Top 20 Office 97 Tips and Tricks
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1.	Use drag-and-drop to import Access objects
When you want to import tables, forms, or other Access database
objects from one database to another, you most likely use the
File | Get External Data | Import command. However, there's often
an easier way. Launch two instances of Access and open the databases
you want to copy objects between. Then, simply drag the object
icon from the Database window of the source database to the Database
window of the target database.
2.	Use commas to separate email addresses in Outlook 98
If you can't seem to remember if you should use a semicolon or
a comma to separate email addresses, why not use both? There's
an option in Outlook that enables commas to be used in addition
to semicolons between email addresses. To turn on this feature,
choose Tools | Options and on the Preferences property sheet, click
E-mail Options. On the E-mail Options property sheet, click Advanced
E-mail Options. In the When Sending A Message panel, select the
Allow Comma As Address Separator check box and click OK until you
return to Outlook. The next time you create a message you can type
either a semicolon or a comma between email addresses in the To:,
Cc: or Bcc: fields. When Outlook checks the names, all commas are
automatically changed to semicolons.
3.	Spell checking organization charts in PowerPoint
If you include OLE objects in a presentation (such as charts and
tables) and then run spell checker, PowerPoint ignores any words
included in them. This is because PowerPoint can only check those
words you actually enter in the application. OLE objects created
in Microsoft Graph, Microsoft Organization Chart, and the other
Office applications are skipped by PowerPoint's spell checker.

Although you can spell check the data that creates the Excel chart
while you're in Excel, you still can't spell check the organization
chart in PowerPoint. One way around this limitation is to ungroup
the organization chart object. But when you do so, you won't be
able to double-click on the chart to return to Microsoft Organization
Chart. So after you're sure you've completed your organization
chart, return to Slide View. Click once on the chart object and
choose Draw | Ungroup from the Drawing toolbar. PowerPoint warns
you that you're converting this object, but click Yes anyway.
Immediately choose Draw | Group to keep all the pieces and parts
together.  Now use PowerPoint's spell-checking feature to find any
mistakes in your organization chart.
4.	
Sort your Inbox on multiple columns using the mouse
You can sort your Outlook 98 Inbox in two ways. One way is by choosing
View | Current View | Customize Current View and then clicking
the Sort button. In the Sort dialog box that's displayed you can
set up to four levels of sorting. This is the more laborious approach,
but you can choose it if you want the sort to be ascending or descending
right away.

An easier way to accomplish the same thing is by using the column
headings. Click on the heading of the first column you want to
sort by. Then hold the [Shift] key and click on the second column
you want to sort by. This retains the first sort and then sorts
the messages by the second column. If you need to change the sort
order from ascending to descending, hold down the [Shift] key again
and click the second heading again. 

The changes you make are stored in the Sort dialog box. If you
need to clear all the sort options, open the Sort dialog box using
the steps above and click the Clear All button and click OK twice
to return to Outlook.
5.	Repeat your last action in Word with a keyboard shortcut
When you execute an action, you can repeat it by clicking the Repeat
action button (if you've added it to a toolbar) or you can choose
Edit | Repeat command. However, there's a quicker way to repeat
your last action and it only involves pressing a function key.
For example, suppose you apply Bold formatting to some text and
you want to repeat that action. Select the next text you want to
make bold and press [F4]. This is a quick way to repeat an action
without leaving the keyboard.
6.	Open a specific folder when starting Outlook 98
By default when Outlook opens, you immediately see the Inbox. But
you might like Outlook to open the Calendar instead. You can decide
which Outlook folder is opened by specifying which folder Outlook
should start in. To do this choose Tools | Options. Click on the
Other tab and click the Advanced Options button. From the Startup
In This Folder dropdown list, select Calendar (or one of the other
Outlook folders). Now click OK twice to return to Outlook. Close
Outlook and then restart it. The Calendar is now displayed and
is selected in the Folder List.
7.	Moving worksheets between Excel workbooks
Occasionally you'll find that data stored in separate Excel files
would be more useful if it were all stored in a single workbook.
Fortunately, moving sheets from one workbook to another is easy.
First, open the workbooks with your data. To simplify the process,
choose Window | Arrange from the menu bar, select the Horizontal
option button, and click OK. Then simply click and drag a worksheet
tab from one workbook to another.

8.	
Move or remove Word toolbar buttons quickly
To help you work more efficiently, Word enables you to customize
toolbars by creating new toolbar buttons, removing toolbar buttons
you don't use, and moving existing toolbar buttons to more convenient
locations. When you need to move or remove a toolbar button, you
can open the Customize dialog box by selecting Tools | Customize
or View | Toolbars | Customize from the menu bar or by right-clicking
on a toolbar and choosing Customize from the resulting shortcut
menu. Then, while the Customize dialog box is open, you can move
a toolbar button by dragging it to a new location on a toolbar,
or you can remove it by dragging it to the document area. This
method is rather meticulous; fortunately, there's a much quicker
method. Simply press and hold down the [Alt] key and then drag
the toolbar button to a new toolbar location or to the document
area, as appropriate.
9.	Launch your email client from an Access hyperlink
You probably know that it's possible to store hyperlink data type
fields in an Access table. Chances are that you may use a hyperlink
field to point to your suppliers' Web addresses, or to a file location
on your intranet. However, if you tried to store email addresses
in the hyperlink field, you may have run into problems. If you
simply enter the email address in a hyperlink field, Access will
try to resolve it as a Web address, resulting in the error "Unable
to open http://(the email address). Cannot locate the Internet
server or proxy server."

There's a way to launch your email program and address the email
using a hyperlink field. To do so, simply enter the data in the
format "mailto:<emailaddress>" (without the quotes or <> characters),
substituting the complete email address that you want to use. Once
the data is entered, click on the hyperlink to launch your default
email handler (Outlook), and start a new message with the To: text
box already filled in.
10.	Know what you're selecting in a PowerPoint chart
When working with a PowerPoint chart, it's sometimes hard to select
the item you want to change. You think you're clicking on the gridline
but the chart area is selected instead. To make it easier to select
the right item, first double-click on the chart. Then point your
mouse at the item you want to select and wait to see the Chart
Tip text appear. This tells you what item will be selected when
you click.

11.	Hide names when sending an Outlook 98 message
There are times when you want to send a message to several people,
but you don't want the recipients to know who else got the message.
Instead of sending the message repeatedly with one recipient, you
can use the Bcc field (Blind Carbon Copy) in the message form.
Open a new message and choose View | Bcc Field. This adds a new
field below the Cc: field. Then enter all the recipients in the
Bcc field. (You might need a name in the To: field before you can
send the message. Put your name in the To: field just in case.)
Now just complete the message and send it. Each person will receive
the message and have no idea who else received it.

12.	
Freeze Excel column and row titles
When you work with a large Excel worksheet, it's often difficult
to remember exactly what kinds of data columns or rows contain
once you begin scrolling around the sheet. Fortunately, you can
freeze rows and columns that contain headings so that you always
know what data you're looking at. To freeze a row, select the row
number or the cell in column A that's immediately beneath the last
row you want frozen. Then, select Window | Freeze Panes from the
menu bar. Excel inserts a thin line to show you where the frozen
pane begins. To freeze a column, select the column letter or the
cell in row 1 that's immediately to the right of the last column
you want frozen. To freeze horizontal and vertical headings
simultaneously, select the cell that's in the upper-left corner
of the range you want to remain scrollable and then invoke the
Freeze Panes feature.  To restore the workbook to its normal view,
simply select Window | Unfreeze Panes from the menu bar.

13.	Create a presentation from a Word document
Do you need to create a PowerPoint presentation from text you've
stored in a Word document? Why cut and paste text from Word to
PowerPoint when you can automate the process? Simply open the Word
document you'd like to use as a presentation, then choose
File | Send To | Microsoft PowerPoint from the menu bar. PowerPoint
launches, imports the information from your Word document, and
distributes a collection of slides according to paragraph, style
and outline levels you used in the Word document.

14.	Animate individual pie pieces in PowerPoint
You can animate whole pie charts using PowerPoint's Chart Effects
feature in the Custom Animation dialog box. Unfortunately, this
feature doesn't provide any option to animate individual pieces
of a chart and its related text. But there is a way for you to
progressively show the individual pieces of a pie chart with some
type of entry animation. First create a chart and choose Ungroup
from the Draw menu. This splits each pie piece into several pieces
depending on how many sides there are to each 3-D pie piece. Select
all the pieces that constitute one of the pie pieces by clicking
the individual pieces while holding down the [Shift] key, and then
choose Group from the Draw menu. Use the same process to group
the other pie pieces. Once all the pieces of your chart are grouped,
you can edit the options in the Timing area of the Custom Animation
dialog box to animate your chart. Since each pie piece is its own
group, you can choose the exact order that you want each piece
to appear.

15.	Achieve unique shading effects with drawing objects
You can create unique shading effects in your Word documents by
layering semitransparent drawing objects over solid ones. First,
display the Drawing toolbar by selecting View | Toolbars | Drawing
or by clicking the Drawing button on the Standard toolbar. Next,
use any of the AutoShapes tools to create a drawing object. To
change the object's fill color, right-click on it and select Format
AutoShape from the resulting shortcut menu. Click on the Colors
And Lines tab (if it isn't already active), choose a fill color
from the Fill area's Color dropdown list, and then click OK. Now,
create another AutoShape, but this time apply a different fill
color. Before you click OK to close the Format AutoShape dialog
box, select the Semitransparent check box next to the Fill area's
Color dropdown list. When you've finished, click OK. Now, drag
the semitransparent AutoShape over the solid one. The semitransparent
fill enables the fill color of the object on the bottom to be seen
through the object on top. (Note: If you apply an effect from the
Fill Effects dialog box, the Semitransparent option will become
unavailable.)

16.	Change the way you enter formulas in Excel revisited
Set  up Excel to automatically convert any entry that begins with a number to a formula 
without preceding it with an equation symbol (+ or =). To do this, select
Tools | Options from the menu bar and click on the Transition tab.
Select the Transition Formula Entry check box and click OK.

This technique works for the open workbook only. To make this the
default for all new workbooks, open a blank workbook and turn on
the Transition Formula Entry option. Then save the blank workbook
as Book1.xls in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\XLStart
folder. Close and then reopen Excel. When Excel opens a blank workbook,
it will have this feature turned on.

17.	Creating a custom fill series in Excel
You can use Excel's fill handle to create a series in a row, such
as the days of the week or the months of the year. However, you
can also add custom series, such as clothing sizes (Small, Medium,
Large, X-Large) or expense categories (Sales and Marketing, Research
and Development, General and Administrative, Nonrecurring Items).

To create a custom series, simply choose Tools | Options and click
the Custom Lists tab. Next, if necessary, select the New List option
in the Custom Lists list box. Then, in the List Entries box, type
each item in the series in the order you want it to appear. Press
[Enter] after each item. When you're finished, click Add and then
click OK. To use the fill handle to enter the custom series, just
type the first item from the list in a cell (it doesn't even have
to be the item the list begins with) and then use the fill handle
to enter the other items from the list into that row.

If the series you want to create already exists in a range of a
worksheet, you can save time by importing the series. To do this,
select the range containing the entries, then open the Options
dialog box, click the Custom Lists tab, and click the Import button.
Excel copies the items from the selected range into the list box.
To complete the series, click the Add button and then click OK.

18.	
Go straight to Access' Module window by default
The ability to create an event procedure from an object's property
sheet is convenient. However, when you click the Build button,
you need to then select which tool you want to use from the Choose
Builder dialog box before you can get to work. After you've been
coding for a while, you probably want to jump straight to the code
window and forget about the Expression or Macro builders. Fortunately,
you can set up Access to do exactly that. Select Tools | Options
from the menu bar. Then, click on the Forms/Reports tab, select
the Always Use Event Procedures check box, and click OK.

19.	Append records from Access's Database window
If you hate setting up Append queries, you can take advantage of
an Access shortcut for appending data. First, right-click on the
table containing the data you want to append and choose Copy. Now,
right-click on the background of the Database window and choose
Paste to display the Paste Table As dialog box. Enter the name
of the table you want to append to in the Table Name text box.
Finally, select the Append Data To Existing Table option button
and click OK. Note that you can also use the Copy and Paste buttons
on the Database toolbar to perform these actions.

20.	Changing the color of PowerPoint's pen
In Slide Show view, you can turn on the pen tool by pressing [Ctrl]P.
Ordinarily, PowerPoint selects a default color for the pen. If
you'd like to use a different pen color for that slide show, first
choose Slide Show | Set Up Show to open the Set Up Show dialog
box. At the bottom of the dialog box, you'll notice the Pen Color
dropdown list. Select a color from this list and click OK. When
you draw in Slide Show view, the pen will reflect the color change.
This color is saved when you save that slide show.