59 Tech Tips

59 Technology
Tips for the

Administrative
Professional
From the editors of
Administrative
Professional Today
59 Technology
Tips for the
Administrative
Professional
From the editors of
Administrative
Professional Today
dministrative professionals are constantly pressed for time and looking for time-management
answers. One of the best solutions: Advance your technology skills in the programs you already
use on a routine basis.
You may know the basics of using Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and various web-based applications. But by learning just a few new tricks of the trade, you can become much more efficient (and
more marketable). Thats why we created this special report, a one-stop resource that shows you how
to capitalize on technology to make your workday more efficient.
In 59 Technology Tips for the Administrative Professional, youll learn pointers such as how to
speed through your to-do list in MS Word, collaborate online with colleagues, maximize Outlooks
features, optimize PowerPoint presentations and create time-saving templates. All are guaranteed to
streamline your work and advance your career.
And, as a subscriber to Administrative Professional Today, youll continue to receive the latest
technology tips in every months issue to ease your time-management concerns. We hope to count you
among our satisfied group of subscribers for years to come.

Sincerely,
Phillip A. Ash
Publisher
Editor
Kathy A. Shipp
Contributing Editors
Carolyn Frazier, Melissa P. Esquibel
Editorial Director
Patrick DiDomenico
Associate Publisher
Adam Goldstein
Graphic Designers
Dan Royer, Nancy Asman
Publisher
Phillip A. Ash
2013, 2010, 2008, Business Management Daily, a division of Capitol Information Group, Inc., 7600A Leesburg Pike,
West Building, Suite 300, Falls Church, VA 22043-2004. Phone: (800) 543-2055; www.BusinessManagementDaily.com. All
rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the
publisher. Printed in U.S.A.
ISBN 1-880024-78-0
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold
with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional service.
Contents
Supercharge Your Computer: Tips & Tools..............................................................1
1. Try keyboard shortcuts for Windows tasks............................................................................1

2. Ready for an online-storage test drive?..................................................................................1
3. Passwords: Keep the dogs and cats out of it..........................................................................2
4. Save time on your PC using these 4 tricks.............................................................................3
5. Give your fingers a lift with keyboard upgrade.....................................................................3
Speed Tasks in Microsoft Word.......................................................................................4

6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Navigate through MS Word with ease...................................................................................4

Perform 9 double-click tricks in Word...................................................................................5
Sane and simple sections, headers, footers............................................................................6
Streamline your back & forth editing.....................................................................................7
Design away, with these 4 Word tricks..................................................................................7
Boost Email/Outlook Efficiency........................................................................................8

11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
Tame your wild, woolly inbox: 4 tips....................................................................................8

Convert from Outlook 2007 to 2010?....................................................................................9
Oops! Didnt mean to send that message...............................................................................9
3 ways to create appointments, meetings.............................................................................10
Crack down on spam............................................................................................................11
Get creative with Outlook calendar......................................................................................11
Better calendars & tasks: 4 tips............................................................................................12
Zip through email clutter: 7 ways.........................................................................................13
Organize your email with colors..........................................................................................13
Log on to Online Tools & Useful Sites.......................................................................15

20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
Simplify to-do lists: virtual task masters................................................................................. 15

Make collaboration a breeze.................................................................................................15
Passwords, please..................................................................................................................16
Track already-visited websites.............................................................................................16
Track time better than a spreadsheet....................................................................................16
Explore working with wikis.................................................................................................17
The magic of destructible email...........................................................................................18
Brush away photo red-eye & blemishes...............................................................................18
So simple a SurveyMonkey can do it...................................................................................19
Google with precision...........................................................................................................20
Employ tech tools to plan the main event............................................................................20
Googles alternative to Excel spreadsheets..........................................................................21
Expanding the cloud: 4 add-ons...........................................................................................22
5 steps to making an online tutorial.....................................................................................22
Digitize those typewritten forms..........................................................................................23
Turn into a techie with online courses.................................................................................24
Excel in Using Excel.............................................................................................................25

36.
37.
38.
39.
Work the numbers: Excel dates & times..............................................................................25

Pivot tables get your data talking.........................................................................................26
Use the power of logic in spreadsheets................................................................................27
Let Excel fix common data problems..................................................................................28
Optimize PowerPoint Presentations............................................................................30

40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
Simplify PowerPoint visuals: 7 rules...................................................................................30

Creating a company PPT template.......................................................................................30
Go beyond bullet points with PowerPoint...........................................................................32
Get artistic with picture editing............................................................................................32
Save time & effort: PowerPoint pointers.............................................................................34
Save Time With Conferencing & Podcasts.............................................................35

45.
46.
47.
48.
Try these useful tools for conferencing................................................................................35

Cant make it to a meeting? Try podcasts............................................................................35
Cut travel costs with conference calls..................................................................................36
Virtual meeting software: 3 tools.........................................................................................36
Tap Into Smartphone Services.......................................................................................37
49. 8 best apps for taking care of business.................................................................................37

50. Give your iPhone a productivity boost.................................................................................37
51. Apps just for faxing..............................................................................................................38
Download Templates or Create Your Own..............................................................39
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
Create an agenda-building cheat sheet..............................................................................39

Save time with MS Word templates.....................................................................................40
Reuse your work with Excel templates................................................................................40
Travel Arrangements Form...................................................................................................41
Task Request Form...............................................................................................................41
Travel Profile Form..............................................................................................................42
Event Planning Form............................................................................................................42
Weekly Report Form............................................................................................................42
59 Technology Tips for the Administrative Professional
Supercharge Your
Computer: Tips & Tools
1. Try keyboard shortcuts for Windows tasks
Keyboard shortcuts may seem like more trouble than theyre worth. But once dis
covered and practiced, shortcuts can prove to be valuable timesavers. The key is not
trying to learn them all.
Try working just a few of these useful keystrokes into your day-to-day routine:
Cycle through your open applications by holding down Alt while you
repeatedly press Tab. Open the control menu in the upper-left corner of the current
application window by pressing Alt-Space. Close the current application by pressing
Alt-F4. Close the current document by pressing Ctrl-F4.
Launch Windows Explorer by hitting Windows-E. Then, just press
Backspace to move to your current folders parent folder. Type F2 to rename the
selected folder or file, and F3 to search for a file.
Minimize all open windows and return to your desktop by hitting
Windows-M or Windows-D. Shift-Windows-M reopens all the windows. (Windows-D
will restore them, too, if thats the key combination you used to minimize them.)
Trim some task time with these shortcuts, which
work in many applications:
BYTES
Ctrl-S saves your current work.
Ctrl-O opens a new document.
Love your keyboard. Nothing saves me as
Ctrl-Z and Alt-Backspace undo the last thing
much computing time as keyboard shortcuts,
you did.
says Ryan Block, Gdgt.com. His tip: Create
new keyboard shortcuts. Windows 7 lets you
Ctrl-Y undoes the last undo (or redoes).
map keys to program shortcuts. Right-click
Ctrl-A selects everything in the open window,
the program shortcut, select the Shortcut tab,
whether its all the files in a folder or the entire
choose the Shortcut key box and assign your
document.
own shortcut to open the program when you
Ctrl-X deletes the selection.
tap that key with the Ctrl and Alt keys.
Ctrl-C copies the selection.
Ctrl-V pastes the clipboard contents.
* * *
Not sure whats running on your computer?
Ctrl-F launches the programs search or find tool.
Visit ProcessLibrary.com and enter the program
Ctrl-Home moves the cursor to the beginning
in question for an explanation of what it does, if
of the open file or document.
its important or if its something dangerous you
Ctrl-End moves the cursor to the end of the
should shut down right away.
open file or document.
2. Ready for an online-storage test drive?
If youve been on the fence about which online file storage and sharing program to
jump into, or youre thinking about making a switch, Walt Mossberg recently presented an overview of the top four picks in his Wall Street Journal column. Heres a
quick look at Dropbox, SugarSync, Microsoft SkyDrive and Google Drive.
www.AdminProToday.com
Business Management Daily
1.Dropbox. This is the easiest and most well-known of the group. You can
keep your files in sync among several devices and computers and share individual
files via links you can email or post online that will bring up the file in a browser.
You can also create shared folders and automatically import photos from cameras or
smartphones. Offers 2 gigabytes of free storage; $99 for 100 gigabytes.
2.SugarSync. Its Magic Briefcase is similar to Dropbox, but it synchronizes
and backs up online your existing folder structure. For example, you can keep your
pictures folders on a Windows and a Mac computer in sync and make them available
online or through a mobile app. But linking the folders is complicated. Free for 5
gigabytes: $150 a year for 100 gigabytes.
3.SkyDrive. Microsofts biggest advantage is that its integrated with Microsoft
Office on both Windows and Mac. It comes with an online stripped-down version of
Office that works in any browser. Any file stored in SkyDrive can be edited in your
computers local copy of Office. It also offers the ability to edit in your computers
local copy of Office. Files can also be saved directly to SkyDrive from Office on
your computer. Free for 7 gigabytes; $50 for 100 gigabytes.
4. Google Drive. Tied in with Google Docs, this storage and synchronization
service features built-in editing and collaboration, but
it cant directly edit Microsoft Office files, which must
BYTES
be converted to Googles formats. Provides 5 gigabytes
free; $60 for 100 gigabytes.
Relieve computer eye strain by adjusting
All four storage systems provide free storage, work
the brightness and color temperature on your
with
both PCs and Macs, and have iPhone, iPad and
computer settings. Adjust the brightness of the
Android
apps.
display so its approximately the same as the
brightness of your surrounding workstation.
Color temperature describes the spectrum
of visible light emitted by a color display.
Reducing the color temperature of your display lowers the amount of blue light emitted
by a color display for better long-term viewing
comfort.
* * *
Figure out whats on a USB memory drive

without having to connect it to your PC. The
Royal EZVue Vista (www.royal.com) is a
memory drive with a black-and-white display
on it, so you can see which directories and
files youve stored on the device. The scrolling
buttons allow you to view its contents file by
file or folder by folder.
* * *
Protect a home computer from viruses with

one of these free software programs: Grisofts
AVG and Alwils Avast. Both do the job effi
ciently, and both are free. You can download
them from PC Worlds Downloads page
(www.pcworld.com/downloads).
3. Passwords: Keep the dogs
and cats out of it
Passwords protect every part of your online life. If you

dont treat them properly, youre exposing yourself to
a whole mess of trouble, writes Lincoln Spector, PC
World.
Passwords keep strangers off your computer and
smartphone and stop criminals from cleaning out your
bank account. Protect yourself with four tips from
Spector:
1. Use strong passwords. Avoid words likely to be
found in a dictionary, common names and anything too
short. You need numbers, punctuation and upper- and
lower-case lettersa random string of characters.
Create a formula that no one else would guess. For
example, says Spector, use the name of your alma mater,
spelled backward, every word that rhymes with free,
your phone number typed while holding down the Shift
key, and ending with the year you were born, squared.
2. Set up a different password for each site. Never
duplicate a password.
3. Utilize a password manager. Store all of your passwords in an encrypted

password manager. All you need to remember is the password managers password.
Several you might want to consider: Password Safe, LastPass, MSecure.
4. Dont let anyone know your passwords. Dont type a password on a website
that isnt secure. Dont share a password with anyone you wouldnt trust with your
credit card. Dont email your password to someone else.
4. Save time on your PC using

these 4 tricks
BYTES
Make favorite websites easier to find by
alphabetizing them in your Favorites list.
Heres how to do it in Internet Explorer:
Right-click anywhere on the Favorites
menu. On the menu that opens, click Sort
by Name. IE will list folders first, then individual web pages.
Even the fastest computer could profit from a few tricks that
make everyday tasks easier or faster. Here are four ideally
suited to admins:
1. Capture images of web pages and share them via
email with Send Page By Email. With this Firefox add* * *
on, instead of sending your manager a link to a web page,
Protect
your
computer
by keeping spyyou can share a screen shot. That way, he or she can glance
ware
from
sneaking
through.
Set your web
at your email to see the web info without ever clicking
browser to a medium- or high-security
through. And it wont matter if the content on the page
level. Windows users: See Microsofts web
refreshes. addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2343
site for instructions. Consider switching to
2. Find out in an instant whether youve used a word
another browser, such as Mozilla Firefox
correctly. Install the Merriam-Webster toolbar, one of the
(mozilla.org) or Opera (opera.com), to
most underrated tools on the web, to look up any phrase on
reduce the odds that youll be attacked.
the spot. www.merriam-webster.com
3. Speed up online research by installing the Dogpile
toolbar. It queries all the major search enginesGoogle, Yahoo!, Bing and Askat
the same time and delivers top results. www.dogpile.com
4.Boost productivity by adding a monitor. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates
uses three screens on his desk so he can drag items from one screen to the next. One
screen holds email; the second holds the message hes writing; and the third holds a
browser. Two screens may work for you.
5. Give your fingers a lift with keyboard upgrade
Consider a keyboard model that will help your hands feel more comfortable, type
faster or stay germ-free.
Examples:
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (microsoft.com/hardware):
An ergonomic design provides wrist comfort, while enhanced function keys make
shortcuts easier. Features dedicated back and forward web navigation keys.
Washable Wireless Keyboard (www.unotron.com): A sealed structure and
patented SpillSeal technology let you immerse the keyboard completely in water or
an anti-bacterial solution for cleaning ... meaning fewer germs in your work space.
Aviator Laptop Stand (www.keynamics.com): The ergonomic Aviator is
designed to tilt your laptop so that even if the airplane seat in front of you is reclined,
you wont have to hunch over the computer screen to see what youre working on.
Speed Tasks
in Microsoft Word
6. Navigate through MS Word with ease
You might spend more time navigating in Word documents than you actually do creating or editing content. Unlike pilots and boat skippers, were not taught to navigate
the sea of text that we encounter every day in our documents. Here are some handy
tips for moving around and selecting text.
The Browse Object button

In the lower right corner of your Word Window is a small round button called
Browse Object. Click this button to see the range of objects you can navigate. For
example, if your document has several
pictures, you can select the picture icon
(mountain and sun). Now, when you click
the double down or up arrows, youre
navigating by picture. You can also choose
to browse by Heading (123 outline icon),
Table and Section (portrait, landscape
arrow diagram).
Ctrl key shortcuts

There are a few must-have shortcuts for easily navigating Word:
Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End: These will get you to the top and bottom of your
document, respectively.
Ctrl+Page Down and Ctrl+Page Up: Half as much work as the Page Down
and Page Up keys by themselves, these will get you to the top of the next or previous page.
Ctrl+: This shortcut will take you to the beginning of the next word.
Ctrl+: Use this shortcut to go to the beginning of the next paragraph with
regular text separated by paragraphs. It will behave differently in a table.
Easy ways to select text

Squinting at your screen, trying to get your cursor placed exactly at the beginning
of the text you want to select and then trying to keep your mouse from running wild
until you get to the end of the text are frustrating and time
consuming. Here are three easy ways to select text.
1.If you are looking at your document in the Print
Layout view (default), youll notice that if you move
your cursor into the gray area to the left of the page, it
changes from a Northeast arrow to a Northwest arrow. As
a Northwest arrow, dragging it along the left side of the
page, it will select whole lines of text quickly.
4
Did you know that there are different ways to select a single word? Theres the
old standby, click and drag. Then, there are two easier ways.
2. From the beginning of the word, press Ctrl+Shift+.
3. If youre not a keyboard shortcut fan, place your cursor in the middle of the
word and double click.
Tip: You can select a single paragraph by triple clicking anywhere in the paragraph.
Formatting tips
Its not necessary to select a whole word or paragraph to perform formatting actions.
For single words, just place your cursor in the middle of the word and choose any
button in the Font group on the Home tab, or make changes with the Font selection
on the right-click menu.
To center, right or left, align a paragraph or apply
BYTES
numbering or bullet styles, click in the middle of the
Use this shortcut to move Word text without
paragraph and click the appropriate button.
7. Perform 9 double-click tricks

in Word
You probably already know about double-clicking in

Word to select a word or paragraph. But did you know
about these double-click tricks for getting through your
work faster?
1. Set a tab. Double-click on a tab in the ruler bar and
Word 2007 opens the Tabs dialog box, where you can set
tab-stop positions and alignments.
2.Change indents or spacing. In the ruler bar,
double-click any of the three symbols at the left, or the
baseball-diamond object at the far right, and Word opens
the Paragraph dialogue box, where you can change the
indents and spacing options.
3.Adjust the margins. On the ruler bar, doubleclick in the darker area to the left of the indent objects
(mentioned above) to open the Page Setup dialogue box.
Thats where you can adjust the margins, change the page
orientation (landscape or portrait), choose the paper type,
and specify header and footer settings.
4. Track your changes. At the bottom of the Word
window, click on the grayed-out TRK button to turn the
Track Changes feature on or off. To set options, rightclick the TRK button and choose Options.
5. Switch to overtype or insert mode. Double-click
the OVR button, also at the bottom of the Word window,
to switch between overtype and insert mode.
6.Write a Macro. In the same status bar, doubleclick on REC to open the Record Macro and begin
recording your keystrokes and menu choices.
losing track of what youre doing: Select the

text you want to move, and press F2. In the
status bar at the bottom of the Word window,
youll see the message Move to where?
Position the insertion point where you want
the selection to appear, and then press Enter.
* * *
Just getting used to using Word 2007 and

2010? Click on the Dialog Box Launchers to
find old familiar screens. Youll find Dialog
Box Launchers at the bottom right corner of
selected groups, like Font and Paragraph on
the Home tab, and Page Setup on the Page
Layout tab. They look like little gray down- and
right-facing arrows. When you hover over
them, they turn orange. Another great Office
2010 tip: Orange means on or active.
Youll find these in other Office 2007 and 2010
applications, too.
* * *
If you copy and paste data into a Word

document, but you would prefer to see it as
a table, it takes only a couple of clicks. If your
data are delimited by spaces, tabs, commas
or paragraph markers (), you can convert
it to a multi-column table. Lets say your list
followed the pattern Name, Address, City,
State, ZIP, Phone. Select all the data. Then, on
the Insert tab, click the Table button. Choose
Convert Text to Table and choose comma
under Separate Text At. Presto! For a single
column, multi-row table, use the Paragraphs
selection.
7. Change your bullet type or number format for a list. Double-click a number
or bullet in a list to open the Bullets and Numbering dialogue box. Change a 1. to
a 1) or a circle bullet to a square bullet.
8. Launch spell-check. Double-click on the spell-check button (the open-book
icon with an X on one page) in the status bar.
9. Jump straight to a note. Double-click a footnote or endnote number in the text
of your document and Word moves you to the footnote or endnote text itself. To
return to the note within the document, double-click on the number in the footnote or
endnote area.
8. Sane and simple sections, headers, footers
You can produce easily navigated documents with a few tricks: applying heading
styles, inserting section breaks and using different headers and footers for those sections. These techniques work in both Office 2007 and 2010, and theyre much easier
to use than older versions of Office.
Styles
You may have considered styles too complicated to navigate in previous versions of
Word. Now, theyre simple to use. And,
if you only master Heading 1 and Heading 2,
you open up great tools like tables of contents and use of the Navigation Pane
(2010). Position your cursor in the middle of the text youve created for your heading. Then just click on the Heading 1 button. If you like shortcuts, try Ctrl+Alt+1,
which will also make your text a Heading 1. For Heading 2, click on the Heading 2
button or try Ctrl+Alt+2.
Section breaks
Youll find Section Breaks on the Page Layout tab. To insert a section or page break,
look for Breaks in the Page Setup group. The dropdown menu will display both a
Next Page and a Continuous Section Break. If you choose a Continuous Section
Break, which appears in the middle of a page without causing a new page, the header
for that page will be for the previous section, not the one you created. Use the Next
Page Section Break for complex documents. Think of sections as chapters in a book.
Work with Show/Hide button on to better manage breaks.
Headers and footers

Now that you have Headings identified
with Styles and youve inserted section
breaks at the appropriate places in your
document, youre ready to deal with headers and footers. Go to Page Layout view and
double-click at the top of the page to access
the header area of your page. Youll notice that the rest of the page slightly grays
out and youll see a dashed separator where the header ends. Youll see the Same
as Previous indicator in each new section. To create a new header for this section,
toggle the Link to Previous button off by clicking on it. Scroll down and click into
6
the footer section. Youll see the same options there. Use this to produce different
page numbering for each section.
Navigation
With all the components in place, you can easily insert a table of contents and make
use of the Navigation Pane (2010). On the References tab, click on the Table of
Contents button and Insert Table of Contents. To use the Navigation Pane in Word
2010, be sure the check box is checked on the View tab in the Show Group.
9. Streamline your back & forth editing
Any Word feature that can save time and make you look good to the boss is worth
tapping into, right?
One such feature: Words built-in reviewing tools, which let you and others track
all the changes you make as a document is written and edited.
With the Track Changes tool turned on, you can track each insertion, deletion
and formatting change. As you or your manager reviews tracked changes, you can
accept or reject each one.
So, put away the red pen and sticky notes; this little-used feature will consolidate
all editing comments and changes, making it easier for you to wrap up a job errorfree in no time. How to start:
Open the Reviewing toolbar. On the View menu, point to Toolbars and click
Reviewing.
Open the Tools menu; click Track Changes to begin keeping a record of additions and deletions.
Review other readers changes by clicking Next on the Reviewing toolbar. Click
Accept Change or Reject Change/Delete Comment for each revision or comment.
10. Design away, with these 4 Word tricks
Heres a secret that Microsoft Word power users already know: You dont have to
learn another program to design brochures, newsletters, fliers and reports.
MS Word trainer Lori Fields shares these useful tips:
1. Clone a look you like by using the format painter (the paintbrush tool). Click
on the text you like, then double-click the little paintbrush on your toolbar. Now anything your cursor touches will convert to that style. Single-click the paintbrush icon
to turn it off.
2. Manipulate pictures by clicking on them, then using the picture toolbar that
appears. Compress, crop and resize without taking a picture back into Photoshop.
3. Give clip art a clear background by using the set transparent color tool (looks
like a pen with an arrow at the end of it). Click on the tool, then click on the area you
dont want to see. Text can now wrap around the clip art image.
4. Increase text size by hitting Control[ or shrink it by hitting Control]. Youll
see quickly how text will look without going to the font size menu.
Note: Generally, you want to make the body text large enough for the age of your
audience, ranging from 10 to 14 points. Once you have determined the body text
size, here are the rules for headlines and titles: Subheads should be two points bigger
than the body; headlines should be two times bigger than subheads.
Boost Email/
Outlook Efficiency
11. Tame your wild, woolly inbox: 4 tips
Taming the Outlook monster is something we all need help with, so here are a few
easy ways to start cleaning up your Outlook inbox.
1. Sort by sender
This is a good first step. It allows you to easily spot and delete email from advertisers whose messages you no longer need. This also makes it easy to spot email from
friends and family, which dont have a real retention requirement.
Tip: Make a separate folder for emails that contain pictures you might want to
save. Then, just like in olden days, you can cut them out and paste them into
a PowerPoint album and save that instead of the email.
2. Search for old emails

If you have accumulated several
years of emails, start by creating
search folders for each year. Search
folders arent actual folders; its a
search criteria and a way to see all
email, no matter what folder it is
in. The largest unit of time allowed
is months, so youll need to search
for mail thats older than a year by
specifying 12 months, 24 months,
and so on. Drag all emails into a
folder named for the year (2009,
2010). Add a task item to your list
to start cleaning up one year at a
time.
Check with your IT staff to see if they already retain emails for legal purposes,
which would free you up to delete them from your inbox!
One solution for keeping it all organized: Keep the current years emails in your
inbox and subfolders, the previous years email in its own folder and anything older
on backup media (or deleted).
3. Mark for handling

Now that your inbox is free of old mail and advertising, you can start sorting through
what to keep and what to toss. Create a category for emails you think you should
delete. Assign that category a shortcut, so its quick to mark things for review. This
method is only useful if you allow it to sort or filter by the category each day and
either delete or folder the items.
8
4. Set up rules
If you find yourself moving the same type of email to
the same folder, consider letting Outlook do that for
you by creating a rule. For example, this would be a
perfect solution for nightly reports or status updates
that you dont actually read, but need to reference for a
period of time. You can even leave it marked unread, so
you always know how many reports you havent seen.
However, they no longer clutter up your inbox or bury
urgent messages.
If you use Outlook 2010, you also have the convenience of Quick Steps, a one-click solution to multiple
repeatable actions.
12. Convert from Outlook
2007 to 2010?
BYTES
Squeeze more out of the Tasks section of
Outlook. When someone asks you to do x by
5 pm, turn the request into a Task. Heres how:
Open a new Task, make a note to do x, set a
reminder, save and close it. Now, you can refocus on the business at hand, assured that
Outlook will remember the Task for you.
* * *
Store project-related email messages in desktop folders for future reference. In Outlook, drag
the email to an open Windows folder, such as
My Documents. Rename the file if the subject line isnt clear. Now youll have everything
related to a projectmessages, documents,
spreadsheets, slideshows, etc.in one place.
Should you consider converting to Outlook 2010, even

though 2007 seems to do everything you want it to?
There are some new features in Outlook 2010 that make it worthwhile to change,
says Microsoft Certified Trainer Melissa Esquibel.
First, in 2010 you have Conversation tools. While we have lots of tools to control
external spam, internal spam (email from co-workers about things you dont care
about) is a different obstacle. Conversation tools give us the ability to easily ignore
a conversation from an internal sender. Also, the way Outlook handles conversations
lets you clean up a conversation by deleting all redundant messages. A redundant
message is one that is contained in its entirety in another email.
Besides Conversation tools, the addition of Quick Steps is significant. There are
useful out-of-the-box Quick Steps like Forward to Manager and Reply and Delete.
But the beauty is the ability to create one Quick Step that will do multiple actions,
such as Folder, Forward and Flag all with a single click.
Another new feature is the Social Connectors. Its convenient to see all updates
and activities for a contact whether the activity occurs in Outlook, LinkedIn or on a
MySite page in SharePoint.
13. Oops! Didnt mean to send that message
Weve all sent the oops reply. Heres how to avoid it:
Set up a Rule so all email messages go out two minutes after you click Send.
Then youll have two minutes to recognize any errors ... and save yourself the embarrassment.
Heres how to create a Rule in Outlook:
1. Under Tools, click Rules and Alerts.
2. Click New Rule.
3. Click Start from a blank rule radio button. Under Step 1, highlight Check
messages after sending. Click Next.
4. In Step 1, select Defer delivery by a number of minutes. In Step 2, set the

number of minutes.
5. In the next dialogue box, select two minutes. Click OK, then Next.
6. In Step 1, name your Rule. In Step 2, turn on the Rule. Click Finish. Click
Apply.
If you send an email by mistake, go to Outbox and delete the message before your
oops goes public.
14. 3 ways to create appointments, meetings
When you have to create a meeting or an appointment, you probably switch to your
calendar view and click on the New Appointment button or use the shortcut Ctrl+N.
If youre creating an email with content from an email message you received, youre
probably toggling back to the email and then copying and pasting the content you
need. If that message was addressed to the folks who need to come to the meeting,
youre probably also copying and pasting that to the new meeting. Thats a lot of
clicks!
Try one of these instead:
1. Reply with Meeting
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Upgrade your email signature line by adding
a clickable link after your name. Example: mail
to: admineditor@BusinessManagementDaily.com.
That way, others can simply click the link to
reply. Its especially useful when someone for
wards your email; the new recipient doesnt
have to cut and paste your address.
* * *
In Outlook 2010, its easier now than ever to

do more than a basic keyword search. When
you click into the Search field at the top of your
Inbox, youll notice that a contextual tab pops
up called Search Tools. From this ribbon, you
can choose to search on a variety of attributes,
such as Categorized, Has Attachments, This
Week, Flagged and more.
On the Home tab, in the Respond group, you will notice

a Meeting button. You will find this either when youve
selected a message in a folder or when youre in the
message itself. This will create a meeting that includes
all the content of the email message in the body and
invites all the message recipients. Simply edit the meeting notice accordingly and youre done.
2. Drag and drop

You can also drag and drop the email message to either
the Calendar button on the Navigation Pane or directly
to a date on the To Do Bar calendar. This wont invite
anyone, but will include the contents of the email in the
body of the appointment or meeting.
Dragging to the Calendar button will, by default, create a calendar item on todays date. Dragging it to the To
Do Bar calendar date will cause the item to be created
for that specific date.
3. Quick Step
If you create the same type of meeting notice to the same folks frequently, just not
on any kind of defined recurring schedule, a Quick Step can be really handy:
1. Choose the Create New button in the Quick Steps gallery (Home tab).
2. Choose an action from the Appointment category, like Meeting.
3. Click the Show Options link and complete all the recurring information.
4. Click Finish.
Now, whenever you want to set up meetings like that, just click your Quick Steps
and change the date and time.
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15. Crack down on spam
Its not just you; weve all been getting more spam nowadays. Not only is spam a
drain on your time, its also a security threat. What to do about it? Stop fuming and
start filtering.
Heres how:
MailWasher (www.mailwasher.net, free) or MailboxFilter (www.mailbox
filter.com, $37) will filter your messages before they reach your email program.
Mail Snoop Pro (www.rinnov.com, free trial,
then $35) allows you to try its shareware spam-catcher
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before you buy.
Cloudmark (www.cloudmark.com).
Curb spam by opening a throwaway email
16. Get creative with Outlook
calendar
Theres more than one way to move items onto your

Outlook 20072010 calendar. Depending on where you
are in Outlook when you decide to make a calendar
entry, this task could be only a click or two away.
You dont need to go to the menu or the ribbon when
in Calendar view. Just double-click on a day or a time
slot (if youre looking at your Day or Week views), and
start typing. If you want to quickly label that time slot
or day without putting all the related information in right
away, just single-click on it and start typing.
From the inbox
account to use for online transactions. Yahoo

and Hotmail have always offered free email
service, but now theyve raised their storage
limit, meaning its less of a hassle to maintain
an account. Google Mail offers the most of all,
with over 2,700 MB of storage space.
* * *
Make your email replies more scannable

by adding a word or two of clarification to the
original subject. Example: If the message you
received has the subject line Are we meeting at 2? edit the line to read Confirmation:
Meeting at 2 before hitting Reply.
* * *
Cut through email clutter by summarizing

action requests at the end of a message. Its
the last thing your recipients will read, which
means the items are more likely to stick in their
minds. And message-skimmers can grasp it at
a glance.
In Office 2010, go to the View tab and in the Layout

group, click the To-Do Bar button. Choose Normal.
Now, if you are reading an email that looks like it may
turn into a meeting, just drag it to the proper date on the
small calendar in the To-Do Bar. It will open an appointment with all the information contained in your email. From here, you can invite
other attendees or include any necessary information.
You can also drag the email on top of the Calendar button in the Navigation Pane
(on the left). This will do the same thing, but it will open the appointment for the
current day. You can, of course, change the date as you wish.
From Contacts
Is your who really clear, but when not so much? Working from your Contacts,
select the individuals you wish to meet with and drag them onto the Calendar button
in the Navigation Pane (on the left). This creates a meeting with all the individuals
you selected.
Outlook 2010 user bonus: The Scheduling Assistant (on the right) will go to
work, immediately letting you know the best days and time slots to have your meeting with the fewest conflicts.
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From Tasks and Notes, too

Dragging an item to the Calendar button on the Navigation Pane will work with any
Outlook item.
17. Better calendars & tasks: 4 tips

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Microsoft Outlook can help you manage your workload and even help you stay
focused on your most important appointments, tasks and projects. Here are four
great ways to use Outlooks Calendars and Tasks features for better time management.
Organize email folders with this strategy:

Choose folder names according to why you will
need the information, advises Susan Kousek of
Balanced Spaces (www.balancedspaces.com).
Example: Use the name of a major project or a
person. Keep the name short enough so you
can view all of it.
* * *
Organize (and shorten) email messages for

readers by starting each message with a greeting using no more than eight words. (Example:
That was an interesting meeting yesterday.)
Then use the ABC method to divide your
email into three distinct sections: Action (stating
your purpose), Background (presenting your key
points) and Close (clarifying the next steps).
1. Set up a tickler system in Tasks

Tasks, such as time sheets or status reports that you do
on a regular schedule, can be set up as recurring tasks.
In the Options group on the Task tab, the Recurrence
button will be the first button in the group. The Task
Recurrence dialog box gives you plenty of options from
repeating daily, weekly or monthly or a specific day of
the week every specified number of weeks. You can
even set an end date if you want to reconsider the task.
Use the Follow-up button to add a reminder for deadlines you just cant miss!
Hint: Set a follow-up flag on any Outlook item to
create a reminder.
2. Use follow-up flags
People have discovered how great Follow-up flags can

be. However, most folks who use them just click it to
Cut to the chase by using [NM] or [EOM] (they
flag a particular item theyre working on. This automatistand for no message or end of message)
cally sets the follow-up for Today. Right-click the flag
in the subject line of an email thats simply a
instead to find other choices, such as This Week, Next
thank you or an OK. That way, no one need
Week or Custom Date.
open it.
You can also set reminders on this right-click menu.
In addition, you can set a No Date follow-up flag.
Consider carefully whether you need to set a flag at all. A No Date item is more
likely to cause clutter than facilitate productivity.
Set a follow-up flag before you send an email by using the Message tab, which
appears in place of the Home tab when composing mail. Look in the Tags group and
choose the Follow Up drop-down button. Select one of the preset follow-up times or
a Custom date. You can even set a reminder.
This is especially helpful for billing. For example, if you send bills by email and
the payment commitment is 30 days, set the follow-up for 3135 days.
* * *
3. Maximize the To-Do Bar

Many users shut down their To Do bar as soon as they start using the newer versions
of Outlook. But this valuable area of the Outlook work space can help keep you
on track.
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In addition to the calendar at the top, it shows upcoming appointments. The lower
half displays your tasks, flagged emails and other flagged items, regardless of where
you keep the folders.
A really cool trick with your To Do bar is to drag an email to a particular date.
This opens up an appointment on that date and includes the text of the original email.
4. Manage Calendars in multiple time zones

You can accommodate multiple time zones two ways. First, from Calendar Options,
which can be accessed from the File tab in 2010 and from Tools-Options in 2007,
choose to show a second time zone. You can only show one other time zone at a
time, but they are easily changeable. They are only visible in the days and weeks
view. They will not appear in the month view.
Another way to handle time zones is directly from a meeting notice. In the
Appointment, Meeting or Event dialog tab, look in the Options group and locate
the Time Zones button. This allows you to choose the time zone you wish to plan
in. When you save the appointment, it will show in your local time and in the local
time of any recipients.
18. Zip through email clutter: 7 ways
When it comes to email habits, some of us are deleters and some are hoarders. Either
way, you can learn from these efficiency tips:
1. Empty hourly. You have to treat your inbox like you treat your mailbox at
home, says Merlin Mann, creator of a productivity website, 43folders.com. You
wouldnt store your bills inside your mailbox.
2. Add subfolders for storage. Not sure what to do with a message? Maybe you
havent created the right home for it yet. Set up subfolders for storing messages by
project name or follow-up date.
3. Sort messages alphabetically by sender. That helps you delete dozens of
messages at a time. Example: Daily or weekly e-newsletters can eventually clutter
your inbox; delete all but the most recent issue or two.
4. Save time by using emails search function. Todays search tools are so
effective, it probably takes less time to search a stuffed inbox than to look through
subfolders to find what youre looking for.
5. Search more easily by changing the subject field. Add descriptive words
to the subject line that will help you find what youre looking for later. Example:
Letter to McPherson becomes Cancellation of McPherson contract 11/16/12.
6. Write a rule that sends emails on which you are only a cc recipient to a
folder you check less frequently, and ask to be removed from distribution lists when
possible.
7.Turn off the automatic notification of new messages. (In Outlook, go to
Tools, Options, Preferences, Email Options, Advanced Email Options.) Checking too
frequently wastes time. Once or twice a day might be enough.
19. Organize your email with colors
See redliterallywhenever the boss shoots you an email message by using

Outlooks Automatic Formatting feature.
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By applying color to messages that warrant your immediate attention, you help
them stand out.
Tip: You can also use color to make certain email messages appear less important. Example: Flag messages sent to you by way of a distribution list by having
them appear in light gray.
Color-code messages
1. Select a message, then click on the Organize command on the Tools menu.
2. Select Using Colors.
3. Click the Automatic Formatting button at the top right of the Ways To Organize
Inbox pane (see image).
4. Click the Add button in the Automatic Formatting dialogue box to create a rule
that Outlook temporarily names Untitled.
5. Type a descriptive name for the rule.
6. Click the Font button and choose a font.
7. Click the Condition button to open the
Filter dialogue box. In the three tabs of the dialogue box, set the filter conditions.
8. Click OK to create the condition.
To change or undo color-coding, you would
click Automatic Formatting in the Organize
pane and delete or modify the rule.
Customize calendar labels

Analyze your work style, then edit calendar
labels to reflect the types of information you
consider important.
For example, do you need to easily spot
required versus optional meetings?
Editing your color-coding scheme within
the Outlook calendar is easy. Just choose Edit
> Label > Edit Labels, rename your labels and
click OK.
Color-code your follow-up flags

For instance, you can use red flags for hot projects, blue for clients and orange for
personal email follow-ups.
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Log on to Online Tools

& Useful Sites
20. Simplify to-do lists: virtual task masters
Keep your to-dos front and center using these on-screen task-tracking tools:
Gubb.net: Make and share to-do lists online for free with this web application.
Email a list to yourself or others, and text it to your cell phone. Sort it by priority or
due date.
To-do list widget: Since they live on your desktop, you can add or delete
widgets or move urgent items to the top of the list, or tag it with a color. Download
it at www.widgetgallery.com.
Todoist (todoist.com): Another good-looking, free, web-based calendar and
task manager. Nice feature: its ability to nest items and create sub-to-do lists.
HiTask (www.hitask.com): Put to-do lists, projects and calendars on the web,
where you can share them with colleagues.
Toodledo (toodledo.com): Offers a full slate of ways to enter, organize and
sort your tasks.
21. Make collaboration a breeze
by Tonya Oliver, Microsoft Office User Specialist instructor

Who says you cant get something for nothing? With free online software Zoho
(www.zoho.com), you can collaborate with others online, whether theyre in the
same office or across the country.
Heres what you can tackle with Zohos help:
Create your own polls and decide who has access to them with Zoho Polls.
Lets say your boss wants you to find out what employees think of the companys
new travel service. You can set up a poll to find out.
Evaluate potential employees online with Zoho Challenge (free for the first
25 candidates). You set up the evaluation, based on what is important for a future
employee to know and understand.
Manage your calendar, tasks, documents, spreadsheets and email with Zohos
Virtual Office. You can upload documents from your computer and have access to
them wherever you have Internet access. From the Zoho desktop, you can send instant
messages or group messages.
I contacted the company to ask what security measures are in place to protect customers data. Zoho secures its services both at the physical level and at the software
level. It maintains at least three automated backups of all data.
So try it out, and then let Zoho know what you like and what you dont. The company welcomes feedback and will incorporate the publics ideas.
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22. Passwords, please
Want an endless supply of good passwords? If security is key at your workplace, the
answer is likely yes. These online tools can supply them or even store them
for you:
1.PC Tools Password Generator (www.pctools.com/guides/password/) is a
web-based tool that gives you lots of options.
2.Perfect Passwords (www.grc.com/passwords.htm) generates long, snoopproof passwords. The site guarantees that it will not produce similar letter/number
strings.
3.RoboForm (www.roboform.com) not only creates passwords but also
remembers them for you. This just might be the best tool for storing your entire user
ID and password data for websites.
Tip: If you often use someone elses PC, try RoboForm2Go (www.roboform.
com/pass2go.html). It stores your passwords on a USB drive, so no one on the host
PC will ever see them.
23. Track already-visited websites
Track down and organize already-visited websites more easily with two smart tools
from Google:
1. Google Web History (www.google.com/history). Cant find that great website you saw last month? With Web History, Google logs every site youve visited
through a Google search. You have to be logged on using a Google account to access
the history. After that, go to:
2. Google Bookmarks (www.google.com/bookmarks). This feature installs a star
icon in your Google toolbar. When you want to mark an interesting website, click
on the star. A window pops up, allowing you to add notes to remind you why youre
marking the site or to assign a category, such as To Do,
Summer Project or Online Research. All bookmarks
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appear on your Google Web History page. Tip: Sort
bookmarks by date or category to make it easier to scan
Having trouble choosing the right font? Use
what you need.
the Esperfonto typeface selection system on
designer Will Harris site: www.will-harris.
com. Plug in a few guidelines, such as the kind
of impression you want to create (modern,
warm, cool, serious or friendly), for on-thespot font advice.
* * *
Use Googles Numrange feature to search

for results containing numbers in a given
range. Just add two numbers, separated by
two periods (no spaces), into the search box
along with your search terms. Example: Heres
how youd search for a digital camera that
costs between $100 and $200: digital camera
$100..$200.
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24. Track time better than a
spreadsheet
If youre still tracking your time for projects or clients

with a spreadsheet, its time to transition to a modern
tool, program or application such as one of these suggested by columnist Lindsay Olson:
Basecamp. Allows you to manage team projects,
assign tasks, share documents and track time. Plans start
at $20 a month.
Toggl. A simple tool that you can use on any
device, including iPhones and Android devices. $5 per
user per month.
Tick. You can track time on specific client projects and view how youre doing
on your overall time budget. Manage one project: free; for more it starts at $9 per
month.
OfficeTime. Use on PCs, Macs, iPhones and iPads
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to track your teams progress on a project, including
who is working too much or too little. The Windows or
Brainstorm better using a free program called
Mac version costs $47.
MindMeister (www.mindmeister.com). Say
your group is brainstorming about a new prod Cash Board. Track time, send invoices and accept
uct. As the group discusses ideas (timeline,
payments online. Its free to manage two projects and
design, marketing, customer conversion, etc.),
bill one client a month and unlimited use is $10 per
you type them in, and MindMeister turns the
month plus 25 cents per client invoiced.
ideas into a visual map. During the following
Harvest. Use a PC, Mac, smartphone, desktop
weeks, team members can log in, edit and add
widget, Twitter, Gmail and other popular applications
to the map. In the end, you can distribute the
to track time. Send invoices and messages to your staff
mind map as a hard copy or an image file.
reminding them to turn in their timesheets. A single user
* * *
is $12 per month after a free-trial period.
Tap
the
marketing
power of e-newsletters
On the Job. A desktop application for Macs that
with
Constant
Contact
($15 per month;
runs inconspicuously in your toolbar. The software costs
www.constantcontact.com).
In a snap, the site
$39.95.
helps you create HTML-formatted email
Sage HRMS. This software has more sophistinewsletters, sign up visitors to your website,
cated functionality that ties time-tracking to payroll.
manage subscriber lists, find out who reads
Employees log time worked from their computer, and
what you send out and identify which of your
you can easily calculate payroll and time off.
organizations marketing tactics work.
HoursTracker. An Apple app tracks time spent on
* * *
projects and generates reports on where theyre spendPlanning
an
event?
For help, visit the sites for
ing their time. Cost: $4.99.
these publications: Successful Meetings (www.
FreshBooks. A cloud-based tool for freelancers
mimegasite.com) and Meetings and Conven
and small businesses that has built-in time billing.
tions (www.meetings-conventions.com).
Allows you to collaborate, bill different projects at different rates and tie hours worked to invoices. Free to
manage up to three clients, with larger plans starting at $19.95 a month.
25. Explore working with wikis
You create a PowerPoint presentation and send it to five people for review. Over the
next few days, you exchange email with them about the presentation, attaching it
each time.
By weeks end, youre confused: Has everyone weighed in? Which document is
the most recent one?
It could be time for you and your boss to look into wikis.
A wiki is software that allows users to create and update web pages easily, either
through a hosted site on the Internet or on your office intranet. Teams can collaborate
on a single document in real time without having to send attachments back and forth.
Example:
At PR and marketing firm the MWW Group, 200 employees have made the switch
from email to wikis. How do they use the technology? Writers and designers use wiki
pages to brainstorm ad campaigns. The HR team uses their wikis to post benefits
information; sales uses one to track prospects.
17
Result: Teams have doubled their productivity while reducing the number of
time-wasting meetings. Instead, employees can simply pull up a wiki on a web
browser when they need a progress report or want to change a document.
Check into these wiki options:
PmWiki, www.pmwiki.org. Free download.
MediaWiki, www.mediawiki.org. Free software wiki package.
Socialtext, www.socialtext.com. Hosted version costs $495 a year for five
users; $10 a month for each additional user.
26.
The magic of destructible email
People often forget that email messages last forever and can be forwarded to any
number of people. There are services, though, that allow you to send a message with
a limited lifespan, which comes in handy when you have sensitive messages that you
dont want shared.
The best services are OneShar.es, Burn Note, Privnote, Destructing Message
and This Message Will Self Destruct, says technology writer Mike Elgan,
Computerworld.
When you use these services, you type your message on their website and they
send an email to the designated recipientnot with the message itself, but with a
link going back to the message on the website. Some services delete the message
after its been read once; others allow you to set an expiration date.
27. Brush away photo red-eye & blemishes

Say you want to post photos from the annual meeting on your companys website.
The trouble is, the boss has red-eye and the chairman has a large blotch on his
left cheek.
My solution? A little photo retouching using Roxio PhotoSuite (www.roxio.com).
The most popular software in the category is Adobes
Photoshop, but I find PhotoSuite is less cumbersome to
BYTES
use. Its also less expensive.
Heres a sampling of what you can do with it:
Keep spelling and grammar errors from slip Reduce wrinkles. Open your photo, and look on
ping through the cracks with WebSpellChecker.
net. Paste your text into the box provided and
the left side of the window at the clickable menu. Click
this fast tool checks your spelling and gramon Facial Flaws and select Wrinkles. (If the list
mar, then allows you to click on any word to
shows only four options, choose Show all features.)
search for synonyms and antonyms.
Using the magnifying glass with the + sign beside
it, focus on the wrinkle you want to reduce. I try to
* * *
reduce wrinkles, not remove them, so the results look
Share schedules online with Googles online
natural.
calendar program (requires a G-mail account)
at www.google.com/calendar. Adding appointDepending on the size of the wrinkle, reduce or
ments on this calendar doesnt require the fuss
enlarge your brush by using the slider on the left side
of entering start and end times, which makes
of the screen. If the person is wearing glasses, be espethe program fast and simple to use.
cially careful: Using the brush on the glass frame makes
it smear in your picture.
18
Using your mouse, click and hold your cursor on the unwanted wrinkle. Follow
the wrinkle until it ends, and then release. If you dont see a noticeable difference,
enlarge the size of your brush with the slider.
If theres a stroke that you wish to remove, simply click Undo Last Stroke.
When you are finished, click Done.
Remove red-eye. Click Facial Flaws and select Red Eye Removal. Enlarge
your picture to a size that allows you to work on the pupils easily.
Using the slider, make the brush slightly larger than the red area of the eye. Click
on the red part of the eye. Continue to click until its corrected.
Brush away blemishes. Click on Facial Flaws and choose Blemishes.
Using the slider, make your brush about twice the size of the blemish.
Use the mouse in the same manner that you did for the wrinkles. PhotoSuite uses
the color of the surrounding skin to correct this flaw.
Tip: Always save a file with an alternate name before working on it. Then, you
can always go back to the original and start over.
28. So simple a SurveyMonkey can do it
Your boss is wondering what customers think of a new service or what incentives
employees would most value. Find the answers, pronto, using SurveyMonkey
(www.surveymonkey.com). This online tool lets you create professional-looking
surveys in a snap.
The site helps you create poll questions, step by step. When youre finished, send
a survey link directly to customers or employees, or create a pop-up on your organizations website that directs users to the survey. View results online as they trickle in,
or take the final results into Excel to create graphs.
Cool features: Customize the surveys fonts and colors. Brand your survey by
adding your company logo.
19
Price: A basic subscription is free. (Per survey, it allows a total of 10 questions

and 100 responses.)
A few tips:
Avoid asking too many demographic questions
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in the surveys beginning; youll scare away users. Save
those for the end.
To use Googles advanced functions, you
Keep it brief. Rule of thumb: The longer youve
have to delve deeply into the site. Instead, try
had
a relationship with a survey respondent, the more
Soople at www.soople.com. The easy-to-use
questions he or she will be willing to answer.
site provides search boxes for all kinds of func Provide a space for additional comments. You
tions, such as a package tracker and movie
searcher.
may not always like what they have to say, but at least
youll be informed.
* * *
Plagued by phishing scams? Next time you
see a suspect email, confirm your hunch on
hoax-busting site www.antiphishing.org, run
by the APWG.
29. Google with precision
Speed up any Google search and end up with the results

you want by following these tips:
* * *
Use the terms you think the results pages will use.
Track your companys competition with
Examples: meeting agenda template instead of forWatchThatPage.com, a free tool that monitors
mat examples for an agenda; inexpensive preowned
specific web pages and sends you an email
car, not cheap used car.
when they are changed. A change to a com
Skip straight to a definition by entering define:
pany website sends clues about its direction.
followed by a phrase (no space). The definition will be
for the entire phrase entered, in the order you typed it.
Phrase your question as an answer. Instead of asking, What was the minimum wage in 1980? type in minimum wage in 1980.
Narrow a broad search by using the tabs, such as Images and News.
Let Google scan the page for your search words. Click the cached link
underneath the web page you want to see, and Google will highlight your query
words on the web page for you.
30. Employ tech tools to plan the main event
Could your event-planning toolbox use a makeover? The following online tools
most of which are freecan give your meeting a modern edge without putting a dent
in your budget by helping you:
Announce up-to-the-minute changes with a blog. Or set up the blog as a
discussion forum for attendees. Link your organizations website to a blog, and direct
attendees there for updates.
Tool: Typepad ($8.95$14.95 per month; www.typepad.com).
Publish a schedule of events online. If you need to reach only internal
employees, the calendar on your PC or Mac will work just fine. But what if you need
to reach people outside your offices walls?
Tool: Meeting Wizard (free; www.meetingwizard.com) sends email invitations,
as well as confirmations and reminders.
Create a registration system online. Express Planner allows you to handle
registrations, surveys and email marketing, and it even processes attendees credit
cards using Payflow Pro.
20
Tool: Visit Express Planner (free; www.expressplanner.net), click on tools,

register and go.
Map out the hotels and attractions around your meeting site. Plug in your
sites address on Google Earth, and a satellite image of the area comes up. In the
window titled Layers, check the boxes for roads, dining or lodging. As you click,
pushpin icons appear, showing you whats nearby. Email the view to attendees.
Tool: Google Earth (free; earth.google.com).
31. Googles alternative to Excel spreadsheets
Google Docs Gadgets feature gives its spreadsheets an edge on Excel for some
tasks. Users can create animated pie charts, produce QR codes and more. Helen
Bradley ofPCWorld explains how:
Make your own QR codes. QR codes are a great way to quickly share text
info such as URLs and product data. To create a QR code in a Google Docs spreadsheet, type the text for the code into one or more adjacent cells in a column. Choose Insert > Gadget > All,
BYTES
locate the QR Code gadget, and click Add to spreadsheet. When the Gadget Settings dialog box appears,
Share your PowerPoint remotely. Jevon Fark,
drag over the cells containing the text for the code, click
OfficeTeam, Microsoft, says, To share a Power
OK, and Apply & Close.
Point presentation with a remote audience,
click Slide Show in the tool bar at the top,
Create organizational charts. First, create the
and then click Broadcast Slide Show. When
data on which the org chart will be based. In one colthe dialog box appears, click Start Broadcast,
umn, type whatever text should appear in each box in
and a unique URL will appear. Copy and send
the chart. In each adjoining cell to the right, type the
that URL to remote attendees, and voil!
corresponding information. If you want two lines of text
Participants listening on the phone can open
in a box, type one line and press Alt + Enter to start a
the link and see your slideshow in their web
second line. Confirm that the spelling of each name or
browsers.
box label is identical wherever you use it, or the chart
* * *
wont render correctly. Now choose Insert > Gadget
Adobe
ExportPDF:
Finally, a way to get your
> Diagrams > Organization Chart, and click Add to
PDFs
into
Word
or
editable text. You can try
spreadsheet. Select the cells in the two columns containthis
service
free.
Purchase
it for a low $19.99
ing the data, and click OK. Type a title in the Title box,
a year. (Note: If you plan to upgrade to Office
then Apply & Close.
2013, this feature is included.)
Create an animated pie chart. Create one by
* * *
choosing Insert > Gadget > Charts. Locate the Fusion
Need a calculator? From Google.com, simCharts Pie & Donut Widget, and click Add to spreadply type in calculator in the search field.
sheet. Click in the Range box, select the data to plot
Thats it! You dont even have to click on a
omitting the column headingsand click OK. Now
link beyond that. Just type your entries on the
select the chart type, and type a caption and subcaption.
calculator that appears. This one even has keys
Enable the Animate checkbox, and, if you prefer, enable
for sine, cosine and pi. Or, looking for someValues On and Labels On to show both labels and values
thing specific? Try Calculator.comyoull find
for each pie slice.
calculators here for loans, time, area and even
Dont be afraid to step outside your comfort zone
a graphing calculator.
when creating spreadsheets. Using Google Tools is a
great way to get your work to stand out.
21
32.
Expanding the cloud: 4 add-ons
If you already use Dropbox to store and access files no matter which computer
youre working on, you can enhance the already-cool tool with these add-ons:
Jotform.com: Use it to create a web form that allows anyone to submit
images, video or text files through your website or blog.
AirDropper.com: Say you need a bunch of image files from someone.
AirDropper sends her link to a unique upload page. Her upload goes into the Drop
box folder youve specified, without the files ever landing on your hard drive.
HelloFax.com: Edit, sign, email and fax documentssuch as contracts
without having to print or scan them.
SideCloudLoad.com: Send files straight to the cloud without putting them
on your computer first. That means you can find an ebook through your mobile
phone, then send it to Dropbox instead of your phone.
33. 5 steps to making an online tutorial
You need to show your team how you pull together monthly data, and one of the
newly hired assistants needs coaching on some online tools.
Heres an easy way to accomplish both: Screencast-o-Matic (www.screencast-omatic.com). This free online tool lets you create a video from your screen (your
screencast) and upload it to share. All you do is start recording, perform each step
on your screen, narrating through the entire thing, then stop the recording. You dont
even have to download anything to start using it.
The end product is a video that you can share by YouTube, email or on the
Screencast-o-Matic site.
Note: Before you begin, make sure you have a microphone on your computer.
Step 1: Choose what size you want the finished video. If youre exporting to a
movie file, use Full screen. But if youre going to upload the video to YouTube, opt
for HD size.
Step 2: Select your audio. Opt for no audio, if you dont have a microphone,
or select the microphone that has been detected on your computer. Hit Go.
Step 3: Youll see a frame appear on screen, which you drag to capture the area
you want to record. You can always adjust it later, as youre recording.
Step 4: Hit record. You can pause at any point. If you make a mistake or want
to record over something, hit pause, drag the timeline cursor to the point where you
want to start over, then hit record.
Keep your video under 15 minutes if youre making an MP4 format movie. If you
plan to export it to YouTube, keep your video under 10 minutes, which is the maximum allowed by that site.
Step 5: Youre done. The site then tells you your options: Export the video as a
movie, upload it to YouTube or upload it to Screencast-o-Matic.
If you upload your video to a website, you can choose to make it private, so it
wont come up in searches. You get the URL to send directly to your team or the new
hire or whomever you want to share the link.
22
34. Digitize those typewritten forms

You can use Adobe Acrobat PDF Creator to convert old typewritten forms to digital
ones. Heres how:
First, verify that you
have Acrobat Creator, not
Form Tool
just Reader. Then, check
that the recipient has
Adobe Acrobat Reader and
can accept the documents.
Next, scan in your
form as a PDF document,
or download one from the
Internet for this exercise.
Open your document in
Adobe. Decide where you
would like information to
be entered. Click on the form tool button, and draw a box in the space where information will be entered.
A window will come up so you can set the field properties. You must assign a
field name, and you should give it a description.
As with Access or Word, you can set the font, border color, alignment and format
(currency, date, etc.). You can also have Adobe do calculations for you, which is
useful for invoices. You can make a field Read Only or Required, meaning that
a value will have to be entered before someone can move forward in the document.
When youve finished setting up fields, you can add security to the document.
Example: You can require
a password to open the
document. You can also
restrict printing, changing the document, adding
fields and comments.
After you have added
all the appropriate fields,
save the document with
a different file name, so
you have the original as a
backup if you need it later.
Now you can email it
to anyone who has Adobe
Acrobat Reader, and he or
she will be able to open
and complete your form.
23
35. Turn into a techie with online courses
Computer skills are key for succeeding in the current business climate, writes John
Patrick Pullen, Entrepreneur. But even if you didnt study computer science in
school, fear not; there are a number of free online resources that can help you get
up to speed. Heres a sampling of some of the best websites for improving your
knowledge:
HP Learning Center: HP is a veteran in the online-instruction space; its
Learning Center has been around for more than a decade. It provides guidance on
topics such as how to fix a laptop and how to choose colors for marketing materials.
Code Academy: This website, launched in 2011, can help you learn some
programming basics through interactive lessons.
Google Code University: This resource provides more advanced programming instruction and gives guidance on topics such as online security and Android.
Inbound Marketing University: Learn how to refine your marketing skills
by learning about blogging, search-engine optimization and other subjects.
iTunes U: Apples educational program, which has been around since 2007,
can help you learn how to create iOS apps.
MIT Open Courseware: The next best thing to attending the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology includes courses on computer programming.
TED: See lectures about innovation, technology and other themes.
24
Excel in Using Excel
36. Work the numbers: Excel dates & times
You cant do much in Excel if you store dates and times as text. When you store them
as numbers, though, endless possibilities exist, according to Gini Courter and
Annette Marquis of Triad Consulting.
For example, you can:
Add days to a projects beginning date to calculate the completion date.
Determine how many days fall between two dates.
Sort dates in chronological order.
Subtract a tasks start time from the ending time to determine how long it took
to complete the task.
Excel includes both text and numeric formats for dates and times, but the text
formats are mostly for exporting data to other applications, says Courter. In Excel,
dates and times should be stored as values rather than text.
Here are some of Excels most useful date and time functions:
Function Description
Syntax
DATE Creates a serial value (which you can format = DATE

using any of the date formats) from three

(year, month, day)
numbers: the year, month and day.
TIME Creates a decimal number time from three = TIME
numbers: hours, minutes and seconds.

(hour, minutes, seconds)
NOW Returns the serial value for the current date = NOW
and decimal fraction for the current time

(current date and time)
from your computers system clock.
TODAY Returns the serial value for the current date = TODAY
from the computers system clock.

(current date)
DAY Returns the day number (1 to 31) from a
= DAY
text string, date or serial value.

(date)
MONTH Returns the month value (1 to 12) from a
= MONTH

(date)
YEAR Returns the year value (1 to 9999) from a
= YEAR

(date)
HOUR Converts a text string or decimal fraction
= HOUR
to an hour.

(string or fraction)
MINUTE Converts a text string or decimal fraction
= MINUTE
to a minute.

(string or fraction)
25
37. Pivot Tables get your data talking
You may have heard that Excel Pivot Tables are too difficult and should be
attempted only by the most advanced users. Not true! Pivot Tables are easy to create
and you can use them for everything from answering simple questions to performing
complex analysis.
What is a Pivot Table?
BYTES
Do others sometimes accidentally delete
the formulas you spent hours creating? You
can safeguard them by applying the lock cell
format option and protecting the work sheet.
Actually, all cells in a work sheet are automatically formatted as locked. Select the cells
you want your users to enter data and rightclick. Choose Format Cells, then the Protection
tab. Uncheck the Locked checkbox. Right-click
the work sheet tab and choose Protect Sheet.
You will be able to enter a password. Now, no
one can change protected cells unless they
know the password.
* * *
Sometimes its easier to work with your

SharePoint list data in Excel or Access. Click
on the list name from either the Quick Launch
or from the All Site Content page. Select the
List tab on the ribbon (SharePoint 2010).
Toward the right, in the Connect & Export
group, youll see an Export to Excel and an
Open with Access. Export to Excel will let you
use Excels robust tool set to pivot, chart,
filter and otherwise analyze your list. Open
with Access will let you run reports and create
forms to enter and search information.
One way to explain a Pivot Table is to use a map of

the world as an example. Take a world map and super
impose it on a cube rather than a ball. Now, each time
you pivot the cube you get a look at a different piece of
the world. Pivot it again and you see yet another view
of the world. You are still holding the whole world, but
just looking at a piece of it. Think of your data as the
world and a Pivot Table as the ability to see just a piece
of it without removing it from the rest of the world.
Before you start pivoting

First, you need to make sure your data are in good shape
so your Pivot Table can deliver the answers you want.
Identify the data in columns by assigning a title, such
as a name or an account number.
Do not leave any rows or columns blank. Check for
this anomaly by clicking any cell in your data and then
pressing Ctrl+A. Zoom out and see if you selected the
whole table, or if you left out parts. If you omitted any,
chances are you have either a blank row or column.
Ensure data types are consistent in each column: all
numbers, all text, all logicals (True, False).
Getting started
Click on any one cell in the middle of your data to create your Pivot Table. On the Insert tab, Tables group,
click the first button on the left labeled Pivot Table.
Verify that the dialog box shows the
complete Table/Range. Click OK on
the next dialog box. Thats it! The easiest thing that can go wrong is that you
clicked in the wrong place. If you dont
see your full range in the Table/Range
field, hit Cancel, go back and make sure
you did not click outside your data in a
blank column or row or that you have
not selected (highlighted) multiple cells.
26
Now what?
Think of the big box below as your canvas, the field list on the right as your paint
and the four boxes in the lower right as your
brushes. First, you need paint on the canvas.
The example shows fourth- and first-quarter
data, in that order, by product. Click those
boxes in your paint box. Now, using your
brushes, click and drag fourth-quarter
above first. Voil! Youve created a Pivot
Table!
Youll notice filter arrows in the canvas pivot report section. Hover over the
field names in the paint field list. Use
these to further narrow the piece of the
world you want to see.
38. Use the power of logic in spreadsheets
Say youre trying to use an Excel spreadsheet to track weekly wages for office
employees. Its simple enough to create a formula (hours hourly rate) that calculates wages for someone who works 40 hours or less. But what if someone works
45 hours one week?
Thats when you need the IF function in Excel, says Annette Marquis of Triad
Consulting. Use the IF function when you want Excel to apply different formulas to
a cell, based on what content you type in that cell.
In the example above, you need a formula that can calculate wages for the first
40 hours, then calculate time-and-a-half for the other five hours. Other ways to use
the IF function: figuring out commission rates that vary based on total volume, or
allocating vacation days based on seniority.
Heres how to set it up,
A
B
C
D
E
using the first example:
1.Start an IF func
tion 1 ABC Inc.
in cell E5. From the top 2 Payroll: Week Ending April 26
bar menu, select Insert > 3
4 Last
First
Hours Rate
Gross Pay
Function > IF.
5 Jones Bill
40
15.25
2. Youll see a window
6 Smith Janet
48
15
pop up with three fields: 7 Wilcox Elizabeth 44
15
logical test, value if true 8
and value if false.
3. In the logical test field, tell Excel what you want it to look at. In this case,
you want it to determine if the hours worked (column C) are over 40. Type C5>40.
4.In the value if true field, tell Excel what to do if the hours are over 40:
Calculate the first 40 hours at the regular rate. Subtract 40 from the total number of
hours worked. Then multiply the remaining number by time and a half (1.5 times
rate). That formula would look like this: 40*D5+(C5-40)*D5*1.5.
5. In the value if false field, tell Excel what to do if the hours are not over 40:
Use the standard hours-times-rate formula. That formula would look like this:
D5*C5.
27
BYTES
Whats the best way to paste an Excel
chart into PowerPoint 2010? After selecting
your chart in Excel and copying it (Ctrl+C)
in PowerPoint, choose Click to add text.
This puts the chart inside the placeholder
when you paste (Ctrl+V). You will see a Paste
Options box in the lower right corner of your
pasted chart. In Office 2010, you get Paste
Preview icons instead of menu choices. The
first two icons allow you to embed the entire
workbook. The next two allow you to link the
workbook to the original file. The last option,
Picture, pastes just an image. If the workbook
is large, consider linking it instead of embedding it. However, updates will not be made if
the recipient doesnt have access to the original workbook. It will simply contain the last,
best version of the chart. Or, choose Picture.
Destination formatting options will use colors
from your PowerPoint chosen Theme. Source
formatting will have it looking exactly as it did
in Excel.
6. Click OK to close the window.

Now you have an easy way to calculate overtime ...
and you dont even have to find your calculator!
39. Let Excel fix common data
problems
We certainly do not suffer from a lack of data these

days. But all the tools in the world will not get that data
talking until it is in a format you can use. Excel is the
most common place to fix data because it has tools to
help scrub up your data files. Here are three common
data problems and ways to fix them in Excel.
1. Extracting data items from a text

string
Say you have pulled all the data you need from your data
extract, but the piece you really need is included in a
larger text string. The functions LEFT, RIGHT and MID
are perfect problem solvers here. Lets also say that in
addition to this combined customer account number, you
also need the routing number (first nine digits), account
type (next four digits) and account identifier (last seven
digits). Heres a possible solution using these functions.
Cell A1 contents 07100159912140101999:
=LEFT(A1,9) = 071001599 On the left of A1, return nine characters.
=MID(A1,10,4) = 1214 In the middle of A1, starting with and including the 10th
character, return four characters.
=RIGHT(A1,7) = 0101999 On the right of A1, return seven characters.
2. Different data items in one cell

When multiple data items appear in the
same cell, such as last name, first name
and phone number as in our example,
you can use the Text to Columns tool
to separate them. Unlike the previous
example where you need to keep the
original value whole and create three
new fields, Text to Columns assumes
that you do not need to keep the original combined field whole. Youll find
Text to Columns on the Data tab in the
Data Tools group.
The data have to be separated either
by a unique character (Delimited) or in
the same character position (Fixed
width).
28
An example of fixed width might be a VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). The

first character tells you in what region your car was built; position 4-8 tells you the
vehicle model, engine style and body style. This tool creates a new column for each
new data. This can be a gotcha. If you have more data to the right of the one you
are separating, make sure you create a new blank column to the right for each new
piece of data.
3. Duplicate records
The Remove Duplicates tool, found on the Data tab, Data Tools group, is the easiest
way to get rid of duplicate data.
If each column in one record has to match each column in another record to
qualify as a duplicate, its just two clicks away. Click the button and confirm by
clicking OK.
If your duplicate is based on only a few columns, then use the check boxes to
indicate which columns you want Excel to examine.
29
Optimize PowerPoint
Presentations
40. Simplify PowerPoint visuals: 7 rules
Using PowerPoint visuals that only Einstein could decipher doesnt make the presenter
look smarter. Complicated visuals will cause an audience to focus less on what the
presenter is saying and more on trying to figure out the images.
So, when creating a PowerPoint presentation, follow these seven rules for keeping visuals clear and powerful:
1. Follow the six-by-six rule: Use no more than six words per line and no
more than six lines per visual.
2. Apply the billboard test to each slide or transparency: Could people read
and understand the information while driving?
3. Realize that people may forget lists, but theyll recall images. Just make sure
you dont overdo the graphics.
4. Avoid using chart junk, all those fancy shadings and patterns in most drawing software. Youll create the Two C effectcomical and confusingby trying
too hard to jazz up a chart.
5. Think thin when deciding on line thickness and discreet when picking
colors. Reason: Thick lines and garish colors will distract readers.
6. Use the one principle: Limit each visual to conveying one idea, one concept or one point.
7. Put it to the one-minute test: If the audience will need more than 60 seconds
to figure it out, its too complex.
41. Creating a company PPT template
Creating a good company PowerPoint template removes tedious and inconsistent

manual formatting of text, placeholders and backgrounds from the end users hands.
Most of the work is done in the Slide Master. In the View tab, Master Views group,
click the Slide Master button.
Themes
Background: Begin by choosing a Theme. For a cleaner look, click the Background
Styles button in the Background group. You might be tempted to start making custom color choices here. But wait until after the selection of Theme colors. If you
intend to use a custom image on your slides, choose Format Background from the
Background Styles button and then Picture Background for one or more Layouts.
Do this before choosing your colors and fonts. This avoids a lot of rework because
of poor contrast between text and graphics.
30
Colors: Select the Title slide layout.

It gives the boldest example of your
color choices. Click the Colors button
in the Edit Theme group. Hover over
the various choices until you find one
close to what you want. Click the Colors
button once more. Then, at the bottom,
click Create New Theme Colors. Its
challenging to detect the effect of each
change, but watch the image on the
right to get an idea of how it will look.
Before clicking Save, be sure to name
your Custom Color set to locate it again
for another template.
Fonts: Select from the existing sets
or choose Create New Theme Fonts.
You will see only Heading and Body
fonts. Make additional choices in the
Layouts themselves. The KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) definitely
applies. Keep it to two fonts, if possible.
Variations in bolding, colors and size
can provide more variety.
Common elements
Logos: Some organizations choose to put the logo on the actual Slide Master slide
(top left slide in the Slide Master view). A better approach might be to strategically
place the logo on both the Title and Content Layout. If other layouts are commonly
used, add it there as well.
Calls to Action: If you would like your audience to visit a website, dial an 800
number or take an action, put it in the bottom right corner of the slide with Word
Art. This position is where the eyes will repeatedly come to rest as your audience
scans the slide.
Custom Layouts: Here are some suggested custom layouts to consider for your
Slide Master. Having these in place will create less work for your users.
3-Column
No Logo Title and Content
Large Content Area (for charts and graphs)
Content: Close your Slide Master and save it as a PowerPoint Template file type
(File, Save as PowerPoint Template). Before closing your template, add slides
that will be needed by all presentations. Here are a few suggestions to consider:
Copyright notices and disclaimers
Whos Who in the organization
Thank You with final call to action or slogan
Office locations
Clients and partners.
31
42. Go beyond bullet points with PowerPoint
Sure, bullet points come in handy when creating a PowerPoint presentation. You can
cover a lot of ground quickly and keep track of what youve done.
But do bullet points help you tell a story?
No, says Cliff Atkinson, author of Beyond Bullet Points (Microsoft Press). And
telling a story is the most powerful way to turn complex ideas into something grabby.
To turn your presentation into a story:
1. Write a clear headline that explains the main idea of every slide. Avoid putting a title at the top, such as Marketing Objectives. Instead, summarize the overriding idea of the slide in crisp, conversational language, such as We can regain
profitability by launching a new product.
Set each headline in 40-point type, and limit yourself to two lines. That way, people can read it from the back of a room.
Tip: Look at your slide, then turn to someone else and tell him or her the main
idea of the slide. Thats your headline.
2. Break up your story into digestible bites by referring back to the Slide Sorter
view often. That way, you can scan all headlines at once and see how your story flows.
When you run across a slide that tries to say too much, break it up into more slides.
3. Use visuals with your words, instead of words alone. Its common to see
slides filled with bullet points and no visuals besides a logo and a colored background. But people learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.
4. Remove every element from a slide that doesnt support the main idea. If
you put too much on a slide, people quickly become overwhelmed, Atkinson says.
Tip: Remove corporate logos unless you think people will forget who you are.
Delete patterned backgrounds in your PowerPoint template that have nothing to do
with the content of your slide.
43. Get artistic with picture editing
PowerPoint 2010 provides a multitude of options when including photographs in

your presentations. Begin experimenting by going to the Insert tab, Images group,
and click the picture icon. Choose the picture you would like to work on. A good
example to practice on is one from the Sample Pictures (Windows 7) called Tulips.
Color
Since PowerPoint 2007, we
have had the Recolor options,
allowing the entire picture to
be changed to a single color,
such as sepia. Recolor options
(Picture Tools Format contextual tab, the Adjust group
Color button) now include
various black and white selections, as well. Choose Washout to have a picture
become a background on a single slide or one of the lighter variations of a single
32
color. PowerPoint 2010 now has Color Tone and

Saturation choices. If youve worked with programs like
Adobe Photoshop, you may be familiar with how these
attributes behave.
If not, heres a brief explanation.
Tone: Think cool to hot. A cooler tone would have
less brightness in the colors. The hotter setting would
actually look sunnier if we were looking at the tulips.
Saturation: With watercolor painting, one stroke
gives a hint of color, two make the color more vivid. The
far left of the Saturation spectrum is actually grayscale,
or no color saturation.
Artistic effects
Would you like your photo to resemble a work of art,
like a watercolor or pencil sketch? In Photoshop, these
are called filters. PowerPoint doesnt offer as robust a
selection as Photoshop, but it does offer many creative
choices. Click the Artistic Effects button to choose. The
gallery allows you to hover over a selection and see
what the effect would be on your photo. To make it look
more like an illustration, try Cutout or Line Drawing.
For something a bit more psychedelic, try Glow Edges
or Plastic Wrap.
Remove background
BYTES
Pick up cool tricks and tips for PowerPoint
each week by visiting this easy-to-digest web
log: Brainy Bettys PowerPoint Tips & Tricks
(bettypowerpoint.blogspot.com/).
* * *
Turn your best PowerPoint presentation ever

into a custom template. That way, you can
store all the fonts, graphics, backgrounds and
images easily in one tidy package. Next time
you need to create a presentation, youre one
step ahead. How to do it: Open the presentation, choose File > Save As, then type in a name
for the template and choose Design Template
(.pot) in the Save As Type field. Hit Save and
youre done.
* * *
If you would like to reuse SmartArt diagrams

in your PowerPoint, heres a workaround. Lets
say you have a diagram that you created with
SmartArt, like an organizational chart. With
the diagram selected, right-click and choose
Save as Picture Name and save the file to
an established picture library. Now, when you
need it again, just click on the Insert tab and in
the Images group, choose the Picture button.
It cant be deconstructed back to a SmartArt
diagram, but you will be able to reuse the diagram as is more easily.
This tool, while quite simple to use, can seem more

cumbersome than it is. Say you want to remove the
sky from the Tulips picture. First, click the Remove
Background button. Youll notice that a shape with
* * *
sizing handles appears, with the background shaded in
Think youre stuck with the out-of-the-box
magenta. Magenta represents the parts that would be
shapes in PowerPoint? Guess again. Draw
removed. Here are the steps to remove just the sky:
your shape from the closest one you can find.
1. Drag the shape until it includes all the flowers.
Then, from the Drawing Tools contextual tab,
This involves stretching it width-wise to include the
Insert Shapes group, choose the Edit Shape
whole width of the photo and shortening the shape so
button. While you can use this menu to change
it includes all but the top part of the photo, which only
from one established shape to another, by
contained sky.
choosing on Edit Points, you can actually make
a totally different shape. Move the existing
2.Fine tune and remove the sections of sky
points to create your new shape, or right-click
between the flowers by zooming in a bit using the zoom
to add and delete points and segments. You
slide bar in the bottom right of the screen.
can even add a curved plane on your shape
3. Use the Mark Areas to Remove tool from your
even if it only has straight edges.
new Background Removal Ribbon tab and draw lines
across the middle of the remaining blue areas. You do
not need to outline these areas.
4. Click the Keep Changes button to complete your changes.
33
44. Save time & effort: PowerPoint pointers
Most people get so caught up formatting each PowerPoint slide with color, fonts, etc.
that they end up frittering away time time they could spend sprucing up the ideas
and images in the presentation itself.
Sound like you?
Instead, use the slide master to set the slides look once and to keep it consistent
throughout the presentation. Do that before creating any slides.
Heres the step-by-step:
Under View, click Master to display the slide master.
Choose the color scheme. Under Format, click Slide Design, then Color
Schemes.
Nail down your font. Select the text in the placeholder, click Format, then Font.
Set up your layout by sizing and moving the text placeholders.
Drop in any logos or other elements that you want to appear on each slide.
Now, each slide practically designs itself. If only the rest of your work could be
this easy!
34
Save Time With

Conferencing & Podcasts
45. Try these useful tools for conferencing
Inc. magazine rates these systems as high-quality and easy to use:
The LifeSize Phone

Features: This circular phone, which has 16 built-in microphones, provides more
room coverage than typical models with fewer mikes. That means you can sit or
stand anywhere in the room and still have pin-drop sound quality. It works with VoIP
and analog lines.
D-Link i2eye Broadband VideoPhone

Features: Dont want to bother with difficult web-conferencing software? Just plug
the i2eye device into a TV with one cable and into a broadband connection with
another andta da!youre ready to videoconference over the Internet.
Logitech QuickCam Fusion

Features: Give Internet videoconferencing a try without investing a fortune. This
webcam, which works with most video chat software, sits on top of your monitor and
produces a clear picture, giving you valuable face time. A built-in mike means you
dont have to wear a headset.
46. Cant make it to a meeting? Try podcasts
Enable people to tune in to your conference calls anywhere, anytime, regardless of

when or where the meeting takes place. How? Podcasts.
The services below allow the meeting host to record a call for podcast. People can
then listen to it at their leisure, by phone or on their iPods. It makes life simpler for
them and you, as the person tasked with syncing all schedules.
Try one of these free business-friendly services:
Conference call service FreeConference (www.freeconference.com) records
and stores a conference call for up to 30 days. Play back the meeting on any com
puter or MP3 digital audioplayer. When scheduling the conference online, simply
check the box that asks if youd like to record your session. Within two hours of the
meetings scheduled end time, youll receive an email with instructions on how to
download the file for playback. Once youve downloaded the recording, its yours
to keep.
TalkShoe (www.talkshoe.com) offers businesses the ability to hold talkcasts, which are available for download 30 minutes after being recorded.
35
47. Cut travel costs with conference calls
In the face of rising travel costs, you might suggest swapping a pricey off-site meeting
for a low-cost conference call. Three resources:
1. FreeConferenceCall.com (www.freeconferencecall.com). Sign up swiftly
with your name and email address, then invite up to 96 callers for as long as six hours
per call. Simply provide attendees with an assigned phone number and the meeting
ID number.
Cost: Each participant is billed for a long-distance call through his or her own
phone service. Or, you can pay for a toll-free service at 6 cents per minute.
2. ConferenceCall.com (www.conferencecall.com). Choose from a wide range
of solutions, including operator assistance and coordination, plus call-recording services.
BYTES
Cost: 19 cents per minute, paid by the caller.
3. Audio Web Conferencing Inc. (www.audio-webCollaborate with Vyew. Host an Internet sesconferencing.com).
Receive a 100-minute free trial with
sion with far-flung colleagues and work together
any
sign-up.
After
that,
the company charges credit cards
on a project in real time. The Vyew web conferon
a
per-minute,
per-connection
basis. Best for small,
encing platform provides a simple whiteboard
to upload documents for discussion and share
high-level conference calls.
your desktop. (Free for up to 20 live participants; www.vyew.com.)
* * *
Show off your subject-matter expertiseand

cultivate a new skillby learning how to podcast. All you need is a microphone, audio
recording software and instructions (which you
can find at www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/
specs.html).
48. Virtual meeting software:
3 tools
Meet anywhere at any time with an Internet connection

and one of these great tools:
1. GoToMeeting and its cousins, GoToWebinar and
GoToTraining, offer the ability to organize a meeting
instantly with rich desktop sharing, audio and drawing
* * *
tools. At the low end, GoToMeeting accommodates
Cut business travel like Cisco chief executive
15 users and costs $49 a month with a discount for an
John Chambers. Using a high-definition videoannual subscription.
conferencing system called TelePresence,
2. Webex, Ciscos offering, is widely used. Cisco
Chambers has gone from spending 60% of his
has been offering a $19-a-month special for its basic
time on the road to carrying out half his sales
product. Starting package accommodates eight particicalls from a conference room.
pants, mobile device capability, voice and video conferencing, as well as desktop and application sharing.
3. Lync Online is your new Microsoft online meeting tool if you used Windows
LiveMeeting. For $6.50 a month, you can invite up to 250 participants. It includes
all the rich content features of its closest competitors, like desktop and application
sharing.
36
Tap Into Smartphone

Services
49.
8 best apps for taking care of business
The number of applications smartphone users have to choose from is mind-boggling,

but for every task at hand there are some that stand above the rest. Here are eight that
are a great help on the job, according to Ritika Trikha, Careerbliss.com:
1.Evernote is a one-stop app for storing, organizing and searching all of your
ideas, to-do lists, websites and more.
2.Pages is a word processing app that functions much like Microsoft Word, but
allows you to create professional-looking documents when you dont have access
to a PC.
3.Dropbox stores all of your documents in the cloud so you can access them
from any device and share them with others as well.
4. Note Taker HD is an endless notepad that you can use to jot down your
thoughts on the iPad. It also allows you to electronically sign documents.
5.FlipBoard creates a personalized virtual publication of the most-shared
sources from your favorite news sources, so you can stay up to date on the latest
information without taking the time to search for it each day.
6.Clear lets you create a color-coded, prioritized to-do list and then eliminate
completed items with a quick touch.
7.CheckList by Mitsuru Yoshitomi allows you to make and store checklists for
the things you do again and again, such as validating survey results or taking a business trip, so you get them right every time.
8.Glympse can help you meet up with people in a public place. You give the
people you want to meet the ability to track your whereabouts via GPS for a set
period of timelong enough to connect, not long enough to stalk.
50. Give your iPhone a productivity boost
Of the millions of iPhone users in the United States, most are unaware of the
advanced shortcuts that can make them more efficient. Here are six ways to boost
your productivity, according to Sam Grobart, The New York Times:
1. Activate Voice Control by pressing and holding the home button. Once
activated, you can use Voice Control to make a call (Dial 202-555-0000), play a
song (Play artist Dave Brubeck) or find out the time (What time is it?).
2. Speed up your online search. Normally, to launch a browser, you wait, then
enter the search term, then launch your search.
But theres a faster way. When your home screen first appears, swipe from left to
right across the window to pull up a search screen. Enter your search term, then hit
Search the Web or Search Wikipedia. No need to launch a browser.
3. Save an image from a website by simply tapping and holding your finger
37
BYTES
Stumped by text messages from a number you
dont recognize? If you dont feel safe replying,
get a text-message trace report. TraceText.com
will tell you, free, where the caller is located. For
a fee, the service provides a report that contains
the cell phone owners name, address and
household information.
* * *
Smartphones as scanners. Newer smartphones have such good cameras they can double as barcode scanners. That means while
shopping, you can use your phone to compare
prices on the spot. An application called
ShopSavvy is available for both the iPhone and
Android. Scan a barcode to get prices from all
over the web as well as retail outlets near you.
Google Shopper is a similar application on
Android.
* * *
Wireless coverage problems in your area?

Report it to DeadCellZones.com. The site aims
to gather information about where cell phone
calls are frequently dropped or where service is
unavailable. DeadCellZones submits your complaint to wireless carriers, which will then report
back when they have made improvements.
* * *
Wall outlets turn high-tech. Now you can

power up more mobile devices like your smartphone or iPad, without using the bulky wall
charger, plus plug in AC-powered appliances
at the same time with the RCA USB Wall Plate
Charger. It converts an ordinary dual AC power
outlet into a USB plus AC power outlet. Just
plug the outlet in and youve got USB charging. RCA also has a portable Wall Charger that
charges two smartphones or one iPad and
provides a spot for the gadget to rest on.
on an image until you see buttons pop up saying Save

Image and Copy. The captured picture goes into your
camera roll.
4. Locate a keyword on a web page by using the
Google field on Safari. Type in the word youre looking for. A list of search options appears, including On
This Page. Tap that, and you can see where that term
appears on the page youre viewing.
5.Undo what you just typed by shaking your
iPhone. (Remember your Etch A Sketch toy?)
6.Restart a sluggish iPhone by holding down the
home button and sleep button. To complete this
hard reset, continue holding until the phone restarts
and displays the Apple logo.
51. Apps just for faxing
Next time you need to send a fax, use your smartphone.

Fax apps allow you to take a photo of a document, crop
it, spruce it up and then send it out.
For iPhones:
JotNotScanner: Because its free, this app is a
good starting point. Grid lines over a photographed
image help you level the image; you can also zoom in
for a closer look. Multiple pages can be combined into
one document.
Pro version, JotNotScanner: With even better
features, it gives you the ability to export images to
Evernote or Dropbox.
TurboScan and ScannerPro allow you to open
your scanned documents as a PDF, send them by email,
print them or upload them to Dropbox and Evernote.
For Android:
Scan to PDF works similarly, scanning documents

using your phones camera. The resulting PDFs can
be cropped and enhanced before uploading to Google
Docs.
CamScanner has a free and paid version. Downside
to the free version: PDF docs contain a watermark, and
youll be limited to 50 documents, with 10 pages per document. The paid version
has no limits.
38
Download Templates
or Create Your Own
52. Create an agenda-building cheat sheet
The monthly department meeting is next week, and youve already heard from four
people who want to appear on the agenda. You expect a few more to chime in.
Its your job to create an agenda that affords adequate time for each item, as well
as to make sure the meeting runs smoothly and ends on time.
Your best approach? Annette Marquis, co-owner of TRIAD Consulting, recommends building an adjustable meeting-agenda template in Excel.
This simple worksheet automatically manages start and end times, she says.
When you add a speaker at the last minute, time allotments for other items adjust
automatically.
Heres how to build one:
Create your title and headings (location, date, etc.) for the top of your agenda
template.
Enter column headings, beginning with Start, End and Time (or
Length). You might also wish to add columns titled Item and Presenter. Your
worksheet should now look like the example below.
A
1
2 Title:
3 Location:
4 Date:
5
6
7 Start End
8
9
Meeting Agenda
Time
Item
Contact
Select the Start, End and Time cells in the worksheets first row (cells A8, B8
and C8 in the example above).
Click Cells on the Format menu.
Click Time in the Category list on the Number tab.
Click 1:30 p.m. in the Time list, and click OK so the cells will display time
entries.
Click the first cell in the End column and enter this formula:
=IF(ISBLANK(C8),,A8+C8). This formula will calculate end times for each agenda item, based on how long each item will take.
Click the cell in the second row of the Start column, and enter this formula:
=IF(ISBLANK(B8),,B8).
Copy (or fill) the formula in cell B8 to cell B9.
39
Before adding formulas to subsequent rows, test the worksheet. Enter a start time
in the first cell under Start. Then enter a time value under Time.
Example: If the meeting start time is 2 p.m., and the first agenda item will take
20 minutes, enter 2:00 p.m. and 0:20. You should see 2:20 p.m. appear in the End
cell of the first row and in the Start cell of the second row.
53. Save time with MS Word templates
If you frequently write letters to the same few people, having documents that are
partially formatted with dropdown menus can save you the hassle of copying and
pasting from old documents all the time. Helen Bradley of PCWorld explains how:
Find Words Content Controls. The control panel is accessible only from the
Developer Tab, which is disabled by default. To enable it in Word 2010, choose File
> Options > Customize Ribbon. In the right panel, locate and click the Developer
checkbox and click OK.
Select a date using the Date Picker Control. This tool creates a space where
a date can be entered through just a few mouse clicks. It displays a small calendar where users choose a date into a placeholder. Click the Calendar Icon in the
Customize Ribbon, then turn design mode off. The placeholder should pop up in
the document, and from there you can format the display.
Insert pre-formatted text. The text placeholder allows you to insert prewritten messages into documents with ease. The text can be preformatted if you prefer
a certain style.
Create a list of options. The line item placeholder saves a list of common
words, such as Dear (Sir, Madam), for easy accessibility. Simply click Properties,
Add, and type an entry for the list. You can format the list so that it cannot be
deleted, and the text can be assigned specific styles and titles.
Create checklists. Click the Check Box Content Control and then click
Properties. This can be formatted a number ways, such as a standard check or X
inside a box, or some other symbol.
When saving your document with Controls, dont forget to choose File > Save As
> Save as Type, and choose Word Template (*.dotx). There many ways to use the
content controls to save time on data-entry tasks, such as memos, fax covers, letters
and so on.
54.
Reuse your work with Excel templates
Templates can make your life easier in two ways. First, hundreds of templates
already exist that you can use. Second, you can save your own custom templates
either from your workbooks or by customizing a commercial template.
Finding templates
By clicking on the File tab and selecting New, youll notice a variety of template
categories to choose from. Click Sample Templates at the top to reveal templates
already installed on your computer. The lower portion of the screen reveals the template categories available from Office.com. You can also type in search criteria into
the Search Office.com field for templates.
40
Creating your own templates

1. Create your work sheet or modify a template to suit your purposes.
2. Consider creating borders around or shading cells that require data input.
3. Click File, and then Save as (or try the shortcut F12).
4. In the Save as type field, select Word Template.
5. Be sure the file saves in your templates directory.
6. Click Save.
7. Close the file. It would be too easy to forget you were in your template, instead
of a copy of it.
To use the template, click File, then New. Click My Templates and youll find
the one you created.
Single work sheet templates

Another way to use templates is to create work sheets inside an
existing workbook. For example, lets say you set up a new ledger
for each new customer. The format for the ledger will be the same
starting out for every customer.
But, if you want to keep all your ledgers in the same workbook,
follow these steps:
1. Create your content.
2. Delete any additional work sheets, leaving you with a single
work sheet workbook.
3.Save the single work sheet workbook as a template (see
steps above).
4. When you want to add one of those work sheets to your
workbook, right-click a work sheet, and choose Insert.
5. You will see your templates in the Insert dialog box.
With your new templates, you can stop reinventing the wheel.
Just do the hard work one time and reap the return year after year.
55. Travel Arrangements Form
Preparing travel plans can be one of the more frustrating activities inthelife of an
administrative professional. Thats why we were so excited when one of our longtime Administrative Professional Today readers, Lawanda Titshaw, submitted her
helpful Travel Arrangements Form. (See sample form on page 43.)
To access the travel form online, go to: www.adminprotoday.com/travel_
arrangement_form.
56. Task Request Form
Staff members wont need to constantly interrupt your work to discuss an assignment
if you create a simple form they can complete to request common tasks. An
Administrative Professional Today subscriber, Sue Watz provided a sample form.
(See sample on page 44.)
41
57. Travel Profile Form
Need a simple way to track employees travel preferences, such as whether they need
smoking or nonsmoking rooms, which airports they prefer flying out of or whether
they like aisle or window seats?
A subscriber to our Admin Pro Forum, Luann Poch, offers an Excel document
with sections for information on the travelers preferences, credit cards, memberships and passport informaBYTES
tion. The Excel form is generic enough to allow users
to replace information with whatever they need to keep
Want to send the same email to different
contacts? Create a template in Outlook. After
on hand, she says.
composing the email, click the Office Button,
You can access the form at www.adminprotoday.
Save As, and in the Save As Type field choose
com/travel_profile_form. (See sample on page 45.)
Outlook Template. Then choose Use Form from
the New button at the bottom. You may need
to change the Look in field to show User
Templates in the file system.
* * *
Find templates, photos, animation effects

and more in the PowerPlugs software at
www.crystalgraphics.com. Or spice up your
backgrounds with art from www.powerbacks.
com.
58. Event Planning Form
Planning an event? Heres a handy form you can adapt

to take the guesswork out of ensuring everything will be
ready on time. (See sample Seminar Timeline Form on
page 46.)
59. Weekly Report Form
Administrative professional Debra Lara created a onepage summary ofweekly projects. Color-coding shows whether projects are complete
or in progress, and Lara leaves space for questions to and comments from the boss.
(See sample on page 47.)
42
TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS
FORM
59 Technology
Tips for the Administrative Professional
Name:
Dates of Travel:
Overnight Travel Request Number:
Travel Destination:
Conference/Seminar:
Airline Information
Airline:
Cost Of Ticket (Est.):
Departure
Date:
Departure
Date:
Frequent Flyer Mile #:

Arrival
Time:
Arrival
Time:
Departure
Time:
Departure
Time:
Flight #:
Flight #:
Car Rental or Shuttle Information

Company Name:
Location:
Cost Per Day:
Phone #:
$
Total Cost:
Confirmation #:
Hotel Information
Hotel Name:
Address:
Cost Per Night:
Confirmation #:
Phone #:
$
Number Of Nights:
Total Cost:
Meals (Amount Allowed):

Note: When you tab out of a cell after entering a dollar amount, the subtotal and total values update automatically.
Calculations may take a few seconds, but be sure to tab from cell to cell to update totals.
Date
Totals:
Breakfast
$
$
$
$
$
$
$ 0.00
Lunch
$
$
$
$
$
$
Dinner
$
$
$
$
$
$
$ 0.00
Totals
$ 0.00
$ 0.00
$ 0.00
$ 0.00
$ 0.00
$ 0.00
$ 0.00
$ 0.00
Other Pertinent Information
43
ADMINISTRATION REQUEST FORM

DATE OF
REQUEST

DATE OF
REQUEST
DATE/TIME
NEEDED
DATE
COMPLETED
DATE/TIME
NEEDED
(no ASAP please)
(no ASAP please)
REQUESTED
BY
REQUESTED
BY
WORDPROCESSING
DATE
COMPLETED
WORDPROCESSING
DRAFT
DOUBLE SPACE
DRAFT
DOUBLE SPACE
FINAL
OTHER
FINAL
OTHER
COPYING
PAPER
COPYING
SINGLE SIDED
WHITE XEROX
_________
DOUBLE SIDED
BLUE
Code________
COLLATE
WHITE LTR HEAD
STAPLE
OTHER_______
# of copies
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS/DISTRIBUTION
PAPER
SINGLE SIDED
WHITE XEROX
_________
DOUBLE SIDED
BLUE
Code________
COLLATE
WHITE LTR HEAD
STAPLE
OTHER_______
# of copies
COMPLETED
BY
COMPLETED
BY
Please notify Office Manager if work request requires

less than 24-hours turnaround.


DATE OF
REQUEST

DATE OF
REQUEST
DATE/TIME
NEEDED
(no ASAP please)
DATE
COMPLETED
REQUESTED
BY
DATE/TIME
NEEDED
(no ASAP please)
DATE
COMPLETED
REQUESTED
BY
WORDPROCESSING
WORDPROCESSING
DRAFT
DOUBLE SPACE
DRAFT
DOUBLE SPACE
FINAL
OTHER
FINAL
OTHER
COPYING
PAPER
COPYING
SINGLE SIDED
_________
DOUBLE SIDED
BLUE
Code________
COLLATE
WHITE LTR HEAD
STAPLE
# of copies
WHITE XEROX
COMPLETED
BY

44
SINGLE SIDED
WHITE XEROX
_________
DOUBLE SIDED
BLUE
Code________
COLLATE
WHITE LTR HEAD
STAPLE
OTHER_______
# of copies
OTHER_______
PAPER
COMPLETED
BY

45
Name:
Car Rental
Date / Place of Birth
Dietary Preferences?
Other Special Requests?
Date of Expiration
Date / Place of Issue
Number
Card Type
Window or Aisle?
Airline Seat Selection / Special Requirements
International
Domestic
Airline Preference(s)
Type of car preferred:
Preferred Car Rental Company:
Travel Coordinator:
Department Head:
Email Address:
Passport Information
Frequent Flyer Memberships
Number
Credit Cards (indicate if Corporate or Personal)
Cellphone:
Office Telephone:
Office Fax:
Home Telephone:
Title:
Home Address:
Office Address:
Cost Center Number:
Date of Profile
Employee Name
Travel Profile
Exp Date
46
Project / Item
(not including all tasks)
Completed Board agenda, to members by e-mail &

post
Confirm Annual Meeting arrangements
(room/caterer)
Create organization meeting slide presentation,
update org chart
Get sample of projector costs; also called local
stores for IR sensor for projector
Help CHS Director: Pull files, research financial
data
Learn, help Bob with PowerPoint techniques for
the annual meeting presentation
Newsletter: called abt missing articles, completed
layout
Done
04/12/13 Work with Gary, Shana on web site changes
04/12/13
to be published this
week
upon approval, will mail
CHS Director will finish
upon approval, I'll load

onto laptop & burn CD
Next Step
In Process
waiting for call back,

want to write letter
In Process will mail after conf
Done
04/12/13 Work with CHS Dir. on ad and article
After conference: thank yous to sponsors &

speakers, press release to papers
Research, calls to phone company abt billing
04/12/13
discrepancy
Done
Done
Done
Done
Done
Done
Done
Done
Done
Done
Done
Done
Status
(of my part)
04/12/13 Reports: travel account activity
04/12/13
Prepare financials & other documents in packets

for Friday's meeting
Report: membership dues, other accounts
04/12/13
receivable
04/12/13 Pay bills, request funds, get signatures
04/12/13
04/12/13
04/12/13
04/12/13
04/12/13
04/12/13
04/12/13
04/12/13 Complete design, mail 500 Conference brochures
Last
Week
Worked
Could put newsletter

on the web?
call manufacturer?
Question
Our Organization Name

Administrative Assistant's Weekly Report as of 4/12/13
Supervisor's Comments
47
B59AP1304

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59 Technology

Tips for the

1. Try keyboard shortcuts for Windows tasks............................................................................1

Speed Tasks in Microsoft Word.......................................................................................4

Navigate through MS Word with ease...................................................................................4

Boost Email/Outlook Efficiency........................................................................................8

Tame your wild, woolly inbox: 4 tips....................................................................................8

Log on to Online Tools & Useful Sites.......................................................................15

Simplify to-do lists: virtual task masters................................................................................. 15

Excel in Using Excel.............................................................................................................25

Work the numbers: Excel dates & times..............................................................................25

Optimize PowerPoint Presentations............................................................................30

Simplify PowerPoint visuals: 7 rules...................................................................................30

Save Time With Conferencing & Podcasts.............................................................35

Try these useful tools for conferencing................................................................................35

Tap Into Smartphone Services.......................................................................................37

49. 8 best apps for taking care of business.................................................................................37

Download Templates or Create Your Own..............................................................39

Create an agenda-building cheat sheet..............................................................................39

59 Technology Tips for the Administrative Professional

1. Try keyboard shortcuts for Windows tasks

2. Ready for an online-storage test drive?

Business Management Daily

Figure out whats on a USB memory drive

Protect a home computer from viruses with

3. Passwords: Keep the dogs

and cats out of it

Passwords protect every part of your online life. If you

59 Technology Tips for the Administrative Professional

3. Utilize a password manager. Store all of your passwords in an encrypted

4. Save time on your PC using

5. Give your fingers a lift with keyboard upgrade

Business Management Daily

6. Navigate through MS Word with ease

The Browse Object button

Ctrl key shortcuts

Easy ways to select text

59 Technology Tips for the Administrative Professional

7. Perform 9 double-click tricks

You probably already know about double-clicking in

losing track of what youre doing: Select the

Just getting used to using Word 2007 and

If you copy and paste data into a Word

Business Management Daily

8. Sane and simple sections, headers, footers

Headers and footers

59 Technology Tips for the Administrative Professional

9. Streamline your back & forth editing

10. Design away, with these 4 Word tricks

Business Management Daily

11. Tame your wild, woolly inbox: 4 tips

2. Search for old emails

3. Mark for handling

59 Technology Tips for the Administrative Professional

12. Convert from Outlook

Should you consider converting to Outlook 2010, even

13. Oops! Didnt mean to send that message

Business Management Daily

4. In Step 1, select Defer delivery by a number of minutes. In Step 2, set the