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Author Articles Tackle Technology and Win!
Lorraine Stephens, president of L. Stephens & Associates, Inc., is a nationally-recognized keynote speaker, consultant, author and trainer. Her most popular seminars come to life through her “Tackle Technology and Win” web training classes, and her “I Wish I Had Known That Yesterday!” book series. Each of them focus on simplifying and maximizing Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint programs. Get more information at www.lorrainestephens.com. Have you ever felt as though you were losing ground as you tried to use technology? Are you finding that your investment in a computer and those wonderful, highly recommended software packages is causing you more agony than ecstasy? Well you are not alone. We are a generation of business owners and executives that once had “trained” help to perform our administrative tasks. In just a few minutes I can help you tackle four tasks that might have challenged you in the past. We will look at: 1. Creating a table of contents – Quickly and Easily Creating a table of contents If you have spent time typing and retyping your table of contents, fear no more. Those days are over. Using STYLES you prepare your document for an easy to develop table of contents. Take a look at the FORMATTING toolbar. Notice that the first button, which happens to include text instead of just a picture, reads “Normal.” Clicking on the drop-down arrow to the right of “Normal,” you will see a list of available styles. Among them are Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3. Your major proposal headings could use Heading 1; your next significant heading could use Heading 2; your third level heading of significance could use Heading 3. Here is the procedure: 1. You may type your document as usual then apply your styles. If you are planning to use styles there is no need to format your titles as you type. 2. When finished typing your document, click anywhere in one of the lines that will become a heading. 3. Select the drop down arrow on the STYLE button. 4. Choose the style that you wish to use. Use the higher number style for the major heading. Remember that Heading 1 is the highest of those shown. 5. For each heading line select a heading style. 6. For the other lines of text leave the style as Normal. 7. You are now ready to create your table of contents.
a. Position your cursor at the top of your document. b. From the menu bar select INSERT > REFERENCE > INDEX AND TABLES c. From the INDEX AND TABLES dialog box select the TABLE OF CONTENTS tab d. Notice that you have several decisions to make. Do you want to show page numbers or not; right align page numbers or don’t; and to use leaders or not. You even have several options under FORMATS that control how your table of contents appears. As you make your choices you can see the impact of those choices in the Print Preview window of the Index and Tables dialog box. e. After you have made your choices click OK. 8. Updating your table of contents. As you edit your document, your heading titles might change and so might your page numbers. Word will easily handle these adjustments to the table of contents. a. Right click on the Table of Contents b. Select UPDATE FIELD c. Select UPDATE ENTIRE TABLE d. Select OK Investing a little time in mastering this process can save you tremendous amounts of time in the future as you prepare proposals, reports, etc. Preparing a PowerPoint presentation from your Word document We are constantly faced with creating and delivering a presentation based on a report that we have prepared. If you have prepared your report using styles, your presentation is almost done. Every line that you formatted as a Heading 1 will become a PowerPoint slide title. Every line that is formatted as a Heading 2 will become a bullet on the slide. Likewise Heading 3 lines will become sub bullets on your slide. Yes, you may have to do some minor editing, but that is truly preferred to starting from the beginning. How is this done?. 1. With the Word document open select FILE. 2. Select SEND TO. 3. Select MICROSOFT POWERPOINT. That is it!!!!! Surprised? Hopefully you are beginning to feel like you can be the victor when you run into a “technological confrontation.” To be sure, let me share a few more winning tips. Creating an Excel chart in six seconds This sounds too good to be true, but it is. With just three clicks you can create a chart from your Excel data. Using the data pictured below follow these simple steps.
1. Click once in cell A1. 2. Hold the SHIFT key. 3. Click once in cell D5. 4. Press the F11 key. That is it! You have just charted the data from cell A1 through D5. To tailor your chart simply select the CHART menu bar item. Then select CHART TYPE to change the type of chart, or CHART OPTIONS to change the axis, labels, etc. Sorting a distribution list in a Word document What actions would you take if you discovered that a letter you were getting ready to mail had the following distribution list? Let me offer another solution. Try a special sort that would sort your list by last name. A normal sort would sort by first name since it would use the first character of each line. However, the following steps will give you a nicely sorted list. 1. Highlight the full list of names. 2. Select TABLE from the menu bar, followed by SORT then OPTIONS. 3. Under SEPARATE FIELDS AT click on OTHER, and press the space bar. (This tells 4. Select OK. 5. Select the drop-down arrow under SORT BY and choose WORD 2. 6. Select the drop-down arrow under THEN BY and choose WORD 1. 7. Select OK. Voila! You have just sorted your list. It is not only in last name sequence, but will also have Dorrian Stephens appearing before Tiffany Stephens. For years I have challenged my clients, and prepared them, to Tackle Technology and Win. The books of the “I Wish I Had Known That Yesterday!” series contain simple to follow procedures. The “Tackle Technology and Win” web-classes are delivered to their desktops preparing them to take on these challenges with confidence. As for you, there are many tips that will make your life a lot easier, while increasing your productivity. The key is taking the time to learn them. I wish we could spend more time together and maybe one day we will. I will listen for you to join me for one of my web-classes. Meanwhile, I hope this has been a “good thing” for you, and that you feel more prepared to Tackle Technology and Win.
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By Lorraine Stephens
