Tips and Tricks, December, 2003

By now, you are all stuffed with turkey and all the trimmings. It's time to take a break before the rush of the next set of holidays.

Since we had an introduction Microsoft Office 2003 at the last meeting, it seems appropriate to talk a little bit about the new product. I have been using the beta version for several months, but without really looking at a lot of the new features. The final version arrived two days ago and I decided it might be useful to look at some of the new features. Unfortunately, I need a little help to take advantage of those features.

One of the best parts of the new version is the amount of help that is provided. It's worth taking a look at it all for some help in getting started. One of the first things I wanted to know was how to assure that all my saved emails were backed up before I installed the new version. If you have ever tried to find where Microsoft put the email files, you know that they are buried deep in the folder structure.

Instead of poking around on my own, I decided to check help. I did a search, using the task pane that pops up on the right side of the screen when you click on Help, Microsoft Office Outlook Help, or by pressing F1. I entered "backup" in the input box for the search. I got a list of a number of topics, none of which were quite what I was looking for, but I did find "Outlook File Locations." That took me to a list of all the types of files used by Outlook and showed where they were located. Now I knew that I could find the files and make a copy for backup purposes. I also thought that there ought to be a utility that could do this.

I noticed a link at the top of the list to Microsoft's site. When I clicked on it, I got some additional help topics-those with the Internet Explorer icon were links to other pages on the Microsoft site. One entry was "Using the Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders Backup tool." Clicking on it lead me to an add-in tool for Outlook that prompted me through the process of doing the backup. The tool has to be downloaded and after installation, a selection for "Backup" is added to the file menu. There are versions for Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002 as well.

One thing leads to another-I also found that there is a whole site devoted to helping users with Office. I had been there before but I don't recall that it had as much help as it does now. The address is http://office.microsoft.com/home/default.aspx. There are multiple resources shown. You can access the main areas of the site from the help pane in each of the Office applications. The areas offered include Assistance, Training, Communities (User Forums) and Downloads.

One of the more interesting choices is Training. Microsoft provides a number of courses related to accomplishing specific tasks with different Office products. The courses range from about 30 minutes to one hour. They include audio, practice sessions, self-tests and a Quick Reference card. There are currently 14 courses listed for Word. Samples of a few titles:

Decorate documents with backgrounds, borders, and text effects
Add graphics and keep them where you want them
Create individual envelopes and labels
Headers and footers, simple to elaborate
So that's how! Great Word features

The courses are easy to go through and provide a lot of information. These are all issues that come up from time to time and can take considerable time to figure out on your own. You can learn how at this site and it's free!

Help offers a couple of other nice links and services. You can also set your computer to automatic obtain updates of your help files. New topics can be added automatically to your computer from time to time. Look for the "See Also" section of the help pane and find "Online Content Settings." You can also pose questions to the user community and search the Microsoft Knowledgebase for your answers.

Another tool is "Research." Research allows you to search a number of references, for example, the MSN Encarta Encyclopedia, for information. The results you get will include both paid services and free services, but the list doesn't distinguish. I tried a search on John F. Kennedy and got articles from a number of sources. I received results that included articles on various web sites, courtesy of MSN search, as well as the Encarta Encyclopedia, and a paid service called Factiva. You can add services to the list through the Office Marketplace. To search on a particular word or phrase as you are editing your document, you hold down the alt key while you click on the highlighted word or phrase.

You can also obtain translations. This was a choice offered in the Research panel, but it is also available (along with "Research" from the tools menu. For example, while I was working on this article in Microsoft Word, I requested a translation from English into French. In about two seconds, I received a computer generated translation on a web page. The translation was not bad, but had a few mistakes. In this sentence, I omitted Microsoft. The translation showed "Word" as the literal translation for word without the capitalization. When I added "Microsoft," the translation software recognized it as a brand name and left the entire phrase in English. To get this feature, you have to install the languages when you install Office. If you don't have them installed, you will be prompted through the process.

This is a small sample of what's available to you when you go a little farther in applications. Almost every application, not just Microsoft products, has a selection on the help menu to get on-line help. Try it yourself and let me know if you find anything unusual or interesting.