Let’s face it, plain old white backgrounds are, just that, plain old white backgrounds. If you’re like me, you’ll want to change the color of your page background.
To do this, choose the Page Layout tab from the Word 2007 Ribbon, and choose the Page Color dropdown list and choose a page color from it. If you choose a color from a Theme set then, later, when you change the Theme – the page color changes accordingly.
Labels: page color, theme, Word 2007
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Since Microsoft Word 2002, it has been possible to format a series of cells in a table all at the one time, even if they are not contiguous (a lovely word that means not side-by-side).
To do this, select the first cell then Control + click on the other cells that you want to share the same formatting. Once all the cells are selected you can apply a formatting such as a shading to those cells. Note, that the Shading button on the Tables and Borders toolbar in Word 2002/2003 is the one to use, the one on the Drawing toolbar is the Fill button – it looks the same but doesn’t work the same!
Selecting and formatting non contiguous cells all at ones makes it a quicker process to format a table than it would be if you selected and formatted each cell individually.
However, of course, the F4 key still works in cells in a table so you can, for example, fill a cell with a shading color or a format option and then click in another cell and press the F4 key and have that format applied to this cell too. The F4 key is a repeat key which repeats the previous command and it’s a great key to learn to use anytime you’re working with Word.
Labels: formatting, table, Word 2003, Word 2007
Categories:Uncategorized
Text wrapping in Publisher works a little differently to how it works in Word. To configure how text wraps around an image in Publisher, click the picture and choose Text Wrapping from the Picture toolbar.
If you’re creating a Web publication this won’t be an option – it is only possible to do this with a Print publication. Choose a wrapping option from those shown. To configure text to wrap tightly around an image choose Tight and then choose Edit Wrap points option to create the exact shape for text to wrap around the image.
When you do, if you drag the wrap points inside the image, that part of the image will be cropped away – this is not the behaviour you might expect if you’re use to working in Word. You’ll need to do a workaround if you want text to wrap irregularly around an image but not so as the image is lost.
To do this, place the image below the text and set its wrapping to None. Draw an irregular shape over the image and set its wrapping to tight. This uses the shape to manage the text wrapping and thus avoids damaging the image. Format the shape by right clicking it and choose Format AutoShape, Colors and Lines tab, set the Line Color to No line and the Fill Color to No fill so you won’t see it in the final presentation.
Labels: Microsoft Publisher, word wrapping
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Chasing problems in Excel worksheets is a major pain. It helps to create them accurately in the first place but when you’re trying after the fact, to find problems, Excel has some tools that can help. One of these is the often overlooked Go To option.
Go To can find formulas that vary from those in the cells that surround them. This can help you find formula errors which would otherwise be difficult to locate.
So, for example, if you have a column of cells which should all contain the same formula you can check to make sure they are written the same way by selecting the cells and choose Edit, Go To, Special, Column Differences (in Excel 2007, from the Home tab select Find & Select, Go To Special and then click Column Differences). Any cells which contain a formula that relates to a different series of cells to those in the active cell will be selected so you can check them. The Row Differences option does the same thing for rows of cells.
Labels: Error checking, Excel 2003, Excel 2007, Go To
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I write for lots of wonderful publications across the globe and one of them is Internet.com’s Small Business Computing web site.
The great news is that I now have my own section and here it is: SmallBusinessComputing.com. Check a few sections down and you’ll see a link to all my small business columns. There are heaps of columns on all things Office including Office 2007 and lots of stuff for earlier versions too. It’s a great way to get down and dirty with some of the new features in Excel, PowerPoint and Word including Themes, SmartArt, Charts and lots of other handy tools.
Labels: Excel 2007, Office 2007, Small business computing, Word 2007
Categories:Uncategorized
I write for magazines and online providers all across the world. One day, I’m typing a Canadian article, another an Australian one and later in the week my work gets sent off to the UK and the USA. I’m constantly juggling color/colour, labor/labour and tricky ones like jewelry/jewellery. It’s confusing to say the least and the last thing I want to do is to miss obvious misspellings. That’s why I rely on Word’s language tools.
Prior to Word 2007 I can set the language for a document by selecting it and choose Tools, Language, Set Language and choose the proofing language.
In Word 2007, of course, everything is different but it’s easy to find – thank you Microsoft!
In Word 2007, select your document (Control + A works just fine) and click the language indicator on the Status bar – the Language dialog appears and you can choose the language to use to proof the text.
Labels: Language settings, Word 2003, Word 2007
Categories:Uncategorized
It happens for the first few months of using any significant program update like Microsoft Word 2007 – you go looking for something and it’s not where you expect it to be. It can take time to find it and sometimes, it was there in front of your nose all the time.
Take the Word Count tool in Word. It got it’s own toolbar in Word 2003 but in 2007, of course, we have the Ribbon and try as you might you won’t find any Word Count icon on the Ribbon. The reason is that it’s there, under your nose! Check the bottom left corner of the screen and Word is counting your words as you type them. Need a quick count of the words in a paragraph? Too easy, select the paragraph (tip in a tip: Click it 3 times with your mouse) and then read off the results in the same place.
Easy when you know how.
Labels: Word 2007, word count.
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I’m spending the week in Las Vegas taking in all the best that PSW (Photoshop World to those in the know – now you’re included!) has to offer. It’s a great opportunity to take classes from the likes of Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, Jim DiVitale and photographers Moose Peterson, Joe McNally and Vincent Versace.
My best tip and one I’ve seen quite a few instructors embrace is the crop canvas enlargement. It works like this, you use the crop tool to enlarge the canvas – seriously.
To do it, shrink the image down using the Zoom tool then enlarge the window so you have a little image and a big window. Click the Crop tool and drag it on the image, it won’t go any larger than the image right now – don’t panic.
Let go the mouse now drag the crop marquee handles outwards. Do it on all the sides that you need to add canvas. To do it evenly all around, hold the Alt/Option key as you drag on a corner handle. Check your background color as that’s the one that will be used to fill the new area. Press Return/Enter and you’re done.
Wow… one to show your friends just how good you are – you can now use the Crop tool to make an image bigger!
Labels: canvas, crop, Image resize, Photoshop, Photoshop CS3
Categories:Uncategorized
Open a Word 2003 document in Microsoft Office 2007 and click Insert SmartArt. You might be surprised at what you see. The beautiful Word 2007 SmartArt dialog disappears and all you have is the old Word 2003 diagramming tool.
At this point you might wonder exactly what has happened. The answer is that Word is operating in compatibility mode as you can see by looking at the toolbar. To convert the Word 2003 document to 2007 format so that you can use Word 2007 features such as SmartArt and Themes, click the Office button and choose Convert. Once the document is converted you can then use all the lovely new features of Word 2007 even on your older Word documents.
Labels: convert document, smart art, Word 2007
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In olders versions of Word, you could enter random text into a document using something like this typed in at the beginning of a new line and press Enter:
=rand(2,3)
This gives you 2 paragraphs each of 3 sentences of the text “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” It was not particularly original but it was handy for filler text.
In Word 2007, the news is better still. There are two options:
type
=rand(3)
To get three paragraphs of random text, this time it actaully makes sense and looks like real text.
The best news is, however, that Lorem ipsum can be entered automatically. Now I can remove the AutoText entry I always use to insert this Latin text and do it anywhere, anytime in Word 2007. Here’s what you type:
=lorem()
this gives you a little sampler of text. Type:
=lorem(10)
to get 10 paragraphs of it.
It’s easy to remember and easy to use and, well – thank you Microsoft, I’m impressed!
Labels: Lorem Ipsum, Random text, Word 2007
Categories:Uncategorized
