LyteByte » Software

How to quickly add comments in Excel? – Quick Keyboard Shortcuts in Excel

Mr.Byte — Tue, 04 May 2010 02:49:30 +0000

In the series of quick keyboard shortcuts for MS Office series, we have another quick tip to add comments in Excel. Adding comments can be very helpful especially when the files are reviewed by than a couple of members in the team.

You can use the keyboard shortcut Shift + F2 to add a quick comment in any cell.

You can also edit, delete, show/hide comments by right clicking the cell and choosing appropriate commands.

‘Repeat what you last did’ Quick Keyboard Shortcut in Excel

Mr.Byte — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 02:12:28 +0000

When you are working with MS Excel, you may end up repeating the same tasks over and over in repetition like for example deleting a row or column here and there, formatting some cells bold and highlight based on your interest. But it may not be too huge that you need to program it, so you may just want to do it manually. There is a most useful keyboard shortcut for this purpose in Excel.

So what’s the Keyboard Shortcut to repeat the same task that was last completed in Excel?

Just use they keyboard shortcut F4!

Lets say you deleted line 4-7 and now you see you want to delete 10 as well. Just use F4 to delete. And then you find you want to delete line 14, just use F4. I think you get the point!

This is true for any kind of formatting also, either row based or column based or cell based.

This applied to Office 2007, Office 2010 and may be in earlier versions.

This is a part of ‘Quick Keyboard Shortcut in Office’ series. Stay tuned for more!

How to add Motion Loops and Video Backgrounds in PowerPoint?

Mr.Byte — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:53:49 +0000

Motion loops and video backgrounds in the PowerPoint are one of the good way to make the PowerPoint attractive in a public event like a PR meeting or in the church worship slide backgrounds. In PowerPoint from Office 2010, working with videos like editing, cropping, backgrounds has been made as a simple task.

So how to add motion loops and video backgrounds in PowerPoint?

Click Video from the Insert tab. Browse the video file and embed it at any location.

Using the edge points, resize the video so that it covers the whole slide page.

When you click the video, you will have new tabs for Video Tools. Under the Format tab, you can use the corrections to adjust the brightness and contrast. You can also change the color tone of the video by using the color button.

Under the Playback tab from Video Tools, set Start to Automatically, Check Loop until stopped and Rewind after playing boxes.

Right click on the video, and choose Send to Back. Now you will be able to see the areas where you can add text, insert image or embed even another video on top of this video.

You can also check this video for further instruction on how to add video backgrounds in PowerPoint.

Let us know where would you use a video background!

How to Print First Row or Header Row on Every Page in Excel?

Mr.Byte — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:28:39 +0000

While using Excel, most often the contents overflow to multiple pages and you may have the header row on top on the first page and you would have frozen it on top so that when you scroll down the header is still visible. But when you print any Excel sheet, it would be great to have the header row or the first row printed on top of each and every page for better readability. Also see how to print first column or header column on every page in Excel.

So how to print header row or first row on each and every page in Excel?

This tip applies to Office 2010 and Office 2007.

Go to Page Layout and click on the Print Titles under Page Setup.

In the Page Setup, Under Print titles, click the red arrow icon next to Rows to repeat at top.

use the arrow to select the first row or the row that you want to repeat in each and every page that is printed.

Use the red arrow icon again and you will be taken to Page Setup screen. Click Ok.

Enable Row and Column Headings

Also if you want to row headings which says column A, B, C etc or Row headings or number 1,2,3 then you can enable them under Page Layout –> Sheet Options –> Check Print under Headings.

Here in the Print Preview (Use Keyboard shortcut Ctrl +F2) you can see that the first row and the row and column header is being printed on all pages.

Also see how to print first column or header column on every page in Excel.

How to Print First Column or Header Column on Every Page in Excel?

Mr.Byte — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:21:50 +0000

While using Excel, most often the contents overflow to multiple pages and you may have the header column on the left on the first page and you would have frozen it so that when you scroll to the right the column header is still visible. But when you print any Excel sheet, it would be great to have the header column or the first column printed on the left side of each and every page for better readability.

So how to print header column or first column on each and every page in Excel?

This tip applies to Office 2010 and Office 2007.

Go to Page Layout and click on the Print Titles under Page Setup.

In the Page Setup, Under Print titles, click the red arrow icon next to Columns to repeat at left.

Use the arrow to choose the column that you want to be repeated.

Click Ok on the Page setup.

Here in the preview you can see that the column header or the first column in this case are repeated on each and every page.

You can also print the first row or header row on all printed pages in Excel. Also see how you can print row and column heading on all printed pages.

How to Keep Windows Media Center on Top in Windows 7?

Mr.Byte — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:46:32 +0000

Windows Media Center has lots of unique benefits and features which are not explored by many who use Vista or Windows 7. It allows one to mange all the Pictures, Videos, Music, Radio, TV, Video Recorder etc and once if you start using, its hard to go for another media center as this makes it more complete.

Recently we saw how to keep Windows Media Player on top of other Windows. WMP has just become a subset of Windows media center in terms of feature. So one may use Windows Media Center as well instead of using WMP.

Here is an example of having Windows Media Center on Top of other Windows.

So how to keep Windows Media Center on Top of other Windows?

In the Windows Media Center, go to Tasks –> Settings.

Under Settings –> Click General.

Click Startup and Window Behavior.

Check Always Keep Windows Media Center on top and click Save.

Now you can have the Windows media center on top of other windows.

What to do if you temporarily don’t want Windows Media Center on Top?

Just use the Minimize button on the top right corner (or use the keyboard shortcut to minimize and maximize windows)

How to Keep Windows Media Player on Top in Windows 7?

Mr.Byte — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:36:54 +0000

Windows 7 comes with Windows Media Player 12 and it does not allow you to dock the media player to the taskbar as it has been redesigned. You can surely preview the media player from the taskbar but you cannot keep it on top so that when you go about browsing online or view other windows. (Hint: If you want to dock WMP on the taskbar, you should downgrade from WMP 12 to WMP 11)

But you can keep the WMP on top so that you can still view the media player while browsing other Windows.

Here are some of the examples of Windows Media Player on Top of other Windows

So how to keep WMP on Top in Windows 7?

Go to the Now Playing mode (View –> Now Playing) or use the Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl + 3.

Right click on the Windows Media Player screen and check Always show Now Playing on top

Now which ever window you browse or view, the Windows Media Player will stay on top.

You can also resize the WMP window to the smallest size and keep it on one corner so that it will not disturb the other work that you might be still doing while having WMP on top.

What to do if you temporarily dont want WMP on top?

Just use the Minimize button on the top right corner (or use the keyboard shortcut to minimize and maximize windows)

If you are using WMP, you can also learn how to use Windows Media Player as Alarm Clock? and Read how to keep Windows Media Center on top of other Windows?

Tips to Reduce Gmail Memory Space and its Better Management in Outlook

Mr.Byte — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:30:00 +0000

Gmail lets you to view the same email in multiple locations or rather it stores in one place and uses tags to recall in different folder. But when you use IMAP to access Gmail in Outlook, each of these mails are stored in multiple locations, for example in the Inbox, the label folder you applied and in the All Mails folder. This means you are unnecessarily storing the same email in multiple places and wasting memory space. Each mail is stored at least in two places so potentially you can reduce the Gmail memory space in outlook by 50%

What do I do usually?

I like a clean inbox! So I organize all my mails in tags which are equivalent of Folders in Outlook.

Some rules I follow:

I don’t apply more than one tag or label to any mail. So each mail is in only one folder when you view in Outlook. I still wish there is a way to allow nested folders like feature when you use Gmail IMAP but that is a totally different story.
When a tag is applied it means, i move the mail to that folder and so it is not in Inbox folder.
My Inbox folder has only mails that I am currently working on and which cannot be categorized in the folders that I have.
If there is a mail in Inbox, which I am not working on it anymore and if it doesn’t fit in any of the folders or I don’t want to delete it permanently, I move it a folder called Arhive. (This is a self-made explicit folder called Arhive, not the Gmail archive feature). Gmail doesn’t let you create a folder called Archive.

Now it’s time to tune the Outlook to reduce the Gmail space.

Since you already have all the mails in at least one of the folders, it is redundant to have the All Mails folder subscribed in IMAP.

So how to unsubscribe Gmail’s All Mail IMAP folder in Outlook?

Right click the Gmail main folder and click on Data File Properties.

From the General tab, choose the Folder Size.

Here you can see the total size of gmail .pst in Outlook before tuning.

Now right click on the Gmail main folder and click on IMAP Folders.

Enter All Mail and click on Query. It will come in the results, choose it and click Unsubscribe.

Now if you go back and check the folder size of the gmail .pst, you can see how much it has reduced after removing the All Mails folder.

You can also remove other folders like Spam and Starred if you like.

This method helps you to keep your Gmail memory space in outlook to an optimum level and helps in better management.

What other tips that you follow for better management of Gmail in Outlook, let us know your suggestions in the comments.

Guide to Setup Gmail IMAP in Outlook 2010

Mr.Byte — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Gmail is one of the email services which supports IMAP feature which enables to send and receive emails from Outlook without any ads. Besides one use Outlook for all the business mails and now you can also add your personal gmail account along with it. The advantage of having setup this using IMAP is that when you read a mail or delete a mail, it is synchronized with both the web version of Gmail and the Outlook.

There are lots of features which are different in the new Outlook from Office 2010 than Outlook 2007 which makes it even more desirable to use Outlook for your Gmail.

Having said that, now lets see How to Setup Gmail IMAP in Outlook 2010?

Before you can start using Gmail IMAP in Outlook, we need to enable IMAP in Gmail settings.

In Gmail, go to Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP –> Make sure Enable IMAP is checked and click on Save Changes if you made any.

If you are starting the Microsoft outlook 2010 for the first time, you will be seeing the following startup screen, just click Next and choose Yes in the next screen where they ask would you like to configure an email account?

Note: If you already have another email account or if you have chosen No in the earlier case and has already gone through the initial outlook startup settings before, follow this screenshot else continue to the next one.

Click the Office button on the top left corner and go to the Office Backstage. Under Info –> Account Information –> Click Account Settings and Click on Add Account.

On the Add New Account screen, just choose Manually configure server settings or additional server types and click Next.

Choose Internet E-mail, connect to POP or IMAP server to send and receive e-mail messages and click Next.

Here give the User information, enter your Name, your full email address including @gmail.com or your @custom-mail.com.

Under Server information,

Account Type – IMAP

Incoming mail server – imap.gmail.com

Outgoing mail server (SMTP) – smtp.gmail.com

Also enter the logon information, enter your user name in full and enter the password.

NOTE: Now don’t click Next yet, click on More settings above it.

In the Internet email settings, go to Advanced Tab to change the server port numbers.

Change Incoming server (IMAP) to 993 and use SSL as the encrypted connection.

Change outgoing server (SMTP) to 587 and use TLS as the encrypted connection.

Now go to Outgoing server tab and check My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication and choose Use same settings as my incoming mail server.

Now you should be taken back to the Add new account screen, click on Test Account Settings and see if everything works without any errors. If there are any errors go back to all the settings and recheck if you have entered correctly.

Click Ok and Finish.

Now you will be taken to the main Outlook window and on the left sidebar a new set of folders will be created to synchronize with the Gmail account. It will also include Drafts, Sent Mail, Spam, Starred, Trash and all other mails synchronized.

Note: If you have a huge Gmail account already, then it will take sometime to download all your email contents from the web server.

Setting up the Sent Items Folder

When you send a mail for the first time, it will ask you where to store the sent mails. Make sure you DO NOT SET the sent mail from Gmail. When you send a mail through outlook, it goes to the gmail server and it saves the sent mails automatically to the sent mail folder. Now if you try to save it again in the sent mail, it will create duplicate copies of the sent mails. So use the Local Folder. See my other post on Choosing the Sent Items Folder while using Gmail in Outlook

Setting up the Deleted Items Folder

In gmail, you can either archive a mail or delete a mail. When you archive a mail, they are removed from the Inbox but they still remain in All Mails folder but when you delete they are moved to the trash mail folder and eventually deleted permanently after 30 days.

Likewise, you can set the action to move the mails to trash folder when you delete them.

If you want to archive a mail but not delete it, I usually have a folder called arhive and move the mails there so that my inbox remains clean and concise.

Folders and Labels

Outlook Folders are equivalent of labels in gmail. If you add a mail to two labels it will be present in both the folders.

Also read How you can manage Gmail better in Outlook and also reduce Gmail memory space in outlook.

How to Export PowerPoint Text Contents to Word?

Mr.Byte — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:06:49 +0000

Some write a Word document and then make a PowerPoint from it but some write the main points in a PowerPoint and then write a document on it. If you are following the later, it maybe required to export all the text contents from the PowerPoint to Word. This makes it easy to jumpstart the word document.

There are different ways to approach for exporting all the text contents from PowerPoint to Word, lets explore.

Save PowerPoint Outline in Word

Note: This tutorial is explained using Office 2010 and it can be applied to Office 2007 as well

In a PowerPoint presentation, you will have titles, subtitles, points, some text in a Text Box and so on.

If you look at the Outline of the PowerPoint, you can view all the text contents excluding the text which are in the Text Box.

You can copy this Outline in a Word by saving the PowerPoint file as Outline/RTF format. Click Office Button and click Save As. From the Save as type, choose Outline/RTF.

When you view the output file in Word, you can view all the text contents.

Creating PowerPoint Handouts in Word (Send to Word)

You can also make handouts of the PowerPoint Presentation in Word in different formats for different purpose. Go to Office Button, Click Share and Create Handouts in Microsoft Word.

Click Handouts.

This will open Send To Microsoft Word window with different options like Note next to slides, Blank lines next to slides, Notes below slides, Blank lines below slides and Outline only. Except for outline only format, it will reproduce the slide within the Word.

Export all Text in PowerPoint Slide including Text in Text Box

As we saw before, you cannot directly export the text in text box but there is an indirect way to get all the text from PowerPoint including the ones in Text Box. First save the PowerPoint as PDF and then use Save as Text option from PDF. This will help you to get all the texts from a PowerPoint but usually this option gets you the text in unformatted way.