As children, we were taught to share and were even graded on it in some preschools or kindergarten classes. As adults, many of us will work on projects with a team, or at least solicit an opinion on work we do.

Although having many minds working on a project usually yields a much better product, one person is often left with the onerous task of pulling it all together.

Although having many minds working on a project usually yields a much better product, one person is often left with the onerous task of pulling it all together. Whether you are a contributor or an organizer, these tips will help you understand how software can help you collaborate.

Using Track Changes for Collaboration (Word 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

By David McQueary

Collaborating on a document can often become confusing and frustrating if it is not clear which changes have been made and by whom. Even worse, when you overwrite text in a document without indicating you have made a change, the original text is not recoverable.

Using Word’s Track Changes feature can eliminate these frustrations.

When Track Changes is enabled, Word assigns a different color to each of the individual editors of a document to show which editor made which changes. When text is deleted, it is not completely removed from the document; instead, a strikethrough effect is applied to show that the text was deleted. Editors can also use the Comments feature to type questions, answers, or general messages to other people working with the document.

Word 2007:

1. Click the Review tab.

2. Click the Track Changes button in the tracking section and choose Track Changes.

Word 2002 and 2003:

1. Click the Tools menu and choose Track Changes.

Word 2000:

1. Click the Tools menu, select Track Changes, and choose Highlight Changes.

2. Check “Track changes while editing.”

3. Verify “Highlight changes on screen” and “Highlight changes in printed document” are checked; if not, check them.

4. Click OK.

You can also enable the feature in all versions by using the key combination Ctrl+Shift+E. Read more…

admin How To Help Desk, Microsoft Word, Office 2007, software support, track changes

E-mail has revolutionized communication. It enables us to connect with people as far away as Tokyo and Sydney in a split second, and helps us be more productive. But it also has enormous potential to offend, anger, bombard, confuse and overwhelm its recipients. After all, it doesn’t have the benefit of body language, tone of voice, and other distinctly human elements that are necessary for message context.

Your best defense against a message recall failure is to reread your message before you send it.

Although we should all know proper e-etiquette by now, a gentle reminder is needed now and again. (See this article, which illustrates how much damage a hastily sent e-mail can cause.) Below are a few timeless tips for keeping your communication professional and not at all offensive to your colleagues. (Tips are for Outlook versions 2000-2007, except where noted otherwise.)

Reply to All with Care

By MaryHazel McDermott

Reply to All is an option available in Outlook and many other e-mail programs that should be used sparingly. When you use Reply to All, you may be sending your message to scads of people who do not even need the information. Read more…

admin Etiquette, How To all caps, CIO, Etiquette, message recall, Outlook, reply to all

Gartner, Forrester and other industry heavies say the most important thing to CIOs right now is efficiency. Doing more with less, doing more with the same — just doing more. They’re not thinking too deeply about the cloud or any non-critical projects. Just efficiency, plain and simple.

When scaled across an entire company, misprinted print jobs cost a corporation dearly.

Sure, big picture savings are great. But the best way to approach recession survival is by starting small. Although an extra printout or two may seem minuscule, when scaled across an entire company, misprinted print jobs cost a corporation dearly.

In the spirit of frugality, here are two PC Helps tips published by IT World that promise printing efficiency.

1. How to Master Excel Spreadsheet Printing
2. How to Create a New Print Style in Outlook

Enjoy, and print responsibly. Got any efficiency tips? Send them our way.

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The beauty of Excel is its simplicity: If you enter your data correctly, it works. However, it can be ugly, especially when it returns a mess of formula errors, which sometimes are as understandable as Sanskrit.

We have gathered some tips that will help you root out the potential problems in formulas. If you can identify the issue quickly, then we’ve done our job. As for helping you fix it, that’s for another post.

A circular reference sends Excel into an endless loop where it will never stop calculating the cell. Excel goes around and around, never stopping to give us a final number…

1. Formula Evaluation Tool (Excel 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

by David McQueary

If you’ve ever created a formula, you no doubt have come across a dreaded #N/A, #DIV/0 or other type of error. This can be frustrating, especially if the formula you entered is long and complex. Sometimes it is not easy to see what is causing the malfunction, and trying to read through the formula to spot the offender is not always a fruitful effort. Excel offers a Formula Evaluation tool, which assesses a formula step by step, showing each calculation and enabling you to view exactly where the error occurs. Here’s how:

Excel 2000, 2002, 2003:

1. Click Tools and move your mouse over Formula Auditing. Read more…

admin Excel, How To circular reference, formulas, software support, Worker Productivity

Although iPhones are catching up, the BlackBerry still rules mobile business communication. Case in point: We ran this tipsheet earlier in the year, and it continues to bubble up to the top of most-read lists. Here it is again.

Indeed, we get hundreds of BlackBerry calls a week, and most aren’t from the guy who cannot find the on/off button. Rather, it’s the managers on their way to meetings or hopping on flights who want to know the handy tricks and tips that will save them time and make their smart phones smarter.

Here are a few of the notables:

Tip No. 1: How to Filter Incoming Mail
Say, for example, you receive a daily report that you will not read or deal with on your phone and would prefer to just handle it back at the office. Can you create a filter for that?
Of course you can. Here’s how: Read more…

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Clean, polished correspondence is important, especially when you are the boss. As simple as such a goal sounds, Word nevertheless makes it a challenge to achieve. Here’s a rundown of some recent PC Helps formatting tips to help you along.

Nothing is more frustrating than errant alignment.

Stray Bullets (Word 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007)

When using bullets or numbered lists in a Word document, the list items should be neatly aligned with minimal effort. But when the bullets and numbers do not line up properly, it can be a frustrating experience. Here is a tip to get your lists back in order.

The first method involves using Word’s ruler tool to modify the alignment of the bullets or numbers.

1. Highlight a bullet or number in the list.
2. At the top of the document, on the ruler, you should see the tab marker for this list item.
3. Click and drag the tab marker to the right or left to align the bullet or number with the others in the list.

Another option to try is correcting the alignment using the text align buttons. Read more…

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Many of our customers start their calls with apologies about the stupidity of the questions that are to follow, but it really is unnecessary. No question is a dumb question.

Sloppy sorting can wreak havoc on data. That’s why it’s good to know the basics before you begin.

In this company’s 17-year history, its consultants have solved millions of software snags, from the most basic to the maddeningly complex. Recently, we took a look back to analyze what help our clients needed most.

Not surprisingly, the top five most frequently asked questions are all related to the three most heavily used applications — Microsoft Word, Excel and Access.

Here are the top five, with instructions if applicable. Bookmark and save.

No. 5. How to use query by form in Access (2002, 2007)

Query by form will allow you to enter a value on a form using a text box, check box, combo box, etc. You can then use this value as the criteria for a query, making the query far more dynamic. Use the steps below to setup a sample query: Read more…

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A Twitter search of “do more with less” returns everything from quotes by revered philosophers (“It is futile to do with more things that which can be done with fewer” – William of Ockham) to rants about how cheaply Blade Runner was made compared to present-day sci-fi films. Read more…

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I don’t need to remind you that clean, polished correspondence is important. You’re a manager, after all. Here’s a rundown of some recent PC Helps e-tips that will ensure you churn out error-free copy, no matter the medium.

Manually Check Spelling in Office Apps
If you composed your document without turning on automatic spell checking, or if automatic spell checking is not an option, you can check spelling whenever you wish. The steps are nearly identical in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, Visio and Project.

Press the F7 key on your keyboard for an even easier way to the start the Spell Checker.

1. Click on the Tools menu (Office 2007: Review tab), and select Spelling or Spelling and Grammar.
2. The Spelling dialog box opens with the first error highlighted.
3. If the word is correct, click either the Ignore Once or the Ignore All button.
4. If the word is incorrect, select the correct word from the Suggestions area and then click the Change button.
5. Repeat until all errors have been corrected.
6. A message box will pop-up telling you the spelling check is complete. Click OK.

Shortcut:
Office 2000, 2002, 2003 and Project 2007, Publisher 2007 and Visio 2007. Press the F7 key on your keyboard for an even easier way to the start the Spell Checker. The Spelling Dialog box will appear, continue with Step 3 if there are errors. (Russell Hatton & Mary Hazel McDermott)

Automatically Check Spelling

If you often forget to check your spelling manually, you may need to turn it to automatic. Here’s how:

Word 2000, 2002, 2003 Read more…

admin How To Contextual Spelling, grammar, spelling, tips and tricks

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