If you already know how to use SmartArt to convert ideas into engaging graphics , you won't hesitate to download the new SmartArt for Office 2010. The new Converging Text SmartArt is particularly helpful in showing how ideas feed into a process or outcome...

It's not unusual—in fact, it's typical—for PC users to keep a number of windows open on the desktop. My neighbor, Joe (not his real name), discussed this very issue with me at last Saturday night's block party and barbecue. At his job, I learned, Joe...

If your Word document looks like a wall of text and you have no pictures, tables, or diagrams to break up all of the gray, try adding some pull quotes. Find short statements to emphasize that will draw your readers deeper in to the document. Once you...

If you have a blog or web site, you no longer need to worry about whether your site visitors have Office installed. You can embed Office documents directly onto your page. First, you'll need a free SkyDrive account at https://skydrive.live.com/ - just...

Depending on what you're working on throughout the day, you may want to de-clutter your view in Outlook to focus just on the task at hand. To hide the Ribbon, just click up arrow on the right side of the Ribbon or press Ctrl+F1 : Don't worry, you can...

If you've spent any time with Excel, you probably know that the Enter key advances you to the next cell in a column, and the arrow keys move your focus to the next cell in any direction. Here are some lesser known shortcuts you may want to add to your...

Here, presented for your entertainment (and for the benefit of anyone who values your productivity, organization, or creative flair), are five downright magical tricks built right into Internet Explorer 9. Stash these tricks up your sleeve or in your...

In most cases, you want to keep your dollar values in Excel as numbers so they can be used in math functions. But there may be cases where you want your dollars converted to text, say to concatenate them with other text strings. Just use the DOLLAR function...

The Office team has compiled customers' favorite commands across all Office 2010 applications, which you can download to add as a Favorites tab in Access, Excel, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Publisher, Visio, and Word. For example...

Too busy to read all of the documents on your To Do list? If you want, you can have your Office applications read them to you. This will work in any Office 2010 program except Access. First, click the arrow icon to the right of your Quick Access Toolbar...

If you spend a lot of time working with styles, this next tip is for you. And it works in both Word 2007 and Word 2010. To view the active style and quickly change it or modify the base style, you can use the Ctrl+Shift+S shortcut to open the Apply Styles...

Stress is a fact of life, and I even read somewhere that a certain amount of it can be good for you. Internet Explorer 9, however, has no desire to raise your blood pressure or give you an ulcer. Instead, IE9 has a number of security and privacy features...

If you've ever grappled with positioning an image in Word in just the right spot in relation to your wrapped text, you should turn on object anchors to show where the image is actually tethered. This works in Word 2007 and Word 2010. Go to File , Options...

One of the best features you may have missed in Office 2010 is the tight integration between Outlook and OneNote. Open up an appointment in Outlook 2010 and you'll see a small OneNote button: Click it to open a linked meeting notes section (the first...

If you use pictures in your Word documents and PowerPoint presentations, you probably hunt regularly for useful clip art on Office.com. But you don't have to stop there. Make the imagery your own by changing the colors and even removing unwanted elements...

I recently shared how you can restrict data input in Excel to certain number ranges , such as whole number percentages. But what if you're dealing with a strict set of values, like product names, and you don't want users to be able to create any new variations...

Imagine a whole conference room full of highly visible Windows features, and you've got... The Desktop Gadget Staff Meeting Let's listen in as some of the most popular Desktop Gadgets gather. CLOCK GADGET: Okay, great, thanks for being on time. We said...

If you've been using Outlook for a long time, you probably know the basic shortcuts: New message: Ctrl+N Mark message read: Ctrl+Q Mark message unread: Ctrl+U Delete item: Ctrl+D or Delete Check for new mail: Ctrl+M or F9 And if you've been reading this...

If you're an old pro at Office, you may be wondering what happened to Smart Tags when you upgraded to Office 2010. They have been renamed Actions, and you have a lot of flexibility in how you use them. Actions are also less obtrusive. There's no longer...

The OneNote team invited 40 travel bloggers to create OneNote documents covering major travel destinations. You can preview them online via SkyDrive and then download local copies to customize in OneNote 2010. Download the free OneNote TripBooks and then...

There are a few different ways to create horizontal divider lines in Word 2007 and Word 2010. The most commonly used one is done by typing three hyphens ( --- ) and then pressing Enter : If you want a dotted line, use three asterisks ( *** ): Three equal...

Even my pet crocodile Spike (a rescue from the pound) can't give my PC the kind of protection he gives my home. Fortunately, Windows 7 wards off the evils and dangers that constantly threaten my PC's well-being. Here's how: 1. My PC's watchman. User Account...