Microsoft Office Tips, Tricks, and How-to's to help you use MS Office like a pro!

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Category Archives: Microsoft Office

Presenter View in PowerPoint

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As anyone who reads my posts or knows me, you should know that I am all about saving time and keystrokes.  I hate to waste a minute!

In that vein, below is a very handy, dandy little shortcut that will do just that for you – save time and keystrokes!

To start a presentation in Presenter View even if you have only a single display, press Alt+F5.

If Presenter View does not start automatically with two displays, go the Slide Show tab, select the Use Presenter View checkbox, and select the preferred monitor.

I hope this has been helpful to you!

How To Insert Pictures Into Documents

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Every now and then you may have a reason to put a picture in your documents. Maybe you just want to spice it up some or perhaps you need a picture to make your point more clear. Whatever the reason, you will be happy to learn that it is very easy to place a picture in your document.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. In the Insert tab go to Illustrations.
  2. For our purposes we will use a photo that has been saved locally on your computer.
  3. Click on Pictures and a small menu will drop down with three options:

insert-picture

 

 

 

  • Under this drop-down menu, you will see different options for where you would like to place a picture.
  • This Device will open your File Explorer and allow you to select a picture stored anywhere on your computer.
  • Stock Images will open a library of royalty free images, icons, cutout people, stickers, and illustrations that you can select and use in your document. These images are copyright free. Be aware though, that this option is only available to Microsoft 365 subscribers.
  • Online Pictures will open a selection of pictures from online sources that you can search through. Be aware that pictures from online sources may be subject to copyright restrictions. You can access your OneDrive from here as well.

So once you have selected the picture you would like, click Insert in the lower right-hand corner.

You will do this for all three options.

The picture will then be added to your document.

How To Set As Default in Paragraph Settings

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You most likely have noticed the Set As Default option when you were in your Paragraph Settings window when adjusting tab stops or indention.  It’s not a big deal really. It is actually quite easy to miss because there is a lot of other information in that window as well.

paragraph-settings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look toward the bottom of your window, in between Tabs and OK, you will see a Set As Default button.

Whatever you have set in your preceding window, when you click on Set As Default, will be your default setting in the future.

Once you click on Set As Default, you will find two more options that will appear in a new window:

default-options

 

 

 

Now, from this vantage point, you are able to choose whether you would like to apply these settings to this document only or whether you would like to apply these settings to your Normal.dotm template. Applying them to your Normal.dotm means that from now on every new blank document you create on your computer will have these settings applied to it.

This is actually a great way to apply settings to custom templates or different workplace or academia documents, which have much different styles than the norm. It will say you lots and lots of time when you are formatting your documents.

I hope this has been helpful to you!

How To Convert Text To Table in Word

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Table tools can make lists far easier to customize and even reorganizing. Let’s say you would like to convert you contact list into a table.  Let’s also assume that your list contains  names—first, middle, and last. It also contains the city, state, region, and profession of each person.

Now people have, for ages,  used tabs to separate their fields, by adding a tab or two to make longer strings of data. But if you do this, once you convert your table to text, it misplaces all your data.

Using the Convert Text to Table feature, it allows you to  separate your fields (i.e., Name, City, State, etc.) with paragraphs, tabs, commas, or other separator character, but use only one separator between each field.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

You are provided three options to modify and/or decorate your tables:

  1. Use Table Tools | Design or Table Tools | Layout commands on your Ribbon.
  2. Right-click and use the Shortcut menus.
  3. Use the keyboard shortcuts, which become visible when you press the ALT key on your keyboard.

Easy peasy!

How To Use Quick Tables in Word

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There are many ways to create custom tables in Word but a lot of folks just want the quickest and easiest method  and thankfully we have that. It is called Quick Tables. And what is more, it really is quick and easy!  Quick Tables are table templates in Word. There is a bonus option too. In addition to the nine templates that Microsoft has provided, you can create your own designs and save them to the Quick Tables Gallery to use later.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

Click Insert | Tables | Quick Tables. Select a table template from the Quick Tables menu, then modify it to fit your project.

It really and truly is just that easy!

How to Edit a Template in Word

Posted on by Posted in Microsoft Word

To edit a file and make it our own, so that you can use it again later, you must first save it as a template.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Go to the File menu and select Save As.
  2. Give your template a name.
  3. From the type menu, select Word Template (*.dotx).
  4. Once you have selected Word Template (*.dotx) from the list of choices, Word will automatically change your save location to the Custom Office Templates folder or another default save location set in your Word options.
  5. If that is where you would like your template to appear in your personal templates area, keep this location.
  6. Click on Save to save the file as a template.
  7. Then, open that template.

If you look at the top title bar for that file, you should see the name of the template (instead of Document 1 .docx) and the file extension of .dotx at the end. If so, that means that you are now editing your template.

Now that your template has been opened, you can begin making changes to your template.

 

How To Create Section Breaks in Word 365

Posted on by Posted in Office 365, Word 365

In an earlier post I explained how to create page breaks in Word. This time I will explain how to create section breaks.

Ok, you know there are page breaks and there is another category of breaks as well, called section breaks. So in addition to the continuous section break, which creates a new section and continues your text on the same page, there are several other section breaks, including a Next page section break,  a continuous break, ane Even page section break, and an Odd page section break:

section-breaks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are wondering why all these section breaks would be necessary, it is because section breaks are useful at times when you would like a part of your document to look different from the rest of your document.

Sections in Word may have their own look, including their own page orientations, layouts and even their own headers and footers and other formatting as well.

As you can see in the image above, you have only to click exactly which section break you would like.

It does not get any easier than this!

How To Create Page Breaks in Word 365

Posted on by Posted in Office 365, Word 365

I know this is old news to some folks, but there are newbies out there who do not know how to do this and so I will now enlighten them.

So once you decide what sort of break is appropriate for your document, save your document and:

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. You will first need to move your insertion point to where you would like your break to begin.
  2. Now, navigate to the Layout tab and click Breaks, which will open the Breaks menu.

page-breaks

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Toward the top you will see Page so now go ahead and click on that to insert your page break.

That is all there is to it!  Easy Peasy!

 

Indent Increase and Decrease Buttons in Word

Posted on by Posted in Microsoft Office

When you have many paragraphs and you need to adjust the indentation all at once the quickest and easiest way to do that is probably to use your increase or decrease indent buttons.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Select all paragraphs.
  2. Use your mouse and triple-click inside the left-hand margin of your document .
  3. You can also use a keyboard shortcut (i.e., CTRL + A) to select all of the text in your document.
  4. From your Home tab on your Ribbon, in the Paragraph group, click on Increase Indent to move your paragraph further away from your margin.

This will increase your indent by whatever your default tab stop has been set to.

When you click  increase once, your lines will increase by one inch and will continue increasing every time you click it.