Microsoft

Microsoft seems like it is everywhere. They have an astounding percentage of market share because there are so many software products they make. For better results, try viewing tips for individual programs under the Microsoft brand.

Applying Styles to Text in Microsoft Word

Styles add a lot of power to your ability to produce professional looking documents with ease. Where you once may have struggled to change fonts and text effects on a large document, now you can do it with just a few clicks. The process of applying styles to text is called Tagging, as in the… Keep Reading

The More Button in Microsoft Office

There are a lot of “hidden secrets” in Microsoft Office that are actually sitting there right out in the open. A little bit of curiosity will go a long way toward making you into a Microsoft Power User. One of my favorites is the More button. The More button is ubiquitous throughout Microsoft Office, and… Keep Reading

Using Tab Stops and Tab Leaders for Layout in Word

You may not know it, but you see Tab Stops and Tab Leaders at work all of the time. The best examples in the business world are restaurant menus. Every time you look at a menu that has an item listed on one side, followed by a series of dots or dashes and then the… Keep Reading

Showing the Ruler in Microsoft Word

The View tab has got a lot of neat tricks up its sleeve, but we’ll limit today’s tip to a simple one: how to show the ruler. The ruler will appear at the top and the right side of your window, and will give you the ability to visualize the page margins, paragraph indents and… Keep Reading

Asking Users for Data using a VBA Input Box

If you are getting started working with Macros in Microsoft Office, there will be plenty of times when you want to ask a user for information. An Excel purchase log might ask how many widgets were ordered, or a Word time card might ask for a user’s name. Whatever information you want to request, the… Keep Reading

Using Formulas in Word Tables

Yes, you read that correctly! You can use formulas in Microsoft Word. The key to all of this is to start off with a table. If you’re not certain how to create a table in Microsoft Word, please check out my previous post Creating a Simple Table in Word. When you’ve got a table in… Keep Reading

Excel: Fill Right and Fill Down Keyboard Shortcuts

There are several ways that Excel can help you with formulas and functions, and a great one is the Fill Down and the Fill Right commands. Essentially, if you’ve gotten the formula correct one time, let Excel do the work for you of copy and pasting it into the other cells. The technique is really… Keep Reading

The Go-To Keyboard Shortcut: Jumping Around in Excel and Word

There are several great tools that will help you jump around in Excel and Word without having to use the mouse. These tools are called Command Shortcuts by Microsoft, but most everyone else knows them as Keyboard Shortcuts. The key to using shortcuts is to be willing to experiment! If you want to do something… Keep Reading

Creating your first macro using visual basic

The computer is first and foremost a time-saving device. My husband was just telling me about how the railroads used armies of clerks to keep track of each box car and it’s contents “back in the day,” and how all of that labor was now being handled by a few desktop computers. Imagine Mr. Scrooge meets… Keep Reading

Turning on the Developer Tab in Excel 2013

A lot of the more advanced features in Excel are accessed through a tab that the majority of people never see; that tab is called the Developer tab. The most common reason people turn on the Developer tab is to access tools that create Macros and Forms. I’ll show you how to use some of… Keep Reading