dialog box displays.

3.    From the first drop-down list, select Formula Is.

4.    In edit box, enter:  =MOD(ROW(),2)=0  .

5.    Click the Format button. The Format Cells dialog box displays.

12. Click on the Patterns tab and select a color for the shading. Lighter colors work best.

13. Click on the [OK] button to close the Format Cells dialog box.

14. Click on the [OK] button to close the New Formatting Rule dialog box. Every other selected row is shaded.

Ask Amy

Working with Tables in Microsoft Word



 - Table Handle



To delete a table, select the Table Handle and press the Backspace key.

To delete the contents of the table while leaving the table structure, select the Table Handle and press the Delete key.

Ask Amy

Question: I just got office 2010. Print Preview is totally different. I can’t find Shrink to Fit and I use it all the time.
Answer: Yes, Print Preview is very different in Office 2010. To use Shrink to Fit in this version you can add it to your Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) toolbar. From our previous Blogpost on March 8th (see below), follow the steps for adding a command to the Quick Access Toolbar. In step 4, from the Choose commands from drop-down list, choose All Commands. In step 5, scroll down the list of commands, until you find Shrink one Page. The commands are in alphabetical order. Complete the remaining steps; the Shrink one Page button is added to the QAT. The tool tip for this button reads “Shrink to Fit.”

Ask Amy

Question: I work a lot in PowerPoint. Sometimes I want to move an object just a little. Whether I use the mouse or the arrow keys to move the object, it always goes too far. I can’t get it just right. Help!