PowerPoint slide for the Color Weak (Blind)

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

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.

1. Right-click the mergefield and select Edit Field.
2. Click the Field Codes button in the lower-left corner.
3. Click behind the mergefield name and then type the switch for a numeric picture (\#).
4. Use # for optional numbers and 0 (zero) for required numbers.
5. 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!

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

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

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

Yeah, I'm getting stoked about it!

Can a University make the switch to Google Apps?

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

Office 2007: Minimize the Ribbon

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.