Add Excel's Map Button to the Toolbar

If you find that you often use Excel's Map feature for your charts, you might like to place a Map button in the standard Excel toolbar. To do this, choose Tools|Customize. When the Customize dialog box opens, click the Commands tab. Now, click Insert in the "Categories" list. In the "Commands" list (on the right side of the dialog box), locate the Map icon and drag it to the toolbar. When you release the mouse button, the Map icon will anchor itself in the toolbar.

Adding a Macro to the Word Toolbar

Here's how to make your macro more useful by placing it into the Word toolbar.
Run Word and choose Tools|Customize. When the Customize dialog box opens, click the Commands tab. Now, locate Macros in the "Categories" list. On the right side of the dialog box, you will see your new macro's name. Use the mouse to drag the name to the Word toolbar.
With the Customize dialog box still open, click Modify Selection. Set the name to whatever you would like to use and press Enter. Now, click Close to close the dialog box.
You can now run your new macro by simply clicking its button in the Toolbar.

Changing Case in a Word Document

Suppose you just finished a major Word document. This document has numerous titles and subtitles and you did them all in uppercase. Now, you've decided that you really don't like them in uppercase and you'd rather use title case. You won't have to go through the entire document and change each letter to the correct case. All you have to do is select each title and choose Format|Change Case. When the Change Case dialog opens, select the "Title case" radio button and click OK.

Changing the Font in Excel

If you don't always want to use the default Excel font (Arial), you can choose another font. Suppose that you would like to use something like Britannic Bold in column A. Click the column A label (at the top of the column) and then choose Format|Cells. When the Format Cells dialog box opens, click the Font tab. Select Britannic Bold from the Font list and click OK to close the dialog box and apply your new font selection.

Creating Tables in Word 2000

You can quickly create Tables in Word documents using only the plus and minus signs. Try this: Type

+---+

and press Enter. This creates a single cell table. To create a table with four cells, you would type

+---+---+---+---+

followed by Enter.
If this doesn't work for you, the option is probably turned off. To activate it, choose Tools, AutoCorrect. When AutoCorrect opens, click the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Now select the check box labeled "'Tables" and click OK to apply your settings and close the dialog box.

You know that you can add color to a Word text box. But what if you would like to add a color gradient to a text box? Try this. Open a blank Word document and choose Insert Text Box. Use the mouse to draw the text box. Now, click the text box to select it and choose Format|Text Box. When the dialog box opens, under "Fill" click the arrow at the right side of the "Color" list box and choose Fill Effects.

When the Fill Effects dialog opens, select the radio button labeled "Two colors." Select your two colors and the orientation you want to use. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply your settings. Back in Format Text Box, click OK again to close the dialog box.

Why would you want to freeze an Excel worksheet? Well, suppose you have a long worksheet. The title is at the top of the page and, when you scroll down through the worksheet, the title disappears. If this is a problem for you, just click a cell somewhere below the title (and any other information you want to remain on screen). Now, choose Window|Freeze Panes.

At this point, you can scroll down through your worksheet and the title (all cells above where you clicked) will remain in place. To undo this operation and return the worksheet to normal, choose Window|Unfreeze Panes.

If you often work with specific worksheets over a period of time, then you probably use the Recent Files list to open worksheets. By default, Excel (and the other Office 2000 programs) saves the four most recent files in the list. If you could use more than four, run Excel and choose Tools|Options. When the Options dialog opens, click the General tab. Use the "Recently used file list" spin box to increase the number to as much as nine.

Let's say that you want to insert a specific bitmapped picture into a Word document. The file you want to insert is named mypict.bmp and it's located in \My Pictures.

Click where you want the picture to appear in the document and choose Insert|Picture|From File. When the Insert Picture dialog opens, locate the My Pictures folder (if necessary) and then double-click mypict.bmp. This will insert the picture into the document. Now you can use the mouse to size and locate the picture as you wish.

It's often necessary to insert more than one ClipArt picture into a Word document or PowerPoint slide. You don't have to reopen the Insert ClipArt dialog box for each picture. Just choose Insert|Picture|ClipArt. When the Insert ClipArt dialog box opens, right-click a picture you want to use and choose Insert. Now, move to another picture and again right-click and choose Insert. When you're finished inserting pictures, click the Close box (the X in the upper right corner) to dismiss the Clip dialog box.

When you want to draw an object, say a rectangle, on a PowerPoint slide, you click the Rectangle tool and use the mouse to make your drawing. So, if you want to make ten rectangles, do you have to click the Rectangle tool, make your drawing, then click the rectangle tool again, etc.? Not at all. All you have to do is double-click the Rectangle tool. Then you can draw as many rectangles as you wish. This works with Oval, Line, Arrow, and Rectangle. When you're finished with the drawing tool, press Esc.

When you have some data to place in a Word document, you'll find that data looks better if you place it in a table. As an example, let's say that you have data that requires four columns across the page and three rows down the page. Choose Table|Insert|Table. When the dialog box opens, use the spin boxes to set the number of columns and rows and then click OK to continue. Now, enter your data into the table. To format the table, select it and choose Table|Table AutoFormat. Select one of the formats and click OK.

For those who like to use keyboard shortcuts wherever possible, here is a list of PowerPoint shortcuts.

Ctrl + M -- Insert new slide
Ctrl + D -- Duplicate the current slide F5 -- Run a slide show
Ctrl + B -- Set text to bold
Ctrl + I -- Set text to Italic
Ctrl + K -- Insert a hyperlink
Ctrl + A -- Select all
Ctrl + C -- Copy
Ctrl + V -- Paste Ctrl + S -- Save
Ctrl + P -- Print

When you print an Excel worksheet, you get the result of any formulas. What if you would like to print a worksheet that displays the formulas rather than the results? To do this, choose Tools|Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the View tab. Under "Window options," select the "Formulas" check box and then click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes. The worksheet will now display all the formulas appear. Choose File|Print and press Enter. The formulas will appear on the printout.

This selection remains in effect in the current worksheet until you change it by deselecting the "Formulas" check box. When you open a new worksheet, Excel automatically defaults to displaying the value in a cell rather than the formula.

Whenever you have a need to run a group of Word commands, you can shorten the steps by recording a macro. As a simple example, let's suppose that, at the end of each day, you always scroll down to the bottom of your document and choose File, Save to save the document, and then File, Exit to close Word.
To record a macro to perform these steps, choose Tools|Macro|Record New Macro. When the dialog box opens, type in a name for the macro and click OK. Now, press Ctrl + End to move to the end of the document, then choose File|Save to save the document. And finally, choose File|Exit to close Word. Word will now ask if you want to save the macro. Click Yes and Word will close.

Run Word again and open your document. With the macro in place, you can press Alt + F8 to open the Macros dialog box. Double-click your new macro's name to perform all the steps that you recorded.

If you're tired of the paperclip-shaped Office Assistant, you can try one of the other cartoon characters. Here's how.

Run Word and press F1 to open the Office Assistant and then click Options to open the Office Assistant dialog box. Click the Gallery tab and click Next to view the cartoon characters available to you. If you didn't load them all during your initial Office 2000 setup, you will need to insert the Setup disc into your CD-ROM drive. Make your choice and follow the instructions to load your selection.

Create A Bookmark In Word Documents

A bookmark is a location or selected text on a page that you have marked.

You can use bookmarks as a destination for a hyperlink. For example, if you want to display a certain section of a page to the site visitor, add a hyperlink with the bookmark as its destination. When the site visitor clicks the hyperlink, the relevant part of the page is displayed, rather than the top of the page.

You can also use one or more bookmarks to find locations on a page. For example, add a bookmark to each main heading on a page. When you are editing the page, you can quickly find each section by going to the corresponding bookmark.

If a location (rather than text) is bookmarked, the bookmark is indicated by . If text is bookmarked, the text is displayed with a dashed underline.

1. In Page view, position the insertion point where you want to create a bookmark, or select the text to which you want to assign the bookmark.

2. On the Insert menu, click Bookmark.

3. In the Bookmark name box, type the name of the bookmark (spaces are allowed.)

Even if you can't draw a straight line on paper, you can in PowerPoint. Just select the Line tool and then hold down the Shift key while you draw the line. For a perfect circle, click the Oval tool and hold down Shift while you draw the circle. And, of course, you can use the Rectangle tool and the Shift key to draw a perfect square.

This technique also works in Word and Excel.

If you have a picture that you would like to place in a Word table, open the picture in a picture editor (Microsoft Photo Editor is included in Office 2000). Select the picture and then press Ctrl + C to copy it to the Clipboard. Now, click in the cell that you want the picture to appear in and choose Edit|Paste Special. When the Dialog box opens, select the "Picture" radio button and click OK to paste the picture.

Suppose you're running Word 2000 and you want to open a document that you used earlier in the day. Unfortunately, you can't remember the document's name and it's no longer visible in the Recent Files list. No problem -- just choose File>>Open. When the Open dialog box appears, click History and you'll see a list of the last 20 files that you've worked with. Double-click the one you want and you're in business.

You know you can insert a table into a Word document, but did you know that you can insert a table into the table? Try this: run Word and choose Table>>Insert>>Table. When the dialog box opens click OK. Now that you've inserted a table, click in one of its cells and choose Table>>Insert>>Table. Click OK and you now have a table within a table. If you wish, you can insert a table within the table within the table.

Suppose you copy a document from the Internet and paste it into a Word document. You will often find that there are a few hyperlinks in the copied document. The problem is that you don't want everyone who uses the document to click on URLs and head off into the Internet. To turn those hyperlinks into plain text, select the link and press Ctrl + K. When the Edit Hyperlink dialog box opens, click Remove Link.

Nothing can mess up a program more than damaged or missing DLL files. Since corrupted DLLs are a fact of life, Microsoft has included in Office 2000 a way to solve the corrupt or missing DLL problem. All you have to do is have your original installation disc ready to use and run any Office 2000 program. Now, choose Help>>Detect and Repair. When the dialog box opens, click Start. From this point on, just follow the instructions.

Suppose that you commonly work with several documents open simultaneously. When it comes time to save the documents, you can save the active document by choosing File>>Save. Then you can close that document and choose File>>Save for the next one. Or, you can save a lot of time and hold down the Shift key while you choose File>>Save All. This will save all the loaded documents.

If you would like to close all the open documents, hold down Shift and choose File>>Close All.

You know that you can use the mouse to select text in a Word document. But, what happens if you need to select a column of text? For example, you may have a multi-column list with the headings "Fruits" and "Vegetables," with different examples of each in the appropriate column. Suppose now that you want to select only the names of the vegetables. Just click to the left of the first appropriate entry and hold down the Alt key while you select the rest of the column.

There are times when you may want certain words to stand out in your text. You can select each word and apply new formatting (bold, Italic, etc.). Or, you can apply new formatting to one word and then copy that format to other words using Format Painter.

To see how Format Painter works, run PowerPoint and open a slide show. Select a word on one of the slides and double-click the Format Painter button in the Toolbar (its icon is a paint brush). Now you can use the mouse to click any words to which you want to apply the selected format. When you're finished, press Esc to turn off the Format Painter.

When you enter a long line of text into an Excel cell, the text usually appears across multiple columns. If you want all the text to appear in a single cell, you can tell Excel to wrap the text. To do this, all you have to do is type in a line and then press Alt + Enter to get to the next line.

Note that Excel will change the cell's height to accommodate the text.

After you've been creating PowerPoint slide shows for a while, you'll find that you have quite a collection of old shows. Many of these old shows will contain some slides that you could use again in new slide shows. So, let's look at how to copy an old slide to a new slide show.

Run PowerPoint and open a blank slide. Choose Insert>>Picture>>ClipArt and insert any picture that you happen to like. Now, choose Insert>>Slides from Files. When the Slide Finder opens, click Browse and locate the PowerPoint file from which you would like to import some slides. Double-click the file's icon to open it in the Slide Finder dialog box.

Click a slide and then click Insert to insert that slide into your new show. After you finish importing slides, click Close.

When writing a document, you may often wonder if a specific word is the right one to use. The problem is that you really can't think of a good synonym at the moment. So, let Word 2000 help. Just right-click the word in question and choose (select, pick, opt for) Synonyms. All you have to do now is select the word you want to use. Even if Word has no synonym to suggest, you can always select Thesaurus from the right-click menu and go from there.

Office 2000's new Single Document Interface means that each Office 2000 document you load, whether it's a Word file, Excel spreadsheet, or PowerPoint presentation, gets its own button on the taskbar, rather than being lumped under one application button, as in Office 97. To switch to another open document, you can just click the desired document on the Windows Taskbar, instead of clicking the desired document's application button on the taskbar and then switching document windows to make the desired document active. To make room in the Windows Taskbar so that complete file names are visible, click and drag the long border of the taskbar to widen it. You can still switch between open documents using Alt-Tab and Alt-Shift-Tab. Switch between a single application's documents by selecting Window and then the document or by pressing Ctrl-F6 or Ctrl-Shift-F6 to move forward or backward, respectively, through its open documents.

A link is like a window into your word processing file created by another program. Because cell addresses can change, you should name the Excel range that you want your Word document to display.
Open the worksheet and highlight that range. Select Insert, Name, Define, enter a name like ToWord, and press Enter. Select Edit, Copy. Enter Word and open your document. Place the cursor where you want the view of your worksheet to appear. Select Edit, Paste Special. In the resulting dialog box, click the Paste Link option and, in the As list, choose Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object to insert a graphic object, or choose Formatted Text (RTF) to create a Word table containing the data. Click OK to complete the link. The Worksheet Object will look like a piece of your spreadsheet stuck in a resizable box inside your document, while the Formatted Text will look like, (and actually become), a part of the document itself.

Office 2000's file formats are the same as 97's, but to avoid incompatibilities click "Disable features not available in 97." Office 2000 offers several ways to ensure compatibility with earlier versions of Office. Word 2000 automatically saves in a file format that can be read by Word 97, although 2000-exclusive features will not be available in the previous version. If you commonly share documents with Office 97 users, you'll save yourself a lot of time by disabling all features that are not available in Word 97. Choose Tools,Options, click the Save tab, select "Disable features not supported by Word 97," and click OK. The library has several add-ins to enable Office 97 and Office 2000 users to create documents that can be read by earlier versions of Office software. Check with ISST for details. Excel 2000 files can be saved in a multiple format. Choose File, Save As and then select Microsoft Excel 97-2000 & 5.0/95 Workbook (.xls) from the "Save as type" list. Note that as with Word, some advanced features will not be available in the earlier versions. PowerPoint also offers a multiple-format option when saving. Select PowerPoint 97-2000 & 95 Presentation (*ppt) in the "Save as type" drop-down list. For maximum compatibility between versions and for maximum readability of Office 2000 documents, consider saving your documents in HTML format. In most applications, you'll find a "Save as Web Page" command in the File menu. In this format, anyone with a 3.x or later Netscape or Internet Explorer browser can view your documents, if not edit them.

Word 97 and Word 2000 Features Comparison Chart: