Carol Bratt

Don't you hate it when you have finished a document for your boss or a letter to your best friend and you realize you have used the same word within three or four paragraphs? Well with the Thesaurus feature in MS Word, you no longer have to worry ... about these things! MS Word comes with a built-in Thesaurus and it is very easy to use. Follow the steps below to learn how to use the Thesaurus in MS Word: In Older versions of MS Word, follow these steps: Highlight the word that you would like to replace with another word and then open up the Thesaurus. You can access the Thesaurus in a couple of ... (view more)

I have had situations when I was using an MS Excel spreadsheet and had a column of data and then wanted to increase the value of a range of cells by, perhaps, 10%. No doubt, you have also experienced this when using MS Excel. If so, I am sure that ... this meant keying in the new values, or using a hidden column and formulas, or by making all of the cells formula-based when you created the worksheet. Well now I am going to tell you how to do it the easy way -- the way in which you save time and keystrokes! That's what I'm talking about! Follow the steps below to learn how: Open your spreadsheet ... (view more)

How many times have you had an appointment scheduled in MS Outlook and then the date has to be changed? I know that it has happened very often for me. Luckily, it is very easy to change the time and date of appointments in MS Outlook when changes in ... your schedule occur. Follow the steps below to learn how:If it is just the time of your appointment that has changed, you can simply drag and drop the appointment to the new time! Yes, it really IS that easy! But what about when the date changes? Yes, you can actually drag your appointment to a new date on the calendar! Follow these steps: Click ... (view more)

Formatting worksheet content has been problematic in the past because compared to MS Word or even PowerPoint, Excel was pretty rigid in this area. However, if you use the new formatting capabilities in Excel, there will be no more problems! Your ... workbook is comprised of sheets, that are comprised of rows and columns, that are comprised of cells. Start by formatting the most of your workbook that you can in one fell swoop, such as applying a theme and setting workbook defaults. One of the easiest and most time-saving things you can do when formatting workbooks is to set your formatting ... (view more)

Were you aware that you can select which symbols you use for outlines? No? Well you can even change them to your own symbols if you like. There are many default symbols that ship with MS Word for outlines that you can use, aside from the usual ... numbers and letters, but you can personalize your outlines so that they stand out! Follow the steps below: Click on Format | Bullets and Numbering. You will see a dialog box that allows you to select which symbols you would like to use. If you select any format except None, you will notice that the Customize button is enabled. Click Customize and you ... (view more)

Were you aware that you can color the tabs in your MS Excel spreadsheets? Well you can and it can be pretty helpful too when you are trying to draw a user's attention to those little tabs at the bottom of your spreadsheet! Follow the steps below: ... Right-click the tab. Select Tab Color. Select the color you would like to use. Here is another pretty nifty tip that you can use in MS Excel -- have you ever had occasion to want to hide the contents of a cell from a reader that is not privy to certain information? Of course you have! Haven't we all? The good news is that you can and it is pretty ... (view more)

Yes, you can move graphs from your MS Excel spreadsheets directly in MS PowerPoint. It is so easy! Follow the steps below: Create your graph in MS Excel. Once you have done that, all you really have to do is select your entire graph. Click Edit | ... Copy. Now open PowerPoint and click Edit. Then Paste the graph into place. The really cool thing about this is that all parts of the graph come with it. You can change the formatting on the legend and add text to the graph. You can also drag and resize the graph by utilizing the drag handles. It is a quick and easy way to bring a graph into your MS ... (view more)

Most of us are aware of the Undo command in MS Office. Boy! It can really save your bacon when you have somehow managed to foul up something in the Office application you are using. Jensen Harris, who is highly placed in the MS Office User ... Experience Team says that Undo is the fourth-most used command in MS Word! There are multiple undo commands in practically all of the Office applications, with matching multiple Redo to undo what you just undid! There are, however, limits to how many undo actions you can take. Starting with the latest version of Office though, MS Office 2007, there is an ... (view more)

If you are anything like me, the My Documents folder is not always the most appropriate place to save a document. It is, however, the default folder for saving in MS Office. Well take heart, because you can change the default folder in Office and ... you can do it fairly easily. Follow the steps below to find out how: Click on Tools | Options. Click the File Locations tab. Under File Types, Documents should be selected. You will note that the default location is set to My Documents. Click the Modify button and in the Modify Location dialog box, navigate to the desired folder. Click OK. Now, when ... (view more)