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Application Tips

Tips and tricks for everything from Adobe to Zoho!

Print Envelopes with One Click – Video Tip

Using Microsoft Word and a little customizing of the Word toolbar, this tip will get you printing envelopes easily.

If you write business letters with the recipient’s address in the body of the message, Word will pick up the address and insert it into your envelope when you use the envelope tool. Click on the Tools menu and then Envelopes and Labels. From there, you can print your envelope and set your default return address. Experiment with your printer a little to get the direction and feed of the envelope correct to make your printing easier.

Now to get the button on your toolbar for one-click access, follow these steps for Microsoft Word versions 2003 and prior (the video shows the methodology for Word 2007 and OpenOffice Writer as well):

1. Click on Tools from the menus
2. Click on Customize
3. Click on the Commands tab
4. Click on Tools in the Categories column
5. Scroll and find the Envelopes and Labels button in the Commands column
6. Click on it and drag it out to your toolbar…you can place it anywhere you want (I put mine next to the printer button)
7. Click on close

Now anytime you need to print an envelope your button is within reach.

The short video tutorial demonstrates these steps for you in pre-Word 2007 steps, Word 2007, and OpenOffice Writer.

Tip within a tip: Use these same steps to add any button you want to the toolbar.

Make Microsoft Office 2007 Play Nice – Video Tip

The release of Microsoft Office 2007 introduced us to an entire new interface and file format (thanks Microsoft). If you upgraded to Office 2007, you are creating documents in Microsoft’s new XML formats. Word documents now have the .docx extension, Excel documents have a .xlsx extension, PowerPoint has the .pptx extension…well, you get the picture. This is all fine and dandy if everyone you know also use the 2007 version of Office, but unfortunately that is not the case. If you want to email documents back and forth, you need to save those documents in the more compatible formats.

Today’s video tip shows you how to do that.

If you are an Office 2003 version or earlier, you will need to download this massive 28 megabyte “Compatibility Pack” from Microsoft in order to be able to read documents created in 2007. Better yet, send this tip to those folks so they can make things easier on themselves and everyone else.

Format Painter – Video Tip

I demonstrated today's tip in Microsoft Word, but it also works in all the Microsoft Office programs (Excel, Access, Publisher, Outlook, etc), WordPerfect, OpenOffice and others.

The tip is simple in its performance and gargantuan in its function. Format Painter copies formatting from one location and applies it to another. In the video example below, I formatted one line of text to have a particular look and it took 31 clicks of the mouse. Using Format Painter, I copied the look of that text to some plain text in just three steps. This technique comes in handy when formatting longer documents, spreadsheets, newsletters, etc and can save you a boat-load of time. Here's how to do it:

  1. Highlight the text that has already been formatted to your liking using your mouse.
  2. Click the Format Painter button. format painter button
  3. Highlight the text you want to apply the formatting too.

That's it!

Tip Within a Tip:

If you DOUBLE-CLICK the Format Painter button, you can apply the formatting changes to different parts of your document over and over until you unclick the Format Painter button.

Microsoft Word Features You Might Have Overlooked

Most computer users (myself included) never get close to using everything a piece of software has to offer. Microsoft Word is a great example of this theory. You could work with Word for years and never know all the power that it is possible of yielding. This week, I'm going to point out what I think are some of the features you are likely to use if you knew about them. Thesaurus

Sure you know how to use Word's spell check, but did you know you have access to a pretty good thesaurus as well. Here's how:

1. Highlight a word
2. RIGHT Click on the word
3. Click Synonyms from the menu
4. If you like one of the suggestions, click on it and it will replace the original word for you.

Avoid losing precious Quicken information

This quick tip coincides with a tip I wrote last year called the Magical Title Bar (click here to read it…and it is a MUST read tip) . However, since I run into many Quicken users who "lose" data, I thought it was time to give Quicken users a tip of their own to help decrease anxiety and increase productivity with this truly legendary program.

When I get the frantic call or show up and see the disgruntled facial expressions, I smile inside knowing that I will almost always be able able to pull their data from their perceived digital hell. And I don't do anything magic, I simply employ the use of the Title Bar and Quicken's "recently used document list". My first question, is "When did you last backup?", followed by "When did you notice that your data was different?"

Open Office 2.0 — FREE Alternative to Microsoft Office

In today's meetings, we downloaded, installed, and worked with Open Office. The FREE altnernative to Microsoft Office. To read why the software is free, read this information from their web site .

OpenOffice programs are completely compatible with Microsoft Office programs and allows you to read, edit, and create Office documents without owning the Microsoft Office suite. Here is a list of the programs and their functions in Open Office:

Open Office icons

OpenOffice – Revisited

I wanted to give a quick update on a product that we started talking about on the show about four years ago. It's called OpenOffice . OpenOffice is considered an open source project which means that no one entity owns it (although Sun Microsystems pushed it hard in the early going), and anyone can use it for free. OpenOffice, as the name implies, is a productivity software. It contains a Microsoft Office compatible word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager and database. I installed it for my kids almost a year ago and have been rolling it out for more and more clients. I can honestly say that I'm impressed with the product.

Amazing Jams and a quick Microsoft Tip

We never promote products on the site unless we test them first. Today, I helped a new customer with their computer security and backup needs. This gentleman also owns and operates a fruit jam operation. After working on his computer, we talked about his business and his products…jams. He grows most of his own fruits and only picks them at their peak ripeness. When he offered to give me a taste test, I said "sure". The first spoonful was his strawberry jam…WOW!! Is this what jam really tastes like? My mouth exploded with sweet, rich flavor of strawberries….not sugar and corn syrup. I was literally blown away by the depth of the taste and its affect on my palate. Then he continued to impress me with his pear, apricot and wine jams. All I can say is unbelievable. Where can you get this culinary delight? Look to his web site for phone numbers and ordering information; Colorado’s Mountain Fine Jams and Jellies. You will not be disappointed.

Automating Word

Almost seven years ago, I created some form templates for a customer of mine who is a salesman. He wanted to automate some forms that he filled out frequently so that he could minimize his time filling out forms and increase his time selling products. He gave me the forms that he currently filled out by hand, and I re-created them in Microsoft Word using Tables and the form features available in Word.

The final form was then saved as a Word Template (so it could be used over and over without affecting the original). All he had to do was double-click on a shortcut that pulled up a blank form for him to fill out and then print, email, and or save. The form even contained calculated fields to total his line items and the entire order. Did you know Word could do that?

I visited my client again today and we tweaked those seven year old documents to match his current needs. I really enjoy helping clients come up with ways to improve their efficiency using tools already on their computer.

If you are interested in how to create fillable forms with Microsoft Word, I found these online tutorials to be a good start:

Microsoft Word or Office Problems after last week’s Windows Updates

This is a short note to help those folks who are having problems with opening Word documents after a critical update from Windows last week. It appears it is unique to folks with some specific HP software.

After studying it, I would recommend going to Add/Remove Programs and remove the HP Share-to-Web program (unless you are really using that feature…most people don’t). If you do use that feature or want to learn more about the cause and fix for this problem. Visit Microsoft’s Support site and read their article.