Office Time Saver: Using Groups in Microsoft Outlook

I was just composing an email to a number of people I will be writing on a regular basis. Rather than reinserting each individual or wasting time searching for that last sent item and forwarding to all, I decided to create an Outlook group. It takes a few seconds to set up, and if you communicate on a regular basis with a particular group of people, this trick can save you a lot of time.

New Contact GroupTo begin, navigate to your Outlook contacts (People). From the Home tab, select New Contact Group.  Select Add Members and choose the appropriate Address List. Next, name your group and click Save and Close.

When you are ready to write your group, select the To…button, under the address book select Contacts. Next, go to the name of your group, double-click  and click OK.

Your group will display in your email and is available for you to use whenever you need it!

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You can easily edit or delete a group by going to your contacts and searching for the group. Once you find the group, right click on the name and select Edit or Delete.

Capturing Screenshots in Office

To follow along with last week’s post we wanted to give you a few tips on using screenshots in the Microsoft Suite.

From the Insert tab (available in all of the Office products), select the Screenshot screenshoticon.  Microsoft gives you two options you can use to insert an image. Click on the drop down arrow and either select Available Window, which gives you the option to insert another window into your document like in the example below: blog screenshot

screen clippingOr, you can insert a Screen Clipping, which allows you to select the specific item you want to insert. First, click on the window you want to grab the screenshot from to make the window active. Next, go back to the Office product you want to insert the screenshot into. Select the Screenshot icon and select Screen Clipping, the window that you were previously on will gray out.

The cursor will change to a cross +. Left click and select the area you want to insert. Here, I selected just the clip I wanted.

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That’s our quick tip of the day.  Happy screen clipping!

 

 

Office Time Saver: Customize How Documents are Saved

I author a lot of documents, and when it’s time to save them, I generally need to save them on our server. In fact, 90% of my documents end up in a shared drive. Currently, when I go to save my Word document (or any other Office Doc  I’m working on), I have to navigate from the defaults Document folder and scroll to the server I want to save to.  It’s really a waste of time to do that every time you save a doc, so here’s a quick time saver tip when you generally save somewhere besides the default location.

From the Office program that you want to change the save options:

  1. Go to the File tab.
  2. Click Options.
  3. Select Save.
  4. Locate the Default local file location and find your new default folder.
  5. Click Ok.
  6. Do a happy dance around your desk. You just set up your office application to work for you more efficiently! 🙂

Office quick tip

Stay tuned for other quick tip Office time savers!

 

 

About Wiki.SMU

 

Wiki.SMU RGB

Wiki.SMU is an online documentation system that allows for collaboration and shared editing of articles.

Uses

  • Instructons/ How- to articles
  • Process documentation
  • Frequently-updated documents
  • Document versioning

Benefits of using Wiki.SMU

  • Wiki documentation is available on the web, from anywhere.
  • Viewing and editing wiki pages can be restricted to certain network users and groups.
  • Information in one page can be used in other pages, making frequently-updated information easier to manage.
  • Documents are indexed and easily searchable.
  • Editing uses a simple graphical interface; pictures can be pasted directly into page.s
  • Wiki documents are versioned: changes are tracked over time.

Requesting a Wiki

Faculty and staff may request a wiki for instructional or departmental usage. The request form can be completed via the Online Support Center.

For more information on Wiki.SMU, click here. You will need to login with your SMU ID and password.