Train Signal Training - Free Computer Training Videos » Office 2007

Excel 2010 in Microsoft Office 2010 Suite

Brian Nelson — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:00:26 +0000

The Microsoft Office 2010 Suite includes MS Excel 2010 application across all editions.

From Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 to Office Professional Plus 2010, Excel, along with Word, PowerPoint, and relative newcomer OneNote, is one of the Office apps that users will have installed regardless of what Office upgrade or new Office software package they buy. How much Excel actually gets used by those users depends a lot on just who uses that computer.

Most computer users are familiar with Microsoft Excel, even if the vast majority only make use of its most basic features. Technical support professionals from around the world can tell stories of watching as employees that they support using a calculator to add up a column of numbers in an Excel spreadsheet so that they can type the answer into the appropriate cell.

Fortunately, for most users, Excel has outgrown those days when its only utility to most was getting numbers lined up in rows and columns. Today, experts use Excel for so many complex functions that the big news of the Excel 2007 upgrade was that the spreadsheet could support even larger sizes of spreadsheets, up to 16,384 columns and over 1 million rows!

What does Microsoft Excel 2010 bring to the table for computer owners and businesses today? More usability, more functionality, and more speed and power.

New Excel 2010 Features from Microsoft Office 2010

Like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel 2007 was delivered with the new Ribbon interface. While the main purpose of the Ribbon in MS Word was helping users discover and use functions that might be useful, most users of Excel already knew what the program could do.

While a MS Word user might never even wonder if the word processor could do a three-column layout that wraps around a centered image, users of Excel need specific functions in order to perform the calculations they need.

And while certain features may have been hidden from obvious view, an accountant building a spreadsheet knew before he even looked that the function to create an amortization table, or calculate the present value of money, or the future value of money, based on certain variables, was there in Excel. All they had to do was go find it.

While the Ribbon interface may not have exposed any, “I didn’t know I could do that,” features to spreadsheet users, it did make using those features much easier. The Ribbon decreased the number of clicks required to access virtually any function, graph, or sorting feature.

The real power of the Ribbon interface for Excel users, however, was the ability to make customizations. That way, a user who relies on Excel for its financial calculations and features can have those front and center, while another user whose primary requirement of Excel is generating meaningful statistics from large amounts of raw data, can have the statistical formulas positioned just one click away.

For users who did not upgrade to Office 2007, the redesigned Ribbon interface will be the biggest change in the new Excel version. However, users upgrading from Excel 2007, will notice some nice touches that have made the Ribbon even easier to read and use.

Under the hood, Excel gets more power and higher performance. Excel 2010 supports 64-bit environments. Microsoft claims that “strategic” improvements in Excel 2007’s multi-threaded architecture will bring even more benefit from increasingly common multicore processors. While no hard ceiling has been provided by Microsoft, the company states that Excel 2010 can handle file sizes larger than the previous 2-gigabyte limit.

Excel 2010 Sparklines

The biggest new feature in Excel 2010 that is getting a lot of buzz and promotion is something called Sparklines. Sparklines are small charts that fit inside of a single cell.

At first blush, this seems to be a rather meaningless feature, but a closer look reveals the ability to present data that has more impact and power than ever before. What may be the most overlooked power of Sparklines is the ability to subtly include an extra bit of data that provides a level of explanation and detail that is seldom reviewed in certain quarters (Senior Management, for example?)

Consider for example, this typical spreadsheet being used in a meeting with upper management. Somewhere during the presentation, the Executive Senior Vice President (or is it Senior Executive Vice President) of whatever, suddenly asks if these department sales numbers are higher than last year.

The presenter may or may not have this data. It might be in an index, or even on a later page, but the reality is that whatever the presenter says or whatever page or chart he directs everyone’s attention to next, only a small yes/no, higher/lower, number is likely to be absorbed and retained by attendees.

Expanding the current table to include more data is one option, but everyone knows that only so much can be absorbed at once, and large tables and complicated graphs tend to make people’s eyes glaze over.

Now, consider the same chart using Sparklines.

In this case, Sparklines were inserted for each department showing the historical sales numbers. These small charts add very little data, size, or complexity to the table. The value of these Sparkline charts is that now, when the same question is asked, although now there might not be a need to even ask the question, it becomes easier to convey more complicated answers such as, “The numbers for Patio & Garden are lower this year, however, they are still up considerably over the last few …”

The Sparklines make it more likely that more than “No” gets through to the audience.

Excel 2010 PivotCharts and PivotTables

Excel’s other flashy feature upgrades come from improvements to PivotCharts and PivotTables. While both have been in Excel in some form since Office 2003, new tools and add-ins make them both easier to user and easier to understand so that their power can be harnessed by more users.

Chief among these tools is The Slicer feature which allows PivotTables to be dynamically segmented via an easier to follow graphical interface.

Many of Excel 2010’s newest features revolve around Microsoft’s strategy to increase how users can work together as well as access documents from anywhere, as a means to blunt Google’s continuing efforts in this area. In this arena, Excel adds the “Excel Web App” which allows multiple users to edit the same spreadsheet simultaneously.

Excel also gains better integration with Microsoft SharePoint via SharePoint Server 2010 and Excel Services. Finally, like all of the Office 2010 applications a mobile version for cellphones. Excel Mobile 2010 will make spreadsheet data not only readable on your smartphone, but also provide both the ability to edit and create graphs from the data.

Power users and corporate users implementing Excel 2010 mobile and collaboration features are likely the only users to really notice much of a difference between Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. But, users coming from Excel 2003 and earlier will be in for a treat, and since Excel comes with every version of Office 2010, chances are good that most users will just take Excel along for the upgrade ride anyway.

Free Microsoft Office 2010 Upgrade

Kasia Grabowska — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:00:18 +0000

Earlier this week, Microsoft confirmed the rumors of a free upgrade for Office 2007 buyers.

Microsoft will offer a free upgrade to the upcoming Office 2010 suite starting today through September 30th, 2010.

So if you purchase Office 2007 during this period you will be able to download a corresponding edition of Office 2010 for free when the new suite becomes available in June. If you’d rather get the DVD installation disc you will have to pay a small shipping-and-handling fee.

Since Office 2010 will have a slightly different lineup from Office 2007, here’s what you will be eligible for:

Office Home and Student 2007 = Office Home and Student 2010
Office Standard 2007 = Office Home and Business 2010
Office Small Business 2007 and Office Professional 2007 = Office Professional 2010

Here is what the Office 2010 editions will include:

Office Home and Student 2010: Word, Excel, PowerPoint & OneNote
Office Home and Business 2010: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote & Outlook
Office Professional 2010: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher & Access

An interesting thing to note here is that currently Office 2007 Home and Student sells for $104 at Amazon.com, which is $45 less than the planned $149 list price for Office Home and Student 2010.

Are you planning on taking advantage of this deal?

Windows 7, Office 2007 & More — 3 Great Deals for Students

Kasia Grabowska — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:03:23 +0000

Microsoft LOVES students.

They’re always getting the best discounts, best offers, and tons of free stuff. Not that this upsets me, I’m a student myself so I know how to appreciate all the techy goodness we get from Microsoft.

So if you’re a student yourself then take advantage of these 3 awesome deals for students. If you’re not a student, then send this over to all the students you know — trust me, they’ll appreciate it :)

Awesome Deal #1: Windows 7 for only $29.99!

This deal is simple, you get Windows 7 Home Premium for only $29.99 (regular price $119.99) saving you nearly 100 bucks. Not bad.

This link will lead you to the US Windows 7 store and this one to the UK Student Offer.

I’m not sure if other countries are included, if you hear anything please let others know by posting a comment. Thanks!

Awesome Deal #2: Office 2007 Ultimate for only $59.99!

The Ultimate Steal is another great deal because you get Office 2007 Ultimate for only $59.99 (regular price is $679.95 and $539.95 for an upgrade) saving you a good few hundred dollars.

I know you may be thinking that you don’t need half of the applications in Office 2007 Ultimate, like Groove, InfoPath or Publisher, but even if you got the cheapest edition (Office Home and Student) you will end up paying $149.95 and only getting Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

So take advantage — if you need Office 2007 get the Ultimate Steal.

As far as I know, this deal is only available in the US, but if you hear otherwise please let us know.

Update (9/22/09): Thanks to BG we now know that there is a UK offer for the Ultimate Steal — thanks BG!

Awesome Deal #3: Developer & Designer Tools for Free!

The aspiring developers and designers get the best deal of all — free tools and even free training! You can’t beat that.

Microsoft DreamSpark offers free software downloads to eligible students.

You can get additional details on this from my last post about DreamSpark and from Microsoft.

Enjoy and Share

If you’re a student, enjoy the awesome Microsoft deals and freebies and share them with your friends. And if you find another great deal — for students only — make sure to share that too!

Office 2010 Technical Preview With Windows 7

Brian Nelson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:00:29 +0000

Windows 7 rolls out to the public in October, but thousands of users have already gotten their hands on an early copy, whether via the free Release Candidate download that Microsoft offered to all comers, or via a Technet subscription, or maybe by getting sticky fingers on a RTM copy.

Whatever the method, whether it is now or in a month or two, many people are going to be upgrading their computer operating system to Windows 7. If you are going to go through all that effort, you might as well upgrade your Microsoft Office software too, right?

Office 2010 Technical Preview Software Suite

Microsoft released a technical preview of its upcoming Office 2010 software suite earlier this summer.

After the shocking changes made to the user interface in Office 2007 with the introduction of the new Ribbon menu design, the upgraded features of Office 2010 seem a little tame by comparison.

Is there enough new stuff in Office 2010 to bother with the upgrade?

What’s New in Office 2010

Unfortunately, the biggest new feature slated for Microsoft Office 2010 isn’t ready for its close up yet. The big news in Office 2010 is that Microsoft is unleashing its Office applications onto the Internet. Lightweight, web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote will be available to anyone with a Windows Live account. These online versions can also be established by businesses via an accessible SharePoint Server and the web apps feature on either Office 2010 Standard, or Office 2010 Professional Plus.

However, Microsoft did not open up the Office 2010 web apps technical preview in August as originally targeted, so for now, upgrading to 2010 all depends on the non-web app features.

What is new and different in Office 2010 depends a lot on how you use your Microsoft Office applications. Many of the Office’s most hyped new features only apply to a certain subset of users. For example, there is a lot of noise around features that allow you to work on certain Office documents together with other users at the same time. If, like many computer users, you type, edit, and print or email your own documents, these features are going to go largely unnoticed.

So, what are the top new Office 2010 features? Well, that depends on what edition of the Office Suite you get.

Office 2010 Version Choices Roulette

Microsoft’s current business model relies on being able to charge customers with deep pockets more money for their software in order to keep their profit margins up. In order to do so, Microsoft offers multiple editions of its Office suite, each with different software and at a different price point.

Currently, Microsoft releases show a whopping FIVE different versions of Office 2010:

Office Professional Plus 2010
Office Professional 2010
Office Home and Business 2010
Office Standard 2010
Office Home and Student 2010

How does one make sense out of this name origami?

As with previous Microsoft Office releases, the first choice to make is whether or not you need Microsoft Outlook. Outlook is left out of the Home and Student (cheapest) version, so if you need Outlook, then skip the Home and Student version.

This brings us to the choice most users will have to make between Home and Business 2010 and Office Professional 2010. These two editions are the same except that Professional has Access and Publisher. Note, that for this release Professional does have OneNote as part of the suite. Apparently, Microsoft’s market research has led it to believe that professionals sometimes take notes too. In fact, OneNote is included in every version of Office 2010.

The last two offerings of Office 2010 are only available through volume licensing which means that you will only get them at work, or that you’ll have to get them installed through OEM (by buying a new computer with Office installed).

Office Professional Plus 2010 comes with everything you get in the regular Professional edition, plus all of Microsoft’s new “collaboration” products and technologies including the new SharePoint WorkSpace (formerly Groove), as well as InfoPath and Communicator. Office Standard, on the other hand is same as Office Professional, except that it does not come with Microsoft Access.

Top Office 2010 Upgrades

What do you get when you upgrade to Office 2010?

First, you get the ribbon interface that was introduced on the main Office applications like Word and Excel in Office 2007 on all of the 2010 applications, including Outlook and OneNote. (If an application ever needed the ribbon interface, it was OneNote – Holy icons, Batman!).

The ribbon in Office 2010 will also be customizable, allowing you to create custom tabs with your favorite commands.

The ribbon also get’s an updated look, as you can see below:

What else does an upgrade to Office 2010 come with?

Once you get past web apps, Office 2010 is mostly tweaking Office 2007 and adding the ribbon interface to the rest of the applications that didn’t have it before. After that, there are some nice add-ons, but no real got-to-have-it features.

PowerPoint 2010 gets some application tools to better handle the images and videos that are becoming a basic necessity in a presentation. These tools mean that you won’t have to jump out into an image editor or video editing program to do every little thing. They are in no way a replacement for full-fledged editors, but it will be nice to trim two seconds of blank screen from the end of a video clip without having to go fire up the video editor.

The two other features Microsoft is banging the drum the loudest for are new Excel 2010 visualizations and data analysis functions. That means that if you run huge multi-page spreadsheets with thousands of rows of data that are filled with complex formulas, equations, and calculations, then you are going to be able to produce much more appealing and useful charts and graphs. If you have single tab spreadsheets that have a handful of SUMs, a couple of AVGs, and maybe a time value of money calculation or two, it means that there will be another type of graph to choose from.

The other high-volume feature is “co-authoring.” With co-authoring, multiple users, in multiple locations can work together on the same document. If it sounds familiar, you are missing the hook. They can work on the SAME document at the SAME time, not work on different documents and have them synchronized back together.

In other words, while I am typing this sentence, my co-author could be highlighting the one above in green. I guess this would be a big deal for some people, but as a writer, I’ll edit and write on a document at the same time with someone else when the devil and his friends are using the same functionality to co-author a press release about the unusually cold weather and white fluffy stuff falling from the sky where they live.

Office 2010 will also be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Learn more about Office 2010

Interested in learning more about Office 2010? Check out these resources:

Top 5 Tips For a Killer PowerPoint Presentation

Brian Nelson — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:20:55 +0000

PowerPoint 2007 comes with tons of new features and easier ways to use old features. Now, there is no excuse to not have a nice useful PowerPoint slide show.

But, who wants nice and useful? You want a GREAT PowerPoint presentation and you’re going to get it when you use these Five Top Tips for a Killer PowerPoint Presentation.

Top 5 Tips for a Great PowerPoint Presentations

1. Learn the Product

With most software products, people assume they don’t really know how to use them at first. That leads them to seek out training, or at least read a book or article about the product. For some reason, everyone assumes that they can already use PowerPoint without a single minute of learning about it.

Some of the best features of PowerPoint 2007 are only great when used properly. And, some are only great when used in combination with other features. So, take a look at some PowerPoint 2007 training, or at least grab a manual or book to give you the proper grounding in PowerPoint 2007.

2. Add Powerful Impact with Multimedia

Distracting little animations or videos are obviously not the way to a killer PowerPoint presentation. However, multimedia can be a very powerful way to help get your message across.

One way to ensure that your multimedia is not distracting from your presentation is for it to actually be the presentation. If you stop talking, your audience will automatically turn to look up at the screen and give their full attention to the media on display. Since you’ve paused your speaking, that video can’t be distracting because there is nothing to distract from!

You can easily add video, graphics, and sound to your PowerPoint presentation right from the Insert Tab.

3. Time Your Presentation and Use 2-Screen Presenter Mode

PowerPoint 2007 can actually make you a better presenter, trainer, and speaker. Most people only hit the Slide Show tab just so they can press the From Beginning button to start their presentation. Don’t make that mistake.

The Slide Show tab is packed full of tools to help make the most important element of your PowerPoint presentation better … you!

The Rehearse Timings feature displays your slideshow exactly the way it will display for your audience. You give the presentation like you would if it were really live and PowerPoint records how long you spend on each slide.

This provides two huge benefits. First, it tells you exactly how long your presentation is. We’ve all sat in the audience as the speaker who was doing a great job of making a powerful and moving presentation suddenly sees the clock on the back wall, or checks his watch, and says, “Oh wow, is that the time.” Then, he rushes through the rest of the slideshow, skipping slides to make up time and throwing out the gist of it as he goes.

What was persuasive is now lackluster and rushed. The worst part of it is that most presentations build up to something, so the most important parts are the parts now being skipped. With Rehearse Timings, you’ll never be that guy because you know that your full presentation takes 43:22 to deliver.

The other great feature of Rehearse Timings is that you can “Use Rehearsed Timings” to deliver your presentation. PowerPoint remembers how long you spent on each slide when you were rehearsing and duplicates the timing for your presentation. This is amazingly useful for two common scenarios.

The first is when something goes wrong with the remote (doesn’t it always seem to at the most important presentations) and you can’t easily click to advance the slides. You end up trapped by the laptop which throws off your flow and worse impairs your ability to connect with the audience.

In this case you can use the rehearsed timings instead. It won’t be perfect, but it will be better than the alternative.

The other great way to use rehearsed timings is for keeping you on schedule. If you are the keynote speaker, no one will say anything when you go over by four minutes. But, when you are one of fifteen speakers giving a ten-minute presentation before an important board, you’ll be given the hook before you can deliver the powerful finish.

By using your rehearsed timings that work out to exactly ten minutes, you’ll stay on track by noticing the slide changes and increasing your pace to keep up.

Also, use the two-screen presentation mode to have one screen for the audience with your carefully crafted and clearly designed slides, and another for you with speaker’s notes, and even that clever little joke you want to use to warm up the audience.

No more being that speaker who is clicking two laptops during his presentation, one for him, and one for them.

4. Use Themes and Templates To Keep Your Slides Consistently Powerful

Be a speaker at enough events and sooner or later you’ll be working with a one-hundred slide presentation when you notice that it would all look so much better with a darker background, or a slightly different font. Of course, making that change on all those slides without messing up the elements that were already deliberately different is a lot of work, so much so that you might not make the changes and just go with the “good enough” slides.

Not anymore. While PowerPoint has had templates for a while, the concept was that instead of starting from a blank slate for each slide, if you had the same starting place for each slide that would create consistency. That worked as long as the concept and design stayed the same from start to finish.

With PowerPoint 2007’s implementation of themes, there is a whole new ballgame. When themes are applied to items in your presentation they conform to the theme as you might expect. But, the power comes when it is time to make a change. When you change a theme, PowerPoint applies the theme to all the slides in the presentation.

Fonts, colors, even bullet types are all switched over with the click of the mouse. Now, when you notice a powerful new color to use, you can just use it.

5. Tell Them Your Points, Show Them Your Proof

Reasonable people will listen to others when it comes to hearing new ideas and thoughts. But, as the old-timers say, “I’ll believe it when I see it with my own eyes.”

The weak link in most PowerPoint presentations is a fundamental misunderstanding of how to use the tool for persuasion. Don’t use your slides to “sum up” what you are saying. Rather, use your slides to show your proof.

If you are going to say that sales are at an all time low, don’t put a bullet on a slide that says “Sales at all time low.” Instead, show sales at an all time low. They’ll remember that better than any bullet point with text and as an added bonus, they’ve seen the proof with their own eyes.

If your graph shows sales going back to 1919 and this year is lower than any other there isn’t any doubt. No one will walk back to their office thinking, well 1979 was pretty bad, it can’t be worse than that, because they will have seen this year underneath even 1979’s dismal year.

Use the powerful features in PowerPoint to deliver your proof, and your presentations can’t help but be anything other than killer presentations.

Top 5 Worst Things To Do In A PowerPoint Presentation

Brian Nelson — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:00:34 +0000

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 provides a lot of great new features for designing, creating, and delivering presentations, so better presentations should be the norm.

But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of ways to turn a regular PowerPoint presentation into a nightmare PowerPoint presentation.

In hopes of saving you, and more importantly, your audience, the terrors of some of the worst PowerPoint presentations, I present the ways to make your PowerPoint presentation the Worst PowerPoint Presentation Ever!

Top 5 Worst PowerPoint Mistakes

1. Reading Your Slides To The Audience

Is your audience a formerly undiscovered Amazon rain forest tribe? If so, you may want to ask if PowerPoint is really the right tool. If not, then chances are they know how to read.

It is actually possible to listen and read at the same time, while it is not possible to talk about something else, while reading out loud at the same time. That means that your audience will have already read whatever is on your slide before you do. Don’t make your audience re-hear what they have already read.

Use your slides to emphasize or prove your point, not to deliver them.

Take advantage of PowerPoint 2007 innovative new two-screen display to put presenter view on your monitor and the slide show view on the main monitor. Put your notes and what to read aloud on the presenter view.

You’ll sound more knowledgeable when you can cite something that isn’t up on the slide and.

2. Infinite Clutter

PowerPoint 2007 streamlined new interface puts features that used to be buried in the menus front and center. That makes it easier than ever to add graphics, videos, animations, fonts, WordArt, sounds, graphs, boxes, bullets, colors, backgrounds, transitions … Whew!

With all of the great new features (and some old ones you might have just never used before) it is very easy to clutter up a slide with so much wiz and bang that your audience will never be able to absorb it all, let alone appreciate your point.

Use the PowerPoint Slide Rule of 3+1+1. You can have up to 3 different elements on any one slide plus one “background” item plus one flash item.

3 — Unless you are showing a picture, text is going to be one of those three. Now, you have two left. Bullets, numbers, graphics, another font, another color of text? The choice is yours, but only up to three total elements.

1 — Only one background item is allowed, so make it count. Want a colored background? OK, you’re done, move on. Want a pattern instead, great, but that’s it. No animated GIFs on top of patterns on top of colors on top of …

1 — One and only one piece of flash. What’s flash? Anything that makes your slide “neat.” If it makes your point, then it goes with the 3. If it isn’t an integral part of the presentation and it isn’t a background, then it’s flash. Animations, sounds, videos, and so on are almost always flash. How to find out? If you stop talking to see or hear the element on the slide, then it is not flash. If it is just there while you talk, then its flash.

3. Transitioning to Transitions With Transitions Until The Transitions Are Transitioned

Perhaps no single element has doomed more PowerPoint presentations to the annals of eye-rolling lameness than slide transitions.

Invented as a way to keep your audience from getting bored with the same old thing over and over again, many a PowerPoint presentation instead became a guessing game where the audience paid more attention to how the slides left and arrived than they did to what was on them.

PowerPoint 2007 makes this temptation even greater with more transitions, and easier customizations.

Stick to a single transition for each section of your Presentation. For any professional presentation that is not deliberately funny stick with Not Transition, Left to Right, Right to Left (Wipe and Push), and Fade Smoothly.

All other transitions are officially banned from professional presentations. Any use of dissolve or any of the spinning/rotating transitions is grounds for guffawing out loud. Never, ever, use the customization to slow down a transition unless the next slide is supposed to be a surprise (accompanying drum roll is preferable).

4. Worthless Graphics, Images, Graphs, WordArt, SmartArt, etc …

PowerPoint 2007 comes loaded with tons of amazing ways to jazz up your presentation with high impact visuals. Just make sure they are high impact and not highly annoying.

If every presenter who ever put a cute little kitten, or a funny(?) cartoon, or a “neat” picture on the slide with the company’s fourth quarter numbers was simultaneously hit in the head at the same time, the earth might actually come off its axis. Do not, under penalty of mockery, use unrelated visuals on your slides just to “give them some flair.”

Make your images count. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, take advantage. Always use graphical elements as “proof.”
Have a slide about deforestation? Show a picture of a clear-cut forest. Have a slide about how important it is to read to children? Show a picture of a happy child being read to. Have a slide about how the Marketing budget is up 23% this year? If you put a picture of a kitten hanging off of a string with the words, “Hang In There” on it, we all hope your project bulb burns out and you get a lot of paper cuts.

5. Auuurrrrrggggghhhh, I Wish I Was Color Blind!

A woman once remarked that she would never date a man if he wore a brown belt (or shoes) with black pants because it meant that no one had ever loved him enough to save him. The same can be said of many PowerPoint creators.

I once asked a colleague why he chose to deliver a 45 minute presentation with red, cursive style, text on a neon orange background. He said, “Because before this presentation, no one had ever seen that before, so they’ll definitely remember it.”

I’ve never had a fire ant trapped under the eyelid before either, and while I am sure I would always remember it, I don’t think that would be a good thing.

Fortunately, PowerPoint 2007 comes stocked with Themes and color schemes to allow even the most color-challenged make compelling PowerPoint presentations. If you don’t know why purple text on a lime green background is a bad idea, then for the love of all that is good, please, please, please stick to the supplied themes and color schemes, there are plenty of them to keep it “new.”

Free Guide To Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Best New Features

Brian Nelson — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:22:13 +0000

Released as part of the Microsoft Office 2007 suite of applications, PowerPoint 2007 is the latest upgrade in what has become the de facto standard in presentation software.

While much of the functionality remains essentially the same, there are some intriguing new features available for both slideshow presenters and those who create them.

Here are some of the best new features:

1. The PowerPoint Ribbon

Like all Office 2007 products, the most noticeable new feature in PowerPoint 2007 is the ribbon interface.

Microsoft’s updated replacement for the familiar menu with toolbar combo, puts more features than ever just one or two clicks away instead of checkboxes accessed from deep within the menu structure. So, users who need a special effect or other tool can access it much more easily and more quickly.

One difficulty with the previous menu bar was the necessity of trying to shoehorn commands into certain menus in order to maintain consistency, while at the same time avoiding so many menus that it became confusion. Gone are the days of trying to remember if what you were trying to do fit under Edit, Insert, Format, or Tools.

Thanks to the new ribbon interface, familiar cross-product commands like New, Open, Save, and basic formatting are all under the Home tab, while the rest of the tabs can be more specific to PowerPoint. You’ll never have trouble finding the menu to add animation again!

Plus, managing the color scheme of your presentation has never been easier.

2. Slide Masters

Have you ever put together a beautiful hour-long presentation complete with appropriate company logo and disclaimer on every slide only to get feedback from your boss that it’s great, but it should use the new logo with the company slogan on it?

Thanks to slide masters, one single change can replace that logo on ever single slide, and make sure it gets added or updated to every slide that comes in along the way from the local offices.

Slide Masters allow for certain elements to be made part of the “template” while making other areas editable for each slide. So, common elements can propagate throughout the presentation without restricting the dynamic nature of individual slides.

3. Powerful New Formatting

WordArt is great, but too much can be overwhelming. But if you stick with the basic 5 fonts and a little bold and italics and you have a snooze-fest waiting to happen. Fortunately, PowerPoint 2007 comes with more formatting features. Small Caps, Strikethrough, and even Underline with Color are all available without any hoops to jump through.

Also making a welcome appearance in PowerPoint 2007 is paragraph formatting. Nothing makes a slide look just a little “off” like the inability to format paragraphs. In older versions, you had two choices, make a phony break by adding another bullet, or let the disclaimer have the same line spacing as your clever multi-line quote.

In PowerPoint 2007, there is not only real line spacing but also columns, vertical text alignment, and even text direction so you can have that information about things moving up, actually reading up.

4. Improved WordArt

WordArt has been around for several versions of MS Office, but it has always been most robust inside of Word. Previous versions of PowerPoint allowed for some WordArt, but without its full power. Unfortunately, with the number of PowerPoint presentations the average person sees, even the most creative uses of WordArt start to look repetitive.

Not anymore! PowerPoint 2007 comes with a pretty much fully loaded implementation of WordArt. Now, not only are there more WordArt choices, but you can customize them to your liking with gradient fills, shadows, and more.

5. Better Graphic Tweaks

Microsoft calls it SmartArt. You’ll call it not having to do all of your arrows and direction affects in PowerPoint. SmartArt exists primarily to help visualize flow and ordered lists. In PowerPoint of old, your only hope was clunky arrows, varying font sizes, or a background that suggested the proper movement.

In PowerPoint 2007 there are all manner of flowing graphics from circular arrows for "cycles", to pyramids, to actual hierarchies. No more importing that scanned image of the company org chart onto your slides.

Another nifty new feature involves picture-based effects like shadows, reflections, and even rotation.

6. Presenter View

Those who actually have to give presentations in front of a live audience will love the new presenter view.

The presenter view allows for one screen to have just the slides that the audience is supposed to see, while the other screen has all of the talking points, notes, and even a preview of what the next slide is for the person giving the presentation.

No more standing in front of 200 of your colleagues while you say, “And, I think on the next slide we’ll see some …”

7. SharePoint Integration

For companies using Microsoft’s SharePoint collaboration software, PowerPoint provides tighter integration with that platform. Slide Libraries allow for PowerPoint presentations to be shared among multiple users. While people have been sharing PowerPoint files for years, Slide Libraries add a new level of functionality.

When a user downloads a presentation from a slide library, it maintains a link to the original. If that presentation is updated, then the user is notified of the new version automatically when they open PowerPoint. There is no need to check and see if you have the latest version, because PowerPoint (via SharePoint) checks this for you.

Even better, if you use just one slide in another presentation, that one slide also maintains the link to the SharePoint Library ensuring that the slide remains continuously up to date. This type of functionality is perfect for sales professionals, trainers, and anyone else who needs to ensure that updated facts and figures are always included in their presentations.

For example, a salesperson giving a series of presentations over the course of a month could automatically update the pricing slide to reflect mid-month price cuts without having to manually check and edit the figures. Pretty neat huh?

Summary

Microsoft PowerPoint was already pretty much the only way people create and present electronic presentations any more. But, Microsoft has included some great new features to an already robust set that make creating and delivering interesting and useful presentations even easier.

Read This If You DON’T Think You Need PowerPoint Training

Kasia Grabowska — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:00:11 +0000

PowerPoint has become the standard presentation tool, mostly because it’s so easy to use. So why would anyone need PowerPoint training?

This is one of the questions I asked Heather Ackmann, the instructor for our brand new PowerPoint 2007 Training, in my interview this week.

Heather explained what her new training is all about and what most people don’t know about the popular presentation tool (I bet you don’t know it either).

What I learned from talking to Heather is that PowerPoint is more than a presentation tool, and Heather’s PowerPoint training is more than PowerPoint training.

So whether you use PowerPoint or not, and whether you do presentations or not — check out my interview with Heather Ackmann.

More Than PowerPoint Training …

Kasia: A lot of people would say you don’t need training to learn PowerPoint because it’s so easy to use, what do you say to that?

Heather: I would have to say that that very attitude is why PowerPoint has gained such a bad reputation as a program, earning the pithy phrase “death by PowerPoint.”

The PowerPoint team at Microsoft has built an absolutely amazing tool with limitless potential and possibility; however, the average user to PowerPoint isn’t aware of PowerPoint’s hidden potential because they’ve never really seen it used beyond what’s available through the stock templates.

Don’t get me wrong — templates are a great timesaver. But if your goal is to create something that is unique, something that will wow your audience, then you will have to get more creative, step out of the predesigned PowerPoint box, so to speak, and spend a bit more time playing around with some more advanced features.

Kasia: What’s one important (or cool) thing that the average user doesn’t know about PowerPoint?

Heather: PowerPoint isn’t just for speaker-led presentations anymore. There are so many things you can create with it: certificates, timelines, count-downs, information kiosks, self-running movie-like shows … the possibilities are endless. In fact, I’ve designed my course around that, demonstrating how to create four different kinds of presentations.

Kasia: How has PowerPoint and presenting with PowerPoint changed in the last few years?

Heather: PowerPoint presentations change right alongside fashion, meaning slides that “looked good” a few years ago simply look old-fashioned, maybe even somewhat cheesy now. So staying on top of slide design is a never-ending battle.

On a program level, PowerPoint has evolved into a more visually friendly application. For example in years past if users wanted to edit a photo a certain way, they’d have to export that photo to another program like Photoshop to achieve the desired look. Now, however, with PowerPoint 2007’s new picture tools and styles many users do not need another photo editing tool. With a little ingenuity and know-how, you can really make those PowerPoint tools do anything!

Kasia: What is the coolest trick you teach in your new PowerPoint training?

Heather: That’s hard to choose. The coolest thing I think we make throughout the course is actually in one of the bonus videos where I show students how to create a “Flash-style” presentation synced to music. That file in and of itself contains a lot of really cool “tricks.”

Here’s the finished product (click on the image to play):

That’s my favorite exercise from the course. But I think the best singular trick that I show students is this one (click on the image to play):

The effect looks simple enough; however, it involves quite a bit of steps. It involves saving a semi-transparent AutoShape as a picture, cutting a hole in it, and then fading it in over the background. That’s one trick that I use quite frequently in my presentations to draw focus to a particular area of the slide or screen. It’s quite useful.

Kasia: Who do you think would benefit the most from watching your PowerPoint videos?

Heather: Anyone who wants to learn more about not only how to use PowerPoint 2007, but how to use it effectively and efficiently.

The first section of the video “Creating a Rhetorically Designed Presentation” takes students through a bit of theory (rhetoric, visual design, and learning styles) that can be applied to any style presentation. The exercises that follow in later videos put all that theory to work.

So, I think the course is beneficial for both beginning or advanced users to PowerPoint, as I don’t just talk about PowerPoint.

Kasia: There’s lots of training and books on PowerPoint out there, what makes your training different from the competition?

Heather: First, my course goes beyond the basic “how-to” line of training. I try to give students the skills necessary to make good choices about designing a presentation to meet the needs of their audience.

And I don’t pretend that there’s “one method” that will work for every situation either. Instead, I give students a starting point by exploring some theoretical basics and show them how to incorporate those principles through the use of several scenarios, just to show them how it’s done.

Kasia: I know you have years of teaching experience, but how did you become a PowerPoint expert?

Heather: Well first let me say that I wasn’t always an expert. In fact, in preparation for this course, I looked through some of the presentations I created as a beginning teacher — they were just terrible! So let me take the time to apologize to all my students from Waukegan High School; I am so sorry I subjected you to such torture!

I’ve been using PowerPoint for well over a decade, but I didn’t become what I’d call “an expert” until about three or four years ago. Honestly, it took a lot of time and practice mainly because I didn’t have a course like the one I made to teach me. “Trial and error” was how I learned.

I remember I was giving a presentation in graduate school and I couldn’t get the videos to display through the projector even though they played just fine on my laptop. And like a lot of other people, I first blamed the technology. But when the sting of embarrassment wore off, I decided it was probably just human error and decided that I should really learn how to actually use PowerPoint.

And even now, though I know what every button does in PowerPoint, I still don’t know how everything could be used. I’m always learning new creative tricks and techniques all the time, which is one reason why I love the program so much. There’s a lot of creative control to the application, if you are willing and have the time to be creative.

Kasia: Tell us something about yourself, something most people don’t know about you.

Heather: Well, I was born without a sense of smell (congenital anosmia) and blog about my non-smelling experiences over at neversmell.com. It’s a strangely rewarding little hobby. I get emails all the time from people who had no idea that there were other people out there who couldn’t smell.

One teenager emailed me saying that she cried when she found my website. Apparently, her parents didn’t believe that she couldn’t smell (that’s very common by the way) and were giving her a pretty hard time about “lying.”

Kasia: Heather, thanks for taking the time to talk to us about PowerPoint and congrats on the release of your new training.

About Heather Ackmann

Heather Ackmann is an accomplished instructor who has taught over 4,000 students at the high school, college, and adult levels.

Specializing in computer applications, writing, and literature, she holds a degree in English and Secondary Education, an Illinois Type 09 Initial Teaching Certificate, and is a Microsoft Certified Master for Office 2003.

While her energetic and easy-to-follow style is ideal for beginners to computer applications, her knowledge, thoroughness, and foresight in potential problems will satisfy the more proficient user.

On the left you can see Heather in her Halloween costume as “Death by PowerPoint” — and below you can check out her training so that death by PowerPoint never happens during your presentation.

Give Your Presentations an Edge with PowerPoint 2007 Training

No more “Death by PowerPoint”!

Learn how to design effective presentations that engage, entertain & communicate to ANY audience

Create attractive and professional slides and several different styles of presentations to fit your unique needs

Master special effects — flash-like animations, hyperlinks, hover actions and much more — that will wow your audience!

Learn more about PowerPoint 2007 Training and watch a demo now!

Merging for Dummies: Creating Mail Merge Letters in Word 2007

Gosia Grabowska — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:00:21 +0000

In my last Merging for Dummies article I showed you how to do a quick merge for labels and some of you really liked it.

Well, there’s another way to use the merge feature in MS Word — creating mail merge letters.

Think about it: you have 20 people you want to send a thank you letter to (a wedding thank you letter, perhaps :)) and you want to make it personalized with their names, addresses, etc. Well, writing each letter separately would take you … oh, I don’t know… couple of hours? Probably.

With 20 people at your wedding it’s still not that bad, but what if you had 300 people at your wedding? Now writing all 300 thank you letters one by one is a full time job, right? Not necessarily. I will show you how to write, personalize and print all these letters within minutes.

Ready? Set? Go!

Planning Before Merging

We start off by planning our Excel spreadsheet. If you created your labels with me by merging the addresses in Word you should have an Excel document ready. If not, take a look at the spreadsheet below for an example. Now all we need to do is make a couple of small changes.

1. To make the personalization complete, go back to your excel document.

2. As you can see my list isn’t long, but the procedure would be exactly the same with a list of any size. First, we will include a personal salutation column. Click on your Address column to select it.

3. Right-click on the selection and click Insert.

4. A new column will be inserted between the Salutation and Address columns.

5. Now create a personal salutation column, for things such as: “Aunt Amanda & Uncle Zach”, or “Cousins Kathy & Thomas”. You can input whatever you want to include in your letters here.

6. Next we’ll insert one more column in our spreadsheet. This one can be inserted on the end as it will hold information on what type of gift we have received from these people. It can look something like this:

Keep in mind that you do not have to add these two columns in order to create a personalized thank you letter. I am adding them just to show you a couple of extra tricks you can do in a mail merge.

Once you are done making changes to your spreadsheet, don’t forget to save it and then close it.

Writing Your Thank You Letter

Now it’s time to write our thank you letter. Go ahead and open up MS Word and start typing. Here is what I wrote in my thank you letter.

Now, let’s make it pretty, shall we?

1. First let’s change the font. Hit Ctrl+A to select the entire text. Then go to the font and pick a font that you like. In this example I picked Lucida Calligraphy as my font and I also change the size to 14pt.

2. You can also add a picture to your letter if you’d like. Position the cursor in a place where you want your picture to appear. Next, click on the Insert tab and then click on Picture. Browse to the location where your picture is located, select it and then click on Insert.

3. To position the picture in the middle, select the picture, click on the Home tab, and then click on the Center tab icon (or Ctrl+E).

4. Your picture should now be centered and your letter ready for the mail merge.

Once you’re done making final changes to your thank you letter, make sure to save it.

Creating a Mail Merge Letter

1. To start your mail merge, click on the Mailings tab, then click on the Start Mail Merge icon and select Letters.

2. Next, click on the Select Recipients icon and select Use Existing List.

We are choosing this selection because we have an Excel document ready with all the addresses we need. If, however you do not have an excel document, you can select the Type New List option and type in all the addresses. I find that having an Excel document is much more convenient as you can use it over and over again without retyping the information every time you need to create a mail merge.

3. Now you need to point to the location where your Excel spreadsheet is located. My Excel document is located in My Documents in a folder called Addresses. Select your document and click on Open.

4. Select the Sheet1$ option, make sure the check box is checked next to First row of data contains column headers, and then click OK.

(Unless you have multiple sheets in your Excel document you will always select Sheet1$. If you have more than one sheet then you should be able to tell which sheet holds your current addresses.)

5. Next, position your cursor to a location where we are going to insert the salutation and type in Dear

6. Now we are going to insert our merge fields. You can do it automatically by clicking Address Block or Greeting Line option, but I want you to do it from scratch so you can personalize it, ok?

With your cursor being located right after “Dear”, click on the Insert Merge Field Option.

7. Select Personal Salutation and click on Insert.

8. Your merge field should now appear in your document. Click on the Close button to close the Insert Merge Field window.

9. To complete the salutation, type in “;” at the end of the line.

10. Ok, great! But what if you didn’t create the extra columns. No problem. You can use your standard salutation by using the Mr. & Mrs. + last name fields.

If you want to go that route, click on the Insert Merge Field option, select the Salutation field and hit the Insert button.

Then hit the Close button to close the Insert Merge Field window.

11. Type in a after the Salutation field in your document and click on the Insert Merge Field option again.

12. Select the Last Name Field, hit the Insert button, and follow it again with the Close button to close the Insert Merge Field window.

13. Type in at the end of the line and you are all set.

14. I am going to go back to our first selection of Personalized Salutation to continue this demonstration. Next we are going to specify the type of gift we have received. Position your cursor right before the word gift in the first line.

15. Click on the Insert Merge Field option, select the Gift field. Next click on the Insert button, and then hit the Close button to close the Insert Merge Field window.

16. All you need to do is add a between the Gift field and the word gift. Go ahead and do that now – hit the space bar. Once you are done, save your document.

17. You can also add the complete address on top of the letter as well as a date if you want. These are not required but let me show you really quickly how you can do that.

First, let’s insert their full address manually (what? manually? I know, I know… but this is the best way to learn, trust me).

Position your cursor above your salutation line. You may want to insert an extra line or two by hitting Enter on your keyboard. When ready, click on the Insert Merge Field option.

18. Now I’m going to have you insert the following fields, in this specific order without closing the Insert Merge Field window. Let’s do this the way professionals do, ok?

We will insert spaces and hard returns later. So here is the order in which I want you to insert the fields:

Salutation (where you have Mr. & Mrs.) – select it and click on the Insert button
Last Name – select it and click on the Insert button
Address – select it and click on the Insert button
Apt No – select it and click on the Insert button
City – select it and click on the Insert button
State – select it and click on the Insert button
Zip – select it and click on the Insert button

Once finished, click on the Close button to close the Insert Merge Field window. Here is what you should have.

19. I know… it’s not pretty. It looks like one big mess, so let’s fix it.

We need a space between the Salutation field and the Last Name field. In order to do that select the Last Name field so it is highlighted. If you click on it once it should highlight it for you. Try it. Once it is highlighted, make sure the cursor is at the beginning of the highlighting.

20. Once you have the selection and the cursor is at the beginning, hit the space bar on your keyboard.

21. Don’t panic. It looks like the entire thing just went over to the second line. That’s normal because MS Word thinks the rest is one big word and tries to keep it together.

Select the Address field so it’s highlighted, position the cursor at the beginning, and this time, hit the Enter key on your keyboard.

22. Better, huh? Next, do the exact same thing with the Apt# No field — select it, position cursor to the beginning and hit Enter. Do the same with the City field.

23. Now we have to insert a and a between the City field and the State field. To do that, select the State field, position the cursor at the beginning and type in the and then hit the space bar on your keyboard.

24. And the last one, Zip field, needs a space. So select it, position cursor at the beginning and hit the space bar on your keyboard.

25. Now, it looks like my address lines are a little too spaced out. If this happens to you too, don’t worry, there is an easy way to fix it. Select the address lines, right-click on the selection and then select the Paragraph option.

26. Under the Spacing section, change the before and after options to 0pt. For line spacing option change the number to 1. Then click OK.

27. Now our address lines look much better.

28. Let’s insert the Date field next. Hit the Enter key a couple of times to insert more lines. Click on the Insert tab, then click on the arrow pointing down next to the Quick Parts option, and select Field.

29. Scroll down under Field names and select Date. Under Date formats pick your favorite format. In this example I’m going to use MMMM d, yyyy. Once you are happy with your selection click OK.

30. Your date field is now inserted and it will automatically adjust every day you open your document. Go ahead and save your document again.

And here is what my merge letter looks like. Ready to merge it? I am!

The Final Steps: Merging

1. To see the actual address in our letter we need to finish the merge. To do so, make sure you are in the Mailings tab, click on the Finish & Merge option and select Edit Individual Documents.

This option will let you look at the letters before printing them. If you do not want to do that, you can select the Print Documents option right away.

2. Make sure All is selected and then click OK.

3. And here are your documents ready to print!

Wasn’t that easier than typing it all out? Sure it was!

Now remember, if you need any address labels for your letters my article on Creating Address Labels in Word 2007 is here to help!

Learn How to Create Relationships & Master Them in Access 2007

Gosia Grabowska — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:00:21 +0000

Building tables in Access 2007 is fairly simple. Creating relationships between these tables is a different story.

This is the part that most of us get confused with because Access relationships (as any other relationships) can get quite complicated.

And let’s face it, we all get a little confused when it comes to Access. But don’t worry, help is on the way!

Today I’m giving you step-by-step instructions on creating basic relationships in Access 2007. Keep in mind that there is much more you can do, and that what’s presented here is just the beginning. Once you have the basics, don’t be afraid to start exploring.

Creating Relationships in Access 2007

For this example, I am using an already existing database with tables already created, primary keys assigned, and data types selected.

Nothing however, was setup when it comes to relationships so you should be able to apply these steps in your situation. Alright, let’s get started.

1. First open up your database. In order to create or modify any relationships in your database, you need to switch to the relationships view.

So click on the Database Tools tab on the new Access 2007 ribbon and click on the Relationships button.

2. Since there aren’t any existing relationships, Access will open the Relationships View together with the Show Table dialog box.

3. In this example I am using employee tables and we’ll work on relating them together. But first, we need to select the tables and add them to the relationships view window.

Go ahead and select each table that relates to the other tables and click Add. I am selecting tables that relate to employees.

4. Once you are done selecting and adding all the tables, go ahead click on the Close button.

5. Now, I am creating a one-to-one relationship between my tblEmployees and the tblHRData tables.

But before I do that, I need to figure out where I want to start with my data entry. This is quite important so take your time.

In my example, I want to start with the tblEmployees table as I want the employee’s first and last name, etc. to be entered first.

Starting with that table, I will click and hold on the primary key of that table, which in this example is EmployeeID. Then I will drag and drop it on the EmployeeID in tblHRData.

6. After this, the Edit Relationships windows will appear. You may want to check the box next to Enforce referential Integrity to verify the contents of the table during data entry.

In my example, I am going to leave it out. Go ahead and click on the Create button.

Congratulations! Your first relationship in Access has been created!

7. Before I continue, I want to rearrange my tables a little bit by what I am going to be connecting them to.

So the tblDepartments table will be next to the tblEmployeeInfo table which will be next to the tblEmployees table. The rest will stay the same.

8. You are now ready to create your first one-to-many relationship. On my end, I am going to create it between tblEmployees and tblEmployeesInfo.

To create a one-to-many relationship you do not need to specify the data entry order. It will be selected automatically by Access.

So, you can click and hold the ID from tblEmployeeInfo or click and drag the EmployeeInfo_ID from tblEmployees table. Either way works.

In my example here, I will click and hold EmployeeInfo_ID, then drag and drop it right on top of that ID field.

9. Once I let go of the mouse I get the Edit Relationships window. The main difference in this window from the window we got in the one-to-one relationship, is that you do not have a choice in what is going to be your primary field or table.

Like I said before, this is automatic. Access is selecting it by picking the primary key of a table. So even though we decided to grab the EmployeeInfo_ID first and drop it over ID, Access made sure that the primary key (which in this instance is the ID field) is the primary table.

10. Alright, so once you verify that your relationship is good, go ahead and check the box next to Enforce Referential Integrity and click the Create button.

Ta-Da!

11. Our next relationship for today is going to be between tblDepartments table and tblEmployeeInfo table.

I’m going to click and hold on Departments from tblEmployees and drag and drop it … but where? ID or Department?

This is a great example of a flawed naming in an Access database. The foreign key, which is Departments can be either the ID or the Department field in tblDepartments table. We can’t really tell, can we?

The only person who knows this is the person who created the database. I happen to know that it is supposed represent the ID field, but what if someone else was creating the relationships? Kind of confusing, isn’t it?

To avoid confusions like this, make sure you follow Leszynski Naming Convention when creating your tables and database.

To fix the problem for this example, I would need to change the Departments field name to Departments_ID or Department_ID. Something that would let everyone know that the foreign key here, represents the ID.

Ok, so let’s go ahead and create the relationship by dragging and dropping Departments on top of the ID field.

12. And once again, make sure to check the box for referential integrity and hit Create.

13. And the final relationship we are going to create today is going to be between tblHRData and tblBenefits.

Notice that I have my Benefits field in tblHRData table setup to accept multiple values. You can create a relationship like this in Access, but you are creating it between the BenefitID field and the actual value of the Benefits field.

I am going to click and hold on the BenefitID field and drag and drop it on the Benefits:Value field.

And when ready, hit the Create button in the Edit Relationship window.

And that’s building relationships in its most simplest form.

Master Access relationships, new features and capabilities with Microsoft Access 2007 Training!

Our comprehensive instructor-led videos focus on integrating Access 2007 with Excel 2007, Word 2007, and SharePoint Services to maximize the efficiency of your organization.

Get in-depth instruction on all of the new features in Access 2007 which make it easier to work with your data.

Find out more about our new Access 2007 Training!

Just Released: Microsoft Access 2007 Training Videos

Kasia Grabowska — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:00:59 +0000

Microsoft Access 2007 is a great tool for collecting, tracking, storing, sharing and reporting information.

When I first started working with databases I noticed that the user interface makes Access friendly to work with and easy to learn.

It wasn’t until I started to understand the database structure and design that I discovered how complex Access can get.

You can do some pretty amazing things with Access — and Access 2007 is loaded with new features, options and capabilities:

new multi-value field capabilities,
new interactive and context filtering options,
improved interface and interactive design features,
integration with other Office applications such as Outlook and Excel,
— all working together to make Access 2007 more efficient and easy to use.

So if you’re ready to take advantage of everything the new Access 2007 has to offer then take a look at our newest release: Microsoft Access 2007 Training.

This course is designed for beginner to intermediate level users who want to get familiar with the ins and outs of Access 2007.

Your instructor, Heather Ackmann, will show you how to design and build your own database from start to finish.

Learn about the new Access interface, importing and exporting options, pivot tables and pivot charts, queries, calculations and built-in functions.

Our training will also help you prepare for your 77-605 MCAS: Using Microsoft Access 2007 Certification Exam.

Check out all the details and see what our new Access 2007 Training has to offer!

2 Easy Ways to Improve Your Productivity Using Outlook 2007

Zach Monroe — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:00:45 +0000

People say that it’s the little things that make all the difference.

The same holds true when using Microsoft Outlook. With just a few simple changes you can increase your productivity in Outlook like you never thought was possible.

Do you work in a big office where you’re part of a large mail group? Does it always seem that you’re getting emails that don’t pertain to you?

Well I’m going to show you how to prioritize those emails so that you only get the emails that are meant for you.

The next improvement that I’ll talk about involves a workaround to allow Outlook to accept certain file types as safe. This is handy for coworkers who need to pass a certain file type back and forth over Outlook.

It basically makes sure that you get all of the attachments that your coworkers are sending to you and that your coworkers are getting the ones you send them.

This article is in the spirit of taking a few hours on a Sunday afternoon and cleaning your house from top to bottom after a long winter. It takes you until you‘re done to realize how out of place and unorganized things were.

That’s why today I want you to get out your virtual mop and bucket to do a little spring cleaning with your Microsoft Outlook.

Get Emails Meant for You … And Forget About that Other Stuff

Tell me if this sounds familiar. You sign onto your work computer and open up your email only to see 60 messages, of which only 20 are directed specifically to you and need to be handled right away. The other 40 are directed to your email group.

Going through each email one by one to find the emails you need to answer right now can be time consuming and tedious. You need something that will show you which emails are meant for you (and only you) and which ones are sent to everyone in the group.

Well break out your Crayolas because we are going to color code your emails!

To set this up: Open up Outlook and go to Tools, then click Organize

Click the Using Colors tab and click Turn On

Now, the default color is blue and from what I hear blue is a fairly pensive color. So, if you’re looking for a nice calming color then stick with the default.

Otherwise there are a variety of colors to choose from. My choice would have been Burnt Siena, but that color, unfortunately, didn’t make the cut.

Another nifty thing you can do (apparently I’m channeling Wally and the Beav; who says nifty anymore, honestly?) on that same tool is color coding messages you receive from a particular sender.

On the Using Colors tab type the email address that you want to color code next to the Color Messages From tab. The default color on this is Red. You can have a different color for each email address or you can group email addresses under the same color according to order of importance.

There is also a drop down box that allows you to change the Color Messages From tab to Color Messages Sent To, which in this case would color code the messages you are sending to a particular email address.

In either case, make sure you click the Apply Color button before you exit this screen.

Take advantage of this simple feature that will help you sort through the mass emails and let you get down to business.

Don’t Let Outlook Do Your Thinking for You

If you’re like me, then you collaborate with colleagues several times a day through email. Sometimes the only way to get things done in a timely manner is to email a file back and forth so that multiple people can work on it and get it ready for what you need to do.

The problem with this is that sometimes Outlook doesn’t like the file type or doesn’t know what it is and just decides to remove your attachment. You’ve seen the dialog box telling you that your attachment poses a potential security risk and asks you if you want to download the file.

So, you click yes and move on. But, sometimes you don’t even get the attachment and you end up sending a message back to your coworkers telling them you didn’t get it.

What happened to the attachment? Well, the short answer is that Outlook "frisked" your email on the way through "security" and "confiscated" some "contraband".

Outlook is more thorough than the Puerto Vallarta, Mexico airport, where I was once searched head-to-toe 4 times in a 30 minute span. Which by the way, after the 4th time they dumped out my bag and asked me if I had anything in there that shouldn’t be in there … I was thinking, "Well maybe I do." Are pants illegal? Take my pants; whatever gets me on the flight home.

The more involved answer is that Outlook has three "risk levels" that it can apply to attached files, that will determine what happens to the attachment. You may get a message that warns you about downloading attachments.

A lot of times Outlook does what it can so that you don’t get the attachment at all, and every now and then you actually get the attachment without any fanfare, which is pretty rare. For me this happens only during a lunar eclipse, on a leap year.

So when you and your coworkers are sending a particular type of file back and forth, it would be nice to make sure you get it 100% of the time. There are two ways to accomplish this.

For all of you tech savvy veterans, I’ll show you a way to modify your registry to allow certain file types to be passed through Outlook. And for all of you novices, or even you veterans that don’t feel like messing with the registry (it can be dangerous so don’t feel like you don’t have options), I’ll show you a free product you can download that will help you accomplish this using a GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Warning: Registry Changes Are Not For the Meek

To add certain file types to Outlook’s "low risk" watch list we need to start out by opening up the Registry Editor.

Before you do this I want to stress that changes to the registry are very serious and should not be done unless you know exactly what you are doing. Also, and this is the most important thing, back up your registry before you make any changes. Even if something is done incorrectly you can always get things back to the way they were.

Now that we have the disclaimers out of the way, go ahead and go to your Windows Start Menu and Click Run. Type regedit and click OK

This will open your Registry Editor.

- Click the Plus Sign next to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder (if it’s not already clicked)
- Click the Plus Sign next to the Software folder
- Click the Plus Sign next to the Microsoft folder

- Click the Plus Sign next to the Windows folder
- Click the Plus Sign next to the CurrentVersion folder
- Right click the Policies folder

- Move your cursor over New and select Key from the menu and name this key Associations
- Right click the Associations folder and move your cursor over New and select String Value
- Name the String Value LowRiskFileTypes

- Double click the LowRiskFileTypes string and enter the file types that are frequently attached in Outlook. For example .exe;.flv

This will include all executable files and Flash player files, although, I wouldn’t recommend adding executable files to the list.

Registry Editing is Not My Thing

If you’re like most people, you’re not going to want to make changes to your registry through your registry editor.

In an effort to make things easier, there is a free program called OutlookTools that will allow you to make the registry changes you need to make without the hassle of going into the registry itself.

To start out, click this link and once you reach this page you will see screen shots of each tab in the OutlookTools program. Under the screenshots is a brief description of what each tab does.

- Scroll about half way down the page and click Download
- Once you have OutlookTools downloaded and installed, open it, and the main screen will default to the General tab

- Navigate to the last tab called Blocked Attachments
- Each check box you check will allow that type of attachment to be unblocked, so you can attach those file types in Outlook emails
- Click Save

Now, I know this seems incredibly easy compared to manually editing the registry, but I don’t ever want to give you the quick fix without first explaining why it works.

What you do in OutlookTools is changing your registry, just like you did manually within the Registry Editor. It’s always good to know what’s behind the GUI, and it’s always good to take some of the hassle out of using Outlook.

Learn How To Accomplish More With Your Email With Outlook 2007 Training Videos!

Outlook 2007 has more features and gives you more control — if you know how to use it. We’ll show you how to:

- Install and setup your profile
- Personalize the Outlook 2007 Interface
- Effectively organize your information
- Use resources to help you be more productive
- Manage calendars, meetings, tasks, contacts, and more!

Take advantage of everything the new Outlook has to offer — get Microsoft Outlook 2007 Training Videos today!

Merging for Dummies: Creating Address Labels in Word 2007

Gosia Grabowska — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:30:09 +0000

If you’re creating invitations for a wedding or another big event, you think it’s no big deal … it’s only a few hundred, you can knock that out in a couple of hours right? Type them up in Word, print them out and you’re done!

A couple of months later, you’ve got another job ahead of you … the thank you cards. Hopefully you saved the Word doc that you slaved over last time … formatting it and making it look just right.

But even if you did save your doc, you’ve still got plenty of work ahead of you … going through all of the names one by one, checking them off, making changes … it takes some time.

The solution? An Excel spreadsheet that allows you to very easily sort the list, make any necessary changes and have your labels ready in no time.

Working with an Excel spreadsheet makes the whole process of creating address labels — as well as other things, such as personalized letters, thank you cards, etc. — less time consuming and very easy.

Knowing how to merge Excel and Word documents can come in very handy in many situations. So today I’m going to show you a very easy but very useful time saver — how to create address labels in Word 2007 using an Excel spreadsheet.

Here’s what a simple Excel spreadsheet can look like:

Save this baby to your hard drive, call it something obvious like AddressList and all you need to do now is a quick merge between Excel and Word and your address labels are done in less than 10 minutes.

Here’s a step-by-step that shows you how easy it is to create address labels in Word 2007!

Creating Address Labels in Word 2007

1. Before you start make sure you have your Excel spreadsheet ready. Now open up Microsoft Word 2007 and click on the Merge tab.

2. Next, click on the Start Mail Merge button and select Labels.

3. Now it’s time for you to select the Label Vendor. In my case I am going to use Avery US Letter.

4. I have the 8662 labels so I am going to scroll down and select that. You should find the label number that’s appropriate for your labels, it’s usually on the box.

When you find your label number, select it and click OK.

5. You might get the following message. What this means is that if you typed something in this document and you did not save it, it will be lost. If you do not want that, hit Cancel, save the document and then repeat the steps from 1-5.

If you have a blank screen behind this message then go ahead and click OK to continue.

6. Next, click on the Select Recipients button on the ribbon and select Use Existing List.

7. Browse to the location where your Address List file is and select it. I have mine on the Desktop. I will click on it once, and then select Open.

8. In this window, select the sheet you have your list on. Mine is on the first sheet as this is all I have there. If you didn’t do anything special in Excel, your address list should be on the first sheet as well.

Also notice the check box next to First row of data contains column headers. You should have that checked if your columns have headers such as: First name, Last name, Address, etc.

If you don’t have the column headers, I would recommend going back to the excel file and adding them in. It’s going to make your life a lot easier while going through the merge. When ready, click the OK button.

9. Once you click OK you will see the following document. It may look a bit scary but don’t worry, all is good.

10. Since you are creating address labels, you will have two choices here. The first choice is to click on the Address Block button on the ribbon.

This option will automatically select all your columns and create an address for you.

The address looks good, but notice that we are missing the state. It’s not listed here but when we check back in our Excel document, it’s there.

Well this is ok, we can fix it. Go ahead and click on the Match Fields button.

11. Now in the left column find State and in that row click on the arrow pointing down, then select your header name for the State column. Mine is called State, so I will select that and click OK.

12. Now we see that the state is showing and the address looks good. Go ahead and click the OK button.

13. You will notice that in our first address label spot we have something called << AddressBlock >>.

If you decide to print your labels now, you will only get that first address in the first label. You need to make sure that the << AddressBlock >> appears on each label following the << NextRecord >> code. To do that you need to click on Update Labels option on the ribbon.

14. Once you click on that button, all labels will update.

And you are almost done! Now you have to click on the Finish & Merge button and select Edit Individual Documents to see what your labels will look like.

15. Make sure All is selected and click OK.

16. TA DA!!! Now all you need to do is print your labels.

Another Way to Merge …

1. Another way to do the merge is to pick the fields manually. To do that you will need to select the Insert Merge Field option on the ribbon and select one field at a time.

2. To start out, insert First Name, hit the space bar and then insert Last Name. After that, hit the enter key and insert Address.

Hit the enter key again, insert City, hit the comma key, and the space bar, insert State, hit the space bar again, and insert Zip Code.

This way all of your spacing and punctuation will be correct and your first label should look something like this.

3. You can also format the first label any way you want it. For example, you can change the font, you can center the text, make it bold, etc.

4. Once you are done making edits to the text and formatting, don’t forget to go back to your Mailings tab on your ribbon and select the Update Labels button. This will make sure that all your formatting and changes that you made to the first label are copied over to all the other labels.

5. Now you’re ready to view and print your labels. Click on the Finish & Merge option on your ribbon and select Edit Individual Documents.

Now isn’t this much easier than typing the names and addresses on the labels, over and over, and over again? And merging works just as well with letters, invitations, thank you notes, or anything else you do in Word. Try it out!

And don’t forget, there are lots of other cool things you can do in Word and Excel. Check out the sample videos below!

Get Microsoft Word 2007 Training and learn how to fully utilize this popular and powerful program!

Learn about all the new features and options, strategies that save you time, and how to integrate Word with other Microsoft programs including Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.

Our complete Word 2007 training covers everything you need to know to become the Word expert.

Master Excel and become the spreadsheet expert with Microsoft Excel 2007 Training

Take advantage of all the new features of Excel and see how much more you can accomplish with your data.

Our complete Excel 2007 training – beginner to advanced – offers instructor led video, instructor’s notes, and plenty of Excel exercises to put your new knowledge into practice.

5 Days Left! Save 91% — Over $600 on Microsoft Office Ultimate

Kasia Grabowska — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:00:50 +0000

Listen up college students! Microsoft is on a mission to get you the biggest discount on Office Ultimate 2007 there is.

Save 91% off of the retail price and pay much, much less for everything the new Office Ultimate has to offer — from Access, Excel, Groove and more!

Microsoft Office Ultimate retails for $680 — but until this Friday, May 16th eligible college students can get it for just $59.95.

Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 includes:

Access 2007
Accounting Express 2007
Excel 2007
Info Path 2007
Groove 2007
OneNote 2007
Outlook 2007
PowerPoint 2007
Publisher 2007
Word 2007

Remember this offer is only available for actively enrolled college students with [dot]edu email addresses and carrying at least half a credit hour course load.

Check out the Ultimate Steal in the next few days as this offer ends this Friday, May 16th at 11:59pm.

Looking for more great deals? Don’t forget about Microsoft Dreamspark where you can get Microsoft Professional Developer and Designer tools for free!

So You Think You Know Word … Then Take Our Challenge!

Kasia Grabowska — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:45:29 +0000

Almost all computer users say that they know Microsoft Word, and when asked to rate their skill level most, if not all, will place themselves at the intermediate level or higher.

Many of us think that Word is easy and that there’s nothing to it … and sadly that’s what I’ve always thought too.

So when I watched the sample video of our newly released Microsoft Word 2007 Training Videos I was really surprised by how much I didn’t know.

The new Word 2007 is packed with improved features and new options. I bet you’ll be surprised by just how much can be done in Word that you’ve never even thought was possible.

How are your Word skills? Would you place yourself at the intermediate level or above? How well do you think you’d score on a Word proficiency test? Are you ready to surprise yourself?

Take the Word Challenge!

Watch this six minute sample video of our new Microsoft Word 2007 Training and see how much of the material you’re not familiar with.

In this video your instructor, Bill Kulterman, talks about section and column breaks, inserting pictures, text wrapping, creating cover pages, and lots more.

After you’re done with the video, see what Bill has to say about Word 2007, studying for Microsoft certifications, his new training course … and a little bit about himself.

Learn Microsoft Word From an Award Winning Instructor

Kasia: What do you think is the best new feature of Word 2007?

Bill: The best new feature of all the 2007 Office products is The Ribbon. It is now much easier to find the commands and features you’re looking for, they are no longer buried in hidden menus, everything is right out in the open.

They have also made Styles much more powerful and accessible, and by adding Building Blocks and Quick Parts, it’s much simpler to have consistency in your documents.

Kasia: Now that you’ve done both Word 2007 and Excel 2007 training, which program do you think is easier to learn?

Bill: Wow, that’s a tough question. Excel is such a large and complex program that I would have to say Excel. Word is more familiar to people, everyone has had to write a report or a research paper, even a memo, but not everybody has needed to make a spreadsheet.

Kasia: Why do you think someone should want to get training in using a program like Word, one that most computer users are already familiar with?

Bill: I can almost guarantee that most people would find things that they never knew existed before.

The average user will discover ways to make their tasks easier, produce a better product, do things that they didn’t know they could, and become more efficient and productive.

Kasia: What’s different about your Microsoft Word 2007 training, when compared to all the others?

Bill: I try to take a casual approach with my classes and I like to think that my teaching style makes the class fun and interesting. I also strive to be very thorough, exploring topics in great detail and concentrating on the things that a majority of people can apply to their daily tasks.

Kasia: What’s the most difficult thing you cover in your new training?

Bill: Forms are the most complex. They’ve significantly changed much of the ways forms work and are created in Word. Even people familiar with forms in older versions of Word might have some problems making the adjustment.

Macros are also complex. If you’re new to Macros they can be intimidating but learning their capabilities can really be incredibly useful for repetitive tasks.

Kasia: I know you have an extensive background in web and graphic design, so how did you get into teaching?

Bill: Honestly, I needed a job and the opportunity arose so I took it.

Kasia: You’re also an award winning Microsoft Office instructor, how did you earn this honor?

Bill: The award was based on student feedback metrics. After each class we would have our students fill out a multi-question survey of their experience based on a scale of 1 – 9. Something like 6 questions were about the instructor. I was in the top 15 worldwide for the company in 2005.

Kasia: What does MOS Master Certification involve, and when did you obtain yours?

Bill: You have to be Expert Certified in Word and Excel, then be certified as a Specialist in at least two of the following, Access, PowerPoint or Outlook. You achieve certification by passing a Microsoft exam for each. I finished my exams in 2005.

Kasia: What’s your advice for someone who wants to become MCAS certified for the 2007 Office Suite?

Bill: Well, take my course. Seriously though, study the exam objectives outlined by Microsoft and know them in great detail. When taking the exams read the entire question carefully, and make sure you understand what they’re asking before you answer.

Kasia: Besides your work here at Train Signal, what else do you do?

Bill: I still do a little web and graphic design work once in a while just for fun. I also enjoy going to the Opera, Biking, and my backyard pond.

Kasia: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions Bill and congratulations on the release of another great training product!

Check out Bill Kulterman’s Microsoft Word 2007 Training Videos — and learn how to fully utilize this popular and powerful program!

Become a Word 2007 expert!

Learn about all the new features and options, strategies that save you time, and how to integrate Word with other Microsoft programs including Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.

Find out more and see if Word 2007 Training is right for you!

Six Snarky Statements: Why System Admins Need Microsoft Word

Ben Culbertson — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:00:33 +0000

Hey, Coach here with a really important post.

I have talked with and taught system administrators around the country, and I am aghast how few of them really know Microsoft Word.

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard, “I’m a network administrator, what do I need Word for?” and “That’s for those other people — you know, my lowly subjects in my IT kingdom,” I’d have at least $2.25, maybe even three bucks!

Well, it’s just about time to change that kind of attitude. Why?

I’ve got 6 snarky “Because” statements that will inform, persuade, and entertain you towards the conclusion as to why you as a systems administrator/network engineer/server jockey/self-proclaimed-minor-IT-deity — should get to know Word.

1. Because you don’t know what you don’t know

No, seriously, you don’t. If you knew what you don’t know, then you would know it, which is the opposite of not knowing.

When you sit down to learn Word, you’re going to find some stuff that I guarantee will make you say, “Holy crap, that’s in there?” Yeah, Bubba, it really is.

When you know what an application can really do, you can use it to your advantage to rip through common and not-so-common tasks on a daily basis.

2. Because you’re not so rich that you can waste time

You know it, I know it, we all know that IT people are crazy busy. But chances are, you’re doing tasks in Word that are taking you way more time than they need to.

Actually taking some up-front time to learn Word tricks will save you massive amounts of time later, and we all know time is money.

With Word 2007, there’s been some really significant changes, and you can either waste clock hours poking around on it in all your spare time, or you can get a tour guide that will help you get where you want faster and easier. Hey, it’s your choice.

3. Because you’re always looking for better ways to do something

Well, you are, right? If not, it’s time to start looking into a career in the fast-paced environment of underwater basket weaving.

Word training will teach you easier ways to get what you want done. That’s the kind of thinking that will get you a raise. Word 2007 has some better ways to get stuff done easier than what you’ve been doing in the past.

4. Because everyone else is using it

Yes, they are. I know how much you love OpenOffice and AbiWord, but the standard in the business world is Microsoft Word.

No matter how much the blogosphere lights up about how it’s this or that, it’s not going away. So give in to the peer pressure — we’re all waiting around for you to catch up.

5. Because Notepad will only take you so far

Oh yeah, try creating 500 individually addressed envelopes in Notepad. Sure, go ahead. We’ll wait. We’ll see you in about six hours.

Oh wait, I can do that with Word in like, what, 3 minutes? Yeah, three minutes. Wanna time me? Start….now! (and no, printing time doesn’t count.)

6. Because you’re the freakin’ system administrator!

Seriously, we all know that all the other non-administrators think you’re supposed to be the expert on everything. You exist merely to serve their every whim and desire.

If someone wants to know how to launch the freakin’ Space Shuttle into orbit with a Windows 3.1 machine and Mine Sweeper, you’ve got it.

But when the CEO asks you how to format a document into columns, and all you do is stare blankly into the abyss that is your Word knowledgebase … well, you better get your resume ready. And while you’re at it, better brush up on your Word skills for the next one.

So, hopefully through my heavily laid-upon sarcasm you’ve seen the wisdom of picking up some Word skills.

Some of you are already thinking, “Bah, I don’t need Word skills! I get by just fine with Emacs!”

Ok, well, I suppose, but if you’d like to get up with the rest of us in the 21st century, go get you some Word 2007 training now.

Take the Word Challenge!
Watch This Six Minute Sample of Our Microsoft Word 2007 Videos!

Find out more about Microsoft Word 2007 Training — Available Now!

Excel 2007: Your Guide to Effective Pivot Tables

Kasia Grabowska — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:30:21 +0000

Pivot tables are not new to Excel 2007; in fact they’re included in all versions of the program. But surprisingly not a lot of Excel users are familiar with them. If you’re an avid Excel user don’t miss out on this very useful Excel feature since pivot tables have the ability to transform the way you look at your data.

Pivot tables allow you to easily analyze, summarize, and organize large amounts of data so that you’re able to make better sense of what you’re looking at. As the instructor of our Excel 2007 Training, Bill Kulterman, put it “Pivot tables allow you to find that needle in the haystack.”

Pivot tables in Excel 2007 also remain very flexible and easy to manipulate so that at any time you can adjust the data and reorganize it through the use of filters.

Creating a Pivot Table

When you’re working with Pivot Tables the first thing you need to ask yourself is: What do I want to get out of my data? Or basically, what do you want to see on your Pivot Table.

Start by taking a closer look at your data and make sure that you don’t have any blank rows or columns. Then select the Insert tab on the Ribbon:

Then click on Pivot Table at the far left, and select Pivot table:

A Create Pivot Table dialogue box will come up that will allow you to select all the settings:

First you will get to select a table or range. If you have no blank columns or rows in your spreadsheet, you should already have all the data selected, but you can always double check this before you click okay.

You will also get to choose where you want the Pivot Table report to be placed. If you choose existing worksheet you will need to specify where you want the table to begin. For our example, I’ll put the Pivot Table on a New Worksheet:

Click okay, and there it is! Your Pivot Table is ready to come alive. At the right you’ll notice the Pivot Table Field List which lists your column headers under Choose fields to add to report. Underneath that you will see the different areas that the data can be applied to.

On the left you will see the structure of the Pivot table and this is where your pivot table will appear:

By selecting the different fields you get to choose which information goes into your pivot table. You do this by clicking on the boxes next to the different fields or dragging them to the different areas below:

The Values area is the data field and this is where you decide what you want to analyze. So in our example, if we want to show the total number of sales in the pivot table, this is where we want the sales field to be.

Column labels and row labels determine how many columns and rows you have in your pivot table. So if we want to see particular data in a column instead of in rows all we have to do is drag the field to the appropriate area:

Next we will drag the fields that we want to be able to filter in the report and the data that we want to see displayed in rows:

The pivot table is now ready! We have our Quarters field displayed in columns, we have our Saltwater fish displayed in rows and the data that we’re looking at show us the total number of sales and a grand total:

We can also analyze this data by a particular store since this is the field that we included in our Report Filter area. So at the top of the page our filter allows us to select the store (or multiple stores) and the data that will be displayed in the pivot table will include only what we have selected through our filter:

The pivot table can be manipulated at any time to display the data and analyze it in a different way. So if we don’t want to look at our sales numbers by store, but instead want to be able to filter it out by quarters all we have to do is drag the fields to the appropriate areas:

Now we can filter out our data by Quarters and see how each store performed within each quarter:

We can also filter out the first column so that if we want to narrow down our data and see how a specific product or a group of products performed, all we have to do is click select it:

Your pivot table gives you numerous options and allows you to manipulate your information in every possible way so that every question you might need to ask will receive an accurate answer displayed in an organized, easy to read and make sense of pivot table.

Microsoft Excel 2007 Training – Available Now!

Take advantage of everything the new Excel has to offer with Train Signal’s Microsoft Excel 2007 Training – Available Now!

Our complete Excel 2007 training – beginner to advanced – offers 12+ hours of instructor led video, instructor’s notes, and plenty of Excel exercises to put your new knowledge into practice.

Some of the topics in the training include:

- Formulas and Calculations
- Charts, Templates, and Pivot Tables
- Basic and Advanced Formatting
- Multiple Workbooks and Collaboration
- Using Macros and more!

Our Excel 2007 training also covers the Using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Certification Exam (77-602 MCAS). So take advantage of all the new features and see how much more you can accomplish with your data.

Find out more about the Microsoft Excel 2007 Training by Train Signal and try the best computer training on the planet today – Risk Free!

Excel 2007: Collaboration Made Easy

Kasia Grabowska — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:30:10 +0000

When I think of the new Excel 2007 I think of Carlyle and his quest for it – a short film promoting the new Microsoft Office.

It’s only a couple of minutes long but really funny. See The Quest and four other short films here under The Films tab.

What I like most about this film is that I can relate to Carlyle. I’ve been in his shoes, not in a big conference room in front of my superiors, but I have been in those desperate situations where the one piece of information that I need right now is nowhere to be found. I’m sure you’ve had the same feeling too. Like all the crucial, indispensible information and data has deserted you on purpose.

The new Microsoft Office, and especially the new Excel 2007, has made some major improvements in this area. It’s easier to organize, analyze and find your information when you need it.

Plus there’s so much more you can do! We’ve filled a whole training course with it – over 12 hours of nothing but Excel 2007!

Today I’ll focus on just a few things that you can do in Excel that deal with collaboration:

How to share an Excel workbook with others
How to restrict access in a shared workbook
How to track changes in a shared workbook
How to remove a workbook from shared use

How to Share an Excel Workbook

A shared workbook allows multiple users on a network to view and make changes to the workbook at the same time. Every time a change is made and saved it is seen by the other users who have access to the workbook. This is very useful for any collaborative projects where multiple users need access to the same information and want to be up-to-date on the progress of the project.

Before you start sharing your workbook, note that not all features will work in a shared workbook. If you want to add any of the items below you should do so before you start sharing your workbook, and remember that you cannot change these features while the workbook is being shared:

conditional formats
data validation
charts
pictures
hyperlinks
scenarios
outlines
subtotals
data tables
pivot table reports
macros
merged cells

1. To start sharing a workbook, click on the Review tab, and locate the icon that says Share Workbook under Changes:

2. In the Share Workbook dialogue box that comes up, on the Editing tab select Allow changes by more than one user at the same time. This also allows workbook merging.

3. On the Advanced tab, select the options that you want for tracking and updating changes, conflicting changes between users, and personal view. Then click OK:

4. If this is a new workbook, type in the name of the file in the box that comes up and select a network location that is accessible to the users you want to give access to and click Save.

If you have already named this workbook, click on the Microsoft Office Button, click Save As, and select a network location that is accessible to the users you want to give access to and click Save.

At this point all users who have access to the network location that you specified have full access to the shared workbook that you just created. If you want to create a workbook with restricted access, keep reading!

How to Restrict Access in a Shared Workbook

1. If you want to create a shared workbook that only select users can access click on the Review tab, and under Changes click on Protect Shared Workbook:

2. In the dialogue box select Sharing with track changes and if you want enter a password, and click OK:

3. If you entered a password you will be asked to repeat it, and your worksheet is now shared!

If you want to change any of the Advanced options for sharing your workbook, click on Share Workbook on the Review tab and make any necessary changes. Notice that some options have been grayed out and cannot be changed in a workbook that has restricted access:

How to Track Changes in a Shared Workbook

1. Once your Excel workbook is being shared you can track all changed being made to it by others. To track all changes, click on the Review tab and select Track Changes:

2. You will have two options: Highlight Changes and Accept/Reject Changes. When you click on the first option you will get to customize how changes will be tracked, when, where in the worksheet and by whom:

3. When you select the Accept/Reject Changes option you can specify which changes you want to be able to review before you accept or reject them:

How to Remove a Workbook from Shared Use

When your team is finished with a project and you want to stop sharing a workbook you should first make sure that all changes have been added to the workbook.

For your records you might want to save a copy of the history worksheet, which is actually a separate workbook that lists all changes that were made to the shared workbook. This information might come in handy since it not only lists the changes, but also the names of the persons who made them, when and where the changes were made, which data was deleted, and how you resolved any conflicts.

1. To save a copy of the history worksheet, click on the Review tab, click Track Changes, and then click Highlight Changes:

2. In the dialogue box select All in the When list and clear the Who and Where check boxes. Select the last box List changes on a new sheet, and click OK:

3. When the history worksheet with all changes comes up either copy and save the worksheet or print it out.

4. Now you’re ready to stop sharing the workbook. Start by clicking on Share Workbook, located in the Review tab, just like you did when you were setting up the workbook to start sharing:

5. In the dialogue box that comes up, on the Editing tab make sure that you’re the only person listed under the Who has this workbook open now list.

Uncheck the box that says: Allow changes by more than one user at the same time. This also allows workbook merging. Click OK and then Yes to the warning about removing the workbook from shared use:

And that’s it, you’re done! Your workbook is no longer being shared.

Microsoft Excel 2007 Training – Available Now!

Take advantage of everything the new Excel has to offer with Train Signal’s Microsoft Excel 2007 Training – Available Now!

Our complete Excel 2007 training – beginner to advanced – offers 12+ hours of instructor led video, instructor’s notes, and plenty of Excel exercises to put your new knowledge into practice.

Some of the topics in the training include:

Formulas and Calculations
Charts, Templates, and Pivot Tables
Basic and Advanced Formatting
Multiple Workbooks and Collaboration
Using Macros and more!

Find out more about the Microsoft Excel 2007 Training and try the best computer training on the planet today – Risk Free!

Excel 2007 Training Videos: Analyze and Visualize Your Data!

Kasia Grabowska — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:00:28 +0000

Microsoft Office Excel 2007 is more intuitive and offers new features and capabilities to help you manage, analyze and share your information more effectively.

The new Excel has been completely redesigned – with more options, powerful tools, and a brand new interface.

What’s new in Excel 2007?

More room for your data – spreadsheets have been expanded to support massive amounts of data – 1 million rows and 16,000 columns!

Make a chart with just three clicks – professional looking charts are now fast and easy. The best part is you can edit your Excel charts in Office 2007 Word and PowerPoint.

Sharing made easy – Excel 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 let you safely share spreadsheets on your server with total control over which users can view and edit the information.

There’s also Excel Services, interactive Pivot Tables, compressed XML Format, and much more!

Microsoft Excel 2007 Training – Available Now!

Take advantage of everything the new Excel has to offer with Train Signal’s Microsoft Excel 2007 Training – Available Now!

Our complete Excel 2007 training – beginner to advanced – offers 12+ hours of instructor led video, instructor’s notes, and plenty of Excel exercises to put your new knowledge into practice.

Some of the topics in the training include:

Formulas and Calculations
Charts, Templates, and Pivot Tables
Basic and Advanced Formatting
Multiple Workbooks and Collaboration
Using Macros and more!

Our Excel 2007 training also covers the Using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Certification Exam (77-602 MCAS). So take advantage of all the new features and see how much more you can accomplish with your data.

Find out more about the Microsoft Excel 2007 Training and try the best computer training on the planet today – Risk Free!

Excel 2007: Visualize Your Data with Ease

Bill Bullock — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:00:52 +0000

Excel has always been an excellent tool for listing numerical and textual data, and Excel 2007 is no different in that regard. Of course, simply storing data is rarely all that we use Excel for. Most of the time, we use Excel to analyze our data or to visualize it by creating charts.

Charts are a great way to visualize data. They allow you to quickly and easily show what your data means, and effectively compare different aspects of the information you are trying to get across.

The problem with charts in older versions of Excel was that it was fairly annoying to set one up. Even if you had your data in a workable format (which was often a chore to it get into, right?), you still had to do set parameters and change numerous settings in order for Excel to show the chart in the way you wanted it.

This is no longer true! In Excel 2007, not only is it quick, easy and (at the risk of betraying just how nerdy I am) fun to create a chart, but it can be even more interesting to simply format and edit the chart once it has been created.

There are numerous types of charts out there, and each has its own advantages. Here’s the basic chart types that you can create in Excel 2007:

A column chart – lists 2 or more categories using vertical bars
A bar chart – similar in form to a column chart, except the bars are displayed horizontally.
A line chart – basically what we all call a “graph.” Data is represented by dots on a line. This is essentially what you learned about in high school algebra.

A scatter chart – very similar to a graph. However, you can present the data without lines here so the dots on your chart won’t necessarily follow a progression.
A pie chart – shows items as slices of a circular “pie.” This is great for showing percentages.
An area chart – most useful when you have multiple sets of data and you’re trying to show the differences across time or different categories.

But you know what charts are right? You’re more interested in how to create them in Excel 2007. Well you have found the right article, because I am going to do just that.

The easiest and best way to create a chart is to use the Insert tab in the Ribbon Interface. Simply select your data set (including the title row and column), and click on the type of chart that you want to create in the Insert tab.

A menu will come up with a few different styles of the specific chart you want to create. There will usually be 2D and 3D versions of the chart, along with different layout options, and even shapes:

Select the style that you like and it pops right up on the worksheet where your data is located. Presto! You now have a workable chart that you can customize to fit your needs. You can move it around on your worksheet, or even put it on its own sheet if you like.

Since you selected the title row and column with your data for this chart, Excel will automatically use them to create axis labels or categories to divide the data into. No more having to set parameters! How easy is that!Lastly, since the Ribbon Interface is dynamic, when you select your chart it will give you 3 different tabs that are specifically to help you modify and manipulate your chart. I will show quick screens of them below. They’re very intuitive titles are:

Design

Layout

Format

I could try to explain all the different options and features of these 3 menus, but that could be an entire article of its own. Instead, I would suggest that you play around with the options yourself and see what you can create.

Have some fun with your data, and look at it in a whole different way with the awesome charts you can make in Excel. Try to see if you can make something really unique and useful, and have fun with it.

When you’re done, stop by and tell us about your favorite chart type or feature in the comments!

Sign up for our free Newsletter to receive our exclusive discount offers, new release notifications, free training videos, and more!