Debra Dalgleish - Contextures Blog

Find Office Files with Keywords

When you save a Microsoft Office file, you can store keywords to help you find that file later.

For example, when you’re creating an estimate for a client’s Excel project:

In Excel, click on the File menu, and click on Properties
On the Summary tab, enter Estimate, Excel in the Keywords box, then click OK.

Later, you can use one or more keywords to find relevant files:

In Excel, click the Open button on the toolbar.
At the top right of the Open dialog box, click the arrow on the Tools button
Click Search

In the Search dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
From the first drop down, select Keywords
Enter a keyword in the third box, and click Add

Enter more keywords, or any other search criteria, including location.
Click the Go button, to start the search.

On-line Stop Watch

When working on projects that I’m billing on a per-hour basis, I use an on-line stop watch to record my time.

The site also has a count down feature, which you could use to limit yourself to 15 minutes of Internet browsing. When the bell rings, get back to work!

Energy Savings Calculator

Energy Star, a branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has free guides with energy saving tips for businesses.

They even have a fancy Excel workbook to help you get started — Energy Star’s Cash Flow Opportunity (CFO) Calculator.

Tidy Up Your Excel Charts

If you’ve created several reports in an Excel workbook, you might want to line them up and make them all the same size before printing.

Instead of doing this manually, you can download and install Jon Peltier’s free Align Chart Dimensions utility.

There are installation instructions on Jon’s site.

After you install the add-in, you can select specific charts, or let the utility align all the charts on the sheet.

Check the options to align and resize the charts, then click OK, and your report is ready.

Create a New Document From the Desktop

To quickly create a new document, you can use a desktop shortcut:

Right-click on an empty area of the Windows desktop.
Click on New
Click on the program that you want to start

Repair an Excel File

If you’re having problems with an Excel file, using the built-in repair feature might fix the problem.

For example, doing this repair procedure can help when:

data validation drop down arrows don’t appear
there are other signs of corruption, such as frequent crashes, or Excel freezes

Repair Excel Workbook

To repair an Excel workbook, follow the steps below:

First, close the problem file, but leave the Excel application open
Next, in Excel, choose File►Open
Locate and select the file
In the Open window, at the bottom right corner, click the arrow at the right side of the Open button
In the drop-down list, click on the Open and Repair command

Complete the Repair

When prompted, click the Repair button.
Then, open the Excel file again, to see if it looks okay

Excel message - click the Repair button — Excel message – click the Repair button

Make a Backup!

I hope the repair was successful, and your Excel file is working correctly now. If so, be sure to make backup copies of your work!

If the repair was not successful, you can follow the same steps, but click Extract Data instead.

You might be able to retrieve all of the data, at least, or parts of the data.

And again, remember to make frequent backup copies of your work!

When working on my laptop, especially with a second monitor plugged in, it’s sometimes hard to find the mouse pointer. Too often, this happens in the middle of a meeting, while I’m trying to demonstrate something to a client.

To make the pointer easier to find, you can use one of the built in features:

Click the Start button on the Windows taskbar, and click on Control Panel
Double-click on the Mousecontrol, to open the Mouse Properties dialog box
Click on the Pointer Options tab
Add a check mark to Show Location of Pointer When I Press the CTRL Key

Click OK
Close the Control Panel window.

The next time you lose the pointer, press the Ctrl key, and circles will flash on the screen, showing its location.

Email Response Templates

If you frequently type the same responses to email questions, you can use an email response template to make things easier.

In Outlook, create a new email, with the Subject “Standard Paragraphs”
Leave the To and From boxes blank
Paste in your most frequently used paragraphs.
Save the message, and close it.

Next time you need one of the standard responses, open the Standard Paragraphs draft message, copy a paragraph from there, and paste it into your current email.

Compare Phone Plans

To compare phone plans in your area of the USA, you can use the free online tool at the Bill Shrink site (no longer available)

Enter your minutes per month, current monthly fee and zip code, and a ranked list of plans is provided.

Make Meetings Productive

Some great advice is found in Getting Real, by 37signals. For example, they advise against holding meetings, whenever possible, but…

“For those times when you absolutely must have a meeting (this should be a rare event), stick to these simple rules:

Set a 30 minute timer. When it rings, meeting’s over. Period.
Invite as few people as possible.
Never have a meeting without a clear agenda. “

Author: Debra Dalgleish