How would you like to have a ClipArt picture put itself together
right before the audience's eyes? To see how to create this kind of
animation, run PowerPoint and choose Insert/Picture/ClipArt.
Right-click the picture you want to use and choose Insert to place it
on your slide. We suggest you use the knife, fork, and spoon set found
under Signs.
Now select the picture, then choose Draw/Ungroup. Next, choose
Slide Show, Custom Animation. When the dialog box opens, click the
Effects tab. In the "Check to animate slide objects" list, click the
first object. Then hold down the Shift key and scroll down to select
the last object. With all objects selected, click the arrow at the
right side of the "Entry animation and sound" list box and select an
effect.
Now click the Order & Timing tab and then select the radio button
labeled Automatically. Click OK to close the dialog box and then press
F5 to run the slide show. Each part of the ClipArt picture will appear
as you instructed when you chose an effect.
Have you tried Word's AutoSummarize feature yet? To
check this out, load a document and then choose Tools/AutoSummarize.
When the AutoSummarize dialog box opens, select the type of summary
you want to apply. For example, you can click "Create a new document
and put the summary there." Click OK to continue. A new document will
open and display your summary. You can edit the summary, and then save
it under any name you choose.
You'll need to check the different forms of AutoSummarize to get a
feel for how they work. Note that it's very unlikely that Word will
create just the summary you need--the odds are good that you'll need
to do some editing.
When you want to copy a range of cells to a new
location, you don't have to paste the cells into an empty range.
Instead, try it this way. Select the range of cells you want to copy
and press Ctrl + C. Now, move to the location where you want the data
to appear and press Ctrl + SHIFT + Plus Sign (+). When the Insert
dialog box opens, click the direction you want the surround cells to
move in and click OK. This is the approach you should use any time you
want to paste data in between two existing columns of data.
Here's a way to create a formula in Excel--just
click the appropriate cell to select it and then click the Paste
Function button (its icon is fx) in the toolbar. To see how this
works, enter
1
2
3
4
into cells A1 through A4. Now, click cell A5 and then click the Paste
Function button. When the Paste Function dialog box opens,
double-click "Average." This will open a dialog box that displays the
cells that Excel will use for the calculation. If the cells are
correct (they will be in this case), just click OK. The average will
now appear in cell A5.
When you're working with Excel, you may often need
to set the format of a specific cell. You can click the cell you want
to change and choose Format/Cells to open the Format Cells dialog box.
You can also right-click a cell and choose Format Cells. Or, you can
click in the cell and press Ctrl + 1 to open the dialog box. If you
like this method, note that you must use the 1 key at the top of the
keyboard--the 1 key in the number pad won't work.
When you need to type some text into a Word document
for test purposes, don't waste your time--let Word do the job for you.
Let's say that you would like to type in a single four-sentence
paragraph. Just click at a blank line in your document, type
=rand(1,4) and press Enter. Word will automatically type:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps
over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The
quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
The first number inside the parentheses is the number of paragraphs
and the second number is the number of sentences in each paragraph.
So, for 22 paragraphs of 22 sentences, you'd enter =rand(22,22).
When you move the mouse pointer over a Word toolbar
button, a screen tip will open to inform you of that object's
function. You can also get Word to show you any shortcut keys that
might apply to a button. To do this, run Word and choose
Tools/Customize. When the Customize dialog box opens, click the
Options tab. Now, select the check box labeled "Show shortcut keys in
ScreenTips" and click OK.
Note that this change will affect Word and PowerPoint, but will not
apply to Excel.
Let's suppose that you have inserted a ClipArt
picture onto a PowerPoint slide. The picture is just what you want,
except that the dress the cartoon woman is wearing is red and you'd
rather it be green. No problem (or least, no big problem). All you
have to do is right click the picture and choose Format Picture. When
the Format Picture dialog box appears, click the Picture tab and then
click Recolor.
When the Recolor Picture dialog box opens, click the arrows at the
right side of the "New" color list boxes and select your new colors.
When you finish, click OK. Back in the Format Picture dialog box,
click OK again to close the dialog box and record your selections.
Office 2000 programs have a new Collect and Paste
feature. To see how this works, let's use an Excel worksheet as an
example.
Run Excel and enter some numbers into cells B1 through B5. Now, click
cell B2 and press Ctrl + C to copy the cell's value to the Clipboard.
Now, move to cell B4 and press Ctrl + C again. The Clipboard should
now appear. If it doesn't, choose View/Toolbars/Clipboard. When the
Clipboard appears it will show two Excel icons. Click in cell D1 and
click the first icon on the left side of the Clipboard. This will
paste the number from cell B2 into cell D1. Next, click cell E1 and
then click the second Excel icon in the Clipboard to paste the
contents of cell B4 into cell E1. You can click the X in the upper
right corner of the Clipboard to close it.
We were recently asked if there is any way to
automatically extract only the first two digits of a column of numbers
in Excel. To do this, use Excel's LEFT function. To see how this
works, open a blank worksheet and enter some three-to-five digit
numbers in cells A1 through A5. We used the following numbers:
12345
23456
34567
45678
56789
Now, go to cell B1 and enter:
=left(a1,2)
Then select cell B1 and use the small handle at the bottom of the cell
selection (the handle) and drag down to cell B5. Cells B1 through B5
will now display:
When you rehearse a presentation, it's always a good
idea to make some notes to yourself as you go along. One way to do
this is to make the notes in PowerPoint itself. To do this, start your
slide show. Now, right click anywhere on the screen and choose Speaker
Notes from the pop-up menu. The Speaker Notes dialog box will open and
you can enter your notes.
There are times when you need to select a very small
object in PowerPoint. Or perhaps you need to select an object that's
hidden behind another object. Try this: press Esc to make sure that
nothing is selected. Now, press the Tab key until the desired object
is selected.
To see how this works, first draw a small rectangle. Next draw a
larger rectangle over the small one so the small one is completely
obscured. Press Esc to make sure all are deselected and then press Tab
until the small rectangle is selected. You will see the handles to
indicate that it's selected.
Suppose that you'd like to use color in your Excel
worksheets, but the only printer you have is black and white. You can
still use color in the worksheets and you can print them in black and
white. Choose File/Setup. Then click the Sheet tab. Under Print,
select Black and White and click OK.
Note that some colors won't print as you might expect. Light colors
often print as just white and some darker colors print as black. The
only solution to this problem is to experiment with some colors and
make test prints. Then try to stick with those colors in your
worksheets.
When you want to run your PowerPoint slide show
automatically, you need to set the appropriate timing for each slide.
To do this, open the slide show you want to work with and choose Slide
Show/Rehearse Timings. When the slide show opens, you'll see a small
timer on the screen. Watch the timer and decide when you need to move
to the next slide. When ready, click the screen to move to the next
slide. The timer will reset to zero and begin timing your new slide.
When you reach the last slide, PowerPoint will ask if you want to save
the timings. Click Yes if you're happy with the timings and No if
you're not happy.
If you create documents that people will read on the
computer, you can add a bit of spice to your text. Open a Word
document and select some text. Now, choose Format/Font. When the Font
dialog box opens, click the Text Effects tab. Now, click one of the
text effects--Sparkle Text, for example. Now click OK to close the
dialog box and apply your selection.
We were once asked why the sparkle didn't work on the printout. Please
don't ask that--we don't know.
You can use the mouse to drag toolbars to a document
window. If you drag a toolbar to one side of the window, it will
anchor there. However, if the toolbar has a text box (such as the
Formatting toolbar in Word), you'll only see the text box if the
toolbar is anchored in a horizontal position (at the top or bottom of
the screen). If you anchor such a toolbar on a side where it must
become vertical, the text boxes turn into buttons. They aren't lost;
they just changed size to fit into the space allowed them.
Suppose you're typing along and you really could use
a break in the text. The problem is if you press Enter, you'll get a
paragraph break. But, if you want to start a new line and don't want
to start a new paragraph, you can just use a line break. To do this,
just press Shift + Enter. Now you can start a new line in the same old
paragraph.
If you're accustomed to Office 97, you have probably
noticed that the Office Shortcut Bar doesn't appear on the screen by
default in Office 2000. If you always liked the Shortcut Bar and want
to use it, click Start/Programs/Microsoft Office Tools and click the
Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar option. At this point the Shortcut Bar
dialog box appears on screen asking if the Office Shortcut Bar should
be started whenever Windows starts. If you want this to happen, click
Yes; otherwise click No.
You know you can insert drawings into Word
documents, but why not check out AutoShapes to see what they have to
offer. First of all, you'll need the Drawing toolbar. If it isn't
visible, choose View/Toolbars/Drawing. In the Drawing toolbar, click
the AutoShapes button to expand the menu. In Basic Shapes, you'll find
a happy face, a heart, a lightning bolt, and other potentially useful
shapes. All you have to do is select the shape you want to use and
then draw it with the mouse. You can now use the mouse to resize your
drawing and to move it into a new location.
Sometimes the Word ruler is handy to have on the
screen. But 99 percent of the time all the ruler does is take up
screen real estate. So, we like to keep the ruler turned off. However,
for those times we do need to see the ruler, we just move the mouse
pointer near the bottom edge of the toolbar (where the ruler would be
if the ruler were there) and the ruler appears. To turn off the ruler,
choose View/Ruler. You can turn it back on the same way--it's a toggle
command.
You probably know that you can zoom in on a
worksheet to make the cell contents easier to see. But, did you know
that you can zoom in on a range and have Excel choose just the right
amount of zoom for your selection? Try this: enter some numbers into
cells D5 through D9. Now, select the cells and choose View/Zoom. When
the Zoom dialog box opens, select the 'Fit selection' radio button and
click OK.
After you finish with the zoomed in view, you can simply press Ctrl +
Z to undo the zoom. However, this won't work if you made any changes
while in the zoomed view--the changes will get undone. In this case,
choose View/Zoom again. When the Zoom dialog box opens, select the
"100%" radio button and click OK.
When you send your Excel worksheet to others for checking, editing,
or data addition, it's nice to immediately see what changes they made.
To see how this works, use the following example.
Open a blank worksheet and enter
1
2
3
4
5
into cells A1 through A5. Now, choose File/Save As. Give your workbook
a name and click Save. Choose Tools/Track Changes/Highlight Changes.
Next, click in cell A2 and change the data to 9, then click somewhere
away from cell A2. You will see that cell A2 is now outlined and
contains a small triangle in the upper left corner of the cell. Move
the mouse pointer over cell A2, and a comment will appear informing
you that cell A2 was changed from 2 to 9.
If you need to use a table in a Word document, you can just choose
Table/Insert Table and then click OK to accept the default table. To
make your table look better with AutoFormat, click in the table to
select it and choose Table/Table AutoFormat. When the Table AutoFormat
dialog box opens, click a few of the selections under 'Formats.' When
you find one you like, click OK to accept it and close the dialog box.
Although we're all familiar with using Find and Replace in
Microsoft Word, we often don't think about using this function in
Excel.
Suppose you discover that you have entered an incorrect number, let's
say $34.97, all through your worksheet. Press Ctrl + H to open the
Find dialog box. In 'Find what,' enter $34.97. Press the Tab key to
move to the 'Replace with' entry box and type $34.95 (the correct
price). Click Replace All if you're sure that all occurrences of
$34.97 need to be replaced with $34.95. If you're not sure, click Find
Next. If this occurrence needs replacement, click Replace and then
click Find Next to locate the next occurrence.
When working with PowerPoint (or other Office 2000 programs),
you'll find the new Office Clipboard handy. Suppose, as an example,
that you need to insert several Clip Art pictures into a series of
slides.
First, choose View/Toolbars/Clipboard to open the Clipboard toolbar.
Now choose Insert/Picture/Clip Art. In the Insert Clip Art dialog box,
right-click a picture and choose Copy. Select another picture and copy
it. Next, close the Insert Clip Art dialog box (click on the X in the
upper right corner).
Now you can click the first item to insert the first Clip Art
selection into the slide. Press Ctrl + M, then press Enter to create a
new slide and click the second item to insert that picture onto the
second slide. After you're finished with the Clipboard contents, you
can click the Clear Clipboard button to start fresh.
By default, Word displays the Standard and Formatting toolbars.
There are times when you need other toolbars, though. For example, if
you work with graphics, you might like to have the Drawing toolbar
always available. To make the Drawing toolbar visible, right-click the
toolbar and choose Drawing. The Drawing toolbar will now appear in the
window. If you want to use it permanently, drag the toolbar to the
bottom of the Word window. At some point, it will anchor in place.
