Level 200 – Regular User

Do you want to quickly print your Word 2010 document without having to navigate your way through the menu every time?

Well did you know you can add a “Quick Print” button to the “Quick Access Toolbar” in Word 2010?

For those who don’t know, the Quick Access Toolbar (or QAT) is the little icons which you can find in the top left hand corner of any Office 2010 application.

By default you will find Save, Undo and Redo – but you can add lots of other buttons, including Quick Print – which prints the current document with the default printer settings.

To add Quick Print to the Quick Access Toolbar in Word 2010

1) Click on the little downward pointing arrow above the Home or Insert tab in Word 2010

2) From the menu that pops up, click on “Quick Print”

Now you will see a little printer icon with a tick on it – that is your quick print button.  Any time you want to print using the default printer settings – all you need to do is press that button.

So fast and so simple!!!

‘till next time!
TNP

You might be used to turning on track changes in Word to see what others have done to your document – but did you know you can track changes in Excel as well?

To highlight the cells where changes have taken place, do the following

1) Click on the “Review” tab in the ribbon in Excel 2010

2) Look towards the right hand side of the ribbon and click on the “Track Changes” button

3) Click “Highlight changes”

A new menu box appears in which you can select some options as to how Excel tracks the changes.  Make the selections as you like, then click ok.

To accept or reject the changes someone made, click on the “Track Changes” button again, then click “Accept/Reject Changes”

‘till next time!
TNP

Have you noticed that when you first install Word 2010, that the ruler is not turned on?

You know what I am talking about – the ruler in which you can change your tabs, indents and other important paragraph layout options.

Well it is really easy to turn the ruler back on.  To do so you can try two different ways:

1) Click on the “View” tab in the Ribbon, and then check the “Ruler” option… or

2) At the top of the scroll bar on the right hand side of your Word screen, there is a little button that looks like a little ruler.  Click on that.

Simple – now you ruler is back on!

‘till next time!
TNP

If you have been using Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 for a while, you might have come across what most people call the “Annoying Yellow Bar”

If you don’t know what I am talking about – open up a word document that someone has send you via email – or a spread sheet that you might find on a website.  Chances are when you open that Word, Excel or PowerPoint file, you will see the “Annoying Yellow Bar” – and you will not be able to edit, print, or save your document.

Well it may be annoying, but it is actually really important.  The yellow bar shows you that Word, Excel or PowerPoint is running in what we call “Protected Mode”.  Any time you open a file that isn’t on your computer, or from somewhere that you can’t trust (like the internet), the document will be opened in protected mode, to (as the name suggests) protect your computer from harm.

It opens up the document so you can take a look at it, and then if you are sure it is what you are looking for, and you trust that it will not do any harm, you can then click on the “Enable Editing” button, which sits on the yellow protected view bar.

Now there are ways to stop Protected View from happening, but trust me, it is worth putting up with because if you accidently open a document that causes damage to your computer, it is a LOT more annoying!

‘till next time!
TNP

Do you need to create some simple business cards?  Well it isn’t all that hard using Microsoft Word, and some of the templates available at www.Office.com.

In fact, one of the Microsoft team have put together a great video showing you exactly how easy it is.

Watch the video by Doug Thomas over at the Office Casual Blog – and you too can create a simple business card in just 90 seconds!

WOW – that is quick!

‘till next time!
TNP

Are you working on a PowerPoint presentation and want to insert a new slide?  By default, chances are you will get a slide which has a title at the top, and a big box below that in which you can add your bullet points.

The default layout is what we call “Title and Content”, but there are many others you can choose from.  For example:

• Title Slide (the first slide you see when you create a new presentation)
• Section Header
• Two Content
• Comparison
• Title Only
• Blank
• Content with Caption
• Picture with Caption

To create a new slide with one of these layouts, simply click on the bottom half of the “New Slide” button on the “Home” tab in PowerPoint. 

A small menu will appear with pictures of what each layout looks like.  Simply click on the layout you like and it will be inserted into your document.

Now if you want to change the layout of an existing slide:

1) Click on the slide that you want to change

2) On the “Home” tab, just to the right of the new slide button you will see one called “Layout” – click on that

3) From the menu that appears, select the layout that you want

Now your presentation will have a bit of variety!

‘till next time!
TNP

Don’t you hate when you are typing an email address into an email you are sending, and you accidently add the wrong one!  Maybe there are two people you have emailed before.  Both with the same first name, and similar surnames.  But one is your boss, and the other is your best friend. 

You don’t want to accidently send your boss those pictures from the weekend right!!??!?!?!

That feature, where the names automatically pop us is called “Auto Complete”.  It is a handy feature if you email people regularly, but can cause you problems if you are not careful.

So – if you want to delete a name form your Auto Complete list in Outlook 2010… what do you do?

Simple!

Just start typing their name in.  When it appears in the auto complete list, simply look to the right of their name.  You should see a cross or a check – ie a delete button.  Just click on that, and that name and email address is removed from your auto complete list.

Easy!

‘till next time!
TNP

Are you one of the thousands of businesses around the word looking to use Microsoft’s Office 365 “cloud” service, but don’t know where to start?

Well Microsoft Press have made available a free e-book which helps you get started.  Called “Microsoft Office 365:  Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime.”

I like this book for a few reasons.  Firstly – FREE!  Secondly, it covers a lot of the questions you probably have about Office 365 and gives you some pretty good answers.  It covers topics like:

• Getting Started with Office 365
• Administering an Office 365 Account
• What your team can do with Office 365
• Creating your Team Site with SharePoint Online
• Posting, Sharing and Managing Files
• Adding and Managing Workflows
• Working with Office 2010 Web Apps
• Going Mobile with Office 365

It is a good blend of technical content for the folk that need to set up and run Office 365 for others, plus a little bit of user content to help you understand exactly how Office 365 works under the covers, and how you can use it to work better, faster, and stronger!

You can download the free Office 365 ebook from Microsoft here.

So you are a small business with a handful of users that use Office 365 for email, collaboration and alike.  What if one of those user’s forgets their password?

Now – if you are a user who has forgotten their password – the best thing to do will be to talk to your IT team, or the person in charge of all your Office 365 accounts.  If they don’t know how to reset your password, simply tell them to read the rest of this article.

If you don’t have a fancy set up like some larger organisations with things like DirSync, and ADFS (Active Directory Federation Services), you will probably just want to reset the password for their Microsoft Online Services account.

To do that, if you are the administrator of your Office 365 “tenant” all you need to do is:

1) Sign into the Office 365 Portal (https://login.microsoftonline.com)

2) On the Admin page, you will see a number of “Admin Shortcuts” at the top of the page.  Click on “Reset User passwords”

3) Select the user from the list that you want to reset the password for – make sure you check the box beside their name

4) At the top of the list of users, now select “Reset Password”

5) Select whether or not you want to email the user their new password

6) Click “Reset Password”

Simple as that!  Now if you are the administrator of your Office 365 tenant and have forgotten your Administrator Password… stop panicking!  Take a look at this article from the Office 365 Technical Blog which will help you reset your Office 365 administrator password.

‘till next time!
TNP

Usually PowerPoint presentations are built to be delivered on-screen.  Using the print options you can create handouts and notes pages that you can then print out and hand to your audience. 

But did you know that you can use PowerPoint to design presentations built specifically to be delivered in the print format.  One slide per A4 or Letter page (and not a cropped or zoomed version of an onscreen slide)

To do so, all you need to do is change the page size of the PowerPoint slides in your deck.

1) Click on the “Design” tab

2) Click on “Page Setup” in the “Page Setup” group on the left hand side of the ribbon

3) In the “Page Setup” window, in the drop down box “Slides sized for:” select your preferred paper size

This is a great way to design slides specifically for transparencies or over-head projectors as well.

‘till next time!
TNP