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Sunday, October 31, 2010 – Permalink –

Click to Type

MacroButton

When you open a template for a Memo, Letter, or Fax, you will see a field like this:

[Click here and type Name]

When you click and type the field goes away.

Here's how to create on of your own.

Place the Insertion point in the document where you want the field.
Hit Ctrl+F9 to create field brackets {}.
(they can not be just typed in)
Between the brackets type:

{MACROBUTTON NoMacro [Click here and type junk]}
Press Alt+F9 and the field code will disappear.

For more information see The Word MVP site: Using MacroButton fields.

MSOfficeTuneup.com

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Labels: Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:15 AM

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Saturday, October 30, 2010 – Permalink –

Automatically Renumber Records

Been looking for this

What happens to a list when one record is deleted?

If you need to correct the numbering, see these instructions.

Automatically renumber the records in an Access table when one is deleted

from Martin Green - FontStuff.com

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:22 AM

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Friday, October 29, 2010 – Permalink –

Bricks as Pets

Is it right?

Tired of picking up after your pet?

"Red Bricks (Brickus vermillius) are found around the world. Their association with humans is a long one, for bricks have been found in archaeological sites from the very ancient to the modern.

The vast majority of bricks are working bricks, used mainly in construction of human houses and other buildings. A tiny minority of bricks, however, are unfortunately kept for human consumption, a use that is thankfully dwindling under the force of anti-brick-cruelty laws."

Pet Brick FAQ

The site also has more than enough information about rats.

Rat Behavior and Biology

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:47 AM

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Thursday, October 28, 2010 – Permalink –

One Icon, One Doc

Separate buttons

Rather than have Windows/Vista group all open documents under one single button, display one icon for each.

Right click on the taskbar.
Choose "Properties."
In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, uncheck the "Group similar taskbar buttons." — "Always combine, hide labels
Click the OK button.

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Labels: Vista, Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:06 AM

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Wednesday, October 27, 2010 – Permalink –

Happy [blank] Day

Use Office for more than the office

Microsoft provides a step by step on how to create a message for any occasion, using PowerPoint.

"Microsoft PowerPoint is a robust tool for creating powerful presentations. But you can also use PowerPoint to create multimedia cards to send in e-mail to friends and family - perfect for vacations, holidays, and numerous other occasions.

With PowerPoint, you can easily personalize the colors and design, include your own videos and photos of the family, and choose just the right message for each recipient."

Create a greeting card in PowerPoint

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:01 AM

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Tuesday, October 26, 2010 – Permalink –

Grandma Knew Best

Advice from the past

History does repeat itself, so we might learn from advice from the past.

"Take a step back in time as I share words of wisdom from my collection of about 1,000 classic advice books in a quest to solve modern-day dilemmas.

The books span from 1822 to 1978 and cover the age-old topics of dating, love, living together, marriage, health, beauty, puberty, sex, etiquette, housekeeping, home economics, and home repairs. I've spent years scouting out used bookstores and thrift shops to locate these treasures of self help. "

MissAbigail.com

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:25 AM

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Monday, October 25, 2010 – Permalink –

Send E-mail with Access

Automate the drill

You can use Access as a data source and use Word to merge to Outlook. Here, however, is a way to do it from Access itself.

"You can use the SendObject method to send a MAPI mail message programmatically in Microsoft Access. However, the SendObject method does not give you access to complete mail functionality, such as the ability to attach an external file or set message importance.

The example that follows uses Automation to create and send a mail message that you can use to take advantage of many features in Microsoft Outlook that are not available with the SendObject method.

There are six main steps to sending a Microsoft Outlook mail message by using Automation, as follows:

Initialize the Outlook session.

Create a new message.

Add the recipients (To, CC, and BCC) and resolve their names.

Set valid properties, such as the Subject, Body, and Importance.

Add attachments (if any).

Display/Send the message.

Use Automation to send a Microsoft Outlook message using Access

Access to E-Mail

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Labels: Access, Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:19 AM

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Sunday, October 24, 2010 – Permalink –

Organization

Create a new Contact, or edit an existing entry.

At the bottom right corner of the dialog box is a button labeled
Categories.

You can assign your contact to multiple categories. You can add new ones to the Master Categories list.

Now you can use Categories to sort entries and use them for Mail Merges.

Microsoft Office Online has this article:
Power tips for organizing your Outlook 2002 Inbox

Up to Speed with Outlook 2007

Getting Started With Outlook 2010

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Labels: Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:52 AM

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Saturday, October 23, 2010 – Permalink –

A Way Cool Paint-Picker

Just slap it on

If you have decided to paint your home, or just this inside of the downstairs coat closet, the Behr paint people have a neat tool.

Color Smart

You still have to slop the paint on yourself, though.

Here's another color generator:

Top 8 Color Tools

EasyRGB matches generated RGB values to paints, inks, etc.

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:59 AM

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Friday, October 22, 2010 – Permalink –

Tips Collection

One of the good ones

Here's a site to add to your Excel resources list.

Rodney Powell, MVP, has a collection of tips, demonstrations, and tutorials for many levels of expertise.

Here's
How to put a DropDownBox in a cell

Here's a discussion about:
Dynamic Named Ranges

BeyondTechnology.com

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Labels: Excel

<Doug Klippert@ 3:59 AM

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Thursday, October 21, 2010 – Permalink –

Internet History

Two tin cans

From the FCC:

The Internet: A Short History of Getting Connected.

When the Defense Department issued a $19,800 contract on December 6, 1967, for the purpose of studying the "design and specification of a computer network," the world didn't take notice. But it should have. For, from that small, four-month study grew the ARPANET. And, from ARPANET emerged the Internet.

NSF Presentation

Also:
Living Internet

"An elegantly organized tour of the history of the Internet -- both fun and informative -- a rare combination!"
Steve Crocker, invented the Request For Comments.

All About the Internet

Hobbes' Internet Timeline v7.0

A Brief History of the Internet

"When the late Senator Ted Kennedy heard in 1968 that the pioneering Massachusetts company BBN had won the ARPA contract for an "interface message processor (IMP)," he sent a congratulatory telegram to BBN for their ecumenical spirit in winning the "interfaith message processor" contract."

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Labels: Internet

<Doug Klippert@ 4:58 AM

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Wednesday, October 20, 2010 – Permalink –

Shut Down not Sleep

Change the default

In the old days of Windows, the shutdown option was not of great concern, because it remembered the last action and repeated it.

Vista is a little more stubborn.

The default action for the Power button on the start menu in Windows Vista is Sleep.

Many of my techy friends leave their machines on for years, but I prefer to shutdown at night.

Here's how to make the change:

Go to Control Panel >Power Options
Select Change Plan Settings >Change Advanced Power Settings
Find "Power buttons and lid"
Change the Start menu power button to either Shut Down Sleep, or Hibernate

The Power button action: Changes the hardware power button action.
The Start menu power button: Changes the power button on the Start Menu

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Labels: Vista, Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:15 AM

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010 – Permalink –

Auto Show

Also Dumb No Dot

A PowerPoint show can be set up to run automatically when it is opened.

To do this, you could go to File>Save As and choose PowerPoint Show (*.pps) from the Save as type: list.

Another way is to change the extension (the three letters that appear after a file name such as Report.DOC).

PowerPoint uses .PPT for normal files, .POT for templates.

A PowerPoint show uses .PPS.

Microsoft "dumbed down" Windows Explorer so that, by default, extensions are not displayed.

To see them:

Go to Windows Explorer.
On the Menu bar go to Tools>Folder Options
(Organize>Folder and Search Options in Vista)
Click on the View tab.
In the Advanced settings list, remove the check mark from "Hide file extensions for known file types."
OK your way out.

To change a regular PowerPoint file to a show:

Locate the file in Windows Explorer.
Right click the file name and choose Rename.
Touch the End key on the keyboard and the Backspace three times.
Enter the letters PPS
Hit Enter.

You now have a PowerPoint show that will automatically run when it is opened.

(This also works with *.PPTX files

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Labels: PowerPoint, Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:52 AM

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Monday, October 18, 2010 – Permalink –

Be a Local Scoble

Photo Walk

Robert Scoble, tech evangelist, has been touting the fun of Photowalking. Getting together with a group of like-minded people to just walk around and take pictures.

Robert has made a number of videos that you can see on his blog The ScobleShow on PodTech.net.

Locally Kevin Freitas, a web developer and community supporter, solicited participation in a Tacoma area walk.

Since digital film is free. After you've got a camera, why not set a walk up in your city?

The results of our stroll can be seen at theses links:

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:57 AM

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Sunday, October 17, 2010 – Permalink –

New Line in Memo

Labels and Text boxes

When you're using a form to enter text in a memo field, pressing [Enter] within the text inserts a line break.

However, when you're working with a memo in a table's Datasheet view, pressing [Enter] moves the focus to the next field.

You can force line breaks when you're entering text by pressing [Ctrl][Enter]. This technique also works with text fields and can be applied when you're entering text in labels or text boxes on a form.

To permanently configure a text box so that pressing [Enter] inserts a new line, set its EnterKeyBehavior property equal to New Line In Field.

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:11 AM

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Saturday, October 16, 2010 – Permalink –

Did You Know?

Nerd Conversation Nibblets

Here's a part of the list of knowledge tidbits from Kelly's Bar

Did You Know?

Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.
The dollar symbol ($) is a U combined with an S (U.S.)
Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
The Statue of Liberty's tablet is two feet thick.
There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
Hacky-sack was invented in Turkey.
Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.

If you have doubts about these "facts", look at the Snopes Urban Legends Reference Pages

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:53 AM

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Friday, October 15, 2010 – Permalink –

Can the Narration

Pre-Record

PowerPoint and Narration
By Geetesh Bajaj from Indezine

"Narration is one of PowerPoint's least-used and most-misunderstood aspects. Many people try narration within PowerPoint only to get frustrated and give up.

Surprisingly, most PowerPoint narration problems stem from outside PowerPoint - from incompatible sound cards to loose microphone cables or messed-up Multimedia properties in the Windows control panel.

Or maybe you set your microphone volume settings very low or even mute! That's why I've provided a checklist of things you should do before you even attempt to begin narration in PowerPoint."

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:25 AM

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Thursday, October 14, 2010 – Permalink –

Progress Bar

Don't go away

If your macro is going to take a bit of time to complete, it is good manners to inform your users what is going on. If screen updating is turned off, they may think their machine has frozen.

Andy Pope has some great charting examples and also demonstrates a number of
Progress meters

Here's a static example:

John Walkenbach, also, has tips about how to create a Progress indicator

also see:
Chip Pearson

Dick Kusleika

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Labels: Excel

<Doug Klippert@ 3:47 AM

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Wednesday, October 13, 2010 – Permalink –

Color Blind

Be seen by all

Books on web design warn against using the colors red and green.

One out of twenty people have problems with some form of color blindness.

Here is a site that will let you check your web pages. You will be able to see the page as it appears to someone with one of the three main types of color deficit.

Vischeck

Normal

Deuteranope color blindness

Colorblind Web Page Filter

How do things look to Color Blind People

Web Colors

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Labels: Expression Web, FrontPage, Internet

<Doug Klippert@ 3:33 AM

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Tuesday, October 12, 2010 – Permalink –

Presidents' or President's Day

Neither

The third Monday in February is officially Washington's birthday, not Presidents' Day according to the federal government.

Individual states may designate the day as anything they want, but the federal holiday is Washington's birthday.

Snopes.com

Interestingly enough, although Georgia celebrates Washington's Birthday, the Governor is accorded the right to designate when state holidays occur. In Georgia, Washington's Birthday is recognized the day after Christmas.

There is an urban legend that when the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was implemented in 1971, President Richard Nixon issued a proclamation calling for a Presidents' Day on the third Monday to honor all U.S. presidents.

Each February both the Law Library at the Library of Congress and the Nixon Library field an upsurge in calls on this question. No evidence of this exists in Nixon's official papers.

Wikipedia

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:57 AM

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Monday, October 11, 2010 – Permalink –

Open 2007-2010 with 2000-2003

Not everyone is going to jump at once

How to open and to save Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007 files in earlier versions of Office

Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint versions 2000 through 2003 cannot natively open documents that are stored in the Office Open XML Formats in 2007 Microsoft Office programs.

You can install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats to open or to save 2007 Office files.

Microsoft Office XP and 2003: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

After you install the Compatibility Pack, you can use your existing version of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to open, edit, and save the file formats that are new to Word 2007, Excel 2007, or PowerPoint 2007. For example:

You can open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint 2007 files by double-clicking them exactly as you do with your existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint presentation(s).

You can save Word, Excel, or PowerPoint 2007 files by clicking the Save button in your version of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

Microsoft Office 2000: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Word 2000

After you install the Compatibility Pack, you can open, edit, and save the document file formats that are new to Word 2007 within Word 2000.

You can open files in the formats that are new to Word 2007 by double-clicking the files.

You can save files in the formats that are new to Word 2007 by clicking Save in Word 2000.

Excel 2000 and PowerPoint 2000

After you install the Compatibility Pack, you can open and save the file formats that are new to Excel 2007 and to PowerPoint 2007 from the Microsoft Windows operating system.

You can open files in the formats that are new to Excel 2007 and to PowerPoint 2007 by double-clicking the file on the desktop, in the My Documents folder, or in Microsoft Windows Explorer.

You can save files in the formats that are new to Excel 2007 and to PowerPoint 2007 by right-clicking an Excel 2000 file or a PowerPoint 2000 file and then clicking Save As.

Compatibility Pack Functions

Compatibility Pack Download

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Labels: Excel, PowerPoint, Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:12 AM

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Sunday, October 10, 2010 – Permalink –

Wallpaper

Just some

There is a ton of free wallpaper out there. Here are some you might have missed.

Art. Lebedev Posters

Digital Blasphemy

Hubble Wallpaper

Visual Paradox

Prinz Online

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Labels: Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:52 AM

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Saturday, October 09, 2010 – Permalink –

Non-Designer's Type Book, The

By Robin Williams

ISBN 0-201-35367-9
Peachpit Press 1998

About the Author
Williams teaches electronic typography and has written some excellent books on digital design.

Anyone who has witnessed the horrific use of type on many personal web sites knows how badly these books are needed. Clear explanations and good illustrations are the hallmarks of both volumes.

Also author of The PC is not a typewriter.

Book Description
Each short chapter explores a different type secret including use of evocative typography, tailoring typeface to project, working with spacing, punctuation marks, special characters, fonts, justification, and much more. It is written in the lively, engaging style that has made Williams one of the most popular computer authors today.

It uses numerous examples to illustrate the subtle details that make the difference between good and sophisticated use of type. The non-platform specific, non-software specific approach to the book makes this a must-have for any designer's bookshelf - from type novices to more experienced graphic designers and typesetters.

Quote

"Most packages also have a discretionary hyphen, affectionately called a "dischy." If you type Ctrl+- (Control Hypen on a PC), the word will hyphenate at that point, that hyphen will disappear when the word moves to another location.

Also (and this is the point), if you type a discretionary hyphen in front of a hyphenated word, it will not hyphenate at all, ever."

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Labels: Books

<Doug Klippert@ 3:57 AM

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Friday, October 08, 2010 – Permalink –

Sort List Boxes

We must have order

"A nice way to enhance your application is to give your users the ability to sort the contents of listboxes.

If you have a listbox with many records, this feature could be much appreciated. It's easy to manipulate the listbox RowSource property to accomplish this.

A command button could be used to add an "Order By" clause to the SQL statement, and once the RowSource property is updated, the list is automatically sorted."

An example showing exactly how to do this is available for download as a Zip file here: Sortable Link Boxes

from Peter's Software

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:20 AM

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Thursday, October 07, 2010 – Permalink –

Calendar Control

Click for Date

Office is full of ActiveX controls that provide extra gadgets in applications. One of these devices is a functioning calendar selection tool.

"Did you ever need to check a date before you typed it into a document?

This tutorial shows you how to create a pop-up calendar using the Microsoft ActiveX Calendar Control that is installed with Office.

You will be able to call up the calendar with a keyboard shortcut, from a toolbar button or menu, or from the right-click context menu.

When you select a date, it is automatically entered into your document at the insertion point."

A Pop-up Calendar for Word
Martin Green

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Labels: Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:56 AM

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Wednesday, October 06, 2010 – Permalink –

1040 on a Spreadsheet

Free tax forms

All right, we spend our waking hours SUMming with Excel and then when one of the more stressful times of the year shows up, we turn it all over to TurboTax.

Here is a collection of IRS forms Glenn Reeves has done as interlocking spreadsheets.

The formulas are already set up; ready for data entry.

"No PASSWORD is needed!

If a cell is protected, it is because it contains a calculated value.

Many times, a manual override cell is provided if you need to override the calculated value.

After a while, you will figure out that the spreadsheet is completely functional without needing to unprotect it."

(Included on the site are forms back to 1996.)

http://www.excel1040.com

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Labels: Excel

<Doug Klippert@ 3:02 AM

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Tuesday, October 05, 2010 – Permalink –

Other Than Google

Info Tools

Add even more depth to your research than just the usual search engines.

Google, the largest search database on the planet, currently has around eight billion web pages indexed. That's a lot of information. But it's nothing compared to what else is out there.
Google can only index the visible web, or searchable web. But the invisible web, or deep web, is estimated to be 500 times bigger than the searchable web. The invisible web comprises databases and results of specialty search engines that the popular search engines simply are not able to index.

Have you heard of:

Yippy - A metasearch engine that combines the results of several top search engines.
Intute - A searchable database of trusted sites, reviewed and monitored by subject specialists.
INFOMINE - A virtual library of Internet resources relevant to university students and faculty. Built by librarians from the University of California, California State University, the University of Detroit-Mercy, and Wake Forest University.
Librarians' Internet Index - A search engine listing sites deemed trustworthy by actual human librarians, not just a Googlebot.

Topics Covered in this Article

Deep Web Search Engines
Art
Books Online
Business
Consumer
Economic and Job Data
Finance and Investing
General Research
Government Data
International
Law and Politics
Library of Congress
Medical and Health
Science
Transportation

And many more: Research beyond Google See all Topics

Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:59 AM

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Monday, October 04, 2010 – Permalink –

Customize the FUI Ribbon

Let the add-ins begin

It is said that the Office 2007 Graphical User Interface Ribbon cannot be as easily changed or modified like it has been in previous versions.

This may be partially true, but not all is lost.

Here is some information from the equine's mouth:

Learn how to customize the Ribbon user interface (UI) in the 2007 Microsoft Office release. Also learn how new features in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System support RAD development of Ribbon customizations. (40 printed pages)

Customizing the Office (2007) Ribbon

Monsieurs MS also have a downloadable spreadsheets with the Control IDs. There are files for 2003 as well.

Lists of Control IDs

2007 Office System Add-In: Icons Gallery

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Labels: Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Windows, Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:58 AM

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Sunday, October 03, 2010 – Permalink –

More More Free Templates

Clean, professional layouts

Besides some intriguing enterprise PowerPoint solutions, PresentationPoint.com has some free designs that you can download and adapt to your own uses.

One of the designs is a timer:

PresentationPoint.com

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:08 AM

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Saturday, October 02, 2010 – Permalink –

Properties Report

Record of Records

If you would like a report that includes all of the properties, relationships and permissions of the objects in your database, go to Tools>Analyze and choose Documenter...

Access will create a VERY detailed report.

Ezy Documenter

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:42 AM

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Friday, October 01, 2010 – Permalink –

Myths

Say it ain't so

My seven favorite myths about Outlook
Diane Poremsky

Outlook is the reason we have so many email viruses
Outlook is the "full version" of the free Outlook Express
Outlook's HTML is bloated, especially if you use Word as the editor
Outlook has a newsreader (pre 2007)
The preview pane is unsafe
Word is a slow, bloated email editor
Attachments run automatically

Outlook Power Magazine

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Labels: Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:22 AM

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Click to Type

MacroButton

[Click here and type Name]

{MACROBUTTON NoMacro [Click here and type junk]}

Automatically Renumber Records

Been looking for this

Bricks as Pets

Is it right?

One Icon, One Doc

Separate buttons

Happy [blank] Day

Use Office for more than the office

Grandma Knew Best

Advice from the past

Send E-mail with Access

Automate the drill

Categories

Organization

A Way Cool Paint-Picker

Just slap it on

Tips Collection

One of the good ones

Internet History

Two tin cans

Shut Down not Sleep

Change the default

Auto Show

Also Dumb No Dot

Be a Local Scoble

Photo Walk

New Line in Memo

Labels and Text boxes

Did You Know?

Nerd Conversation Nibblets

Can the Narration

Pre-Record

Progress Bar

Don't go away

Color Blind

Be seen by all

Presidents' or President's Day

Neither

Open 2007-2010 with 2000-2003

Not everyone is going to jump at once

Wallpaper

Just some

Non-Designer's Type Book, The

By Robin Williams

Sort List Boxes

We must have order

Calendar Control

Click for Date

1040 on a Spreadsheet

Free tax forms

Other Than Google

Info Tools

Customize the FUI Ribbon

Let the add-ins begin

More More Free Templates

Clean, professional layouts

Properties Report

Record of Records

Myths

Say it ain't so