Academic Tech Tips

As a new feature in Microsoft Office 2010, you can easily convert your document to a PDF from any Office program (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). In previous versions of MS Office, you needed to have additional software installed to create a PDF. Now when you save your document, PDF is among the file types to choose from:

The PDF format is useful for sharing documents because all of the formatting is preserved and the file is protected from further editing.  Remember to keep your original Word document if you will need to edit it later.

Many Loyolans are now running the 2010 version of the Microsoft Office Suite from their desktops. Loyola traditionally offers technology workshops in January and August through our Training Central program, and starting January 2012 the Office classes – Excel, PowerPoint, and Word – will all feature the 2010 version of these programs. In addition, because the number of people using 2010 has been growing this fall, a special series of free training classes has been added in October and November to help those who have already made the transition. The first two courses – using Word 2010 Effectively and PowerPoint 2010: Bells and Whistles – are scheduled for October 12. For the full list of dates and topics, or to register, visit the ITS Training Courses page.

And if you’re still using Office 2003 or Office 2007 and want to learn more about making the switch to Office 2010, see the August 12 TechTips post.

Have you ever wondered what that paintbrush icon on your toolbar in any of your Microsoft Office applications actually does? Most likely, you’ve never used it or might be that you’ve not even noticed it. This little paintbrush icon is one of the most underutilized, timesaving features in Microsoft Word. It’s called Format Painter. The Format Painter allows you to copy the formatting from one part of your text to another with a single click. Format includes things such as font, size, font styles (italics, bold, underline), color, effects, shading, borders, indents, bullets, etc. The Format Painter is very helpful in documents that have a variety of different styles used for the text as it eliminates the need to make the changes to the formatting manually, step-by-step, one-by-one.

How to Use the Format Painter in Office 2007

1. Select the word or text with formatting you wish to copy.
2. Click the Format Painter Tool once from the Clipboard on the Home Tab. This will turn the Format Painter ON and copy the formatting of the text you have selected.
3. Move your cursor to the text you wish to apply the new formatting to and click and drag over this text. Click once and you will see the formatting applied on the text.
4. If you want to apply the same formatting more than once, select the text with the formatting you want and double-click Format Painter button. You will then be able to select multiple words, sentences, and paragraphs in different parts of your documents. Click once after each selection.
5. When you are done making all of your formatting selections, hit the ESC key to turn the Format Painter off.

Note: You can also find the Format Painter in PowerPoint and Excel!

If you can’t remember which document you need, Word 2007 allows you to easily preview documents before opening them. After you open Word, go to the Microsoft Icon and select Open.

To enable the preview, click on the icon in the top right hand corner of the window and select Preview from the drop-down menu.

This will open a preview box in the right side of the window. Click on a document to preview it. Once you have found the correct document, click Open.

If you have a Microsoft Word 2007 document that you would like to make read-only or if you would like to add password protection, Word offers a few options to secure your file. Here are a few security features offered in Word:

Encrypt Document: Adding encryption to your document will require that a password be entered to open the document. To encrypt your document, click on the Microsoft Icon > Prepare > Encrypt Document. A dialog box will prompt you to set a password.

Read-only Document: You can set your document to be read-only and additionally set a password to open or modify the document. To access these options, click on the Microsoft Icon > Save As, then in the bottom left corner, click on Tools > General Options.

A dialog box will open and you can choose to make the document read-only and to add a password to open and/or a password to modify. Click OK once you have made changes.

When the file is opened, a dialog box will prompt users to enter the password. Keep in mind that if users open the file as a read-only document, they will be able to edit and save as a new document.

Mark as Final: If you want your file to be read-only, you can also mark the document as final. This will disable editing and typing tools. To do this click on the Microsoft Icon > Prepare > Mark as Final. If you decide to open it later for editing, you can select Mark as Final again to set the document to the normal mode.

Note: If you lose or forget any passwords, they cannot be recovered.

If you want to create a professional looking document, the preset styles in Word 2007 make it easy to choose headings, subheadings, and font themes that are designed to complement one another. Using the Quick Styles feature can help save you time and make your document look more polished.  To get started, go to the Home tab and find the Styles box on the right. In this box, you can choose from a range of styles and color schemes. To apply a style to a section, just highlight your text then click on the style you want.  You can also use the Change Styles button to quickly change style sets, colors and fonts.

Track Changes in Microsoft Word is a helpful feature for viewing and editing revisions while you work in a document. This tool can be incredibly useful when multiple users are editing the same document. Also, if you are a professor, you can use Track Changes to add comments and make revisions to a paper. The author of the document can accept or reject each change once the document is ready to be finalized.   Here are a few steps to get started with Track Changes:

Turn on Track Changes

Under the Review tab, select Track Changes. (For older versions of Word, go to Tools and select Track Changes.)

You can also use a shortcut to turn on and off track changes (CTRL-SHIFT-E).

Add Changes or Comments

• 1.      Turn on Track Changes.
• 2.     Make revisions directly into the document and they will show up in red.
• 3.      Click on the New Comment button to add remarks.

Here is what each displays:
Final Showing Markup: Document with changes
Final: Document including proposed changes
Original Showing Markup: Original document with proposed changes
Original: Document before any editing

Accept or Reject Changes

To accept or reject changes, click on the appropriate button on the top menu.

Or you can right click on the change and a drop-down menu will appear with options to accept or reject.

To learn more visit:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA012186901033.aspx

If you’ve ever lost your work due to a computer freeze or power loss then you know how frustrating it can be.  In Microsoft Office, there is a way to help prevent such a disaster. All you need to do is adjust the auto-save interval time so that you know how often and where your documents will be saved. Here are the steps in Microsoft Word to set up this option; note that the steps are the same for PowerPoint and Excel:

• 1. Click on the Microsoft Logo in the top left corner.
• 2. At the bottom of the screen, select Word Options. 

  
  
  

• 3. Go to the Save tab. Here you can select an interval time and location for auto-saving your documents.

Google Wave is a new online tool that provides a platform for real-time collaboration and communication. Google has combined features of instant messaging, wikis, email and word processing so that users can work together to create and edit documents called “waves.”  These waves allow any participant to edit any part of the document and there is an option to add pictures, maps or graphics to the document. This tool could be useful for collaborating on group projects, brainstorming, class notes or even planning an event.

Initially Google Wave only released in a limited preview to a select number of participants, but now you can follow this  link to request an invite from Google. It still may take a few days to get a confirmation email though. For more information about Google Wave visit their website or watch a short video from some of the Google developers.

As of August 2010, Google Wave has been shut down.

With Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, large files are almost always caused by images.  You might have high resolution digital photos from your digital camera that you’ve inserted, high quality scans, or uncompressed graphics all throughout your file. Reducing file size helps alleviate complications later such as your colleague not being able to open your email attachment or lengthy download times.  If you have a Word or PowerPoint file containing images that you plan to attach in an email or post to Blackboard then it’s worth compressing the images within your document.

PC users

There is a built-in option for compressing all of your images at once in Office 2003 and 2007.  Follow these steps to compress your image in Word 2003/2007 and PowerPoint 2003.

1. Right-click on a picture, then click Format Picture on the shortcut menu.
2. In the Format dialog box, click the Picture tab, and then click Compress.
3. Under Apply to, click All pictures in document.
4. Under Change resolution, click Web/Screen.
5. Under Options, select the Compress pictures check box and the Delete cropped areas of pictures check box.
6. Click OK.
7. If prompted, click Apply in the Compress Pictures dialog box.

If you are using PowerPoint 2007, the steps vary slightly:

1. Single-click on a picture, then click the Format tab from the menu options on the upper right.
2. Click the Compress Images button on the upper left.

Mac Users

Microsoft Office does not have a built in compression feature for the Mac. However, if your image files are too big, consider converting them to JPG. You can easily convert images on a Mac by opening them in the Finder and saving them to the JPG format. You can also lessen the quality to reduce file size when you save images from the Finder.  You can also use any photo-editing program such as Photoshop to reduce the size of an image.  If you do not have a program like Photoshop installed on your computer, see a previous Tech Tip on free photo-editing tools.