Notes from the Help Desk…

One of the new “Mac-like” features of Windows 7 is your Taskbar customization options. The Mac shows your icons at the bottom of the screen. As you hover over an icon, it magnifies. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a difference between an open app and a closed one in terms of appearance.

Windows 7 provides a version of that. First, there is no Quick Launch toolbar. When you drag an icon to the Taskbar, it shows up where the open icons are. The difference is that the open icons have a box around them to let you know they are open. The Word icon in the example below shows that there are three files open. When you hover over the icon, you can see each file and select the one you want.

You can make the icons smaller, which I did initially. I went back to the larger size from a combination of aging eyes and better visuals on the icons.

You can customize the Taskbar and the Start Button as you did in XP and Vista: Right-click on the button and select Properties. You can keep this behavior (combine icons, hide text), turn it off when the taskbar is full, or never use it. Initially, I turned it off and went to small icons. But I find myself liking the new look.

And while we’re at it, the Desktop Preview box at the far end of the Taskbar is kind of cool—hover over it and it makes your windows transparent so you can see your desktop—but there is a slight hesitation before it happens that is annoying. Much faster to press Windows Logo Button + D to minimize everything and Windows-D to restore it. Both of these happen instantly.

After 27 years in the business, you end up with a few observations. Ron Miller, an old friend of mine, interviewed me about Vista, Office 2007, and my observations on technical writing. All opinions expressed are my own, but I did get a chance to say some things. Take a look at the interview: http://www.daniweb.com

By default, Office 2007 saves files in new XML-based formats. Word uses the .docx and .docm extensions. Docx files do not support macros, while docm files are macro-enabled. Presumably, this is to cut down on the number of viruses aimed at Word documents.

Similarly, Excel uses the .xlsx and .xlsm extensions, and PowerPoint uses the .pptx and .pptm extensions. Access has also changed its file format to an XML-based format, using the .accdb extension.

However, the new formats are not backward-compatible. Therefore, people using any older versions of Office will not be able to open files saved in the new formats. Since it will be some time before a majority of users have Office 2007, we recommend saving files in the old formats if you intend to distribute them to other users.
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To save an Office 2007 file in an older format:

1. Click the Office button.
2. Select Save As.
3. At the bottom of the dialog box, under Save as type:, select Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).

Office 2007 now lets you save any document, presentation or spreadsheet as a PDF (without having to purchase Adobe Acrobat). However, you have to download a plug-in to add this functionality.

You can download the free plugin from Microsoft at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4D951911-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en

After you have downloaded the plug-in, to save a file as a PDF, click the Office button and select Save As | PDF or XPS.

If you are working with a formula that may refer to a blank cell or otherwise generate an error message, you can use a combination of the IF-THEN-ELSE and the ISERROR function to handle the #DIV/0! or other error messages that may appear.

The IF-THEN-ELSE has 3 parts: the condition, the TRUE condition, the FALSE condition. The following formula tests A1 for the number 100. If it is found, the cell displays the contents of A1. If it is not found, it multiplies another cell (B1) by 2:

=IF(A1=100,A1,B1*2)

By using one of the ISERROR functions, you can test for an error condition and use the IF statement to display a message or nothing at all. The common IS functions are ISERR, which returns TRUE for any error value except #N/A and ISERROR, which returns TRUE for any error value (#N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!, #NUM!, #NAME?, or #NULL!).

Suppose a cell is going to contain the average of several cells. If the cells are empty, the result will be division by zero and the #DIV/0! error will appear. The following formula will take care of this condition:

=IF(ISERR(AVERAGE(A1:A10)),”No Data”,AVERAGE(A1:A10))

If the formula AVERAGE(A1:A10) returns an error (most likely because there are no numbers in the range), the cell will display the words “No Data”. If there is no error, the cell will display the results of AVERAGE(A1:A10).