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

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

Top 5 Worst PowerPoint Mistakes

1. Reading Your Slides To The Audience

• Is your audience a formerly undiscovered Amazon rain forest tribe? If so, you may want to ask if PowerPoint is really the right tool. If not, then chances are they know how to read.
  
  It is actually possible to listen and read at the same time, while it is not possible to talk about something else, while reading out loud at the same time. That means that your audience will have already read whatever is on your slide before you do. Don’t make your audience re-hear what they have already read.
  
  Use your slides to emphasize or prove your point, not to deliver them.
• Take advantage of PowerPoint 2007 innovative new two-screen display to put presenter view on your monitor and the slide show view on the main monitor. Put your notes and what to read aloud on the presenter view.
  
  You’ll sound more knowledgeable when you can cite something that isn’t up on the slide and.

2. Infinite Clutter

• PowerPoint 2007 streamlined new interface puts features that used to be buried in the menus front and center. That makes it easier than ever to add graphics, videos, animations, fonts, WordArt, sounds, graphs, boxes, bullets, colors, backgrounds, transitions … Whew!
  
  With all of the great new features (and some old ones you might have just never used before) it is very easy to clutter up a slide with so much wiz and bang that your audience will never be able to absorb it all, let alone appreciate your point.
• Use the PowerPoint Slide Rule of 3+1+1. You can have up to 3 different elements on any one slide plus one “background” item plus one flash item.

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

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

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

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

• Perhaps no single element has doomed more PowerPoint presentations to the annals of eye-rolling lameness than slide transitions.
  
  Invented as a way to keep your audience from getting bored with the same old thing over and over again, many a PowerPoint presentation instead became a guessing game where the audience paid more attention to how the slides left and arrived than they did to what was on them.
  
  PowerPoint 2007 makes this temptation even greater with more transitions, and easier customizations.
• Stick to a single transition for each section of your Presentation. For any professional presentation that is not deliberately funny stick with Not Transition, Left to Right, Right to Left (Wipe and Push), and Fade Smoothly.
  
  All other transitions are officially banned from professional presentations. Any use of dissolve or any of the spinning/rotating transitions is grounds for guffawing out loud. Never, ever, use the customization to slow down a transition unless the next slide is supposed to be a surprise (accompanying drum roll is preferable).

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

• PowerPoint 2007 comes loaded with tons of amazing ways to jazz up your presentation with high impact visuals. Just make sure they are high impact and not highly annoying.
  
  If every presenter who ever put a cute little kitten, or a funny(?) cartoon, or a “neat” picture on the slide with the company’s fourth quarter numbers was simultaneously hit in the head at the same time, the earth might actually come off its axis. Do not, under penalty of mockery, use unrelated visuals on your slides just to “give them some flair.”
• Make your images count. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, take advantage. Always use graphical elements as “proof.”
  

• Have a slide about deforestation? Show a picture of a clear-cut forest. Have a slide about how important it is to read to children? Show a picture of a happy child being read to. Have a slide about how the Marketing budget is up 23% this year? If you put a picture of a kitten hanging off of a string with the words, “Hang In There” on it, we all hope your project bulb burns out and you get a lot of paper cuts.

5. Auuurrrrrggggghhhh, I Wish I Was Color Blind!

• A woman once remarked that she would never date a man if he wore a brown belt (or shoes) with black pants because it meant that no one had ever loved him enough to save him. The same can be said of many PowerPoint creators.
  
  I once asked a colleague why he chose to deliver a 45 minute presentation with red, cursive style, text on a neon orange background. He said, “Because before this presentation, no one had ever seen that before, so they’ll definitely remember it.”
  
  I’ve never had a fire ant trapped under the eyelid before either, and while I am sure I would always remember it, I don’t think that would be a good thing.
• Fortunately, PowerPoint 2007 comes stocked with Themes and color schemes to allow even the most color-challenged make compelling PowerPoint presentations. If you don’t know why purple text on a lime green background is a bad idea, then for the love of all that is good, please, please, please stick to the supplied themes and color schemes, there are plenty of them to keep it “new.”

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

Here are some of the best new features:

1. The PowerPoint Ribbon

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

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

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

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

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

2. Slide Masters

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

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

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

3. Powerful New Formatting

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

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

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

4. Improved WordArt

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

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

5. Better Graphic Tweaks

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

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

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

6. Presenter View

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

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

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

7. SharePoint Integration

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

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

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

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

Summary

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

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

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

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

Ready? Set? Go!

Planning Before Merging

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Writing Your Thank You Letter

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

Now, let’s make it pretty, shall we?

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

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

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

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

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

Creating a Mail Merge Letter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

7. Select Personal Salutation and click on Insert.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

27. Now our address lines look much better.

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

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

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

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

The Final Steps: Merging

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

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

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

3. And here are your documents ready to print!

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

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

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

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

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

Creating Relationships in Access 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congratulations! Your first relationship in Access has been created!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ta-Da!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Find out more about our new Access 2007 Training!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click the Using Colors tab and click Turn On

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don’t Let Outlook Do Your Thinking for You

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Warning: Registry Changes Are Not For the Meek

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

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

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

This will open your Registry Editor.

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

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

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

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

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

Registry Editing is Not My Thing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Word Mail Merge

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creating Address Labels in Word 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15. Make sure All is selected and click OK.

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

Another Way to Merge with Word and Excel 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And don’t forget, there are lots of other cool things you can do in Word and Excel. Check out our Office YouTube Channel for more helpful tips and tutorials on Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and more.

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

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

Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 includes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Take the Word Challenge!

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

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

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

Learn Microsoft Word From an Award Winning Instructor

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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

Become a Word 2007 expert!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Because everyone else is using it

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

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

5. Because Notepad will only take you so far

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creating a Pivot Table

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

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




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



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



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

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



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



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



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



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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Microsoft Excel 2007 Training – Available Now!

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

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

Some of the topics in the training include:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to Share an Excel Workbook

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to Restrict Access in a Shared Workbook

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



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

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

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

How to Track Changes in a Shared Workbook

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

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

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

How to Remove a Workbook from Shared Use

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

Microsoft Excel 2007 Training – Available Now!

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

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

Some of the topics in the training include:

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

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

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

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

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

What’s new in Excel 2007?

• More room for your data – spreadsheets have been expanded to support massive amounts of data – 1 million rows and 16,000 columns!
• Make a chart with just three clicks – professional looking charts are now fast and easy. The best part is you can edit your Excel charts in Office 2007 Word and PowerPoint.
• Sharing made easy – Excel 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 let you safely share spreadsheets on your server with total control over which users can view and edit the information.
• There’s also Excel Services, interactive Pivot Tables, compressed XML Format, and much more!

Microsoft Excel 2007 Training – Available Now!

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

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

Some of the topics in the training include:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• A column chart – lists 2 or more categories using vertical bars
  
  
• A bar chart – similar in form to a column chart, except the bars are displayed horizontally.
  
  
• A line chart – basically what we all call a “graph.” Data is represented by dots on a line. This is essentially what you learned about in high school algebra.
  
  
• A scatter chart – very similar to a graph. However, you can present the data without lines here so the dots on your chart won’t necessarily follow a progression.
  
  
• A pie chart – shows items as slices of a circular “pie.” This is great for showing percentages.
  
  
• An area chart – most useful when you have multiple sets of data and you’re trying to show the differences across time or different categories.
  
  

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

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

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

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

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

Design

Layout

Format

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

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

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

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So if you’re ready to start using Excel 2007 here are top 5 things you need to know how to do.

5. How to Insert and Delete Rows, Columns, Cells and Worksheets in Excel 2007

As in most Microsoft applications, there’s at least a couple of ways to do the same thing. In Excel 2007, the top part of the screen is called the Ribbon and that is where you can perform most, if not all tasks for Excel.

So first make sure that you’re on the Home tab on the Ribbon:

Next, locate the box that’s labeled Cells which is located on the right side on the Home tab:

To insert a worksheet, row, column, or cell click on the down arrow under Insert and select the appropriate task. Yup it’s that easy!

The only thing you have to remember is that the column or row that you’re inserting will go to the left and above the selected cell, respectively. So for example if I’m in C 3 before I click on insert row:

My new row will be inserted above my selected cell (notice the blue row is moved down):

The same thing goes for columns, the new one will be inserted to the left of the selected cell. When you’re inserting cells, you have the option to shift cells to the right or down, or to insert an entire row or column:

Deleting is very similar to inserting. All you have to do is click on the down arrow under Delete and select the appropriate task:

And again, what you’re deleting is what you have selected. It’s this simple!

As I mentioned before, there’s two ways of doing things in Excel, so here’s another way you can insert and delete. Simply right click and select either Insert or Delete:

For either one of the actions, you’ll be prompted with a dialogue box that will let you insert and delete cells, rows, and columns:

To insert or delete a worksheet, right click on the worksheet tab on the bottom and select the appropriate task:

And if you’ve read Bill Bullock’s article last week, you already know that you can also use a keyboard shortcut for inserting a new worksheet: ALT+SHIFT+F1

If you’re interested in learning other keyboard shortcuts check out Bill’s article on the best Excel 2007 keyboard shortcuts.

4. How to Adjust the Width and Height of Rows and Columns in Excel 2007

Adjusting the width and height of columns and rows is very simple. You can do it by dragging the row or column until it reaches the desired height and width. All you have to do is left click on the edge of the column or row (as pointed out by the red arrow in the image below) and drag the whole column or row until the desired size is reached!

If you want to adjust more than one column or row at a time, first highlight the rows or columns you want to adjust, then right click and select either Row Height… (as seen below) or Column Width… – depending on what you’re doing.

A small dialogue box will pop up where you can enter the desired height/width:

3. How to Use Quick Sort in Excel 2007

The quick sort function lets you organize and arrange your data so that it’s easier to analyze. The Sort function is located on your Home tab in the box labeled Editing. Clicking on the down arrow, you’re given three sort options: Sort A to Z, Sort Z to A, and Custom Sort:

The custom sort option allows you to select the column you want to sort, and then further select how you want your data to be sorted. The Order column lets you select from four custom lists, and you can create your own list with your own, unique information:

2. How to Use the Filter Option in Excel 2007

The Filter option is located under the same option as the Quick Sort option – in the Editing box on the Home tab of your Ribbon. Filtering allows you to select specific parts of your data to help you with analyzing.

So start by highlighting the columns you want to filter and select filter. You’ll notice that the columns you selected will now have drop boxes in the headings:

Now, if I want to look at the sales numbers for a particular year, all I have to do is click on the appropriate arrow box, and select the information I want to look at (and remember, you can select more than one!):

1. How to Use Freeze Panes in Excel 2007

Freeze Panes is one of my favorite features because it allows you to select your view very easily. For example, you want to see the top row at all times – even when you scroll way down to the bottom of your spreadsheet – you can do it by “freezing” the top row.

Here’s what you need to do. Go to your View tab and locate the Freeze Panes option, located in the Window box. You’ll be given three “freezing” options: Freeze Top Row, Freeze First Column, or Freeze the selected Panes – which is based on your current selection.

Freezing the top row and the first column is effortless – all you have to do is select the option, but to freeze your own selection, you need to pay attention to which cell you’ve selected.

For example, if you want to freeze the top row and the first column, make sure that you’re in B 2 – right below the top row and next to the first column before you click on Freeze Panes. The frozen panes will be marked with a black line:

To unfreeze panes, simply go back to the freeze panes option and select unfreeze panes:

I hope this information was helpful to all the new Excel 2007 users out there. If you have specific Excel 2007 questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

There are people who believe that Microsoft Office Excel is just for balancing your personal budget or your checkbook. While it’s true that you can use Excel for those tasks, there are so many other things that Excel can do! The implications for storing meaningful data in an office setting are obvious. Any time you need to create a graph of sales numbers for last quarter, Excel is the first place you turn to, right?

However if you do some searching for novel Excel uses, you will turn up some very interesting results. How about using Excel to track your new diet? Maybe Excel is what you need to help you keep up your New Year’s resolution this year?

At any rate, Excel 2007 can be a great tool for getting things done and it is the most popular spreadsheet application around. If you’re dealing with numbers, dates, or any large amounts of data, Excel is the place to go.

As with one of my previous articles: 11 Best Keyboard Shortcuts for Outlook 2007, I am going to mention 13 of the most useful (and perhaps most under-utilized) keyboard shortcuts Excel 2007 has to offer.

Use them to keep both hands on the keyboard and navigate faster, creating charts, workbooks, and data groups with all the ease of some kind of super-calculating super-computer. Well, maybe not, but you can still make funny “beep boop” noises while you do it, right?

Mastering Excel 2007 Keyboard Shortcuts?

Without further ado, let’s get on with the shortcuts, shall we?

1. ALT+F1 – This creates a chart out of the data in the current range (selected cells). This is the most well known feature of Excel, and now you know a new way to use it!
2. ALT+SHIFT+F1 – This inserts a new worksheet into the workbook.
3. F6 – This switches between the worksheet, Ribbon, task pane, and Zoom controls. This is probably the most useful shortcut of all. This cool shortcut is also the most beloved to the all anti-mouse users out there.
4. SHIFT+F6 – This does the reverse of the F6 shortcut.
5. CTRL+F6 – This switches to the next workbook window when multiple workbook windows are open.
6. CTRL+SHIFT+$ – This applies the currency format to the selected cells. Great for those times when dealing with monetary data.
7. CTRL+SHIFT+# – This applies the date format with a default order of day, month, and year.
8. CTRL+; – This enters the current date in the selected cells.
9. CTRL+SHIFT+@ – This applies the time format with the default value of hour, minute and AM/PM.
10. CTRL+SHIFT+: – This enters the current time in the selected cells.
11. CTRL+` – This alternates between showing the value of a cell and the formula in the worksheet. Great for complex worksheets.
12. CTRL+D – This uses the fill down command on the selected cells. Fill down copies the content and format of the topmost cell into the cells below.
13. CTRL+R – This uses the fill right command on the selected cells. Fill right copies the content and format of the leftmost cell to the cells to the right.

There you have it. Not quite a top-ten list, but since there are more than ten shortcuts listed here, consider the three extras as a bonus just for you! These shortcuts will have you well on your way to charting, calculating, and organizing your data like the pro that you are.

Hop to it, but don’t forget to hop back here to TST for more Excel articles, coming real soon. And while you’re here, why don’t you tell me your favorite shortcut or feature in Excel 2007? Have you ever used it for novel purposes? Discuss in the comments.

… What’s that you say? Didn’t see a shortcut for the action you need to perform? Well you can click here to see Microsoft’s official list of all the keyboard shortcuts in Excel 2007, and see if you can find it.

Today I decided to write about another one of my favorite new features in Outlook 2007: text and picture messaging – which allows you to integrate your mobile phone service into Outlook. How cool is that?

Just as integrating RSS feeds allows you to manage your feed content in Outlook — bringing the two services together — with Mobile Services you’re combining your mobile phone with Outlook. You can manage your contacts and correspondence from both of these media, which means you can send and receive messages from both your mobile phone and your Outlook.

Here’s what you can do with Outlook Mobile Service:

• send a text or picture message from your Outlook
• send an email message from your mobile phone
• send a message both as an email message and as a text message to multiple contacts at the same time
• receive e-mail messages and calendar appointments through your mobile phone
• receive messages sent to your mobile phone directly in your Outlook Inbox

Besides being cool, this new Outlook feature offers many advantages.

Your mobile phone becomes completely integrated with Outlook, so that the text and picture messages that you send will be saved in your Sent Items folder along with all your sent email messages.

And the text and picture messages that you receive are sent to your Inbox, just as your email messages. You can also save unfinished text messages in your Drafts folder — just like you would save your email messages.

You also get a new address book in your Outlook that is created automatically and holds all of your mobile contact information. There’s also an AutoResolve feature that helps you find the contact information that you’re looking for when sending a mobile message.

And when you’re away from your computer, you can set up Outlook to forward emails and calendar appointments to your mobile phone, so you don’t miss a thing!

In this article I’ll walk you through the steps on:

• how to set up your Mobile Services Account
• how to delete your Mobile Services Account
• how to send a message using your Mobile Services Account in Outlook

Setting Up Your Mobile Services Account in Outlook

Before you get started, make sure you are using Microsoft Outlook 2007 and that you have your mobile phone ready.

1. Open up your Outlook, go to Tools and click on Account Settings

2. On the first tab – which is the E-mail tab click on New:

3. A window will come up that says Choose E-mail Services. Click Other, select Outlook Mobile Service (Text Messaging), and click Next:

4. In the next window, you will need to enter your Account Setttings. Click on the link that says Fill in this information using Microsoft Office Online configuration and make sure that you’re connected to the Internet so that you can access the next page.

5. Start by choosing your country/region from the first drop down menu, then choose your wireless carrier from the second drop down menu:

Note: If you get the message below, this means your wireless provider does not offer this service in your country/region (sorry, there are only a couple that don’t, and you can get notified when the service will be available for you).

6. If you don’t see the above message, you can move on by clicking on the SMS Link for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007:

7. Next you will be asked to setup your Username and Password. If you have a Hotmail, MSN, Windows Live ID, or Passport account, select Yes and click Next. If you select No and you’ll go through some additional steps to create an account.

8. Now you will be taken to the appropriate sign-in page. I have a hotmail account, so I need to enter my email address and password.

9. After you’re signed in, you will need to enter your mobile phone number and the email address that you would like to use your Outlook Mobile Services in. Read the Terms of Service, select accept and click Next:

10. Now make sure that your phone number is correct and check your phone to see if you’ve received a four digit text message code. If you did, select Yes and click Next:

11. On the following page enter the four digit code you’ve received and click Next:

12. Now check your Outlook for an email message from SMS Link Customer Service which will confirm your email address.

13. Click on the link that you’ve received in your email message and then click Next in the box below:

14. The next step is Outlook Configuration where all you have to do is click on the link that says Click here to involve Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, as seen below:

15. The dialogue box from Step 1 will come up with your information already filled in — so all you have to do is put in your password and click Okay.

16. To start using your Mobile Services you need to restart your Outlook:

17. That’s it you’re done! On the page below click Finish to complete the set-up.

Deleting your Mobile Services Account

If, for any reason, you need to get rid of your Mobile Services Account here’s what you need to do:

1. Open up your Outlook, go to Tools and click on Account Settings

2. On the first tab – the E-mail tab – select the Mobile Services Account you want to delete and click Remove

3. Click Yes to confirm and you’re done!

Note: Whe you remove your Mobile Services account from Outlook, that does not have an effect on your wireless service account — all you’re doing is removing the option from your Outlook.

Sending a Message Via Outlook Mobile Services

Sending text or picture messages using your Mobile Services Account is easy, here’s what you need to do:

1. Click New, and scroll down to Text Message

2. In the To line, type in the phone number of the person receiving your message or look up the phone number in your Address Book. After you’ve composed your message, click Send and you’re done!

Note: When sending a text message you have a 160 character limit and you can preview your message on the left in the preview pane:

3. You can also forward a message as a text message by simply clicking forward and selecting Forward as Text Message.

Note: You can do the same with your calendar appointments or contacts from your Address book. All you have to do is right click on the item you want to forward and select Forward as Text Message.

There’s a lot more you can do with Outlook Mobile Services — this great new feature has much to offer.

I hope this information has been helpful and if you’re looking for more articles like this one, subscribe to our RSS Feed and you’ll get them sent directly to you! If you’re new to RSS see this post for more information and easy instructions.

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

The new Outlook 2007 has more features and gives you more control — if you know how to use it. Some of the topics covered in the training include:

• Installing and setting up your profile
• Personalizing the Outlook 2007 Interface
• Effectively organizing your information
• Using resources to help you be more productive
• Managing calendars, meetings, tasks, contacts, and more!

So if you want to take advantage of everything the new Outlook has to offer check out Train Signal’s Microsoft Outlook 2007 Training Videos!

Being able to check my calendar items, tasks, email, and RSS feeds all in one place has added immensely to my productivity.

Sometimes though, I find that I need access to one of those items more than others in order to get things done even more efficiently. Maybe my favorite RSS subscription is distracting me from getting an article done, emails from coworkers need more attention (and screen real-estate) than usual, or I just want to customize my view for a change of pace.

Well Outlook has a host of options to do just that, and lucky you, I’m about to demonstrate some of them right now!

Below is a screencap of a pretty standard view in Outlook 2007. All of the panes and windows are visible in their default layout. This is actually a fairly useful view layout, especially for reading email:

However sometimes (especially for those who don’t have a widescreen monitor) this view, with the reading pane on the right, can make it quite hard to read messages. In those situations you have a couple of options. First, you can minimize the navigation pane, the to-do bar, or both.

Do this by clicking the View menu, selecting either the Navigation Pane or the To-Do Bar and then selecting minimize. You can achieve the same thing by clicking the double-chevron button (>>) on either of these panes. Below is a screencap with both panes minimized.

Now obviously, it can be quite difficult to navigate between folders and still keep this view, so Outlook provides an extremely handy pop-up navigation window when you click on the minimized Navigation Pane, as shown below. The same thing can be done with the To-Do Bar.

Another option for customizing reading is to move the Reading Pane to the bottom instead of having it on the right. This is accomplished by clicking the View menu at top, selecting the Reading Pane option and then selecting Bottom. The result is a radically different view of email messages, and is shown below. This of course can be combined with the previously mentioned items.

The Navigation Pane itself has numerous customization options that you may not be aware of. If you have many custom folders, RSS feeds you check regularly, or just want a different way to view and access your messages and tasks, you can use the Current View Pane option to give yourself more ways to organize your messages with fewer clicks.

To activate this useful option, simply click the View menu, select the Navigation Pane option, and then select Current View Pane. This will make finding and organizing messages far easier.

The last option I will mention here is one that seems very simple, but can have a dramatic effect on how you navigate Outlook 2007.

While the Navigation Pane is normally context sensitive and will change depending on whether you are using mail, tasks, contacts, etc, there are times in which you would like to move more easily between all of these items from one centralized folder hierarchy (like Windows Explorer).

Well luckily there is such an option. The folder list option makes any of Outlook 2007′s separate modules the central focus with just one click. The normal view of the mail folders is shown here:

Followed by the same view with the Folder List button enabled:

You can see how this option can be very useful in certain situations. Of course, this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to customization in Outlook 2007. With all of the different view options, individual folder options, and opportunities to mix & match them, the possibilities really are close to endless.

Unfortunately, this article is not. Therefore, I must tell you to keep trying out the different Outlook view options on your own. Find something that matches your personal style, and helps you get things done more efficiently and simply.

Why not post some of your favorite options in the comments?

Accomplish More with Your Email with Outlook 2007 Training Videos!

The new Outlook 2007 has more features and gives you more control — if you know how to use it. Some of the topics covered in the training include:

• Installing and setting up your profile
• Personalizing the Outlook 2007 Interface
• Effectively organizing your information
• Using third party add-ons to increase productivity
• Managing calendars, meetings, tasks, contacts, distribution lists and more!

So if you want to take advantage of everything the new Outlook has to offer check out Train Signal’s Microsoft Outlook 2007 Training Videos!

This is one of my favorite features in the new Outlook 2007 and I’m here to tell you all about it!

For those of you who are new to RSS feeds, let me start with a short explanation of this awesomely convenient and time saving technology.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it represents technology that automatically transmits new content from a site directly to you. It basically eliminates the time you would have to spend checking that site for new content.

With RSS all new updates are sent directly to you. And with Outlook 2007 you have access to them right next to your inbox!

RSS or Email?

So now you’re thinking: what’s the point of RSS when I can get the same information through an email subscription. Right?

Well, not exactly. Email works great in many situations, but if you’re looking for updates on content, there are several things that make RSS better than an ordinary email subscription.

For one thing, with RSS you’re not giving your email address to anyone, so the website you’re subscribing to does not have access to your email address. If you want to stop receiving updates all you have to do is click and it’s done! You don’t have to go through the hassle of contacting the site to be taken off the email list.

Another big advantage is — absolutely no more spam! With RSS no one has access to your email and no one can send you anything you don’t want. All you get is clean content from your favorite sites!

Let RSS Do The Work For You!

RSS is also a great time saver! Instead of bookmarking your favorite sites and coming back to them to check for new content, the content is send directly to you as soon as it becomes available.

All you have to do is read it at your own convenience and you never miss a thing. You’re also eliminating the time you would spend going to a site that doesn’t update on a regular basis by seeing the same information multiple times.

With RSS you are in control! You get to tell your favorite sites to send you the updates as soon as they’re available and you get to read the ones you choose at your own convenience. And while you’re saving time you’re also increasing your information consumption because you get notified every time the site is updated.

So if you’re ready to try out RSS in your Outlook 2007 keep reading! In this article I will show you:

• How to add new RSS feeds to your Outlook
• How to read and share your RSS feeds in Outlook
• How to manage and cancel RSS Feeds in Outlook

Adding RSS Feeds To Your Outlook

There are a few different ways that you can add an RSS feed to your Outlook — all of which are really easy. A couple of simple ways that I use are: through your Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and through Windows Internet Explorer 7 — in either case your feeds will be accessible to you in your Outlook and Internet Explorer.

Adding an RSS Feed through Outlook 2007

To simplify things, I will be using Train Signal Training as an example, but you can do this with any other website that offers as RSS feed.

1. Locate the website you want to grab a feed from, and click the RSS icon. On Train Signal Training the icon is located in the top left corner of the screen, and it looks like this:

2. Next open your Outlook, go to Tools and click on Account Settings

3. Choose the RSS Feeds tab and click New

4. A dialogue box will pop up that says: Enter the location of the RSS feed you want to add to Outlook

This is where you enter the link from your RSS web page. So go back to the Train Signal Training page you opened in step # 1 — copy the link and paste it in the dialogue box:

5. After your link is in, click Add and then Okay. That’s it, you’re done! The RSS feed that you just added is now in a nifty little folder, below your Inbox, labeled RSS Feeds

Note: Once you’ve done this once, you can also add new RSS feeds by right clicking on the RSS Feeds folder in your Outlook and selecting Add a New RSS Feed

Doing this automatically takes you to step # 4 where you enter the link to the RSS feed in the dialogue box.

Adding RSS Feeds through Internet Explorer 7

This option works only if you have Outlook 2007 and Internet Explorer 7, and there are two ways of doing this — both very easy. Once again, I’ll be using Train Signal Training as an example, but you can do the same with any site.

1. Locate the site you want to grab an RSS feed from, and find the RSS icon on your toolbar, which looks like this:

If the website does not have a feed, the RSS icon will be grayed out and will look like this:

2. If the RSS icon on your toolbar is orange, click it and a list of all available RSS feeds for that particular website will be displayed. Usually there will only be one, but some sites have more than one feed

3. Choose the RSS feed you want to add and click on Subscribe to this feed

Note: Another way to do this is to skip steps # 1 and # 2. Instead, find the website you want to subscribe to, click on the RSS icon that’s located on the site and click Subscribe to this feed

The RSS feed that you just added is now available in your Outlook and in your Favorites Center on your toolbar under Feeds:

Reading and Sharing Your RSS Feeds in Outlook

Reading your RSS feeds in Outlook is easy — it’s just like reading your email! Your feeds are all in their individual folders right below your inbox and each new update is sent to you just like any other email message.

The cool thing is that you have the option of sharing an interesting update that you’ve found. All you have to do is open the RSS article you want to share by clicking it (just like you would open an email), then locate the Share This Feed button at the top:

Once you’ve done that, you can share the article by entering the email address of the person you want to send this article to – it’s just like forwarding an email message in Outlook:

Click Send and you’re done!

Managing and Cancelling RSS Feeds in Outlook

Managing your RSS feeds in Outlook is very similar to managing your Inbox – except most of the work is already done for you!

Your RSS Feeds folder in Outlook is already organized for you. All your feeds are neatly stored in labeled folders, and this is done automatically when you subscribe to a feed. You can rename the folders just as you would any other folder in Outlook (right click on the folder and select rename).

To cancel your RSS subscription all you have to do is delete the folder associated with that particular RSS Feed, just as you would delete any other folder in Outlook. But beware: doing this also deletes all the items that were in that folder!

If you want to cancel a subscription to an RSS feed and keep all the content from that folder, follow these steps:

1. In Outlook, go to Tools and click Account Settings

2. Select the RSS Feeds tab and under the Feed Name select the feed you want to cancel by clicking it – which will highlight the title of the feed you want to cancel

3. Click Remove and you’re done!

There is a lot more you can do with RSS Feeds, but I hope this gets you to a good start. RSS can be a great time saver, it’s convenient and it will get you to read more too!

Now you don’t have an excuse for missing my next article! Follow the above steps and grab our RSS Feed!

Accomplish More With Your Email With Outlook 2007 Training Videos!

The new Outlook 2007 has more features and gives you more control — if you know how to use it. Some of the topics covered in the training include:

- Installing and setting up your profile
- Personalizing the Outlook 2007 Interface
- Effectively organizing your information
- Using third party add-ons to increase productivity
- Managing calendars, meetings, tasks, contacts, distribution lists
- and more!

If you’re ready to take advantage of everything the new Outlook has to offer check out Microsoft Outlook 2007 Training Videos!

But before you can call yourself a serious Outlook user, there are some items that you need to know how to take advantage of. Here are 5 things that you need to do to get the most out of your Outlook experience:

1. Creating a Distribution List

If your work requires you to send a lot of emails to coworkers, clients, or any other group of people you know that it can be very time consuming to send out mass email announcements. You have to type in every name every time, and there is always the possibility that you typed in a name wrong, or accidentally put someone on the list because their name is similar to the one you meant to send the message to.

Needless to say, it can be a pain, and if you ever have to send a mass email more than once, it will really serve you well to set up a distribution list (or a few different ones!) to make your life much easier.

To create one, simply click the down arrow on the New button and select New Distribution List:

A window will pop up, where you can enter the email addresses of the people you want on your list. You can select names from your contact lists, or enter them in manually. Hit Save & Close, and you’re done!

The best part is, not only can you send emails to everyone on the list by just typing in the name of the list (which you specify), but you can also click the handy plus (+) button, and show all the names of the people on the list. This is great if you need to send an email to many different people from the list, but want to remove one or two people. This is definitely something you should check out.

2. Creating a Signature

When you send emails from your “business presence” it is much more professional to use a signature. It doesn’t have to be anything too complicated, just the essentials of name, important phone numbers, and email adresses (seems redundant, but it’s still important).

If you are interested in doing so, you can even add a picture to your signature as well. However, this is not highly recommended, since Outlook will attach the picture file to every email with your signature. And this can be a problem if you want to limit the size of your email messages.

You can create a signature by going to the Tools Menu, choosing Options, and then clicking the Mail Format tab, and finally clicking the Signatures button.

Edit your signature, give it a name, and then choose if you want it to appear in all emails automatically, or if you have to add it manually. Here is an example of my signature here at Train Signal:

3. Creating a Personal Folder

With the massive amounts of email that we get over time, it becomes incredibly difficult to keep track of it all. Even with the brand new search capabilities, it will make your life so much easier if you organize your items into personal folders.

All you have to do to create a personal folder is click the down arrow on the New button and choose Folder.

On the menu that pops up, select the location of the folder and give it a name. That’s it! Now feel free to use the different methods to move your items into the folders (either automatically or manually), and get organized!

4. Creating Delegates

A delegate is a person designated access to your email, calendars and other folders. This person can send messages on your behalf, and can manage your tasks and meetings. This can be extremely useful for those who are extremely busy, or need someone to answer their emails (but not with an automated response) while they are away from the job. The one caveat about this feature is that you have to be using an exchange server to access it.

With that out of the way, it’s really easy to set up a delegate. Just click on the Tools menu and select Options. From there, click the delegates tab. Add the name of the person or people you want from your exchange contacts, and click Ok.

Click Ok once more on the options dialog window to close that, and you are done. This is an extremely useful feature, but I think it goes without saying that you should be extremely careful who you give access to your mailbox. Remember, they have access to everything.

5. Creating Voting Buttons

Something that is massively overlooked in email is voting messages. When coupled with the distribution list feature mentioned earlier, this can be an incredibly useful way to get information from coworkers or others.

When you set up an email message with voting buttons, you can set up either a “yes or no” vote or a multiple-choice style survey right inside Outlook. The best part is that using this method, you won’t have to do any counting of votes. Every person who clicks one of the choices will automatically be counted in the totals that are sent back to you in real-time.

To set this up, just create a new email massage, then click the options tab in the ribbon interface. Now click the “Use Voting Buttons” button.

You will get a dropdown menu with options on what kind of vote you want. You can choose yes/no or approve/disapprove votes, or you can choose to create a custom vote. Needless to say, this can save you lots of time if you need to get approval of something, or you just want to take a quick survey of where to get lunch.

That’s all for now. You’ve got a lot to try out though, so have fun!

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