Archive for January, 2010

Excel: What is a Pivot Table?

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

In our Microsoft Excel Level 2 class, most students aren’t sure what a Pivot Table can do for them.  When they realize the capabilities of pivot tables and charts, they usually want to learn more!  This is why we added a 1/2 day class devoted to Pivot Tables to our calendar.

A Pivot Table is a quick, easy way to summarize data. You can use it on large amounts of data, or you can use it on small amounts of data that has certain items repeating. For example, a pivot table allows you to take 2000 rows of sales data and quickly pull out information that tells you how much of a particular product a particular salesperson sold.

Microsoft Excel 2007 has made it even easier to manipulate data with Pivot Tables, and we’d love to show you how they can help you provide concise reports in a fraction of the time. Visit us soon and learn how!

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Visio Tip: Hyperlinks

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

You can add hyperlinks to your Microsoft Visio document in the same way you add them to any Microsoft Office document.  Select the item you want to attach the hyperlink to (usually a shape in Visio) and either press CTRL + K or INSERT / HYPERLINK.

The hyperlink box will appear and you will enter the page or address you wish the link to be.  If you are linking to an Internet site, be sure to include “http://” at the beginning of your hyperlink.  Any information you enter in the DESCRIPTION  box is what will appear on the screen when you hover over the shape attached to the hyperlink.

If you are in FULL SCREEN MODE, when you hover over a hyperlinked object, the pointer changes to a hand icon and you can left-click the object to follow the link.

If you are in NORMAL MODE, the pointer changes to an arrow with a hyperlink globe icon. To follow the link,  you will need to right-click and choose the link from the shortcut menu.

Any links followed will appear in their own window.

For more tips and tricks on how to use Microsoft Visio, attend one of our classes.  We look forward to seeing you in our Phoenix training center soon!

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Office 2010 Beta Version

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

2010Are you curious about what Microsoft has done to Office for the 2010 release? They are offering a free beta download for users to check out what’s new in 2010.  You can find the download at the Microsoft website.

If you decide to download and use the Beta version, you will be able to use it for free until October 2010.  After that time, you will have to purchase a license or it will stop working. If you’re not sure about changing from 2007, you can download it and run it on the same machine as Office 2007.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced the pricing structure for Microsoft Office 2010.  There will be 4 versions, ranging in price from $99 to $499.

You can be assured that when Office 2010 is officially released, we’ll offer classes to get you up to speed on all the new features!

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Visio Tip: Copying Objects

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Simple commands can sometimes cause the most frustration when working with software programs. If you use Microsoft Visio to create diagrams, you know how useful it is to copy shapes within your document.

You can copy objects by holding down the CTRL key and moving them with your mouse with the left button pressed. Sometimes when you do this,  you may not copy your object, but move it instead.  This can be frustrating, and you may not know why it didn’t work after it worked the last 10 times.

The trick is to let go of your  mouse button before you let go of the CTRL key.  If you let go of the CTRL key before you let go of the mouse button, the object will move instead of making a copy of itself.

For more great Microsoft Visio tips, attend one of our classes. We’d love to show you simple and complex tips to help make drawing diagrams a snap!

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Office Tip: Format Painter

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Have you noticed that small paintbrush on your formatting toolbar (Office 2003) or the Ribbon  (Office 2007)? As an instructor, I’ve found that most people ignore it, or don’t even notice it, because they don’t know what it does.

That little paintbrush is called FORMAT PAINTER.  It’s an extremely useful formatting tool that cuts down on formatting time as you work in any Office document (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher.)

Format any selection of text. Select that text and click the FORMAT PAINTER once and your cursor turns into a small paintbrush. You can now select a new chunk of text and the same formatting will be applied.  Once you click off the text, the paintbrush goes away and you can continue working on your document.

This is useful if you’ve applied bold, underline, and a new font.  Instead of choosing all 3 of those options again, you need to only choose the FORMAT PAINTER.

If you want to apply certain formatting to more than one selection, double-click the FORMAT PAINTER. Your cursor will remain a paintbrush and allow you to change the formatting to as many different areas as necessary. When you are done formatting, click the FORMAT PAINTER button again.

For more tips to help you be more productive, attend any of our Microsoft Office classes! All of our instructors love to help you learn all the tips and tricks!

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Access Tip: Combo Box vs. List Box

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

When creating forms in Microsoft Access, you can make data entry easier by providing populated lists for certain entries.  Things like product codes, states, and other specific information that is consistently repeated throughout your data. You can only select one item in a combo box.

A combo box provides a drop-down box when the field is entered. That drop-down box will hold the data you set up during form creation. When you are not in the box, the list does not show.

A list box provides a similar option, but takes up more space on your form. A list box will show a certain number of entries on the form, which is useful for short lists, since you can see all the possibilities. You also can scroll if all the entries do not fit in the space allocated.  If you need to be able to select multiple items from a list, you need to use a list box.

For more tips on using Access to become more productive, attend one of our many Microsoft Access classes. We look forward to seeing you soon!

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General Tip: Selecting Text without a Mouse

Friday, January 8th, 2010

If you lost your mouse, could you still move around and select text on the screen?  Of course you can — provided you remembered the keyboard shortcuts!

Most people know to use the arrow keys to move left / right / up and down on the screen, but you can also select text using only your keyboard.

If you combine the shift key with the arrow keys, you can select text!  Holding the SHIFT key and pressing the left arrow will select the text one character at a time.  Holding the SHIFT key and pressing the up or down arrows will select one line of text at a time.

When working in forms or tables, the TAB key moves you one cell to the right.  If you press the SHIFT and TAB key you will move back one cell to the left.

To pick up more tips and tricks, attend one of our many desktop application classes!  Our instructors love to share ways to make using computers easier.

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Word Tip: Printing without Graphics

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Graphics, whether clip art or charts, can liven up a report and make the information easier to understand. If you like to print your documents to proof them, you may not always want to use the ink necessary to print your graphics. The default print settings will print everything in your Microsoft Word document — words and graphics.  A simple change in your settings will allow you to print just the words.

  • Click the OFFICE button in the top left corner
  • Choose WORD OPTIONS at the bottom right corner
  • Select the ADVANCED options
  • Scroll through to find PRINT

opt

  • Check the box for USE DRAFT QUALITY
  • Print your document normally.  The graphics will not print, only the words.

For more great tips on using Microsoft Word, take one of our many Word classes. We offer 3 full day classes, as well as a 1/2 day class to help you become more efficient.

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