Our Top 10 Most Frequently asked Questions

by | Aug 21, 2019 | Excel, Outlook, powerpoint, Word

Our Top 10 Most Frequently asked Questions

Welcome to our Top 10 list of FAQs which I've compiled from recent training courses.  It's great to be able to demonstrate quick and easy ways to accomplish common tasks and troubleshoot using popular programs such as Excel and Word.  Many users go round the houses to carry out what should be simple tasks so I hope the following will unlock some shortcuts to those of you who haven't attended training with us, and serve as a refresher to those of you that have.

Microsoft Q&A's

Although I've been an advocate of Microsoft Office programs for years, even I have to admit that some of the features aren't obvious. Here are some of my favourite questions from recent training courses.....

Question 1 How do I Set the default font for all new Word documents and get rid of the annoying space that appears after every paragraph?
Answer
  1. On the Home tab on the ribbon right click the Normal Style
  2. Choose Modify 
  3. Change the font, size and colour if required
  4. TIP you may also want to change the spacing to remove the space when you hit enter, to do this, click the Format button in the bottom left corner of this screen and choose Paragraph, ensure Spacing After is set to 0 and click OK.
  5. Once you are finished making changes in the Modify Style dialog box, ensure you select then 'New documents based on this template' option at the bottom of the dialog box as this saves changes as defaults for new documents.
  6. Click OK
Question 2 How do I Automatically insert the filename and path in the header or footer of a Word document?
Answer
  1. First open the footer by clicking on Insert Footer, edit footer
  2. Position the cursor in the footer where you want to insert the filename and path (you can press Tab on the keyboard to jump to the centre or to the right
  3. From the Header & Footer tab on the ribbon click Document Info
  4. Choose File Path

Question 3 In Word, how do I Insert and Control Pictures easily? 
Answer
  1. Set the default option to control how text wraps around your picture. If you prefer to be able to move your picture around effortlessly and have the text move with the picture set the following:- Click on File, Options, Advanced, scroll down to Cut, Copy and Paste options and set the 'Insert/paste pictures as' to Square
  2. Now to insert a picture, click Insert on the ribbon
  3. Choose Pictures
  4. Select a picture to insert and click Insert
  5. Resize the picture by dragging a corner (to keep the height and width in proportion)
  6. The text will now wrap to the picture automatically
Question 4 In Word, when I copy text from one document to another I lose the formatting.
How do I Control Formatting when I copy and Paste Text between Documents? 
Answer
  1. Set the default option to control your preferred paste option. For example, if you prefer your text to match the formatting in the document you're pasting to (this is usually the preferred option) then set the default to Merge Formatting.
  2. To do this... Click on File, Options, Advanced, scroll down to Cut, Copy and Paste options and set the 'Pasting Between Documents' option to Merge Formatting
Question 5
In Excel, how do I Convert text to actual dates? 
Answer
  1. Sometimes in Excel if you import a column of dates from another system those dates aren't recognised in Excel because they're stored as text. An example of this would be if a date appeared like this 1.1.19.
    To correct this...
  2. Highlight the column
  3. On the Data tab on the ribbon click on Text to Columns
  4. Skip right through to step 3 in the wizard
  5. Change the option in step 3 from General to Date and click Finish
Question 6
In Excel, how do I Split a column containing First and Last name into Separate Columns? 
Answer
  1. Having first and last name data in a single column makes it impossible to sort or filter by that column.
  2. First, insert 2 new columns to the right of the name column to ensure you don't overwrite any existing data
  3. Highlight the column you want to split and on the Data tab on the ribbon choose Text to Columns
  4. Choose Delimited and click Next
  5. Choose Space (because a space is the separator between the first and last name) and click Finish
Question 7
I have a list of email addresses in an Excel spreadsheet. How do I Create a Distribution List in Outlook from the Excel List? 
Answer
  1. Highlight all of the email addresses in your Excel sheet and press Ctrl C (copy)
  2. Open Outlook and go to the People View (Contacts)
  3. Click New Contact Group on the Home tab on the ribbon
  4. Type a name for the group e.g Year 9 Class List
  5. Click Add Members
  6. Choose From Outlook Contacts
  7. Right click in the Members box at the bottom of the dialog box (don't click the Members button)
  8. Choose Paste
  9. Click OK
  10. Click Save and Close
  11. To use the Distribution in Outlook to create a new email, compose a new message and start typing the name of the distribution list (it should pop up for your to choose)
Question 8
In PowerPoint, Publisher or Word, how do I draw a perfect circle, square, straight line or triangle?  
Answer
  1. Click Insert on the ribbon and choose Shapes
  2. Click the shape you want e.g if you wish to draw a square choose rectangle, if you want a circle choose oval.
  3. Hold down Shift on the keyboard and drag to draw the shape. Holding down shift forces the height and width to remain in proportion producing a perfect shape!
Question 9
In PowerPoint, how do I make changes to all slides in the presentation?  
Answer
  1. To make changes across all slides you must use the Slide Master.
  2. Click View on the ribbon and choose Slide Master
  3. In the left hand side task pane click the parent slide (this is the first slide above all the slide layouts listed)
  4. Make changes on here to update all slides e.g change the title font or insert a picture or a logo
  5. Click on Close Master View at the end of the ribbon when done
Question 10
In Outlook, how do I change my settings?  
Answer
  1. To make changes to Outlooks default settings click File, Options
  2. Some useful changes to make include turning off the pop up mail notifications which pop up in the right corner of the screen. Mail options can be controlled by clicking the Mail tab on the left hand side of the dialog box. Untick 'Display a desktop alert' to disable pop up notifications.

Thanks for Reading

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Thanks

Anita Lund

Email operations@trainers-direct.com.au

https://www.trainers-direct.com.au