Carol Bratt

I am quite sure this has happened to you at some point: you copy and paste some text from the Web or one of your email messages and it ends up with leading spaces on every single line! There are ways to remove the offending spaces but as anyone who ... knows me, I am the queen of saving time and keystrokes and so I will tell you a little trick to get rid of these pesky spaces that is quick and easy! Follow the steps below: Select the text you have copied and pasted. Click on CTRL + E, which will center the text. With the text still selected, click on CTRL + L, which will left-align the text. That ... (view more)

If you are anything like me, you use the same MS Office programs over and over again, so why not save some time, keystrokes, and energy by having those programs open automatically when you turn on your computer? Follow the steps below to learn how ... to work this particular magic: In Microsoft Windows XP: On the Start menu, click on All Programs | Microsoft Office. In the list of available Office programs, right-click the icon of the program or programs you want to start automatically. Click Copy in the shortcut menu. In the All Programs list, right-click the Startup folder and click Explore on ... (view more)

Were you aware that you could text message someone using MS Outlook? Well I wasn't. Shame on me! And I really do try to keep abreast of new technology. In any event, I have very little use for texting and rarely ever use it. Perhaps that is why I ... just came upon this. Many times we send emails or appointment requests to people, knowing full good and well that they are not going to be seated at the desks or anywhere in the vicinity of a computer at that particular moment. But suppose you want them to know about this information straight away? Hmmm....everyone has a cell phone with them just ... (view more)

I know my loyal subscribers work diligently to get their documents just right. They format them and select special fonts and get everything set up and laid out until it is perfect! Have you ever gone to all that trouble only to find that you sent it ... to someone and it didn't look the same at all? Well you can have MS Word save your TrueType fonts with your document so the computers you share with will also have them. Follow the steps below to find out how: Click on Tools | Options. Click on the Save tab. One of the options you will see is to embed TrueType fonts. Select it. That pretty much ... (view more)

Sometimes you want to use numbers in a table, but darn! you want to use currency numbers and it takes forever and a day to tab and space in a table in PowerPoint! Well guess what? Your troubles are over because I am going to tell you how to ... accomplish this! To align a number to a decimal tab in a table cell, you must insert a tab character before the number in a PowerPoint 2007 table. Follow the steps below to learn how: Add a Decimal Tab to a Single Table Cell: In the Navigation pane, click the slide that you would like to edit. If you do not see the Ruler, click to select the Ruler check ... (view more)

I receive hundreds of emails every day and to be honest, sometimes it is very difficult to keep up with. I check my email at set points throughout the day and read every email as I do so, but I absolutely do not have time to answer every email I ... receive when I read it! I am sure that some of you are shaking your heads in agreement as you read this. If that is so, then you are going to like this tip because it shows you how to use a feature in MS Outlook that will prompt you to answer those emails long after (hopefully not too long!) you have read them. There are a couple of features in MS ... (view more)

A subscriber wrote to me complaining that his page border in his Word document seemed to disappear at the bottom of his printed document. He said he tried everything but just couldn't get the bottom of that border to show when he printed his ... document. He changed the margins, narrowed the border, etc. and still his border didn't appear when he printed his document! Needless to say he was quite perplexed and more than a bit frustrated. I am happy to say that I was able to resolve his border dilemma. Follow along below: I told my subscriber to take another look at the page border tab and see ... (view more)

It can be daunting and more than a bit frustrating when the CEO of your company dumps a ton of data on your desk and expects you to hastily turn it into an MS Excel database. But it doesn't have to be daunting any longer -- it can even be easy using ... the Data Entry Form in MS Excel. This handy feature will allow you to enter an entire row of date all at one time, rather than entering each little bit of data one at a time. Sounds a lot better already doesn't it? So we have now established that data entry forms in MS Excel definitely bear investigating eh? Follow the steps below to learn how. To ... (view more)

If you start to perform a command or action within MS Excel, you may sometimes find that you did it by mistake or want to cancel it for whatever reason. To accomplish this, the general rule is to click the ESC key. This should cancel any command or ... action that Excel is processing. You can also use this to close just about every dialog box that could possibly pop up in MS Excel. (view more)

Using hyperlinks makes it much easier for readers to quickly visit a Web page without abandoning their MS Word document. Can you imagine how much easier still it could be if the Web page opens in an entirely new window? Follow the steps below to ... learn how to make this happen: Click anywhere in your document where you would like to insert a hyperlink to a Web page. Click CTRL + F9. Key in the code below: HYPERLINK" http://www.microsoft.com " no "Thisi Web Page will open in a new window." Select the Field code. Click in the code. Click F9. Using the F9 function key will convert the code to a ... (view more)