Ctrl+Alt+Geek

See What's Coming in Windows 8

2012-02-29T10:08:00.002-08:00

The Consumer Preview is here. http://win8.ms/dthzvf.

Take Attendance in Excel (and so much more)

2011-10-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

In training, I need to take attendance. I can have a list in Excel that looks like the one below. But, by using Conditional Formatting, I can get a better looking list that is easy to filter/sort to what I need. Here’s how I do that.

The first step is to change how I use the “Attended” column. Instead of x’s, I need to enter 1’s and 0’s. Excel is designed around the use of numbers and this will only work if I do the same. In this instance, I use 1’s for those who have attended and 0’s for those who were absent.

Select the column with the values to format. In my example, I selected column D.
On the Home tab, Styles group, click Conditional Formatting and select the 3 Symbols (Uncircled) under the Indicators options. (It's the green check, yellow explanation point and red X.)

You will see the icon and the value listed in the column together. Now to hide the value.

Click Conditional Formatting again and this time select Manage Rules… at the bottom of the gallery to open the dialog box
Click the Edit Rule… button.
Select the Show Icon Only check box. Click OK to finish the rule, and OK apply.

The bonus is now you can filter/sort on this column. Turn on the Filter (on the Data tab) to view the filter arrows on each column heading. Click the filter for your column, move to Filter by Color and select to view only those who attended or get a list of those who were absent.

EXCEL =SUM(10,10,5)

2011-09-30T04:00:00.000-07:00

Excel was released to the world 25 years ago today. Geek out to the history...

Microsoft Word: Document Clean-up

2011-08-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

I was recently assisting someone in the clean-up of a rather large document. After setting a style for the document text to have a first line indent, we needed to get rid of the tab character used to originally create this indent. You know I’m all about the shortcuts, so here’s how we did it.

Set a first line indent for the document text

While the cursor is in the first paragraph of text, grab the top part of the left margin boundary marker on the ruler bar and move it to the desired location.
[You can also click the dialog box launcher of the Paragraph group and change the Indentation, Special: to First line and By: (any amount).]
In the Styles group on the Home tab, right-click the Normal style and select Update Normal to Match Selection.

Remove all tab characters

In the Editing group of the Home tab, click Replace.
If you see the More >> button, click it to view more options.
Be sure your cursor is in the Find what: field. Click the Special button at the bottom and select Tab Character. You will see ^t in the field to represent the tab.
Leave the Replace with: field empty. This will replace all tab characters with nothing, thus deleting them.
Click the Replace All button.

You’re done!

Microsoft Excel: Highlight all cells referenced by a formula

2011-07-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

When helping a client, I often look at worksheets I am totally unfamilar with. This makes it hard for me to know what’s going on to easily find the problem. To help me understand how cells and formulas are interrealted, I will highlight all the cells referenced by a formula.

To do this, select a cell with a formula and press Ctrl+[ (open-square-bracket). Excel highlights all the cells referenced by the formula. Use Enter and/or Tab (Shift+Enter and/or Shift+Tab to shift into reverse) to move among the selected cells.

But what if you want to do the reverse, and see the formulas that reference the a cell? You guessed it, select the cell, and press Ctrl+] (close-square-bracket).

No Handouts from PowerPoint

2011-06-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

PowerPoint is for presentations. Let me say that again and you disect what I’m saying: PowerPoint is for presentations, not handouts. A copy of miniture slides with tiny little lines next to each one is NOT a handout; regardless what PowerPoint says.

Handouts are to be more indepth and expand on what the presentation is. For this, you should be creating handouts in a program such as Word. “But, I want the visual and I’m too lazy to copy and paste everything from PowerPoint to Word,” you say. Quit your whining and use the Create Handouts option in PowerPoint.

With your presentation open, go to the File tab, click Save & Send, then click Create Handouts and click the Create Handouts button. (In 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, point to Publish, and then click Create Handouts in Microsoft Office Word.) All that is left is to select your layout and click OK.

Small pictures of your slides will be included with your text. I suggest you delete slides that are not visually important to the text, such as where text is duplicated. Slides can be resized to make charts and images more readable. Slide titles will format as a Heading 1 style. Text on the slides will be formatted as Heading 2, 3, etc. You will have to add the body text to make the information useful and understandable.

Interesting New Blog

2011-05-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

At UNL, I work with an amazing bunch of students with the Student Technology Assistance Program (STAP). It's a group of students doing real work while they learn. There is also a group that teaches other students computer programs. They have recently decided to begin a blog with tips, reviews and other interesting technology related news stories from a college student point of view. I'm really excited to see what they've already done and look forward to future posts. Please check out the Innovations blog and see what they're about. You'll be glad you did.

Clippy is My (Ribbon) Hero

2011-05-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

It's a fact. I'm a Ribbon Hero. I took the test to prove it, too. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should check out Ribbon Hero 2 from Microsoft. It's an add-in that will watch what you do and you earn points as you work. You can also launch the game-based learning and it will open the Microsoft programs (OneNote, Excel, PowerPoint and Word) where you perform the tasks asked of you. Best of all, it's the return of Clippy. If you think he got a bad rap back in 1997-2003, he is back to redeem himself. You start by helping him with his resume.

It's really kind of fun and a great example of game-based learning. If you don't know how to perform a task, you can ask for a hint to help you. If you are a "power-user" you'll find this easy. Too easy. If you are a casual user and want to explore a little more of what you might not know, this is definitely for you.

I'd recommend Ribbon Hero 2 for anyone who needs to brush up on their skills because it does have varying levels from beginning to advanced and covers a variety of tasks. You also can pick and choose your tasks and still progress through the levels so everyone can have a sense of accomplishment. For example, I'm not a OneNote user, so I chose the tasks for Word, Excel and PowerPoint and was able to work through the levels. When I was done, I was able to go back and tackle the tasks I skipped in those programs, too. I look forward to learning more about OneNote and taking on those challenges as well.

Have fun, and let me know if you're a Ribbon Hero like Clippy and me!

Microsoft Access: Web Browser Control

2011-05-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

I love how on websites you can click to view a map. Somehow the address fields are set to map to a mapping program, such as Google Maps or Mapquest, and you’ll see a map to your destination. You can now replicate this on your Access forms using the Web Browser Control.

First, go to your favorite map site (I found deciphering Map Quest was easier), type in your address (you'll delete this later) and locate it on the map. Copy the URL.

On the Form Layout Tools|Design ribbon, in the Controls group, select the Web Browser Control, and then click to place it on the form. Access opens the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.
Paste the URL of the web page into the Address: field of the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, and then press TAB on the keyboard to move to the next field. Access clears the Address: field and separates the URL into the appropriate fields.
To set the control so that its URL changes based on the data that is displayed on your form, you must replace the appropriate URL components with expressions that refer to the appropriate controls on the form. Here's where having your address helps you locate the correct areas for your fields.

Click the path or parameter that you want to replace, and then click the Build button.
In the Expression Builder, double-click the control that contains the data you want.
Click OK to close the Expression Builder.

Click OK.

Microsoft PowerPoint: Broadcast Your Presentation over the Internet

2011-04-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

At UNL, we have an Adobe Connect server, which really helps us share our presentations remotely. I’ve used it and it works great, but I don’t always want to use this options for presentations over the phone and on the fly. If you have found yourself emailing a presentation to someone and then asking them to walk through it with you as you explained on the phone, you’ll like the Broadcast option.

Before you begin, you must have a Windows Live, Hotmail, MSN or Xbox Live email account. No, gmail won’t work. You must also have access to the Internet which is how the presentation will be broadcast.

With your presentation open in PowerPoint, go to the Slide Show ribbon, Start Slide Show (Play Slide Show on the Mac) group, and the click Broadcast Slide Show.
Click the Start Broadcast button (Connect... on the Mac).
If you are not already logged in, you must log in with your Windows Live ID credentials.
PowerPoint will create URL for you to email or copy into a a messaging service to whomever you want to join the broadcast. Be aware that this is not a secure or closed connection. Anyone with the URL can access your broadcast. You should also recommend the audience disable their screen saver or power saving options as this will disrupt their viewing.
When your audience is ready, click the Start Slide Show button (Play Slide Show on the Mac).
You are in full control of the presentation. When you advance the slide, your audience will stay on track with you.
After presenting, press Esc (Escape) on the keyboard to end Slide Show view. You must then press the End Broadcast button on the yellow bar under the ribbon.

Currently, only Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari for Mac is the supported version. I've used Chrome without incident, but it's not an official supported browser.

Some things to be aware of when broadcasting:

All transitions will be shown as the Fade transition only.
Audio or video is not transmitted with the presentation through the browser.
Website hyperlinks will not work.
You cannot make ink annotations on screen during the presentation.

Microsoft Excel: Sparklines

2011-03-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Available in both 2010 for Windows and 2011 for Mac, Sparklines can be a nifty little option. If you love the dynamic line charts for your data, but wished it was available to put at the end of a row/column right next to your data, you’re in luck. Sparklines are for you.

Place the cell selector on the cell(s) to display the Sparkline.
On the Insert (Charts on the Mac) ribbon, Sparklines (Insert Sparklines on the Mac) group, select the type of trend to display.
Enter the range of data to be included.
The Location Range should be the cell you selected in step #1.
Click OK

Happy Geek Valentines Day

2011-02-14T07:08:00.000-08:00

Here is a special Valentine message for you.

x^2+(y-(x^2)^(1/3))^2<1

Have trouble figuring it out? Plug it in to WolframAlpha.

Migration Guides

2011-02-11T12:39:00.000-08:00

How is it that I have not come across these before? Apparently, around the time of the release of Microsoft Office 2010, a few of Microsoft's bloggers created migration guides for Access, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word. For some reason, I'm just now finding these fantastic guides. So, here are the Microsoft Office 2010 Migration Guides. ENJOY!

Microsoft Word: Quick Parts

2011-02-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

As a toddler, I’m sure many of you played with building blocks. As we get older, we can continue to play with building blocks. To make it sound more efficient, let’s call them Quick Parts. I’m all about being lazy (for the polictically correct, efficient), and Quick Parts works for me.

Words comes with many of these built in Quick Parts (cover page, header, footer, etc.) You can use one of the built in cover pages, headers or footers, but I really prefer my own. NU Central Administration provides some nice letterhead templates where the header and footer are already done for you. You can use one of these or open a document that already has the header, footer or cover letter you want. The point is, you need something to copy or save for use later.

Got it? Now select it. Next, go to Insert ribbon, Text group, click Quick Parts and select Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery… Add the necessary information in the dialog box. Be sure the name is something you’ll remember, like “UNL Header.” You will also need to select the appropriate category, like “Headers.”

To insert your new Quick Part, place the insertion point where you’d like the part to appear. Go to Insert ribbon and select the item, like “Header.” In the gallery of optoins, you’ll find your part neatly alphabatized with the rest. Select it and there you go.

Did you know you can also do this with boilerplate text? If you remember AutoText but didn’t know where it disappeared to in 2007-10, you’ll be happy to know it’s a Quick Part, too.

25 Years of EXCEL-lence

2011-01-25T11:40:00.000-08:00

On September 30, 2011, Microsoft Excel will celebrate 25 years. In this video, you'll see Nebraska-boy, Jeff Raikes, talking about his contribution and experience working with Excel.

PowerPoint for Mac 2011 at CES 2011

2011-01-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

Removing the background from images (which can also be done in Word) has been a great feature in both the PC and Mac latest versions. Thank you for making it so easy!

Word for Mac 2011 at CES 2011

2011-01-13T12:15:00.000-08:00

Reading view in Mac 2011 is so much better than in PC 2010/07. And don't even get me started on the layers. Come on Word for PC development staff, we want this, too!

Office for Mac 2011 at CES 2011

2011-01-12T12:10:00.000-08:00

I've begun to play around with the new Office for Mac 2011 and written in the past that it's much closer to the PC version. But here is a great video that will help you get to know the new UI (user interface).

Microsoft Office: Open documents that Office wants to block

2011-01-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Old stuff ain’t safe. At least according to Microsoft. Therefore, when you try to open files in the 97-2003 file format (or earlier), Office 2010 will block editing (and macros) of these files until you decide they are safe. The problem arises when you upgrade, all your files are in the previous format and blocked from editing. You can easily click the Enable Editing button that appears in the yellow bar under the ribbon, but if you want to be proactive, you can change this setting.

In Word or Excel, go to the File tab, click Options, click Trust Center on the left, and then click the Trust Center Settings.. button. On the left, select File Block Settings, and remove the checkmarks from the older Office files that you want Office 2010 to open. There are additional settings for how to open at the bottom of the dialog box.

Microsoft Office mac2011

2010-11-24T06:37:00.000-08:00

Finally here! And finally closer related to the Windows version. I can now offer training on either or without much of a fuss. Still not as seamless between the platforms as the Adobe products, but this new version is a huge step in the right direction.

If you're wondering, UNL's Microsoft license allows for UNL office to upgrade the Mac as well as the Windows versions for free. If your department is still using Mac Office 2008, it is worth your time to upgrade.

Access 2007: Print Access report summaries without redesigning the report

2010-11-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Your supervisor or director would like a printout of the summary data in all of the reports in your database for her end-of-fiscal year department report. You need to print out all 10 reports without the detail data, and you need to have it ready within the hour. Fortunately, you don't need to create new reports -- you can hide the detail section so the detailed data does not appear in the printout. Here's how...

In the Database window, click Reports under Objects.
Click the name of the report, and then click the Design button.
Right-click within a blank area of the Detail section.
Select Properties.
Under the Format tab, click in the Visible property box and select No.

When you print the reports, all sections but the detail sections will print. You can use the Visible property to hide any section of the report.

Office:mac 2011 released

2010-10-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

Happy day! Office:mac 2011 has arrived. It is getting closer to being more like the PC version. My hope is that I will someday be able to give the same instructions to Mac users as I do for PC users and have the tasks be relatively the same. Microsoft has taken that first step. It is still not as seamless as Adobe suite between platforms, but there have been improvements.

Excel 2007: Display Dashes Instead of Zeros

2010-10-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Do you have a spreadsheet that contains a lot of zeros? It's not always easy to read the other numbers when you do. You can accomplish this with a custom number format.

Select the cells where you want to apply the format.
On the Home tab in the Number group, click the dialog box launcher to display the Format Cells dialog.
On the Number tab select Custom in the Category list.
Excel number formats can contain up to four sections of code separated by semicolons. The first section applies to positive numbers, the second to negative numbers, the third to zeros, and the fourth to text. When formatting, the third and fourth are optional.
To specify a format for zeros, you need to add (or change) the third section of the number format code. If there is no format for zeros, add a semi-colon for the third section and then type a dash(es). This tells Excel to display a your defined format in any cell with a value of zero.

Keep in mind that a custom number format is stored for future use in the current workbook only.

How twins are made

2010-09-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

Your questions are answered...

Not a fan of babies? How about twin geek kids...

And now for the older geeks...

And let's not forget the Mac geeks...

Microsoft Office: Mac 2011 RTM's

2010-09-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's Mac Business Unit has released to manufacturing the new Mac Office 2011 suite of applications. If you want a sneak peek, check out this video.

If you just want a good laugh at what could have been, watch this one.

Office 2010 Migration Guides

2010-09-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

Making the jump from Microsoft Office 2003 into 2010? There are some handy migration guides just for you.

PowerPoint 2007: Delete all slide notes

2010-09-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Often, I am asked to share my PowerPoint slides. I use the notes section for my own personal information and don't always want to share that with the recipient. Instead of clicking on each slide to delete each note, I can use the Document Inspector to delete all the slide notes in a presentation instantly.

Click the Office button, point to Prepare, and then click Inspect Document.
Click Inspect.
Click Remove All next to Presentation Notes. You can also choose to remove invisible on-slide or off-slide content, personal information, comments, and more.
Save this version of the presentation separately (be sure not to overwrite your full version), and share it safely.

Access vs. Excel

2010-08-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a question I get asked a lot. When do I use Excel and when do I use Access. Thanks to the Crabby Office Lady, here is your answer.

When you want to	Use this program	Why you should take Crabby's advice
... deal with a very large amount of data. (If you're a Kennedy, that's thousands of entries).	Access	Access is a handy-dandy organizer, accessing Cape Cod houses full of information in a quick and easy way. A few clicks of the mouse and you can make sense of all those toothy entries.
... manage a fairly small amount of data.	Excel	If you can simplify your life, by all means do it. Because once the big day hits, simplification will go right out the window. Don't use a database when an organized list will do nicely.
... spend less time plugging in the same information again and again, and more time playing around with it.	Access	If you want to make sure all your relations' variables are accounted for, create a relational database. One table can contain their names, and the other tables can contain seating, dietary, and lodging requirements. Each guest probably has more than one requirement, so you need a database that can cross-reference all of them.
... create a very simple list with limited amounts of cross-referencing.	Excel	Why get all tangled up in relationships if you don't have to? (Spoken like a true familial misanthrope.) You have a list of guests in one column, the corresponding "Yes, he's coming" or "No, she's banished" in the next column. Easy as pumpkin pie.
... rely on multiple external databases and run complex queries.	Access	If you need to compare the last decade's worth of information about seating arrangements, dietary preferences, and who ran for Congress in which state, don't even try this in Excel.

Word 2007: Convert text to a table or vice versa

2010-08-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

When I create a document, I tend to change my mind after it is all done how I want to format it. I used to cringe at the thought of changing text to a table, it was a lot of work, until I learned there was a tool for that.

Select the text that you want to convert. It should have a common delimiter (separating character) that will convert to columns and rows. Typically, tabs separate columns and line returns separate rows.
On the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click Table, and then click Convert Text to Table.
In the Convert Text to Table dialog box, under Separate text at, click the option for the separator character that is in your text.

In the Number of columns box, check the number of columns. If you don't see the number of columns that you expect, you may be missing a separator character in one or more lines of text.

To convert a table to text...

Select the rows or table that you want to convert to paragraphs.
Under Table Tools, on the Layout tab, in the Data group, click Convert to Text.
Under Separate text at, click the option for the separator character that you want to use in place of the column boundaries. Rows are separated with paragraph marks.

Excel: Entering leading zeroes

2010-07-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Excel is often used as a database to hold information and not necessarily calculate numbers. One example is a mailing list. On campus, you only need to include the four-digit extension for the postal code. My mailing address would look like this:

Ranelle Maltas

104 ARCH

CC 0104

Here it is in Excel:

But how did I get the leading zero to stay? Usually when you type a number, such as 0104, it is formatted as a number, becomes right-aligned and drops the zero. You can format the cell as text instead, but that doesn't always help. What you need to do is type an apostrophe (') first. Don't worry, it will disappear like the image above. Here it is again in edit mode:

FREE TRAINING!!!

2010-06-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

Are you taking advantage of all the free training provided by Microsoft.com? The best lesson I ever learned was to look for the answer myself before asking for help. Seems that the answer is usually already there. According the the Crabby Office Lady, it's a lesson others need to learn, too. Read about Crabby's underused feature of the week: Office Training.

Whats New In Excel 2010 webinar

2010-06-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks to @MrExcel for sharing! View recording of Whats New In Excel 2010 webinar at http://www.safaribooksonline.com/Corporate/DownloadAndResources/webcasts.php.

Access: Automatically enter today's date in a field

2010-06-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

For some records, you enter today's date for a particular field. When a date is to be the current date, you can eliminate entering any value at all. Set the field’s Default Value property to Now() or Date(). When you enter a new record, the property will enter the system’s current date (and time). If for some reason it is not today's date, you can still type over the default value with the correct date (and time).If you only occassionaly enter the current date, you can use the shortcut CTRL+; (semicolon) instead.

Now() versus Date()

The Now() function returns the system’s current date and time. It’s a package deal–you always get both. If all you need is the current date and not the time, use the Date() function instead. On the other hand, if all you want is the current time, use the Time() function. Don’t use Now() unless you really mean to store both the date and time.

Windows 7: Send to what you want

2010-05-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

You can add any shortcut to the default Send To menu by adding the shortcut to the SendTo folder in Windows Explorer.

Just type shell:sendto into the location bar on any Windows Explorer window to open the SendTo folder. Click and drag any shortcut to this folder and the item will appear on the default Send To shortcut menu.

What's New in PowerPoint 2010?

2010-04-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

Echo Swinford, who’s a PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional) has written up a list (65 of them) of the new features of PowerPoint 2010. It's a great list with short and easy-to-understand descriptions of each. Read the list!

Office 2010

2010-04-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

Want to know more? Read the story online from PC Mag.

Microsoft turns hand and arms into buttons

2010-04-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

You gotta see this!

"[Chris] Harrison, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University and a former intern at Microsoft Research, has developed a working prototype of a system called Skinput that does just that, essentially by turning a person's hand and forearm into a keyboard and screen."-CNN

Read the full article on CNN

How to Select Right Chart for your Data

2010-04-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

I get asked this question a lot. There are several chart types I use just because my particular data fits the type, but I have to admit that I don't use them all. If you need help to determine which chart is best for your data, Chandoo (@r1c1), Pointy Haired Dilbert blog, has the answer for your chart selection process.

Office 2010 reaches RTM

2010-04-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

Last week, Microsoft reached the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) milestone for Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010. What does that mean?

April 27th—Volume License customers with active Software Assurance (SA) will be able to download the products via the Volume Licensing Service Center.
May 1st—Customers without SA will be able to purchase the new products through Volume Licensing from Microsoft partners.
May 12th—Microsoft will officially launch Office 2010 to business customers with Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft’s Business Division, delivering a keynote as part of a virtual launch at http://www.the2010event.com.
June—Office 2010 will become available in U.S. retail stores, but you can pre-order retail versions of Office 2010 at http://store.microsoft.com/OfficePreorder.

PowerPoint 2007: Reuse Slides

2010-04-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm lazy. Some prefer the term "efficient" but either way, I want to get it done the easiest way possible. There are many times I already have a PowerPoint presentation with one or more slides I'd like to reuse. Yes, I can go into Slide Sorter view and copy/paste from one presentation to the other, but there is an easier way.

Open the presentation that you want to add a slide to.
In the navigation pane that contains the Outline and Slides tabs, click Slides, and then click where you want to add a slide.
On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click New Slide, and then select Reuse Slides.
In the Reuse Slides pane, click Open a PowerPoint File.
In the Browse dialog box, locate and click the presentation file that contains the slide that you want, and then click Open.
In the Reuse Slides pane, do one of the following:

To add a single slide, click the slide.
To add all of the slides, right-click any slide, and then click Insert All Slides

Buzz it

Create a glassy marble effect in PowerPoint

2010-03-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

by tomkuhlmann

Ada Lovelace Day

2010-03-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

via Wikipedia...

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognized as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine; as such she is often regarded as the world's first computer programmer.

In celebration of Ada Lovelace Day, I pledged to write a blog post about a woman in science or technology that I admire. This year I'd like to write about someone more local. Beth Still is a social studies teacher at an alternative high school in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. She is the creator of the Nebraska Educators Network.

For about two years, I've been following @bethstill in Twitter and love her passion for technology. Beth seems to understand technology is a tool for learning and not an obstacle to overcome.

After following her Twitter, I found her blog, Nebraska Change Agent. A good read for anyone involved in educational technology. She's passionate about technology use in education and promoting the importance of a Professional Learning Network (PLN). Perhaps that's why I'm intrigued about Beth. Her passion for learning and interest in technology. Both are very important to me as well.

I know I'm not the only one who admires Beth. She was interviewed for an article, Spreading the Ed Tech Word 140 Characters at a Time, on the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) website. Beth wrote Creating the Perfect Social Networking Profile for the September issue of the Nebraska Educational Technology Association Newsletter. She has also been a guest blogger on Free Technology for Teachers and Moving at the Speed of Creativity. When ever I hear that Beth has written something or contributed, I make a point to read it. I hope you will, too.

You may think from reading this that I know Beth personally, but I do not. We've tweeted, but we have not met in person. Someday I hope to change that. In the meantime, I'll continue to follow her via Twitter, her blog and what ever else she picks up along the way.

Word 2007: AutoSummarize

2010-03-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Word has a little used but handy feature called AutoSummarize. It identifies the key points in a document. You can select whether to highlight key points in a document, insert an executive summary or abstract at the top of a document, create a new document and put the summary there, or hide everything but the summary.
Please note that AutoSummarize works best on well-structured documents, such as reports, articles, and scientific papers.

Before you can use AutoSummarize in Microsoft Office Word 2007, you need to add AutoSummary Tools to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.

Click Customize.

In the list under Choose commands from, click All Commands.

Scroll through the list of commands until you see AutoSummary Tools.

Click AutoSummary Tools, and then click Add.

Show me

History of Microsoft Office

2010-02-23T07:32:00.000-08:00

How did it all begin?

Introduction and History of Microsoft Office

Uploaded by Ruku on WiZiQ Tutorials

SmartGuides for PowerPoint 2010

2010-02-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

When InDesign upgraded to CS4, one thing I noticed is that when you have two items that get close to each other, these guides magically appear to assist you in aligning the objects. What a cool idea! I loved it. Now, PowerPoint 2010 has added this feature, calling it SmartGuides. Yes, very smart indeed.

2010-02-12T06:57:00.000-08:00

Did you know you can create professional slides and animation effects using just PowerPoint? Better yet, you don't have to do it all from scratch. You know by now that I'm a fan of re-purposing everything. Here are some templates from Office. Microsoft.com that you can use and customize for your self.

Not sold on this idea just yet? Watch this.

Picture effects 15 templates
Combined picture and text effects 23 templates
Animated picture effects 20 templates
Static text effects 18 templates
3-D shapes and objects 25 templates
Animated text effects 20 templates
Animated charts and graphics with SmartArt 25 templates
Backgrounds for PowerPoint slides 11 templates

Excel Art

2010-02-11T08:16:00.000-08:00

Tired of using Excel for just number crunching? Here's an idea for you. All I have to say is, "wow."

Holidays in February

2010-02-09T06:25:00.000-08:00

There are so many holidays in February. Groundhog day (2/2), Chinese New Year (2/14, year of the Tiger), Valentine's Day (2/14), Presidents' Day (2/15), Mardi Gras (2/16), My birthday (2/17) and Hoodie-Hoo day (2/20). With so many holidays, it can be expensive to buy cards for everyone. That is why I prefer to make my own cards in PowerPoint. Attached is a simple template for a one-sided card, folded in fourths. You can customize all your own. (All clip art is courtesy of Microsoft.)

The steps are easy. Create a new presentation, one slide, blank layout. Use the grids to set up the fold lines and margins. Insert text and images, rotating them to layout. Simple!

Card Template -

Create a photo wall effect in PowerPoint

2010-02-08T10:17:00.000-08:00

Someone shared this with me on Twitter, and I thought it was a great example. Enjoy!

Windows 7 shortcuts

2010-02-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

As you may know, I love shortcuts (because I'm lazy) and found some great ones for Windows 7 by using my mouse. Until I figured it all out, it was frustrating, but now that I understand how it works, I love it!

Drag a window to the top of your screen to MAXIMIZE
Drag a window to the left or right to dock it on that half of the screen
Shake a window back and forth to MINIMIZE everything but the active window (the one you are shaking)
Double-click the top window border (edge) with the vertical resizing arrow to MAXIMIZE VERTICALLY

Excel: Calculate the difference between two dates

2010-02-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Let me just get this off my chest. "I don't do math in my head." I really hate math, but Excel is a dream as it makes math so easy. I used to have to really think how old my family members are. It is a really bizarre thought process for me, so I won't bore you with that. Instead, I'll show you how I made an Excel spreadsheet that will tell me. I have since used it to calulate days, months or years between two dates (such as time between start and end dates of a project).
Here is the formula's syntax. (BTW, don't go looking this up in the Help section as it is a "secret" formula.)
=DATEDIF(Earliest_Date, Latest_Date, UnitOfMeasure)
Here's how it works...

1st argument: A2 is the cell reference for the early date.

2nd argument: For the late date, I used the TODAY() formula so it is dynamic for whenever I open the spreadsheet to have the current date.

3rd argument: The unit of measure can be either "Y" for years, "M" for months or "D" for days, depending on how you want the results to be calculated.

If you prefer to calculate the WORKING days (excluding weekends and holidays) you can use the NETWORKDAYS formula.
=NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, holiday_range[optional])
Here it is in action...

Have you played Ribbon Hero?

2010-01-22T14:44:00.000-08:00

This week Microsoft released a new concept test prototype for Office called Ribbon Hero. It's a new approach to Office training that’s designed to deliver a fun, engaging experience to help people explore the features available in Office…whether it’s to help you learn how to do things faster, or uncover features you never knew existed. Unlike traditional training, Ribbon Hero presents a game-like environment for learning and lets people compare their scores and feature usage on Facebook. It currently works with Excel, PowerPoint and Word. Download it here.

Announcing the Blackboard Learn Toolbar for Internet Explorer® and Firefox® on Windows®

2010-01-22T14:29:00.000-08:00

It's not about Microsoft Office, but many at UNL use the Blackboard system. Now you can get notifications directly from your Blackboard Learn system with an easy-to-use browser toolbar. You’ll receive regular updates of new content items, grades, discussions and announcements. And you’ll save time and energy with an automatically generated set of links that give you one-click access to all of your courses.

Got a question? Microsoft has an answer.

2010-01-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Answers is a community-based support site where you can ask and answer questions, or just browse other's answers.

Still have questions?

If you belong to LinkedIn, there are a number of groups related to Microsoft Office products you can join. Create a new discussion to ask a question and you'll have multiple people respond with the answer.
If you are on Facebook, become a fan of their pages. Do a search for Microsoft and you'll get several page listings for Office, Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word and more. They provide great tips that feed directly into your news feed.

What you'll be missing in Access 2010

2010-01-13T13:56:00.000-08:00

Access 2010 will be missing some features from previous versions. For most, I say, "meh" but I did like the snapshot tool. At least you'll be able to print to PDF, so I guess it's even better. So long!

Read about the Access 2010 deprecated features and components.

The New Slide Show in PowerPoint 2010

2010-01-12T14:24:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've been getting lots of information via Facebook and Twitter from the PowerPoint Team about the new slide show experience. Transitions, animations, and video are said to look better and run smoother in PowerPoint 2010 thanks to the brand new rendering pipeline that ships with PowerPoint 2010. What does this really mean? Read this to learn more about it.

Use PowerPoint to Create Web-based Training

2010-01-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a presentation that I've given for the ASTD-Lincoln Chapter and have presented for some UNL faculty. I just thought someone else might benefit from it as well. It is using PowerPoint to create web-based training.

PPT for WBT

See more presentations by ranellem | Upload your own PowerPoint presentations

Power Macros help

2010-01-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a good place to go for help on using macros in Excel, the Power Macros blog. So glad I found this site. I'm not great at the programming and macros, but on occasion need to use them or help someone else who does. Here is a great place to go for a reference.

Excel: Weight-loss tracker

2010-01-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Each month I post a tip about Microsoft Office. This month I'm a little slow in my post, but I found a great post about an Excel weight loss tracker on the Contextures Blog. Instead of recreating something, I decided to share this with you. Thought it would be fitting for the new year. Enjoy!

PowerPoint @ 25

2009-12-18T13:10:00.000-08:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

PowerPoint @ 25

View more presentations from Rowan Manahan.

Excel 2007: Fill In the Blanks in Spreadsheets the Easy Way

2009-12-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Select all the rows in your Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet data set.
On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select, click Go To, click Special, click Blanks, and then click OK.
Click the equal sign (=) on the toolbar, select the cell above, and then hold down the CTRL key while you press ENTER. Blanks in the spreadsheet will be filled automatically.
Copy all the data, click Paste Special, and then click Values. This will overwrite the formulas and enable you to sort the data by filling in each empty cell with the same information as the one above. This tip will work on any size of data set.

Create conditional drop-down lists in Excel

2009-11-30T10:28:00.000-08:00

Did you know that by using the INDIRECT function, you can then create additional drop-down lists that are conditional to the first drop-down list? Neither did I, but with a little help, now I can do it. Check out how on the Microsoft Excel Blog.

FREE WEBINAR: Introducing Microsoft Office 2010 for Students and Educators

2009-11-23T14:29:00.000-08:00

Live Nov 24 11:30AM-12:30PM Central Time

Microsoft® Office 2010 will deliver innovative learning experiences by providing rich and powerful new ways to express and share ideas. Join this webcast to discover how Office 2010 will enable students and educators to bring ideas to life with advanced video and picture editing, broadcast capability in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, easy document preparation through the new Microsoft Office Backstage view, and visualize data in new ways with Microsoft Excel 2010. They can collaborate better and take shared notes with co-authoring in Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Microsoft OneNote 2010. Work from anywhere with Office Web applications, lightweight browser based companions to Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote that provide access to documents from virtually anywhere and preserve the look and feel of a document regardless of device.

Speakers:

David Norris—Education Solutions Specialist

Edit and format pictures in PowerPoint 2010

2009-11-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

Have you wanted to do more with the formatting of pictures in PowerPoint? With 2010, YES YOU CAN! Check this out.

Office 2010 Betas available!

2009-11-19T14:33:00.000-08:00

Worried about what the next upgrade might bring? Check out it out for yourself with a trial download of the Office 2010 betas. Go ahead and try it. It's not as bad as you might think.

VLOOKUP(), MATCH(), and OFFSET()

2009-11-10T06:42:00.000-08:00

Some people are aware of the VLOOKUP function, but not as many are familiar with MATCH and OFFSET. If you use VLOOKUP, you should learn about the other two as they may come in handy when the other doesn't quite fit your need.

Instead of recreating the explanation, here is a simple and easy to understand explanation from Chandoo, MVP (@r1c1).

Install Word Add-In to upload your resume to Monster.com

2009-11-09T13:35:00.000-08:00

Download an easySubmit resume template from Office.com, and install the add-in from the Word 2007 ribbon. Complete your resume, save it, sign-in to Monster.com, upload, and you're done! You can learn more at the Inside Office Online Blog.

Microsoft Access 2007: Have Access forms automatically close after use

2009-11-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

If your users work with multiple Access forms, here’s how to make their work easier by having a form close automatically once they are finished with it:

Open the first form in Design view.
Double-click the Form Properties button.
Click on the Event tab.
Click in the On Deactivate text box.
Select Event Procedure.
Click the Build button.
At the prompt, enter: Me.TimerInterval =1.
Press ALT+Q.
In the Form Properties window, click in the On Timer property text box.
Select Event Procedure.
Click the Build button.
At the prompt, enter: DoCmd.Close.
Press ALT+Q.
Save the form.

Free Powerpoint Twitter Tools

2009-10-06T07:01:00.000-07:00

A beta version of PowerPoint Twitter Tools is now available for testing from SAP BusinessObjects. The twitter tools allow PowerPoint presenters to see and react to tweets in real-time, embedded directly within their presentations, either as a ticker or refreshable comment page. There are currently three tools:

PowerPoint Twitter ticker bar
PowerPoint Twitter feedback slide
PowerPoint Twitter voting

You can download a PowerPoint presentation containing the tools and instructions at http://www.sapweb20.com/blog/powerpoint-twitter-tools. Please note that these are prototypes that you use at your own risk.

PowerPoint 2007: Fine-Tuning Objects in Presentations

2009-10-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

When working with text in Microsoft Office PowerPoint, you can use the F2 key to switch between selecting text in a placeholder and selecting the placeholder itself. So the next time you've edited some text and want to reposition it on the slide, instead of clicking the tiny edges of the box, just press F2. The entire text box will instantly be selected for you, ready for alignment.

YouTube Videos in PowerPoint

2009-09-15T07:16:00.000-07:00

A question I frequently get from people outside of the University is, "My company blocks internet sites such as YouTube. How can I embed a YouTube video into my PowerPoint Presentation?"

There have been a variety of options to use for free and some nice ones to purchase. But I'm all about the "free." When one of my favorite presentations sharing sites, authorSTREAM, announced the authorSTREAM Desktop plugin for PowerPoint, I jumped on it.

It's a simple download and installation to add an authorSTREAM ribbon into PowerPoint 2007. It's so easy to use, you don't even need to read the instructions. There is a button to upload your active presentation into your authorSTREAM account. There is a search box for images and video. It opens a task pane to select from the search results. If you don't find it via the search box, there is a button to insert the video by URL.

I had a presentation I wanted a video in and decided to try it out. authorSTREAM found the YouTube video I wanted from the search. When I clicked to add the video, I got a white box with a black "X" in the middle. It doesn't look like much, but when I ran the presentation, the video appeared in the player window, just as it would as if you embedded it into a website. You can play, pause and view full size. Very seamless.

Personally, I had a small issue after the first time I used it and repairs suggested by the website didn't help. But after I repaired Microsoft Office, it worked again. I attribute the problem to me having Office 2007 and 2010 Technical Preview loaded on my computer at the same time which can cause problems with addins. So, I'm not faulting authorSTREAM for this.

To recap, if you want a simple and FREE way to embed YouTube video into a PowerPoint presentation, I'd suggest the authorSTREAM Desktop.

Backstage with Office 2010

2009-09-10T10:42:00.000-07:00

Terry Crowley, Technical Fellow in Office, describes some of the thoughts and principles that went into the development of the Office Web Applications.

5 Reasons Microsoft Will Buy Blackboard

2009-09-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

It's an interesting thought. Imagine what that could mean for us at UNL. But is it a good thing? I love Microsoft and the thought of it being integrated into Blackboard would be fantastic. But could it be done or should it be done? You can read the full article and provide your own comments to the discussion at Inside Higher Ed's Blog U.

Word 2007: Rearrange Paragraphs in Word

2009-09-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Swapping paragraphs in Microsoft Office Word can be complicated. As well as having to cut and paste, you often have to reformat line breaks afterward to make the paragraph line up properly. You can use the mouse to drag and drop paragraphs to a new location or, you can use the SHIFT+ALT keyboard shortcut.

Click the paragraph that you want to move, hold down SHIFT+ALT, and move the paragraph up or down by using the arrow keys. Each press of an arrow key causes your selected paragraph to jump over one adjacent paragraph.

Office2010 Technical Preview

2009-08-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

It's been fun so far and very easy to adjust to MS Office 2010. The ribbons and tools are the same as 2007, but the Office Button has undergone a major make over. At first I wasn't too sure I liked it, but it is very intuitive and I haven't needed to go to help to find anything yet. If you are still on Office 2003, you really should make the move to 2007 first to easy your way into 2010. You'll be much happier you did.

Excel 2007: Paste into Non-sequential Cells in Excel

2009-08-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

You can use the CTRL key for multiple selections. Sometimes, you want to copy a formula or piece of data into a series of non-sequential cells in Microsoft Office Excel. You can do this quickly without having to paste into each cell individually.

Copy the data from the source cell.
Hold down the CTRL key as you click to select each destination cell.
After all the cells are highlighted, paste the data by pressing CTRL+V. You have to paste only once.

Similarly, you can type data into a series of cells simultaneously.

While holding down the CTRL key, click all the cells that you want to type the same text (or value) into.
Type the entry, and then press CTRL+ENTER. The text will be added to all the selected cells.

PowerPoint slide for the Color Weak (Blind)

2009-07-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Color blindness runs in my family. My Great-Grandmother -> Grandfather -> Mother -> Brother and now my son are all color blind. Color blindness is an incorrect description of the disorder. People with color-deficient vision are not blind to color, but instead see it different. Nowadays, optometrists call it color weak, which is a much better description and more accurate. My 7-year-old son hates being called color blind as he is not blind at all.

How all this relates to PowerPoint is that I often think of how a slide will look to a color weak person. I found a nice article that describes how a slide might look different to the different types of color weakness. The article also suggests using the Vischeck website to upload and view your slide to check it's readability for the color weak. But if you don’t want to go to all the trouble, just stick with the basics and keep your slides simple with contrasting text and you’ll have no problem.

Format mergefields to be currency

2009-07-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

When doing a mail merge into Word using an Excel file, any field formatted as currency or accounting in Excel does not carry the formatting into Word. Although you can just add a dollar sign prior to the mergefield, it doesn't help when some numbers are whole and others are decimals. Who wants to view the amount they owe as $15.3? I'd prefer the forced placeholder for the cents (decimal places) to see it as $15.30.

Right-click the mergefield and select Edit Field.
Click the Field Codes button in the lower-left corner.
Click behind the mergefield name and then type the switch for a numeric picture (\#).
Use # for optional numbers and 0 (zero) for required numbers.
Click OK and preview your results.

Here's an example how some may look:
MERFIELD Price \# $#,##0.00 = $1,234.56 or $789.00
MERFIELD Price \# $#0.00 = $12.34 or $56.00
MERFIELD Price \# $#,##0 = $1,234 or $567.00

Still confused? Try watching this video to see how it's done.

Tips for everyone!

2009-07-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

I love shortcuts. I love tips that make my life easier. I love to share. Here are some great tips from Microsoft's Crabby Office Lady. She share her favorites in all Microsoft applications.

R.I.P. Office 2000

2009-07-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

Support for Microsoft Office 2000 finally ended yesterday. For many, this doesn't mean much because most people have upgraded to Office 2003 or 2007.

If you haven't yet made the jump to 2007 and you're waiting for the new Office 2010, you can get a peek of what to expect with the launch of the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview. You'll find tons of video of your favorite application.

My suggestion is you don't jump straight from Office 2003 to 2010 as you'll find the learning curve much greater than if you move to Office 2007 first. Office 2010 has a lot of familiar features of 2007, but enhanced. I'm personally impressed with the new slide transitions in PowerPoint as well as the photo and video editing inside the program. If you are currently using Office 2007, you'll find the transition to Office 2010 much easier.

I could go into detail about some of the exciting things coming, but you really should just watch the videos for yourself. You just have to see it to get the full effect.

More info about Office 2010

2009-07-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

You can begin to view the new information about Office 2010 at this web site. http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010. Here's a brief introduction....

See What's New in Microsoft Office 2010

For a quick run-down of some of the changes to come, check out The Complete Guide To Microsoft’s Office 2010 by TechCrunch.

Another Trailer from Office 2010 The Movie

2009-07-09T08:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm getting stoked about it!

Can a University make the switch to Google Apps?

2009-07-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

Learn how Boise State changed to gmail and integrated Google Apps for Education into their campus.

Office 2007: Minimize the Ribbon

2009-07-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Ribbon helps you access more of the commands you need, when you need them. But if you want to see the Ribbon only when you need it, you can minimize it so that only the tab names appear all the time. To minimize the Ribbon in any Microsoft Office program, double-click any tab name, or press CTRL+F1. You can also right-click any tab name for the option to minimize the Ribbon.

Office 2010 The Movie

2009-06-30T06:33:00.000-07:00

Office 2010 has hit the "big" screen. Watch the trailer. http://www.office2010themovie.com

Does Downloading PowerPoint Slides Before the Lecture Lead to Better Student Achievement?

2009-06-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

It's a question often asked. Do you provide handouts BEFORE or AFTER the presentation? Someone finally did a study and you can read the full 10-page study by Jennjou Chen and Tsui-Fang Lin. If you want the quick answer, before is better. The study concludes that you will have better learning by providing handout before the learning presentation.

Here's the full conclusion of the study's authors.

"This study contributes to the literature by exploring the link between downloading PowerPoint slides before classes and students’ learning outcomes. The effects of using downloaded lecture slides on students’ academic performance are statistically significant across models. Our estimation results have shown that downloading lecture PowerPoint slides before classes improves students’ examination performance by 4.62 percent in the least squares model. In addition, after controlling for individual heterogeneity, downloading lecture PowerPoint slides before classes still enhances students’ examination performance by 3.48 percent. Also, for this group of students, the lecture slides effect has been found to be greater than the average attendance effect. In light of the statistically significant and non-trivial effect of downloading lecture PowerPoint slides before classes on students’ examination performance, we suggest that instructors could help students improve their learning outcomes by supplying lecture PowerPoint slides before classes." 

PowerPoint 2007: Add More Levels of Undo

2009-06-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

You can go back farther than the default 20 undos in Microsoft Office PowerPoint to undo up to 150 actions.

With PowerPoint open, click the Office button, and then click PowerPoint Options.
On the Advanced tab, change the Maximum number of undos from the default 20 to any number from 3 to 150.

Sneak Peak at Office 2010

2009-05-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

Some images have leaked showing some of the new user-interface for Microsoft Office 2010. If interested, read this article from ars technica.

OffiSync to bring Google Docs to Word

2009-05-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

Do you prefer the ease of file sharing that Google Docs provides, but wish you could use Word as the editor? Soon, you can. OffiSync will be an add-in toolbar to Word that will allow you to open and save Google documents and collaborate on them or define collaborators from within Word. Sorry Mac users, it's not available for you yet. [Read more about it at Information Week]

MVP of PowerPoint does a presentation makeover

2009-05-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

MVP, Julie Terber, does a case study to make over a presentation for a law student to make her presentation better using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Microsoft says hackers trying to hack PowerPoint users

2009-05-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

You should have downloaded the patch before now, but if you didn't and thought it was no big deal, think again. [Read full article]

Get the 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2) here.

How to bring on Death by PowerPoint: a user's guide

2009-05-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

Rules for borrowing images from the web

2009-05-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

After teaching a PowerPoint session the other day, a student asked, "You suggest good presentation design use lots of images and you showed us how to search for them on the web but, how do I know when I need permission or not to use them?"

Wow, great question! It's an area that can have a lot of gray area depending on it's use. I found this article that give a really good explanation for the rules of Borrowing Images from the Web: An FAQ to know when you need to ask permission and when you don't.

If I tweak this just a bit...

2009-05-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

First, let me say that I'm not a programmer. Nothing against them, I envy their skill, but I do like to tinker with my applications a bit. If you do as well, you may find this article from Inside Office Online interesting. You're no geek, but...

Word 2007: Line Breaks Without Bullets or Numbering

2009-05-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

When you're creating a bulleted or numbered list in Microsoft Office Word or Microsoft Office PowerPoint, you might want an item to appear in the list without a bullet or without incrementing the number. You can start a new line without a bullet by pressing SHIFT+ENTER. This will create a manual line break in the paragraph, but not a new paragraph. The next time you press the ENTER key, the new line will continue the bulleted or numbered list.

Fonts at a conference

2009-04-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I have a warped sense of humor, but this is just funny.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

The Office Ribbon Demystified

2009-04-07T07:21:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder, "why did they get rid of menus and toolbars and turn it into a ribbon?" You're not alone. So many people have asked this question, Microsoft created a video to explain.

Office Casual: How to work with the ribbon

Ribbons tie things together. In this instance, the ribbon ties together related tasks. You can also think of each ribbon as a desk caddy. Each with its own slots for related items, such as paper clips, rubber bands, etc. Like things are kept together in a slot and all tied together with a ribbon. D'oh! You put it that way and it makes sense! I just thought Microsoft was trying to make the changes sound "pretty."

If you have about 75 minutes to spare, watch "The Story of the Ribbon" Windows Movie File. I have a whole new appreciation for the wonderfulness of the Ribbon.

Access 2007: Creating a New Report

2009-04-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Office Access 2007 helps you make sense of complex information by offering easy-to-use interactive design tools that you can use to quickly create rich reports that display sorted, filtered, and grouped information. In addition to the traditional Report Designer (Design view), Office Access 2007 introduces a Layout view, so you can look at your data while you’re authoring the report.

To create a report:

Open, or select in the navigation pane, a table, a form, or a query.
On the Create tab, in the Reports section, click Report. Access automatically includes all the fields in the object selected and opens the report in Layout view.

Introduce Your Possee in a Presentation

2009-03-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

We are all vain and like to see our face or our friends' faces. Take a look at Twitter Mosaic or the pictures of friends in Facebook or MySpace. You can do a professional version of this in your PowerPoint presentations. Here's an example...

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by ranellem

First, I find it easier to break the slide up into parts with a grid. You can turn on the default guides or make adjustments for the number of pictures you have. I right-clicked a blank area of my screen in PowerPoint 2007 for the context menu and selected Grid and guides... I chose to display the drawing guides. You'll get guides for a vertical and horizontal center. Hold [Ctrl] to drag a copy of the guide to a new location. Once I had my custom guides, I was ready to add the pictures.

Insert the first picture. Size and/or crop the picture to fit the first box. Continue adding the remaining pictures. You'll see in my example that I only had 10 headshots, so filled the other two grids with text.
Apply an appropriate animation to the first headshot. I chose the Wipe animation. Be sure to modify the start of the animation to After Previous. In necessary, you can also change the direction of the animation. Continue for the remaining headshots. I chose to have them randomly appear, but you can do it in order if you prefer.

Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day

2009-03-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. My pick for this year is the Crabby Office Lady. If you haven't read her blog yet, you must. She's a great resource for me and a fun read. Not your typical tech-blogger with a lot of tech talk. She presents information, good and bad, in a very fun way. I always learn something from her when I read her posts. Even though she writes as the Crabby Office Lady, her real name is Annik Stahl.