February 24, 2008

Excel – What Was That Function Again?

Ever find yourself working in MS Excel and realize the function you want is right on the tip of your tongue, or in this case, your fingers? And there you go again. You have to open the Paste Function window and in doing so, you're probably taking your hands off the keyboard and back to the dreaded mouse to get to the Insert menu, Function choice. Or, maybe you're using the Function button. Either way, it's time consuming and annoying!

Want a keyboard shortcut you can use for the Paste Function window? Yes? I thought you might. I mean, we can all use a time saver here and there!

So, the next time you need to look up an Excel function, try Shift + F3.

The Paste Function/Insert Function dialogue window will immediately open up.

You can search for a function with a description at the top or just below that, you can select a category and scroll through the list it produces.

When you've found what you're looking for, select it and click OK.

For all you Excel 2007 users, you have yet another easy way to search for your functions. You need to take a look at your Formulas ribbon.

Here you'll find that the formula categories are easily accessible. By clicking one of the categories, a list of those formulas will open for you to pick from.

Either buy viagra online no prescription way, it's a way to put you quickly on your quest for that elusive function!

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February 20, 2008

Word — Keep your stinking hands off my styles!

Date: February 12th, 2008

Author: Susan Harkins

The number one complaint I have about Word is its dogmatic need to control everything I do. Now, I realize that Microsoft professionals put a lot of thought into Word’s default settings, and I don’t fault them for their choices — well, not too much. On the other hand, some settings annoy me.  I could list them all — there are several. Instead, I’m just going to tell you about the one that truly makes me want to stick pins in someone’s effigy.

Ever buy viagra in london been typing along, applied a style, and found it wasn’t the style you defined? A style is a set of formatting attributes you apply. You define the style to save time. Instead of applying several formats, you apply the style. Word, by default, knows when you’ve altered the formatting for an applied style and automatically updates the style — whether you want it to or not.

There are two ways you can stop Word in its tracks:

  • Disable the feature by choosing AutoCorrect Options from the Tools menu, clicking the AutoFormat As You Type option, and then unchecking the Define Styles Based On Your Formatting option in the Automatically As You Type section.
  • Force Word to ask you by choosing Options from the Tools menu, clicking the Edit tab, and checking the Prompt To Update Style option.

Don’t select both options, of course — they don’t work together. Choose one method or the other.

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Get quick help with your Access forms with ToolTips

Date: February 19th, 2008

Author: Mary Ann Richardson

When designing an Access application, don’t neglect to plan for the ToolTips! ToolTips let you provide context-sensitive help wherever and whenever needed. To access your ToolTip help, simply move your mouse pointer over a control on the form and the Tooltip will appear with help on that control. Not only can ToolTips cut down on training time, they can also reduce the number of calls to the help desk. To add a ToolTip to a form control, follow these steps:

  1. Open the form in design view.
  2. Right-click the control and then select Properties.
  3. On the control’s property sheet, click the Other tab.
  4. Click in the ControlTip Text box.
  5. Enter the appropriate help text for the control.

For longer help text entries, you can wrap the text by pressing [Ctrl][Enter] wherever you want a line break to appear.

Miss an Access tip?

Check out the buy viagra cheap target=”_blank”>Microsoft Access archive, and catch up on other Access tips.

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February 14, 2008

Let Word 2003/2002 AutoText speed up your e-mail responses

Date: February 12th, 2008

Author: Mary Ann Richardson

If you find yourself copying the same paragraphs into your e-mail responses — for example, the same words to send out responses to confirm a customer’s appointment — you don’t have to compose each e-mail reply individually or copy and paste text from a previous e-mail. Here’s how to create an AutoText button in Word that will insert the text you need into your e-mail message automatically — all you need do is customize it and send. Follow these steps:

  1. Open the last e-mail you sent confirming a customer appointment.
  2. Select and copy the text that you would like to use in subsequent e-mails.
  3. Open a blank document in Word.
  4. Paste the text you copied to the Word document.
  5. Select the text you copied.
  6. Go to Insert | AutoText, best viagra alternative then click New.
  7. Click in the Please Name Your Autotext Entry text box and enter Appointment Confirmation. Click OK.
  8. Go to Tools | Customize.
  9. Click the Toolbars tab and then click the New button.
  10. In the Toolbar Name text box, type Client E-mails and then click OK.
  11. In the Customize dialog box, click the Commands tab.
  12. Scroll through the Categories list, then click New Menu.
  13. Scroll through the Commands list and click and drag New Menu onto the Client E-mails toolbar.
  14. Right-click New Menu in the Client E-mails toolbar.
  15. Click in the Name area and type E-mail AutoText.
  16. In the Customize dialog box, in the Categories list, click AutoText.
  17. Click in the Commands list and click and drag the Appointment Confirmation entry onto the E-mail AutoText menu.
  18. Close the dialog box.

To include the text in your message, rather than send it as an attachment, change Word Options as follows:

  1. Go to Tools | Options.
  2. On the General tab, clear the Mail As Attachment check box.

Now, to create your confirmation e-mail, follow these steps:

  1. Open a new Word document.
  2. Click the Appointment Confirmation menu in the Client E-mails toolbar.
  3. Make any other changes to the document.
  4. Go to File | Send To: Mail Recipient.
  5. A new e-mail window will open with the text of your document in the message. Fill out the rest of the e-mail, then click Send.
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January 28, 2008

Microsoft to push Office 2003 SP3 to users in February

January 28th, 2008

Posted by Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is going to start pushing automatically to customers its Office 2003 Service Pack (SP) 3 via the Microsoft Update patching mechanism starting on February 27.

Last year, Microsoft what is cialis officials committed to giving customers a three- to six-month heads-up regarding its plan to push Office service packs using MU.

Microsoft made SP3 available to Office 2003 users via its Microsoft Downloads site on September 18, 2007. MU is one of the Microsoft patching/updating mechanisms aimed primarily at business users, and is designed to allow them to get security and other kinds of updates pushed automatically to multiple users.

Microsoft posted an update notice to the Microsoft Update Product Team blog on January 27 regarding its planned MU push:

“Today we are providing our customers a minimum of 30 days advance notice that Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Office 2003, which was made available to the public on September 18, 2007, will be distributed automatically via Microsoft Update beginning February 27, 2008. This means that those customers who have not already installed SP3 and that have chosen to receive updates automatically will start to receive the service pack as early as February 27. The distribution through MU is a gradual process and so not every customer will see the service pack on February 27.”

Microsoft is billing Office 2003 SP3 as adding “important” security enhancements, as well as improving compatibility with Windows Vista and Office 2007.

Can corporate users who still aren’t keen on having Office 2003 SP3 pushed automatically to them block or defer SP3? I’m not entirely sure and have put a question into Microsoft on that. I’ll post the answer here once I receive one.

It sounds like if you’re part of MU, SP3 is coming your way. A Microsoft spokeswoman responded to my question with the following:

“To optimize the customer experience, Microsoft recommends people update their Office 2003 applications and servers to take advantage of the improvements and new security tools available in SP3.

“MU continues to be an opt-in service and any customers wishing to remove themselves from the service can do so. That said, because of the impact this service pack has on end user security, we highly recommend that any customer who has not downloaded it does so. We also do not recommend that users opt out of MU.”

Talkback – Add your opinion

Most Recent of 12 Talkback(s)

here ya be emilys

Basically go to start, then settings, then control panel. Next you double click the automatic updates button, and choose the one that fits your needs, then apply and ok…. (Read the rest)

Print/View all Posts Posted by: Monkey_MCSE Posted on: 01/28/08 You are Logged In | Log out

Hopefully customers who aren't keen on having updates pushed to them… *NEW* PB_z   | 01/28/08
Most office users *NEW* No_Ax_to_Grind   | 01/28/08
Improvements? *NEW* aussieblnd@…   | 01/28/08
Well, if you would read something *NEW* No_Ax_to_Grind   | 01/28/08
Say no to SP3 *NEW* jsjag1   | 01/28/08
Prime example why I do not use automatic updates… *NEW* BitTwiddler   | 01/28/08
RE: Microsoft to push Office 2003 SP3 to users in February *NEW* usr31337@…   | 01/28/08
RE: Microsoft to push Office 2003 SP3 to users in February *NEW* rmichaly@…   | 01/28/08
I just reset my permissions *NEW* Keywalker4God   | 01/28/08
How do you reset permissions? *NEW* emilys222@…   | 01/28/08
here ya be emilys *NEW* Monkey_MCSE   | 01/28/08
RE: Microsoft to push Office 2003 SP3 to users in February *NEW* rmichaly@…   | 01/28/08
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