Office 97 Tips

NOBODY'S PERFECT, BUT YOU CAN BE

What's perfect? A circle or a square should be. And they will be if you hold down Shift+Ctrl while you draw an ellipse or a rectangle. This works in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

USING A WATERMARK

We've covered watermarks in Word 97 before, but many subscribers have requested more detail. A watermark is usually text or graphics that's imprinted in stationery by the paper manufacturer. In Word 97, you can add your own watermarks to documents. Here's a way to create a graphic watermark on every page of a document.

First, choose View|Header and Footer. In the Header and Footer toolbar, click the Show/Hide Document Text button. Now choose Insert|Picture|ClipArt and select your picture.

Now size the picture and locate it where you want it to appear on the page. While the picture is still selected in your document, choose Format|Picture. When the Format Picture dialog box opens, click the Wrapping tab and click None. Next, click the Picture tab, then click on the down arrow at the right side of the Color list box and, when the list expands, choose Watermark and click OK. If you look at your document in Print Preview now, you'll see that watermark.

LIGHTEN UP!

In the last tip, we showed you how to add a watermark to a Word 97 document. This time we'll show you how to modify or delete it. Suppose you insert a watermark, then find it's a bit too dark on the printout and obscures your text. To make it lighter, choose View|Header and Footer. Select the watermark by clicking it once. Choose Format|Picture and click the Picture tab. Now adjust the brightness and contrast to make the picture dimmer and click OK. To delete a watermark completely, choose View|Header and Footer, select the watermark and press Delete.

WHAT ARE THE PERCENTAGES?

When you use percentages in Excel, enter the numbers as decimals. That is, if you mean to enter 20 percent, enter 0.2. When you format a cell as Percentage, any numbers in the cell are multiplied by 100. Try this: Enter .2 in cell A1, then select that cell and choose Format|Cells. Now click the Number tab, then choose Percentage and click OK. The cell will now display 20.00%.

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

After you add some drawings to a document, you might decide that the drawing needs to be bigger or smaller than it is. To resize a drawing without messing up its position or aspect ratio, click the drawing to select it, then hold down Ctrl+Shift while you use the mouse to resize it. This will resize the drawing from the center out and keep the aspect ratio the same so the drawing doesn't become distorted.

GET ME REWRITE!

If you'd like a little help when you, say, write a letter, get the Office Assistant to come to your aid. To make this happen, open the Office Assistant by choosing Help|Microsoft Word Help. When the Assistant opens click Options. Click the Options tab, then select the Help with Wizards check box and click OK. Close the Assistant and then open a new document. Type in

Dear Senator Porkbarrel:

and press Enter. The Assistant will open, offering you help writing a letter. This works if you enter Dear Name or To Name followed by a colon or comma. The Assistant will only appear after you press Enter.

If you want to write letters your own inimitable way without any interruption from the Assistant, just follow the procedure described above but deselect the Help with Wizards check box.

FONTASIA

If you don't have all the fonts that you should have with Office 97, chances are they didn't get loaded in your initial setup. To add the fonts, click Start|Settings|Control Panel. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon. When the Add/Remove dialog box opens click the Install/Uninstall tab, then locate and select Microsoft Office 97. Now click Add/Remove and you'll be prompted to insert your Microsoft Office CD. Insert the CD and the Office Setup program will open. Click Add/Remove and select Office tools. Now click Change Option and select Microsoft True Type Fonts. Click OK and when you get back to the previous dialog box, click Continue.

When the fonts have been installed, click OK. This takes you back to the Add/Remove dialog box. Click OK again to close the dialog box. Now you can close Control Panel.

THE SHADOW KNOWS

Want to use shadowed and other special fonts in Word. Here's what you do: Choose Format|Font, then click the Font tab. To produce shadowed characters in your selected font, select the Shadow check box, then click OK. While you're at it, you might want to try some of the other special effects.

AUTOTEXT BUTTONS

Word lets you assign common phrases, such as "To Whom It May Concern:" or "Yours truly" to buttons on your toolbar. If you commonly type one of these phrases over and over, this feature can be really handy. If you'd like to assign a few phrases to buttons in your Word 97 toolbar, choose Tools|Customize and then click on the Commands tab. In the list box, locate and click on AutoText. Locate the phrase you're interested in assigning to a button, and use the mouse to drag it to a toolbar.

With the button on the toolbar, you can add the phrase to a document by simply clicking on the button.

IN CLOSING

You can very quickly add a Close icon to your Word 97 toolbar. Just choose Tools|Customize and click on the Commands tab. Under the File category, you'll see Close and the closed folder icon associated with it. Use the mouse to drag the icon to the toolbar (a good location is right next to the Open icon). Now click on Close to send the Customize dialog box away until you need it again.

A CLOSE BUTTON FOR EXCEL

If you'd like to add a Close button to your Excel toolbar, choose Tools|Customize and click on the Commands tab. Under File, you'll see an entry named Close. Use the mouse to drag the Close icon to the toolbar. The new button will be named Close. Click on Close in the Customize dialog box.

A CLOSE ICON FOR EXCEL

If you place a Close button in your Excel toolbar as we suggested in the last tip, you may want to assign an icon to it.

To do this, choose Tools|Customize and click on Commands. Now click on the Close button in the toolbar and then (in the Customize dialog box) click on Modify Selection. From the menu, choose Change Button Image and select an icon. Click on Close to get rid of the dialog box.

If you'd like to use only the icon (with no text) click on Modify Selection again, and this time choose Default Style and then click on Close.

SAVING NORMAL.DOT

Word has a template file called Normal.dot that is the basis for the default new, blank file. A number of people have experienced problems saving Normal.dot. Here's how it works.

If you open Normal.dot, you can make changes and then save the file by choosing File|Save. If you start with a new document, make style changes, and then try to save the file as Normal.dot using File|Save As, Word will refuse to save the file.

If you really need to do this, you can save the file as Normal2.dot and then later delete or rename the original Normal.dot and replace it with your new file by renaming Normal2.dot to Normal.dot.

KEEPING YOUR OLD OFFICE

If you'd like to install Microsoft Office 97 and still retain (for a while anyway) your old Office 4.x or Office 95, all your have to do is tell Office 97 Setup not to delete your old version (you'll be asked--just watch for the message).

Because Office 97 will be placed into the Registry, double- clicking a document icon will open the appropriate Office 97 application. However, you can still open an older (Office 4.x or Office 95) application and then open documents by choosing File|Open.

Note, too, that the new ClipArt Gallery will be used by all your installed versions of Office. That is, if you choose to insert ClipArt into a Word 6 document, you'll be presented with the Office 97 version of ClipArt.

REPLACE AND COUNT

Here's a little Word trick you might find useful. If your document consists of a bunch of different topic headings that all have the same style, you can count the number of topics in a document by simply counting the occurrences of the style, provided that style isn't used for anything else.

Choose Edit|Replace. When the Replace dialog box opens, click on More. Now click in the Find What text entry box and then click on Format|Style. Choose the style you want to count.

Next, click in the Replace With text entry box, click on Format, and repeat the above procedure. Click on Replace All and Word will replace the style with itself leaving the document intact. After making all the replacements, Word will report the number of replacements made. This number represents the number of occurrences of that style in the document. Click on Close to do away with the dialog box.

SETTING EXCEL'S PRINT AREA

When you need to print a small worksheet, the best approach is to print only the cells that you're actually using. To set the area you want to print, use the mouse to highlight the needed cells. Now choose File|Print Area|Set Print Area.

When you choose File|Print (or press Ctrl-P) you'll print only the selected area.

WORKSHEETS IN WORD 97

Want to insert an Excel worksheet into your Word document? (You must have Excel installed on your system in order for this to work.) Click on the Insert Microsoft Excel Worksheet button on the Word toolbar. Click on the drop down menu to select the number of cells you want to insert. Once the cells are inserted into the Word document, you can size it to suit yourself.

If the Insert Microsoft Excel Worksheet isn't in your toolbar, you can put it there very easily. In Word, choose Tools|Customize and click on Commands. Select Insert under Categories and locate Insert Excel Spreadsheet under Commands. Now drag the icon to the toolbar and close the dialog box.

FANCY POWERPOINT ANIMATION

Want to use some really cool animation in a PowerPoint slide? If so, read on.

In PowerPoint 97, you can make a Clip Art figure come together a little at a time. To check this out, insert a Clip Art picture. Click on the picture to select it and choose Draw|Ungroup. Click on Yes when the dialog box appears and then click somewhere away from the drawing to deselect it. Now click on Custom Animation in the Animation effects floating toolbar. (It's the only one available at this point).

When the Custom Animation dialog box opens, you will see a list of items labeled Freeform 1, Freeform 2, etc. Their names depend on what the original objects were; for example an oval will be called Oval 1, a rectangle will be named Rectangle 1, text will be called Text 1, etc.

To animate them all, click on the first one in the list and then hold down Shift key and click on the last one. Now select the Animate radio button and then select the radio button labeled Automatically.

To see how the animation will look, click on Preview. When you finish with your selections, click on OK. Now you can see how your animation looks in a slide show. Just choose View|Slide Show and sit back and watch.

AUTOFORMAT IN WORD 97

Word has a great feature called AutoFormat. Customizing this feature lets you tell Word what to format automatically as you type. To investigate this feature, choose Tools|AutoCorrect and then click on the AutoFormat As You Type tab.

Next, select the check boxes that apply to features you want Word to format automatically as you type. After you make all your selections, click on OK.

WORKING THE WORK MENU

The Work menu allows a list of files to be opened off a menu, added to with a menu command or removed with a keystroke.To add the Work menu to your menus do the following steps.

1. 1. Open the customise dialog box by choosing Customise from the Tools menu.
2. 2. Click the tab called Commands, and in the listbox called Categories scroll down towards the end and select the item called Built-in Menus.
3. 3. On the other list box a list of built-in menu names will appear. Scroll down untill one called Work is visible.
4. 4. Click on the item called Work and without releasing the left mouse button move the mouse pointer towards the menu bar. As the mouse pointer moves over the main menu bar the closest menu will drop down and the mouse pointer will change to the shape of the letter I. Releasing the left button here will place a new menu item called Work where the I cursor is.

To place the Work menu on the File menu move the mouse pointer until the File menu is opened, and move down the File menu until the black bar is where you want the new menu to be. Release the left mouse button.

To add the current document to this menu choose Add To Work Menu from the Work menu, to remove a document press Control + Alt + minus keys and then select the menu item to be removed.

PREVIEWING DOCUMENTS

Always check your document in Print preview before printing. If you end up with a last page with only a few words, use the Shrink-to-fit button. If it can, it will change font size and spacing to reduce your document by one page.

NEED A DATE

Inserting a date: To insert a date in your current document, you can use the Insert Date button on your toolbar (It looks like a calendar.) If the default date format is not the one you like, you can change it easily. Go to Insert | Date and Time. This shows many different Date/Time formats. Click the one you will use the most, and then click the Default button. Now when you click the Insert Date button, it will insert today's date in that format. (If you occasionally use another format, go to the Insert menu, and insert it manually.)

QUICK TABS

Select the paragraphs to which you want to add a tab stop, then set your tab. You have the following choices:

1. To set a left-align tab, click on the ruler wherever you want the tab to be.
2. To set a right-align, centre, or decimal tab stop, click the tab button (on the far left of the horizontal ruler) until the type of tab you want appears; then click on the ruler to place the tab stop. For more precision, you can set tab stops by choosing Format|Tabs.

GRAMMER CHECK OPTIONS

If you'd like Word to run a grammar check on your documents, you should decide what type of checking you want done. Choose Tools|Options, then click the Grammar tab in the Options dialog box. Click the down arrow at the right side of the Use Grammar and Style Tools list box to expand the list. Now choose the type of testing you'd like to use. Choose the one that seems to best fit a particular document.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Word 97 offers new special effects for your text. If you're looking for a new way to make a headline or title stand out, try the following:

1. Select the text you want to change.
2. Choose Format|Font.
3. In the middle column under Effects, choose the effect that you want (you can see the effect in the Preview box): Outline, Shadow, Emboss, or Engrave.
4. Click OK.

The larger the text, the better these special effects look in print. For documents designed to be viewed on-screen, check out the Animation effects (choose Format|Fonts and click the Animation tab).

AUTO-CORRECT FUTURE MISTAKES

1. In your document, click the typo with the right mouse button.
2. In the menu that pops up, select AutoCorrect.
3. Select the correct spelling of the word from the pop-up menu.

CHANGE YOUR NAME

When you install Word 97, the program automatically adds your name to its AutoText feature so that whenever you type the first few characters of your name, Word offers to complete your name for you. If this is annoying, you can remove your name from AutoText

1. Choose Tools|AutoCorrect.
2. Click the AutoText tab.
3. In the Enter AutoText Entries Here box, find and then select your name.
4. Click Delete.
5. Click OK.

QUICK AND EASY TABLES

Word 97 lets you draw a table, like you'd draw it with paper and pencil:

1. Click on the Tables and Borders button on the Standard toolbar, or choose Table|Draw Table. The Tables and Borders toolbar appears.
2. Click on the Draw Table button; then move the pen pointer to the desired location and drag to draw a box that's roughly as large as you want your table to be.
3. Still using the pen, break the table into rows and columns by drawing them. (Each row can have a different number of columns).
4. If you need another row, use the pen to split an existing row lengthwise. If you need another column, use the pen to split an existing column.
5. When you're done, click on Esc and use the mouse to resize the new columns.

FINDING TOOLBARS

Click the right mouse button anywhere above or below the main editing window to Display a list of toolbars, then select the toolbar that seems most likely to have the button you want.

FORMAT PAINTER

You can use the Format Painter--that little paintbrush on the Standard toolbar--to copy formatting from words or an entire paragraph, and "brush" that formatting on to other words or paragraphs. This feature is great when you've spent the better part of your day fiddling with fonts, spacing, sizing, and so on, and now have everything just the way you want it. To copy formatting, follow these steps:

1. Select the words containing the formatting you want to copy. If you want to copy paragraph formatting (such as alignment, numbering, indents, and so on), select the entire paragraph.
2. Click the Format Painter. (Double-click the Format Painter if you plan to copy the selected formatting to more than one text item or paragraph.) When you click Format Painter, a little paintbrush appears beside the mouse pointer.
3. Using the paintbrush pointer, select the target text. You can press Esc at any time to turn off Format Painter and restore the regular mouse pointer.

STYLE GALLERY

If you want a new look for your entire document, you can change everything--fonts, spacing between paragraphs, heading styles, and so on--simply by changing the style template that your document uses. The easiest way to change the style template--and to see how your document looks in that style--is to use Word's Style Gallery.

1. Choose Format|Style Gallery.
2. In the Template box, select a template. In the preview box, you see what your document would look like if you switch to the selected template
3. When you find a look you like, click OK.

USE THE SPIKE

Suppose you're working in Word and you don't like the way you've placed a picture. If it begins to look as though the best approach is to cut the picture and finish the text, you can choose Edit|Cut to cut the picture.

This places the picture into the Clipboard for later use. Unfortunately, if you then cut or copy something else, you lose your picture.

This might be a good time to use the Spike. To delete the picture and put it on the Spike, select it and then press Ctrl-F3. The picture will remain on the Spike until you need it again.

To paste the picture and remove it from the Spike, click where you want the picture to appear and press Ctrl-Shift-F3. This will completely clear the Spike and paste all its contents into the document.

GETTING CONVERTED

Since much of the world expresses its temperatures in centigrade (or Celsius) and we in the USA most often use Fahrenheit, having a way to quickly switch between the two can be helpful. Excel 97 comes to the rescue with a command named CONVERT. To see how it works, type 68 into cell A1. Now move to cell A3 and type in
=CONVERT(A1, "F", "C")
and press Enter. This formula converts Fahrenheit (F) to Centigrade (C) and the result should be 20.

If you need to convert from Centigrade to Fahrenheit, type in
=CONVERT (A1, "C", "F")
and press Enter. If you left 68 in A1, the new result should be 154.4.

Note: if the Convert function doesn't work for you, choose Tools|Add-Ins. Make sure the Analysis ToolPak option is turned on and click on OK.

YOUR USAGE IS GRATE

Word 97 will locate many instances of misused words. For example, if you should type "The new restaurant is grate," Word's grammar checker will suggest that you use "great" instead. To use the grammar checker, choose Tools|Spelling and Grammar.

If you should type, "Old McBarf is good ail," Word will suggest "ale" in place of ail. And the sentence "The bare walked through the woods" will result in the suggestion that you use "bear" rather than "bare."

Don't depend too heavily on this feature though, Word won't bother with "Your fireplace has a beautiful great." Nor will it make any suggestions about "The bear walked bear through the woods."

ALL AT ONCE IN EXCEL

If you have data on more than one worksheet in a workbook, you can check the spelling on all of them at the same time. All you have to go is right-click one of the worksheet tabs. This opens a menu from which you choose Select All Sheets. Now, press F7 to begin the spell check

VISIBLE SELECTION

In Excel 97 it's very easy to see which cells are selected--Excel highlights the row(s) and column(s) in which the selected cells reside.

To see how this works, click on Cell D9. Now look at the D column at the top of the sheet and then check the 9 row at the left of the sheet. You'll see that both are highlighted.

ACCESSING FROM ACCESS

You may sometimes find it helpful to access a Word or Excel document to provide additional information about an item in an Access table or form. The easiest way to do this is to use Hyperlinks. And the easiest way to add Hyperlinks is during the design phase.

When you're designing a table, you can add a Hyperlink field. Add the field even if you're not sure you need it.

To add a Hyperlink field to a table that you're designing, click on the spot where you want to add the field and choose Insert|Hyperlink Column.

CUSTOMIZING AUTOCORRECT

AutoCorrect is a handy feature, but sometimes it makes changes that you don't really want. For example, if you type something such as
Sub. Abbreviation of Subway
AutoCorrect will automatically capitalize the first letter after the period as shown here. To prevent this, choose Tools|AutoCorrect and click on Exceptions. Now click on the First Letter tab and enter sub. into the Don't Capitalize After text entry box. Click on OK and then click on OK again in the AutoCorrect dialog box.

Now you can type
Sub. abbreviation of Subway
all you want.

DRAG AND DROP

You probably know that you can select text (words, sentences, paragraphs), and then grab the selected text with your mouse and move it to a new location. Hold down the mouse button during the drag, and release it when you reach its new home.

Word also lets you copy (as opposed to cut) selected text using the drag-and-drop method. To do this, all you have to do is select the text and then hold down the Ctrl while you drag the text to a new location.

MUSICAL SLIDES

If you'd like to add some background sound to your PowerPoint slide presentation, choose Insert|Movies and Sounds|Play CD Audio Track. When you insert the CD sound object, PowerPoint will open a dialog box in which you can set the playing conditions (number of tracks, loop).

With the CD sound object in place, all you have to do is start your slide show and double-click on the object's icon.

ANIMATING MUSICAL SLIDES

In the last tip, we showed you how to insert a CD sound into a PowerPoint slide (choose Insert|Movies and Sounds|Play CD Audio Track). This time, let's look at how you can automate the CD.

Right-click on the CD Sound icon and choose Custom Animation from the menu. Now click on the Timing tab and then select the Animate radio button. If you want to fully automate the CD sound, select the Automatically radio button and then use the spin box to set the number of seconds you want to wait before the sound begins (zero is OK). After you make your choices, click on OK.

Since the previous event is the opening of the slide, the CD will begin playing x (whatever you chose) seconds after you open your first slide.

TURN URLS TO HYPERLINKS

Unlike Word or PowerPoint, Access doesn't automatically treat URLs or e-mail addresses as live links when they're included in regular Text columns. When you create a new table, make sure you designate a field (or column) as Hyperlink instead of Text, if it's going to contain such data. But that doesn't help you when you import old tables or data from other sources, where columns have been predesignated as Text.

To overcome that, open the database using File*Open, click on the table you wish to modify, click the Design button, find the Data Type column, then right-click the column you need to modify. Click the drop-down arrow and select Hyperlink. Next time you open the table, the data within that column will appear as live links.

IMPORT FROM EXCHANGE OR OUTLOOK

Want to use data from Outlook in your Access 97 database? Download the free Exchange/Outlook Wizard and you'll be able to run queries on your mail folders and address books (such as all your clients who live in Texas). The Wizard will add itself to the Tools/Add-Ins menu.

MAKE THE INTERNET CONNECTION

When you type anything that looks like a Web URL or an e-mail address (www.anything.com or anything@anywhere) in Word 97 or Outlook, the words turn into a hyperlink that launches your default Web browser when you click it. But if you mistype an Internet address, you can't edit it as if it were plain text. Instead, right-click the link, select Hyperlink, then choose Edit Hyperlink.

HTML FOR BEGINNERS

Assuming you enabled the 'Web pages' option when you installed Office 97, you can save and open HTML documents in Word. To turn a document into a Web page, select File*Save As HTML. Alternatively, you can create Web pages from scratch by selecting File*New and clicking the Web Pages tab. Select Web Page Wizard to create all kinds of Web pages, including registration forms, survey questionnaires, and plain old home pages.

RECYCLE YOUR LETTERS

Let the Letter Wizard help you reuse the format or content of existing letters. Open the document that's your model for all letters, then select Tools*Letter Wizard. The Wizard interprets the document and enables you to change key parts of the letter (such as address information). With a little work and some occasional updates, one letter to Mom can last an entire year.

FILE FORMAT AND SUBSTANCE

Word 97 files are roughly twice the size of similar Word 6 or 7 documents, and can't be read by those earlier versions. To keep file bloat down and backward compatibility up, select File*Save As and select Word 6.0/95 or even Rich Text Format (RTF), which is about a third the size of the Word 7.0 format. You will, however, lose major formatting elements such as headers, footers, and page numbers. To set your preferred format as the default, select File*Save As, and under the Options button, pick a universal format under Save Word Files As.

WORD DOES WEB

Open Web pages directly in Word 97 using Word's Web toolbar. Right-click any toolbar and select Web from the list. Type in or paste the Web address into the Document box. Office will open your browser and take you to the appropriate page.

I DON'T NEED NO HELP WITH MY GRAMMER!

Word 97 is a taskmaster if your style of grammar is not standard. If you don't mind sentence fragments or clichés in your writing, select Tools*Options and click the Spelling & Grammar tab. Pick your own writing style, such as Casual or Technical. You can even create a custom grammar checker under Tools, Options, Settings. Remove or check off any of the 20-plus options you find there.

GRAMMER CHECK? WAIT UNTIL I'M FINISHED

If squiggly colored lines annoy you while you're writing, select Tools*Options*Spelling & Grammar and click to remove the check marks from the Check spelling as you type and Check grammar as you type boxes. To correct grammar or spelling after you've finished writing, use the options in the Tools menu.

DOCUMENT BY COMMITTEE

Every paper document that's sent around for comments returns with scribbled margin notes and a sheaf of Post-Its. Word 97 has a better way. In a collaborative document, you can place electronic yellow notes by first selecting the text you're critiquing. Open the Insert menu's Comment option and type your comment in the window. When you're finished, click Close, and you won't be able to miss the highlighted text.

If you're the unlucky recipient of comments, first open the Reviewing toolbar (right-click any toolbar and select Reviewing). To review comments, click the Next Comment icon. Hold your cursor over the highlighted text and a box will pop up with the comment.

STOCK TICKER INFORMATION, FROM WEB TO EXCEL

Excel's Web Queries can pull information such as stock tickers from the Web directly into a worksheet. Select Data*Get External Data and click Run Web Query. In the Query Files dialog box, double-click Detailed Stock Quote by PC Quote, Inc. Allocate a place for the quote and enter the symbol for the company you're tracking.

EXCEL OPENS WEB PAGES

Use the regular File*Open process to open pages directly from the Web in Excel. Enter the URL of the Web page in the File*Open dialog box's Filename box. Excel will automatically convert the page into a worksheet.

PUT A HYPERLINK IN YOUR CELL

Unlike Word, Excel won't format pre-entered text as links. But you're not doomed to workbooks full of URLs for your links: To create hyperlinks with meaningful names, make the hyperlink into a formula.

Select a cell and click the toolbar's Paste Function button. In the Paste Function dialog box's Function category, select Lookup & Reference. Under Function name, select HYPERLINK. Click OK. In the HYPERLINK dialog box, enter a Web address and meaningful name for the link. Click OK. The named link appears as underlined text in your workbook.

CHARTS WITH ART

Want to spruce up Excel charts? Your options are many. Right-click any element and select the Format option. Under the Patterns tab, experiment with Fill Effects textures and click OK twice to make a selection. Use this technique to add an eye-catching background to a bar chart: Click on the plot area behind the bars, select Format Plot Area, and under the Picture tab, select an appropriate graphic.

TILT YOUR HEADER

You can fit more text into an Excel 97 column header if it's angled at 45 degrees. And the new Rotate text tool makes it a cinch. Select the column header cells, right-click the selection, and choose Format cells. Click the Alignment tab, set Orientation to 45 degrees and click OK.

PRINT DISCONTINUOUS BLOCKS OF CELLS

Save a tree: Print only the relevant parts of big workbooks. Select View*Page Break Preview, hold down , and select only the cells you want to print. Then select File*Print Area*Set Print Area, and click OK.

HYPERLINK TO OFFICE 97 AND WEB LINKS

In Word and PowerPoint, it's incredibly easy to insert text hyperlinks (like those we find on Web sites) to link your documents to Web pages or to other documents on your local network or hard drive. First, highlight the words for the link and press Ctrl-K. In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, enter the URL or file name you want to link to, or click on Browse to look around until you find it. If your browser is running, load the Web page you want to link to and switch to the browser from the Insert Hyperlink box. This puts the Web page's address into the Link To box, and you don't have to type a word.

HYPERLINK TO OUTLOOK INFORMATION

You can embed links in Word or PowerPoint documents that take you to specific Outlook modules. Highlight the text you want to designate as a hyperlink, press -K, and enter one of the following codes under the 'Link to file or URL' area in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box:

TO LINK TOENTER THIS

• the Inboxoutlook: inbox
• the Contacts listoutlook: contacts
• the Calendaroutlook: calendar
• a mailbox folderoutlook: foldername\subfolder(for example, outlook: deleted items)
• a specific message in your mail folderoutlook: inbox/~message subject
• a specific contact in your Contacts folderoutlook: contacts/~contact name

HYPERLINK USING GRAPHICS

You can't have image maps in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents, but you can add hyperlinks to graphics so that you're whisked away to a Web site or another document when you click on them. Select the graphic, press Ctrl-K, and in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, enter the URL or file name you want to link to (or click Browse to find it). If your browser is running, load the page you want to link to and switch to the browser from the Insert Hyperlink box. This inserts the Web page's address into the Link To box.

FTP 101

Do you upload or download a lot of files to and from FTP sites? Office 97's File Open dialog box does the job for you. Assuming you have TCP/IP running (that is, you're connected to the Internet), select File Open and click on the arrow next to the Look In box. Right at the bottom of the selections, you'll see the option to add any FTP site you like, whether it's anonymous FTP or something that requires a password. You can even save your password for later use, if you wish.

MOVING OUT OF THE OLD OFFICE

Did you install Microsoft Office 97 while leaving a copy of either Microsoft Office 4.x or Microsoft Office 95 still installed for a test period? When you're ready to get rid of that older version of Microsoft Office, uninstall it instead of deleting it. Insert the Microsoft Office 97 installation CD and open it. Locate and open the ValuPack folder (by double-clicking on the icon). Now locate the Offclean folder and double-click on its icon to open it. Double-click on Offcln97.exe to run it. This program will lead you through the steps necessary to delete your old Microsoft Office installation.

This should not bother any of your data, but copy that data to floppy disks anyway. Why take a chance?

SELECT AND ZAP

There's no point in fooling around when you need to get rid of some text permanently. The quick way is to select the text and press Delete.

To select a word, double-click on it. To select a sentence, click and drag the mouse across the text. To select an entire paragraph, triple-click on it.

GRAMMAR SCHOOL

If you look through the default list of AutoCorrect options (Tools|AutoCorrect and click on the AutoCorrect tab), you'll find more than just misspelled words--there are also phrases that need correction. For example, you'll find that "could of been" will be automatically replaced by "could have been."

So whenever you run across an incorrect phrase that you find yourself typing now and then, add it to AutoCorrect.

Here's a little AutoCorrect refresher: To add a word or phrase to AutoCorrect, choose Tools|AutoCorrect, select the AutoCorrect tab, click on the Replace text entry box, and type the text you want corrected for you. Now press the Tab key to get to the With text entry box. Type in the correct word or phrase and click on OK.

MOVING BETWEEN PROGRAMS

Let's say you have a paragraph or two in a Word document that you'd like to quickly place into an Excel worksheet. You can copy and paste the text by selecting it, pressing Ctrl-C to copy it, moving to an Excel document, picking a spot for the text, and pressing Ctrl-V to paste it.

Another approach is to use drag and drop. To do this, position Word and Excel on the screen at the same time. Run both programs and right-click on the Windows 95 taskbar. When the menu opens, choose Tile Horizontally.

Now select the text you want to move, hold down the Ctrl key (you want to copy the text, not move it) and use the mouse to drag the selection to the spot in your Excel worksheet where you want the text to appear. Release the mouse button, then the Ctrl key.

This approach is probably the easiest if you plan to copy numerous selections to Excel.

ALIGNING POWERPOINT OBJECTS

When you have a group of objects on a PowerPoint slide, you may want to align all of them so that they fall into the general categories of left, center, or right. Unfortunately, some users find this procedure difficult. It isn't difficult; it's just that it requires two steps.

Let's say you have three randomly placed objects on your slide and you'd like to place the top one on the left, the center one in the center, and the bottom one on the right.

You need to tell PowerPoint what kind of alignment you want to use now. So click on Draw (at the bottom left of the PowerPoint window) and choose Align or Distribute|Relative To Slide. Now you're ready to click on the top object to select it.

Once the object is selected, click on Draw and choose Align or Distribute. When the submenu opens, choose Align Left, Center, or Right--or even Top, Middle, or Bottom).

SPEEDING UP YOUR ACCESS FILES

If you have a large database from which you primarily read data, you may never need to compact it. However, a database that you constantly write data to, and delete data from, will soon become extremely fragmented; and you may begin to notice that it doesn't run as fast as it did in the old days.

What you need to do is compact those fragmented Access database files. Here's how:
Close the database you want to compact. Choose Tools|Database Utilities|Compact Database. When the dialog box opens, select the file you want to compact, and Access will automatically assign a new name to the output file. Click on Compact and then click on Save to save your new compacted file.

If you want to save back to the original file name, you can make the change here (in the Save dialog box). Type in the new (original) name and click on Save. Access will warn you that you're about to overwrite your original file.

NEED AN ANTONYM?

You've probably used Word's Thesaurus to look up synonyms. It works well. But did you know you can also often use it to locate antonyms?

Select a word and then choose Tools|Language|Thesaurus. The Thesaurus will display your selected word and a list of synonyms. Look in the list on the left side of the Thesaurus dialog box. If you see Related Items, select it and click on Look Up. In some cases, you'll get Antonyms on the list. If you do, select it to see the list of words.

EXCEL CELL-ECTION

You know how to select a single cell in Excel--just click on the cell. And you probably know how to select a range of cells by holding down the mouse button as you drag across the cells you want to select.

Don't ignore the keyboard though--it's frequently more efficient to click on the first cell and then hold down the Shift key while you use the arrow keys to mark your cell range selection.

THE CASE OF THE MISSING TOOLBAR

If a toolbar is missing, chances are you accidentally right-clicked on a button and then deselected it. But, however it got lost, it's lost. To get it back, choose View|Toolbars and select the missing toolbar from the menu.

Alternatively, assuming you're not missing all the toolbars, right- click on an existing toolbar to open the toolbar menu.

VALIDATE YOUR EXCEL DATA

Let's say you have a worksheet into which a number of people will enter data. As a means of minimizing errors, you can use Excel's data validation feature to set limits on the type of data that gets entered. For example, one column of your worksheet might need a date entry.

To ensure that a usable date gets entered, select the column you want to use for date entry and then choose Data|Validation. When the Data Validation dialog box opens, click on the Settings tab. Now click on the down arrow at the right of the Allow list box to expand the list and select Date from the list.

Next, click on the down arrow at the right of the Data list box and choose Between from the expanded list. Under Start Date, you can enter 1/1/97, and under End Date type 12/31/97. Click on OK to close the dialog box.

To check out your changes, select a cell in your Date column and type in something like 1/1/95. Excel will open an error dialog box telling you that you've attempted an invalid entry. You can choose to click on Retry, or you can click on Cancel to forget the whole thing.

MORE VALIDATION

In the last tip we showed you how to use Excel's validation feature (select the range to validate, choose Data|Validation, and select your parameters in the Data Validation dialog box). Now let's look at some of the other features of Data Validation.

You can use Data Validation to tell users what type of data they can enter as soon as they select a validated cell. Let's use the date example from the last tip. We want users to enter dates between 1/1/97 and 12/31/97. Select the date column and choose Data|Validation. With the information already in place in the Settings page, click on the Input Message tab. Click on the Title text entry box and enter Date. Now click on the Input Message text entry box and enter the message you want users to see. We entered
Please enter a date between 1/1/97 and 12/31/97. Thank you.
Click on OK to close the dialog box and then click on one of the cells in your date column to see the message.

If you'd like to set an error message, select your date column again and choose Data|Validation; this time click on the Error tab. Now type in a title (perhaps ERROR!) and then type in a message, perhaps something like
All we asked you to do was enter the correct date. Please try again.
Now when the user attempts to type in an incorrect date, your message will appear.

EXCEL WORKSHEETS IN LOTUS 1-2-3

Warning: The following tip is for emergency use only--many of the Excel features that you love will be lost in the saved document. Before you start on this, please save your file in the standard Excel format first.

If you need to create a worksheet that will be used in Lotus 1-2-3, you can choose File|Save As to tell Excel what you want to do. When the Save As dialog box opens, click on the down arrow at the right side of the Save as Type list box to expand the list. From the list choose the version of Lotus that will use the file. If you're not sure of the Lotus version, select the one labeled (All). Now type in a name and save the file. You'll be warned that you're saving in a non-Excel format. Go ahead with the save.

When you try to close the worksheet, you'll receive another warning about saving the file in a non-Excel format. Just click on OK through these dialog boxes.

Note that although the information in the worksheet will appear in the Lotus version of the document, Excel features will be lost. Also, you shouldn't even attempt to do this with a worksheet that contains a macro.

ON-THE-FLY AUTOCORRECT

If you like the way Word's AutoCorrect works, but you can't think of what you'd like to add to it, try this. When you run a spelling check, keep an eye on the Spelling and Grammar dialog box. When the spelling checker finds a misspelled word for which it has a correction, the AutoCorrect button will become active (most of the time it's grayed out). If you realize that a particular mistake is a common one for you, click on AutoCorrect and Word will automatically enter the misspelled word and its correction into AutoCorrect.

WHERE IS MY COLUMN?

Many Word users create a document with two or more columns and then find later that there's only one column showing. If this happens to you, don't get mad at Word. What's happened is that you've switched to Normal view. If you choose View|Page Layout, those columns will appear again. Multiple columns (and quite a bit of other Word formatting) won't display properly in anything but the Page Layout view.

MICROSOFT BACKUP

Since making frequent backups is so important, let's take a quick look at Windows 95's Microsoft Backup. This is a simple (but free) backup program that ships with Windows 95.

You can use Microsoft Backup with a tape drive or with your built- in floppy disk drive. However, Windows 95 doesn't install during the standard setup. So, to use the program, you need to insert your Windows 95 CD and then choose Start|Settings|Control Panel. When Control Panel opens, double-click on Add/Remove Programs.

When the dialog box opens, click on the Windows Setup tab and then click on Disk Tools in the list. Click on Details and select the check box labeled Backup. Click on OK to record the selection and then click on OK again to start the installation.

To run the program, choose Start|Programs|Accessories|System Tools|Backup. When the program opens (you may go through a few dialog boxes to get there) you can use the window just as you would a Windows Explorer window--locate and mark the files you want to back up. After you make your selections, click on Next Step. Click on a destination. This can be a tape drive if you have one installed, or Drive A if you don't have a tape drive. Now click on Start Backup and your backup will begin.

If you back up to floppy disks, you'll be prompted when you need to insert new floppy disks.

DATABASE DAMAGE

No matter how careful we are with our databases, stuff happens--the power might drop out, or the network might fail. For whatever reason, there are times when a damaged database is a distinct possibility.

If you encounter a damaged Access database, choose Data|Database Utilities|Repair Database. When the dialog box opens, click on the errant file to select it, and then click on Repair. Access will let you know when it's finished.

Boost your PC Now!
SpeedUpMyPC, the award-winning and leading software utility that automatically optimizes and maximizes the performance of all
computers within minutes. Learn More >>>

Secure Your PC Now!
WinTasks 5 Pro, the ultimate power utility software that arms users with a comprehensive set of tools to put them in full control of their computer.
Learn More >>>