ASTD TechKnowledge 2009

I'm attending the ASTD TechKnowledge conference and expo. It's all about training and learning technology. Lots of great information that I hope to share and implement when I return. Hate to leave, it's in the sixties here and WARM! I'm in Las Vegas. Oh well, I didn't get enough sledding done, so I'll have to go home for the snow.

I can save money and energy? Count me in!

Just got a note from our Chancellor, Harvey Perlman, about saving energy. I know this has nothing to do with Microsoft Office, but I'm guilty of the same thing as our Chancellor. I'll turn off my computer, but leave both monitors on and other things plugged in. I, too, will try to make a more concerted effort to turn it all off to save electricity. View this video by Jerry Hudgins, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for more great tips. N The Know - How can I cut energy costs on a tight budget?

Word 2007: Removing Comments and Changes from a Document

Here’s one I hear all the time. How do I send a Microsoft Office Word document without the comments or tracked changes? Document Inspector eliminates this worry.

1. Click the Office icon, point to Prepare, and then click Inspect Document.
   
2. By default, all check boxes are selected in Document Inspector. Clear the check box next to any items that you don't want Document Inspector to look for, and then click Inspect.
   
3. Remove items not for publication. Document Inspector indicates what it finds in your document, so you can choose what you want to remove, and then confidently publish your document.

Example slide effects for PowerPoint

Looking for some really nice templates in PowerPoint that will allow you to just insert your own text and have some cool designs and animation pre-programmed? Check out these downloads on the Office.Microsoft.com website.

ARTICLE: How To Become A Google Power User

I know this isn't Microsoft, but it's just such a great article with tips for everyone on the computer.

"Searching the Internet for relevant information can be frustrating at times. More advanced researchers know tons of little tricks of the trade, getting them the desired results fast. But for the rest of the population, it isn't always easy to nail down information they are looking for.

If you find yourself amongst the second group, you might like the following tips and hints on how to find information fast." [Read the entire article for tips and hints]

Written on 12/01/2008 by Monika Mundell. Monika Mundell is a passionate freelance writer and pro-blogger. Her blog Freelance Writing helps new freelance writers to get started in this exciting industry. If you like to work with Monika, feel free to visit her Portfolio site.

Photo Credit: Google

PowerPoint 2007: Reduce File Sizes by Changing Image Formats

The Compress Pictures button in Microsoft Office PowerPoint can often reduce your .ppt files by up to 50 percent. But that can still leave you with large files, especially if your images have been created from .png files. You can save even more space by changing them to .gif or .jpg formats. (Note: The .png format is more flexible than the other file formats. Flattening to .jpg or .gif reduces flexibility.) Here’s how to reduce file sizes:

1. Save your PowerPoint file as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which creates an .htm file and a folder of the same name. This folder will contain all the images from the presentation.
2. Open the folder, and sort it by size to reveal which files are the largest.
3. Locate the largest images in your presentation. They may have been scaled, so they might look smaller than the saved image.
4. In PowerPoint, make sure that the image isn't grouped.
5. Select the image.
6. On the Picture Tools menu, in the Adjust section, click Compress Pictures.
7. Right-click the image, and then click Save as Picture.
8. From the Save as type menu, select .jpg or .gif (if you need to use transparency effects), and then save the image.
9. Delete the original image from your presentation, and reload the saved image at its original place.
10. Regroup the images if necessary.

Another way to compress the images is to use an image editing tool like Microsoft Digital Image Suite. This tool gives you more image compression options and can save you yet more space.

Excel 2007: Change the Case of Text

Converts text to uppercase.

=UPPER(text or cell reference of text)

Converts all uppercase letters in a text string to lowercase.

=LOWER(text or cell reference of text)

Capitalizes the first letter in a text string and any other letters in text that follow any character other than a letter. Converts all other letters to lowercase letters.

=PROPER(text or cell reference of text)