The Power of T

When you're working in MS PowerPoint do you make multiple changes to the text font… such as font type, size, color, style, shadow effect, etc?

Do you prefer to make these changes in a "one-stop" place where all the selections are together instead of spread out among several different buttons, color palettes and lists?

If this suits your preferences then you've probably discovered PowerPoint's Font dialogue box found through the Format menu.

Looks something like this:

If this is your preferred method of formatting then it may interest you to know that you don't need a menu to get there - all you need to know about is the power of T. Well, to be exact, you need to know about the power of Ctrl + T.

Next time you're looking to make multiple font changes skip the menu stuff completely, just give Ctrl + T a try and you'll find you're in the "one-stop" shop for font possibilities.

~ April

Q:
I have all these bookmarks but don't remember why I saved them. is there any way to make a note or something as a reminder?

A:
We've all poured over our Favorites/Bookmark list and wondered why a particular website was there? Sure, they're organized into folders, but the purpose of the site is a mystery. Good news, all of you Netscape, Firefox and Opera users have an excellent resource to help you keep track of bookmarks. That's right, this is one of those few times that Internet Explorer users are left out of a browser trick (unless they use third-party software like "myFavorites").

If you are using Netscape, right click the bookmark you want to put a note in and choose "Properties". In the "Description" box, add your comments.

For those of you with Firefox 1.0 it works the same as Netscape: right click the bookmark you want to put a note in and choose "Properties". In the "Description" box, add your comments.

With the Opera browser, right mouse click a favorite and choose "Properties". A window pops up where you can change the name, give the site a nickname, and best of all, describe the site. Other options include check boxes to show the site on your Personal Toolbar and/or in your Hotlist Panel.

When you mouse over a bookmark in Opera, it displays the properties, including description, in a pop-up window. Something Netscape and Firefox don't even do!

This is one of the most useful tools I've ever found in web browsers. I wonder when the brains in Redmond will "incorporate" this feature into Internet Explorer?

~ David

Fast Save = Bigger File Size?

Did you know that MS PowerPoint comes with a Fast Save option? In fact, PowerPoint has probably been using a Fast Save setting the whole time - so what exactly is it doing for you?

PowerPoint's Fast Save "speeds up saving by recording only the changes in a presentation". The good news is that your saves have been as fast as PowerPoint could offer you - the bad news: this method of saving tends to make file sizes larger than necessary.

If space is an issue for you then maybe it's a good idea to know how to get around the Fast Save.

The Fast Save option can be reached via the Tools menu, Options choice, Save Tab.

Uncheck the "Allow fast saves" box and click OK.

With that change made PowerPoint will do a complete save of the presentation thereby reducing the file size if possible.

Using the above method changes the way the program behaves each time it saves until you recheck the Fast Save box.

A way to do a complete save without un-checking the Fast Save option is to use Save As instead of Save from the File menu. In the Save As window simply name the file the same as before and choose to replace.

Either way, you're on the right track when it comes to reducing presentation file size.

~ April

Use a lot of bulleted lists in MS PowerPoint? How about MS Word? Looking for quick ways to move items in your bulleted list without a cut / paste?

Or… maybe you'd like a way to promote and/or demote items in the list without all the extra work with the increase and decrease indent buttons.

Whatever your particular need, you're sure to find something here that works for you!

First, for those who are most into using key combinations here's just the thing you need for both Word and PowerPoint.

To demote an item one level in your list place the cursor somewhere in the item then use Alt + Shift + Right Arrow.

Need to move another level yet?

Then repeat the key combination (Alt + Shift + Right Arrow) to demote again.

And, yes, you guessed it… to promote something one level use Alt + Shift + Left Arrow. (And repeat to move up another level.)

In addition, it's good to know that if you're willing to be sure that the cursor is at the beginning of the item then you can use Tab to demote and Shift + Tab to promote. The emphasis here is that you need to have the cursor at the very left of the information - if it's placed in the middle then you'll just be inserting tabs into your work.

Now there's also the dilemma of moving items up and down through the list. Again, place the cursor within the item to move. Now use Alt + Shift + Up or Down Arrow. Instantly the bulleted item begins to climb or drop down through the list without the need for a cut / paste.

Moving on to those of you who are more "mouse" inclined.

You too have some quick maneuvers at your disposal.

In PowerPoint you can run your mouse pointer over the bullet of the item to move until it becomes a 4-way arrow.

Once you have the arrow click and hold.

Now simply drag in the direction you need the item to move. Left or right will promote or demote and up or down will rearrange the list.

If you're working in Word you won't find that the pointer turns into a 4-way arrow. That shortcut doesn't work. However, you can highlight the entire item and then do a drag and drop to relocate it in the list.

To demote (increase indent) or promote (decrease indent) the item in the list right click on it and select your choice from the menu.

And there you have it - quick ways to manage bulleted lists without a single toolbar button or menu in sight.

~ April

There are many ways to navigate through an MS PowerPoint presentation but here's a few quick key strokes that can save you some wasted mouse-to-keyboard time.

In the Normal View…

• To move up one slide use the Page Up key.

• To move down one slide try the Page Down key.

• To move to the first slide in the presentation use the Home key. (If you're in a text box, or other object, then hit the Esc key before the Home key to get this tip to work.)

• A jump to the last slide is what you'll get from the End key. (If you're in a text box, or other object, then hit the Esc key before the Home key to get this tip to work.)

Working in the Slide Sorter View?

Then here's a few navigation key combinations for you.

• The Up, Down, Left and Right Arrow keys will move you one slide in the indicated direction.

• The Page Up and Page Down keys will scroll through the slides you see on the screen but will NOT change the slide currently selected. (These will let you see other slides without losing your place.)

And, as expected...

• The Home key will take you to and select the first slide in the presentation.

• The End key will take you to and select the last slide in the presentation.

Click, click the keys to get there quick!

~ April

PowerPoint Peek-A-Boo

Here's the situation: you have a really great MS PowerPoint presentation—it covers "everything". It's a masterpiece, if you do say so yourself.

Now you need a slightly different presentation—this one should cover only part of the "masterpiece" mentioned above.

What do you do?

You could simply skip through the unneeded slides while giving the presentation. Not a very slick or wonderful way to do it—distracting for the audience—definitely not your best choice.

Do you copy slides from the original presentation into a new one?

You could—it'd take some time and be an extra file to keep track of—but you could.

Want a quicker, better way?

Maybe a way that doesn't require you to dismantle your presentation each time it needs to be modified?

Yes?

Cool—then it's time to play peek-a-boo with our slides.

Basically what we're going to do is to hide the slides we don't want to display. Trust me, it's faster than the copy / paste into a new file method—and who couldn't use the spare time?

The first thing you'll need to do is to open the presentation you're working with.

Now go to the Slide Sorter View. (View Menu, Slide Sorter choice or the Slide Sorter button in the bottom left corner of the window. The Alt, V then D keys will also accomplish this task.)

Now that you're in the Slide Sorter, you simply need to select a slide that should be hidden. (You do this by clicking it on—you should notice an outline around the selected slide.)

Now click the Hide Slide button located on the Slide Sorter toolbar.

(If you don't see this button, then you may need to display the correct toolbar. Go to the View menu, Toolbars submenu, and then Slide Sorter choice.)

At any rate, once you click the button you should notice a small change regarding the slide you had selected.

See the change yet?

What you should notice as different is the fact that the slide number is now crossed out—meaning that the slide has been hidden.

If you run the slide show now, you'll find that the slide is skipped entirely. (Yeah! Just what we were looking for.)

I can hear the inevitable question: How do I put the slide back into the show?

Good question.

Deserves a good answer, so here it is.

You need to return to the Slide Sorter view, select the slide to be unhidden, and click on the Hide Slide button again.

Instantly you should notice that the slide number is back to normal—meaning that the slide will appear when the presentation is run.

And there you have it.

Your masterpiece presentation may have just become the most useful file on your machine.

Ahhhh—what will you do with all the time you save now that you don't have to copy / paste all the slides?

I'm sure you can think of a few things.

Double Click on a MS PowerPoint Slide

Did you know that when you're working in MS PowerPoint's Slide Sorter you can double click on any slide to be taken back to the Slide or Normal View (depends on the version of PowerPoint) to edit your slide.

No more looking for the correct button in the bottom left of the window, no more View menu, no more searching for the right place.

Double click - that'll do the trick!

Stop Third Party Toolbars

Have you ever been surfing along when suddenly you find that somewhere along your journey you picked up an extra toolbar? Many of these (Hotbar for instance) are adware that sends targeted pop-ups. Sometimes you can go to Add/Remove Programs and delete them there, but how about an easier way to get rid of them AND prevent them from getting there to begin with.

NOTE: If you are using a friendly toolbar like those from Google or Yahoo , you don't want to follow this tip.

OK, here's the trick: go to the "Tools" menu and choose "Internet Options". Click the "Advanced" tab then scroll down. Underneath "Browsing" you'll find a checkbox that says,"Enable third-party browser extensions". Uncheck this box and press "OK" to close the dialog box.

After you reset your computer the extra toolbars and buttons should be gone.

~ David

Did you know that in MS PowerPoint Ctrl + Enter does something really cool?

For my keyboard people here's a little item I ran into today while doing some good old PowerPoint work.

While working, I found that Ctrl + Enter will move you from text box to text box within your slide.

Very cool—this one can save you some mouse-to-keyboard time.

But, there's a catch.

(Of course—isn't there always?)

If you hit Ctrl + Enter while in the last text box on the slide, another slide—of the same layout as the current one—will be inserted into your presentation.

Bad thing if you DON'T want another slide, but let's face it, that's a catch that could turn out to be positive if you learn to manage it carefully.

If only all of life's "catches" could have a good side...

Q:
When I try to save pictures from the web they my computer tries to save them as .bmp? Is there a way to save them as JPEGs like they should be?

A:
If the internet history folder is full, you might try to save a picture that says .jpg only to have it try to save as as bitmap. This is a sign that your Internet History cache is full. Keep in mind, though, that frequently visited pages will take longer to download because they are no longer saved in History (the browser looks in cache first for images before it downloads).

To clear out the history in Internet Explorer, hit the Tools menu/ Internet Options . On the "General" tab, you'll see a "History" area. Click the "Clear History" button and you're all set.

For Netscape, hit the Edit menu/ Preferences . Under the "Navigator" section, you'll see a History section. Hit the "Clear History" button and you're all set.

Note that from either Explorer or Netscape you can adjust how long your History files last. So, if you want them cleared out every week, just set it to seven days. If you regularly run Disk Cleanup, this also clears your history. If you have a program like Internet Clean-Up or iClean , you can set it up to clear History every time you close the browser.

~ Steve

Setting Slide Transitions Quickly in MS PowerPoint

If you're a PowerPoint user then you probably have, at one time or another, done some work with slide transitions.

As I've worked with people I've noticed that they go through the routine of viewing a slide in the slide view (one slide at a time), use the Slide Show menu / Slide Transitions choice to set the transition effect, then move to the next slide and repeat the process.

This, without a doubt, works, but if you've got a long presentation it can take forever. (OK, maybe forever is a bit of an exaggeration, but if you've got 30 slides that's just how it feels!)

Would you like a more efficient way to set these transitions?

Was that a "Yes" I heard? (Once again, thanks for playing your part here.)

How about a bonus where you can also select Preset Animations at the same time?

Sound good? Yeah, it did to me too.

So, where do we find this wonderful little time-saver?

I've got two words for you.

Slide Sorter.

Slide Sorter?

Yep, the Slide Sorter is the answer to your time issues.

Open your presentation and switch to the Slide Sorter view. (View menu, Slide Sorter or the Slide Sorter button located in the bottom left corner of PowerPoint window.)

Now, just to be sure that you have the toolbars you need, make sure that in the View menu / Toolbars choice that both the Animation Effects and Slide Sorter choices are checked.

If one of them appears as a floating toolbar, simply grab the title bar and drag it into the toolbar area. It will settle in there just like all the other toolbars.

At any rate, you should have both of these toolbars:

Now that you have the necessary equipment, let's get to the transitions and effects.

You begin by selecting the slide(s) where you will apply a transition and / or effect. To select multiple slides either click / hold the left mouse button to drag a selection rectangle or use the Shift key with left clicks.

Now let's apply the fun stuff.

Slide transitions can be found in the drop-down list below the words No Transition.

Text effects can be applied from the drop-down list below the words No Effect.

Symbols will appear under the left corner of the slide. The symbol on the left indicated that a transition was set and the one on the right indicates that you've set an effect.

If you wish to apply a Preset Animation (text effect plus sound) simply click the type you wish to set from those available on the Animation Effects toolbar. (The bottom toolbar pictured above.)

You may find that this toolbar will change its options based on the elements of the slide highlighted. (I know, just what you needed... rules that change as you go along. Like you don't already have enough of those!)

And that's it.

You can change as many slides as you want—as quick as can be—without all the flipping back and forth between slides and the repeated opening of the Transition window.

Welcome to PowerPoint life in the fast lane.

~ April

Q:
My IE favorites are getting out of hand! Is there a way to sort them?

A:
If you use Internet Explorer, you know this problem well. Here are some tips and tricks you'll appreciate (note that some of these tips will not work with older versions of Internet Explorer):

1. To put your favorites in alphabetical order, right-click any favorite and select " Sort by name " from the resulting menu. All the favorites in that folder will be sorted alphabetically. NOTE: This only works if you click Favorites from the top toolbar, not from the "Favorites" menu on the side (don't ask me why).

2. If you have tons of favorites, you should probably put them in groups using folders. For example, if you love tomato plants, and have bookmarked all 12 internet sites that feature them, you can put all of these favorites into a folder.

To create a new folder, click your Favorites menu and select Organize Favorites . A screen will open that lets you create new folders, as well as move around your favorites.

OR

You can do the same thing by right-clicking your Start button, Explore . That should open Windows Explorer with focus on the Windows directory. If you're using XP, it will put focus on your personal directory (this tip works the same either way)

Next, open the Favorites folder. Now, right-click the right-hand pane and select New, Folder from the resulting menu. Name the folder and hit Enter .

Now just drag & drop the favorites that belong in that folder straight to it. Seems like this would be quicker to me.

3. If you would like to rename one of your favorites, (you know, the one that just says "homepage" or "Untitled document") to something slightly more descriptive, you can do so from that same Organize Favorites screen we mentioned earlier.

Open up the Organize favorites screen again, select the favorite you would like to rename, and click the " Rename " button. If you're not sure what the favorite is for, when you click it you'll see that you get a little info in the box on the left, including the URL . If that still doesn't help, double-click the link and Explorer will open the link for you.

~ Steve

Select Several Objects At Once

In MS PowerPoint, you can select several objects with one click and drag of the mouse.

Replacing the old "Shift + mouse click (repeated over and over on each individual object) routine" we have the lovely and wonderful one click and drag option.

Most people are aware of this neat little trick on the desktop. Where you click on the desktop, hold down the left mouse button and drag. A dotted-line rectangle is drawn and everything in the rectangle is selected once you release the mouse button.

Well - as I was working on a PowerPoint presentation the other day - I accidentally figured out that I didn't need to waste all that time holding down the Shift key and selecting each item. (I had something like 30 separate text boxes and was frustrated with all the selecting. In my fit of frustration I clicked and dragged a rectangle and much to my surprise all the objects in the rectangle were instantly selected. Yeah!)

I tried this in Word and got nowhere, but... for those of use who use PowerPoint with a lot of objects this is a huge timesaver.

Give it a whirl - you might just save yourself some time and frustration.

(Just a quick note here - I did find that you must have the object completely in the rectangle - if an object is only partially in the rectangle it will not be selected.)

Q:
My cable company bragged about how much faster a cable modem was compared to dial-up, so I went with them. It was faster, at first, but sometimes it seems as slow as my old phone line connection. What gives?

A:
Sure cable modems have the potential of reaching speeds of 3Mbps, but keep in mind that you share a wire buried underground with everyone in your neighborhood. Think of it this way: your car can do about 120-160 mph, but in rush hour traffic you probably end up doing about 30 mph. The more cars on the road, the slower you end up going. Similarly, as more people use cable modems in your area, the slower your connection gets during peak hours.

You are not guaranteed a certain amount of bandwidth for your personal use—you must compete with everyone else online at that time. Most cable internet providers allocate certain amounts of band width for different areas. If you live in an area with many cable modem users, then expect occasionally slow connections.

If it really gets bad, I guess you could get together with your neighbors and bug your cable company until they give you all extra capacity.

That would be a whole lot nicer than sneaking around at night cutting your neighbor's cables (not that you'd ever do that ;-)

Keep in mind that a major cause of slow access affects everybody whether cable, dial-up, or DSL: net congestion. We're dealing with millions of servers all interconnected with different speed modems and bandwidth all communicating with each other—sometimes it's amazing that it even works!

Another thing to do is call your cable company to make sure that all your settings are correct. In many cases, something isn't set correctly.

~ David

More Watermarks Please

As a follow up to last week's tip on watermarks in MS Word, let's take a look at watermarks in PowerPoint.

Since we discussed the "Why" questions related to watermarks in the last issue, let's get right down to business.

For a watermark on a single slide:

The first step is to either navigate to a pre-existing slide or create a blank slide.

Now insert the "perfect" picture for your watermark. (Insert menu, Picture sub-menu, choose the appropriate option to get the picture you need.)

The picture toolbar should open… but if it doesn't simply go to the View menu, Toolbars sub-menu, Picture choice.

You're looking for the Image Control button, Watermark choice from the pull-down menu.

From there you can use the other buttons to adjust brightness and contrast.

When you've got the picture as you want it right click over it.

From the pop-up menu you need the Order sub-menu, Send to Back choice.

Poof!

Your slide should now appear with the information in the front and your picture as a watermark in the background.

What's that I hear you asking?

Did you say…

"But, what if I want the watermark on all of my slides? I don't want to repeat this on every slide!"

That's what I thought I heard. (And I must say that I agree. I wouldn't want to repeat this on every slide either!)

Fortunately, the answer is "No Problem".

Instead of going to a particular slide to add the watermark, go to the Slide Master.

Go to the View menu, Master sub-menu, Slide Master choice.

Now that's you're in the Slide Master simply follow the rest of the steps to create the watermark.

When you're done click the Close button on the Master toolbar that opened when you went into the Slide Master.

And… just like magic - every slide of the presentation has the watermark.

~ April

Site Not Found

"404- Not Found - The page you were trying to look at was not found on the server." Doesn't this message annoy you? There are several reasons why you would get this message.

1. The web page you were going to has been removed or re-named. Try scaling down the URL. For example, if it's:

www.worldstart.com/tips/nopage.htm

you may want to try:

www.worldstart.com/tips

or

www.worldstart.com

Keep going backwards in the URL and you'll usually come up with the site you're after. Then you can look for the lost page from there.

2. Your Internet connection has gone dead, so try re-logging on.

3. Net congestion during peak hours (especially common with dial-up ISPs) can also prevent pages from loading. If it takes too long for a page to be found, the browser might just give up. Try the page again later (or hit the "Refresh" button).

4. The page you want is getting a lot of traffic so the server is bogged down (this happens to our cool sites all the time). Try again later.

~ Steve

Spiffy PowerPoint Handouts

Have you ever given a presentation in MS PowerPoint and found yourself wishing that you had an easy way to put together a handout for your audience to follow?

If you've been to training sessions where the presenter uses PowerPoint then you may know what I'm talking about.

Those wonderful pages that have all the slides (which means you get all the content without frantically scribbling every word down) and a space to write your extra little notes.

I've also been to presentation where the presenter did not have the handouts. Let me assure you, it was better for me, as a member of the audience, to have the material in my hands as we covered it.

So, do you want to know how to make beautiful handouts of your own?

Yes?

Excellent - just what I wanted to hear. (Thanks for being so agreeable.)

The first thing you may want to do is to customize the header and footer information that will be printed on your handouts.

To accomplish this you need to go to the View menu, Master sub-menu, Handout Master choice.

Two toolbars will open (Handout Master and Master). On the Handout Master toolbar that opens select the type of handout you're going to print. (The empty rectangles represent where slides will be printed.)

Then in the preview of the handout you can click into one of the header or footer boxes to edit the content.

You may want to zoom in to 100% so you can see the text you're editing. (Either use View menu, Zoom choice or the Zoom pull down menu from the Standard toolbar.)

Also, if you're having trouble clicking into the footer box to edit try right clicking over the box and choosing Edit from the pop-up menu.

When you finish click the Close button on the Master toolbar.

You will then be returned to your slide show.

Now we're ready to talk about printing your marvelous handouts.

First you need to start the printing process. Either use the File menu, Print choice or Ctrl + P.

Now we're looking in the Print window for the section entitled "Print what:".

In drop down list you should find listings for the handout options.

Pick the same type of handout that you edited earlier from the list.

Finish choosing your other print options and you're ready to print.

Voila!

Beautiful presentation handouts are only seconds away.

Happy Presenting :-)

~April

Q:
Is there a way to transfer my Internet Explorer favorites to Netscape?

A:
Not only can you use this tip to update and share bookmarks/favorites between Internet Explorer and Netscape, you can also use it to export your NS bookmarks to IE and vice-versa. I suppose you could even use it to share them with your other computers or friends. That's right... three tips for the price of one!

To Export Internet Explorer Favorites

Go to the File menu and click Import/Export . The Wizard will help guide you through the process.

Choose "Export Favorites" and click Next .

Choose the folder you want to export, or click the top folder "Favorites" to send them all. Specify the destination for your favorites file. I suggest that you send it to your "My Documents" folder and call it "favorites.htm" to help distinguish it from your Netscape bookmarks file.

To Export Netscape Bookmarks

Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks . In your Bookmarks window, open the ToolsExport . menu, and choose

In the "Export bookmark file" box, choose a destination folder for your "bookmarks.html" file to go. I suggest putting it in "My Documents". Click Save.

To Import Netscape Bookmarks in Explorer

Go to the File menu and click Import/Export . Choose "Import Favorites". If the Netscape "bookmark.html" file you just created is not in the box, you will need to browse for it (now you know why I told you to put it in "My Documents").

Next, you can choose where you want it to go. You can put it in a folder, or just dump it in Favorites and sort it all out later. Click Finish .

To Import Explorer Favorites in Netscape:

Open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks . In your Bookmarks window, open the ToolsImport . menu and choose

In the "Import bookmark file" box, locate and select the bookmark file you want to import (remember, we named it "favorites" and put it in "My Documents").

Click Open and it saves all the links in your Bookmark file. You can sort them out from there.

Now you have the power to synchronize your favorites and your bookmarks. Since you have a bookmark file created, you can even send it as an email attachment to friends or save it on a disk to install on another computer. Pretty cool huh!

~David