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Changing the Office Theme

To change the Office background and Office theme for this computer only:

1. Switch to Backstage view in any Microsoft Office application by clicking the FILE tab on the Ribbon.
2. Click the Options command in the left pane. In General Options, in the “Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office” section, select the desired Office background or Office theme.

If you have a Microsoft Office 2013 account that you sign in to from any computer, you can change the Office theme for all of your Office programs from your account settings:

1. Switch to Backstage view by clicking the FILE tab on the Ribbon.
2. Click the Account command in the left pane.
3. Select a different Office Background and/or select a light or dark gray for the Office theme.

These background and theme changes will take effect on other computers that are connected to your account.

Renaming a Tab Label on the Ribbon

To rename a tab label on the Ribbon:

1. Right-click on one of the tab labels on the Ribbon and choose Customize the Ribbon….
2. In the right pane in the Main Tabs category, select a tab and choose Rename….
3. Type in the desired name and Click OK or press ENTER.
4. If you want to keep the default name but change it to a more conventional type of capitalization, add a space to the end of the default name.  Only the first letter will be capitalized.

NOTE: The FILE tab cannot be changed.

The instructions below will walk you through the setup you need for each of our PHP workshops, starting with PHP: The Basics.

At the time of writing, PHP: The Basics is the only PHP workshop offered by IT Training.

PHP: The Basics

The following links contain step-by-step instructions on configuring XAMP for the PHP: The Basics workshop.

• Macintosh OS: Install and Configure MAMP for PHP Development.
• Windows: Install and Configure WAMP for PHP Development.

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1) Select Show Menu Bar if it doesn’t already appear in your client

2) Select Meet Now:

3) If prompted, click OK on the Join Meeting Audio dialog box.   Otherwise, go to step 4

4) Start the recording by selecting Start Recording.

5) Verify you are now recording.

6) Add participants by inviting them to the call here (skip this step if you are only recording within room):

7) Enter a phone number in A or select from one of your contacts in B.

8) When your attendees are added to the call, they are notified that the call is being recorded.

9) Stop the recording after you are finished by selecting the Stop Button.

10) The Stop Recording dialog box will appear.  You can type the title of the recording (A), opt for a version that you can send to others (B) and verify where the file is being saved (C).

11)  Don’t forget to end your meeting by clicking on the disconnect icon  (1) or  closing the window (2).

One of the most over-looked features of converting to Lync is the functionality you get with your new voicemail service. You can create call answering rules, set different greetings and reset your PIN for accessing voicemail from a phone. Using call answering rules, you can even create your own phone tree. This can be done for department or individual accounts.

To access this functionality, go to IU Outlook Web Access. After logging in, go the upper right and click “Options”, then “All Options”. Next, select “Phone” on the left-hand side and then “Voice Mail’.

To learn more about these options and how to set them up, see these tips from Microsoft.

To trigger an immediate download, two steps must be taken on the client workstation. The first step only needs to be performed once per workstation, while the second would be done each time a forced update is desired.  Many times on a new install, only the first step is needed.

1) Execute the following command from the Windows Command Prompt run as an administrator (or manually add the GalDownloadInitialDelay registry key). Setting this value to 0 will force Lync to immediately download the address book instead of randomly selecting a time to check the server.

reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator /v GalDownloadInitialDelay /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

2) Exit the Lync client and manually delete the GalContacts.db and GalContacts.db.idx files from the user’s profile directory. If the .db file still exists during startup of the client then Lync may still wait for that random interval between 0 and 60 minutes before checking for changes on the server’s address book files. By deleting the file the Lync client must download an entire new copy, forcing it to pick up any changes.

On Windows XP workstations:

%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Communicator\sip_<username@domain>\

On Windows Vista or Windows 7 workstations:

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Communicator\sip_<username@domain>\

Restart the Lync client and search for any of the recently changed information, for example the Telephone Number added to this Active Directory user account now appears for the Lync contact. You may have to wait a couple of minutes while the address gets built.

You decide to make a list of things that would make your presentation stand out.

Interesting images
Charts and graphs
Motion
Background music (see this post for more on finding music for your project)

 

 

Then you say, “I’m not a multimedia producer, how can I get all of that cool stuff into my project?”
And then you remember that you can do it all with PowerPoint (PPT).

I’m going to pretend I’m you, the student looking to earn an A.  You could even be an employee aiming to impress your boss and get a promotion. Whoever you are, I’ll be you.

My assignment is to make a presentation about developing healthy eating habits. It’s going to be a presentation that runs by itself, and I’ll convert it from PowerPoint to video format to make it accessible to anyone who has a video player on their computer.

We’ll say I have an outline of points I want to cover. This is going to be simple because it’s just for pretend.

1. Why Americans need to adopt a healthier diet
2.  Components of a healthy diet
3. Other components of a healthy lifestyle

Here’s a breakdown of the tools I’ll need to use:

If I use narration I’ll need to write a script. I’ll then need to find data relevant to my topic. This could include things like the percentage of people who are overweight, or number of people who are diagnosed with Diabetes each year. I’ll put this data into easy to understand charts and graphs. I’ll also use images and text to illustrate my points.

It’s easy to bring all of these things into PowerPoint.  I’ll use buttons from the Insert tab like Picture, Smart Art, Chart, Audio, and Text Box,

 

 

 

 

and I’ll use the Animations and Transitions tabs to make things exciting and dynamic.

 

 

I could create my own design for the look and feel of the presentation, or use the Design tab to apply a theme.

 

 

 

When everything is in place I’ll rehearse my timings and then record the presentation.

 

 

 

 

 

If my instructor uses the Assigments tool in Oncourse, I can upload my work there.

 

Click image to enlarge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you didn’t know you could do all of this with PowerPoint, consider signing up for IT Training’s PowerPoint workshop series:

• PowerPoint 2010: The Basics
• PowerPoint 2010: A Quick Overview of Core Feature
• PowerPoint 2010: Creating Customized Backgrounds, Graphics, & Animations
• PowerPoint 2010: Setting Up a Slide Show with Audio & Video
• PowerPoint 2010: Slide Masters
• PowerPoint 2010: Templates
• PowerPoint 2010: Publishing & Sharing Your Presentation

You can also learn PowerPoint on Lynda.com.

Have fun making great presentations and enjoy that ‘A’!

 

Saving as a Comma Delimited File

We will illustrate how to save Excel columns as a comma delimited file. The original data might look something like this:

0000011111         Bill
0000022222         Susie
0000033333         John
0000044444         Mary

NOTE: To display preceding zeros in a column, you can go to the Format Cells dialog box and choose Custom. On the right-hand side, scroll up (if necessary) and click the single 0. In the Type field, enter as many zeros as required digits (in this example, the number of zeros would equal 10).

To specify a file type, click Save as. (Only the active sheet can be saved in the .csv  format). In the Save as type field, choose .CSV Comma delimited (*.csv), and click Save. You may get a warning stating that there may be features incompatible with the comma delimited format, but you can save both versions of the file. (There is also an option to save in .csv format for the Macintosh).

Columns of data are separated by commas, and each row of data ends in a carriage return. If a cell contains a comma, the cell contents are enclosed in double quotation marks. Now when you open the file in an application such as Notepad, it will be a delimited text file with each field separated by a comma:

0000011111,Bill
0000022222,Susie
0000033333,John
0000044444,Mary

Transposing the Data in Rows

Another option might be to reorganize the data and place a column (or multiple columns) into rows, separated by commas. Excel can transpose the data to display horizontally rather than vertically. Just copy the data, place the cursor where you want the data pasted, and on the Home tab of the Ribbon, click the drop-down arrow under the Paste icon. Then select Paste Special. In the Paste Special dialog box, click Transpose. The two column(s) now will be displayed in two rows:

0000011111         0000022222         0000033333         0000044444
Bill                          Susie                     John                      Mary

After the file is saved in the .CSV  Comma delimited format, it will look like this:

0000011111,0000022222,0000033333,0000044444
Bill,Susie,John,Mary

Importing Text Files

You can open text files directly in Excel; however, if you want to modify some options, then use the Text Import Wizard. To access this Wizard when importing a text file, on the Excel Ribbon, go to the “From Text” command located in the Get External Data group and open the file. Follow instructions as you go through the steps in the Wizard to identify which row at which to begin the import and specify which delimiter is used. There is an option in the Wizard to change the columns of data to text format (instead of general format), which will preserve the preceding zeros.  You can also change data types for certain types of data or you can skip the import for certain columns. You can also preview the data to make sure that it will be imported correctly.

Today, I’m going to introduce you to several keyboard shortcuts that will make your life easier while working in Windows. These keyboard shortcuts are tricks that I have been trying to pass along to participants in my workshops over the years, but now they’re written down in one place for easy reference.

I’m not going to be discussing specific applications, but rather universal shortcuts. I’ve also included some web browser short cuts toward the end that will make your life easier.

Let’s start by taking a tour of the common keys that will be used throughout this post:

Above, you’ll see several keys pointed out and numbered. The numbers correspond with the list below.

1. Escape (Esc)
2. Function Keys (F#)
3. Tab
4. Control (Ctrl)
5. Windows Key (Win)
6. Alt
7. Home Group
8. Arrow Keys
9. Option Menu
10. Shift

The only keys that are discussed in this post that are not labeled on the above image are the letter keys.

General Windows Shortcuts

Here are several shortcuts that I consider the bare-bones basics. Memorize and use these and you will have joined the ranks of the “Keyboard Junkies”.

1. New Window/File – Ctrl + n
2. Open – Ctrl + o
3. Save - Ctrl + s
4. Cut – Ctrl + x
5. Copy – Ctrl + c
6. Paste – Ctrl + v
7. Select All – Ctrl + a
8. Undo – Ctrl + z
9. Redo - Ctrl + y
10. Close a Window/File – Ctrl + w
11. Open the Start Menu – Win
12. Print - Ctrl + p
13. Go to the Beginning of the Page/Document – Ctrl + Home - Also works on Web pages
14. Go to the End of the Page/Document – Ctrl + End – Also works on Web pages

Operating System Shortcuts

Here you’ll find several shortcuts that will help you navigate around the Windows operating system more efficiently.

1. Switch Applications/Windows – Alt + Tab – Holding down Alt allows you to keep cycling through applications just by hitting Tab over and over. Go the opposite direction by using Shift + Alt + Tab.
2. Switch between windows in a single application – Ctrl + Tab – Holding down Ctrl will allow you to cycle through windows just by hitting Tab. Reverse the cycle by adding Shift to the mix (Shift + Ctrl + Tab).
3. Lock your computer – Win + l
4. Windows Explorer – Win + e
5. Start the Task Manager – Ctrl + Shift + Esc
6. Maximize the Window – Win + Up Arrow - New in Windows 7
7. Minimize/Restore the Window – Win + Down Arrow – New in Windows 7
8. Pin the Window to the Left of the screen – Win + Left Arrow – New in Windows 7
9. Pin the Window to the Right of the screen – Win + Right Arrow – New in Windows 7

Web Browser Shortcuts

These keystrokes are generally the same across web browsers and will improve your browsing experience.

1. Bookmark a Page – Ctrl + d
2. Refresh - F5 or Ctrl + r
3. Select the Address Bar - Ctrl + l or Alt + d
4. Cycle between Tabs – Ctrl + Tab – Reverse the cycle with Shift + Ctrl + Tab
5. Select a particular Tab – Ctrl + # – # refers to the number of the tab from the left of the browser window.
6. Find on the Page – Ctrl + F
7. Make the Browser Full Screen – F11
8. Move one screen down the page – Spacebar or Page Down
9. Move one screen up the page – Shift + Spacebar or Page Up
10. Show hidden menu bar – F10 or Alt