Archive for October, 2008

Are you going to be somewhere near Sydney, Australia in mid November?

If you are, and are interested in all things Office, make sure you get to OfficeDevCon08!

From the blurb… “OfficeDevCon is the first Australian community-driven event aimed squarely at Microsoft Office developers and power-users.  It allows people with interests across the Microsoft Office platform come together in one place to network and hear expert presenters speak on a wide range of advanced Office-related topics”

Well guess what… one of those expert presenters will be your’s truly… The New Paperclip.

In fact, in reality it will be my alter-ego… the guy behind The New Paperclip… Paul Woods

Paul will be presenting TWO sessions that should not be missed – especially if you work in Corporate IT.  Here is a quick outline of each presentation…

“The Office Suite Smackdown”
Saturday 15 November – 3:00-3:50PM

Office might seem like the obvious choice… but recently the competition has heated up for desktop productivity suites.  Your manager might be asking about alternatives like Google Docs, Open Office, Corel Wordperfect or Zoho Office.  In this session we compare the alternatives to Office 2007 from a users point of view – to help you pick the right tool for your organisation.

“The 10 most common Office 2007 user frustrations… and how to avoid them”
Sunday 16 November – 9:00-9:50AM

Don’t want your whole organisation angry with you because you forced them to use this horrible steaming pile of Office 2007 software?  It is a lot easier than you think to ensure a smooth and pain free transition to Office 2007 – it isn’t about buying 400 page dummies books, or just pointing people to the help button.  Simply by making sure you anticipate the most common questions up front you can win most of your potential battles.  In this session we will look at the most searched for answers by hundreds of thousands of frustrated Office 2007 users at http://www.thenewpaperclip.com… and see how you can ensure your people don’t end up asking YOU those questions.

So what do I need to do to attend these presentations?

Simple.  Go to http://www.officedevcon.com.au/ and register your spot.  Tell them that TNP sent you!  And make sure you catch up with me at the bar on Saturday afternoon!

’till next time!
TNP

I was surfing the net tonight, and totally out of left field I found an article on OfficeLabs.com that I thought you would love to read.

Did you know that you can use your Nintentdo Wii Controller to control your PowerPoint 2007 presentations?

It is a little tricky to set up, but once it is you simply need to flick your Wiimote to the left or to the right to control your slides.  HOW COOL IS THAT!

You can read more about it on OffliceLabs.com

’till next time!
TNP

So are you at School, College, University or other Education Institution and have just upgraded to Office 2007?  Are you getting stuck on those education specific things like References, Bibliographies, Footnotes, Citations and more?  Well here is a quick guide to help you with your next assignment.

In Word 2007, all of these features are grouped together under the "References" tab on the Ribbon.

On the References tab you will find

• Table of Contents
• Footnotes
• Citations & Bibliography
• Captions
• Index
• Table of Authorities

Lets take a closer look at the ones that you are most likely to need to use…

Table of Contents in Word 2007

In almost every project or assignment you will need a Table of Contents.  In Word 2007, creating a table of contents is really easy – in fact it will do it automatically for you – as long as you do one thing whilst you type your document… use heading styles.

You know what I am talking about – Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 and so on.  You can find them on the "Home" tab of the Ribbon. 

Word 2007 is smart enough to figure out that because you set a certain part of your text as "Heading 1" for example, that it is important enough to be a entry in your tale of contents!

If you do that throughout your document, all you need to do to add your table of contents is simply…

1) Go to the "References" tab in the Ribbon
2) Look for the "Table of Contents" group
3) Click on "Table of Contents" and select your favourite style

Footnotes in Word 2007

So you want to use Footnotes to tell your teacher/lecturer/professor/reader about the source of certain facts or opinions which you have used in your assignment?  Well in Word 2007 it is REALLY easy!

1) Click on the word that you want the footnote to refer to
2) Go to the "References" tab in the Ribbon
3) Look for the "Footnotes" group
4) Click on "Insert Footnote" button
5) Type in your footnote!

Citations and Bibliography in Word 2007

Back when I was in high school, I used to hate writing my Bibliographies!  It was just too complicated.  And then when the teachers told me about different ways you could write them – they made it even worse!

Luckily Citations and Bibliographies in Word 2007 are really easy.

Say you want to refer to a book somewhere in your assignment.

1) Click on the "References" tab
2) Look for the "Citations & Bibliography" group
3) Click on "Insert Citation"
4) Click on "Add New Source"

On the box that pops up, there are a bunch of fields that you can fill in about the book you are referring to.  To make sure the teachers do not come back at you for missing information, make sure you tick the box that says "Show All Bibliography Fields"

Once you fill in all the details about your book (most of which you will find on the inside cover), click OK.  You will notice a citation appear in your document.

If you have a pile of books that you know you are going to cite, and want their details into Word 2007 before you type too much, make sure you click on "Manage Sources" and add all the books or documents you like.

Now if you want to cite a book you have already used – it gets even easier.  Simply click on "Insert Citation" again, and you will notice all the books appear in the menu – just click on the book you want to cite and away you go!

… but what about the Bibliography you say?

That is easy too.

1) Click your mouse where you want the Bibliography to appear in your Word document
2) Click on the "References" tab in the Ribbon
3) Look for the "Citations & Bibliography" group
4) Click on "Bibliography"
5) Click on the style of Bibliography or "Works Cited" that you like

Take that teacher!  Bibliographies made EASY!

Captions in Word 2007

Do you have pictures in your assignment?  It is always good to put a caption near them to ensure your teacher or professor knows what the image is all about.

To do so, click on your picture… then:

1) Click on the "References" tab in the ribbon
2) Look for the "Captions" group
3) Click on "Insert Caption"
4) Type in your caption
5) Click "OK"

That was easy.  But here is the easiest bit.  If you need to include a "Table of Figures" in your assignment, all you need to do is click on "Insert Table of Figures" and look in awe at your amazing Word 2007 skills!

So there you have it – The Student’s Guide to Word 2007.  Hopefully the above tips will help you get that A+ on your next assignment!

’till next time!
TNP

Have you ever wanted to display what the current time was in a PowerPoint presentation.  Not just the time you opened the presentation… but a real-time view of what the time is?

For example, you might be putting together some slides for an event or business seminar, and you would like to display something at the start of the presentation that says when the session will start, and what the current time is (like the slide above).

Well I thought it wasn’t possible… until today that is!

It is actually really easy to do.  But first you need to download an add-in for PowerPoint 2007.

1) Make sure that PowerPoint 2007 is not open
2) Go to http://officeone.mvps.org/autodatetime/autodatetime.html and download the Office One Auto Date Time 2.3 Add-in for PowerPoint
3) Run the file you just downloaded
4) Start PowerPoint 2007

So that is the first part out of the way, setting up PowerPoint 2007 to display the current time.  The next step is to enable the add-in.

1) Select the “Add-Ins” tab in the ribbon, and look for the “Menu Commands” Group
2) Click on “AutoDateTime”
3) Check the “Enable AutoDateTime” box
4) Type in how you want the date or time using the legend on the dialog box
4) Click OK

So what if you want to include the current time on every slide in PowerPoint 2007?

1) Click on the “View” tab
2) Look for the “Presentation Views” group and click on “Slide Master”
3) Go to the first master slide
4) Click on the “Insert” tab in the ribbon
5) Look for the “Text” group, and click on “Date & Time”
6) Check the “Date and Time” box
7) Click “Apply to All”
8) Move the text box around to where you want it, and change the font as you like
9) Click on the “Slide Master” tab in the ribbon, and then click on “Close Master View”

It is even easier if you just want to include the current time on a single slide (like in the example above)

1) Click on the “Insert” tab in the ribbon
2) Look for the “Text” group, and click on “Date & Time”
3) Check the “Date and Time” box
4) Click “Apply to All”
5) Move the text box around to where you want it, and change the font as you like

If you want more detail on how to use the OfficeOne AutoDateTime 2.3 Add-in, check out the detailed instructions on the AutoDateTime website.

’till next time!
TNP

Are you like me and carry a USB key on your key ring… and no matter what size it is you always seem to be running out of space?  Well there are a few alternatives out there you can try.  One of them is Office Live Workspace – which works great with Office 2007 (and in particular Word 2007, Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007).

What is Office Live Workspace?

Thanks for asking!  It isn’t an online version of Office, more like an extension to Office.  A great place to store your documents so you can access them from other computers (well other computers connected to the net with Office installed).  A great place to share documents with your friends or colleagues.  A great place to backup your most important documents, spreadsheets, or presentations.

Here is a list of things you can create, store and share using Office Live Workspace:

1) Word Documents
2) Excel Spreadsheets
3) PowerPoint Presentations
4) Task Lists
5) Contact Lists
6) Event Lists
7) Notes
8) Lists

Interested in learning more about how Office Live Workspace could make your life easier by removing the need to carry your USB Key around?  Check it out at http://www.officelive.com/ or visit the Office Live Workspace FAQ for more information.

Here at The New Paperclip, I have created an Office Live category for all of you interested in learning more about the Office Live offerings… I will be posting more about Office Live in the future so make sure you check it out regularly.

’till next time!
TNP

If you have spent more than five minutes in Excel… you know that your eyes can quickly start to hurt.  I mean looking at the default view of Excel when I open it (at my current screen size), I can see 38 rows and columns A through S – 19 columns… or 722 cells!  That is a LOT of information to take in if you use them all (and trust me, I use them all, and more!)

So what can you do to reduce your eye strain using Excel 2007?  There is a great feature called "Zoom to Selection"

What is Zoom to Selection?  Exactly what it sounds like.  Simply select the area you are working on, whether it is one cell, twenty cells, or two hundred cells, click "Zoom to Selection, and then breath a sigh of relief as your eyes magically feel much better!

So where can you find Zoom to Selection?

1) Click on the "View" tab in the Excel 2007 Ribbon
2) Look for the "Zoom" group
3) Click on "Zoom to Selection"

’till next time!
TNP