How to install fonts in Windows 7

Ok. It should be dead easy to install fonts into Windows if you have been doing it since Windows 3.1. Until Windows 7 you went to the Control Panel, chose Fonts then installed them using the handy dandy dialog. Ok. Not so simple but it worked and it has done so for years.

Fast forward to Windows 7. No Font dialog as I remember it and no font install option. Ok, step backward, think, investigate, light bulb moment encountered.

In Windows 7 there are multiple ways to install fonts but seriously only one I’d bother using. Open the folder containing the font file, unzip it to see the TTF file if it is zipped then double click the font’s ttf file name. A dialog opens showing you what the font looks like and, at the top, you will find an Install button. Click it and seconds later the font is installed. Really? It’s how it always should have been done.

You can drag and drop the .ttf file into the fonts list via the Control Panel but seriously – why bother going to the effort. You can also right click on a font’s .ttf file and choose Install from the menu too but I like to check the font before installing so it is method #1 for me.

Windows Vista – Missing Mail icon

Things have moved in Windows Vista 64 bit and sometimes it’s hard to find things you know should be there.

One item that is hard to find is the Mail icon that you need to use to add profiles for Outlook, for example. You’ll find it in the Control Panel but not alongside all the other icons. Instead, click the View 32-bit Control Panel Items View 32-bit Control Panel Items group. There you will find Mail alongside other options like Java, QuickTime and some others.

Word 2007 - Picture styles

Word 2007 comes with a range of styles you can use when inserting images into your document.

To see them at work, insert a picture into your document, click the image and choose Picture Tools > Format on the Ribbon.

The Picture Styles are formats you can apply to your image and they include some very attractive looking options.

Once you’ve selected a picture style you can adjust things like the Effects which are attached to it.

For example, you can create a picture reflection by selecting the picture and then choose the Picture Effects > Reflection option to create a reflected edge.

You can also recolor the picture border if desired by using the Picture Border option. If you have a picture inserted in a document and formatted the way you like it but determine that you don’t like the picture and want to replace it, choose Picture Tools > Format and click the Change Picture option and choose an alternate picture to use. The format will remain and only the picture itself will change.

Word 2007 Quick Tables

New to Word 2007 is the Quick Tables feature.

To see what is available, click the Insert tab, choose Table > Quick Tables and choose from a range of preconfigured tables such as calendars and tables with sub headings and other features.

Once the table is inserted into the document, you can replace the text in it with your own text such as the dates for your desired calendar month.

Most of the elements that you're used to selecting from the Tables menu in previous versions of Word can be found on the Tables Tools > Layout tab and these include the ability to repeat header rows at the top of the table and options for adjusting the text direction and inserting and deleting rows.

Once you have a table formatted in the way you want it to look you can add that particular format to the Quick Tables Gallery so you can use it anytime.

To do this, click inside the table and choose Table Tools > Layout tab. Click Select > Select Table so the entire table is selected. Now, from the Ribbon, choose Insert > Table and click on the Quick Tables option.

Choose Save Selection to Quick Tables Gallery and the Create New Building Block dialog will appear. Complete it as you would for a regular Building block element with the exception that this time, leave the Gallery option set to Tables so the table will appears in the Quick Tables Gallery.

Click Ok when you're done. In future, your custom designed table will be selectable from the Quick Tables Gallery.

Controlling Images in Word 2010

For many years now Microsoft has made it hard for new users to control inserted images in their documents.

Unfortunately, Word 2010 is no exception and, by default, images are inserted into a new Word document as inline images. This means that they cannot be moved or easily positioned on the page without you needing to first change the image’s wrap settings.

This leaves hapless new users with absolutely no clue that this feature is available or needed much less where to find and set it.

To change the way that images are inserted into Microsoft Word documents to make it a one-step process that never needs to be tweaked, in Word 2010 choose File > Options and select the Advanced tab. Locate the Cut, Copy and Paste options and set the Insert/Paste Pictures As setting to Square, Tight, Behind Text, In Front Of Text, Through or Top And Bottom - in fact anything other than the default Inline With Text.

Once you’ve done this, when you insert an image into a document it will be inserted with the setting that you determined. This makes it easy to move the image around the screen and position it exactly where you want it to be.

If you have images in your document and if you need to change their wrapping so that you can work with them, click the image, click Picture Tools > Format and from the Wrap Text dropdown list, select Square or another setting (other than Inline with Text).

Microsoft, this default setting earns you a score of -10 it’s not the typically required setting and it doesn’t make good sense as a default.

Tables in Word 2007

The table options in Word 2007 allow you to create quite sophisticated tables more easily than you’ve been able to in the past.

Click the Insert tab and click the Table button and drag over the number of cells you want for your table.

With the table selected, choose Table Tools > Design tab and choose a Table Style from the dropdown list.

Many of the styles are linked to theme colors so you can create a table with an attractive style which like other Word objects changes color to match the theme when it changes.

When you have a table style selected you can configure other options for it by, for example, selecting the Banded Rows checkbox in the Table Style Options group and adjusting the look of the first and last columns and header row using the checkboxes.

Excel VBA: What Sheet is that?

When you’re working in Microsoft Excel Visual Basic for Applications, you may need to refer to a worksheet by name. This can be confusing because the sheet names are not necessarily what are displayed in the sheet tabs at the bottom of the screen.

There is only one way to know exactly what a sheet’s name is so you can refer to it by that name regardless of what the tab says. That is to view the Visual Basic Editor and select your project in the Project Explorer. Here you will see each sheet listed by name with the sheet tab name in brackets after it.

If you want to refer to a sheet by name in your VBA code use the sheet name at the left (not the one in brackets) in the Project Explorer.

This will ensure that you always use the exact sheet that you expect to be using in your Visual Basic application.

Word 2007 - Formatting with Styles

Microsoft Word 2007 provides styles that you can use to format your documents.

These make it easier for you to change the look of a document very quickly by combining styles with the new Office 2007 themes.

To get started with styles, with a document open on the screen click the Home tab and choose the Change Styles button.

Here you can select a Style Set for your document, for example choose Distinctive or Elegant, Fancy or Formal depending on what you want your document to look like.

Once you have selected a Style Set, the Styles group on the Home tab will display styles from that set.

To apply a style to text, select the text, for example a title, then in the dropdown Style list and hold your mouse pointer over one of the styles to see how it would look if applied to that text. Select the style that you want to use and click it to apply it.

You can also add your own choice of formats as a selectable style. For example, format a piece of text so it looks the way you want your style to appear and select this text. Open the Style list and choose Save Selection as New Quick Style.

Give the style a name, click Modify to change any of its characteristics and click Ok to save it as a Quick Style. This style now appears in the Style list and you can select it to apply to text in your document at any time.

Word 2007: Drawing in documents

One technique that has changed with Word 2007 is drawing in documents.

Instead of having a Drawing toolbar you now select shapes from the Shapes dropdown list on the Insert tab.

From this list you can select shapes such as lines and all the AutoShapes that you are used to using in earlier versions.

To create a drawing, for example, you can select and insert the shapes that make up the drawing and then format them using the Drawing Tools > Format options on the Ribbon.

Many of the color options that are available are connected to the theme colors so, provided you use a theme color in your drawn shapes, the colors will change automatically later if a different theme is applied to the document so the drawing stays consistent with the remainder of the document.

Find the shape formatting tools on the Drawing Tools > Format tab on the Ribbon.

What is missing in Word 2007 is the ability to right click a shape and have the format AutoShape dialog appear as it does in Excel and PowerPoint.

The Format tab and the Format Object dialog in Word offer less features than are available in the new graphics engine in the other applications.

Restore a file association in Windows Vista

 

Don’t ask me how I did it – it has been one of those weeks! but I somehow associated zip files with Photoshop. So, every time I needed to extract the contents of a zip file Photoshop would open and gag on the file – not unsurprising but very annoying.

A fix was required. The solution is in the Registry but it’s not hard to find or to fix. You do need to have your wits about you and never touch anything you don’t understand. Oh! and back up your registry before you start playing with it.

Choose Start > Run > type REGEDIT and click OK and then, when the warning comes up, click Continue. You have to be an admin to use this tool.

Navigate to find this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\

and then locate the extension causing issues, in my case zip

Then find the UserChoice option under this, right click and choose Delete. This removes any custom choice and returns your association to what it was when Vista was first installed. Problem solved!

Finally, choose File> Exit to exit the registry editor.

Outlook - create Your own Signature Business Card

Add yourself to your Contacts list in Outlook 2007 so you can create a Business Card to send as an attachment to all your outgoing emails.

Once you have added yourself as a contact, choose Tools > Options > Mail Format > Signatures and chose the signature to attach the card to or create a new one.

Click New if creating a new card, and from the Business Card dropdown list, choose your Contact entry to attach it as a business card to each outgoing message.

Select a table cell contents in Word 2007

Confession time. I had a picture in a table cell in Word and try as I might I couldn’t get the little black angled cursor to appear so I could select the cell’s contents. Frustrating – yep, I’d say so.

Nope – wrong arrow, the image is so close to the table cell it’s almost impossible to get the cell select arrow to appear.

 

This is what it should  look like. 

Then I remembered the new feature in Word 2007 – it’s on the Table Tools >Layout tab (so you have to have a table and click in it to see this option). On the far left is the Select button – new to Word 2007. Click it and you can select what to select. Oh! let’s back up a bit  here - it would be a good idea to click in the cell you want to select before you begin - forgot that bit.

Using this you can select a cell then right click and, as I did, choose Copy to copy its contents. Don't be fooled by the fact that not everything in the cell looks like it is selected - just trust that it is.

There are other options there that include Select Row, Select Column, Select Table – much easier than trying to juggle those little arrows when they just won’t appear.

Outlook 2007 - Empty Deleted Items automatically

If you find you are always emptying your Deleted Items folder in Outlook 2007 before you exit the program, you can have Outlook do this automatically for you.

To do this, choose Tools > Options > Other tab. Enable the 'Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting' checkbox and click Ok.

Now you won't have to do this - just choose File > Exit and it will be done automatically.

Outlook 2007 Display Saturday and Sunday

If your weekends are as full of activities as your weekdays are, you may want Saturday and Sunday to display in the Outlook 2007calendar all the time.

To permanently display Saturday and Sunday, choose Tools > Options > Preferences tab and click the Calendar Options button.

From the dialog select the checkboxes for both Saturday and Sunday and click Ok.This dialog is also useful for setting a non traditional work week. If you, like my friend Frank, work from Sunday to Thursday, you can set up your work week by selecting checkboxes for those days you actually work and disabling them for other days that are your "weekend" days.

Only these days of the week will now appear in your Outlook 2007 calendar display when you have Show Word Week selected.

To toggle between viewing the Work week and the full week click the appropriate buttons on the Calendar toolbar.

If you have come to Outlook 2007 from an earlier version of Outlook, you should know that the old Compress Weekend Days option for showing Saturday and Sunday compressed into a single column is now no longer an option in Outlook 2007.

If you need to print calendars so that weekend days share a column, download and install the Calendar Printing Assistant for Outlook 2007 from here:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA101687211033.aspx

Outlook - Edit Received E-mail

Occasionally you might have a need to edit a message that you have received in Outlook 2007.

The message will be already in your Inbox so, to do this, open the message.

Now click the Message tab on the Ribbon and, from the Actions group, select Other Actions > Edit Message.

You can now edit the message and, to send it back to the sender, click Reply and to send it on to someone else, click Forward, type the recipient's address and click Send.

PowerPoint: Create handouts in Word

So, you've finished designing your presentation in PowerPoint and it's time to you’re your final preparations.

One thing you will need is handouts for your participants. It is easy to use Microsoft Word to create custom handouts for your PowerPoint presentation.

First complete the presentation so the slides are all is complete select the Office button and choose Publish > Create Handouts in Microsoft Office Word.

When the Send to Microsoft Office Word dialog appears, select the layout for the slides and text. There are various combinations of slides, notes and blank lines that you can choose from.

Select either the Paste or the Paste Link button depending on whether you want to embed the slides in the Microsoft Word document or simply link to them.

When you are done, click Ok and wait as Microsoft Word opens and the slides, notes and blank lines are created automatically for you in a new Word document.

Once the handouts are complete, you can format the document as you wish and add a cover page, headers and footers as desired and then print your slide handouts for distribution at presentation time.

Vista

Oh, I love Vista (Not!)

Ok, here's my dilemma. I'm an administrator and I uninstall a program. It tells me during the uninstall that it has left bits and pieces behind in my Application Data folder. Ok, so I'd like to get rid of these. Problem is I can't see the folder and when I opt to see hidden system folders, I can't open it.

Yikes? Well not totally a problem. You see your

C:\Users\\Application Data

folder really isn't a folder - it's a shortcut - that's why its icon has the bent arrow on it. It is really a shortcut to a real folder - called:

C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming

and that folder is totally accessible just by clicking on it.

So, you can clean up after programs if you know where to look!

Outlook 2007 Calendar display your way

You already know you can look at your Outlook calendar by viewing one day, one week or a month at a time.

Did you know you can also view the calendar in other ways? So, for example, if you need to see your plans for the next three Tuesdays you can do this.

Make sure the To-Do Bar is visible and switch to Day view so you are seeing only one day. Click on the first day to view in the Calendar in the To-Do bar and then Control + Click on each other day to view and it will open up in the same display.

Outlook 2007 Remembers important Birthdays

If you’re one of those people who occasionally forgets important birthdays or anniversaries, then get Outlook to help you remember them.

To do this, add the person whose birthday or anniversary you need to remember as an Outlook contact in your Contacts list.

Click the Contact tab, from the Show group, click Details to display the details area of their contact data and type their birthday or anniversary in the place provided.

When you do this, these dates are automatically added to your calendar as events so you won't forget them.

If you need to set a reminder for the event, locate the day it happens on and double click the event and choose Open Series. On the Recurring Event tab set the Reminder to whatever suits you - if you need to organize presents and restaurant bookings then set the reminder to a few days before the event.

Get Smart with SmartArt

Oh yum! You just have to love the new SmartArt tool in Office 2007. It is part of Excel, Word and PowerPoint it will probably be most used in PowerPoint because this is where you will most need to display large scale diagrams.

SmartArt objects are great to use to illustrate processes, lists and the flow of information or product. In fact most business graphics can be created as SmartArt objects improving their look and readability.

In PowerPoint 2007, SmartArt objects can be created two ways either by converting a list or text selection into a SmartArt object or by creating the SmartArt object from scratch.

If you have an existing list or text you want to display as a SmartArt object, select the text and, from the Paragraph group on the Home tab in PowerPoint 20007, select the Convert to SmartArt Graphic button.

Select a graphic object to use for the text – you can preview what the graphic will look like by holding the mouse pointer over the graphic and see how the text will display in it on the slide underneath.

If none of the SmartArt designs listed are what you want, click the More SmartArt Graphics button to see more options. Right now, just look for a basic layout for your SmartArt graphic as the actual look of the graphic can be adjusted later on.

Edit the text
When you convert text into a SmartArt graphic you can edit the text by clicking on the SmartArt graphic, and select the double pointing arrows on the right hand border of the object to open the text dialog. Here you can type different text if desired or add additional entries each of which will become another element in the SmartArt design.

Once you have the text in place use the SmartArt Tools > Design tab on the ribbon to format the shape. The SmartArt Styles collection gives you a range of styles that you can choose from to apply to the graphic. If you find a style that you like but the color is not correct, apply the style and then click the Change Colors button and choose a different color scheme for the shape.

Create SmartArt from scratch
It is also possible to create a SmartArt graphic from scratch using the Insert tab. Click the SmartArt button and then choose a SmartArt design to use and you can then enter your text and format it to suit your needs. This is the same option you have in Excel and Word.

You can change the look of the text inside a SmartArt object by selecting the SmartArt object and, for example, change the text format to one of the WordArt styles in the WordArt styles list.

Having chosen a WordArt style you can then change the color of the style using the Text Fill options. Notice too that when you resize a SmartArt object the text inside the object automatically resizes to fit it.

Graphics in SmartArt
You will see that many SmartArt objects include containers into which you can insert graphics. To do this, click on the graphic icon in the SmartArt element and a dialog will open allowing you to select a graphic to use for that element.

Word 2007 - Add a Date Picker control

Word 2007 has a cool Date Picker control you can use to insert a date into a document.

To insert one into your document first display the Developer tab by selecting the Office button, click Word Options and from the Popular category choose the Show Developer tab in the Ribbon option.

Now click the Developer tab and, in the Controls area you'll find entries for the Building Block Gallery and for elements such as a Date Picker and a Text Box which you can use in your documents.

Select Design Mode, click the Date Picker control to add it and then click Design Mode again to exit that mode.

The user will see a Click here to enter a date option and, when they click the content control, a dropdown date picker will appear allowing them to select a date to insert into the document.

To ensure the date is formatted in a particular way, with Design Mode enabled click the Date Picker and choose Properties from the Ribbon. From the Properties dialog select a date format to use from the list.

You can use content controls like these to create memo and fax cover sheets complete with prompts to your user as to the details required.

Word 2007: Make your own Click and Type controls

Word 2007's new Content Controls let you do some pretty snazzy things in your Word documents.

You will have worked with Word's own controls when you add a cover page or header and footer using the Insert tab options in Word 2007. In this case you may have noticed that, if your document already has a title configured in the document properties, the title appears automatically on the cover page and in the header.

Alternatively, if it doesn't have a title, when you double click the Title area and type one, any other object in the document that includes a title will be updated automatically. This behavior occurs because the document information is inserted using content containers which are linked to the document properties.

You can take advantage of this behavior in your own designs and you can create and use unlinked content containers to prompt for details to be inserted in your own documents.

To see how content containers work you’ll need to display the Developer tab which you can do by selecting the Office button, click Word Options and from the Popular category choose the Show Developer tab in the Ribbon option.

Click the Developer tab and, in the Controls area you'll find entries for the Building Block Gallery and for elements such as a Date Picker and a Text Box which you can use in your documents.

So, for example, to prompt a user to insert an entry from the Quick Part Gallery, click where you want the Quick Part Gallery entry to appear. Click the Developer tab and click the Design Mode button so you are in design mode.

Now click the Building Block Gallery button. This inserts a small content container with the words [Choose a building block] as the prompt. Exit Design Mode by clicking Design Mode button once again and you will see that the document contains a clickable link in this position prompting the user to choose a building block.

In practice, all the user needs to do is to click on the Choose a building block link to show the dropdown list and they can then select the building block to insert at this position in the document.

You can also provide a link that the user clicks on to type custom text. To do this, check you're in Design Mode and select the Text button from the Controls group. Between the markers type the text describing the content to be inserted in this position.

To test this, deselect Design Mode and click the element to see it highlighted and type the text prompted for. The text you type appears in line with regular text in the document and can be formatted by right clicking on the text and apply a format to it.

Note, however, that the entire content control is formatted at the one time and individual letters and words cannot be formatted independently of the others.