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General

You can customize the "Places Bar" in the Open and Save As... dialog boxes (by default: History, My Documents, Desktop, Favorites, and Web Folders) for Office 2000. This requires a little easy Registry editing, so back up your Registry and get to tweakin'.

The easiest way to explain how this works is to go through an example. Since I never save any of my Office documents to the Favorites folder, let's replace the Favorites button with my more regularly used Temp2K directory:

Launch Regedit and drill down to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Office\ 9.0\ Common\ Open Find\ Places\ StandardPlaces\ Favorites.
Right-click in the right window and choose New/DWORD Value. Name the new entry Show. Leave the value at its default of 0.
Right-click the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Office\ 9.0\ Common\ Open Find\ Places\ UserDefinedPlaces. From the shortcut menu, select New/Key. Name the new key Place1 (additional keys Place2, Place3, etc.).
Select the Place1 key. In the right window, right click and choose New/String Value. Rename the new entry Name. Follow the same procedure to create a second string value called Path.
Double click the Name value and enter the label you want to appear in the Places bar. Double click the Path value and enter the full path. In my case, I entered the path to my often used D:\Temp2K directory. Use the full path, drive letter and folder for a local folder or enter a UNC-style address (\\servername\sharename\folder) for a network location.
Save the changes and close Regedit.
Enjoy!

Office 2000 Drag and Hover: Want to Drag and Drop between two Office applications that are open to full screen? Select what you want to move, and drag it to the startbar entry for the other application. Hold (hover) in that position until the new application pops to the top, and then drop it on the desired location.

The Office 2000 Save My Settings Wizard allows you to save your Office settings, store them on the Internet, then download and use them on another computer. Your Office 2000 settings, or profile, are a group of settings that defines your Office 2000 program preferences and options, including custom dictionaries and custom templates as well as AutoCorrect and AutoFormat lists. Go here to download and install the wizard.

There seems to be a possible problem with upgrade version of Office 2000 when installing the second CD. It might claim that it cannot find a qualifying product, even though you have Office 97 or 95 installed. One possible cause could be that you did not install the previous version into the default directory. If you experience this, try calling Microsoft at (425) 635-7140 and explain the situation. They should offer a solution. They might give you a new 25 digit product key which will alleviate the problem.

Speed up Office 97 by turning off File Logging. Office 97 contains a feature enabled by default in Outlook that logs all your Word and Excel file operations. This slows things down. The solution is to turn this feature off. In Outlook, choose Tools/Options, select the Journal tab, and uncheck Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, etc., in the Also record files from box.

If you'd like to use some special icons in your Office 97 toolbars, try this. Locate an image that you think would make a good icon. You might be able to locate some images by inserting ClipArt into a PowerPoint slide. Once you've copied the image to the Clipboard, choose View/Toolbars/Customize. When the Customize dialog box opens, click on the Command tab, and then go to the toolbar and click on the icon you want to replace. Next, click on Modify Selection and choose Paste Button Image. This will paste your copied image into the toolbar.

Find Fast builds indexes of all MS Office documents and slows your computer down noticeably. For Office 97 the default period for automatically indexing all Office documents is two hours. When it starts and indexing job you will hear hard activity and you computer will slow down. You can change the interval. Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Find Fast. Double-click on Find Fast, then Index, then Change Interval; choose 24 or 168 hours. If possible, it's best to do it sometime late at night, so the indexing does not take place during a time you would normally be using the computer.

However as mentioned above, this feature is known to be detrimental to your overall Windows performance. To remove it, right-click on the Start button, click Open, double-click Programs, double-click Startup, then delete the FindFast icon.

When you insert WordArt into an Office 97 document, you can save the WordArt along with the document of course, but what if you'd like to save the WordArt as a separate file? To do this, right-click on the WordArt object and choose Copy from the pop-up menu. Now open Microsoft Paint and choose Image/Attributes. For Width and Height type in 10 pixels and click on OK. Choose Edit/Paste to paste your WordArt into Paint. Paint will ask if you want to enlarge the bitmap, answer Yes. This will make sure that your new image in Paint is the minimum size. Now you can save your new image as a bitmap file (.BMP). You can use these files for wallpaper, or even icons if you wish.

Want to get to that commonly used folder or file very quickly? Here's a trick that works in all Office 97 programs.

Choose File/Open. Now navigate to a folder that you'd like to access quickly in the future. Click the Add to Favorites icon (it's the one with the plus sign in its upper-right corner). Note that you can add folders and individual files.

To quickly open a folder that you've added, Choose File/Open and then click Look in Favorites (it's the button with a star in the center of the folder icon). Your favorite selections will appear in the dialog box.

Can I make Office recognize something other than My Documents as the default folder, or can I delete the default folder?
The answer is yes. Let's look at changing the default and then deleting the folder. Although you can edit the Registry and get rid of all traces of My Documents, we don't recommend this approach. You'd have to modify quite a few keys. So let's not delete that folder. The easiest and safest way to change the default folder is to do it in each of the Office programs.

In Word, choose Tools/Options and click the File Locations tab. Select Documents and click Modify. Now choose a new folder and click OK to record your change. Click OK again to close the Options dialog box. This works in Office 2000 as well.

In Excel, choose Tools/Options and click the General tab. In the Default File Location entry box, type your new folder and its path. Again, this also works for Excel 2000.

In PowerPoint, choose Tools/Options and click the Advanced tab. Type the new folder and path into the Default File Location box and click OK. This also works in Power Point 2000.

In Access, choose Tools/Options and click the General tab. Type the new path and folder into the Default Database Folder box and click OK. And this too works in Access 2000.

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Word

You can use the Edit/Replace... box to change the format of all the repetitions of a word or phrase in a document. After Edit/Replace..., click the Replace With down arrow, but leave it blank, (we are not replacing the word itself), then click Format (at the bottom of the dialog box) and within the next box you can change the word's font, color size and underline. Click OK, then in the master box, click Replace All.

After you add some drawings to a document, you might decide that the drawing needs to be bigger or smaller than it is. To resize a drawing without messing up its position or aspect ratio, click the drawing to select it, then hold down Ctrl+Shift while you use the mouse to resize it. This will resize the drawing from the center out and keep the aspect ratio the same so the drawing doesn't become distorted.

To quickly copy text in Word using the mouse, highlight the text to select it. Click the right mouse button and choose Copy. Next, move the mouse to the location where you want the copied text to appear and click the right mouse button and choose Paste.

Although Word 6 and Word 7 won't let you create a circular frame, you can place text so it will fit a circular picture. Try this: Choose Insert/Frame and use the mouse to draw the frame. Now click inside the frame and insert the picture you want to use. Size the picture and right-click on the frame and choose Format Frame. Set Width and Height to Exactly, and then use the spin boxes to make the frame as small as possible, while still large enough for the picture. Set distance from text to zero and click on OK. You may have to repeat the sizing several times to get exactly the right settings.

Now choose View/Toolbars, select Drawing, and click on OK. From the Drawing toolbar, click on the Oval button and draw a circle around the framed picture. (This is to provide you with a guide; you can make it disappear later.) Using the circle as a guide, place spaces in the text to make it fit the circle as closely as possible. Once all your text is in place, right-click on the circle and choose Format Drawing Object. Click on the Lines tab, select the None radio button, and click on OK. This will make the circle invisible without making any other changes.

You can select the paragraph mark along with the selected text before making a drag-and-drop text move. This applies to many drag-and-move operations that have nothing to do with numbered lists. The paragraph mark contains the formatting information for the text. So anytime you need to make a move and retain the formatting, you need to select the paragraph mark. An easy way to select the paragraph mark, along with a single paragraph sentence is to hold down the Ctrl key and double-click on the sentence to select it. Then, with the sentence still selected, release the Ctrl key and press the space bar. While holding down the Shift key, press the right arrow once. This will move the selection one place to the right and will select the paragraph mark. This won't work with sentences in the middle of a paragraph because there's no paragraph mark there.

Use the Spike. Suppose you are working in Word and you don't like the way you've placed a picture. If it begins to look as though the best approach is to cut the picture and finish the text, you can choose Edit/Cut to cut the picture. This places the picture into the Clipboard for later use. Unfortunately, unless you are using Office 2000 with it's enhanced clipboard utility, if you then cut or copy something else, you lose your picture. (Unless you have installed SmartBoard!).

This might be a good time to use the Spike. To delete the picture and put it on the Spike, select it and then press Ctrl+F3. The picture will remain on the Spike until you need it again. To paste the picture and remove it from the Spike, click where you want the picture to appear and press Ctrl+Shift+F3. This will completely clear the Spike and paste all its contents into the document.

If you write a lot of letters, you might want to consider modifying one of the letter wizards for you personal use. Choose File/New and click on the Letters and Faxes tab. Choose the wizard you'd like to use and click on OK. Now fill in the wizard with all the fixed items (your company name, address, phone number, etc.) Once you have everything set up the way you want, choose File/Save As and give it a name (MyLetter or something like that). Next, click on the arrow at the right side of the Save As Type list box to expand the list. Select Document Template (*.dot) and click on OK to save the file. When you choose File, New now, your new letter wizard will appear in the dialog box.

Watermark it. You can make a watermark in three easy steps.

Insert a Graphic: Select View/Header and Footer. Select Insert/Picture. Select the image and choose Format/Picture. On the Position tab select Float Over Text. On the Picture tab pick Watermark from the Color drop-down list. On the Wrapping tab click on None.
Insert Text: To add text, choose Insert/Text Box. Drag a box within the crosshairs, then type your text. Change the font color to Gray 25%. You can size and position the text box by dragging the sizing handles. To rotate the text, choose Format/Text Direction, and select the option you want.
See Your Mark: When you're finished, click on Close on the Header and Footer toolbar. To see a watermark as it will appear on the printed page, switch to Page Layout View.

On the move. Jump quickly around your Word documents by taking advantage of the Browse feature. At the bottom of the vertical scroll bar are three buttons that can get you quickly zooming around a large document. The button with a circle on it lets you pick how you'll browse. For example, click on Browse by Graphic to jump between images each time you press the up or down arrows.

If you are working with more than one document in Word, you'll find that you have a new command on the File menu. The command is Save All; to see it hold down the Shift key and choose File. You can hold down Shift and choose File/Save All to save all the currently open documents. This can be a bit of a time saver, especially when you have a large number of named documents. Any documents that haven't been saved before will prompt you for a name.

Gridlines and Tables and Printers. When you create a table in Word, the table will appear in the document with gridlines. However, the gridlines don't appear on the printed sheet. If you'd prefer to work without the gridlines, you can choose Table/Gridlines. This is a toggle - so to turn the gridlines back on, choose the same command. If you want printing gridlines, select the table and choose Format/Borders and Shading. When the dialog box opens, click on Grid and then click on OK. The gridlines will appear in your document and will also appear in the printer output.

Random text in Word 97. Try typing =rand() then press Enter. It will place some paragraphs of common text referring to the habits of foxes and dogs. The replacement of text which takes place is some kind of Autoformatting, according to Edit/Undo. You can get greater control over how much is inserted by adding parameters. The full command syntax is =rand([p],[s]) where p is the number of paragraphs (default = 2) and s is the number of sentences per paragraph (default = 5). Both parameters are optional, =rand(3,2) will give you three paragraphs of text with two sentences in each paragraph. This is a completely undocumented feature. Searching for help for rand, rand(), sample text, and even quick brown fox turned up nothing useful.

Close all open files in Word. If you often work with several files at once, you probably wish Word had a command for closing all open files. Actually, it does. To see it, press the Shift key, then open the File menu. Or hit Alt then Shift+F, either way Word substitutes Close All for Close. To add Close All to the File menu permanently, choose Tools/Customize, then the Menus card. In the Categories list box, highlight File, and in the Commands list box, highlight FileCloseAll. Leave the Change What Menu box set to &File, leave the Position on Menu box set to (Auto), select Add, and then Close. Be sure to Choose Save All to save the changed menu to disk.

Create fancy page layouts with Word 97's Custom Tables. Newsletters, brochures, and advertising flyers with complex layouts are typically designed in expensive desktop publishers such as Adobe Pagemaker. You can get many of the same effects with Word 97's table-drawing feature. Here is how to use it:

Make the whole page a table. This technique works best if you treat the entire page as a table. First select View/Zoom/WholePage. Click the Tables and Borders toolbar icon on the standard toolbar, and then click and draw a single cell from the top left corner of the page down to the bottom right corner. The Table and Borders toolbar will pop up when you do this. You can then draw other cells of any size within this main cell. You might want to switch back to a more convenient Zoom view after drawing the main cell.
Create a space for a headline with a single cell. Click the pencil icon on the Tables and Borders toolbar, then click and drag a new cell to the size, then highlight the text and apply formatting to suit your needs.
Create a block of vertical text. An area of vertical text can add impact to documents like flyers. To do this, draw a narrow vertical cell, then type your emphasis text in the new cell. To rotate the text, click in the cell, then click the Change Text Direction icon on the Tables and Borders toolbar repeatedly until you get the effect you want. Apply any desired formatting to the vertical text.
Add borders and lines. Anywhere you place a cell or group of cells on your layout is a place you can add lines or borders. Click inside the cell, or click and drag to select multiple cells. Then click the arrow next to the Borders icon on the Tables and Borders toolbar and choose one of the options there. Control line style, thickness and color with the other drop-down selections to the left of the Borders icon.
Add background shading. You can further emphasize any text in a cell by adding color. Just click in the cell, then click the arrow next to the Shading Color icon on the Tables and Borders toolbar. Select a color of a shade of gray for a background.
Add graphics. If you want to place clip art, charts, or other objects inside your cells, first select Insert/Text Box and click and drag the box to size. Then insert your graphic inside the box. Select Insert/Picture/From File.

You can get additional Clip Art for Word 97 over the Internet. Select Insert/Picture/ClipArt in Word 97. In the Clip Gallery dialog box, click the Globe icon, and then click OK to go to Microsoft's Clip Gallery Live Site at www.microsoft.com/clipgallerylive. Select one of the thirty seven categories of images down the left side of Microsoft's page, then browse through the available clips shown on the right side of the page. To retrieve the one you want and add it to your local Clip Gallery archive, click the hyperlinked file name under its thumbnail image. Important: If your browser asks you whether you want to open the clip art file or save it to disk, choose the Open option to import the file properly. If you choose to save the file to disk instead, the image will be unusable.

Use the keyboard shortcut to run the Spell Checker. So, press Ctrl+Home and then press F7.

Drop Down Forms. If you need to generate a form for people to fill in, you might want to consider using drop-down lists. This makes it easy for you to read the results because it forces certain responses of your choosing - eliminating the possibility of answers that have nothing to do with the questions.

As an example, let's consider an age entry. You could ask for age and let people fill in the blank. But if the age group is more important to you than a specific age, you can use a drop-down list. First, choose View/Toolbars/Forms to place the Forms toolbar in your Word window. Now click where you want the list to appear, and then go to the toolbar and click on the Drop-Down Form Field button (the icon resembles a drop-down list.) After you insert the form, click on the Form Field Options button (it's the next button to the right of the Drop-Down Form Field button.) When the dialog box opens, enter the first age group and click on Add. Repeat until all the age groups are entered. When you are finished, click on OK.

To get your form to work, click on the Protect Form button (it looks like a padlock). To edit your form, click on the Protect Form button again.

Grouping in Word. Grouping of objects isn't limited to PowerPoint. In fact, it's a good idea to group objects in Word, too. Grouping them keeps them together and easier to deal with. Let's say you've inserted several Clip Art objects into a Word document. You've placed these objects just where you want them in relation to the page and to each other. You don't want to lose this relationship, so click the first object and then press and hold down the Shift key while you select the remaining objects. If the Drawing toolbar isn't available, choose View/Toolbars/Drawing. Now click the Draw button in the Drawing toolbar and choose Group. Your objects will become one. Note that you cannot Ungroup Clip Art in Word. If you need to make a custom picture by ungrouping and removing some portions, use PowerPoint and then copy the result and paste it into your Word document.

Pictures. You can put pictures into your headers and into the body of a document, so why not put them on the envelopes as well? The way to do this isn't as obvious as inserting pictures into headers and documents is, but that doesn't mean you can't do it. Suppose you'd like to print a company logo on all your envelopes. Here's how. Create a new Word document and enter your return address. Now click where you want the picture to appear and choose Insert/Picture/From File. Locate the picture you want to use and select it.

Once the picture is in place in the Word document, resize it if necessary and then click it once to select it. Choose Insert/AutoText/New. Type in EnvelopeExtra1 and click OK. Now the envelope will include the new picture.

Keyboard shortcuts

Ctrl + Up Arrow	Moves insertion point to previous paragraph
Ctrl + Down Arrow	Moves insertion point to next paragraph
Ctrl + A	Select whole document
Ctrl + B	Bold Text, or unbold if already bold
Ctrl + E	Center text
Ctrl + F	Pop up Edit Find Command
Ctrl + H	Pop up Edit Replace Command
Ctrl + I	Italicize, or undo if already italics
Ctrl + J	Justify text
Ctrl + L	Left alignment
Ctrl + P	Pop up Print menu
Ctrl + R	Right Alignment
Ctrl + U	Underline text, or remove underline
Ctrl + Plus	Superscript text, or undo if superscript
Ctrl + Equal	Subscript text, or undo if subscript
F4	Repeat previous action to highlighted text
F7	Check Spelling
Shift + F12	Save Document
Ctrl + F10/Ctrl + F5	Zoom/ Restore

To get a line all the way across the page, use AutoFormat as you type. It will convert "--------" or "_________" into a border that goes all the way across the page. By using borders instead of the manual equivalents, your line will always automatically resize whenever you change the margins or share the file with others.

Use WordArt to create fancy text effects. Select Insert/Object and choose Microsoft WordArt from the drop down list. Enter or copy the text you want to customize into the Enter Your Text Here dialog box. When you click on the drop-down box marked Plain Text in the upper left hand corner, a palette of shapes appears. Select the shape you want. You can also rotate the text and add 3-D effects by choosing those options from the Format menu or clicking their corresponding Toolbar buttons. If you need to edit your text, just click on the object and the Enter Your Text Here dialog box reappears. Make your changes, then click on the object again.

To add artistic touches, click on the Drawing icon and a special toolbar appears on the screen. This built-in object orientated package lets you draw a variety of lines and geometric forms. You can assign object fill colors and patterns, set line thickness, control stacking of objects in front and back, and group and align objects on a page. Choose the Text Box icon to create and place text anywhere in the document. The Callout feature automatically draws indicator lines to a text box, which lets you create special labels and enhancements for photographic images on screen captures.

Microsoft Graph, another Word applet, is as quick and easy to use as WordArt. Choose Insert/Object/Microsoft Graph 5.0. The applet will automatically display a sample graph and an entry grid where you can directly enter of paste data. When the graph object is active, Word's menus automatically shift to display relevant chart or data editing options, allowing you to select chart types, enter or edit data, and format the result to your liking.

If AutoCorrect changes a word or abbreviation that should be in all caps into lowercase, click Undo or go back and correct the error. Word will automatically add this to its Exceptions list. From that point on, it won't make the same correction, or mistake again.

You can make a line across the page of a Word document; type three dashes and press Enter, and you will get a clear divider for sections of your document.

Pictures. You can put pictures into your headers and into the body of a document, so why not put them on the envelopes as well? The way to do this isn't as obvious as inserting pictures into headers and documents is, but that doesn't mean you can't do it. Suppose you'd like to print a company logo on all your envelopes. Here's how. Create a new Word document and enter your return address. Now click where you want the picture to appear and choose Insert/Picture/From File. Locate the picture you want to use and select it. Once the picture is in place in the Word document, resize it if necessary and then click it once to select it. Choose Insert/AutoText/New. Type in EnvelopeExtra1 and click OK. Now the envelope will include the new picture.

Have you ever needed to work with small documents in Word? Say a brochure, or a card? Let's say that your organization needs some tickets for a show you're putting on. To walk through the procedure, let's assume that the tickets will be 2 inches by 4 inches. You want to enter the name of the show, the date and time, and the location. The best way to handle this job is to use Word labels. Choose Tools/Envelopes and Labels. When the Envelopes and Labels dialog box opens, click the Labels tab. Click Options and then click Details. In Details, set the height to 2, the width to 4, the number across to 2, and the number down to 5. Leave the other settings as they are (the default). Word will ask you to confirm your changes. Click OK to get back to the Envelopes and Labels dialog box. Now type in the text you want to use for your ticket. If you'd like to change the font or font size, right-click the label and choose a font and font size. After you make the selection, click OK to get back to your label. Make sure the Full Page of the Same Label radio button is selected and then click Print to print your tickets.

Word offers two ways to deal with text in a box: You can frame text, or you can add text to a text box. First, let's look at framed text. To add a frame to your document, choose Insert/Frame. Use the mouse to draw a frame. Now you can click in the frame and add text. Use the mouse to drag the frame to the location of your choice. To set up the frame, right-click it and choose Format Frame. In this dialog box, you can choose how you want text to wrap around the frame, along with how far the text should be from the frame and other parameters. After you make all your selections, click OK. Next, let's look at the text box. To add a text box, click the Text Box button in the Drawing toolbar. If the Drawing toolbar doesn't appear in your Word window, choose View/Toolbars, select Drawing, and click OK. After you've drawn the text box, click it and then enter the text. If you use the mouse to move the text box over some existing text, you'll see that text doesn't wrap around it. You can place the text box over text and other objects in your document. In conclusion, use the frame when you want text to wrap, and use Text Box when you don't.

How would you like to use Word to create an online questionnaire? Suppose your organization needs to know the approximate income of each of its active members (this is only an example; in the real world you'd probably have to hide out for a while after suggesting this). Open a new Word document and type in all the header information. With the sales pitch in place, let's get to the questions. Type something like this:

$10,001 - $20,000

$20,001 - $40,000

$40,001 - $60,000

$60,001 - $80,000

$80,001 - $100,000

Over $100,000

Now click the document to the right of $20,000 (maybe add a space and then click). Choose Insert/Form Field. When the dialog box opens, select Check Box and click OK. The check box will appear in your document to the right of $20,000. Do the same now for all the numbers. To use the questionnaire online, choose Tools/Protect Document. When the Protect Document dialog box opens, select Forms and click OK. Now the only thing anyone can do is select one of the check boxes they can't modify the document. After someone finishes the questionnaire, you need to save the document. Choose File, Save As and type in a name. Click Save to save the document. You can open the documents that you collect and print them later. If you want to mail some of the questionnaires, the check box will show up just fine, so the members can make the selection with a pen and mail it back to you. This is one style of questionnaire to fit all purposes.

When you work with long documents in Word, you'll find that's it's nice to have some bookmarks to navigate around in the document. Bookmarks are easy to add, easy to use, and leave no unsightly marks of any kind in your text. And you can put them anywhere at all. Just for the purpose of experimentation, click anywhere in your current Word document and then choose Insert, Bookmark. When the dialog box opens, type in a word to use as your bookmark. Now click Add.

To check your new bookmark, press F5. When the dialog box opens, type in the new bookmark name and then click Go To. Word will deliver you to the bookmarked spot without any further ado.

Word users need to generate documents that contain equations. This is certainly no problem for Word. Here's how to add equations to a document.

As an example, let's assume that you want to create a document for some young arithmetic students, such as:

2X=Y+5

You can make this look better if you choose Insert/Object/Microsoft Equation. Now type in the equation, and the Equation editor will put the line into a more pleasing form.

The real advantage of the Equation editor becomes apparent when you need to enter more complex equations. For example, showing a square root in Word can be cumbersome, but if you use the Equation editor, it will look just as any mathematician would expect it to look. Because we can't show you samples, the best approach is to open the Equation editor and experiment with it.

You're not limited to entering headers--you may also want to enter formulas this way. This trick is handy for entering headers. Just don't forget to turn it off before you start entering data. Otherwise, all the sheets will show the same data.

Word 97 allows you to apply a border to an entire page. If you need to make a decorative page for your organization, perhaps you'd like to use a page border. Word includes some artwork for your border. Let's say you want to write a letter to some fellow animal lovers, so a border of cats would look nice. Choose Format/Borders and Shading. When the Borders and Shading dialog box opens, click the Page Border tab. Now locate the list box labeled Art and click the arrow at the right side of the list box to expand the list. Select the artwork you want to use (in this case, the cats) and then click OK to close the dialog box and record your selections. Word will now automatically switch to Page Layout view (unless you're already there), and your border selection will appear.

Making Book: If you'd like to make a booklet, all you need is Word and some standard 8.5 by 11 paper. The trick is setting up the printer and visualizing where the pages will appear. To make a four-page booklet, you'll fold the paper in half. Give this a try now, before you even think about writing and printing the booklet. Fold the paper and then place it on the desk with the inside of the fold upward. You're looking at page 2 and page 3. The back of page 2 is page 1, and the back of page 3 is page 4. Now you can create a document. Choose File/Page Setup. When the dialog box opens, click the Paper Size tab and select Landscape. Click OK to exit the dialog box and record the change. Now choose Format/Columns. When the Columns dialog box opens, click Two columns and then click OK. Now choose View/Page Layout so you can see what's going on in both columns. Now write your document, remembering that pages 1 and 4 will appear on one Word page, and pages 2 and 3 will appear on another Word page. Let's assume that booklet pages 1 and 4 are on Word page 1. To print your booklet, choose File/Print. When the dialog box opens, select Pages and type in 1. Click OK to print. Now remove the printed page from the printer and insert it in the paper tray printed side up (in most printers). This time choose File/Print and select Page. Type in 2 and click OK to print the other side of the paper. With both sides of the page printed, you can now fold the paper to make your booklet. Note: Not all printers feed the paper the same way. You need to determine how your printer works.

When you choose to use bullets or numbering in a Word document, the new number or bullet appears when you press Enter. If you'd like to insert a blank line between one bulleted line and another, you can press Shift+Enter. To get to the next bulleted line, press Enter. This produces the effect shown here.

1. Line one
2. Line two
3. Line three

4. Line four
5. Line five

Working with scraps: Did you know that in many applications you can drag scraps of text or graphics to the desktop for later use in their original or another application? For example, let's say that you're working on a report in Microsoft Word and you decide to cut a paragraph. However, you may want to use that paragraph later in the document or even in another file. To create a scrap, select the text you wish to use and then drag it onto the desktop with the right mouse button. When you release the button, select the Move Scrap Here command from the context menu (dragging with the left mouse button will automatically copy the scrap). Now when you want to copy the scrap into a document, just drag it from the desktop into the text.

It's All Symbolic: Word makes some special symbols:
If you type:
-->, Word will produce a right arrow.
Typing: ==> will produce a bold right arrow.
Typing: :) makes a happy face. So does: :-)
Of course, you can make unhappy faces as well. Type: :-( or :(
And then there's the indifferent face (neither happy nor sad). Type: :-| or :|
Typing: (CA) gives you the copyright symbol.
Need left arrows? Type: <-- or <==
Trademark? (TM) does it.

Special Effects: Earlier we discussed using text boxes for sidebars and pull quotes (choose Insert/Text Box). This time, let's look at how to produce some special effects using the text box feature.
Let's say you want to place a picture in your document. You'd like to create the effect of a portion of a pull quote over part of the picture. The only problem is that by default the text box will hide the picture.
Go ahead and create a text box and move it over a portion of your picture. Now choose Format, Text Box and click the Colors and Lines tab. Select the check box labeled Semitransparent and then click OK. Now the picture will show through the text box, but that portion of the picture under the text box will appear lighter than the uncovered portion.

If you want a table with two rows and four columns on top but with six columns on the bottom, you can do it easily with Word's Insert Table command. Try this: Choose Table/Insert Table. When the dialog box opens, tell it to produce a table with two rows and six columns. Click OK to insert the table.

Now select the top row and choose Table/Split Cells. When the dialog box opens, make sure the check box labeled Merge Cells Before Split is selected. Now enter four columns for the top row and click OK. This converts the top row from six cells to four.

You can use Word's Insert Table command to create more difficult tables. For example, if you want a table with two rows and four columns on top but with six columns on the bottom, you can do it easily with Word's Insert Table command. Try this: Choose Table/Insert Table. When the dialog box opens, tell it to produce a table with two rows and six columns. Click OK to insert the table.
Now select the top row and choose Table/Split Cells. When the dialog box opens, make sure the check box labeled Merge Cells Before Split is selected. Now enter four columns for the top row and click OK. This converts the top row from six cells to four.

Just in case you'd like to change the case of a sentence quickly, try this: Select the sentence and press Shift+F3. The first time you press Shift+F3, the sentence turns to all caps. The next time you press the combination, the sentence turns to all lowercase. When you press Shift+F3 once more, the sentence will display standard capitalization (begins with a cap--all others lowercase).

Do you sometimes need to use leaders? Leaders are those little dots leading up to some text. Like this.
...............Text Leaders.
To set up leaders, choose Format/Tabs. When the dialog box opens, enter the tab position you want to use (in inches). Now look under Leader. Select the radio button associated with the type of leader you want (they don't have to always be little dots) and then click Set. Now click OK to record your selection and close the dialog box.
Now when you use the Tab key, the tab location you entered will display the leader.

If you'd like, Word will even allow you to paste with only the Ins (or Insert) key. To see if you might like this arrangement, choose Tools/Options and click the Edit tab. Select the check box labeled Use the INS Key for Paste and then click OK to save your changes and get rid of the dialog box.

When you start a new document in Word, it's a good idea to name and save it as soon as you begin working. Since you're going to have to choose File/Save As and give the file a name anyway, why not let Word prompt you for a name?
You can use a macro to ask for the name whenever you open a new document. To enter the macro, choose Tools/Macro and type in AutoNew. Now click the arrow at the right side of the Macros Available In list box and select Normal.dot (Global template). Click Create and type in the macro exactly as shown here (your best bet is to copy and paste directly from this tip):

Sub MAIN
FName$ = InputBox$("What do You Want to Name This File?", "New File")
FileSaveAs .Name = FName$, .Format = 0
End Sub

Now, when you open a new document, Word will prompt you for a name. Enter a name without the extension. Word will append the extension .DOC to your file name.

Microsoft Office 95 Professional Version contains some Word macros that you may want to use. The only problem is that they aren't available unless you make them available. To locate the macros, choose Tools/Macro and click Organizer. When Organizer opens, you'll have two views of Normal.dot. Click the Close button on the left side of the dialog box to close Normal.dot. Now click Open and then go to the Office folder. In the Office folder, locate the Winword folder. Double-click Winword to open it. Now you should now see a folder named Macros. Double-click it. In the Macros folder, you should see a list of macros: Convert7.dot, Layout7.dot, Macros7.dot, Present7.dot, and Tables7.dot. To work with these macros, click one to select it and click OK. Now click the macros inside the DOT files and click Copy to copy them to the Normal.dot (on the right side of the Organizer dialog box). Repeat this process for each of the macro-containing DOT files in Winword\Macros. After you copy all the macros to Normal.dot, click Close in the Organizer dialog box. Now you can choose Tools/Macro/Macros to view the newly loaded macros. Select a macro and click Edit to see what the macro does.

When writing a brochure, a newsletter, a report, or a memo, even a tiny bit of difference in the line spacing can make your document easier to read. Experiment with this a bit. Print two or three versions of a document, each with a different line spacing; you'll probably find that there's a line spacing that you prefer.

Try this. Make three documents all with the same text, but with different line spacing. For the original document, use the standard spacing. Choose File/Save to save the original document. Next, choose File/Save As and give the document a new name. In the new document, click in the body of the text and then choose Format/Paragraph. When the Paragraph dialog box opens, locate the two boxes labeled Line Spacing and At. In the At spin box, type .9 and click OK. Choose File/Save to save the document. Now, choose File/Save As again and provide the document with a third name. Click in the body of the text and choose Format/Paragraph. This time, set the spacing to 1.1 and click OK. Save the new document (choose File/Save). Now print all three documents. You'll probably find that you don't like the more closely spaced lines. Even if they fail to actually notice the line spacing, most people make little distinction between the 1.1-line spacing and the standard single spacing, although a few people may comment that the wider-spaced document seems easier to read.

To highlight an entire Word document, press Control + 5 on the number keypad.

Let's say that you want to draw a rectangle in a Word document, and you want a really special effect for this rectangle. Here's one approach to a striking effect. First, make sure the Drawing toolbar is available to you. If it isn't, choose View/Toolbars and select Drawing. Now, let's draw the rectangle. To do this, click the Rectangle button in the Drawing toolbar (its icon looks like a rectangle). Use the mouse to draw the rectangle. Make sure the rectangle is selected; now click the arrow on the right side of the Fill Color button (its icon looks like a bucket of paint). When the dialog box opens, click Fill Effects. When the Fill Effects dialog box opens, click the Picture tab. Now, click Select Picture and locate the picture you want to use. Click OK to close the dialog box and insert your Fill picture into the rectangle. Your picture appears in the rectangle you created in your document.

To convert footnotes to endnotes in Word, you don't have to redo your footnotes. Your document must be in Normal View to do this.

Choose Insert/Footnote. When the Footnote and Endnote dialog box opens, click Options. When the Note Options dialog box opens, click Convert and then select the radio button labeled Convert All Footnotes to Endnotes (it's the default unless you have both footnotes and endnotes in your document). Now, click OK and back in the Notes Options dialog box, click OK again. This gets you back to the Footnote and Endnote dialog box; click OK once again to close the dialog box and save your changes. Now, choose View/Footnotes. When the Footnotes window opens, click the arrow at the right side of the Footnotes list box to expand the list. From the list, select All Endnotes. And there are your new endnotes. If you're planning to add additional endnotes to the document, be sure to reset the endnote command. Choose Insert/Footnote and click the endnote radio button in the Footnote & Endnote dialog box.

We always want our Word documents to look good, and there are times when we want them to look a little dressy. One fairly common way to dress up a document is to add a vertical line to the left side of the page.

To insert a vertical line before you start typing, choose Format/Paragraph. When the Paragraph dialog box opens, set the Left Indentation to -0.5 and click OK. Choose Format/Borders and Shading. In the Paragraph Borders and Shading dialog box, click at the left side of the preview under Borders to tell Word that you want a single left border. Now, click OK to close the dialog box. As you type, a vertical line will appear at the left side of the text. Note that we chose an indent of -0.5 to keep the line from interfering with the text. You can experiment around with this value to get your vertical line to appear just as you want it.

Here's a nice effect for special Word documents: Use a vertical text header down the left side of the page. To create a vertical header, first choose File/Page Setup and click the Margins tab. Set the top margin to -1 and click OK. Now, choose View/Header and Footer and then choose Format/Paragraph. When the Paragraph dialog box opens, set the left indentation to -72 pt and click OK. This gives you about one inch of space. Choose FormatFont and choose the font, font size, and color (if desired) and click OK. Type in your text now, one letter at a time. To make the text vertical, press Enter after each letter and press Enter twice after each word. You may have to experiment to get the text placed where you want it. Note that this vertical header is still a header. It will appear on every page of your document, and you won't see it in Normal view. To see how it will print, choose File/Print Preview.

Once you add a word to the dictionary, how can you remove it (say you added it by mistake)?

Launch Windows Explorer and search for the file Custom.dic. Double clicking on it will open it in Notepad. You can now remove (or add) any words you want. When you finish editing the list save your changes.

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Excel

Getting Converted. It can be helpful to be able to switch from Celsius to Fahrenheit. Excel 97 has a command named CONVERT. To see how it works, type 68 into cell A1. Now move to cell A3 and type in =CONVERT(A1, "C", "F") and press Enter. This formula converts Fahrenheit (F) to Celsius (C) and the result should be 20. If you need to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit, type in =Convert (A1, "C", "F") and press Enter. If you left 68 in A1, the new result should be 154.4. Note: If the Convert function does not work for you, choose Tools/Add-Ins. Make sure the Analysis ToolPak option is turned on and click on OK.

Make templates to save time.

Step 1. Set Up Boilerplate Content: Select File/New, then select Workbook from the General tab in the New dialog box and click on OK. Enter any boilerplate content to appear in every new workbook based on this template.

Step 2. Save as a Template: To save this workbook as a template, select File/Save As, and in the Save As Type list choose Template (*.xlt). This switches you to the Office Templates folder. Change folders to Xlstart (usually C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Xlstart).

Step 3. Make it the Default: To make this the default template - the one that will be used for all new workbooks created via File/New/Workbook, name it Book.xlt.

Step 4. Cleanup and Test Close the Book.xlt template. Exit and them restart Excel. Now whenever you create a new workbook, you'll get a workbook with the attributes of Book.xlt.

Quick Chart Updates. An embedded chart's source data and labels in the worksheet are outlined in color. You can change a data or label range by dragging the colored border to include new cells. Select the embedded chart (click once on its border), grab a corner handle of the area outlining the worksheet source data (the mouse pointer becomes a small, dark cross), and drag the border to include the new data. The chart updates itself in real time as you watch.

Excel's Fill option can save you lots of typing. Let's say you need to make a list of a series of dates. And what you really need is a list of workdays - Monday through Friday. Select the first cell and enter the start date. Let's say you enter Monday, November 3, 1997 (11/30/97). Now use the mouse to select the first cell and the other cells you want to fill with the dates. If you're going to enter dates for the entire month of November, you need to select about 22 cells. If you select more than you need, you can delete the extra later. With all the cells selected, choose Edit/Fill/Series. Now select Date and Weekday and click on OK. The column will fill with the series of dates that represent weekdays in November.

You can do more with Excel's date formatting than you might think. Suppose you'd like a particular cell to show only the month and the day. Click on the cell to select it, then choose Format/Cells and select Custom. Under Type enter mmm.dd and then click on OK. Let's say the date is 10/31/97. Type that in and the cell will display October 31. Suppose now that you'd like to show the day of the week, the month, and the day (numerical). Choose Format/Cells and select Custom again. This time, type dddd, mmmm dd to produce a display of Friday, October 31. Click on OK to close the dialog box and record the changes. If you want to add the year, go back to the Format Cells dialog box and type dddd, mmmm dd, yyyy. Now click on OK.

To place a text box in Excel, you need the drawing toolbar. So first, choose View/Toolbars/Drawing. Now click on the Text Box button in the Drawing toolbar (it's icon resembles a printed page). Use the mouse to draw the text box in your worksheet. Once you've drawn the text box, you probably want to choose the font and font size for the text. Click on the text box and choose Format/Text Box. When the Format Text box opens, choose your font, font size and color and click on OK. Want the text centered in the box? Click on the Center button in the Formatting toolbar. Now type your text. When you save the worksheet, the text box and all its parameters are saved with it. When you open the worksheet again, the text box will appear just as you left it.

You are not limited to placing text in a text box; you can also add text to a shape you create using AutoShapes. To do this, click on the AutoShapes button in the Drawing toolbar and then choose a shape from the expanded list. Use the mouse to draw the shape.

To add up a group of numbers without creating a Sum function in a separate cell, highlight the cells and look at the status bar. AutoCalculate can show the sum, average, count, max, min of the number of cells containing numbers. By default, Excel uses the Sum function to total the cells collected, but you can right-click on the calculated cells to change the function.

Cut your data entry in half with AutoComplete. When you begin typing in a cell, Excel looks through all other rows to see what entries begin with the letters you've typed and automatically fills in a value when a match is found. To pick from a list of values without doing any typing, right-click on the cell and select Pick from List. Choose the value you want from the pull-down list.

A Worksheet in Excel, a Table in Word. There are several ways to get Excel worksheet data into a Word document. In all cases, you begin by selecting the cells you want to put into the Word document. So select the cells and then press Ctrl+C to copy your selection to the Clipboard. Now let's look at our first method. Switch to your Word document and choose Edit/Paste (or press Ctrl+V). This will paste the worksheet selection into Word as a table. Note that this method does not provide a link to the Excel document. Changes made in Excel will not appear in Word. To insert the worksheet selection as a linked file, copy the selection (Ctrl+C) and then switch to Word. Now choose Edit/Paste Special. When the Paste Special dialog box opens, select Formatted Text (RTF) and Paste as Link. Now click OK, and the worksheet selection will appear as a linked table in your Word document.

You can also insert a linked table by copying the worksheet data (Ctrl+C) and then choosing Edit/Paste Special. This time select Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object and Paste as Link, and the data will appear as just numbers, no table.

In both cases, the data is linked to the Excel worksheet, so any changes you make in Excel will also appear in the Word document.

If you use Edit/Paste Special and choose Formatted Text (RTF) and Paste as Link, the data will appear in table form. You can select the table and then choose Table, AutoFormat to format the table to suit you. This is also the case when you simply copy the worksheet data and then switch to Word and press Ctrl+V. You can format the table as you wish.

If you paste the data using Edit/Paste Special and choose Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object and Paste as Link, the data will not appear in table form. Therefore you can't apply table formatting.

AutoShapes: If you haven't experimented with this handy feature in Excel, now is the time to see how it works. Let's imagine that you've just finished a worksheet that contains a chart. You can add labels to the chart to make it easier for people to read. But you could also use some AutoShapes to enhance the appearance of the worksheet. Look at the Drawing toolbar at the bottom of the Excel window. If you don't have a Drawing toolbar, choose View/Toolbars/Drawing. In the Drawing toolbar, click AutoShapes. When the list expands, select Callouts and then select the one of your choice. Now use the mouse to draw the shape. Once the callout is in place, use the mouse to drag its pointer near one of your chart elements. Type in the information about the element the callout points to, and then use the mouse to size the callout box. This is a very effective way to label chart elements for a presentation.

When you need to work with multiple sheets in Excel, you may want to make the headers the same on all the sheets. Here's a little trick that works very well. Hold down the Ctrl key and click the name tab of each sheet that you intend to use. Now type in your headers on one of the sheets. Hold down the Ctrl key again and deselect all the sheets except Sheet 1. Now click Sheet 2. The header will appear on Sheet 2 just as it did on Sheet 1, and just as it will on all the sheets you selected initially.

Absolute Power: There are times when you don't want a number to display as negative, even if the calculation produces a negative. For example, let's suppose that you want to use Excel to calculate the number of days between two dates. You can enter into cell A1 1/1/98. Now, if you enter the current date into A2, you can calculate the number of days since January 1. So, you type into Cell A3 =A1-A2. This will produce a negative number. So, let's take the absolute value. Type into cell A3 =abs(A1-A2) and Excel will display a positive number. Note: Yes, we know that you can subtract A1 from A2 and get a positive number. It's only an example.

If you need to type a lot of text into a single Excel cell, you can control the width of your text by typing Alt+Enter to insert a carriage return. When you need to use a Tab, press Ctrl+Alt+Tab. You'll get a cell similar to the one shown here.

When you type into a
cell, you can press Alt+Enter
to add a Carriage Return.

If you want to insert the date and time into an Excel worksheet, you can click a cell and enter the date. To insert the current date into a cell, you can type =TODAY() and press Enter. If you're in too much of a hurry for all that typing, try pressing Ctrl+; (semicolon) to insert the time, and Ctrl+: (colon) to insert the date. The inserted information will display using the cell's current format.

To get Excel worksheets to display formulas rather than data, all you have to do is press Ctrl+Tilde (~), and Excel will toggle between data display and formula display.

When you add text to a single 1-2-3 cell, the text will appear over adjacent empty cells. However, if you wish, you can confine the text to a single cell. To get the text to wrap inside a single cell, click the cell and choose Range/Range Properties. When the Properties dialog box opens, click the Alignment tab (it's the second tab). Now select the check box labeled Wrap Text in Cell. While you're here, you can also decide how you want to align the text and select one of the options: Left, Center, Right, and Justified. You can set the vertical alignment too. After you make all your selections, click the close box to save your changes and retire the dialog box.

If you use both Excel 95 and Excel 97 you may have noticed that Excel 95's Center Across Columns button is labeled Merge and Center in Excel 97, and it produces a different effect. However, you can still center across a selection in Excel 97. Clicking Excel 97's Merge and Center button actually performs two operations: It merges the selected cells into a single larger cell, and it horizontally centers whatever was in the upper-left cell. Note that it does not concatenate the data, contents of other cells are deleted. You can't change this button's function to get it to behave the way it used to, but you can still center the data in the cells you've selected. Highlight the cells you want to center, select Format/Cells; click the Alignment tab; select Center Across Selection from the Horizontal drop-down box, and deselect the Merge cells box.

You can quickly turn a normal Excel cell reference into an absolute reference. (An absolute reference forces Excel to always refer to the cells you specify. Let's say you have entered =SUM(A1:A5) into cell A7. Double-click cell A7 and then use the mouse to select the reference A1:A5. Now press F4 and then press Enter. The cell contents will change to the absolute reference form of =SUM($A$1:$A$5).

Excel Gridline Macros: For turning on and off Excel's gridlines. Here's the correct macro:

Sub ToggleGridLines()
ActiveWindow.DisplayGridlines = Not ActiveWindow.DisplayGridlines
End Sub

Give this one a try, it's simple to use because it's a true toggle program. Run it the first time, and it turns off the gridlines. Run it again and it turns them back on. To enter the macro, choose Window/Unhide and select Personal.xls. Then enter the macro exactly as shown.

Is the published interest rate what we're really paying? Let's use Excel to find out. Let's say you're about to make a purchase, and the interest rate as published is 12 percent per year. However, you read the fine print and find that the interest is compounded quarterly. You can use Excel's Effect function to determine what your actual rate is going to be. In cell A1 enter: =effect(12%,4). Since the interest will be compounded four times a year. Excel reports that the actual interest rate is 12.55%. If the interest is compounded monthly, you'd enter =effect(12%,12) and Excel would return a rate of 12.68%. The Effect function is part of Excel's Add-Ins. If you get no result when you use Effect, choose Tools/Add-Ins and select it from the list. If it isn't on the list, close Excel and run Office Setup to install the Add-Ins as described in a previous tip.

When you type text in a cell in a Microsoft(r) Excel worksheet, only the first part of what you type actually appears in the cell. Or, all the text appears, but isn't contained in one cell. You want the entire contents of the cell to display at once, and to appear in one cell only. To view the entire contents of the cell at once, format it to wrap text. Once you do so, Excel wraps the text onto a new line (retaining the width of the cell) and all the contents can be seen at once. To wrap text in a cell select the cell or range of cells that contain the text that you want to display as wrapped text. On the Format menu, click Cells, and then click the Alignment tab. Select the Wrap text check box. Before you exit the Format Cells dialog box, you may want to specify the vertical alignment for cells. Excel will automatically assign the vertical alignment as bottom, but you may prefer to assign top. Just click Top in the Vertical list, and then click OK. The shortcut for the Format Cells dialog box is Ctrl+1.

When you need to use an Excel worksheet in a presentation, you want that worksheet to look as good as it possibly can. It must be functional but beautiful. Excel 95 offers a feature that you might want to consider using for those special worksheets: adding a background. Let's say you have a logo that you'd like to use as a background. Choose Format/Sheet/Background. When the Sheet Background dialog box opens, locate your picture file and select it. Click OK to insert the background and close the dialog box. Unless the picture is a BMP file, you'll get a dialog box that offers to convert the file. Click OK to continue. Excel will tile the logo to cover the entire worksheet. There are a few caveats that we need to mention. If you use a dark (or busy) picture, you'll have trouble seeing your data entries. The best background would be a very pale picture. A watermark type of picture would be best. To remove the background, choose Format/Sheet/Background. When the Sheet Background dialog box opens, click None.

Excel 97 allows you to merge the text in one cell with the data in other cells. This is especially useful when you need to use a multiline title. Try this example:

Type something into cell A1. Press Alt+Enter to add a line break and type the next line. Now select cells A1 through D2 and choose Format, Cells. When the Format Cells dialog box opens, click the Alignment tab. Under Text Control, select the Merge Cells check box and then click OK. Excel will place the text into what appears as a single cell (it isn't really, but there are no grid lines in the merged cells). You can now format the title any way you want - center it, change the font and font size - using standard formatting features.

Two ways to fill Excel cells. Lets say you want to populate a column or row with 99 down to 0. Go to cell A1 and enter 99. Now press Enter and then select cell A1. Choose Edit/Fill/Series. Into the Step Value entry box, type -1 (minus one). Into the Stop Value entry box enter 0. Select the Series in Columns (or rows) radio button and then click OK. The numbers will appear automatically. The other way is to enter 99 into cell A1 and then enter 98 into cell A2. Now select both cells and then scroll over to the lower right-hand corner until your cursor becomes a cross. Now use the mouse to drag down until you reach the number with which you want to end the series. Let go of the mouse, and the cells will populate.

Here is an Excel 97 feature that lets you add a dynamic graphic connector to AutoShapes in a worksheet. To see how it works, you will first need to add a pair of AutoShape figures to your worksheet. If your Drawing toolbar is not available, choose View/Toolbars and select Drawing. Now click AutoShapes and select one of the shapes. Use the mouse to draw the shape in the worksheet. Repeat the procedure to draw a second shape. With both shapes in place in your worksheet, click Autoshapes again and this time choose Connectors. (The curved connectors look most impressive in this example.) Move the cursor over one of the figures. When you see the figure's points appear in blue, press and hold the mouse button while you move to the second figure. When the second figure's points light up in blue, release the mouse button.
At this point you will have a curved line running between the two figures. If you drag one of the figures to a new location, the connecting line will follow the move.

You can set up a custom format in Excel for you special needs. For example, say you need to enter parts numbers, such as : 1-234-5678-1998. You can select a cell (or column or row of cells) and choose Format, Cells. When the Format Cells dialog box opens, click the Number tab. Under Category, locate Custom and select it. In the Type entry box, delete your selection and type: #-###-####-####. Click OK. Now, navigate to one of the cells to which you applied the format and enter 123456781988. When you press Enter (or one of the arrow keys), Excel will display 1-234-5678-1988.

To add a new title to a chart in an Excel Worksheet, click the chart to select it and then right-click it and choose Chart Options from the menu. Click the Titles tab and add your titles. When you're finished, click OK. With the title in place, you can use the mouse to move it to the desired location. You can even change the text angle if you wish. To do this, click the title to select it. Now, right-click the title and choose Format Chart Title. When the Format Chart Title dialog box opens, click the Alignment tab. You can use the Orientation box to set the alignment. Just use your mouse to drag the text arrow to the desired angle and click OK to close the dialog box and record your settings.

An easy way to get drawings in Excel sheets to line up perfectly with the cell borders. Let's say you want to make a drawing of a rectangle, and you want it to enclose a cell range of 3 by 3. First, you'll need the Drawing toolbar. If you don't see it, choose View, Toolbars and select Drawing. Now, click the Rectangle button in the Drawing toolbar. Hold down the Alt key and draw the rectangle with the mouse. As you draw the rectangle, its sides will snap to the cell borders. If you need to move the rectangle to a new location, hold down the Alt key while you make the move and it will snap into position on the cell borders.

Conditional Formatting in Excel: Is there a way to format a cell conditional to the value of another cell? For example, can I get all cells in the range A5 to A10 with values less than that in cell A1 to be red, or whatever format I choose? Open a blank Excel worksheet and type a number into cell A1. Now, use the mouse to select cells A5 through A10. With the cells selected, choose Format/Conditional Formatting. When the Conditional Formatting dialog box opens, select (for an example) Less Than. Next, click in the third entry box (on the right side of the dialog box) and click cell A1. Click Format now and choose the type of format you want to apply, setting color, font style, etc. When finished, click OK. Now, enter 10 into cell A1 and then enter numbers in cells A5 through A10. All the cells in the range that are less than 10 will assume your format selection.

To use fractions in an Excel worksheet, click the cell that you want to enter a fractional number into and type the fraction, for example: 3 7/8, then press the down arrow and click the cell to select it. You'll see in the formula bar that the decimal value is 3.875. If you want Excel to convert a column of decimal entries to fractions, select the column and then choose Format/Cells. When the dialog box opens, click the Number tab. Click Fraction to select it and then choose the type of fraction you want (one digit, two digits, etc.). After you make your selection, click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

You can add talking notes to Excel cells. If you have a microphone attached to your computer, all you have to do is click the cell to which you want to add the note and then choose Insert/Note. When the Cell Note dialog box opens, have your microphone ready and click Record to open the Record dialog box (the recorder controls). When ready to record, click Record and speak into the microphone. When you finish your talking note, click Stop and then click OK. Back in the Cell Note dialog box, you can click Play to see how your note sounds. If you're happy with it, click Add and then click OK to close the dialog box. With the sound note in place, move the mouse cursor over the cell and the sound will start playing. When you move the mouse away from the cell, the sound will stop.

In Excel, let's say that you're considering a purchase, and the stated interest rate is 7 percent compounded monthly. Go to a cell A1 and choose Format/Cells. When the Format Cells dialog box opens, click the Number tab. From the Category list, select Percentage. Click OK. Now, type =effect(7.0%,12) into cell A1 and press Enter. Excel will display 7.23%. This is the actual yearly rate.

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Power Point

Power Point does a good job with slides. But you're not limited to only slides. PowerPoint can be quite a sign maker too. To use PowerPoint for slides, you should choose File/Page Setup and then click on the arrow at the right side of the Slides Sized For list box to expand the list. Select Letter Paper. Click on OK to close the dialog box and store your changes. Now go ahead and make your sign. If you have a color printer, you can produce some especially cool stuff. You can also use PowerPoint to make banners. Just choose File/Page Setup and then select Banner from the Slides Sized For list box. Now click on OK and make your banner.

Add shadows to ClipArt inserted onto a PowerPoint slide. Here's how: First, choose Insert/ClipArt and select a picture. Next, click Insert to insert the selection onto the slide. Once the picture is on the slide, select it (if necessary) and then click the Shadow button (its icon is a rectangle with a shadow) in the Drawing toolbar. And there's your shadowed ClipArt.

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Outlook

Do you have more than one e-mail address? If so, Microsoft Office 97 includes a great e-mail program called Outlook. If you thought Outlook was only a calendar, you need to look again. Let's look at how to set up some e-mail addresses in Outlook. Open Outlook and choose Tools/Services. When the Services dialog box opens, click Add. This will open the Add Service to Profile dialog box. Select Internet Mail and click OK. This opens the Mail Account Properties dialog box. Fill in your personal information under the General, Servers, and Connection tab. When finished. Click OK. To add another account, repeat the procedure just described. With multiple accounts, choose Tools/Check For New Mail On. When the dialog box opens, select each account that you want to use to check for mail. Click OK to check for the mail. If you choose Tools/Check For New Mail, Outlook will check for mail on all accounts.

I love adding Follow Up flags to my Contacts in Outlook. After talking with an important client, I can add my own custom flag and a reminder to myself so I won't forget to follow up. I even get a Flag indicator in my Contacts view and the Contact turns red when the flag is overdue. To add a flag, right mouse click on the contact or message and choose Flag for Follow Up. You can set various types of flag (Follow Up, Read, Reply etc) and an optional reminder date.

Manage your inbox in Outlook without 'conditional formatting'. I get a lot of e-mail every day. Some of it is sent directly to me. On some of it I am copied. Some of it I receive through distribution lists. Some e-mail is from my boss, some is sent from friends. Outlook helps me to manage that in a great way. I can define a rule Send directly to me and the appearance of the unread message in the inbox Font is Green. So e-mail sent directly to me has a green color. Other rules turn e-mail where I am copied gray, and mail from my boss blue. To color your incoming messages, click on a message from the person then choose Organize from the toolbar. Click on Using Colors then set the options to suit you.

Thanks to Ray Cronin for compiling this great list of tips.

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