Office gossip
1 If you look after more than two networked PCs with Office, consider using an administrative installation point on a shared network folder rather than installing Office onto each PC from the CD. If an EXE or DLL becomes corrupted, the Windows Installer will repair the problem without asking for the CD. If you have Windows 2000 Server with Active Directory, you can install Office on all PCs without even leaving your desk.
2 Word tables always default to having 0.08in (0.19cm) space to the left and right of the table gridlines, which makes them stick out into the margins. You can change these cell margins by clicking the Options. . . button in the Table Properties dialog (Table | Table Properties. . .). The dialog also allows you to centre or right-align a table and control how the other text wraps around it.
3 Using Word 2002, you can digitally sign documents (Tools | Options. . . | Security | Digital Signatures. . .). This proves that you were the author of the document and that it hasn't been changed by anyone since it left you. Signed documents are indicated by the word '(Signed)' in the window title and a red rosette on the status bar.
4 Word can be completely controlled from the keyboard without having to touch the mouse. For instance, instead of Format | Change Case. . . | Uppercase | OK, you can just press <Shift-F3>. To find out the keystrokes, search the Help text for 'Keyboard Shortcuts'. Press the 'Show All' link in the top right of the Help pane and then click the Printer icon to print the list.
5 The sheets in an Excel workbook can be renamed by double clicking on the tabs at the bottom of the workbook. You can click and drag the sheets left or right to reorder them.
6 You can use styles in Excel just like in Word. Click Format |
Style. . ., type in the name for the new style and press the Modify. . . button to show the Format Cells dialog. Select the format elements you want and click OK twice. You can then apply that style to any cells you want in that sheet.
7 In Outlook, you can add shortcuts to frequently used folders to your Desktop or to the quick launch toolbar. Right click a folder in the folder tree and drag it to the Desktop or Quick Launch bar. Then simply release the mouse button and choose 'Copy Here' from the pop-up menu.
8 Dragging and dropping items in Outlook from one folder to another can have some useful effects. Dragging contacts into the Inbox creates a new mail message to those contacts. Dragging a contact to the Tasks folder creates a new task assigned to that contact.
9 If you have digital photographs you want to share with non-computer-literate friends, you can use PowerPoint to create a photo album (Insert | Picture | New Photo Album) containing all the pictures. You can then format the presentation, set transitions, captions and so on before using the Pack and Go Wizard (File | Pack and Go. . .) to compress the whole thing. You can include the PowerPoint Viewer if the recipient doesn't have Office.
10 If you have more than ten concurrent users, you should consider converting your Access database to SQL Server.
Access 2002 includes an Upsizing Wizard (Tools | Database Utilities | Upsizing Wizard) that will move tables and queries to SQL Server and alter your exiting application to use that data or create a new Access Data Pro.