January 9, 2008

How to turn an Outlook message into an appointment or a task

Date: September 12th, generic cialis forum 2007

Author: Susan Harkins

E-mail messages often contain data you use to generate new appointments and tasks. If you print those messages so you can re-enter the information in another application… STOP!

When you receive a message that contains this type of information, simply drag the message from the message list to the Calendar or Tasks shortcut near the bottom of the navigation pane. (If the shortcut isn’t there, drag the message to the smaller icon at the bottom of the navigation pane.) Outlook will open a new form, accordingly, filling in the new form’s Subject text with the e-mail’s subject. In addition, Outlook copies the message text, including the header.

You must set date, time, and scheduling options, but dragging the message to the appropriate shortcut gets you started without having to open another application window. When you’re done, click Save and Close. Even if you delete the actual message, you still have it in the new appointment or task.

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How to change the display of Outlook contacts

Date: August 12th, 2007

Author: Susan Harkins

To address a new e-mail message, you may click the To button to display all your contacts. By default, Outlook displays the names in alphabetical order, by first name. If you have many contacts, you might prefer to see the list in last-name order. Fortunately, it isn’t that difficult to make the switch. To display contacts in last-name order, do the following:

  1. Choose E-mail Accounts from the Tools menu in Mail view to launch the E-mail Accounts Wizard.
  2. Select the View Or Change Existing Directories Or Address Books option and click Next.
  3. Select Outlook Address and click Change.
  4. Select generic cialis fast delivery the Contacts lists one by one. Most of you will have just one item — Contacts: Personal Folders. Click the File As (Smith, John) option in the Show Names By section for the Contacts list you want to sort by last name.
  5. Click Close and then Finish.

You may have to close and reopen Outlook to see the change.

I let Outlook do the work whenever I can by entering the contact’s name in the To field. Outlook then displays and updates a limited list of contacts based on the characters I enter.

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How to filter past due reminders to the top of Outlook 2003’s reading pane

Date: January 7th, 2008

Author: Susan Harkins

One of the most frustrating tasks I face is remembering to respond to E-mail messages in a timely manner. If I don’t answer an E-mail immediately, it soon drops out of generic cialis buy sight and out of mind. Before you know it, I’ve let something important fall through the cracks.

Flags can be helpful, as far as they go, but as is, they’re useless if you can’t see them! Of course, you can sort by flags, but that simply groups messages by flag category—it doesn’t alert you to follow-up reminders that are past due or quickly approaching.

The easiest solution is a custom view that includes the Due By field. However, if you’ve tried that and it didn’t work you probably used the wrong date field. You must sort by the E-mail Due By field in order for this helpful view to force overdue and current E-mail reminders to the top of the reading pane.

To create this custom view, select the appropriate folder and do the following:

  1. Choose Arrange By from the View menu.
  2. Select Current View and then Customize Current View.
  3. Click Fields in the Customize View dialog box.
  4. Choose All Mail Fields from the Select Available Fields From dropdown list.
  5. Double-click Due By and click OK twice to return to Outlook.

The fields at the top of the reading pane should now include Due By. Simply click this field to sort messages by the flag’s due date. Over due items will sort to the very top, followed by any items for the current day, and so on.

This technique depends on the use of flag reminders. If there are no flags, or your flags have no due dates, the sort is moot. To set a Due By date for a follow-up flag (red by default), do the following:

  1. Right-click the flag icon and choose Add Reminder.
  2. The Flag To item should be Follow To (make sure to select that item if it’s not already selected).
  3. In the Due By control, choose a date from the dropdown calendar.
  4. Click OK.

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Now, a single click sorts your most critically timed reminders to the top of the reading pane, where you can quickly deal with the most urgent.

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Convert an Access form to a report before printing

Date: January 8th, 2008

You create the necessary tables and forms for your database, but when you print all your form’s records, Access prints one page for each record. You can create a report; this will save you paper, but it will also take some time to create. A quicker alternative is to simply convert your form to a report and then print the report. Follow these steps to convert an Access 2003/2002 form to a report for printing:

  1. Open the database containing the form.
  2. Click Forms Under Objects in the Database window.
  3. Right-click the form you want to convert to a report.
  4. Click Save As.
  5. Click in the Save “Form_Name” To text box and enter a name for your report.
  6. Click the drop-down arrow in the As text box and select Report from the list, then click OK.

To print the report, click Reports Under Objects in the Database window and then select the report.

To convert an Access 2007 form to a report, follow these steps:

  1. Open the database containing the form.
  2. Click the name of the form in the Navigation pane.
  3. Click the Microsoft Office button.
  4. Point to Save As and then click Save Object As.
  5. generic cialis buy online align=”justify”>Click in the Save “Form_Name” To text box and enter a name for your report.
  6. Click the drop-down arrow in the As text box and select Report from the list, then click OK.

To print the report, click Reports in the Navigation pane and then select the report.

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Excel – A Good Form Isn’t So Hard To Find

Do you have rows and rows of data to enter in MS Excel?

If so, do you find it tiresome to navigate through cell after cell to the right and then at the end, go back to the beginning of the next row?

It does seem like a lot of extra navigation work that I, for one, could live without!

So, the next natural thought is to ask if there's a way to streamline the data entry process. Is there a way to cut out all the extra cell navigation and focus mainly on the data entry itself?

The answer, of course, is yes. Your solution can be found in Excel's data entry form.

What's that, you ask?

Well, maybe it's best to hear it straight from the Office Assistant. generic cialis 10mg He says a "data form is a dialogue box that gives you a convenient way to enter or display one complete row of information, or record, in a list at one time."

In other words, let's get away from the cell navigation straight to the data entry and save some time when entering data in MS Excel.

Interested?

If so, read on to get the information you'll need to use a data entry form!

Okay, so we've all decided that data entry forms in Excel are worth a minute to investigate and I wouldn't want to waste any more time. So, let's get right to it!

To begin, you must have column headings for the table of data you're working with.

For example:

Now, select a cell in the first row of the table of data.

For people working with older versions of Excel, you should go to the Data menu, Form choice.

Excel 2007 users don't have it quite that easy. You need to first add the Form button to your Quick Access Toolbar. To do so, click the down arrow to the right of the toolbar and choose More Commands.

Set the "Choose commands from" field to All Commands.

Next, scroll down and select "Form…" and then click the Add button in the center. That will place a button for the Form command into the list on the right, which is a list of the items that will appear in your Quick Access Toolbar.

Click OK to return to Excel.

Now, you need to click the Form button in the Quick Access Toolbar.

No matter what version you're working with, click OK when the warning pops up.

The Data Entry Form will then open, allowing you to enter the data for an entire row.

You can move from field to field using the Tab key. When you've completed one set of data, use the Enter key to place the data into the worksheet and at the same time, create a new record.

When you've entered all your data, click the Close button.

You should then be returned to your worksheet where you'll find all your newly entered data in its proper place and you never had to spend time jumping from cell to cell or row to row!

Need to add new records to the list later?

No problem! The same procedure applies, but you do need to take notice that when you re-enter the data entry form, you are given the first record to start with.

You can use the vertical scroll in the middle of the window to move through the already entered data or if you just need a new record, click the New button.

From there, things will work the same as they did when you first created the table.

With data entry forms in the picture, I'm not sure we could make the job of hand entering data any easier. Yes!

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