Simply put, a Macro is a series of steps to accomplish a task which can be recorded and then reused in the future.

For example: Let's say you have many steps that you use to create a report each month for your boss. Each month you may have the same spreadsheet, but with the current month's figures. Each month you setup the same Sums, Formulas, Text Formatting, Pivot Table, and maybe more.

This could be very time consuming if you completed these steps individually each month.

However, with a Macro, you can record the steps you complete each month. Once recorded, you setup a Shortcut Key to repeat these steps whenever you wish. This, simply put, is a Macro.

Macros are not unique to Excel, but for this instruction, we will use Excel as the example.

Recording a Macro involves following these steps:

1) Plan the keystrokes needed to complete the tasks (in our example above, it is the monthly formulas, text formatting, etc needed to create our report)

2) Click Tools | Macros | Record New Macro

3) Assign a Name for the Macro

4) Assign a Shortcut Key for the Macro

5) Click OK

6) Perform the steps needed to create your report (the steps you complete each month, which includes formulas, text formatting, etc)

7) Click on the Stop button on the Macro Toolbar to stop recording and Save the Macro

Now that the Macro has been created, you may want to test the Macro to confirm it completes all of the necessary steps that you wanted recorded.

Once you have tested, you are now ready to use the Macro each month when you are ready to create your report. Macros can help you accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently through this automated recording process.

To run the Macro, open the Excel spreadsheet you wish, and simply type the Shortcut Key you setup when you created the Macro.  Depending on the number of steps in the Macro, you may see Excel performing these steps, but quicker than you would have been able to on your own.  Once the Macro has run, you will see the completed steps that were performed.

Author – Debbie McCusker, GoAskDebbie.com

So what can be done about it?

Tip 1: Delete attachments

A little-known feature in Outlook is the ability to keep an email but delete one or several attachment.

Firstly, sort your inbox by file size (descending) and open a message (by double clicking so it opens in a new window) where you no longer wish to keep the attachment. Right click over the attachment and select Remove.

Now save the email, repeat with all relevant emails in this mailbox and then repeat in any other mailboxes (including your sent items).

Tip 2: Split emails into Archives

Maybe you disabled the auto archive facility when you first saw it because you didn't understand it? Archiving old emails into a separate file still allows you to access less frequently used material when required but keeps your system running faster as it does not have to trawl through all of this redundant content regularly.

Click File | New | Outlook Data File. Enter a name for the file – a new folder will now appear in the folder list on the left.

You can add sub-folders to this by right clicking, which is useful if you want to create a similar hierarchy to your current inbox. Once done simply select multiple files in your main inbox and drag/drop them to the same inbox in your new archive folder.

Repeat for all other folders (e.g. Sent Items and any others that you may have created).

Close the new data file by right clicking over the title and selecting Close [Folder Name]. Now when Outlook loads it only loads you nice lightweight folder! Outlook 2007 is known to be far less tolerant of large PST data files than Outlook 2003. Aim to keep your main PST file under 500MB – the smaller the better.

Tip 3: Disable unessential Add-ins in Outlook 2007

Click on Tools, Trust Center and Add-Ins. Now select one of the various options from the drop down menu at the bottom and uncheck any add-ins that you don't use (which for me was an Adobe Acrobat one and Gotomeeting.com). Restart Outlook and see if this makes a difference.

Tip 4: No need for fax? Ditch it!

If you do not send or receive faxes on your PC then uninstall the facility as this has been known to cause issues with Outlook 2007.From Control Panel select Add/Remove Programs, select Add/remove windows components and uncheck Fax Service.

Tip 5: Enable Outlook 2007 logging to see if anything is going wrong

Outlook has an error logging capability, which could be useful if something is going wrong.

Click Tools, Options, Other, Advanced Options and then tick Enable Logging. Logs will be stored in C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Local Settings\Temp\Outlook Logging\. Look for any errors, especially in OPMLog.log – perhaps relating to the checking of email on one or more of your POP3 account.

Tip 6: Compact your PST data files often

Use Outlook's compact facility to compress your folders, especially your main PST file. Click on top folder name (e.g. Personal Folders), right-click and select Properties. Now select Advanced and then click on Compact Now.

Tip 7: Optimise your Exchange settings

If you are connecting to an Exchange server then the synchronization (caching) process will add a further overhead to your system. You can switch off caching so that your PC always looks to the server for its mail, however be warned – this can cause a number of issues, such as massively increased network traffic, problems with junk mail filtering and the inability to read mail when you are not connected to the server.

Check the Microsoft knowledge base for Exchange optimization techniques here, as this is a constantly evolving issue and there may be more solutions by the time you read this.

Tip 8: Stop Outlook 2007 storing RSS information from IE7

If you are using IE7 and RSS feeds Outlook will also store all feed threads by default.

Click Tools, Options, other, Advanced Options and then uncheck Sync RSS feeds to common feed list, followed by Any RSS feed that is updated appears as a new item.

Close these screens and then click Tools, Accounts, RSS Feeds and delete the feeds. Now you have to delete the RSS threads from the RSS threads folder in your mail folders.

Tip 9: Run the Outlook 2007 Diagnostics check

Outlook has its own self-repair mechanism. Click on Help and Office Diagnostics, and then let Outlook run its diagnostic tests, which can take 15 minutes or so.

Tip 10: Update your Rules and Alerts

Under Tools, Rules & Alerts, Options select Upgrade Rules (only if you don't use these PST files with an older version of Outlook). This updates the rules to Outlook 2007.

Tip 11: Scan and repair your PST file

Outlook ships with a scanning utility called SCANPST.EXE, located in drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12. Run this, locate your PST file and let it scan and repair any errors for you. Full details can be found here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA100758311033.aspx?pid=CH100788841033

Tip 12: Run Outlook 2007 in safe mode

You can start Outlook in safe mode, which stops Add-ins and certain other files from loading. This often loads Outlook with a startling speed boost! If you experience a big difference then try the following:

1. Quit out of Outlook 2007 and locate each of these files in turn and rename as indicated.1. extend.dat – you will find this file in the location Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\extend.dat – change it to extend.old

2. views.dat – may not find it most of the time

3. frmcache.dat – Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\FORMS\FRMCACHE.DAT – change it to FRMCACHE.old

4. outcmd.dat – :\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outcmd.dat – change it to OUTCMD.old

Tip 13: Download the latest patches from Microsoft

At the time of writing there is one major patch which suggests that it will resolve performance issues. You can download it here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932086

Note that there are known issues with Outlook taking a long time when checking POP3 accounts. According to several blogs it relates to the AUTH command and only affects certain mail servers. It is wise to check that your settings are correct – options such as setting authentication as on may not actually be necessary and could be the cause of many of your problems, so check your ISP's website for EXACT settings.

After performing the above my Outlook now fires up in around 10-15 seconds from a fully-booted PC and appears much more responsive during operation. Hopefully by now your system will too!

Author – Martin Bailey is the Marketing Manager for JETCAM International s.a.r.l., and is also the author of several marketing and technology sector books. JETCAM Expert is used in over 7000 locations worldwide and supports virtually all punching and cutting/profiling CNC machines in the sheet metal, aerospace/automotive and other industries.

On my Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM Outlook 2007 originally took a good 20 seconds to fire up from a fully booted PC and appeared to be constantly sluggish. So what can be done about it?

Tip 1: Delete attachments

A little-known feature in Outlook is the ability to keep an email but delete one or several attachment. Firstly, sort your inbox by file size (descending) and open a message (by double clicking so it opens in a new window) where you no longer wish to keep the attachment. Right click over the attachment and select Remove. Now save the email, repeat with all relevant emails in this mailbox and then repeat in any other mailboxes (including your sent items).

Tip 2: Split emails into Archives

Maybe you disabled the auto archive facility when you first saw it because you didn't understand it? Archiving old emails into a separate file still allows you to access less frequently used material when required but keeps your system running faster as it does not have to trawl through all of this rendundant content regularly. Click File | New | Outlook Data File. Enter a name for the file – a new folder will now appear in the folder list on the left. You can add sub-folders to this by right clicking, which is useful if you want to create a similar hierarchy to your current inbox. Once done simply select multiple files in your main inbox and drag/drop them to the same inbox in your new archive folder. Repeat for all other folders (e.g. Sent Items and any others that you may have created). Close the new data file by right clicking over the title and selecting Close [Folder Name]. Now when Outlook loads it only loads you nice lightweight folder! Outlook 2007 is known to be far less tolerant of large PST data files than Outlook 2003. Aim to keep your main PST file under 500MB – the smaller the better.

Tip 3: Disable unessential Add-ins in Outlook 2007

Click on Tools, Trust Center and Add-Ins. Now select one of the various options from the dropdown menu at the bottom and uncheck any add-ins that you don't use (which for me was an Adobe Acrobat one and Gotomeeting.com). Restart Outlook and see if this makes a difference.

Tip 4: No need for fax? Ditch it!

If you do not send or receive faxes on your PC then uninstall the facility as this has been known to cause issues with Outlook 2007.From Control Panel select Add/Remove Programs, select Add/remove windows components and uncheck Fax Service.

Tip 5: Enable Outlook 2007 logging to see if anything is going wrong

Outlook has an error logging capability, which could be useful if something is going wrong. Click Tools, Options, Other, Advanced Options and then tick Enable Logging. Logs will be stored in C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Local Settings\Temp\Outlook Logging\. Look for any errors, especially in OPMLog.log – perhaps relating to the checking of email on one or more of your POP3 accounts.

Tip 6: Compact your PST data files often

Use Outlook's compact facility to compress your folders, especially your main PST file. Click on top folder name (e.g. Personal Folders), right-click and select Properties. Now select Advanced and then click on Compact Now.

Tip 7: Optimise your Exchange settings

If you are connecting to an Exchange server then the synchronisation (cacheing) process will add a further overhead to your system. You can switch off cacheing so that your PC always looks to the server for its mail, however be warned – this can cause a number of issues, such as massively increased network traffic, problems with junk mail filtering and the inability to read mail when you are not connected to the server. Check the Microsoft knowledge base for Exchange optimisation techniques here, as this is a constantly evolving issue and there may be more solutions by the time you read this.

Tip 8: Stop Outlook 2007 storing RSS information from IE7

If you are using IE7 and RSS feeds Outlook will also store all feed threads by default. Click Tools, Options, other, Advanced Options and then uncheck Sync RSS feeds to common feed list, followed by Any RSS feed that is updated appears as a new item. Close these screens and then click Tools, Accounts, RSS Feeds and delete the feeds. Now you have to delete the RSS threads from the RSS threads folder in your mail folders.

Tip 9: Run the Outlook 2007 Diagnostics check

Outlook has its own self-repair mechanism. Click on Help and Office Diagnostics, and then let Outlook run its diagnostic tests, which can take 15 minutes or so.

Tip 10: Update your Rules and Alerts

Under Tools, Rules & Alerts, Options select Upgrade Rules (only if you don't use these PST files with an older version of Outlook). This updates the rules to Outlook 2007.

Tip 11: Scan and repair your PST file

Outlook ships with a scanning utility called SCANPST.EXE, located in drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12. Run this, locate your PST file and let it scan and repair any errors for you. Full details can be found here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA100758311033.aspx?pid=CH100788841033

Tip 12: Run Outlook 2007 in safe mode

You can start Outlook in safe mode, which stops Add-ins and certain other files from loading. This often loads Outlook with a startling speed boost! If you experience a big difference then try the following:

Quit out of Outlook 2007 and locate each of these files in turn and rename as indicated.

1. extend.dat – you will find this file in the location :\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\extend.dat

//change it to extend.old

2. views.dat – may not find it most of the time

3. frmcache.dat – :\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\FORMS\FRMCACHE.DAT

//change it to FRMCACHE.old

4. outcmd.dat – :\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outcmd.dat

//change it to OUTCMD.old

Tip 13: Download the latest patches from Microsoft

At the time of writing there is one major patch which suggests that it will resolve performance issues. You can download it here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932086

Note that there are known issues with Outlook taking a long time when checking POP3 accounts. According to several blogs it relates to the AUTH command and only affects certain mailservers. It is wise to check that your settings are correct – options such as setting authentication as on may not actually be necessary and could be the cause of many of your problems, so check your ISP's website for EXACT settings.

After performing the above my Outlook now fires up in around 10-15 seconds from a fully-booted PC and appears much more responsive during operation. Hopefully by now your system will too!

About the Author/Company: Martin Bailey is the Marketing Manager for JETCAM International s.a.r.l., and is also the author of several marketing and technology sector books. JETCAM Expert is used in over 7000 locations worldwide and supports virtually all punching and cutting/profiling CNC machines in the sheet metal, aerospace/automotive and other industries.

With Word 2007, DOCX is the new default file format when saving Microsoft Office documents, instead of the usual DOC file.

The Open XML Formats introduces a number of benefits such as:

• improve security and reliability (sensitive information such as author names, comments, tracked changes, and file paths can be easily identified and removed)

• better damaged-file recovery

• compact file size (Open XML Format uses zip compression and has the capability to compressed a file up to 75 percent smaller in some cases).

• enhance integration with external sources (documents, worksheets, presentations, and forms can be saved in an XML file format that is freely available for anyone to use and to license)

NOTE: Microsoft XML format is not the same as the OpenDocument standard, which is also based on the XML-standard and zip compression. The OpenDocument standard format for word processing has an ODT file extension.

Because DOCX is based on Microsoft new XML format, Microsoft has clearly stated that they want DOCX files to replace the commonly used doc format in Office 2007 and future releases Office versions.

This means that eventually this will become a problem with anyone using previous versions of Word over time when they try to open a DOCX file created in Office 2007.

For anyone who uses pre-Office 2007 versions, there are a couple of ways to get around the problem of opening a DOCX file.

• Have the person who uses Office 2007 save the document as a DOC file format. Office 2007 allows you to save files in the format of earlier versions of Office. The 2007 Office release includes both compatibility checkers and file converters to facilitate file-sharing between different versions of Office.

The compatibility checker will make sure that you have not introduced a feature that an earlier version of Office does not support. When you save the file, the compatibility checker reports those features to you and then allows you to remove them before continuing with the save. (make sure your previous version of Office has the latest Office Service Pack installed).

• A better solution is to install a file converter which makes it much easier to open and edit a 2007 Office file in an earlier version of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, such as Microsoft Compatibility Pack. The  Compatibility Pack adds support for DOCX and other Office file formats (.xlsx, .pptx) as well as additional file formats for Word 2007 (docm, dotx, dotm) are also supported.

By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able to open, edit, and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. The Compatibility Pack can also be used in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats

To install, download the Compatibility Pack from Microsoft download center (make sure you have all the latest Office patches installed). Once downloaded, double-click the FileFormatConverters.exe file to start the setup program, then follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.

For complete instructions on how to use the Microsoft Compatibility Pack see the following knowlegebase article

Customizing the Print Area

By default, an entire worksheet is printed in Excel unless you indicate a specific print area. To limit the printed area:

1. Highlight the cells you want to print
2. Choose File > Print Area > Set Print Area. The new print area remains in place until changed.

To clear the current print area, pick File > Print Area > Clear Print Area.

Quick Print of a Range of Cells

If you only need to temporarily print a range of cells, just highlight the range and choose File > Print. Under the category, Print What (bottom-left corner), pick Selection and choose OK.

The Hidden View-Page Break Preview 

Most Excel users have yet to discover the Page Break Preview, another great way to setup the print area in a worksheet. Simply choose View > Page Break Preview. A prompt may appear as a reminder. (This option is also available from the Print Preview view).

The visible white area in the Page Break Preview is the print area which can be adjusted by moving the solid blue boundary lines. The dashed lines show where page breaks will occur; these can be moved to adjust and create manual page breaks which display as solid blue lines.

This view is also a handy way to see how your worksheet breaks out into pages; notice the gray page labels such as Page 2 in this view. You can perform all worksheet actions from the Page Break Preview. I usually change the Zoom (found on the right side of the Standard toolbar) to 100%. To change back to the previous view, pick View > Normal.

Set Your Own Page Breaks

Here's another way to control page breaks. Select the row or column where you want to create a new worksheet page; the break will appear above the highlighted row or to the left of the selected column. Next, choose Insert > Page Break. Page breaks display as dashed lines.

Print Headings on Every Page Do you want to print the same rows or columns on every page? Printing headings is easy with Print Titles. All you need to do is pick File > Page Setup and choose the Sheet tab. Under the Print Titles option, choose Rows to repeat at top and/or Columns to repeat at left. Finally, click into the actual spreadsheet and highlight the row(s) and/or column(s) that you want to see on every page. Finish with OK or other print settings.

Fit to Page

Unlike Word documents, content is not limited by the paper size or orientation. A worksheet can be split into as many pages as needed to display the content but sometimes you might want to fit all data into one page by height or width. To do this:

1. First choose File > Page Setup, set margins to the smallest size that will work for your layout. Change paper size and orientation if you want.
2. Next, select the Page tab and under the Scaling category pick Fit to. For instance, if you want to fit all data columns on one lengthwise page, change orientation to landscape and choose Fit to 1 page wide by 999 pages tall. This setting won't stretch pages to 999 pages but will make sure that a low value won't accidentally shrink the pages to a much smaller size.

Another option under Scaling is to adjust the size to a percentage of the normal size. Important Note: with Scaling other than 100%, manual page breaks are ignored.

Easy Page Setup on Multiple Worksheets

A few years ago, I was heading down the hall at a client's building when one of the managers pulled me into his office. He had just spent the entire morning repeating the same page setup choices for each of the worksheets in a large Excel workbook. "Is there an easier way?" he asked. You bet. Here's what you want to do to apply an identical print page setup to a set of worksheets: group them. Two of the ways to group worksheets are:

1. To highlight all of the worksheets in a workbook, right-click on any of the sheet tabs and left-click on the option Select All Sheets.
2. To select only specific worksheets, hold down the [Ctrl] key while clicking on each of the worksheets that you want to group together.

With either technique, you will see [Group] display in the title bar next to the workbook name. Now for the easy part, choose File > Page Setup and pick each of the options that you want for the worksheet layout including margins, headers and footers, and paper size.

Tip or disaster? Once you are finished with the Page Setup, make sure that you immediately ungroup the worksheets because anything else that you do will also be a part of each worksheet including data entry, editing and formatting. To ungroup the worksheets, just right-click on any worksheet tab and pick Ungroup Sheets. Confirm that the [Group] label no longer displays in the title bar.

Simplify your next Excel project with these printing shortcuts.

Author – © Dawn Bjork Buzbee is The Software Pro® and a certified Microsoft Office Expert and Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor. Dawn shares smart and easy ways to effectively use software and technology through her work as a software speaker, trainer, and consultant. Discover more tips, tricks, tools, and techniques at http://www.SoftwarePro.com

If you do and want to make better use of that free space, you can change the default program installation path to point to a folder on the drive or partition that has the free space. This way, when you install new applications or programs, they will automatically install to the new location with out needing to worry that you'll run out of disk space on your C:\ drive.

Now, this modification may not be for everyone. If you have plenty of available disk space where you normally install programs and apps, there is no need to change the default installation path (you can always change the path manually during installation).

For people who need to make this change, open up the registry editor, by clicking on Start \ Run and in the run box type regedit and click on OK .

NOTE: Follow the below steps exactly as specified and do not make any changes other than specified while in the Registry. Always create a System Restore point or backup of you Computer when making configuration changes.

• Next, navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

• Make sure you have clicked on CurrentVersion , then on the right side, double click on ProgramsFilesDir (this is the value that sets the default install location).

• In the Edit String dialog box. change the path in the Value data: field to the new default install location, and click OK .

• Close Regedit

Now, the next time you install an application or program, the new default installation path will be used:

And you won't need to worry about running out of disk space during installation.

You can always use the Office 2003 to 2007 command reference interactive guide to locate commands that maps all menu toolbar commands from Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint 2003 to the exact locations in 2007.

While the interactive guide is good, you do have to switch to your browser and use the guide to find the commands on the menu. What you really need (A.K.A… really want) is something built into Office 2007, such as the new add on known as Search Commands.

This little add-on will end the frustration of trying to navigate the new Office 2007 ribbon by helping you find commands, options, wizards, and galleries in Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint (Access is not supported at this time).

To install, visit Microsoft Office Labs web site and download Search Commands by clicking on the download link to the right.

After the download has completed, go to the folder (where you saved the file) and double click on setup.msi .

If the following dialog box appears, just click on Run to conrinue.

On the next screen, click Next. Accept the terms of this agreement by clicking on the check box and click the Install button. When the installation has completed, click the Finish button.

Now lets take a look at how to use Search commands.

Using Word, you will notice the new Search Commands on the menu. Clicking on it will display the interface.

To use, just type any command in the search field and press enter. The command you are looking for will instantly appear.

It couldn't be any easier (what took MS so long to create this add-on??).

Search Commands also includes Guided Help, which acts as a tour guide for specific tasks. But the best feature is that you can type what you are looking for, as if you were talking naturally. It'll find it.

For example, say you wanted to change the background of your document and you did not know the real command name. Just type 'change background' (with out the quote).

Search command comes with a lot of features built-in. Here two you will use the most:

• Shortcut Key – to access Search Commands from the keyboard, just press Windows Key+Y
• Locate Command On Ribbon – after a command is found, just hover over it and a pop up window will display with the actual location (path) on the ribbon.

If you need to uninstall Search Commands, just go to Add or Remove Programs (XP) or Uninstall a program (Vista) and look for Search Commands from Microsoft Office Labs .

Just switched over to Microsoft Word 2007 from a previous version, but feeling a little dis-oriented with the toolbar and ribbon layout?

Well if you need to crank out a document fast before getting adjusted to the new interface, here are eight quick keyboard formatting shortcut tips to get you going…until you can get time to locate Word 2007 toolbar and menu commands.

1 – Copy Formatting Using The Keyboard

Instead of using paste special from the menu, you can copy just the formating properties of text with the keyboard.

Select the text whose format you want to copy

• Press CTRL+Shift+C to copy the format
• Select the text whose format you want to change
• Press CTRL+Shift+V to paste the format to the selected text

2 – Quickly Changing Font Sizes

Word gives you a great deal of control over the size of the font used in your documents. If you want to change font sizes quickly, just follow these steps:

Select the text whose font size you want to change.

• To increase the size of the font, press SHIFT+Ctrl+>
• To decrease the size of the font, press SHIFT+Ctrl+<

To open the Font dialog box, press CTRL+SHIFT+F

Note: How much the font size is increased or decreased will depend on several factors. At smaller point sizes (12 or under), the size is changed by a single point. Between 12 and 72 points, you will step through the point sizes available in the Font group of the Home tab on the ribbon (12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 36, 48, and 72). The font size is then changed by increments of ten points. You can use this method to reduce a point size to a single point or to as large as 1638 points.

3 – Changing Text Case

Ever had the need to quickly change the case of a single character or word?

• Select the text you want to change
• Press Shift+F3 to change the case of the selected text.
• Continue pressing Shift+F3 to cycle through three different case scenarios: ALL CAPS, all lowercase, and All Title Case

Change text to either upper or lower case:

• To change text to just upper case (capitals) CTRL+SHIFT+A
• To change text to just lower case (small capitals) CTRL+SHIFT+K

4 – Set Line Spacing

Position cursor on the line you want to set spacing.

• Change to single space line press CTRL+1
• Double-space lines press CTRL+2
• Set 1.5 line spacing press CTRL+5

5 – Exclude Spaces When Underlining Words

By default, Word will underline all words including spaces. To only underline words but not spaces press CTRL+SHIFT+W

6 – Display Formating Properties Of Text Or Area

If you had a document sent to you and need to display what format was used either for a specific text or area, press Shift+F1 then click the text whose formatting you want to review.

Word will open a sidebar and display all formating information (font, language, paragraph, indentation, margins, layout, etc) of the selected text or area.

7 – Display Word Count

Although not technically a formating shortcut, knowing the word count of your document may be needed in certain formating situations you may have.

To view the word count and other information press CTRL+SHFT+G

8 – View Last Four Places That Were Edited

If you ever have a need to look at the last four places you edited, press ALT+CTRL+Z to switch between the last four locations.

If you have a Hotmail mailbox (also known as Windows Live Hotmail), it is now possible to check your e-mail using Office Outlook 2003 or 2007 versions by installing the Office Outlook Connector.

Once installed, you can read and send messages, manage contacts, and use Outlook's junk mail filter and rules wizard. The one drawback with the connector is that you can't sync and manage calendars between Outlook and Hotmail unless you have a paid subscription.

To get started, download the Office Outlook Connector (requires Windows Validation check) and follow the install instructions. Once installation has completed, Outlook will open and the Office Outlook wizard will run.

In the first screen, enter you Windows Live Hotmail E-mail address, Password and the display name you want to appear in the Inbox, then click OK

If you prefer, you can also select the check box to Remember my password.

After entering you info, click OK at the next prompt and restart Outlook for the settings to take effect. When Outlook restarts, it will automatically connect to your Windows Live Hotmail account and start dowmloaded messages and any folders you have created.

The connector adds the 'Outlook Connector" item to Outlook menu bar where you can view Help, add another Hotmail account, and select the Download mode (Headers, Full items or both). Note, some item options are not available and only enabled if you have a paid Windows Live Hotmail subscription.

To set up the Junk E-mail filter in Outlook for your Hotmail mailbox, select Tools \ Options from the menu. Then on the Preferences tab, click Junk E-mail and make your selections. Also, just like managing e-mail in Outlook, your Hotmail mailbox can be manged in offline mode. Any messages you compose, reply or forward will remain in the outbox until a connection is made to Hotmail.

Additionally, you can see the connection status of your Windows Live Hotmail account in the Outlook window. Just look for Server Status in the lower-right footer of Outlok and click the down arrow to view the information:

 If necessary, Office Outlook Connector can be uninstalled from the Control Panel Add or Remove Programs in XP or from Programs and Features in Vista.

With Microsoft Outlook 2007, a previous feature in earlier versions of Outlook known as Auto Text has been re-named to Quick Parts. This feature is a favorite to many Office users and can save time when composing messages which allow you to reuse pieces of content including fields, document properties, or snippets that you have created.

To use Quick Parts in Outlook 2007, Open Outlook and click on New \ Compose message from the toolbar or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+N.

Type any text or phrase that you use frequently and want to reuse, and highlight it.

From the menu, click on Insert then select Quick Parts \ Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery in the Ribbon.

In the Create New Building Block pop up, enter a name and description (do not modify the Gallery field) and click OK to save.

Now when you want to reuse text that you saved to Quick Parts, just place the cursor at the location in the message you want to add text, click on Quick Parts in the Ribbon to open your saved selections, and click an item to be added.

If you need to edit or delete a saved selection to Quick Parts, you must use Word 2007. Make sure you close Outlook before proceeding.

Start by opening Word and open the NormalEmail.dotm file found in %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates folder.

From the menu, click on Insert then select Quick Parts \ Building Blocks Organizer from the Ribbon.

In the Building Blocks Organizer window, click on the Gallery column circle in screen shot below) to sort alphabetically and scrolled down to you find Quick Parts.

At this point locate the text you saved in Outlook, highlight it and you can either edit by clicking on the Edit Properties button (at bottom) or delete it by clicking on the Delete button.

When finished, click on the Close button, then save the NormalEmail.dotm file before exiting Word.

Just like the new version of Yahoo Mail built in RSS reader, Microsoft Outlook 2007 includes an RSS reader, that allows you to save and forward RSS articles. Having an RSS reader built into your favorite email client, makes RSS and email seamless and convenient. Adding RSS feeds and managing them in Outlook 2007 is simple and takes a few steps to setup.

 
The first step you need to do, is visit the Web site and copy the RSS feed URL. Most sites display an RSS icon  in your Browser address bar, when clicked on, will open with the URL that you will need to copy.

Next, Open Outlook 2007 and on the Tools menu, click Account Settings.

In Account Settings, select the RSS Feeds tab. Click on New (circled) and paste the URL you copied from the above step and click Add.

In the RSS Feed options window, you can keep or change the name of the RSS feed, change the folder location (and add folder names after categories), change how the RSS feeds are downloaded, and update limit. Click OK to add the feed when finished.

Your feeds will display in the Outlook sidebar panel.

To add more feeds, you can right click on The RSS Feeds icon in the sidebar panel and select Add a New RSS Feed… and follow the above steps. Other options with right clicking include move or copy the feed to another folder, and process marked headers, and mark everything as read.

To email an article to someone, right click on an article in the middle and select Forward to email the contents of the article or select Share This Feed and send the URL to someone with your comments. Other options with right clicking on an article, allow you to Flag and Categorize, Delete or Move, and update article by selecting Download Content.

To change any settings of your RSS feeds, just select Tools from menu, click Account Settings, and select the RSS Feeds tab.

Import and Export Feeds

You can also import or export feeds from or to another computer running Outlook 2007 or an RSS reader using an opml file format.

To import or export RSS feeds in Outlook 2007, select from the menu, File \ Import and Export then select either Export RSS Feeds to an OPML file or Import RSS Feeds from an OPML file then follow the Wizard instructions.

Once you feeds are all setup, you can use one interface for all your email and RSS reading!

How many times have you sent an email message only to realize you made a mistake…or cooled down after composing a message you had regret sending? With Microsoft Outlook 2007, you can delay the delivery of one message, before sending, by selecting the Options tab, and in the More Options group on the Ribbon, select Delay Delivery. In the Message Options window, check the Do not deliver before: box and select the date and time for delayed message delivery.

 If you decide you do not want to send the message, or made a mistake, you can select it from the Outbox and edit or delete the message before the message is sent. This works great for one message, but a better method is to create a rule to delay sending all messages, with the capability to send any message immediately. Here's how…

1 – Open Outlook and from the menu, select Tools \ Rules and Alerts… then click New Rule…

2 – In step 1 of the rules wizard, under Start from a Blank Rule, click Check messages after sending, then click Next.

3 – For Select Conditions… section, click Next, then click OK to accept message that the rule will apply to every message.

4 – In Select Actions(s) window, check defer delivery by a number of minutes. Then in the bottom section click on the blue underlined words a number of

5 – In the Deferred Delivery window, select he number of minutes you want to delay message delivery and click OK.

6 – Click Next

7 – In the Select exception(s) (if necessary) window, check except if the subject contains specific words. Then in the bottom window click on the blue underlined words specify words.

10 – In the Search Text enter a period followed by two spaces, ".  " (with out quotes) and click Add, then OK.

11 – Click Next and specify a name for the rule such as Deliver Now. Click Finish then OK to close Rules and Alerts.

Test sending a message with and without ".  " (with out quotes) to make sure the rule is working properly.

When using the message delay rule, if you need to edit the message with-in the time before delivery, go to the Outbox and make any changes neccassary (or delete the message). Any messages that have been edited, while in the Outbox will need to be sent manually since the rule will not process. For POP3, you need to be connected first, before the rule will process, otherwise it will sit in the Outbox until the connection is made. If you are connected to an Exchange server, the rule will process normally.

One major difference users will notice when making the switch from Microsoft Office 2003

To help, Microsoft has provided an excellent interactive command reference guide that maps all menu toolbar commands from Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint 2003 to the exact locations in 2007.

To run the Office 2003 to 2007 command reference interactive tutorial, visit Microsoft Office Online site and scroll half way down the page. Look for the Interactive guides section for Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Access.

You have the option of running the guides online or download for each Office 2007 application.

In this guide, we'll look at the Word 2007 Interactive guide. After clicking on the link (Word 2007), the Word 2003 to Word 2007 command reference guide page will display. Scroll down half way and click the Start the guide link, then on the following page click Start.

The guide starts out with Word 2003 interface.

Just rest your mouse over a command on the toolbar and a balloon pop up will describe the location of the same command in Word 2007. Also notice at the very top next to You selected this Word 2003 command will describe what is selected in Word 2003.

In the above screenshot, I have selected the Columns command on the toolbar. Notice the pop up telling me where to find it on Word 2007 (arrow) and what I selected in Word 2003 (circled). Say, I went to Word 2007 and could not find the Columns command on the toolbar or in the menu, I can go back to the guide and click Columns and Word 2007 interface will appear and the exact location will be highlighted.

When finished, just click anywhere on the page and the guide will return back to Word 2003. Nice! You can also select any item from the menus

As you continue to work with Word 2007, you can leave the interactive guide running by minimizing your browser and reference it when needed. The guides for Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint function in the same manner.

Microsoft Office 2003 to 2007 command reference interative tutorial is a great start to help users transition to Office 2007 and includes the most popular commands. Best of all, the guide is free. Only requirements is Adobe Flash Player 7.0 or later.