"I share a computer with three other people. When I first
started using Office 95 on this computer, I always got a tip when I
started Word. I no longer get the tips, but all of the other users
swear they didn't do anything to make the tips disappear. I suspect
someone did it accidentally. In any case, how can I get the tips back?
Can I keep them from being turned off again?"
To activate the Tip Wizard in Word, choose Tools, Options. When the
Options dialog box opens, click the General tab. Now, select the
TipWizard Active check box and then click OK to record your selection
and close the dialog box. Finally, choose View, Toolbars. When the
Toolbars dialog box opens, select the check box labeled Tip Wizard and
click OK to close the dialog box and record your selection. The Tip
Wizard should now appear in your Word window.
There is no way to keep other users from turning off the Tip
Wizard.
"I'm a new Office 95 user. In fact, I'm a new computer user. My
question concerns the button with the large question mark and the
arrow that appears in the Word toolbar. If I click this button, the
cursor turns to a big question mark. The only way I can get rid of the
question mark is to press Esc. Am I missing something cool here?"
You are indeed missing something cool. If you click the Help
button, the cursor turns into a big question mark just as you say.
With the question mark cursor active, click on some text in your Word
document. You'll get a rather thorough explanation of your text
attributes. Give it a try.
By the way, the Help button appears in all the Office 95 programs.
And, as you've discovered, to get rid of the Help cursor, press Esc.
There you are working in Word (or Excel or PowerPoint or whatever)
and you'd like to get to the Windows 95 Start button. Of course, you
can move the mouse to the Start button and click. Or, you can simply
press Ctrl-Esc to open the Start menu. When it pops up, you can use
your keyboard's arrow keys to navigate the Start menu.
There are two ways to deal with the date in an Office program: The
first is that you choose Insert, Date And Time, then choose the format
you want to use and click OK. This inserts the current date, and it's
this date that will remain in your document. If you'd like to make
sure that the date is the one on which you printed the document,
select the Update Automatically check box before you click OK. The
check box will remain selected until you deselect it. So when you want
the current date to stick, deselect the Update Automatically check
box.
The first time you run Help in a Microsoft Office 95 program, you
may notice that it takes a long time for the Help application to find
information. That's because the first time you run Help, the program
has to set up the Help file. If you try to find a topic before the
setup finishes, then you slow things down even more. Don't worry, this
only happens the first time (and it isn't a bug).
If you click the Open A Document button on the Office toolbar,
select a file, and then use the Copy or Cut command on the shortcut
menu, you'll find that the Paste command isn't available on the dialog
box's shortcut menu. The Copy and Cut commands won't work in this
dialog box even though they are on the shortcut menu when you select a
file.
This happens because Windows 95 doesn't support Cut, Copy, and
Paste unless the applications you're using have loaded all the OLE
files. You can get around the problem (and it is a problem) by using
the Cut, Copy, and Paste commands from Windows Explorer, My Computer,
or any MS Office program.
You can use the Customize dialog box to display or hide toolbars
and buttons. You can also use Customize to turn ToolTips on or off and
to choose whether to animate the toolbars. But you can't use Customize
to change a button's image.
To change the image of a button on a toolbar that you created, open
Windows Explorer, locate your Microsoft Office folder, and
double-click it. Locate the folder that you used for your toolbar, and
open it. Right-click on the shortcut for the button that you want to
change. When the menu opens, choose Properties. In the Properties
dialog box, click the Shortcut tab. Click Change Icon, and select a
new icon. When you are finished, click OK.
In Windows 95, you can assign keystrokes to program shortcuts. For
example, suppose you'd like to launch Word by simply pressing
Ctrl-Alt-W. Start by using the mouse to drag a Word shortcut icon to
the Start button. (Run Windows Explorer and locate your Microsoft
Office folder; you'll find a shortcut in there.) When you release the
mouse button, a copy of the shortcut will be placed in the Start menu.
Now, right-click the Start button and choose Open from the
resulting menu. Right-click the Word icon in the Start menu, then
choose Properties from the menu. When the dialog box opens, click the
Shortcut tab. Click the text box labeled Shortcut Key and type W.
Click OK and you're all set. To run Word now, all you have to do is
press Ctrl-Alt-W.
You can use the same procedure to assign keys to other Office
programs. Just don't assign keys that you're already using for other
programs.
Want to select an entire paragraph? Click on any part of the
paragraph three times. Or, double-click in the left margin, beside the
text. How about a single line? Click once in the left margin, next to
the line you wish to select. To select a single sentence, hold down
Ctrl and click anywhere in the sentence.
If you create a pie chart in Excel (or any other Office program),
you may end up with one slice that is thin to the point of
invisibility. To make it more noticeable, click on the slice in
question. (If it's extremely small, you may have to try this a few
times before you hit it.) Once the slice is selected (you'll see the
handles), use the mouse to drag the slice away from the pie chart a
little. Don't worry about the slice getting out of line--you can only
move it straight out and straight in.
If you have Microsoft Office with Bookshelf, you've probably
already experimented with Bookshelf and its powerful and fast
information search tools. You can open Bookshelf from the CD. Insert
Disc 2 into your CD-ROM drive, then click Start and select Programs,
Microsoft Reference, Microsoft Bookshelf.
If you have Bookshelf loaded in your CD-ROM drive, Word will open
it for you. Select the phrase you'd like to check and then choose
Tools, Look Up Reference. You have three choices: Keyword, Full Text,
and None. Keyword uses your selection to search through keywords in
all the books in Bookshelf; Full Text searches for occurrences of the
entered text; and None opens Bookshelf without performing a search.
If you use any of the Office 95 Version 7.0 applications in Windows
NT, you may find that the screen won't redraw correctly. The problem
does not occur when you run the applications in Windows 95--only in
Windows NT. This bug was corrected in Office 95 Version 7.0a.
While users on the cutting edge are busy installing Microsoft
Office 2000, back here on the other edge, some of us are just starting
to think about upgrading to Office 97. In our next few tips, we'll
focus on issues surrounding an upgrade to Office 97.
The good news is that Office 97 is still widely available, as are
add-on products, licenses, and instructional books. As always, if
you're buying, take advantage of coupons and rebate offers. At the
time of this writing, there was an in-box rebate of $40 available on
standard upgrade packages of Office 97.
If you're thinking about installing Office 97, you should know that
it comes in two versions: a retail version that installs on any
computer and an upgrade version that installs only if you have a
qualifying product. To help you make your decision, the qualifying
products are listed below.
Aldus Persuasion for Windows 2.1, 3.0
Ami Pro for Windows 1.1, 1.2, 2.0, 3.0, 3.01, 3.1
America Online for Windows 3.0
Borland dBASE for Windows 5.0
Borland dBASE IV for MS-DOS 1.0, 1.5
Borland Office for Windows 2.0
Borland Paradox for MS-DOS 4.5
Borland Paradox for Windows 1.0, 4.5, 5.0
Borland Quattro Pro for MS-DOS 3.0, 5.0
Borland Quattro Pro for Windows 1.0, 5.0, 6.0
Borland Quattro Pro Special Edition 1.0
Claris FileMaker Pro for Windows 2.1
CompuServe for Windows 2.0.1
Corel WordPerfect Suite 7.0
Dataease for Windows 5.0
Harvard Graphics for MS-DOS 2.3, 3.0
Harvard Graphics for Windows 1.01, 2.0, 3.0
Lotus 1-2-3 for MS-DOS 2.01, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.1 Upgrade, 3.4, 3.4a,
4.0
Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows 4.0, 4.01, 5.0
Lotus Approach for Windows 2.1, 3.0
Lotus Approach for Windows 95, 96
Lotus Freelance for MS-DOS 4.0
Lotus Freelance for Windows 1.0, 2.0, 2.01, 2.1, 3.01, 96
Lotus Freelance Graphics for Windows 96
Lotus SmartSuite 3.0
Lotus SmartSuite 96 for Windows 96
Lotus Word Pro for Windows 96
Microsoft Access for Windows 1.1, 2.0, 7.0
Microsoft Excel for Windows 4.0, 5.0, 7.0
Microsoft Exchange for Windows 4.0
Microsoft FoxPro for MS-DOS 2.6
Microsoft FoxPro for Windows 2.6
Microsoft Mail for Windows 3.2
Microsoft Office for Windows 4.2, 4.3, 5.0 for NT, 7.0
Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows 3.0, 4.0, 7.0
Microsoft Schedule+ for Windows 1.0, 7.0
Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows 3.0
Microsoft Word for Windows 2.0, 6.0, 7.0
Microsoft Works for Windows 3.0, 4.0
Paradox for Windows 4.0
Personal Oracle for Windows 7.0
PowerBuilder for Windows 5.0
Prodigy for Windows 1.5
Superbase 2.0
Superbase 4 for Windows 1.2, 1.3
Superbase 95 for Windows 3.0
SuperCalc for MS-DOS 3.1, 3.2, 4.0, 5.1, 5.5, 5.5b
WordPerfect for MS-DOS 5.1
WordPerfect for Windows 5.1, 5.2, 6.0, 6.0a, 6.1
WordStar 2000 for MS-DOS 3.0
WordStar for MS-DOS 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 7.0 Upgrade, 7.0c
WordStar for Windows 1.0, 1.5, 2.0
If you have an older version of Office and decide to install Office
97, you will probably see an alert dialog box that says:
The Microsoft Office Upgrade Wizard has detected one or more Office
4.x or 95 components on your computer. Removing these components is
recommended and will not affect your existing data.
Remove ALL old Office 4.x and 95 components now?
If you click Yes, Setup will delete the old components. (Note: You
will not lose any data.) If you want to keep your old version of
Office for a testing period, click No.
If you're getting ready to install Office 97, you might like to
know how much disk space is required. Here are the figures for the
various types of installation.
If you're finished testing Office 97 against a previous version of
Office, and you're ready to get rid of the older version, use the
Microsoft Office Upgrade Wizard to remove the older components.
Previous versions of Office were automatically installed in a
folder that was a direct subfolder of the root directory. Office 97
installs into Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office, where Drive: is
the drive on which you installed Windows. Although you can select a
different folder as the destination for the installation, some
components will still be installed in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Office folder.
Parting is such sweet sorrow: If you want to keep Office 95 when
you install Office 97, you'll find that the Office 95 Start menu will
contain the startup items for Office 97. The old Office 95 start items
will be overwritten. This is because Office 95 and Office 97 create
program items with the same name. To get around this, move the
Microsoft Office 95 menu items to a new folder in the Programs folder.
You may find that Start menu items added by Office are larger than
the other icons. What happens is that Office Setup adds the New Office
Document and Open Office Document icons to the top of the Start menu.
These icons are larger than the standard icons. If you want to make
all the icons the same size, right-click the taskbar to open the menu.
Choose Properties from this menu to open the Properties dialog box.
Next, select the Show Small Icons In Start Menu check box. Click OK,
and all your icons will be the same size.
You may find that when you use Save As the first time you save a
file, the file ends up in the wrong folder. Also, when using Open, you
may find yourself looking at the wrong folder.
This occurs when you click the down arrow in the Save In list of
the Save As dialog box or the Look In list of the Open dialog box.
When you move the mouse over the list and then click the down arrow
again, the application selects the folder last highlighted. To prevent
this, select the folder you want before you do anything to remove the
focus from the pull-down list.
If you're worried about what will happen to your Microsoft programs
when the year 2000 arrives, stop. All Microsoft applications will
handle the new millennium just fine. If you need something to worry
about, worry about your bank's computer.
Let's say you've placed a printer shortcut in your Office 95
Shortcut Bar. You click it and the button seems to activate, but
nothing happens. The Shortcut Bar can't start printer queue programs
directly. To get around the problem, right-click the printer shortcut
button,
then click Open to open the printer queue.
When installing some Office 95 programs, the Setup program may find
that there isn't enough disk space to continue the installation. Yet
Setup will let you continue with the installation anyway. The reason
is that the program may not be able to correctly determine disk space,
especially when you use a compressed drive. So, you might know more
about the remaining space than Setup does.
Version 95
Well, maybe not really free because you paid for them when you bought
Microsoft Office 95. To see the photos, insert the installation CD in
the CD-ROM drive. Open the disc or use Windows Explorer to read the
contents. Open Valupack, then locate the Photos folder. When you open
Photos, you'll see that there's quite a collection of folders from
which to choose. Check them out and copy any you like to your hard
disk.
Version 95
When you install Microsoft Office 95, you'll probably get this message
from the Setup dialog box:
You can choose not to install Microsoft Office or change its
destination folder later during setup.
This message isn't quite true--you may not be able to change the
folder later. If you elect the Typical setup or choose Run From CD,
you can't change the destination folder later during the setup. It's
no big deal, but if you know about it you might save yourself some
headaches.
All versions
Microsoft has stated that all its current software is "2000-proof."
This means your Excel calculations will work into and past January 1,
2000. However, if you want to find out what happens in a specific
program (Microsoft or other) when the new year rolls over, all you
have to do is set your computer's clock to 23:59:00 on 12/31/99, then
wait a minute to see what happens.
Version 4.x, 95
Want to put a frame around an imported picture? Right-click the
picture and then choose Frame Picture from the resulting menu.
Couldn't be easier.
Version 4.x, 95
There you are working in Word (or Excel or PowerPoint or whatever),
and you'd like to get to the Windows 95 Start button. Of course, you
can move the mouse to the Start button and click. Or, you can simply
press Ctrl-Esc to open the Start menu. When it pops up, you can use
your keyboard's arrow keys to navigate the Start menu.
Version 4.x, 95
There are two ways to deal with the date in an Office program: The
first is to choose Insert, Date and Time, then choose the format you
want to use and click OK. This inserts the current date, and it's this
date that will remain in your document. The second way involves the
Update feature. If you'd like to make sure that the date always
reflects the one on which you last printed the document, select the
Update Automatically check box before you click OK. The check box will
remain selected until you deselect it. So when you want the current
date to stick, deselect the Update Automatically check box.
Versions 4.x, 95
Most people increase their use of the toolbar as they gain experience
with Word and other Microsoft Office programs. If you find that you
like using the toolbar, but miss some of the menu commands, you might
like to add a button for the command you're missing.
Let's say you'd like to have a Close button on the toolbar. Choose
Tools, Customize to open the Customize dialog box. Click the Toolbars
tab, then select File under Categories. Now look on the right side of
the dialog box to locate the Close folder (top row, fourth from the
left), and use the mouse to drag it to an empty space on the toolbar.
We suggest dragging it to the area between the Save button (a floppy
disk icon) and the Print button. When the Close icon is in place,
release the mouse button, then click Close. With the Close button, all
you have to do to close a document is click your new button.
Versions 4.x, 95
In the last tip, we showed you how to add a button to the toolbar
(select Tools, Customize, Toolbars, File). What if you have a bunch of
buttons on the toolbar that you never use? To get rid of unused
buttons, choose Tools, Customize. When the dialog box opens, click the
Toolbars tab. Now you can use the mouse to drag unwanted buttons to
the dialog box; this removes them from the toolbar. When you're
finished, click Close.
Offhand, you wouldn't think adding a second hard disk drive to your
computer would have any effect on your Microsoft Office installation.
Here's a potential problem though: Suppose you decide to add some
Office components after you install the new disk drive. In this case,
you probably installed Office from a CD in drive D. Now the CD-ROM
drive is drive E.
Office knows from whence it came, so when you attempt to modify
your installation, Office will tell you that it can't find the
requested files on drive D. The solution is to use the Setup on the CD
rather than the one in your Office folder. When you do this, Setup
will completely reinstall Office. Choose Custom to make sure you get
all the components you had originally. From now on, Office will look
for its files on drive E.
To apply these formats to existing text, select the text and then
use the appropriate keystroke. To remove the formatting, repeat the
procedure, and it toggles right off.
If you want to use Schedule+ on a network, select Group-Enabled
Mode from the dialog box that opens the first time you run the
program. If you select Don't Ask Me This Question Again, you'll have
to reinstall Schedule+ to change the mode.
When you're running in Group-Enabled mode, you can use the Planner
to check the blocks of time that other users have scheduled.
When you insert clip art into an Office document, you may want to
add other drawing objects to get the clip art to look just the way you
want. To do this, choose View, Toolbars and select Drawing. This adds
the Drawing toolbar to your window.
Now insert a clip-art object (choose Insert, Object and select
Microsoft Clip Gallery). Once the clip art is in the document, you can
click on the drawing tools in the toolbar to add objects to the clip
art. For example, you may feel that adding a few lines will improve
the picture. Click the Line button to add a line to the art.
You can also add callouts to the art. Let's say you've inserted the
bear image and you'd like to depict the bear saying something. Click
on the Callout button and use the mouse to add the object to the
drawing. With practice and imagination, the possibilities are
unlimited.
In the last tip, we described a method for storing pictures in
AutoText. This time, let's take a closer look at dealing with words
and pictures in AutoText. AutoText will allow you to store formatted
text or pictures. For example, if you'd like to store in AutoText a
framed company logo that you can move anywhere in your document, try
this:
Assuming you've already created a logo, insert the logo into a
document. Select the graphic and choose Insert, Frame. Now, select the
logo (frame and all) and choose Edit, AutoText. The logo should appear
in the Preview pane. If it doesn't, you probably haven't selected the
entire logo with the frame. Once the logo appears in the Preview pane,
name it and click Add. Now you can insert your logo anywhere and move
it anywhere.
If you're missing one or more of your toolbars, you probably
accidentally right-clicked on a button and deselected the toolbar. But
no matter how the toolbar got lost, it's lost and you want to get it
back. To restore that missing toolbar, choose View, Toolbars and then
select the missing toolbar from the menu. Or, assuming you're not
missing all the toolbars, you can right-click an existing toolbar to
open the toolbar menu.
In your work, you may have run across a few reserved System words,
such as the ones listed below. You can't use these words as filenames.
If you attempt to do so, Word--or any Microsoft Office program--will
inform you that you can't do it. You may as well not even try to use:
AUX
CLOCK$
COMn (where n = 1, 2, 3, 4)
CON
LPTn (where n = 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.)
NUL
PRN
If you'd like to know how a font, or several fonts, will look when
printed, you can choose the font in Word, type in a sentence or two,
and then print it. But since you're using Windows 95, there's an even
quicker way to examine a font.
Run Windows Explorer and locate the Windows folder. Click on the
little plus sign to the left of the folder and then locate the Fonts
folder. All the fonts will appear in the right pane of the Explorer
window. Locate the font you're interested in and double-click on it.
This opens a dialog box showing the font in various sizes. Click on
Print to see how all the sizes look on paper.
This technique saves time because you can print out several fonts
very quickly. It requires one page per font.
Sometimes you may need to save a file in text format. The problem
is, you'll lose all the formatting. One way to preserve at least part
of the formatting is to choose File, Save As and then click on the
arrow to the right of the Save As Type list box. When the list
expands, select MS-DOS Text With Layout (*.ASC). In Office 4.x, select
MS-DOS Text With Layout (No *.ASC). The text file will be saved with
the .ASC extension and will at least maintain the line formatting.
Here's the first thing to remember about printing: Don't set the
document margins smaller than what the printer can handle. Check your
printer's documentation for the minimum margins allowed and don't use
lower settings in your programs.
In Word, choose File, Page Setup and click the Margins tab. Most
printers can handle margins of one-quarter inch. If your margins are
set to less, you'll have problems. In most cases, the Word margins are
set to one inch or greater. This should pose no problem for any
printer.
Many Office users have a problem when they try to squeeze every
last millimeter of page space out of Excel. Just keep that printer
spec in mind when you set margins. If the printer calls for a
quarter-inch, set your margins a bit larger just to be safe. We've
used 0.30 successfully on a LaserJet.
When you're printing a group of long documents, you may find that
you're not happy with the print order. If you decide that you'd like
to change the order in which your documents print, click Start and
choose Settings, Printers. When the Printers folder opens,
double-click the printer to which you sent the documents. Let's
suppose that the document you need right now is at the bottom of the
printer's list. No problem--simply grab the file's icon with the mouse
and drag it to the top of the list.
Is there an easy way to relocate the toolbar buttons? There sure
is. All you have to do is hold down the Alt key and use the mouse to
drag a button to a new location. You can also use this method to get
rid of buttons that you never use. Hold down the Alt key and drag the
unwanted button onto the document window.
This method works in Word and PowerPoint but not in Excel or
Access. In Excel and Access, choose View, Toolbars, Customize. While
the Customize dialog box is open, you can use the Alt key plus the
mouse to drag buttons to new locations. To delete buttons, drag them
to the document window--the Alt key isn't needed.
Frustrated with Office macros? If you have certain routine
information you hate typing over and over again, consider trying Macro
Anywhere. This shareware program allows you to define a keyword or key
combination that will instantly produce anything from a single word to
an address, paragraph, or even a complete document. The macros work in
almost any Windows application, Web page form, email, and even in the
location box of your browser. For details about Macro Anywhere, go to
We've discussed leftover temp files before, but several subscribers
have recently asked about them. Here's the story: Usually, you'll get
leftover temp files only when your system has shut down abnormally.
Office programs keep temp files while a file is open, then delete them
when you close the file. If the system shuts down (or locks up) while
the Office program is still running, the files aren't deleted.
Before you delete temp files, check your documents to make sure
they're all intact. Or, since you probably have many documents and no
time to check them all, copy the temp files to a floppy to keep around
for a while. After you make the copy, go ahead and delete the original
temp files.
If you'd like to use some of the toolbar button icons as icons for
other programs, you can copy them as we described in the last tip. You
choose View, Toolbars, Customize. Then, on the toolbar, click on the
button you want to copy and choose Edit, Copy Button Image.
If you want to make your icon larger, you can change the icon size
before you make the copy. Choose View, Toolbars and select the Large
Buttons check box. Click OK to save the change and close the dialog
box. Now choose View, Toolbars again. This time, click Customize and
then the Toolbars tab. Select the toolbar button to copy by clicking
on it, and then choose Edit, Copy Button Image. Click Close to close
the dialog box. If you want your icon to return to normal, open the
Customize dialog box again, deselect the Large Buttons check box, and
click OK.
Now that the icon is on the Clipboard, you can open Microsoft Paint
and choose Image, Attributes. Set Width and Height to 10. Then choose
Edit, Paste to paste in the copied icon. Next, choose File, Save As
and give the icon a name. Since Windows 95 will let you use .BMP files
as icons, your new icon is ready to go.
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. You hold down the mouse button during the drag
and release it when you reach the new home for your text.
Word also lets you copy selected text using the drag-and-drop
method. All you have to do is select the text and then hold down Ctrl
while you drag the text to a new location.
Sometimes, you may choose File, Open in a Microsoft Office document
and just happen to notice a file that needs deleting. You don't have
to wait until you finish what you're doing and then use Windows
Explorer to delete the file. All you have to do is select the file in
the Open window and then press Delete. This will delete the file, and
you can go ahead with your work.
Version 4.x, 95
Suppose you're working in Word (or one of the other Office programs),
and you need something from your Data folder. To get to the folder,
you might need to minimize Word and several other programs. However,
you can add that Data folder to the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar
(Microsoft Office Manager, or MOM, in 4.x) and have it always
available when you're using Word (or whenever the Shortcut Bar is
active).
To add a folder, right-click the Shortcut Bar and choose Customize.
When the Customize dialog box opens, click Toolbars and then click Add
Toolbar. Now click Browse and locate your Data folder (or whatever
folder you want to use). Select the folder and click Add. Back in the
Customize dialog box, click OK. (To get back to your standard Office
toolbar, right-click the Shortcut Bar and select Office.)
To select toolbars on the fly in any program, locate a blank spot
on any toolbar and right-click it. A pop-up menu will appear. From the
menu, choose which toolbar you'd like to view, or which toolbar you'd
like to stop viewing. You can also get to the Customize Toolbars
command using the same technique. Right-click a blank spot on a
toolbar and choose Customize.
All you have to do is move the mouse pointer over the button, and
the button will identify itself. This is true, but to be as clear as
possible, we still think it's a good idea to describe those buttons.
For those of you who might be unaware of this feature, open any
Office program, then move the mouse pointer over one of the toolbar
buttons and wait a second or so. The button's name will appear in a
little text box.
If your computer is attached to a network, you can send Office
documents to coworkers from within your Office applications. All you
have to do is choose File, Send. Assuming the network is set up
correctly, your mail software will open and allow you to choose a
recipient from the address book. Type a short message to inform the
recipient of the contents and click Send. You can also send a copy to
yourself to make sure the message was sent properly.
