The Productivity Hub
Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 1 now available
If you're running Office for Mac 2011, you can now download Service Pack 1. New features include...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 05/12/2011
Speed and performance: How Internet Explorer 9 makes for better browsing
Is faster always better? With Internet Explorer 9, it would seem so—even when the speed in question...
Author: KeithPranghofer Date: 05/11/2011
Formula Watch: Create custom placeholders with REPT
When filling in empty cells with placeholders or inserting leader characters between columns, try...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 05/10/2011
Check the readability of your Word documents and Outlook mails
You may have heard the marketing rule that when writing for a general audience, you should aim for...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 05/09/2011
Combat procrastination with Office
I like to log tasks and track my activities in Office apps, whether it's building a schedule in...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 05/06/2011
Close Office application misfires while they load
Have you ever mistakenly launched the wrong Office application? I know I have - sometimes my mouse...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 05/05/2011
Is your PC giving you the silent treatment? Fix it
If an unwelcome silence falls over the room when you boot up your Windows 7 PC, you're not alone—but...
Author: KeithPranghofer Date: 05/04/2011
Spell out page numbers in Word
If the default page numbering in Word doesn't give you what you want, you can further customize it...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 05/03/2011
Create a Calendar Group in Outlook 2010
If your team always seems to be out-of-sync, create a Calendar Group to quickly pull up everyone's...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 05/02/2011
Ribbon Hero 2 makes learning about Office features even more fun
You might remember how Ribbon Hero, introduced last year, made learning about Office features as you...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/29/2011
Customize your work week in Outlook
Not everyone works 9 to 5 or Monday through Friday. If your schedule is different from the norm,...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/28/2011
Five ways Windows 7 frees up your time
People like to become more productive for varying reasons. Some want to get to The Top, wherever...
Author: KeithPranghofer Date: 04/27/2011
Formula Watch: Lock Excel formulas so they don't change when you paste
How many times has this happened to you? You're copying and pasting some Excel functions and they...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/26/2011
Save time when reviewing tracked changes in Word
If you review and Accept/Reject changes regularly, here's a quick tip to add some time back to your...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/25/2011
Speed up your PowerPoint presentation with keyboard shortcuts
When you're presenting, the last thing you want to do is lose the flow of your presentation when...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/22/2011
Make vertical selections in Word
Have you ever wanted to quickly delete unneeded symbols in front of a bulleted list, or select text...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/21/2011
Top-secret Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts unmasked
Simply because I can, I herewith expose little-known but potentially powerful forces at work—in this...
Author: KeithPranghofer Date: 04/20/2011
Office 365 public beta is now available
The cloud-based version of Microsoft Office and related services, called Office 365, is now in...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/19/2011
Correct mistakes using Print Preview Edit Mode in Word 2010
If you find you spend a lot of time switching between editing and the default print preview in the...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/18/2011
Casual Friday: Make your own postcards in Word
If you want to design your own postcard, there's no need to start from scratch. You can find some...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/15/2011
Add impact to your Outlook emails with shapes and clip art
Whether it's for the office team-building offsite event or the weekly sales status summary, a quick...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/14/2011
Internet Explorer 9: Wow, the Web is New Again
Some of us have been around long enough to remember the Web in its infancy. It was an amazing...
Author: KeithPranghofer Date: 04/13/2011
Formula Watch: Quickly CONVERT measurements in Excel
If you've ever need to translate Celsius to Fahrenheit, miles to kilometers, or teaspoons to cups,...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/12/2011
Force recipients to Reply All in Outlook
Have you ever sent a mail and asked that recipients use Reply All, only to have some people respond...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/11/2011
Quickly copy a design theme from one PowerPoint presentation to another
How many times have you started a PowerPoint presentation and then realized you needed to use a...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/08/2011
Create wiki links in OneNote
If you've ever worked on a wiki, you'll appreciate this next tip. And if you haven't, this brief...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/07/2011
Personalizing your Windows 7 PC, flying monkeys optional
There's no place like home—where have I heard that before? Whether you live and work in Kansas...
Author: Jeff at MSFT Date: 04/05/2011
How to select more highlight colors in Word
If you color-code the text in your Word documents, you may feel constrained by the 15 Highlight...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/05/2011
Make eye-catching tables quickly in Excel
If you spend a lot of time creating and manually formatting new tables in Excel, there's a better...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/04/2011
Create fancier signatures in Outlook
It's easy to create an Outlook signature. Just click on the Signature button in a new message,...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 04/01/2011
Remove skipped lines from your Word documents
When authoring in Microsoft Word, the default template automatically skips a line between paragraphs...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/31/2011
An Interview with the Windows 7 Start Menu
Another candid encounter with a Windows 7 feature. I can't believe my good luck: last minute...
Author: Jeff at MSFT Date: 03/29/2011
Formula Watch: Convert to and from ASCII codes in Excel
If you ever need to look up an ASCII code, say for an HTML entity such as a © or ® symbol, you can...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/29/2011
Create a PST file in Outlook 2010
Even if you've created Outlook personal data files before to archive, filter, or otherwise store...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/28/2011
Toggle PowerPoint animations on and off
If you and your team are reviewing a slide presentation, one way to speed up the process is to...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/25/2011
Save all open Word documents at once
The Save All command used to be a hidden feature of Microsoft Word, unlocked by holding the Shift...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/24/2011
Internet Explorer 8 Toolbars: It's wise to customize
What kind of world would we have if everyone browsed the same way? No spice. No verve. Less joy....
Author: Jeff at MSFT Date: 03/22/2011
Quickly add a cover page in Word
If you're working on a report and want to add a cover page before printing or sharing it, just go to...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/22/2011
Print an entire workbook quickly and efficiently in Excel 2010
A coworker approached me recently with a problem. Her stakeholder was resisting the move to a new...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/21/2011
Reserve travel time in Outlook
Here's a helpful tip if you frequently book appointments that require a significant amount of travel...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/18/2011
Adding times together in Excel
In an earlier tip Calculating elapsed time in Excel, I shared a quick and easy formula for...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/17/2011
Fast forward to a happy ending with Windows 7 Search
Living in the moment has its joys - but for most of us, that doesn't apply to searching for...
Author: Jeff at MSFT Date: 03/15/2011
Formula Watch: COUNT your cells the easy way
If you want to get a quick count of your cells, you probably use the Excel status bar. But if you...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/15/2011
Add word counts to OneNote 2010
One great thing about OneNote (besides the fact that it's just plain awesome for notetaking,...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/14/2011
Find that mail with Outlook advanced search options
If you want to go beyond the basic mailbox search, click the Search box magnifying glass icon in...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/11/2011
Adjust the background on your PowerPoint presentation
If you've ever wanted to pick a theme in PowerPoint but didn't care for its gaudy background, this...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/10/2011
Get there faster with Internet Explorer shortcuts
There are those who will say that, when browsing the Internet, it's all about the journey. Whether...
Author: Jeff at MSFT Date: 03/08/2011
Quickly clear formatting in Word
There are many ways to clear and adjust formatting in Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can use...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/08/2011
Optimize performance in Excel 2010
If you're an Excel 2010 power user or just want some insight into how certain features can affect...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/07/2011
Hide highlighter marks in Word
If you use highlighter marks in Word to indicate sections that need work or for some other purpose,...
Author: Suzanne100 Date: 03/04/2011