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Sunday, January 31, 2010 – Permalink –

Context Clutter

Registry mop

When you Right-click the desktop, a “Context” menu appears. Some programs like to sneak in and add shortcuts to their very important applications.
If your context menu has been cluttered up, here are some instructions and tips to clean it up.

HowToGeek.com

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Labels: Vista, Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:16 AM

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Saturday, January 30, 2010 – Permalink –

Classroom PP

A few tips

Here is a tutorial on ways to use PowerPoint in the classroom.
They also talk about how to use the 2007-2010 ribbon.

Actden.com

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:45 AM

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Friday, January 29, 2010 – Permalink –

Stop Reply To All

Macro magic

Scott Hanselman (who is ". . . an old fat guy with a Black Belt that used to fit") has a tutorial on how to disable "Reply to All".

How To Easily Disable Reply To All And Forward In Outlook

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Labels: Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:01 AM

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Thursday, January 28, 2010 – Permalink –

Fast Interchange

7 day URL

Go to http://cl1p.net and then:

Enter a URL that starts with http://cl1p.net.
example:http://cl1p.net/assuming/

Paste in anything you want.
Some text, links, etc. Click 'Save' when done.

On any other computer open a browser to the same URL.
You will find the information you entered in step 2.

Do more with CL1P.net. Just open any URL that starts with http://cl1p.net and you can...

Create a notebook
Have a conversation
Create a community

Cl1p.net

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Labels: Addendum, Internet

<Doug Klippert@ 3:03 AM

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010 – Permalink –

Color Scales

Conditional colors

Here is some information on Conditional color scales in Office 2010.

Microsoft Excel 2010 Blog 1

Microsoft Excel 2010 Blog 2

Microsoft Excel 2010 Blog 3

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Labels: Excel

<Doug Klippert@ 3:40 AM

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 – Permalink –

Where's the Template

Find and/change storage spots

Describes the different template categories and the locations of templates in 2007 Office programs. Also describes the registry settings that control where to find your custom templates.

Support.Microsoft.com

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Labels: Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:44 AM

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Monday, January 25, 2010 – Permalink –

Character Codes

HTML and ALT+

Here's another table with the codes needed to insert characters that do not appear on the keyboard:

Keyboard Shortcuts

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Labels: Expression Web, FrontPage, HTML, Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:45 AM

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Sunday, January 24, 2010 – Permalink –

Clean PC

Wash and dry

"Your computer could fry if you don't keep it clean," says Jonathon Millman, chief technology officer for Hooplah Interactive.
Dust clogs the vents behind your computer, which causes your CPU to heat up—and heat is the biggest cause of component failure in computers. Regular cleaning could save you costly maintenance fees down the road.

Here are some suggestions for Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall cleaning:
Microsoft.com/athome

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Labels: Addendum, Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:20 AM

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Saturday, January 23, 2010 – Permalink –

Presentation Help

Start with the end in mind

"Before you even open up PowerPoint, sit down and really think about the day of your presentation. What is the real purpose of your talk? Why is it that you were ask to speak? What does the audience expect? In your opinion, what are the most important parts of your topic for the audience to take away from your, say, 50-minute presentation?

Remember, even if you've been asked to share information, rarely is the mere transfer of information a satisfactory objective from the point of view of the audience. After all, the audience could always just read your book (or article, handout, etc.) if information transfer were the only purpose of the meeting, seminar, or formal presentation."

Garr Reynolds has more tips on presentations, delivery, and slide design:

GarrReynolds.com

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:48 AM

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Friday, January 22, 2010 – Permalink –

Outlook Tips

Suggestions

Outlook-Tips.net was put together by Diane Poremsky. While it covers Outlook 2003, the advice is still good.

Outlook-Tips.net

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Labels: Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:48 AM

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Thursday, January 21, 2010 – Permalink –

CSS Coding

Put by the keyboard

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a simple way to define styles (e.g. fonts, colors, spacing) on Web pages.
Of course there is coding involved. Here is a printable cheat sheet you can keep close at hand.

LeslieFranke.com

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Labels: Expression Web, FrontPage, HTML

<Doug Klippert@ 3:34 AM

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010 – Permalink –

Help ID's

VBA code

When you build a macro, you can call up information from the Excel Help file.
Ron DeBruin has the information needed through 2007.

Right clicking the Helpfile and choosing Properties will show the HP####### number in 2010.

Help Context IDs for Excel

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Labels: Excel

<Doug Klippert@ 3:58 AM

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010 – Permalink –

Dryer Sheet Uses

Not just for machines

Use Dryer Sheets to:

Freshen smelly shoes.
Remove static from clothing, hair, TV screens, and computer monitors.
Clean pet hair from the floor or furniture.
Replace a sachet.
Loosen caked-on food from a pan.
Tackle suitcase and gym-bag odors.
Prevent old books from smelling musty when in storage.
Wipe up sawdust after working in the garage.
Prevent thread from tangling when sewing.
Dust venetian blinds.

RealSimple.com

DoItYourself.com

Curbly.com

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:31 AM

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Monday, January 18, 2010 – Permalink –

Access Transition Tutorials

Available in PDF

This collection relates to the transition to 2007, but most are also appropriate for 2010.

"The main intent of these tutorials is to guide frequent users of Microsoft Access through the transition of earlier versions to the new 2007 edition. Throughout the different tutorials . . . topics from program specifications through features added, dropped, or unchanged as well as demonstrating implementations of subjects discussed."

Microsoft Access 2007 in the box (Office editions and what's new)
Microsoft Access Head-to-Head (Access 2003 vs. Access 2007)
Microsoft Access Side-by-Side (Access 2003 vs. Access 2007 continued)
Microsoft Access 2007 PDF and XPS support
Microsoft Access 2007 Ribbon/Office menu customization
Microsoft Access 2007 Navigation Pane customization
Microsoft Access 2007 Working with the Attachment DataType
Microsoft Access 2007 Working with the Rich Text Feature
Microsoft Access 2007 Collect Data Through Emails

Access-Freak.com See all Topics

Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:38 AM

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Sunday, January 17, 2010 – Permalink –

Merge Word to PDF

Not just MailMerge anymore

Sure, you can create a merged letter and have 30 pages of individualized information.
What now? How do you create separately named documents to, maybe, send as attachments?
Another task might be to convert those 30 docs to PDF. Oh, the hours wasted!

Graham Mayor, a retired newsgroup junkie, offers a solution.
It's a macro that will convert the merged output as individually named doc(x), and/or PDF files.
I've used it, and now wonder what I can do with the time I'm saving.

GMayor.com

Merge with Attachments

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Labels: Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:06 AM

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Saturday, January 16, 2010 – Permalink –

Slide Show Flash

PPT to SWF

"ANVSOFT Flash Slide Show Maker is a Flash album creator that will help you build animated photo slideshows with SWF file as the output format."

DailyFreeware.net
Photoaxe.com

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:30 AM

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Friday, January 15, 2010 – Permalink –

Name That File

Rules, more rules

There are still some restrictions on what a file can be named. Here are a couple of links that give more details:

VLaurie.com

MSDN.Microsoft.com

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Labels: Vista, Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:39 AM

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Thursday, January 14, 2010 – Permalink –

Customize Your Calendar

Do it your way

. . . you can view your days and weeks in increments of 5 minutes, 60 minutes, and a variety of periods in between. You can adjust the view of your calendar according to your work week and work day; for instance, you can display Sunday through Thursday and show a normal day as being 11 in the morning to 7 in the evening if you like. Use different color schemes, and show more or less detail in your calendar.

Office.Microsoft.com

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Labels: Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:19 AM

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Wednesday, January 13, 2010 – Permalink –

Text Files to Excel

A hard way to do an easy job

Text files can be imported or just pasted into Excel. If you want to learn more about SQL statements and non-code coding, look at this blog:

"Excel doesn't have an easy way to append multiple text files into one worksheet through the user interface. From time to time I hear customers asking how to do this in an easy way. Do you have to use Access or VB code to solve this problem? No. There's a way to do it in Excel by using a simple SQL statement in the connection string."

MSDN Excel Blog

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Labels: Excel

<Doug Klippert@ 4:51 AM

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 – Permalink –

Scroll Text

Automated GIF

WigFilp.com

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Labels: Expression Web, FrontPage, HTML, PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:49 AM

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Monday, January 11, 2010 – Permalink –

Merge Access with Word

Database integration

"You can merge Microsoft Office Access 2007 data with a Word 2007 document by using the Mail Merge Wizard. This demo shows you how to create a simple form letter and how to troubleshoot problems. You can also use this feature to create address labels or any other type of Word document in which you want to display Access data."

Office.Microsoft.com

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Labels: Access, Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:40 AM

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Sunday, January 10, 2010 – Permalink –

Hard Drive Innards

Hidden workings

Early on computers did not always have "Hard drives". The TRS-80 worked off a portable tape recorder.
If you want to see how they work today, look at:
HowStuffWorks.com

There are also a couple of videos that explore the entrails.

Break.com-Inside a Hard Drive

and
How a Hard Drive Works

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:59 AM

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Saturday, January 09, 2010 – Permalink –

TaskManager Look

You control

"If you want to leave your Task Manager showing on your desktop for a period of time, it can be nice to hide the title bar and gain that space for displaying more information. To do this, simply double-click on the empty area to the right of the tabs. Once it has switched views, you can switch back quickly by double-clicking anywhere on the border."

Downloadsquad.com

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Labels: Vista, Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:47 AM

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Friday, January 08, 2010 – Permalink –

PPT 2010

PowerPoint 2-10

Here's a preview of what PPT2010 can do with animation and presentation.

MSDN PowerPoint Blog

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:55 AM

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Thursday, January 07, 2010 – Permalink –

Automate Shutdown

Close everything

It's generally considered good form to close all forms and reports when you're shutting down a database.
Here's a link to some code that takes care of it for you.

TechRepublic.com

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:59 AM

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Wednesday, January 06, 2010 – Permalink –

Typography and Word 7+

Shape and display

Here are some suggestions about how to make your text easier to read.

"Ever wonder why some text seems easier to read than others? A few basic formatting changes can make reading text much easier. Factors like line spacing, font choice, font size and margins are key to legibility. "

Office.Microsoft.com

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Labels: Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:22 AM

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Tuesday, January 05, 2010 – Permalink –

Signature Moves

Sign it your way

Here is a tutorial about Outlook pre-set signatures:

"Signatures can be created in different formats and it can contain various elements. A basic signature will have just the sender’s name. Along with the name you can include acknowledgments like "Thank you", "Yours Lovingly", etc. Official or business signatures will have company name, contact number, company address, website URL, etc. Company logo or any other relevant graphic can also be used. Any text in the signature can be hyperlinked. Sometimes electronic business card or scanned signature is also used. The text of the signature can be formatted to make it more attractive. Occasionally signature will also contain disclaimer blocks like stating, "If you are not the intended recipient of the e-mail then you should delete the e-mail".

Office-Watch.com

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Labels: Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:23 AM

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Monday, January 04, 2010 – Permalink –

Convert to B and W

Photoshop tip

Pictures can be converted to black and white by just clicking on an action off the menu.
If you want to have more control, here is a step by step instruction list.

GingerPixel.com

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:03 AM

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Sunday, January 03, 2010 – Permalink –

Keyboard and Key Tips

Finger it out

2007 apps look different because of the ribbon, but the keyboard can still be used to speed up tasks.
Microsoft has an online course that may help

After completing this course you will be able to:
Accomplish tasks by using sequential shortcut keys, known as Key Tips, shown on the Ribbon.
Navigate around the Ribbon using the TAB key and arrow keys.
Accomplish tasks by using key combinations — keys you press at the same time - exactly as you've done in previous versions of Office.

Office.Microsoft.com/Training

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Labels: Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:52 AM

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Saturday, January 02, 2010 – Permalink –

New Calendars

Another year

Here are free Excel calendars for downloading.

Twelve months on one sheet or one month per tab.

DotXLS.com

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Labels: Excel

<Doug Klippert@ 3:21 AM

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Friday, January 01, 2010 – Permalink –

Print Spool Cleaning

When all else fails

When you can't get a document out of the Print queue, here's a suggestion:

Type "services.msc" at the Command prompt. That will open the Services
Window.

Scroll down the alphabetical list in the right window pane until you come
to "Print Spooler"

Right-click this entry, then select "stop".

Open Windows Explorer.

The usual path to the spool folder is:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\Spool\PRINTERS

Delete every file within this folder to empty the print queue

Close the explorer window.
Return to your Services window.
Right-click the Print Spool entry and select
"Start" from the list. Close the services window and try printing again.

(You can also go to a command prompt and type net stop spooler or net start spooler to start and stop the service.)

See TopFreeStuff.com

For the brave, here’s a macro that will do the job:

@echo off
echo.
echo Purging the print queue . . .
net stop Spooler
echo Deleting all print jobs . . .
ping localhost -n 4 > nul
del /q %SystemRoot%\system32\spool\printers\*.*
net start Spooler
echo Done!
ping localhost -n 4 > nul

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Labels: Vista, Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:27 AM

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