Tina Norris Fields, a Michigan colleague, recently shared an easy way to create parallel columns: Use a table and then inhibit the borders. Now, that’s magic!

Use any method you like to create the table. I usually enter the first few rows and then let Word create the table based on the existing items. If you know the dimensions, you can create the table first and then enter data. It doesn’t really matter. Use the AutoFit format and let Word adjust the table as you enter the columnar data.

When you’re done, turn off the table’s borders as follows:

1. Select the entire table by clicking anywhere inside the table. Then, choose Select from the Table menu and then choose Table. Or, click the double-arrow icon in both Word 2003 and Word 2007.
2. With the table selected, choose Borders and Shading from the Format menu and click the Borders tab. In Word 2007, choose Borders and Shading from the Borders and Shading control’s dropdown list in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. This control is also available in the Table Styles group on the Design tab (in Word 2007).
3. Click the None option under Setting.

Word will gray out the borders on screen. However, Word won’t print the borders, which you can easily confirm by viewing the document in Print Preview.

Using the table structure, allows you to easily move or even delete parallel columns.

The thing is, everybody knows how to use PowerPoint these days, and that can be problematic for the professional. It’s like an amusement park — the more rides you ride, the more thrilling a ride has to be to get your attention. In other words, you now have to work harder than ever to impress your audience. The ordinary just won’t do anymore.

That’s where rich media can make a difference. Rich media is anything other than text: pictures, graphics, video, audio, animated clips, and so on. A little creative power can go a long way. Remember the old saying about a picture’s thousand words? Well, I won’t bore you further with a lot of extraneous verbalization when I can prove what I’m saying with just two slides.

There’s nothing wrong with the above slide, but it’s ordinary and unfortunately rather typical of the average presentation. Your audience won’t remember it. Why should they; there’s nothing memorable about it.

On the other hand, they’ll remember the slide below. Not only will they remember it, they’ll want to know who the child is, where you took the picture, and most importantly, the slide implants a pleasant association to you. Now that, they’ll remember.

Outlook gives you control over which workdays you display in your calendar — even if you don’t work a standard Monday through Friday schedule. Here’s a look at the options you can use to configure the display.

By default, the Work Week calendar view displays the five days of the traditional business week, Monday through Friday. To include Saturday and Sunday in that view, choose Options from the Tools menu. In the Options dialog box, click Calendar Options in the Calendar section. In the Calendar Options dialog box, select the Sat and Sun check boxes under Calendar Work Week (Figure A). Then, click OK twice to return to the Calendar.

Figure A

You don’t have to view a seven-day or traditional five-day work week, either. Just select the days of the week that apply to you and create a custom work week view. For example, if you work Wednesday through Sunday, you can make those selections to build a view that reflects your schedule (Figure B).

Figure B

Just a few quick touches with symbols can spruce up your documents in minutes. For example, say you’ve just formatted the newsletter shown in Figure A.

Figure A

You’d like to add something at the end of Article One that tells the reader the article ends there; you would also like to add something to indicate that Article Two continues on the next page. Follow these steps:

1. Click at the end of Article One.

2. Go to Insert | Symbol. (In Word 2007, click the Insert tab and then click Symbol in the Symbols group and select More Symbols.)

3. Click the Font box drop-down arrow and select Symbol.

4. Click the symbol in the last row, as shown in Figure B, and then click the Insert button.

Figure B

5. Click Close.

6. Select the symbol you just inserted and change the Font color to dark green.

7. Click at the end of the last column in the document.

8. Go to Insert | Symbol. (In Word 2007, click the Insert tab and then click Symbol in the Symbols group and select More Symbols.)

9. Click the Font box drop-down arrow and select WingDings.

10. Click the symbol shown in Figure C and then click the Insert button.

Figure C

11. Click Close.

12. Select the inserted symbol and change the font size to 18 and the Font color to dark green (Figure D).

Figure D

Note: When you need to use the symbols again, you can find them listed under the most recently used symbols in the Insert Symbol dialog box. In Word 2007, just click Symbol on the Insert tab.

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Suppose you have a worksheet with columns and rows chock full of calculations, running the gamut from Sum functions to If tests to vertical and horizontal lookups. The calculations are correct and your data is pristine. You save the worksheet.

Now you need to use a subset of that worksheet in another worksheet. If all you’re going to do is print the subset of columns or rows, you can simply hide those rows and columns, print what you need, and unhide the columns and rows later to restore the sheet to its normal state.

But if you’re going to e-mail a copy of the sheet to a coworker or a third party, you may not feel comfortable simply hiding certain rows and columns. You may want to delete them instead. The problem is, of course, if you start deleting rows and columns, you’re going to get error messages in the cells that depend on the cells you deleted.

The solution? First and foremost, save a copy of your pristine worksheet under a new name. Just go to File | Save As and add “_work” to the end of the “real” name. Select the entire sheet and then copy it. Without moving the cursor, go to Edit | Paste Special. Now, select the Values option, as shown in Figure A, and click OK. When you do, Excel will replace all the formulas with the values they’re currently calculating and displaying. At that point, you can delete columns or rows and move cells around without generating a single error message.

Figure A

Note

If you use the Paste Special | Values option and the data you’re pasting contains calculated dates or numbers formatted as currency, the date calculations will be pasted as the Julian date value, and the currency will lose its dollar signs and commas. To preserve that kind of formatting when you convert calculations to literals, simply choose the Values And Number Formats option instead of Values.

Do your users often need to stop and search the Web for data? Make it easier for them by adding a Web browser control to their forms. For example, say your users need to input the latest stock prices of the companies where your clients have placed investments. Follow these steps:

1. Open the form in Design View.
2. Click the More Controls button in the Controls toolbox. Scroll down to select Microsoft Web Browser. (In Word 2007, click the Active X button in the Controls group under the Design tab of Forms Design Tools. Scroll down to select Microsoft Web Browser and then click OK.)
3. Click and drag in your form to create the Web browser control.
4. Click the Text Box Control tool and then click and drag in your form to create the control.
5. Click in the text box control label and type Web Address: (Figure A).

Figure A

6. Right-click the text box control and select Properties.
7. Click in the After Update property box and then click the Build button (Figure B).

Figure B

8. Type the following code at the prompt:

Private Sub Text17_AfterUpdate()

Dim varAddress As String

varAddress = Me.Text17

Me!WebBrowser6.Navigate varAddress

End Sub

9. Press Alt + Q.

Now when a user enters a Web address, the Web page displays in the Web browser control window, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C

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To make a presentation informative and efficient, you may sometimes exclude details that aren’t of interest to the general audience. But as soon as you make that decision, you can count on someone asking about what you left out. You can try to answer the question and move on. Or you can include a supporting slide. That way, if the topic comes up, you can skip to the slide, have a short discussion, and then return to the main presentation, exactly where you left off.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

Create the supporting slide

Supporting can mean many things, but for this technique, the term refers to an optional slide that’s available but that you might not display. A supporting slide contains data that further defines or augments information on another slide in the presentation. Simply insert a link on the slide that requires a supporting slide. Similarly, link the supporting slide to the slide it supports. Then, just hide the supporting slide. You can decide when — or if — to display it. In addition, you can print a support slide along with the presentation.

For example, the slide in Figure A highlights consulting skills. If someone asks how to contact a consultant, you can display the supporting slide with that specific information, shown in Figure B.

Figure A: Most slides exclude details.

Figure B: This supporting slide contains contact information, in case someone in the audience requests it.

Once you identify a slide that’s apt to prompt questions (like the one in Figure A), create the supporting slide and add a Return action button that takes you back to the main slide, as follows:

1. With the supporting slide selected, choose Action Buttons from the Slide Show menu.
2. Choose Action Button: Return (the first button on the third line). In PowerPoint 2007, choose Action Buttons from the Shapes tool in the Illustrations group on the Insert tab.
3. Click the slide to insert a button.
4. Click the Mouse Click tab.
5. Click the Hyperlink To option in the Action On Click section and choose Last Slide Viewed, as shown in Figure C and click OK.

Figure C: Add a Return button to the support slide.

You can change the Return button if you like. Right-click the button and choose Format AutoShape. The default button fits our needs fine.

Now hide it and link to it

To keep PowerPoint from displaying the supporting slide during the presentation, you must hide it. The slide will stay with your presentation and be available, but it’s up to you to decide whether to show it. To hide the supporting slide, choose Hide Slide From Slide Show. PowerPoint identifies a hidden slide by displaying a strikethrough line in the number icon in Normal view.

At this point, the supporting slide is finished, so you just need to link to it. Select the slide that requires a supporting slide. If you’re lucky, the slide will contain a picture or graphic you can use as a hyperlink. If not, you’ll have to add something. (As a last resort, use an Action button.)

For our purposes, the consultant’s name provides the perfect hyperlink hot spot. To add a hyperlink to the supporting slide, do the following:

1. Select the text or graphic you want to use as a hyperlink. In this case, that’s the consultant’s name in the slide’s title.
2. Right-click the selection and choose Action Settings to display the Action Settings dialog box. (You could also choose Hyperlink from the Insert menu.) In PowerPoint 2007, click Hyperlinks in the in the Links group on the Insert tab.
3. Select Hyperlink To.
4. Choose Slide from the Hyperlink To drop-down list, shown in Figure D.

Figure D: Create a hyperlink from text on the original slide.

5. In the Hyperlink To Slide dialog box, highlight the supporting slide, as shown in Figure E.

Figure E: Point to the supporting slide.

6. Click OK twice.
7. Save your presentation.

While running the presentation, PowerPoint never displays the supporting (hidden) slide on its own. You must click the hyperlink on the original slide to display the supporting slide. When you’re finished, click the Return button to go back to the original slide so you can continue the presentation. The downside to this technique is that the hyperlink usurps the text’s format.

I’ve got that information right here… somewhere… hold on…

Being unprepared to answer questions from the audience can be frustrating (and embarrassing) for you and disappointing to your audience. Add details to supporting slides and then display the information as needed. The details are there, but only if you need them. This technique is great for displaying flow charts, detailed figures, and so on — anything that supports the presentation can end up on a supporting slide.

Susan Sales Harkins is an independent consultant and the author of several articles and books on database technologies. Her most recent book is Mastering Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express, with Mike Gunderloy, published by Sybex. Other collaborations with Gunderloy are Automating Microsoft Access 2003 with VBA, Upgrader’s Guide to Microsoft Office System 2003, ICDL Exam Cram 2, and Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Microsoft Access 2003, all published by Que. Currently, Susan volunteers as the Publications Director for Database Advisors. You can reach her at ssharkins@gmail.com.

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. On the General tab, click the Web Options option. Office 2007 users should click the Office button and then click Word Options (in the bottom-right corner), choose Advanced in the left pane, click Web Options (scroll all the way down), and then click the Fonts tab.
2. Select a font and size from the Proportional Font and Size controls, respectively. Choose the font you want to use as the default for normal text.
3. Select a font and size for displaying monospace text from the Fixed-width Font drop-down list and Size controls, respectively.
4. Click OK twice.

This simple extra step will save you time later because you won’t have to adjust font face or size after the content is published. Your Webmaster or site editor will appreciate your efforts too.

Preview your Web content by choosing Web Page Preview from the File menu.

If you get interrupted while working on a record in an Access form, finding your way back to it can be time-consuming. Here are two ways to bookmark the current record so that you can hop straight to it when you reopen the form.

When you have to take a break from work you’re doing in Access, you might be tempted to leave the database open so you can quickly pick up where you left off. However, that’s not always a good idea, especially if the current form displays sensitive data. Other times, you might need to access another form or report in the same database and then return to the current task later. Either way, you have to find the way back to a specific record to continue working — and that takes time. Here’s an easy way to return to a specific record, which can benefit you as well as your users.

Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

The simplest (but somewhat limited) solution

Bookmarking a record for later use isn’t difficult, and there’s more than one way to get the job done. The easiest way is to declare an application-life variable to store the current record’s primary key, or some other identifying value, and then grab that variable when you reopen the form. It takes almost no code and it works great — until you close the database.

Figure A shows the Orders form in Northwind (the sample database that comes with Access) with an additional command button in the footer section. However, you can use almost any form. The only restriction is that each record needs some unique identifying value. In most cases, you can use a primary key.

Figure A: The command button in the footer bookmarks the current record.

To add the command button, open the form in Design view and choose Form Header/Footer from the View menu. Insert a command button and name it cmdReturn. To make the button work, click the Code button to launch the form’s module and enter the code in Listing A and Listing B. (If you’re working with the Orders form in Northwind, don’t alter the existing code.) Save the form.

Listing A: Command button’s Click procedure

Private Sub cmdReturn_Click()

  'Set module-level variable

  'to identify current record.

  If IsNull(varID) Then

    MsgBox "Can't bookmark this record; " _

     & "There's no OrderID value.", vbOKOnly, "Error"

    Exit Sub

  End If

  varID = Me.OrderID

  Exit Sub

errHandler:

  MsgBox Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description, _

   vbOKOnly, "Error"

End Sub

Listing B: Form’s Open event procedure

Private Sub Form_Open(Cancel As Integer)

   'Open form to saved position.

   Dim strBookmark As String

   If Not IsEmpty(varID) Then

     strBookmark = "OrderID = " & varID

     Debug.Print strBookmark

     With Me.RecordsetClone

       .FindFirst strBookmark

       If Not .NoMatch Then

         Me.Bookmark = .Bookmark

       End If

     End With

   End If

   Exit Sub

 errHandler:

   MsgBox Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description, _

    vbOKOnly, "Error"

End Sub

Don’t forget to delimit the filtering string component correctly. In this case, that’s the following statement:

strBookmark = "OrderID = " & varID

This time, the uniquely identifying value, OrderID, is a Numeric value, so the statement requires no delimiters.

Insert a standard procedure (choose Module from the Visual Basic Editor’s Insert menu) and enter the following declaration:

Public varID As Variant

Save the module and close it. Then, return to Access and open the form in Form view. Use the Navigation toolbar to move to any record other than the first one. Note the record’s OrderID value. For instance, that value for the second record is 10692. Click the button you added to the Orders form (see Figure A). Doing so passes the OrderID value for the current record to the application-life variable varID. This step might seem extraneous, but you can’t create an application-life variable in a form module. You need a standard module for that.

Now, close the form and reopen it. The form’s Open event concatenates the application-life variable, varID, with the field’s name to create a filtering string that the FindFirst method uses to identify the record in question. Then, the code sets the form’s Bookmark property to that of the matching record and the form jumps to the bookmarked record when you open it. If you close the database, the application-life variable, varID, loses its value, which negates the technique.

A session-to-session solution

If you need Access to remember the marked record from session to session, use a table to store the record’s identifying value instead of using an application-life variable. Then, use VBA to retrieve that value and open the form accordingly. This method requires a little more code and a special table that does nothing but store the current record’s identifying value. If someone accidentally deletes the table, the technique won’t work. Hiding the table is a good way to prevent that type of error, but you must remember to document your choice well, so you’ll remember what you did later.

First, you’ll need a table, so create a single-field table with a Numeric field named OrderIDSaved. Name the table tblOrderIDSaved and close it. Remember, when applying this to your own database, you might need more than one field to uniquely identify each record. If that’s the case, you must store the multiple values in the table.

Open the example form’s module and comment out or delete the code from the previous example (cmdReturn and the form’s Open procedure). Next, enter the procedures in Listing C and Listing D and save your changes. Then, save the module and return to the form in Form view. Navigate to a record other than the first one and click the Record To This Record button. Close and reopen the form.

Listing C: Command button’s click procedure

Private Sub cmdReturn_Click()

   'Store record's bookmark value in tblOrderIDSaved.

  Dim rst As ADODB.Recordset

  Set rst = New ADODB.Recordset

  On Error GoTo errHandler

  rst.Open "tblOrderIDSaved", CurrentProject.Connection, _

    adOpenDynamic, adLockPessimistic

  With rst

    .AddNew

      !OrderIDSaved = Me.OrderID.Value

    .Update

  End With

  rst.Close

  Set rst = Nothing

  Exit Sub

errHandler:

  MsgBox Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description, _

   vbOKOnly, "Error"

End Sub

Listing D: Form’s Open event procedure

Private Sub Form_Open(Cancel As Integer)

  'Set form to saved position.

  Dim rst As ADODB.Recordset

  Dim strBookmark As String

  Set rst = New ADODB.Recordset

  On Error GoTo errHandler

  rst.Open "tblOrderIDSaved", CurrentProject.Connection, _

   adOpenDynamic, adLockPessimistic

  'Handle empty table to avoid error.

  If rst.BOF Then

    Exit Sub

  End If

  strBookmark = "OrderID = " & rst(0)

  Debug.Print strBookmark

  With Me.RecordsetClone

    .FindFirst strBookmark

    If Not .NoMatch Then

      Me.Bookmark = .Bookmark

    End If

  End With

  rst.Delete

  rst.Close

  Set rst = Nothing

  Exit Sub

errHandler:

  MsgBox Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description, _

   vbOKOnly, "Error"

End Sub

Similarly to the first example, Access remembers the marked record when you reopen the form. However, this time, Access can remember the marked record even if you close the database. You can use the same table to bookmark numerous forms. Simply add the appropriate fields and update the following statements accordingly:

cmdReturn_Click(): !OrderIDSaved = Me.OrderID.Value

Form_Open(): strBookmark = "OrderID = " & rst(0)

Worth noting

If you want the form to mark the current record without user input, forget the command button and move the code to the form’s Unload event. In addition, this technique is a one-time marking task. Once you reopen the form to the marked record, Access deletes the bookmark. You must remark the record if you want to bookmark it again. All of the listings contain minimal error handling. Be sure to test this code thoroughly in your own database and add the necessary error handling routines.

When you need to send two or more different letters to your clients based on a value in a field in the client database, you don’t need to compile two separate mailing lists. Using the If… Then…Else rule with the INCLUDETEXT field, you can process both letters at once. For example, say you have saved two documents, one containing the body of the letter for clients located in Missouri and a second containing the body of the letter for clients located in Illinois. To create one mailing that will send the appropriate letter to each client, follow these steps:

1. Open your mail merge document, which contains the merge fields and text common to both letters.

2. Click below the greeting, where you want to insert the body of your letter.

3. Click the drop-down arrow of the Insert Word Field button in the Mail Merge toolbar. (In Word 2007, click Rules in the Write & Insert Fields group of the Mailings tab.)

4. Click If…Then…Else.

5. Click the Field Name box drop-down arrow and select State (Figure A).

Figure A

6. Click in the Comparison box and select Equal To.

7. Click in the Compare To box and type MO.

8. Click in the Insert This Text box and type This is the text for MO.

9. In the Otherwise Insert This Text box, type This is the text for IL.

10. Click OK.

11. Right-click the field in the document and select Toggle Field Codes to display all the field codes (Figure B).

Figure B

12. Select the following text inside the quotes: This is the text for MO. (Do not select the quotes.)

13. Go to Insert | Field. (In Word 2007, click Quick Parts in the Text Group of the Insert tab.)

14. Click Field.

15. Under Field Names, select IncludeText (Figure C).

Figure C

16. Click in the Filename Or URL box and type the full pathname for the file containing the body of the letter for Missouri clients.

17. Click OK.

18. Right-click the field and select Toggle Field Codes.

19. Select the following text inside the quotes: This is the text for IL. (Again, do not select the quotes.)

20. Repeat steps 13 through 15.

21. Click in the Filename Or URL box and type the full pathname for the file containing the body of the letter for the Illinois clients.

22. Click OK.

When you right-click the field and toggle the field codes, your rule should look like the one in Figure D, substituting your filenames for each of the letters. When you run the mail merge, Word will print the letter that pertains to the value of the State field in each client record. (If you prefer to enter the field codes entirely from the keyboard, be sure to use Ctrl + F9 to enter the brackets.)

Figure D

Note that you can use the If …Then… Else rule with INCLUDETEXT to print out different letters for any number of values in the field. Simply create a different If…Then…Else rule for each value, with INCLUDETEXT as the first variable and blank (nothing between the quotes) for the second variable.

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