Notes from the Help Desk…

On some charts, you may want to plot a data series that contains different numbers on a different scale.  For example, you may want to show monthly sales figures and percentages on the same chart.  If you use the same scale for both data series, the percentages will be too small to show up on the chart.

To plot a data series on a secondary axis:

1. Create your chart.
2. Select the smaller data series by clicking the drop-down list on the Layout tab of the Chart Tools ribbon.
3. Click the Format Selection button.
4. Excel will display the Format Data Series dialog box
5. In the Series Options category, select Secondary Axis.
6. Click the Close button.
7. Excel will plot the data series on a secondary axis.

If you are a full-time web developer, you probably already use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to format and layout web pages. However, if your only design experience is creating and maintaining your company’s web site, you are probably still working with HTML. It’s time to think about changing.

CSS works with HTML to improve the appearance of your web pages. Styles can be applied to headings, images, tables, text, or any other object on a web page. If you work with styles in Microsoft Word, the concept is basically the same.

Do you remember what the Web was like back in 1994 when we were all amazed by the Louvre web site? (Remember the Mosaic browser?) Wow, we could actually see pictures on our computer that were in France! This was HTML 1.0 with no support for tables, so all Web pages were one column. Boring! Then tables came along, and all of a sudden, web pages could have more than one column, paving the way for more complicated layouts. A revolution! CSS represents another sea change in web design. Read more…

If you’re looking for an inexpensive way to train users on software (and who isn’t these days?), consider Camtasia Studio, screen recording software from TechSmith. (Price: $299)

Camtasia is easy to learn and fun to use. You simply record what’s happening on the screen as you speak the narration into a microphone. Depending on the length of the video, it’s often easier to record small chunks of your video at a time and then stitch them together during editing. When you edit the video, it’s easy to pan and zoom smoothly, so you can focus on the parts of the screen that are important. During editing, you can also add titles and transitions, edit the audio track, etc. Read more…

Track Changes is an indispensable tool in Word that lets a group of people edit a document, while Word keeps track of what changes were made to the document and who made them. However, a persistent problem in earlier versions of Word has been the difficulty in removing all tracked changes and comments from the final version of a document.

When you accept or reject changes in a final document, Word is supposed to remove all traces of tracked changes and comments. However, many users have discovered that this information is difficult to remove permanently without using a third-party program.

This task is much easier and more effective in Word 2007. To remove tracked changes and comments from a Word 2007 document:

1. Click the Office button.
2. Click Prepare and select Inspect Document.
3. The Document Inspector dialog box will appear.
4. Check the Comments, Revisions, Versions and Annotations checkbox.
5. View the inspection results.
6. Click the Remove All button next to Comments, Revisions, Versions, and Annotations.
7. Click the Close button.
8. Save your document.

Your document is now free of all of the comments and tracked changes info.

Microsoft Word 2007 lets you create blog postings and publish them directly from Word. (Actually, I’m doing it right now!) Using Word is generally easier than most blogging software, which requires users to edit HTML code.

To create a blog posting from Word:

1. Click the Office button.
2. Select New, select New blog post, and then click the Create button (lower right corner).
3. Click the Register Now button in the dialog, and then select your Blog provider from the drop-down list.
4. Enter the appropriate information into the New Blogger Account dialog box.
5. Click the Picture Options button if you want to select a picture provider from the drop-down list.
   (If you don’t use a picture provider, select None-Don’t Upload Pictures.)
6. Type your blog posting, and click the Publish button on the Ribbon to publish it to the blog. (When you publish, Word will prompt you for your Username and Password.)

A snippet is a chunk of code that you can store in Dreamweaver to reuse later. Snippets can include HTML, JavaScript, ASP, JSP, etc. For example, let’s say you need to add several graphics to your Web site, and each graphic is in a two-cell table with the graphic in the upper cell and the caption in the lower cell. Since you will use the same table (with different content) several places on the site, there is no need to create the table each time. Simply create it once, save it as a snippet, and reuse it whenever you need to.

Dreamweaver also contains some predefined snippets that you can use as a starting point. For example, one snippet of JavaScript lets you add a Close button to any Pop-up windows you include on your Web site. This snippet obviates the need to create the code for each window.

Dreamweaver also includes snippets of code that lets you add a Browse for File… button, a variety of formatted tables, drop-down menus, a Print button, navigation aids such as breadcrumb links, and many more options.
Read more…

PowerPoint 2003 comes with several design templates that you can use to add an artistic design to your slides. If you want a wider variety of designs from which to choose, consider downloading additional design templates from Microsoft’s web site.

If you want a more unique design for your presentation, or if you need to include your company colors and logo on each slide, consider creating your own design template. (This is more of a mini-lesson than a quick tip, but it’s well worth the time and effort.)

Using the Slide Master

To create your own design template, you need to know how to use the PowerPoint slide master. If you’ve never used this feature before, you can access it by selecting View | Master | Slide Master. The slide master is the template on which your presentation is based. It contains background graphics, formatting for titles, bulleted lists, header/footer contents, etc.

You can use the Slide Master to make global changes in your presentation. For example, suppose the design template you selected formats all slide titles in white text, and you want all titles to be blue. You can make this change by opening the slide master and selecting blue as the font color for the title placeholder. When you close the slide master and return to your presentation, all titles will be blue.

Who Cares about the Slide Master?

You do, if you plan to create your own design template. That’s where you tell PowerPoint which background graphic to use, as well as how to format titles, bulleted lists, graphical objects, etc.

Let’s Create a Design Template

Let’s say you need to create a design template for your company. It must include the company logo, the company’s colors as a gradient background on all slides, and it must appear in the Slide Design Task Pane so that you can apply it to any new presentation you might create.

Here’s how:

1. Create a new blank presentation.
2. Select View | Master | Slide Master to view the slide master. (PowerPoint will also open the Slide Master View toolbar, which you can use to close Slide Master View.)



3. Change the background by selecting Format | Background. Use this to select a background color, a blend of two colors (gradient), a texture, or a picture.
4. Add the company logo by selecting Insert | Picture | From file…
5. Drag the logo to place it on the slide and size it appropriately.
6. Select View | Header and Footer to add the date and/or slide number to each slide.
7. Close Master Slide View.
8. Save the presentation as a design template (*.pot).



9. PowerPoint will automatically save the template in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates. Do not save the template in a different location; it needs to be in this folder in order for it to show up in the Slide Design Task Pane.
10. Close the presentation.

Using Your New Design Template

1. Create a new presentation, or open an existing one.
2. Select Format | Slide Design to open the Slide Design Task Pane.
3. Scroll through the design templates to find the one you created. (If you don’t see it, close PowerPoint and re-open it.)
4. Apply your design template to the active presentation by clicking on it.
5. You can also use the drop-down menu to apply the design to one slide, all slides, or to use it as the default design for all new presentations.

There are a number of ways to calculate the time between two dates in Access. You can use a calculated field in a query, a calculated control in a form or report, or you can use a VBA procedure to perform the calculation.

If you need to calculate the number of days between two dates, the syntax is:

=[One date field] - [Another date field]

You can use functions to calculate the number of years between two dates:

=Year([One date field]) - Year([Another date field])

You can also use the DateDiff() function, which uses an argument to determine how the time interval is measured.

For example,

=DateDiff("q", Date1, Date2)

returns the number of quarters between the two fields. (In the example above, Date1 would be subtracted from Date2.) The other intervals that can be used in this expression are as follows: “yyyy” – Years, “m” – Months, “y” – Day of Year, “d” – Day, “w” – Weekdays, “ww” – Weeks, “h” – Hours, “n” – Minutes, “s” – Seconds.

Naming Date Fields

When naming date fields in Access, avoid naming a field Date, since this is a built-in Access function. Instead, consider using more descriptive names, such as BeginDate, HireDate, etc.

Hard Coding a Date

When calculating with dates in Access, you can hard-code an arbitrary date by using the following syntax:

#mm/dd/yyyy#

For example, you would use the following code to subtract a date from Jan. 1, 2006:

=#1/1/2006# - [Date Field]

Here are some useful shortcuts for Microsoft Access:

• Undo typing: CTRL+Z or ALT+BACKSPACE
• Undo changes: Press ESC once for current field, ESC twice for current record
• Insert the current date: CTRL+SEMICOLON (;)
• Insert the current time: CTRL+COLON (:)
• Insert the default value for a field: CTRL+ALT+SPACEBAR
• Insert the value from the same field in the previous record: CTRL+APOSTROPHE (’)
• Add a new record: CTRL+PLUS SIGN (+)
• Delete the current record: CTRL+MINUS SIGN (-)
• Recalculate fields: F9

If you find yourself repeating the same searches in Outlook, you can create a custom search, save it, and execute it again by simply re-opening the saved search.

Here’s how:

1. Open the Advanced Find dialog box (Control+Shift+F, or click the Find button, then selection Advanced Find… from the Options menu.)
2. Enter your search options (for example, all mail with the word “password” in the message body).
3. When the search is finished, select File | Save Search…
   Name the search something you’ll recognize later, such as “messageswithpassword.”
   (You might want to create a folder in My Documents called “Outlook Searches.”
4. Click OK, and close the Advanced Find dialog
5. Open Advanced Find again.
6. Select File | Open Search…
7. Select your saved search, and click OK. Outlook will repeat the search.