My Virtual Blog

According to Tech Republic, their Microsoft Office Blog had a busy year, with almost 300 tips and techniques contributed by a variety of experts.

Here are their top five favorites for 2008:

#1: How do I… Add music and narration to a PowerPoint presentation?

Sound effects, such as music and voice recordings, can mean the difference between a good presentation and an outstanding one. See how to use sound to energize your audience and deliver a more engaging show.

#2: Add a drop-down list to an Excel cell - **A personal favorite**

Using Excel’s Data Validation feature, you can limit user entries by providing them with a specific list of choices.

#3: Don’t get derailed by Office 2007 compatibility issues

As with any major upgrade, Office 2007 brings concerns about compatibility. Learn how to minimize compatibility headaches when you make the jump to the latest version.

#4: Avoid e-mail mistakes with a single setting

We’ve all done it and regretted it — sent an e-mail to the wrong person, sent an angry e-mail in haste, or sent an e-mail containing mistakes. See how you can prevent such embarrassing (or possibly career damaging) errors.

#5: Use Outlook to send e-mail to a cell phone

Outlook can call your cell phone — which is a convenient way to transfer phone numbers, short messages, reminders, and other important stuff so you can store it or share it. Here’s a look at this simple process.

I’ve got another personal favorite.  I love being able to use multiple accounts with multiple signatures in Outlook 2007. 

What are your favorites?

Here are 5 things most avid computer users know:

1.            How to add shortcuts to popular programs in the Taskbar.

2.            How to empty their recycle bin.

3.            That CTRL+F in Microsoft Word = Find.

4.            That you can “paint” formatting from one paragraph to another in Microsoft Word.

5.            That ALT + PrintScreen will capture the screen you are on and CTRL + V will paste that into Word.

Did you find anything that you didn’t know? What are some other common tasks that you THINK everyone knows? Sometimes we take our own knowledge for granted and what may be simple to us is not at all familiar to someone else. So share your wisdom – it is the season of giving after all!  Let us hear your tips and tricks.  And we promise to answer or elaborate on any of the 5 tips above!