Focus on Your Business: Tips & Tricks

1.        Ribbon: The ribbon puts Microsoft® Office commands on themed tabs at the top of your screen, making the features easy to find. To customize the tabs, click the File tab, click Options, and click Customize Ribbon. Contextual tabs appear when you are working, for example, on a graphic or table. Double-click a tab to auto-hide (or expand) the ribbon; when the ribbon is hidden, click a tab once to make it active.

2.        Quick Access Toolbar: The Quick Access toolbar at the top of the Office ribbon lets you run your most common commands (like Print, Save, and Undo) with a single click. Click the arrow next to it for customization options.

3.        Backstage View: By clicking the File tab in Office 2010, you see the Backstage view, a single, central place for everything you need to manage a file—whether you want to access recent files and places, manage your print jobs, save your file in a variety of formats, recover old versions, or set the file properties and permissions to control access.

4.        Pin, Live Taskbar Previews, and Jump Lists: Windows® 7 makes it a lot easier to get to the applications and files that you use most often. To pin applications to your taskbar, drag them from your Start menu. To see a thumbnail of any open windows, pause over the icon on the taskbar. Right-click a taskbar icon to access recent items, such as files, folders, and websites.

5.        Windows Search: In Windows 7, you can find files, applications, and email messages with Windows Search. Click Start and type in the search box that appears in the Start menu to see results.

6.        Save as PDF or XPS: You can create a PDF or XPS file right from your Office 2010 document. Click the File tab, click Save As, and then choose the format from the Save as Type list.

7.        Save & Send: Office 2010 lets you save and send your file in one step. In Word, PowerPoint®, and Excel®, click the File tab, click Save & Send, and choose from the list (such as email in its original format or as a PDF or XPS file).

8.        Save to Web: If you have a Windows Live® account and an Internet connection, you can save your Office 2010 files to Windows Live SkyDrive® (a free online storage location) to share with others or access through a browser. In Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, click the File tab, click Save & Send, and then click Save to Web.

9.        Navigation Pane: The Navigation Pane in Word 2010 lets you easily move around and search your document. To display it, click the View tab and select Navigation Pane. Click a heading to go to it. Drag headings to reorganize the document. Use the search box to search on words or phrases. Click the search box arrow to search for tables, graphics, and equations. Click in the search results list to move around in the document.

10.     F6: Pressing F6 in Office 2010 will toggle you between different areas of your workspace, such as the active window, the ribbon, and the bottom status bar.

11.     Bottom Status Bar: The bottom status bar in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel lets you choose how you want to view your file and provides quick-reference information, such as page number and word count in Word and average sum in Excel.

12.     Keytips: Pressing Alt in any Office 2010 application will display keytips—keyboard shortcuts to access commands on the ribbon. Press the corresponding numbers and letters to use a command.

13.     Mini Toolbar: The mini toolbar in Office 2010 puts the most common text formatting commands at close reach. To use the mini toolbar, select the text you want to format, move the cursor over the faint toolbar that appears, and click the formatting command you want to use. The mini toolbar also appears with a right-click in text.

14.     Digital Notebooks: OneNote® 2010 lets you capture text, images, video, and audio in digital notebooks made up of multiple sections and pages. Search your notebooks by typing search terms in the search box. Save pages from your notebook as PDF or XPS files by clicking the File tab, clicking Save As, and then clicking PDF OR XPS. Share your notebooks online: click the File tab, click Share, and then click Web.

15.     Conversation View: Outlook® 2010 helps reduce Inbox clutter by displaying messages as threaded conversations grouped by the subject line. Click the View tab and select Show as Conversations.

16.     Ignore, Clean Up: You can automatically send whole conversations to the Deleted Items folder in Outlook 2010. With the conversation selected, click the Home tab and then click Ignore. You can also instantly remove redundant messages (those completely contained in other messages): click the Home tab and then click Clean Up.

17.     Find Related Messages: With the Find Related Messages feature in Outlook 2010, you can quickly find related messages by conversation or sender. Right-click the message and click Find Related.

18.     Categories, Flags: Outlook lets you apply customizable color-coded categories to your messages, calendar items, tasks, and contacts to help keep them organized and apply flags to prompt for follow-up. Right-click the message and click Categorize OR Follow-up.

19.     Add to Contacts: In Outlook, you can add a sender or recipient to your contacts from within an email message. Right-click the name and click Add to Outlook Contacts.

20.     Quick Steps: Quick Steps in Outlook 2010 automate common or repetitive tasks. Click the message, click the Home tab, and then click one of the preset Quick Steps OR click the arrow in the Quick Steps group to create a new Quick Step.

21.     Print Partial Messages: With Outlook 2010, you don’t have to print a full email message. Click the File tab, click Print, and click Print Options to set the print range.

22.     Templates: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint templates in Office 2010 give you a jumpstart on formatting. Click the File tab, click New, and then click Sample Templates.

23.     Cover Pages: Word includes built-in cover page templates. Click the Insert tab and then click Cover Page.

24.     Building Blocks: With building blocks in Word 2010, you can add preformatted content blocks, such as sidebars, pull quotes, calendars, and watermarks. Click the Insert tab, click Quick Parts, and click Building Blocks Organizer.

25.     Format Painter: The Format Painter lets you copy text formatting from one block of text to another. Select the sample text, click Format Painter on the Home tab, and then select the text you want to apply formatting to.

26.     Picture Watermark: It’s easy to add a picture as the background to your Word document. Click the Page Layout tab, click Watermark, click Custom Watermark, and then click Picture watermark.

27.     Themes: In Office 2010, common themes across the applications let you easily create matching documents. Themes define the look of the document including colors, fonts, and effects, as well as preformatted backgrounds and text boxes in your presentations. In PowerPoint, click the Design tab and select from the options in the Themes group. When composing a message in Outlook, click the Options tab to find the Themes group. In Word and Excel, click the Page Layout tab to find the Themes group. In addition, to access color themes and other style sets in Word, click the Home tab and then click Change Styles.

28.     SmartArt: SmartArt® graphics in Office 2010 are instant diagrams that let you add text and set the font, size, and color theme. Click the Insert tab and then click SmartArt.

29.     Picture Editing: You can correct your photos (sharpen/soften, brightness/contrast), remove backgrounds, and apply artistic effects right in Office 2010. Click the picture, click the Picture Tools Format tab, and click Remove Background OR Corrections OR Artistic Effects.

30.     Charts: Office 2010 includes a range of chart options to insert in your documents, workbooks, presentations, and email. Click the Insert tab and then click Chart. Click the Chart Tools Design, Layout, and Format tabs to adjust the chart appearance.

31.     Animations, Transitions: You can animate items in your PowerPoint presentation with just a few clicks. Click the item, click the Animations tab, and then click Add animation. From the Transitions tab, you can also set dynamic slide transitions.

32.     Video: You can embed video into your PowerPoint 2010 presentation in just a few steps. Click the Insert tab and then click Video. To add effects or adjust the appearance, click the video and then click the Video Tools Format tab OR Playback tab.

33.     Conditional Formatting: Conditional formatting in Excel 2010 helps make your numbers more meaningful. Based on the criteria that you set, conditional formatting adds icons, highlighting, and color scales to your workbooks to graphically distinguish the relative values of the cells. Select a range of cells, click the Home tab, and click Conditional Formatting.

34.     Sparklines: Sparklines in Excel 2010 are single-cell charts that show whether the numbers are trending up or down or staying flat. Select the cells you want to visualize, click the Insert tab, and choose from the options in the Sparkline group.

35.     Outlook Social Connector: An add-in to Outlook lets you see a summary of your interactions (such as messages, meetings, and email attachments) with your contacts and their social activities online (such as status updates in Facebook). Click a message and then click a contact’s photo in the bottom pane for the summary.

36.     Mail Merge: Mail merge lets you personalize your newsletters, bulk email messages, and other materials in Word by importing contact names and other details from your contact list or spreadsheet. Click the Mailings tab and then click Start Mail Merge.

37.     Broadcast Slide Show: With PowerPoint 2010, you can present a slide show online to virtually anyone with an Internet connection, even if they don’t have PowerPoint installed. Click the Slide Show tab, click Broadcast Slide Show, and then click PowerPoint Broadcast Service.