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

Carol's Corner Office

Category Archives: Microsoft Office

Subscribers: Creating And Running Macros in Word

Posted on by Posted in Office 2016, Subscribers Word 365

A macro groups commands, instructions, and keystrokes together and will run them as  a single command! You can create macros and use them for: Your company letterhead Creating a form letter Formatting objects (i.e., designed pictures or tables) Custom page formats and layouts And a lot more as well! You can assign a macro to

Read More...

This content is exclusively for Carol's Corner Office Subscribers.
If you are a Subscriber please Log In below.

Not a Subscriber? Please Consider becoming one today for ONLY $20/yr. Your subscription supports the site and gives you access to many exclusive resources not available to non-subscribers, as well as substantial discounts on Carol's Microsoft Office books.

  • Exclusive in-depth content ONLY for subscribers. Use Microsoft Office like a Pro!
  • Large color screenshots illustrate the instructions so following along is easy!
  • Email notification of each new exclusive post for subscribers!
  • Exclusive discounts on Office books and other products!

How To View Word and Character Counts in Word 365

Posted on by Posted in Microsoft Word

Word Count is set to display the word count in your documents, but it also keeps track of several other statistics.

It can help you to better understand things in your document like readability, when you know the word and character court and how much space you are using in your document. Did you know you could use your word length and count in a sentence to help determine readability?  Knowing these things are also very helpful when publishing and typesetting. And lucky for you, Word has a a most excellent word and character count tool to do just that!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. The Word Count tool is located in the lower left-hand side of your Status Bar. The Status bar is at the bottom of your document, just over Windows Start and and search box.
  2. Word is set to display your word count in your document by default, but it also will keep track of several other statistics.
  3. Click on the word count and the Word Count window will open.
  4. You can also find the Word Count window on the Review tab.
  5. Your Word Count window will display a list of the statistics below:

Pages: The number of pages in your document.

Words: Count of words in your document.

Characters: Characters in your document. This includes punctuation but not spaces.

Paragraphs: Count of paragraphs in your document.

Lines: Count of lines i n your document. This includes lines with no text.

  • At the bottom of your window is a check box that will include textboxes when checked, as well as footnotes and endnotes. This box is, by default, checked.  You can uncheck it if you do not wish these inclusions.
  • You can also display your Character Count with spaces option on your Status Bar. In order to do this, you will need to customize your Status Bar:
  • Hover your mouse over word count on your Status Bar and right-click. The Customize Status Bar menu will open.
  • There are many options in this menu but the ones you are looking for can be found in the second section from the top. You will see Word Count and Character Count with spaces. To the left you will see a small check mark. This indicates that Word Count will appear on your Status Bar. You can click in the space to the left of the Character Count with spaces option to add the check mark and display that option on your Status Bar.
  • Both options will now appear on your Status Bar.

That’s all it takes!

 

 

How To Modify TOC In Word 365

Posted on by Posted in Microsoft Office

Once you have created and saved a Table of Contents  in Word, you can customize the way it appears.

Customizing your table of contents will apply your preferences to your existing table. If you like what you see, select OK. If not, simply select Cancel and all your changes will be forgotten. Your table of contents will still be there.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Go to References | Table of Contents.
  2. Select Custom table of contents.
  3. Use the settings to show, hide, and align your  page numbers, add or change your tab leader, set formats, and specify how many levels of headings you would like shown.

 

 

 

 

How To Select Text in Word 365

Posted on by Posted in Microsoft Office

Oh sure, a lot of folks know different ways to select text in Word.  You can select all text in your  document (Ctr +A), or select specific text or items in a table by using your mouse or keyboard. You can also select text or items that are in different places. (i.e. you can select a paragraph on one page and a sentence on a different page). BUT I bet most folks do not know how to select text in the manner I am going to introduce you to!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Press  F8 to turn on selection mode.
  2.  Press F8 once to select a word.
  3. Press twice to select a sentence.
  4. Press thrice to select a paragraph.
  5. Press four times to select the document.
  6. To turn off Selection mode, simply press ESC.

You’re welcome!

Use Built In Search Feature In Outlook 365

Posted on by Posted in Office 365

You know I am all about saving time and key strokes and this is no exception.

You can search your email for a single word or phrase, but Outlook also includes a number of built-in searches.

To find a message based on one of these built-in searches select the Filter Email button on your Ribbon.

filter-email

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Follow the steps below to learn how:

From any email folder, select Filter Email from the Find group on your Ribbon.

Once you have selected a filter, Outlook will search your mailbox based on that filter. You will also see the shorthand for the filter in the search box. (i.e., if you would like to display all emails that have attachments, you can select Has Attachments or key in hasattachments:yes in the Search box.

To clear the search filter and view all items in your selected mail folder, simply click in the Search box, or on the Search tab, and select Close Search.

 

Quick Keys in Excel 365

Posted on by Posted in Office 365

One of the most important things I can stress is learning the basic quick keys. It is  a skill set  that will help you the most.

Your mouse navigates around your screen easily, but if you can move around without taking your hand off your keyboard you can do things even faster.You all know I just love to save time and keystrokes!

Follow the steps below to improve your speed and efficiency:

 

  • Copy: Ctrl+C
  • Cut: Ctrl+X
  • Paste: Ctrl+V
  • Select all (highlights all your data): Ctrl+A
  • Move quickly across data: Ctrl+arrow
  • Highlight groups of data: Ctrl+Shift+arrow

 

Presenter View in PowerPoint

Posted on by Posted in Office 365

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

Posted on by Posted in Office 365

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

Posted on by Posted in Office 365

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

Posted on by Posted in Microsoft Word

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!