Quick Steps are easy-to-use one-click buttons which perform multiple actions at once. If you file your mail, they can be a life saver – one click and that conversation is filed away and marked as read. If you send e-mail to the same people over and over – one click and you have a new email to your team. As your work style in Outlook changes, you can configure Quick Steps to work the way you do.

Houston IT Consulting expert, Cheryl Smith, shares her insights on the “Quick Step” one of the improved features of Outlook 2010.

What is a quick step? It is a 1-click button which performs multiple actions saving you time and increasing productivity.

If you like to file your emails to folders, create a Move to Folder ‘Quick Step’ in two easy steps.

1. Name the folder

2. Choose the folder

Finish

Do you email the same person or group of people all the time? Set up a Sent-to Email ‘Quick Step’.

1. Place recipient name in designated area 2. Choose their email address from your address book or type email address Finish Forward, Flag and Categorize emails quickly by setting up these quick steps as well and more with the custom option.

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Welcome to Part 4 (see Part 1,  Part 2, & Part 3) of a series of tech tips on Microsoft Office 2010.

In this edition, Houston IT Consulting expert, Cheryl Smith, shares some of the new and improved features of Microsoft PowerPoint 2010.

Improved features of Microsoft PowerPoint 2010:

·         The ability to co-author, merge & compare presentations

·         Organize slides into sections, allowing for a more organized way to share with others.

·         Video editing can be done inside PowerPoint 2010 instead of outside and then placing into the presentation, saves time and frustration.  

·         There are more artistic textures, effects, animations, and transitions, allowing for more eye catching and interesting presentations.

·         When working with a picture, it is now possible to remove background if desired.

·         Adding a screenshot is a great new feature and is available in Word as well. This feature adds the ability to take a picture of a screen including your desktop and place it right into the slide without much effort.

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Welcome to Part 3  (see Part 1 and  Part 2) of a series of tech tips on Microsoft Office 2010.

In this edition, Houston IT Consulting expert, Cheryl Smith, shares some of the new and improved features of Excel 2010.

New features in Excel 2010:

·         Sparklines-tiny, word-sized charts that can appear in a cell. (Insert tab)

·         Slicer-allows you to filter your pivot table similar to the way Filter fields filter in a pivot table. The difference is that Slicers offer a user friendly interface, allowing you to see the current filter state easier. Provides a rich visualization of your pivot table. (Insert tab)

Improved features of Microsoft Excel 2010:

• Pivot Tables-(insert) now possible to fill-down labels in pivot tables.
• Charting-(Insert) Improved chart feature:
  1.  Ability to double-click chart with a format dialog box.
  2. Macro recording is available and
  3. The limitation of data point that can be created has been removed.
• Named Sets-(formula)create your own named sets, field, items & sets on Ribbon allows you to define your own sets.
• Filter Capabilities-(data) New search filter-use this when searching in Excel tables, pivot tables, and pivot charts which allows you to also deselect what you don’t need.
• Conditioning Formatting-(home) makes it easier to highlight cells or range of cells & new icon sets, more options with data bars, along with the ability to refer to values in other worksheets in your workbook.
• Performance Enhancements - It is more responsive when you move or resize charts, work in page layout view and interact with shapes on a worksheet. Also takes less time to perform commonly performed task on large data sets such as; filtering, sorting, and copy/paste. Opening and saving large files is faster than before.

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For the next few weeks we will be running a series of tech tips on the new and improved Office 2010 software programs; Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint.

There are many new features, and improvements to old features. The increase in productivity and the customization for individual users are the key benefits of the 2010 versions.

Houston IT Consulting expert, Cheryl Smith, shares of the new features along with listing some of the improved features. Next week tech tip will be focused on Outlook 2010, so stayed tuned.

The new and improved Word 2010 includes:

·         Ribbon Customization-customize the ribbon for your individual needs, increase productivity.

·         Enhanced Themes-more to choose from in 2010.

·         Quick Access Toolbar-Add any command to the QAT which allows you to use this function no matter what tab you are in.

·         Paste Preview-Amazing time saver-see what a paste will look like before pasting.

·         Document Navigation Pane-See sections of the document while you are in it.

·         More Templates-They have added many more templates for you to use, great addition.

·         Screen Capture Tool-capture part of your screen to share with others.

·         Background Removal Option-great new features for pictures, artistic enhancements are available.

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Anyone who aspires to excellence must write and revise, write again and revise again, to produce anything of quality.

Whether it’s a business letter or proposal, we’re constantly cutting and pasting. A sentence here. A paragraph there. It’s all part of the editing process.

Have you ever had to repeat this process because it still didn’t look right?

Houston IT consulting expert Cheryl Smith shares a tip on how to preview your edit without cutting and pasting.

To move a sentence to another location in a word document

            Click in front of the sentence by placing your cursor there.

            Press the ALT key, Shift key and use your up/down arrows to move the sentence.

This can be done with whole paragraphs too:

            Highlight the paragraph you would like to move

Press the ALT key, Shift key and use your up/down arrows to move the entire paragraph to your desired locations.

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Have you ever lost a “meeting request” you accepted in Outlook?

You clicked the “Accept” button - and it was gone?

Would you like to keep these meeting requests in your email or subfolder for future reference? Or just keep it in your Inbox until after the meeting actually takes place?

Turn off “default settings” to save your meeting requests

When an appointment is accepted in Outlook, it automatically gets placed onto the calendar and automatically deletes from you Email Inbox.

If you want to keep a copy of the email, the default setting must be changed. Houston IT support expert, Cheryl Smith, shows you how:

1. On the Tools menu
2. Click Options
3. Click E-mail Options
4. Click Advanced E-mail Options.
5. Clear the Check mark from the Delete meeting request from Inbox when responding. 

Now, your meeting will appear on your calendar and stay in your inbox until you decide what action you would like to do next.

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This week we’re taking a break from IT support tips to lend a hand to those having a tough time understanding “Text-Lingo”.

Have you ever had a co-worker or associate email with an acronym like, “EOD”, “CYL”, or “FYI” – and you were too embarrassed to ask what it meant?

Business text messaging shorthand jargon has become "foreign language" that many business people today need to know in order to keep up to date at work, understand instant messages from co-workers, and get the meaning of office emails.

Houston IT consultant Cheryl Smith helps you “get hip with this tip”:

Popular business text shorthand phrases:

  AFAIC - As Far As I'm Concerned

  ASAP - As Soon As Possible

  BRB - Be Right Back

  BSUS - Business

  BTW - By The Way

  CLM - Career Limiting Move

  DD - Due Diligence

  DRIB - Don't Read If Busy

  EOD - End Of Day

  EOM - End Of Message

  EOT - End Of Thread

  FYI - For Your Information

  GMTA - Great Minds Think Alike

  HIOOC - Help, I'm Out Of Coffee

  IAITS - It's All In The Subject

  IANAL - I Am Not A Lawyer

  IM – Instant Message

  KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid

  LOPSOD - Long On Promises; Short On Delivery

  MOTD - Message Of The Day

  MTFBWY - May The Force Be With You

  MYOB - Mind Your Own Business

  NRN - No Reply Necessary

  NWR - Not Work Related

  OTP - On The Phone

  P&C - Private & Confidential

  PEBCAK - Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard

  QQ - Quick Question

  RFD - Request For Discussion

  RFP - Request For Proposal

  SME - Subject Matter Expert

  STD - Seal The Deal

  TBA - To Be Announced

  TBD - To Be Determined

  TWIMC - To Whom It May Concern

  TIA - Thanks In Advance

  WIIFM - What's In It For Me

  WOMBAT - Waste Of Money, Brains And Time

  WTG - Way To Go

  YW - You're Welcome

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Have you ever found yourself frustrated when trying to read a really long spreadsheet full of data because the column headings do not appear on all pages?

Houston IT consultant Cheryl Smith shares a few tips on how to freeze cells so you can read the column headins of long spreadsheets.

Simple way to read column headings in long spreadsheets:

1. Click the row below the heading aka titles of the spreadsheet

1. Select the Window tab on the toolbar

1. Click Freeze Panes

Note: A line will appear directly under the information that will be frozen.

This allows you to continue scrolling through the entire spreadsheet and still be able to read the titles of the columns.

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When typing many words into a single cell in Excel, you might find it looking disorganized.

Or, perhaps when you print an Excel spreadsheet, your cells aren’t wide enough to display all the information it contains?

Houston computer service expert Cheryl Smith shares a few tips on how to format the cells to fit your preferences.

There are several methods, to accomplish this task, but here is one shortcut that works. Using you mouse, click between the two letters of the cells in which you would like to alter.

§         At this point you can either drag the cell to desired width

OR

§         Double click the mouse and Excel will format for you.

Like any function in Excel, there are many ways to do what you would like to accomplish. By going to the Format tab on the toolbar, you also have the ability to change width and height of columns and rows.

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Do you spend too much time and energy typing information in an Excel spreadsheet?

Would you like faster way to do this?

How about sequential information - like numbers or dates?

Houston computer service expert Cheryl Smith shares a few tips: 

For Repeated data:

1. Enter the first data in cell desired.
2. Highlight all cells in which you want this data to appear
3. Use function command: Control D, Control F or Edit Fill

For Sequential data:

1.       Enter the first data preferred such as; January, Monday, or a date 8-25-2010 etc.

2.       Click at the bottom of this cell allowing the Fill Handle (black cross) to appear

3.       Drag this handle to the end of desired cells; this will automatically fill in the information for you.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask our Houston IT support experts in the “Ask The Experts!” box on the right.

We hope you have found this information helpful. If you would like to learn more about this subject, please feel free to contact us:

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