Archive for January, 2007

Many people live and breath by their task list!  One of the most popular features of Outlook 2007 (apart from email and calendaring of course) is Tasks.  “Tasks” allow you to set a reminder to do a certain portion of work… or in other words… a Task!

There are many different ways to create a task to keep track of in Outlook 2007 (The quickest way in Outlook 2007 is to type your task into the “To-Do Bar”)… however that is not the most efficient way, especially if you take most of your notes in OneNote 2007. 

For those who don’t know what OneNote 2007 is, it is great for taking notes, jotting down information, and keeping track of things.  Just like a paper notebook, except electronic!  Fantastic for school, college or university, as you can keep your research notes all in one place.

And if you are taking your notes in OneNote 2007, you are more than likely thinking about Tasks that you need to perform after taking those notes!  That is where the integration between OneNote 2007 and Outlook 2007 is so handy!

In this screenshot, you can see that I have created a list of things I need to do on a page in OneNote.  Now a few of those things I can remember for myself (Mrs Paperclip will make sure that I do the washing!)… but I need to make sure that I Book my flights to LA.  To ensure I get a reminder to do that in a few days when I am back in the office, I will turn that bullet point into a Task.

How to create an Outlook 2007 Task in OneNote 2007?

1.  In OneNote 2007, select the text you would like to turn into a Task.
2. On the menu bar, select the “Task” drop down menu
3. Select the timeframe you would like to complete the task in.  In the screenshot you can see that you can set a task for today, tomorrow, this week, next week, or for no specific date.

In this example, I selected that the task needs to be completed tomorrow.  If I then open up Outlook 2007 and have a look at my task list, I will see the task now being tracked in Outlook 2007

Simple as that!  Now you have no excuses to loose track of things you need to do!  Well that is what Mrs Paperclip says to me :)

’till next time!

TNP

[tags]Outlook 2007, OneNote 2007, Help, Tutorial, Integration[/tags]

Now that Office 2007 and Windows Vista are now available for all of us at home… (the consumer launch is at Midngiht tonight!) it is time to purchase your copy today!

Get onto Amazon.Com, pick up your copies of Office and Vista, and check out all the Office 2007 Books that have been released in the last few months.  Hopefully over time I will review a few of them and publish here – if you purchase a book, let me know your thoughts and I will share with the rest of the world

For all of you interested in following the consumer launch of Microsoft Office 2007, and Windows Vista, there is a great site on Microsoft.com which outlines all the details, including a webcast by Bill Gates… at 1:45PM PST Monday 29 January.

As all the advertising says… the WOW starts NOW!  It is going to be a very exciting couple of days!

’till next time!

TNP

[tags]Books, Help, Office 2007, Tutorial, Windows Vista[/tags]

One thing you will notice when you open up Word 2007 for the first time, (or PowerPoint 2007, Excel 2007, Outlook 2007.. basically any Office 2007 product) is that Times New Roman is NO LONGER the default font!  Times New Roman has been replaced by a SAN SERIF!!! (That’s one with no feet for those playing at home) font by the name of Calibri.

I will not pass judgement today on which is the better font… because it depends entirely on what you are doing with your document.  Traditionally Serif fonts (the ones with feet) like Times New Roman were better for printed documents, and Sans Serif fonts (no feet) are better for documents to be displayed on screen.  Is Microsoft making the assumption that most documents are now viewed on screen and not printed?  In a commercial environment I would suggest that is very accurate (do you print all your emails? and all your word documents at work???).

That being said, it looks like Calibri is making its way into more and more places… even before the release of Office 2007.  Check out any of the coverage of the Australian Open Tennis Championships taking place at the moment… the “Melbourne” text on the court looks as though it is in Calibri! (or something very very close to it!).

But that begs the next question.  What if you don’t like Calibri?  How do you change the default font in Word 2007 to something that you like?  It is much easier than you think!  Here is a quick tutorial to get you started!

1. On the “Home” tab of the Word 2007 Ribbon, in the font group, select the “More Options” button.  See the image below if you don’t know which button that is.

   

2. On the Font Dialog box that appears, simply select the font, font size, font style, font colour etc that you would like to be the default, and then select the “Default” button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.  It will ask you if you really want to change the default font, and of course you want to click yes.  If you have selected your default font as “Comic Sans MS”, I would encourage you to click NO!!!!! at that stage

So there you have it, a quick introduction into Typography, Default Fonts, and what will soon become everyone’s favourite font (by default)… Calibri.

’till next time,

TNP

[tags]Word 2007, Office 2007, Australian Open, Tutorial, Font[/tags]

So you are a hotshot who doesn’t need to use a mouse!  Fair enough, power users tend to find they can do tasks quicker by using shortcut keys.  Shortcut keys are combinations of keystrokes on your keyboard that can make the program do a certain task.

The new Ribbon UI in Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007 is easier to use with a mouse, but if you want to use your keyboard shortcuts, there is a quick, easy, and visual way to find out what you need to press.

All you need to do, is hit the “Alt” key.  Simple as that.  By pressing the “Alt” button in Word 2007, the keyboard shortcuts appear on top of all the different sections of the Ribbon.

For example, (looking at the screenshot), to open the file menu, all I need to do is hit “ALT+F”.  If I want to save my file, which happens to be one of the Quick Access Toolbar buttons, I could hit “Alt+1″.  To change to the Insert Tab in the Word 2007 ribbon, I could hit “Alt+N”

As soon as you go to another tab in the ribbon, if you hit “Alt” again, you can see all the shortcuts for each piece of functionality on that tab.

So there you have it – all you need to do is remember “Alt” is your shortcut to keyboard shortcuts in Word 2007! (and Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007 etc etc).

Want to master the key shortcuts in Word 2007?

TheNewPaperclip.com has put together a 5 day audio course that will help you remember and confidently use the key keyboard shortcuts in Word 2007 in just 15 minutes a day.  You can find out more over at www.shortcutcourse.com, or you can enrol in the course now.

’till next time!

TNP

Office 2007, Shortcuts, Tips, Tutorial, Word 2007

Big news from the folks at Microsoft today is that Microsoft Office 2007 will be available to purchase and download from Windows Marketplace on January 30!

Along with most versions of Windows Vista, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Office Professional 2007, and Microsoft Office Standard 2007 will be available online. 

No more messing around with shrink wrap, no more paper cuts, no more scratched CDs/DVDs!

Don’t have broadband… well the download will take a while.  Why not purchase Windows Vista or Office 2007 from Amazon.com?

[tags]Office 2007, Download, Purchase[/tags]

Signatures mean different things to different people, depending on where you work, and what job you are in.  Some companies have very strict guidelines on what you can and can not include in your signature, even telling you exactly what font and font size you have to use!  And then there are other organisations that don’t care, so you can add your personal touch.

Whatever your situation, chances are you need to know how to add a signature to your outgoing email in Outlook 2007.  It is easier than you think!

To create your signature in Outlook 2007

1. Click “Tools”, then “Options”.  This will open the “Options” dialog box (shown here).  Click on the “Mail Format” tab, then click on the “Signature” button, about 3/4 of the way down the dialog box.  This will open the “Signatures and Stationery” dialog box.
2. Click “New”, then give your signature a name.
3. In the text area, type your signature.  To change fonts or font sizes, add bold or italics etc, simply use the buttons and drop down boxes above the text area.
4. Click “Save” when you are finished.
5. [OPTIONAL] You can set up more than one signature if you like.  Simply click “New”, name your new signature, and type your new signature.

To make your signature automatically appear when you type a new email, or reply to an email in Outlook 2007

1. Again, in the “Signatures and Stationery” dialog box, you can select your favourite signature for new messages, or replies and forwards.  Simply use the two drop down boxes in the top right hand corner of the “Signatures and Stationery” dialog box.

One last tip for anyone creating their own signature.  No signature looks good if you use LIME GREEN as a font colour – let this be your last warning!

’till next time

TNP

[tags]Outlook 2007, Signature, Tutorial[/tags]

… everyone who has ever worked in an office knows that Blind Carbon Copy (or Bcc as it is usually referred to) is how most organisations operate.  Without Bcc you could not spread rumors, embarrass your colleagues… whoops I mean you could not inform others of important business communications whilst protecting their identity.

The problem is that by default, you will not find Bcc when you start a new email.  Bcc is turned off.  But it is simple to turn Bcc on and get back into the most important part of the work day… the office politics.

To turn on Blind Carbon Copy (Bcc) in Outlook 2007…

All you need to do is:

1. Start a new email
2. Click on the “Options” tab in the Ribbon
3. Click on the “Show Bcc”

Simple as that.  If you get to the stage of your career that you don’t care about office politics anymore, and want to turn Bcc off, simply got to the Options tab again, and click Show Bcc.  This will remove the Bcc field when you write your email.

The final result

’till next time

TNP

[tags]Outlook 2007, Bcc, Office Politics, Tutorial[/tags]

So you have just purchased a version of Office 2007 (or your boss just made you upgrade your PC at work!), and want to get up to speed quickly on exactly how to use Word 2007.  No sweat – here is the ultimate list of great posts to help you get your head around exactly how to use Word 2007 – fast!

I would start with the first couple, and as you build your confidence, start tackling some of the more advanced tutorials.

When you first start using Word 2007 – read…

1. What happened to the File Menu? Help with the new user interface in Office 2007
2. Screencast: Introduction to the New Ribbon UI in Word 2007
3. Word 2007: Undo
4. What are Galleries in Office 2007?
5. Printing in Word 2007

Once you are comfortable, move on to…

1. Need more Clip Art in Word 2007?
2. Inserting a Table in Word 2007
3. Find and Replace in Word 2007
4. Word 2007: How to add page numbers to your documents
5. How to Change your Page Orientation (Portrait vs Landscape) in Word 2007
6. Breaks in Word 2007 – Page, Column, Text Wrapping and Section Breaks
7. Word 2007: Page Layout Deep Dive Tutorial
8. Word 2007: What is the Prepare Menu? Deep Dive
9. How to Superscript text in Word 2007
10. Show and Hide Codes in Word 2007
11. Insert a Drop Cap in Word 2007
12. Track Changes, and Comments in Word 2007
13. How to save your Word 2007 document as a PDF
14. Word 2007 – Send your Document, Share it with the World!

And once you are an absolute power user of Word 2007…

1. Word 2007: Start Word 2007 without the Splash Screen
2. Shortcut keys in Word 2007
3. Word 2007: Minimise the Ribbon (Minimize the menu)
4. More than just word count – All the document statistics you want in Word 2007 using Status Bar Configuration
5. Word 97 Look and Feel, with Word 2007!
6. Lorem Ipsum and other random filler text in Word 2007, PowerPoint 2007, and Excel 2007
7. Screencast – Extending the Office 2007 UI with a Custom Ribbon

And to keep track of the latests posts on Word 2007 at The New Paperclip, simply check out the Word 2007 Category 

So there you have it – remember if you have trouble with anything in Word 2007, post a comment and I will try to write a tutorial especially for you! 

Or you could purchase one of these books from Amazon.com