With Microsoft Office 2010 and Office Web Apps soon to be released, CARRIE-ANN
SKINNER offers time-saving tips and tricks for all versions of the productivity suite Work better in Office 2010 Microsoft Office 2010 is expected to go on sale in the next month or so. Available in beta since late 2009, Office 2010 introduces new tools that improve the efficiency of the notoriously bloated productivity suite. These include the ability to preview paste options and edit images within a Word document; create Sparkline charts in Excel - tiny graphs within a cell that summarise data in preceding cells; and broadcast a PowerPoint presentation without first setting up a web meeting. Outlook also gets a revamp, with the ribbon interface first introduced to other Office programs in the 2007 suite looking likely to make email management easier. You'll be able to view threaded conversations, too. But the biggest change of all is the introduction of Office Web Apps. This online dimension to the suite is Microsoft's nod towards the cloud. Using this, you'll be able to view, edit and share Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote documents online. You don't need to have Office 2010 installed to use Web Apps; documents can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection and in any web browser. This first iteration of Web Apps will have limited functionality, but it's a move we're happy to see Microsoft make. The online version of Word will offer basic functions such as printing documents, copying and pasting text, inserting images and hyperlinks, creating tables and spellchecking. Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will have even fewer features. Another provision for working online sees Office 2010 integrating the Windows Live SkyDrive storage service, offering up to 25GB. Microsoft has promised a free Office 2010 upgrade voucher to those who buy Office 2007 between now and 30 September. Editions purchased with an educational discount are excluded from this offer. For new users, Office 2010 will cost ukp109 for a Home and Student three-user licence, ukp239 for a Home and Business two-user licence and ukp429 for a Professional two-user licence. Here, we look at time-saving tips for all versions of Office. Plus, we show you how to get Office 2010 now. USE MICROSOFT WORD MORE EFFICIENTLY START It can be irritating to copy and paste text from the web into a Word document and find that hyperlinks remain intact. Right-clicking each link and choosing 'Remove Hyperlink' can be time-consuming if you have multiple instances; instead, select all the text (Ctrl, A) and press Ctrl, Shift, F9. 2 It's possible to increase font sizes by double-clicking to select the text you want and then choosing from the options available in the ribbon toolbar. A faster method is to hold down Shift and use the arrow keys to select the text, then press ] to increase or [ to decrease the font size in 1pt increments. 3 Shuffling paragraphs around using normal cut-and-paste methods can be fiddly. To save time, place the cursor anywhere within the paragraph you want to move. Press Alt, Shift and the Up arrow to swap the paragraph with the one above it or Alt, Shift and the Down arrow to move it down. 4 Tables can be tricky to edit and format. To release the text, highlight it, choose the Table tab and click Convert, Table to Text. When you've finished editing, separate your columns with Tab breaks and click Convert, Text to Table. You'll be presented with options to adjust the width of columns and rows in the table. 5 If you want to create a document with some parts invisible to some readers, the Hidden text function is ideal. Select the text you want to hide, then click Format, Font and select 'Hidden'. To view it, click Tools, Options, View and tick 'Hidden Text'. To print the whole document select Options, Print and select 'Hidden Text'. 6 Microsoft Office comes with a number of document templates; if you can't find what you need, more can be downloaded from tinyurl.com/4oraj. Alternatively, create your own. To save a document as a template, choose Save As and select Document Template in the 'Save as type' field. J HELPFUL DOWNLOADS Xobni Xobni is a free add-on that runs in a sidebar and makes it easier to find messages, contacts and anything else in Outlook. Emails between you and each of your contacts are shown as threaded conversations, listing every message and file exchanged. Stat fans will enjoy Xobni's running total of how many messages you've exchanged, along with more inconsequential information. xobni.com Kopf Outlook Attachment Remover Outlook can quickly become very bloated, storing all its data, including messages and attachments, in a single .pst file. This results in the email client loading and running more slowly, and may even lead to system crashes. Kopf Outlook Attachment Remover reduces the size of your .pst file by moving attachments to a less crowded home and replacing them with a link to the file in your inbox. bit.ly/arvy1D Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack Older versions of Microsoft Office are unable to open documents created in Office 2007 and later unless they have been specifically saved in a compatible file format. Microsoft's Office Compatibility pack is a free download that enables Office 2000, XP and 2003 users to open, edit and save files using newer versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. bit.ly/1Sn5mJ GET TO GRIPS WITH MICROSOFT WEB APPS Microsoft Office 2010 and Office Web Apps are expected to launch in June, but the public beta is still available if you just can't wait to try out its new features. Download it from bit.ly/2GWWj8. The Office 2010 beta is feature-complete, although its Web Apps' functionality is limited to the ability to view Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents and make 'lightweight' edits in Excel and PowerPoint, such as copy/ paste and undo/redo. You'll need a Windows Live ID in order to get your hands on the Office 2010 beta. If you've got a Hotmail account or use other Microsoft web-based services, you'll already have one. Otherwise, you can register for one at home.live.com. Installing the beta You can try out either Office Professional 2010 or Office Home and Business 2010. The Home version offers Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote, while the Professional version adds Publisher and Access to the mix. Home and Business is delivered via click-to-Run, a streaming technology that allows you to begin using Office apps while the download and installation completes in the background and doesn't write over your existing Office software. If you don't have a reliable, high-speed internet connection, Microsoft recommends that you plump for the Professional beta instead. Here, you can choose an 'Upgrade' or 'Customise' installation. If you choose Upgrade then you'll need to reinstall your previous suite when the beta expires. Whichever version you choose, you'll still need to reinstall Outlook and SharePoint Workspace at the end of the beta period, since neither can coexist with previous versions on your computer. Office Web Apps To view or edit a document using Office Web Apps, it needs to be saved in your SkyDrive account. Open an existing document or create a new one in Word, Excel or PowerPoint 2010 on your PC. Click File to access what Microsoft calls 'BackStage'. Select Share, then choose 'Save to SkyDrive', Sign In. Enter your Windows Live ID and password. Tick the 'Remember my credentials' box to ensure you don't have to do this every time, then press Ok. Browse to your destination folder and choose Save As. Give the document a name and hit Save. To view documents in Web Apps, visit skydrive.live.com and log in. Find your document and click View. TIPS & TRICKS: FILLER TEXT There may be occasions when you want to design a document before you have the text to go in it. In such cases, filler text can be helpful for visualising the final layout. Rather than wasting your time typing filler text into a Word document, simply type =rand() or =lorem() and hit Enter. The first command repeats the sentence 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' three times in Office 2003 or writes three lines of random text in Office 2007. The second command works only in Office 2007 and produces three paragraphs of 'lorem ipsum', a common form of filler text that uses mangled Latin. Repeat as necessary to add more filler text. Alternatively, enter the number of paragraphs and the number of sentences you want in each paragraph within the brackets, separated by a comma. For example: =rand(3,3). Technical telepathy: 09969636745 Saints are not always saints; sinners are not always sinners. Voice your thoughts in the blog to discuss the Rights of persons with disability bill at: http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/blog.htm To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
