Customizing the Ribbon is possible from the Options window. Go to the Excel (or other Office 2010 application) Options window by choosing the File tab and clicking Options near the bottom of its menu. At the left side of the Options window, choose the “Customize the Ribbon” category. In this window proceed as follows:

Customize Ribbon Options

1. In the Choose commands from field, I clicked the drop down arrow and selected Commands Not in the Ribbon

2. In the list of commands that appeared, I chose Camera.

3. To organize where I wanted it to sit on the Ribbon, I clicked Insert in the window on the right because that is the Ribbon tab where I wanted to locate the command.

4. I then clicked the New Group button at the bottom of that window to create a new group for this command. A group called New Group (Custom) appeared in the list. With that New Group (Custom) item selected, I clicked the Rename button to give it the name of Camera.

With my newly-added Camera group showing in the list under the Insert category, I could then add a command to that group.

Still in the Options window, I followed these steps:

1. I made sure I had the new Camera group selected on the right.

2. I selected the Camera command in the Command list on the left.

3. I clicked the Add button between the two windows to move the command to the prepared location.

Expanded Camera Group in the list of groups on the Insert tab

In the right side of the window,  the new Camera group expanded shows the Camera command as the only command in the group.

4. To complete the customization, I clicked OK at the bottom of the Options window.

Camera available on the Ribbon

Back in the spreadsheet, I wanted to be sure I could use the Camera command so I clicked the Insert tab to see how the new group and command were added:

Oh, and what am I doing with the Camera in Excel? Stay tuned for an upcoming blog and find out!

Now, the helpful secret here is that the file we will are using was typed so that there is a tab between each piece of information we would like in a column. The tab mark is indicated here by the horizontally pointing arrow.
To use these customizable tabs, the rulers need to be showing. If your rulers are not showing, go to View and in the Show group, click in the check box in front of Ruler.

There is a tool in Word that has been there all along, but you may never have noticed it. It lives just above the vertical ruler on the left side of your screen.

This is actually a button that will allow us to control the position of our columns. By default, the option is a left tab which is easy to remember as this looks like an “L”. To use this tool, we will do two things.

1. Select the text that we want to affect. This is assuring us that all the selected text will be affected in the same way. Note the horizontal ruler at the top of our screen, and

2. Put your cursor on the ruler where you want the column to begin. In this example, I chose the 4 inch mark and then I clicked on the ruler.

Our ruler and text now looks like this:

You will see the same little on the ruler and the first tab has lined up the text in a neat column. Let’s change the tab to demonstrate the strengths of this feature.

1. Click on the and your will see. This is a center tab. If you would like your text to be centered under this mark on the ruler, you would use this option.

2. Click again on the tab marker. Now you see a right tab: Let’s use this option on our text.

We will click on the ruler at the 7 inch mark. Remember the text needs to be selected.

Now we see our text in the third column neatly positioned along the right-side of the 7-inch mark.

We might like to do some slight adjustments here. We could press and drag these markers off our ruler and start this process again, OR we could simply put our cursor on top of one of the markers and press and drag left or right along the ruler to modify the position of our text. If you would like to see a digital equivalent of where you are on the ruler, hold down the Alt key as you are pressing and dragging the tab marker. The ruler changes from the “inch” interface to a digital ruler so that you can put your tab precisely on the ruler.

(There are other options for the tab. If you continue clicking on the , you will see options for a  , which is a decimal tab, and will line up a numeric column by the decimals, , which is a bar tab and will insert a vertical line between our columns, , which is a first line indent tab, which will do exactly what it’s name indicates. It will indent the first line of each paragraph of selected text. Click again and see , which is a hanging indent and will maintain the left-alignment of the first line, but will indent all subsequent lines in a paragraph as in a bibliographic entry. Our tab options then toggle back to the left indent.)

Have fun lining up that text just the way you want it!

For this and more tips and shortcuts in Word, come to our Word 2010: The Essentials workshop or get our materials from http://iuware.iu.edu

To find Clip Art, go to the Window menu. Choose Symbol Libraries. There are lots of options from the fly-out menu. Choose one and click. This opens up the panel for the option you chose. To apply a clip to your project, simply press and drag from the panel to your project. Remember that you can re-size without losing any quality when working with a vector image!

One more feature! As you go back into the Window>Symbol Libraries menu and choose another panel, the newly chosen menu will be added as a tab in the same panel you opened with your earlier choice. Even if you close the menu by clicking on the X in the upper right hand corner, choose another panel and you will find the new panel is added to the previous one.

There are many panels in the Window menu that will give you options such as brush, graphic styles, and swatch libraries. You can get some interesting effects by pressing and dragging an effect, for example, on top of a piece of clip art.  Experiment and have fun!

To Start with, create a new Folder on the Desktop (or wherever you plan to save your website) and title is “website.” This will provide a location where all your files for this particular website will be saved. It is important to keep all web files for one website in one location.

Launch Illustrator and create a New Document: Document Profile: Web (this will assure that your document will be set to a resolution of 72 ppi, optimized for web); document Size: 1024 x 768 (standard web dimensions). Dimensions are set in pixels. Save your new file as “website” in the Illustrator (.ai) file format inside the “website” folder. Saving your original .ai file will allow you to make changes accordingly and easily if needs be.

Designing different states on different layers while maintaing surrounding elements will result in consistency and flow when the site is completed. Under special circumstances you may need to have more than two layers, however, you will definitely need at least two layers to create the rollover effect. Another approach to this process would be to create one bottom layer where the overall design would be placed, with two upper layers that would hold rollover effects. Regardless, designing in layers is VERY important in maintaining exact dimensions when slicing different elements, especially states of rollovers. Keep in mind that you do not need concern yourself with elements that fall outside the artboard as Illustrator will only export what is inside the artboard.

Do add an uppermost layer that will hold guidelines for slicing as well as act as the slicing layer. You will only have to slice your artboard once using this layer. This will be a third layer.

Once the design of your website and states is completed, press and drag Guidelines on the guideline (uppermost) layer. Guidelines work well inside of Illustrator because the slice tool will snap to the guidelines by default which will help you to avoid unnecessary slices. The Slice Tool and Guidelines can only draw straight lines which means your slices will be rectangular in shape. Keep this in mind when placing guidelines where your intended slices will fall.

Once your guidelines are in place, use the Slice tool to begin slicing with only the State One layer and the guidelines layer visible, using the guidelines as guides. Keep in mind: for every one slice made, Illustrator will automatically determine the next slice so the pieces of the artboard remain as a whole. When slicing your page, turn caps lock on for the Slice Tool icon to appear as a cross hair.

After all slices are made, choose Save for Web and Devices under File on the Menu Bar.

In the Save for Web and Devices dialogue box, choose the 2-up tab. From here you will be able to determine the best quality in format and file size taking into consideration download time and optimal visuals. You can save each slice as individual file formats if needs be. It is a good idea to check Interlaced because this will build your image a line of pixels at a time when being viewed in any web browser. Basically, with users who have very slow connections, this will allow them to see that an image is being created rather than requiring them to stare at a blank page as the website loads.

Once each slice is optimized, click the Save button. The Save Optimized As dialogue box will appear. Locate the Folder initially created titled “website” under Location. Under Format, select HTML and Images. Under Slices select All Slices. Click Save.

You will be returned to Illustrator. Illustrator will automatically generate the code required to create an HTML page that you can upload and view online. If you;d like, you can check the “website” folder. You should see inside the folder: website.ai, website.html and an images folder which will contain all slices. If this does not exist, repeat steps starting with Save for Web and Devices, making sure you designate the “website” folder for the location of which your files will be saved.

In the Illustrator window, turn off all other layers except the next visible state (state two). Choose Save for Web and Devices under File on the Menu bar, choosing Two-Up in Save Fore Web and Devices dialogue box.

Unlike the first time, you will need to only optimize secondary states for rollover elements and disregard all slices that remain the same in both initial and secondary states. To do that, hold down Shift to select all slices to be optimized at once. Click Save. In the Save as Optimized dialogue box, locate the “website” folder for location and save as “rollover.” Under Format, choose Images. Under Slice choose Selected Slices Only and click Save.

You will be returned to the Illustrator window. Check the “website” folder to be sure that the “images” folder now contains “rollover” images. If the “rollover” images do not exist, repeat steps.

You are now done with Illustrator! Save and close.

Launch Dreamweaver. In the Dreamweaver welcome screen, under Open, choose “website.html” from inside your “website” folder; “website.html will open.”

Inside of Dreamweaver, choose Classic for interface and then the Design view on the Control panel.

Notice you are able to click on each slice in the Dreamweaver window. Select the first rollover element and locate the Place Image icon on the control panel. Use the drop down menu and select Rollover Image.

The Rollover Image dialogue box will appear. Name the element. Under Original Image locate state one of the rollover element in the “images” folder inside the “website” folder (this may be titled something like “website_01.png”). Under Rollover Image, locate the corresponding rollover image (something like “rollover_01.png”). Note: it is VERY important that all these elements are in the correct locations; without these correct locations, your website will break.

Notice that you have an opportunity to add a link connected with the rollover element. We will not be adding a link in this tutorial. You are also able to add alternate text at this point as well. It is always a good idea to add a description in the alternate text field. Click Okay.

By default, Dreamweaver will place the rollover element aside the original image selected. This will make your website appear broken and may be somewhat alarming. Simply delete the original image. Sometimes you will need to then “refresh” the window to see the changes made. You can do this by changing views on the control panel.

Under File on the Menu bar, choose Preview in Browser. To preview in browser, you will need to Save the file. Click Save. If the rollover effect does not work, chances are that you deleted the rollover image instead of the original image when placing the rollover. This is a common mistake. All you need to do it repeat the steps.

Repeat steps for all other rollover elements. Keep in mind that Dreamweaver, by default, should automatically target the last location used. Be sure that your state one images are named “website” and secondary images are named “rollover.” Preview the site in a browser window by choosing Preview in Browser under File on the Menu bar. Be sure to save often. Once completed, close Dreamweaver.

Finding and Replacing Two Spaces

To open the Find and Replace dialog box, on the Ribbon, click:  and choose “Advanced Find…”

The Find and Replace dialog box opens.  Click the Replace tab at the top of the dialog box.

To find two spaces, in the “Find what” field, type: 2 spaces.  In the “Replace with” field, type: 1 space.

Because the spaces don’t appear as text, the Find and Replace dialog box will seem to be empty…but it isn’t.

To find the first occurence of two spaces, click: . The cursor will move to the first set of two spaces. To replace these with a single space, click: . The cursor will automatically move to the next occurence of two spaces. Of course, you could always choose to Replace All the double spaces.

Finding and Replacing a Varying Number of Spaces

Now, what about that coworker who tends to separate ideas or lists with several spaces instead of a tab or hard return?  How can we find a group of spaces that varies in number? This is just slightly trickier than finding 2 spaces.

Open the Find and Replace dialog box by clicking and choosing “Advanced Find…”

Move to the Replace tab at the top of the dialog box.

To find a varying number of spaces, we will use the {n,} sequence. This tells Word to find any occurence of at least n number of the previous character. In our case the previous character will be a space.

In the “Find what” field, type: space {2,}.

What do we want to use to replace the multiple spaces? If we’d like to insert a tab, we type: ^t. To insert a single space, type: 1 space. To insert a hard return, type: ^p. 

Let’s replace the spaces with a hard return. To do this, in the “Replace with” field, type: ^p.

Before this will work, we need to make sure that the “Use wildcards” option is activated. Without this, we won’t get the results we want.

To see additional options, click: . The dialog box expands. To activate the “Use wildcards” option, click the checkbox.

The dialog box should look like this:

To find the first occurence of two or more spaces, click: . The cursor will move to the first set of two or more spaces. To replace these with a hard return, click: . The cursor will automatically move to the next occurence of multiple spaces. Of course, you could always choose to Replace All the multiple spaces.

If you want to use a metric ruler in PowerPoint, you must go into your Windows settings and make the change there. To do this in Windows 7, follow the directions below:

1. In the bottom left corner of your screen, click the Start Orb. The Start menu appears.
2. To continue, on the right side of the Start menu, click on Control Panel.
3. Verify that the Control Panel view (top right corner) is set to Category.
4. To access the language settings, click on Clock, Language, and Region.
5. In the Region and Language section, click on Change the date, time, or number format. A Region and Language dialog box appears.
6. At the bottom of the dialog box, click on the Additional settings button. The Customize Format dialog box opens:
   
7. Click on the drop-down arrow at the end of the Measurement system field.
8. Click on Metric.
9. To apply the new setting, at the bottom of the Customize Format dialog box, click on the Apply button and then click on the OK button.
10. Close all open windows.

Now when you turn on the ruler in PowerPoint, the units will be displayed as centimeters instead of inches. (This will also change the way the ruler displays in Word and Excel, but it does not affect the ruler in WordPad.)

Considering their efforts to include all the basic tools that a designer could ever need, I am really surprised that Microsoft has not integrated some type of color picker tool into their user interface. I can’t count the number of times over the past 5 years when I have needed to identify and replicate a specific color used in a slide show. Yes, I am a power user, and yes, I do create far more presentations than the average Joe, but I feel certain that even novice users may occasionally have this need. 

While it isn’t difficult to open Photoshop, or another image editing application, and to use the tools available to identify a color’s hexadecimal code or RGB values, it takes time.  I want everything to be quick and easy!   (  :

I guess that is why I was so excited when I recently discovered a handy little utility called Pixie. The program is free, easy to download and use, and it provides accurate color information, not only for use with PowerPoint, but for use with any application that doesn’t have its own built-in color picker.

To use this tool, simply download it from http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.php. It is offered as a portable application, in a ZIP archive, or as source code. The first two options are free, but if you want to use the source code, it is necessary to purchase it.

If you download the portable application, you don’t have to install it. You simply double-click on the .exe file when you are ready to use it. An Open File – Security Warning dialog box will appear. Click on the Run button,and a small box will appear on your screen that looks something like this:

To use the utility, all you have to do is point to an item on your screen and this box will provide the color information for it. As you can see, this app will provide the hexadecimal code for the selected pixel, the RGB, HTML, CMYK and HSV values of that color, and it also tells you exactly where the pixel is located on your screen (x and y coordinates).

When working with PowerPoint 2010, you can use Pixie to get the color information for the item you are trying to match. Then you can select the  line, shape, etc., that you want to recolor, click on the Format tab on the Ribbon, and then click the Fill Color drop-down arrow.

Next, click on “More Fill Colors…” at the bottom of the menu. The Colors dialog box appears.

Make sure the Custom tab is active, and put the color information from Pixie into the fields at the bottom of the dialog box. Click the OK button, and your items should now be exactly the same color.

Use the Push Pin to “Pin” a Recent Document or Folder

One place where you will see this push pin is when viewing the Recent Documents or Recent Locations pane. In Microsoft Office 2010 Backstage view, you will see these push pins next to recently opened documents along with the file locations. Just select the File tab on the Ribbon and then click “Recent” so that your recently opened documents are  in view. (In Microsoft Office 2007, you must click on the Office button to view recent documents that have been opened in the application).

If you click on a push pin to push it in, that related document along with its location will move to the top of the list and will stay fixed:

Even though documents will eventually disappear from this pane as additional documents are opened and displayed, the stick pin, if pushed in, will keep a document in this Recent Documents list so you can always access it easily.  Note that there is another column which will allow you to pin a folder to Recent Locations.

Simply click the push pin again to unpin the document. You can also use the contextual menu by right-clicking any document to pin or unpin it from the list; you will also have the option to clear all unpinned documents from the list.

Note: You can set the default number of recent documents to be displayed by clicking Options and then clicking Advanced. You can then change this option under the Display category for: “Show this number of Recent Documents.”

Use the Push Pin in a Help Window

Another place where the push pin can be useful is in the Help window. Remember those days in older versions of Microsoft Office when you would look up a Help topic, but after switching to another window in your Office application, the Help window would minimize and disappear from view?  There is a push pin located across the top of the Help window in Microsoft Office 2010 or 2007 applications:

If this push pin is pushed in, the Help window will stay on top while you switch windows (or documents) within the application. However, if the pin is pushed out, the Help window will act as in earlier versions of Microsoft Office and will minimize when you activate another window.

Note: When you close a Help window with the push pin pushed in, then it will remain pushed in the next time you access Help within that application. The Help window within each Office application will act independently of the other applications in this manner.

1. Open the image you want to transform in Photoshop CS5.

Puppet Warp can’t be applied to a Background layer, so you need to either change the layer to a regular layer or duplicate it. It’s always a good idea to protect the Background layer by duplicating it and then working on the new layer.

2. To duplicate the background layer, press Ctrl-J or right-click the layer and from the fly-out menu, choose Duplicate Layer.

3. To open the Puppet Warp control panel, from the menu bar, choose Edit -> Puppet Warp.

You see a mesh screen appear over your image, like this:

Especially with faces, you will want to work in a more detailed way. The more dense the mesh, the more points you will be able to add.

4. To increase the Density, from the control panel above, click the drop-down arrow in the Density field and change it from Normal to More Points.

Next, with the Mode adjustment, you’ll need to limit the amount of distortion that occurs around your adjustments.

5. In the control panel, change the Mode drop-down option from Normal to Rigid.

Choosing Distort increases the area that is affected around the points when you push, pull, or rotate; on the other hand, choosing Rigid causes the surrounding  mesh to move less and gives you more control over fine details.

Now, before you start stretching and rotating things, you need to make sure all the edges of the image stay put. You’ll add “rivets” all along the edges with control points. (This may not be necessary if you are distorting an object that is on a layer by itself and is surrounded by transparency.)

To make a control point, all you need to do is click.

6. To anchor all the edges of the image, click around the edges to add control points.

If you accidentally add a point you don’t want, you can click it and then press the Delete key; alternatively, you can Alt (Opt – Mac) click any point to make it go away in a single step.

Your image will now look something like this:

Next, identify and anchor the other things you don’t want to distort. When working with faces, you usually want to maintain identifiable features by fixing bony structures in place.

7. Click to add more anchor points to cheekbones, eye sockets, nose, and chin:

Note: You don’t have to click on the mesh to add a control point.

Now, you’ll add more points to push and pull parts of the image and distort them to your liking.

8. Identify an area you want to stretch or squeeze, and add a point next to it. Then, press and drag.

Note: If you make a mistake,you can  press Ctrl with Z to undo.

Any point can be moved in any direction. If you want to evenly distort larger areas, add several points near each other.  Shift-click to select several and then press and drag them as a group:

9. Continue to alter the image by using some points to lock down areas, and others to do the changing. 

Lift eyebrows, tilt lips, etc. Go all out and make an avatar, if you’d like!

A few hints:

• You’ll want to zoom and pan while you work. However, Puppet warp will not allow you to change tools without committing or cancelling your modifications.  That said, instead of changing tools, use the Ctrl key along with the + key to zoom, and Ctrl with –  to pan. Likewise, if you have especially nimble fingers, you can press Ctrl simultaneously with the Shift key and Space bar and then click to zoom. Adding Alt (Opt – Mac) to this handful will pan out your view.
• When doing detailed adjustments, you will probably want to hide the mesh. To do so, simply click the Show Mesh checkbox. The mesh disappears, but your control points remain.
• You can convert the layer to a Smart Layer before you begin to add Puppet Warp. This puts the Puppet Warp on a separate layer, enabling you to modify the puppet warp later. To convert to a smart layer, from the Menu bar choose Layer -> Smart Objects -> Convert to Smart Object.

10. To accept all your changes, click the checkmark in the control panel. To cancel all your work, click the Cancel button next to the checkmark.

There are a number of options that we haven’t mentioned here. To learn what you can do with pin depth, expansion, and rotation, view http://tv.adobe.com/watch/the-russell-brown-show/puppet-warp-tool/  or http://tv.adobe.com/watch/no-stupid-questions-with-colin-smith/photoshop-puppet-warp.

When applying the Eyedropper tool to text, you can either: a) highlight the text that has the appearance you want to copy and then apply the characteristics elsewhere, or b) select the text to which you want to apply new formatting, and then point to a piece of text that has the desired appearance. Each is done a little differently. Here’s how you do it:

To copy and paste the formatting from one area to another:

1. Click the Eyedropper tool.
2. Click or press and drag the text that is formatted with the attributes you want to copy.

   When “loaded” with attributes, the Eyedropper reverses direction and has a black tip. When you move this loaded cursor over any text, you will see an I-beam text cursor appear alongside the loaded Eyedropper.

3. Press and drag to highlight the text you want to change.

   The text changes. If you have set the options to alter the whole paragraph, it will do so. (See important things to know, below.) Note that as long as they eyedropper tool is loaded, you can continue to select more text and apply the formatting.

Note: With this method, you can copy and paste type attributes from one document to another.

To paste formatting onto selected text:

1. Click either the Type tool or the Path Type tool.
2. Select the text to which you want to apply new formatting.
3. Click the Eyedropper tool.
4. With the Eyedropper tool, click text that has the formatting which you want to apply.

The selected text takes on the attributes of the text you just clicked. If you have set the options to alter the whole paragraph, it will do so. (See important things to know, below.)

Important things to know:

– To choose which character or paragraph attributes the Eyedropper tool uses, double-click the Eyedropper tool.
– To clear formatting attributes from the Eyedropper tool, Alt (Opt) – click a non-textual area of your InDesign document.