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

Indent Increase and Decrease Buttons in Word

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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.

How To Set Left and First-Line Indents with Tabs in Word

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One way to quickly set your left or first-line indent is is to simply use your Tab key. One of theAautoCorrect features in Word is to automatically set a left or first-line indent for you when you press your Tab key at the start of your paragraph or first line.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Make certain your Ruler is on, which will assist you in determining whether or not the method worked.
  2. Move your insertion point to the start of a new line in your document.
  3. Press the Tab key on your keyboard.
  4. Refer to the top ruler to be certain a left indent has been inserted.

If it worked, on your Ruler, you should see the first-kine indent mark set to its default position or the position you have it set to in your document.

You may see an AutoFormat flag appear underneath your insertion point. If you click on the flag, you will see a menu of options  (i.e., change indent back to a tab or turn off the AutoFormat setting.

How To Record Audio Notes in OneNote

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Say you are at an interview or an event or in school, etc. You cannot possibly  type notes quickly enough! What to do?? Well  you can use OneNote to record audio notes!  Yes, It does sound too good to be true, but it really is true!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

Before you rush into anything, first make certain that your Windows 10 computer has a microphone that is set up properly.

  1. Click a location on your current page where you would like to start your audio recording.
  2. On the Insert tab, click Audio.
  3. OneNote will begin recording immediately. To verify that a recording is in progress, note the increasing time counter on the Recording tab that has appeared.
  4. To stop the  recording, simply click Stop on the Recording tab.
  5. OneNote will end your  recording.

Should you  want to continue recording at a later time, click Record.

To listen to an audio recording in your notes, follow the steps below:

  1. Double-click any Audio Recording icon on any page in your notebook.
  2.  While playing back audio in OneNote for Windows 10, you can use the additional controls on the Audio tab that appear — including Pause, Back 5 Minutes, Back 15 Seconds, Forward 15 Seconds, and Forward 5 minutes.

Once you are finished with a audio recording and no longer need  it, follow the steps below:

  1. On any page, right-click the Audio Recording icon of the recording you would l like to delete.
  2. On your keyboard, press the Delete key.

Caveat: When you delete an audio recording from your notes, it is erased immediately and permanently and cannot be recovered.

How To Convert Handwriting to Test in OneNote

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So you wrote down all your notes and you did so with handwriting. Now you want to use these same notes in a paper that needs to be handed it at school and it must be in text.  Well you certainly do not want to key in all that information do you? Luckily, you do not have to.  There is a quick and easy solution for your problem.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. From the Draw menu, use the Lasso Tool to select your handwritten text.
  2. Now click the Ink to Text to instantly convert your handwriting to text.

And guess what? All colors, capitalization and sizes will remain as they were in handwriting!

It doesn’t get much easier than that my friends.

How To Turn On The Ruler in Word 365

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You get a new version of Microsoft Word and boom! Nothing is the same as it was before! You cannot find your ruler! Try as you might, it just seems to have disappeared. Or, you never had your ruler showing in your older version of Word! I cannot tell you how important I feel it is to have the mighty ruler in view. Suffice it to say that I would not dream of not having my ruler available to me all the time.

Having said that, in the newer versions of Word, the Ruler is, by default, hidden. Please do not ask me why! It is a mystery to me why anyone would have made this silly decision. Sometimes I think the powers that be sit there and think “hah, I bet this will drive them crazy!” But the Ruler is so useful for formatting, etc. that I always have it on and suggest that you do the same.

So let’s get to it, shall we?

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Go to the View tab on your Ribbon.
  2. In the Show group, check Ruler.

ruler

 

 

 

 

Now that your Ruler has been enabled, you should see two rulers along the top and left-hand side of your document. In the upper left corner, you should also see a box where you can click through a variety of different tab and indent options that you can place on your ruler to set different tab and indent marks.

I hope this has been helpful to you!

How to Use the Search Bar in PowerPoint 365

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PowerPoint has so many powerful features it can be difficult to remember where to find all of them. PowerPoint 365  has made it easier with the Search bar, which can put even buried tools or those you rarely use in easy reach.

To use it, click the Search bar — for some folks, it is located on the Ribbon to the right of all the tabs; for others, it is  above the Ribbon in the red title area. (If, like me, you prefer the quickest method, you can simply press Alt-Q to go to the Search box. Key in a task you would like to use,( i.e.,  change handout orientation”) A menu will appear, showing potential matches for that task.

You will find, in this example, the top result is a Handout Orientation listing that when clicked gives you two options — one to set the orientation to horizontal and the other to vertical. Just click the one you would like to use.Should you want more information about your task, the last two items that appear in the menu let you select from related Help topics or search for your phrase using Smart Lookup.

How To Add PowerPoint Subtitles 365

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Why you might ask ” Why would you use subtitles in PowerPoint presentation?” A very good question and I will answer it here.

Subtitles are a great way to reinforce your ideas, break up large amounts of text, and make your presentations more accessible to folks who may not speak the same language as you. They can also be used to help viewers better understand more complex ideas and keep them engaged in your presentation. Also and more importantly, PowerPoint Subtitles can help increase comprehension of key speaker points.

So you have not heard of subtitles? Well let me introduce you:

PowerPoint Subtitles have been available as a feature in the Microsoft Office Suite since 2016. According to a study conducted in 2020, over 60% of users have adopted PowerPoint Subtitles as a way to improve their presentations, which  means that the  majority of people are taking advantage of great feature and are  helping make their presentations more accessible and engaging.

Ok, so now that you have the skinny on PowerPoint Subtitles, let’s learn how to use them. PowerPoint Subtitles should be used sparingly and only when necessary.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Click the Insert tab and select Video from File.
  2. Select the video you would like to add subtitles to and click Insert.
  3. Click the Playback tab, then select subtitles from your  Ribbon.
  4. Select Create New Subtitles or Transcript and then click the drop-down menu to select a language.
  5. Key in the text for each of your subtitles, add timing information, then click OK.
  6. Click the Playback tab and select Subtitles from the ribbon to customize how your subtitles appear on screen.

Go ahead and experiment with it.  I think you will very quickly grow fond of this feature if you were not already aware of it.

How To Use Quick Notes in OneNote 365

Posted on by Posted in Office 365

A Quick Note is like a sticky note that you purchase at the store to remind you to do thing. Or, you can use them  t to jot down a thought or a reminder. I know I am always needing reminders!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Click on New Quick Note which is found in the Window group on the View tab of your Ribbon.

new-quick=note

 

  1. You can resize your quick note by dragging the arrow handles on the border of the box. You can also  drag your quick note anywhere on the section by clicking on the title bar of the quick note and dragging it to a new position.
  2. Your Quick Notes also come with a full set of Ribbon commands.
  3. Simply click on the three dots in the middle of the title bar to expand the full set of commands available inside your quick note.
  4. Quick notes are stored in the Unfiled Notes section of your default Notebook and can be found by clicking on the down arrow to the right of your Notebook name tab, and clicking on Quick Notes.

How To Show All OneNote Shortcuts

Posted on by Posted in Office 365

all-shortcuts

Every  icon on your OneNote Ribbon has a shortcut associated with it.

You can see these by pressing ALT which  will show you the top-level shortcuts for your Ribbon tabs.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Press the letter key for a tab (i.e.,  press N for Insert, and you will see all the shortcut keys displayed on each group of your Ribbon.
  2. To insert a picture, you can use ALT + N + P.

Pretty cool huh?

OneNote Shortcuts That Are Very Useful

Posted on by Posted in Office 365

I personally hate to wasting time and keystrokes and if you are anything like me you will find this very helpful. Using shortcut keys can save you lots of time. And the good news is that you do not have to look through your ribbon to find them!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. CTRL+C – will copy your selected text to your clipboard. It is the same command as using the Copy button on the Clipboard group of the Home tab of your Ribbon.
  2. CTRL+V – will paste you copied text from your clipboard to the area where your cursor is. It is the same command as using the Paste button on the Clipboard group of the Home tab of your Ribbon.
  3. CTRL+X – will cut your selected text from your document and to the clipboard. It is the same command as using the Cut button on the Clipboard group of the Home tab of the ribbon.
  4. CTRL+B – will embolden your selected text in your document. It works as a toggle in that if you select the bold text and use the shortcut again, then the text will return to normal. It is the same command as using Bold on the Font group of the Home tab of your Ribbon.
  5. CTRL+I – will italicize your selected text in your document. It works as a toggle in that if you select the italic text and use the shortcut again, then the text will return to normal. It is the same command as using the Italic button on the Font group of the Home tab of the Ribbon.
  6. CTRL+Z – will undo your last action. For example, if you had keyed in text or did an action on your document, CTRL+Z will undo it.

I know you will find these shortcuts very useful!