Using OneNote For Screen Captures

I have discovered a cool OneNote function that you would not think of using OneNote for. But it works really well.

When you install OneNote, a little component of OneNote called SideNote gets installed. It shows up in the task bar next to the time in an icon with a N in it. When you click this icon a special OneNote page comes up which allows you to add quick notes to your notebook, a real nice feature in itself. However, if you right click the SideNote icon you will have a pop up menu that allows you to select "Create Screen Clipping". When you select it, your desktop will dim out and you will have a selection tool displayed. You can use the selection tool to highlight the area of the screen that you want to get a screen shot of. The screen shot will appear in a new OneNote page where it can be saved or copied to another application like an Outlook mail message or a Word document.

I have found this function to be very helpful in documenting how to do a specific function in an application.

Look at ME!

I'm not a big PowerPoint user but I do use it on occasion to do seminars or training. Sometimes you may want to blank the presentation out so that the audience focuses on you and not the slide that is being displayed. This is actually pretty easy in PowerPoint. Just hit the "B" key and the screen will go black or hit the "W" key and the screen will go white. Of course make sure there is enough light so people can see you!

Get a Closer Look

Have you ever linked to a website and found that some of the text is just to small to read? If you are using IE 6 and have a mouse with a scroll wheel there's a neat trick you can do that will enable you to read that small text.

While you are on the web page, hold down the Ctrl key while moving the scroll wheel forward or backwards. The size of the text will increase and decrease with the scroll wheel movement.

This also works in Word, Excel, OneNote, etc. Maybe you don't need those new glasses after all!

Using OneNote For Research

My favorite Microsoft application after Outlook is OneNote. It's simply the best application that has come out of Redmond in a long time. I use it for everything. One of the coolest things you can do with OneNote is pull information from the Internet directly into your OneNote notebook pages.

This is very easy to do. First, go to the web page that you want to use the information from. Next select a graphic or some text from the page. Once the object is selected, right click and select copy. Now open the OneNote page that you want to gather this information in. Right click in the page and select paste. The graphic or text will be pasted directly into the page. In addition, a link back to the web page will be included. Of course you can also use drag and drop to accomplish the same task if you would like.

I use this all the time. I have a page in my Notebook labeled Things to Checkout. Whenever I come across anything on the Internet that I want to spend more time checking out but don't have time at the moment, I post a piece of the article on the page and later, when I have more time I can simply go to the Things to Checkout page and get back to where I was. Of course I can add my own notes as well.

But I Don't Want To Capitalize That!

I have had several people complain to me that Word automatically capitalizes words when they don't want them to be capitalized. You can actually control how Word decides what to capitalize very easily.

When you are in a Word document click Tools - Autocorrect Options. Click on the Autocorrect Tab if you are not already there. Here you can change how Word handles capitalization. My favorite one to turn off is Capitalize First Letter of Table Cells. You can even click on the Exceptions button and fine tune the rules even more.

More on Email Attachments

I observed a user the other day that made me realize that some people really don't know how to handle email attachments. This user had received a copy of a form letter created as a Word document. They used this form to send letters to their Clients.

Each time the user needed to send one of these letters they would open Outlook and search for the email message (another problem in itself), open the document, make changes to the document, and print the document. They indicated to me that they were having trouble saving the documents.

What's wrong here? Well, first obviously the document should not be accessed via Outlook. This process wasted space within Outlook, made the customized letters impossible to find, prohibited others from using the same form document, prevented the documents from being backed up. etc, etc, etc.

What needs to be done? It's simple. Right click on the attachment within the email message. Click on Copy. Open a folder on your server where the form should be properly located. Right click in that folder and click Paste. A copy of the document will now be in the folder. I would also suggest you go back into the Outlook message, right click on the attachment and select Remove. (Or delete the message itself) This will remove the attachment from the message therefore saving space in your email data location.

With the file properly located in your server file system, it can be shared and backed up. Also saving and finding those individualized letters will be much easier.

Don't Email That File!

The speed and capabilities of Internet email programs have increased dramatically over the last few years. In the past one would never send a large attachment with an email message because it would almost always hose up the user's email and cause various problems. Today it's a different story. Sending a 5 or 10 meg or even larger attachment almost never causes any noticeable problems. I say noticeable because even though the file may leave your Outbox, it can cause many problems along its way to the recipient. And many recipients are restricted from receiving large attachments if they are able to receive them at all. Because of the high risk nature of attachments, many companies will not allow users to receive any attachments via email

There is a great alternative. It is a web based service called YouSendIt. You simply log into the website, give the email address of the person you want the file to go to and select the file you want to send. YouSendIt then sends an email to the recipient which includes a link to download the file from. The file never goes through the email system. I have used the system myself and find it works very well. You can send files of up to 1 Gig.

Of course, make sure you have virus scanning software running the latest virus definition files on your workstation whenever you work with foreign files.

Click here to go to the YouSendIt website.

Where Are Those Icons?

If you are running Windows XP, you will always see the various icons over in the lower right (unless you moved your taskbar) portion of your screen. The time will be there as well as other icons depending on the applets you have running. But do you also see some icons on the left side of the task bar next to the Start button? If you don't, you don't have the Quick Launch bar on. You may be interested in having it on.

To turn the Quick Launch bar on (or off), right click on the Taskbar and click Properties. You will see a Show Quick Launch item under the Taskbar appearance section. Click it on to display the Quick Launch bar and unclick it to turn it off.

Several items will appear. One of my favorites is the Show Desktop button. You can click this and no matter what applications are running on your screen, you can get back to your Desktop. Buttons for your most used applications can also be created simply by dragging and dropping a shortcut to the application onto the Quick Launch bar.

Of course if you are going to use the Quick Launch bar you should probably remove any duplicate shortcuts from your desktop. Remember, a clean desktop is a good desktop!

Who Do You Want To Be Today?

Outlook has had the ability to add a signature to your email messages since the earliest versions. In the current version, Outlook 2003, you can have a signature for new messages and a different signature for replies and forwards. I use this feature myself. My new message signature is a full signature including my name, Company, and Websites. My reply/forward signature is a simple -Ed. This allows me to minimize the amount of text in replies and forwards.

Outlook 2003 also allows you to have multiple signatures for each option of new or reply/forward messages. So, you could for instance have a Sales signature and a Support signature for new messages or for replies/forwards. You set these up under Tools - Options - Mail Format. Once you get them setup you can pick a separate default for new and replies/forwards.

So how do you select an alternative signature in your message. It's easy! First open a new or reply/forward message. Your default signature will automatically be inserted. To change it simply right click on the default signature in the message. A list of all your stored signatures will show up. Pick the one you want and it will replace the default for this message. Cool!

Turn an Outlook Task Into An Appointment

Do you ever have a task in Outlook that seems to just keep getting put on the back burner? Maybe if you set up an appointment with yourself to complete the task you might have better luck in getting it done. Outlook makes this very easy.

1. Go to the Outlook Tasks List
2. Left click on the task you want to set an appointment for and drag it to the Calendar icon
3. Complete the rest of the appointment information

You now have an appointment to work on that dreaded task. You can use the same process to turn and email into an appointment or task. Just drag and drop the email to the Task or Calendar icon. In fact you can use drag and drop all over the place in Outlook. Very useful!

Use The Power of Your Start Menu

How do you start the programs on your computer? Click on an icon on the desktop? Select from Start - All Programs? How about using the Start Menu? What is the Start Menu? When you click the Start button the Start Menu pops up. The upper portion of the Start Menu is a customizable section where you can drag and drop icons for the programs you use most often to make them easily accessible.

By modifying this process a little you can make the Start Menu even more efficient. First, create an shortcut on your desktop to the program you want. (ie Word 2003). Rename the icon to 1 - Word 2003. Now drag and drop the new icon to the Start Button. When you click the Start Button you will see your new item in the upper menu. You can now remove any icons that start Word from your desktop. When you want to use Word, click the Start Button and then click on your 1 - Word 2003 entry. Or better yet, hit the Windows Key and then the "1" key to start Word 2003. What could be easier than that?

Want Your Very Own Bullets?

Microsoft Word allows you to easily add bullets to any list of items. You can simply highlight the list of items and click on the Bullets button. You can select from several bullet types by clicking on the Format pulldown and selecting Bullets and Numbering. But did you know that you can create your own bullets from Clip Art or other graphics images. It's easy. Try this;

Click on the Format pulldown and select Bullets and Numbering
Click on one of the existing bullet types
Click the Customize button
Click the Picture button
Click the Import button
Browse to and select the picture or graphic you want to use
Your picture or graphic will now be added to the bullet selection list

Of course, due to bullet size limitations, some pictures or graphics will look better than others . The bullet size will change with the size of the font in use. Give it a try!

A Very Simple MS Word Trick

How do you draw a simple line across the page in Word? Hold down the underline key until the line is drawn? You're so old fashioned! Try this.

Place the cursor at the beginning of a new line
Push the hyphen key 3 times (-)
Hit the enter key

Cool, you now have a line across the page. Want more? Follow the directions above substituting these characters for the hyphen

underline (_) = thick black line
equals sign (=) = double line
asterisk (*) = dotted line
tilde (~) = wavy line
number symbol (#) = thick line with a smaller line above and below it

These functions work in Word 2000, 2002 and 2003. Now get to work creating some cool looking documents!

If Your Eyes Aren't As Good As They Used To Be ...

Some users have asked if the default font used to read email in Outlook can be changed. The answer is yes, but....

Click on the title of this Blog entry for our How To Document on this question. Our How To Documents are PDF files that can be printed or saved.

Outlook Tasks To The Rescue

If your like me, you have a million things to keep track of every day. Things can have a tendency to slip through the cracks. I use Outlook's Tasks module to keep me on track.

Tasks can be created several ways. The simplest is to go to the Tasks module and click the New button. The Subject is the task itself. "Create Blog Entry for SSGI Blog". The Due Date is when the task must be completed by. (Cool - Try typing "Next Friday" in the field) The Start Date is when you want Outlook to start reminding you that this task must be done. You can put notes about this task in the work area section. You can also categorize your tasks to make them easier to sort. For instance, I have a category called phone calls. If I view my tasks by category I can see all the phone calls I need to make in one section. I have another category called Personal which allows me to view only Personal Tasks if I want. Once tasks have been created Outlook will pop up Alerts to remind you that a task is coming up or is over due. You can also see your task list in many different views including several of the Calendar Views which combine your appointments and tasks that are due for the day.

Using the Tasks module is as simple as that and it can take a lot of your mind. There are other very useful things you can do with tasks. You can setup recurring tasks. So in my Blog entry example perhaps I want to create a new Blog entry every second Tuesday of the month or once a month. Recurring tasks allow you to set the schedule and then will remind you every time the task is due. Very Useful! You can also delegate or Assign Tasks to others. The other person will receive the Outlook Task from you in an email message and it will be added to their Outlook Task list. Very cool! I will get into more detail for both of these options in another Blog. For now give it a shot! Try the task module for the next 3 weeks. I'll bet you can't live without it after that.

Have an Outlook compatible PDA or wireless phone? You can sync your tasks and appointments and have them with you at all times. Create and manage your tasks from anywhere.

Where's The Subject?

Like many people, I receive a lot of Email each day. Some comes from vendors and some from Clients. At home I get a fair amount of personal Email. For some reason some of the people that send me Email don't put anything in the Subject Line of the Email message. Now, I know that mistakes can happen and the send button can be pushed by mistake, but I find the same senders to consistently do this.

There are several reasons to make sure you put something meaning full in the Subject Line. The first is the fact that many people and / or spam filters will simply disregard Email without a Subject Line. Next, it may make your message fall way back in the line if someone has a lot of Email and the Subject Line is what helps them determine what to read first. And finally it's just plain good Email policy.

Repeat after me ....."I will always include a meaningful Subject Line in my Email messages"

You're Gonna Need A RSS Reader

I spend time everyday reviewing about 55 blogs. Some of these blogs are technical stuff, some are business related, and some are food related (yes I love to cook!). Not every blog is updated daily and some of the technical or business blogs are updated several times per day (Tom Peters is crazy, sometimes 6 or 8 updates in one day!) It would be a time consuming nightmare to try to keep up with all of this. Enter the RSS Reader. RSS (Real Simple syndication or one of 3 other definitions) Readers act like little robots constantly monitoring my increasing number of blogs and websites that I visit regularly. If new content is posted to any one of these, my RSS Reader picks it up. I don't have to go hunting for the latest scoops!

There are several types of RSS Readers, stand alone readers and Outlook integrated Readers are the most common. I use both types, I have a stand alone reader (FeedDemon Feedburner)at home and an Outlook Integrated Reader (Newsgator) at the office. Internet Explorer 7 expected later this year is rumored to include an RSS Reader also (I read that on one of the Microsoft Blogs).

Many websites and most Blogs (Including all of mine) have RSS feeds. If you find that keeping up with certain blogs or websites for your business or personal life is useful, you really should look at installing some type of RSS Reader. At the very least you will then be among the first on the block to know when I have posted the next SSGI Tip here!

Welcome To My New Blog!

I guess you must have given in to all my nagging about checking out my latest Blog! I must have given you the correct address too because here you are! This Blog will be used to help you use your computer and programs better. I will post how- to items, tips, and just general information as regularly as I can. I will steal other people's ideas often. Please feel free to comment on anything I post and better yet pass on some tips and tricks of your own.

Have fun and remember to learn something new today!