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MICROSOFT OFFICE:TIPS & TRICKS FOR EFFICIENCY

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TABLE OF CONTENTSMICROSOFT WORDMOUSE & KEYBOARD TRICKS

NAVIGATION 4

SELECTION 7

FORMATTING 8

STYLES

APPLYING STYLES 9

MODIFYING STYLES 9

FIXING STYLES 10

BUILDING A TABLE OF CONTENTS 12

MICROSOFT EXCELKEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

NAVIGATION 13

EDITING 17

FORMATTING 17

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CUSTOMIZATIONS

QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR 18

CUSTOMIZING EXISTING RIBBONS 20

CUSTOM RIBBONS 23

EXPORTING & IMPORTING CUSTOMIZATIONS 25

USING TABLES

INSERTING TABLES 26

TABLE REFERENCES 28

MICROSOFT POWERPOINTCOMPELLING VISUALS

CONVERT TO SMARTART 29

MORPH TRANSITION 30

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

BUILDING A PRESENTATION 32

DELIVERING A PRESENTATION 32

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MOUSE & KEYBOARD TRICKSNAVIGATIONNavigation has to do with how far you want to move - so what choices can we make? To begin, we can jump to the first character of the document or the last character of the document. Those keyboard shortcuts are:

[CTRL] + [HOME] [CTRL] + [END]

So we’ve just jumped the entire document. Now, it makes sense to jump one page at a time. These two shortcuts navigate you to the top of the previous page or the top of the next page:

[CTRL] + [PAGE UP] [CTRL] + [PAGE DOWN]

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Those shortcuts use the physical pages of the document as the markers. A different approach would be to scroll up or down one screen:

[PAGE UP] [PAGE DOWN]

Often, I’m moving paragraph-by-paragraph through my document. To jump up or down one paragraph, use the keyboard shortcuts:

[CTRL] + [UP ARROW] [CTRL] + [DOWN ARROW]

To move up or down one line within the paragraph, simply use the same shortcuts without the Control key:

[UP ARROW] [DOWN ARROW]

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You will probably need to get to the end of a line of content quickly, and this is where we use the first two shortcut buttons without holding Control:

[HOME] [END]

To move one word left or right, hold the Control key while using the left and right arrows:

[CTRL] + [RIGHT ARROW] [CTRL] + [LEFT ARROW]

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SELECTIONThe first thing I’d recommend you do is try to use the previous shortcuts for navigation, but hold [SHIFT] while doing it. Anytime you move from one location to another in a document while holding shift, you’ll select everything you pass over.

Next: try the double-click and the triple-click. Double-clicking a word will select the word, while triple-clicking a paragraph will select the paragraph.

Click to the left of any line of text and it will select the line:

Hold [CTRL] while clicking a word, and Word selects the sentence that word is in.

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FORMATTINGThe most common font formatting shortcuts are relatively obvious:

[CTRL] + [B] Bold [CTRL] + [I] Italics

[CTRL] + [U] Underline

Less obvious are:

[CTRL] + [D] Open Font dialog [SHIFT] + [F3] Change Case

[CTRL] + []] Increase font size [CTRL] + [[] Decrease font size

And finally, if you like the formatting from one area, copy formatting from one area and paste formatting onto content somewhere else with:

[CTRL] + [SHIFT] + [C] Copy Formatting

[CTRL] + [SHIFT] + [V] Paste Formatting

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STYLESAPPLYING STYLESAny content in your document that you see as a heading of a section should have one of the Heading styles (heading 1, heading 2..) applied. To apply this heading, first click anywhere within a paragraph of text (headings are applied on the paragraph level).

Then, choose the appropriate heading level from Home Tab > Styles:

MODIFYING STYLESThe most common pushback I receive from this is that the headings don’t have the right appearance. Simply right-click any style and choose Modify...

Now, using the panel you see, as well as the Font drop-down menu in the bottom-left, choose the appearance of this style. Every instance of the style in your document will update.

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FIXING STYLESIf someone has applied unique formatting throughout your document, use Find and Replace. Click Home Tab > Replace (CTRL + H):

Now, using the More >> button at the bottom of the panel, you should see some additional options:

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Find a Font formatting option (like 24pt font):

..and Replace it with the Style Heading 1.

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BUILDING A TABLE OF CONTENTSAs long as you have styles used effectively throughout your document, inserting a Table of Contents is simple. Find a location for the table, and click References Tab > Table of Contents.

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KEYBOARD SHORTCUTSNAVIGATIONIn your spreadsheets, there are a few common maneuvers you’ll want to be able to do with your keyboard, rather than the mouse. First is navigating between Excel workbook:

[CTRL] + [TAB]

Next, navigating between tabs, or worksheets within the workbook:

[CTRL] + [PAGE UP] [CTRL] + [PAGE DOWN]

You can move one screen at a time, up and down:

[PAGE UP] [PAGE DOWN]

You can navigate to the first cell and the last cell used in your spreadsheet (note last cell used is the intersection of the last column and last row, not necessary with content):

[CTRL] + [HOME] [CTRL] + [END]

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The last idea is a bit more complicated. Excel prefers contiguous data - sets of cells that are related to one another without empty rows or columns. One of the illustrations of this is when you use the arrow keys together with the Control key. Let’s say you’re selected in cell F12 in this spreadsheet:

You can move to cell F4 (topmost cell in the column of data), A12 (leftmost cell in the row of data), L12 (rightmost cell in the row of data, or F927 (bottommost cell in the column of data by using:

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[CTRL] + [UP ARROW] (F4)

[CTRL] + [LEFT ARROW] (A12)

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[CTRL] + [RIGHT ARROW] (L12)

[CTRL] + [DOWN ARROW] (F927)

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EDITINGWhile editing a set of data in Excel, always use the following shortcuts. This will make your editing as efficient and pain-free as possible:

After editing a cell, either move:

[TAB] Right [SHIFT] + [TAB] Left

[ENTER] Down [SHIFT] + [ENTER] Up

... or, don’t move:

[CTRL] + [ENTER] Lock in data, remain on current cell

For editing, press:

[F2] Edit contents [ESC] Cancel editing

FORMATTINGThe most common font formatting shortcuts are relatively obvious:

[CTRL] + [B] Bold [CTRL] + [I] Italics

[CTRL] + [U] Underline

However, my favorite keyboard shortcut is to format literally anything:

[CTRL] + [1] Format selected

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CUSTOMIZATIONSQUICK ACCESS TOOLBARThe fastest way to build efficiency in Microsoft Office is to add commonly used tools to the Quick Access Toolbar. To do this, you can right-click any tool on the Ribbon and choose Add to Quick Access Toolbar:

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However, if you can’t find the button you want on the Ribbon, try clicking File Tab > Options > Quick Access Toolbar. From here, you can add any tool in Excel to the QAT.

Once this is completed, one of the most valuable parts of adding your tools to the QAT is that you have new keyboard shortcuts: [ALT] + [#], where the # is the number position on the QAT:

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CUSTOMIZING EXISTING RIBBONSYou can add any button to the existing Ribbons (Home, Insert, View, etc.), but first you must add a Custom Group. Click File Tab > Options > Customize Ribbon:

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Now, choose New Group... at the bottom of the right panel in the Ribbon you’d like to add to, then choose Rename to give it a better name. In this example, I’ve added a new Group to the beginning of the Insert Tab called Cells.

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Choose any tools from the center panel, and Add>> them to the right panel, in the new Group you’ve created (I added Insert Cells, Insert Columns, Insert Rows, Delete Cells, Delete Columns, and Delete Rows). Click OK to complete the process.

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CUSTOM RIBBONSAnother customization alternative is to create a new Ribbon altogether. If, for example, you want to be able to insert Charts, Tables, Pivot Tables, and Text Boxes, and the rest of the buttons on the current Insert Tab are noise to you, just build a new Insert Tab with the tools you find relevant. Click File Tab > Options > Customize Ribbon.

Now, click New Tab and Rename the tab something that works for you (maybe Add).

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Finally, you can Add>> any tools you want to the Ribbon, and disable (by unchecking) the existing Insert Tab.

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EXPORTING & IMPORTING CUSTOMIZATIONSBy clicking File Tab > Options > Customize Ribbon, you’ll find a button at the bottom of the panel labeled Import/Export. The idea with this button is to bring your preferred Quick Access Toolbar and Ribbons to a new computer - or even to share those with coworkers.

Click Import/Export and choose Export all customizations. This will create a new Exported Office UI file that you can save to your Desktop.

The next time you move to a new computer, just choose Import customization file, and you’ll be able to tweak the toolbars to your preferences.

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USING TABLESINSERTING TABLESWith any data set, there are certain, common things we do: format them, use them in calculations, sort or filter them. Because of these commonalities, Microsoft identified and created a new tool called a Table. To create one, click to select a cell within the data set. Then, press Insert Tab > Table or use the keyboard shortcut [CTRL] + [T].

Now your data set is a Table. On the Design Tab at the top of screen, click the drop-down associated with Table Styles and choose an aesthetic that works for your setup.

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Additionally, you can click the checkbox to add a Total Row. This will give you a subtotal row at the base of the column, where you can add, average, max, min, or count the values in any column.

Another tool you might use is the Slicer feature, which gives you a graphical filter mechanism.

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TABLE REFERENCESAfter you create a table, you’ll see a field for Table Name available. Each table name needs to follow the same constraints: (1) begin with a letter, and (2) no spaces.

I’ll name this table Employees, for example. Now, if I need to run a calculation on the Salary column of this table, I can use a Table reference, which is dynamic.

The standard Table reference convention is TableName[Column Name] - let’s see it at work in a SUM function, for example:

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COMPELLING VISUALSCONVERT TO SMARTARTIf you open a presentation with too many bullet points, try turning some of them directly into diagrams. The added visual context, and the ability to simplify the text, can be simple solutions to tedious slides.

Click within a set of bullet points, as below:

Now, on the Home Tab, choose the Convert to SmartArt drop-down menu, and hover over the various options. You’re converting your bullets directly into a diagram!

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MORPH TRANSITIONThe Morph Transition, introduced in Office 2016, is undoubtedly the most professional and useful transition in PowerPoint. Its design is very simple:

First, design a slide that has some visual elements at a position, size, rotation, and color:

Next, use the keyboard shortcut [CTRL] + [D] to duplicate that slide:

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Finally, move, scale, and otherwise change the elements that were on the original slide:

Click Transitions Tab > Morph, and PowerPoint will automatically create a fluid shift from the first slide to the second. You can do this indefinitely throughout your presentation.

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KEYBOARD SHORTCUTSBUILDING A PRESENTATIONThe following shortcuts are among the most valuable to my workflow when building a presentation:

[CTRL] + [M] New Slide [CTRL] + [D] Duplicate Selected

DELIVERING A PRESENTATIONThe following shortcuts are among the most valuable to me when presenting a slide deck:

[F5] Start Slide Show from Beginning [SHIFT] + [F5] Start from Current Slide

[B] Black Screen [#] + [ENTER] Navigate to Slide #

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Neil Malek is a software instructor from Orlando, FL. He runs Knack Training, a company providing Microsoft Office and SharePoint, Adobe Creative Cloud, G Suite, public speaking, and other professional development courses. He is a Microsoft Certified Trainer, Adobe Certified Expert, and CompTIA Certified Technical Trainer.

You can get in touch with Neil, and follow his content, through:

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