Desert Island Office

If I had a pound for every time someone told me they "only use about 20% of the features" in Office then I wouldn't need to be writing this blog... The cool/amusing/incredible/trivial (delete depending on your personal geek factor) thing though, is that almost everyone uses a different 20%. (Back in 2005, Darren blogged about an interesting experiment that proves this nicely.)

So, with a view to uncovering some of the different 20%s, I'm going to be asking various colleagues which three Office features they couldn't live without.

Here's what Karen Buckley (Marketing Manager) picked:

1. Excel charts

In Office 2007, charting has been given a major face-lift. Now it's even easier to make a rather-dull list of numbers sing.

2. Windows + S

This was new to me, but I think it's going to get a lot of use! Press the Windows key and S, and you can take an instant screen clipping - just drag the cursor over the area you want to "clip". Then paste the clipping wherever you need it. [Great for copying online receipts into OneNote while you wait for the email confirmation to arrive.]

3. Calendar button in Outlook

A really quick way to check your calendar when you receive a meeting request. Just click on the calendar button and it opens up a new window with your diary showing the date of the proposed meeting - you can quickly check your availability and then close the calendar window when you're done.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2008
  Is the Windows Key + S trick just a vista thing?
• Anonymous
  January 23, 2008
  Tried the Windows + S feature but it didnt seem to work - what am I doing wrong or does it just work with One Note? (which I dont have !!!)RegardsDermot
• Anonymous
  January 23, 2008
  The Windows + S feature is part of OneNote and will work with Office 2003 SP1 as well as 2007 (although you can paste the clippings anywhere, not just OneNote). There is a separate screen clipping tool included with Vista.Sorry not to make that clear in the original post.