Microsoft – Page 27

You Sent What Email?

Wouldn’t you know it, right after I posted my last blog “Never miss an email again“, I found myself being humbled in a conversation saying “You sent what email?”

In my prior post, I talked about setting alerts in Outlook for those critical emails that you need to respond to right away. However, the messages that rank high in the importance category and require some phone calls or research before I can respond need a different approach. I need those types of messages to stand out in my inbox as a visual reminder of their importance, and for me it’s also a kick in the pants that I better not drop the ball on this one – especially, when it comes to prompt customer service.

How do I solve that dilemma? Conditional Formatting – that is, it’s a great solution if you are a PC user. (Sorry Mac users, it’s not available in Office 2011, but I have read there have been a lot of requests for it in the next release. Maybe you’ll see that in the future.)

Notice in the above pic, you’ll see unread email in the standard blue font and then one in a bold green font. I changed my formatting, so every time I get an email from a specific email account, it stands out with that font. You can specify conditional formatting to occur from specific individuals, when certain keywords are used, etc.

Here’s how…

1. Go to your mail, task, calendar etc. (wherever you want to add conditional formatting)

2. From the View tab, select View Settings

3. Select Conditional Formatting

4. Click Add and type the name of your rule

5. Click Font and specify the font type, size and color that you want your specified email to display

6. Click the Condition button

7. Specify the condition for your email

8. Click OK

9. Click OK

Will conditional formatting solve my problems for not missing an email again? Probably not, but between this and setting alerts, I’m hopeful it will keep me more organized and lessen my chances of eating humble pie once again!

Webinars & Timesavers in Microsoft Office

I’m constantly looking for tips on how to work more efficiently in Microsoft. The Office suite is so powerful that I’m pretty sure we underutilize the resources at our fingertips.

If you’re struggling with the “I want to learn, but I don’t have time…” sentiment consider sharpening your skills in 15 minute bites. A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled on Microsoft’s Tuesday morning webinar series and was perusing through their archives. You can join their webinars live or watch at your own convenience.

Here’s a sample of their Office Timesavers session:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF3H02gi3oA#t=605

You can view upcoming Office webinars here. Got your own Microsoft Office tip you’d like to share? Let us know at ittraining@smu.edu and we’ll be sure to pass it on!

What’s behind the Excel Design tab? 5 tips worth knowing.

If you’ve been working with Excel for a while, my guess is that you are probably somewhat familiar with the basics of converting your data into a table. However, you may not be aware of some of the features behind the Design tab. The Design tab will display anytime you click in a table.

Here are 5 handy tips worth knowing. I will review them from right to left.

When you click on the drop down in the Table styles options you’ll see an assortment of Table Styles available to suit your preferences.
If there is a table style you like and you want to add additional customization you can do so by selecting a feature in the Table Style Options section. I often choose to have items displayed with banded rows (every other row shaded), but sometimes it might be easier on the eye to have banded columns.
Selecting the Total Row not only adds a total line to your table, but it also has built in functions that you can toggle to further analyze specific data.
Did you know you could add a slicer to filter through data? Select Slicer, next select what column you want to filter. In my example, I wanted to view specific types of charges, so I chose the account columns to filter.

Next, select the item you want to filter and the results will be displayed.

5. Selecting the Remove Duplicates button will allow you to delete duplicate values. You’ll simply need to tell Excel what column you want the duplicates to be removed from. Oh and by the way, if you remove duplicates from the wrong column, don’t forget the handy Ctrl+Z function to undo your last action!

To learn more Excel tips, check out one of my Basic Formula workshops or Rachel Mulry’s Advanced Excel training.

smu.edu/BusinessFinance/OIT/Training

Discover New Features in Microsoft Word (Part 2)

By Rachel Mulry

In Part 1 of this article, we discussed Quick Parts, creating your own templates, and the Screenshot tool. Today we’ll continue with two powerful Word features.

Navigation view: If you use the styles in Word, not only can you create a consistent polished document, but you can also use the Navigation view to help rearrange and jump to various portions of the file quickly. You can enable navigation view from the View menu, or you can simply click on the page number in the bottom left corner of the screen. There are three options in the navigation panel. Viewing by headings allows you to view the overall structure of your document but also allows you to reorder the sections in a document simply by dragging and dropping! The page view displays a thumbnail image of each page in the document. You can jump to the desired page by clicking the thumbnail. The results view allows you to search for words, images etc in your document and then navigate to each instance where that search term was detected. To turn off the navigation view, just click on the page number on the bottom left and you’re back to full screen view of your document.
Available actions properties: I admit I stumbled across this nifty feature while I was writing this article!
By default, the available actions menu is turned off. However, once it is enabled it will allow you to right click on certain types of data and select from additional options. For example, you could right click on a data and create a calendar appointment! Or right click on an email address and add it to your Outlook contacts. To enable this feature, click File—Options—Proofing— AutoCorrect. Click the Actions tab. Then check “enable additional actions in the right-click menu”. Select the types of data that you wish to enable these actions. Click OK. When you are viewing or creating a document, simply right click on the text and a new “additional actions” field will appear.

These are just a few of the many powerful features in Word. There are so many others waiting to be discovered! So be adventurous! Click through those menus on the ribbon or view a few new tutorials to discover something new in Word today!

Discover New Features in Microsoft Word (Part 1)

Although I use Word on a daily basis, every now and then I uncover a feature or shortcut I didn’t know existed. With literally thousands of different features, it’s no surprise that the application offers more than you or I typically use! The following are five powerful features that are easily overlooked.

Quick Parts: Each of us have different blocks of text that we use in multiple documents. For example, if you often arrange meetings or events on campus, you may include a map, driving directions and parking instructions in each event packet. You may reuse your contact/signature block in documents or a specific logo frequently. All of these types of data can be stored in your quick parts gallery! Simply highlight the text—then select Insert—Quick Parts—Save selection to quick part gallery. Once you’ve named and saved that component, it will be available from the Insert- Quick Parts menu in any document you create from that same machine!
Create your own template: If you use a certain format or style for specific documents, consider saving that document as a template. I know many people simply open the existing file, save as a different file name, and then delete the information to reuse the same “style”. You can make this even easier! Create the framework of the document as you normally would. Select your fonts, headers, footers, and anything else that should be consistent. Then click File—Save As. Save the document as a Word Template. When you’re ready to use that template, click New—Select the Personal templates and select your saved template! There are also a ton of online templates available for use which can save you a lot of trouble in creating various types of files.
Screenshot Tool: Microsoft has made it so easy now to integrate screenshots or clippings in your document. Click on Insert—Screenshot and you’ll see the available windows in the gallery. Simply click on the image and it will automatically be inserted into your document. From there, you can crop, recolor etc using all of the Microsoft Word picture tools. If you don’t want the entire window copied but only a small portion, choose the screen clipping tool and simply highlight the area you wish to copy.

To Be Continued…