Category: The Office Tech Pro

Most people, if asked whether a date in an Excel spreadsheet is text or a value, may tilt their heads and give an answer that sounds more like a question. Well, dates are actually numbers. The number associated with a date is the number of days it is past January 1, 1900. Take the date […]

If you’re not a professional writer, you know the unexpected joy over writing the perfect paragraph or sentence that absolutely, elegantly and beautifully states your intention. Months later, you’re looking for that document so you can use it again to no avail. It’s gone! And your golden moment of genius, with it. With Quick Parts […]

The nice thing about categories in Microsoft Outlook is that they can be and do just about anything you want them to be or do. Here are three suggestions to let categories help you order your computer world using color categories in Outlook.Identify Who’s Who…As an entrepreneur, I’ve always used them to identify my key […]

In PowerPoint ® 2010, we now have the ability to generate a Windows Media Video (.wmv) file. These instructions assume you have completed the first 4 steps. Write your script using Microsoft Word. Outline your presentation (topics and bullets) Import into PowerPoint and attach to a Theme Import graphic elements or create them with SmartArt […]

Ctrl + ` (Hint: Look for the tilde “~” symbol) This keyboard shortcut reveals all the formulas on a worksheet. Changing cells before you know what they do is always risky. If after you reveal all your formulas, you then format those cells with a certain highlight color, when you turn the reveal feature off […]

When there are many cooks in the kitchen on a document, it’s best to track and control what changes are made and by whom. Microsoft Word 2007 offers the tools you’ll need for this on the Save as dialog box and the Review tab. Here are just a few suggestions for controlling and tracking what […]

I get asked this one a lot! How do I highlight an entire row when a particular cell contains a certain value? For example, if the total sales for the year are under $2,000, highlight the row in red. The secret is to use a formula to determine which cells to format. In fact, that […]

What happened to colors in Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010? If you’re confused about color, you’re not alone. If you went from 2003 to 2007 and 2010, you know they seem to keep moving the simple tools you used to use to color code emails and other Outlook items. Colors are a great tool to […]

If you’re using Office 2007 and wondering whether it’s worth the trouble to upgrade to Office 2010, take a look at a few new features for each application, then decide. OutlookUnder the heading of “new” and “cool” in Outlook has to be the new conversation cleanup feature. When several people use Reply All in a […]

Did you just get Windows 7? Just because you can use Windows 7 in many of the same ways you were using Windows XP does not mean you necessarily should. Here are five new things that you can do in Windows 7. 1.    Finding programs is just a matter of typing in the first few […]