The popular document
editors that we use are a great deal more versatile than we give them credit
for. They have loads of powerful features that you probably don't use. ET
explains, how to move beyond just typing out a document.
14 Power tips to help master Microsoft Office WORD
1. By default, a lot of autocorrect options are built into Word. If you need complete control over what you type, you can switch off all autocorrect items in Word Options > Proofing > Autocorrect options.
2. Select a portion of text and press Shift + F3 to quickly cycle through uppercase (all caps), sentence case or lowercase text
3. On the top left is
the Quick Access Toolbar, which normally has save, undo, redo buttons. Click
the little triangle next to it and you can add more buttons that you frequently
use. If something that you use often is in one of the other tabs, click 'More
Commands' to add a button.
4. If you often copy and paste text from elsewhere, you probably get frustrated when the formatting does not match. To change how Word pastes text, go to Word Options > Advanced > Cut, copy, paste options.
4. If you often copy and paste text from elsewhere, you probably get frustrated when the formatting does not match. To change how Word pastes text, go to Word Options > Advanced > Cut, copy, paste options.
5. If you have
PowerPoint 2010, you don't need to carry a separate laser pointer while making
a presentation. During a slide show, simply press Ctrl on the keyboard and move
your cursor to turn it into a laser pointer.
6. You can use any shape
as a container for an image of your choice. Go to the insert tab and insert any
shape you want. Then right click on the shape, click 'Format Shape', click
Picture or texture file and select the image you want to place inside it.
7. Before making a
presentation, it's a good idea to rehearse it. Go to the Slide Show tab and
click 'Rehearse Timings'. The program can then help you keep time - displaying
the amount of time you spent on each slide and in total.
8. In PowerPoint 2007
onwards, you can set a password to prevent anyone from making any changes to
your slides - especially useful if you need to distribute your presentation but
don't want any unauthorised alterations. While saving the presentation for the
first time, click Tools and then General Options. Then, enter a password in the
'Password to Modify' field. Now, if someone opens the presentation and they
don't have the password, they can only open a Read-Only copy. In the Save As
dialog, saving the entire presentation as a set of images or a PDF will also
work.
9. To allow for wider
viewing, you can save your presentation as an HTML file. Click Save As and
choose 'Single file web page' - this can then be opened using a regular web
browser, even if the recipient does not have Power-Point installed.
10. If you're using
PowerPoint on a MAC, try a free add-on called Omni Dazzle from www.omnigroup.
com. It lets you highlight certain sections of the slide easily.
11. Get Excel to read
aloud what you type into a cell by using Text to Speech (could be useful for
the visually impaired). On the top left of the screen, next to the Save, Undo
and Redo buttons is a triangle that opens Quick Access Toolbar settings. Click
More Commands, Customize and select 'All Commands' from the drop down list.
Scroll down to the 'Speak Cells' command and add it. Now if you click this
button on the Quick Access Toolbar, Excel will read the contents of the cell
aloud.
12. Let's say you want
to type the same text into the same cell in different sheets. Press and hold
the Ctrl key and select all the sheets (sheet 1, sheet 2 and so on). Then type
anything into a cell - you'll see that the same text has been placed into all
the sheets you selected.
13. When working on
large sheets, you may want to enter today's date/time into a cell. Simply press
Ctrl + ; to insert the current date and Shift + Ctrl + ; to insert the current
time.
14. To switch the
orientation of a table after you have typed out all the values, select and copy
all the cells, then right click on an empty space and click Paste Special —
select the option called Transpose. The rows will become columns and vice
versa.
Mobile Apps KINGSOFT OFFICE
Use your choice of fonts
on the app with the Cloud Fonts Service. Upload the font from a PC to the cloud
and it will be synced to your phone You can open and switch between multiple
documents using the 'File Tabs' icon on the top bar.
The popular Aldiko Book
Reader Android supports epub and PDF fmats and allows you to
sort books via tags. It displays mobile device
Kingsoft Office file
manager supports cloud storage (Dropbox, Google
Docs and Box.net). You can
access files stored on the cloud directly
You can share text notes
from a PC directly to the Kingsoft Office app on your smartphone wirelessly
using the free Kingsoft Clip app for Android
POLARIS
You can change the size, colour, font, effect, background color, and style of a single word during editing by tapping the wrench icon on the top bar You can do basic enhancements for inserted images within the app using the image 'property' box
Similar to Kingsoft, Polaris lets you add cloud storage services like Google Drive, Box.net & webDAV to access and edit document
Files of a particular
format can be viewed in the file manager by tapping the four squares icon in
the home screen and selecting view by type
Create a list of
favourite documents by tapping the star icon next to document name. Favourites
can be quickly accessed from the home screen
DOCUMENTS TO GO
Use the Documents To Go
desktop app to sync files between your PC and Android/iOS device. The desktop
app automatically merges updated files You can synchronize the mobile app with
multiple desktop computers using the desktop app
Documents To Go has a
built-in Shake to undo/redo feature. Instead of using the keyboard, shake the
device to undo/redo the editing
To view Slide Notes in a
presentation tap the 'More' icon on the toolbar & select 'Notes'. To hide
them, slide the top of the note to the bottom
You can set the amount
of storage space alloted for saving documents downloaded from cloud storage in
the app's account settings
GOOGLE DRIVE
Drive comes with
built-in support to create forms, surveys and polls. These can be shared with
others or embedded on a blog, forum or website
All document revisions
are automatically saved. To view various versions of any document, go to File
> See Revision History
In Gmail, go to
settings > Labs. Search and activate the Google Docs Preview add-on — this
will enable previews of documents within Gmail
ZOHO DOCS
Connect your Dropbox storage with Zoho Docs to sync existing
documents. You can choose which Dropbox folders will be synced with Zoho
If you have multiple
headings in a word document, you can create a Table of contents for reference.
Go to Insert > Table of contents to add one
You can embed a Zoho
spreadsheet directly in a website. Select Publish Menu > Embed in Website/Blog
& copy the HTML snippet to use it on a website
Source | Economic Times
| 11 December 2013
