November 17th, 2009 · Excel · Posted by Holly Green
Sometimes, when you’re working in Excel, you need to have more than one line in a cell. I picked up this trick several years ago when I needed the street address and apartment number to appear on separate lines in the same cell.
Wrap Text isn’t the solution, because when you use Wrap Text, the location of the line break is determined by the width of the column, and changes when the column width changes. (Curious about Wrap Text? In Excel 2007 the Wrap Text button is located in the Alignment section on the Home tab of the ribbon. In Excel 2003, go to the Format menu, select Cells, click on the Alignment tab, and check the box for Wrap Text.)
Flickr is a free web site that allows you to upload, store, and share your photos. For document and presentation creators, it is a great place to find photographs with Creative Commons license agreements. These agreements allow you to legally download and use the photos on the site. Search Flickr to find images you can use commercially as well as edit, change or build upon. Copyright information attached to images explains the conditions for use set by the photographer.
At www.flickr.com type a subject in the search box and click Search.
On the next screen click the Advanced Search link (next to the Search button).
You can now limit your search, by content, media type and date.
In the Creative Commons section at the bottom of the page check Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content. If you would like to use photos commercially or modify, adapt or build upon an image check those boxes as well.
Click Search.
Flickr will display: “Showing Creative Commons-licensed content” or “Showing Creative Commons-licensed content for commercial use, adaptation, modification or building upon“etc. depending on the boxes you checked.
A series of thumbnails and pages of photographs will be displayed for you to look through.
Click on a thumbnail to open a preview of the image.
Then click ALL SIZES at the upper left corner of the image preview.
You can then select from the Available sizes and Download the image to your computer.
Below each image is the creative commons box as well as symbols indicating what type of use is allowed.
Click the SOME RIGHTS RESERVED box for the details of the images copyright license agreement.
We always look for good images. Pictures tell a thousand words, making them ideal additions to blog posts, class projects, presentations, emails, and other social media applications. Fortunately, Microsoft drastically improved their Clip Art galleries in the last several years, adding thousands of high quality photographs. Using Microsoft’s Clip Art galleries while connected to the internet gives you access to this vast online library of free photographs, plus clip art, movies and sounds. You can use, edit and post these photos without having to worry about copyright infringement.
To insert Clip Art:
1. Go to the Insert tab in any Microsoft Office 2007 program and click on the Clip Art button in the Illustrations section. (In Office 2003, go to the Insert menu, select Picture, and select Clip Art.)
3. Enter a search topic in the Search for field.
4. Under Search in leave as All collections.
5. Use the options in the Results should be drop down box to narrow results to certain media file types (Clip Art, Photographs, Movies, Sounds).
6. Click Go.
7. Single-click a thumbnail image to insert it into your document.
If you need to save a Clip Art image, insert it on a PowerPoint slide. Then right-click the image and select Save as Picture…
In my next post I’ll talk about using images from Flickr.com.
So often, appointments are scheduled through email. I find that I often want the text of an email to be in the body of my appointment. That way, when my reminder goes off, and I have no idea what the appointment is about, I can click Open Item, and see the details. But copying and pasting the contents of an email into a calendar appointment is more work than I want to do. Fortunately, there is a faster way to put the contents of an email into an appointment. I use this almost every day.
When you want to make a calendar appointment from an email, you can just click on the email and drag it to your calendar (in the Folder list, or on the blue bar at the bottom). A new appointment opens. The subject line of the email will be the subject of the appointment. The rest of the email, including the sender, date, and body, will be in the body of the appointment. Just enter a date, time, and location, and click Save and Close. Now the appointment is on your calendar.
Those of you using Office 2007 can remove one step. You can drag the email to a specific day on the Date Navigator in the To Do Bar, and the new appointment that opens will be for that date. That’s a great bonus in Office 2007!
The To-Do Bar is possibly my favorite addition to Outlook 2007. It appears on the right side of Outlook, helps me keep track of my day by showing a small monthly calendar called the Date Navigator, my next several calendar appointments, and my Tasks list. Thanks to the To-Do Bar I’m never caught by surprise by a meeting or class, and can always make sure that I’m prepared.
Turn On the To-Do Bar
Go to the View menu and select To-Do Bar.
Select Normal.
Minimize the To-Do Bar
If you want to have easy access to the To-Do Bar, but don’t want it to take up space when you’re not using it, you can minimize it.
Go to the View menu and select To-Do Bar.
Select Minimize.
The To-Do Bar will be minimized on the right edge of Outlook. Just click on it to maximize it, and click again to minimize it.
Turn Off a Portion of the To-Do Bar
If you only want to see one or two elements of the To-Do bar, you can turn the Date Navigator, Appointments, or Tasks on or off.
Go to the View menu and select To-Do Bar.
Select Date Navigator, Appointments, or Tasks. A checkmark beside an option means that it is currently turned on.
Turn Off the To-Do Bar
Go to the View menu and select To-Do Bar.
Select Off.
Customize the To-Do Bar
You can select how many months and how many calendar appointments the To-Do Bar shows.
Several months ago we linked to an article about how to embed a YouTube video in PowerPoint. We still get questions about it pretty regularly, so I though I’d write up some instruction and post them again.
NOTE: When presenting you must have a live internet connection or your embedded YouTube video will not play.
Step by Step Instructions for PowerPoint 2007 scroll down for 2003
1. Display the Developer tab on PowerPoint Ribbon.
a. Go to the Office Button and click on the PowerPoint Options button.
b. In the Popular section, check the Show Developer Tab in the Ribbon box and click OK.
2. From YouTube site:
a. Copy the embed code and paste onto blank Power Point slide as a place holder.
b. From within the embed code copy just the value information from inside the quotation marks.
*Example embed code with value information in red:
Data theft and identity theft often occur because someone left a computer logged on and walked away long enough for someone else to sit down and use their passwords. Here at the University of Texas, students, faculty and staff should lock their computers any time they step away from their computers. Many of us have our browsers save our passwords. You don’t want a stranger reading your emails, messing up your Netflix account, or accessing your bank account!
Computer security is a serious issue on campus and the Windows lock shortcut is a simple command you can use to make sure no one can access your computer while you are away from your desk.
Locking your computer will not shut down any programs or files you are working on. Your user name and password will get you right back where you left off.
To lock your computer: Windows Key + L.
To unlock your computer: Ctrl + Alt + Delete, then enter your user name and password.
September 30th, 2009 · Excel · Posted by Holly Green
When I’m working in Excel, I find that I sometimes want to view information from one worksheet while I’m working on another. Jeff wrote a very useful post about viewing two Excel spreadsheets at once, but this limits how much you can see of each, and may not be ideal. The other day I learned about another option - the Camera tool.
The Camera tool allows you to capture an image of one worksheet and view it in another worksheet. The image of the first worksheet will behave just like any other image inserted into a worksheet. You can move it, resize it, and rotate it (althought I’m not sure that you would want to). You will not be able to change data in the image, but if you go back to the source and change data there, the image in the second worksheet will automatically update. Then, when you’re finished with it, you can just select it and press Backspace or Delete.
The Camera tool can’t be found on the ribbon in 2007, or on the menu or toolbar in 2003, so you’ll have to add it.
Add the Camera Tool in Excel 2007
Click on the Office button.
Click on Excel Options in the bottom right corner of the menu.
In the left column, click on Customize.
Click the drop down arrow in the Choose commands from box and select Commands Not in the Ribbon.
Select Camera from the list below.
Click the Add button to the right.
Click OK.
The Camera button will now appear on your Quick Access Toolbar.
Add the Camera Tool in Excel 2003
Go to the Tools menu and select Customize.
Click on the Commands tab.
In the Categories list, select Tools.
Find Camera in the Commands column on the right (you may need to scroll down).
Click on Camera, drag it to a location on the toolbar, and release it.
Use the Camera tool in Excel 2007 and Excel 2003
Select the cells you want a snapshot of.
Click the Camera button on the toolbar (or Quick Access Toolbar).
Go to the other worksheet where you want to view the snapshot and click to place it there.
September 22nd, 2009 · PowerPoint · Posted by Jeff Hauger
Don’t have Photoshop on your computer? Try using PowerPoint!
This is a great e-learning video tutorial made by David Anderson about giving your photos a Polaroid picture effect using the photo and shape editing features available in PowerPoint 2007. It demonstrates some quick picture editing tricks as well as a useful shape free transform feature.
In Excel 2003 and earlier versions, when I tried to select a large block of data using my mouse, I would often overshoot, and accidentally select more rows than I meant to. Then I would go back, and select too few. I often had the same problem scrolling within a spreadsheet. I would go too fast, right past the end of my data. When I would move the scroll bar more slowly in a large set of data, finding the end of my data could take a frustrating amount of time.
To alleviate this, I started using keyboard shortcuts. I do have to give credit to Excel 2007, which has made it easier to select your data by pausing when you get to the end of a range of data. But I still find the keyboard shortcuts I started using in earlier versions faster and easier.
Navigation Keyboard Shortcuts
Enter - move down one cell
Shift + Enter - move one cell up
Tab - move one cell to the right
Shift + Tab - move one cell to the left
Arrow - move one cell in the direction of the arrow
Ctrl + Down arrow - move to the bottom row of your continuous data
Ctrl + Up arrow - move to the top row of your continuous data
Ctrl + Left arrow - move to the furthest left column of your continuous data
Ctrl + Right arrow - move to the furthest right column of your continuous data
Ctrl + End - move to your last active cell
Ctrl + Home - move to cell A1 (or the first visible cell, if some columns or rows are hidden)
Ctrl + Page Down - move one worksheet to the right
Ctrl + Page Up - move one worksheet to the left
Home - move to the beginning of a row
Selection Keyboard Shortcuts
If you hold down the Shift key, you can use the arrow keys to select cells. For example, if you are in cell A1, and you hold down Shift and press the down arrow, cells A1 and A2 will be selected. If you combine the shift key with the navigation shortcuts at the top, you will be able to select the range of cells you just moved through.
Ctrl + Shift + Arrow - select a range in the direction of the arrow you pressed.
Shift + Space bar - select a row
Ctrl + Space - select a column
Ctrl + A - select an entire worksheet
Ctrl + Shift + * - select an entire data range
These are only navigation and selection keyboard shortcuts in Excel. For even more Excel keyboard shortcuts, go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP052037811033.aspx. These shortcuts are for Excel 2003, but almost all of them will work in Excel 2007. Excel 2007 also has a new feature called key tips. To learn about key tips, read our Key Tips and Keyboard Shortcuts post.
The McCombs Technology Training Team helps McCombs students, faculty, and staff with their McCombs technology resources, and with Microsoft Office. The trainers are Holly Green, Ben Bond, and Jeff Hauger.
