Help Wanted!

There are times that I need help to do something with a Microsoft Office application such as making a Table of Contents or an Index, but forgot how to do it. For those occasions, I need a little help from Microsoft Office, which gives me a couple of ways in Microsoft Office 2003:

1. Help menu
2. Ask a Question Box
3. Office Assistant (animated paperclip known as ‘Clippy’)
4. F1
5. Help Button at the end of the Standard Toolbar

Filed under: File Operations , help menu, help toolbar button, microsoft word help

Quick Tip using ‘Save As’

I have many Microsoft Word and Excel files I’m working with at the same time, and often forget the folder I saved it to. To remind me where the file is, all I have to do is click File > Save As. The Save As dialog box opens to show the last place I saved an existing document.

Filed under: File Management , Save As

The Difference between Microsoft Office 2003 vs. Microsoft Office 2007 files?

What is the difference between Microsoft Office 2003 vs. Microsoft Office 2007 files?

This article will give a brief explanation of Office 2003 vs. Office 2007 files.  The user interface differences will be discussed in another article.

Let’s use Word, Excel and PowerPoint as examples (sorry Outlook, OneNote, etc.)

Here are the following file extensions for Microsoft Office 2003 Word, Excel and PowerPoint:

• Word document= .doc            Word templates = .dot
• Excel workbook= .xls             Excel templates = .xlt
• PowerPoint presentation = .ppt    PowerPoint template = .pot

Microsoft Office 2007 has the same extensions as Office 2003, with the addition of the letter ‘x’ to distinguish themselves as the Office 2007 XML documents.

• Word document = .docx               Word templates = .dotx
• Excel workbook = .xlsx                Excel templates = .xltx
• PowerPoint presentation = .pptx  PowerPoint template = .potx

This means that Microsoft Office 2007 XML applications can read Office 2003 documents, but Microsoft Office 2003 cannot open or edit Office 2007 documents. It also means there may be problems when different users use the different Microsoft Office packages.

Example:

Computer A has Word 2007. Computer B has not been upgraded, and has Word 2003. Computer A sends B a copy of the Word 2007 document which will not be read by Computer B.

Computer B can send a copy of a Word 2003 file to Computer A which will be read by Computer A, but Computer A must make changes and be sure to send the document back as a Word 97-2003 document to be read by Computer B. The XML format of Microsoft Office 2007 files prevents Microsoft Office 2003 from reading those documents.

Be sure to pay close attention to the Microsoft Office version you are using. Many times I would save and send Office 2007 documents to people with the Microsoft Office 2003 applications who would complain that they could not open the document. Remember, both versions of Word use the term Word document as the file type, with different results if both users are not using the same versions, or same file types.

Hope this helped! See you in another lesson.

Filed under: File Management , microsoft office, microsoft office 2003, microsoft office 2007

Understanding Microsoft Office 2003 / 2007

Microsoft Office 2003 Word and Excel have nine menus on the Menu Bar

• File
• Edit
• View
• Insert
• Format
• Tools
• Table
• Window
• Help

Each menu contains commands to: open a file, save, print, cut, copy, spell check, etc.

There is no way that you will use all of the commands available in Word 2003.  You will probably use the File menu to Save and Print a document, or the Edit menu to cut, copy or parts of a document or worksheet, maybe once in a while, you may use headers and footers within a document.  But you may never use every command in Word or Excel.

The same thing applies to the Standard and Formatting Toolbar buttons.  You may use the Save toolbar button or the Copy, Cut or Paste toolbar buttons.  But you may not change the font colors or add columns to a document, but those features are there whenever you need them.

The point is, you may buy a computer that may have Microsoft Office 2007 Word and Excel.  The appearance is different, but is arranged according to surveys that said the most used commands such as Cut, Copy and Paste, are now grouped in a tab that is called Home.  You do not need to remember every command that is in Word or Excel 2007.  Just know how to get to the commands you use the most often.

There are seven tabs that contain several commands into groups.  These tabs are labeled:

• Home
• Insert
• Page Layout
• Formulas
• Data
• Review
• View

Click through each one of these tabs and take a look at the command groups in each tab.  These are the tabs and commands you will use over and over, and you will remember more commands as you need to finish a Word or Excel 2007 document.

Filed under: File Operations , microsoft office, microsoft office 2003

Dump Your Office Assistant

One of the most annoying features of Microsoft Office 2003 is the Office Assistant icon and its character referred to as Clippy. It interferes with the work of a user by acting as a ‘pop up’, attempting to anticipate questions about punctuation, grammar, spelling, or other topics as you are working in the program.

When the time comes to get help in a Microsoft Office program, I have three, less annoying options available within Microsoft Office.

1. Every Microsoft Office 2003 program has a Help menu that is the last menu on the Menu Bar. The first command in the Help menu is a Microsoft Office Help command. Click that link and the Microsoft Office Task Pane opens to allow you to search for help within Microsoft Office or on the Internet.
2. There is also the ‘Type a question for help’ bar on the upper right corner of an application. Type your help request in that box, and press the Enter key to display help results.  Click Tools, click Customize.  Right-click the ‘Type a question for help’ box. Check or uncheck the Show Ask a Question Box.
3. The last way to get help within Microsoft Office is to simply press the F1 key. The Help Task Pane appears, waiting for your question to be typed in the box.

Here are the steps to get rid of Clippy:

• Click Tools, click Customize.
• Right-click the ‘Type a question for help’ box in the upper-right corner of the program window
• Check the Show Ask a Question Box to display the box
• Uncheck the Show Ask a Question Box to remove the box

Hope this helps. See you in the next lesson.

Filed under: File Operations , help menu, microsoft word help