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In Why to Use Microsoft Office Diagnostics we discussed the benefits and diagnostics options available. Here we are going to discuss how to use the diagnostics.

Before you start the diagnostics:

• Run the diagnostics when you do not need to use your computer
• Make sure you are connected to the Internet
• Close other programmes
• Make sure you have Microsoft Office installation disk in case there are problems and your program will need an access to the disk to repair

If Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Access are still working then to start the Microsoft Office Diagnostics follow the steps:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options (or Excel Options or PowerPoint Options or Access Options)
2. Click Resources
3. Click the Diagnose button
4. Click Continue, and then click Run Diagnostics.

If InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Project, SharePoint Designer, or Visio are still working then to start the Microsoft Office Diagnostics follow the steps

1. On the Help menu, click Office Diagnostics.
2. Click Continue, and then click Start Diagnostics.

If any of the above programmes has crashed so badly that they not start, you can run Office Diagnostics from the Start menu.

1. In Windows, click the Start button
2. Point to All Programs, then to Microsoft Office and then to Microsoft Office Tools
3. Select Microsoft Office Diagnostics

To check which tests are available read Tips and Tricks: Microsoft Office 2007 – Why Use Microsoft Office Diagnostics?

Want more tips? Click on Microsoft Tips & Tricks

You probably get very upset when your Microsoft Office application crashes down (closes down unexpectedly) while you are working on something important. It is not necessarily that the problem is within the Microsoft Office code. Computer viruses (read How to Protect Yourself from Viruses from Your Computer Health Part Two), disk failures, or laziness with respect to installing updates (read How to Stay up to Date Automatically from Your Computer Health Part One) are just a few issues causing this condition.

Microsoft Office Diagnostic is a tool included in Microsoft Office 2007 pack, allowing you to run a series of diagnostic tests that can help you discover why your computer is crashing. These tests will either solve problems directly or may help you with the ways to solve them.

These are the diagnostics that are run:

Setup Diagnostic – Files and registry are checked for errors occurring due to viruses or by hardware that is faulty or incorrectly configured. While running for about 15 minutes, the test may require the original installation source.

Disk Diagnostic – Hard disk is examined for errors logged by the Windows system and SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) feature of your hard disk (if provided by disk drive manufacturers) to notice potential hard disk failure.

Memory Diagnostic – Random Access Memory (RAM) is verified for integrity.

Update Diagnostic – Your computer is tested as to whether it has the latest updates installed to make Microsoft Office more stable. You can install updates from Microsoft Office Online.

Compatibility Diagnostic – Different versions of Microsoft Office are checked for conflicts, as two different versions of Office installed on your computer can cause instability.

Check for Known Solutions – The crash report is tested and checked against the database of Microsoft’s crash cases for available solutions.

To find out how to run diagnostics, read How to Fix Errors Using Microsoft Office Diagnostics.

You can choose from a wide selection of slide design templates to create a background for your PowerPoint presentation. But sometimes you may want something more unique, which matches the content of the presentation more directly. In these cases, create your own background in PowerPoint. Follow these steps to add a photo or a clip art as a background in PowerPoint.

1. From the Ribbon, select the Design tab.
2. In the Background section, click on the Background button in the right corner. This will open the Format Background dialog box.
3. Select Picture or texture fill and from the Insert from section, click on File or Clip Art to choose the photo or clip art you want to use as a background. If the object is small, PowerPoint will stretch it to cover the whole slide. However, this can deform the graphic object.
4. If the graphic object is small, you can tile it. This means that the picture or clip art object will be placed repeatedly across the slide in rows. To do that, check the Tile picture as texture box.
5. If you don’t want to stretch or tile the picture or clip art, you can offset it from the edges of the slide. Simply, edit the text boxes for the percentage of Offset you want from each edge of the slide. As best practice – use the same number to offset for all four sides of the slides to keep the proportion ratio of the picture.
6. If you use a picture or clip art as a background it is the best practice to keep it faded or transparent. To make it transparent, in Transparency use the transparent slider or type in a transparency percentage.
7. Click on the Close or Apply to All buttons to apply a background to an individual slide or to all slides in the presentation. If you are not happy with changes you can always click on Reset Background button.

In the “Putting the ‘Wow’ into PowerPoint Presentations – Part One – Readability” article we talked about how to make presentations readable. Here we learn how to make presentations more visually appealing.

PowerPoint – it’s one of the most commonly used presentation packages out there. That’s no surprise considering how easy it is to use. But you’d be surprised how many people aren’t making the most of this powerful software. Are you one of them?

Out of the 1 million PowerPoint presentations given every single day, many fail to make the most of images to create a great impression. A well-chosen image can grab our attention much more than lots of confusing words.

Here are some secrets for more attention grabbing PowerPoint presentations:

Picture this

You want your presentation to interest and inspire your audience. Using pictures or photos alongside your text will help people understand your message. And an unusual or amusing image could help keep your presentation in mind long after it’s over!

Aside from using images to make a point, don’t forget to use repeated background images to establish continuity between slides.

Get animated

Diagrams can be difficult to digest all at once. It’s often much more effective to present diagrams by revealing them one step at a time – rather than the whole thing in one go. For example, you could have a pyramid diagram revealing itself section by section from the bottom up.

There are lots of animation effects to choose from. They can help you control the flow of information, highlight key points and of course, keep your audience interested!

Double vision

So you’ve chosen the best images and pictures for your presentation, but how do you know they will win over your audience? It’s time to get someone you trust to take a look and see whether your images really do bring your talk to life.

Send your presentation over to a colleague or friend for review using Microsoft Outlook. Then your reviewer can view the presentation in the comfort of their own home or office and suggest changes to their copy of the presentation without having the chore of marking up hard copies. Once they’ve sent it back to you, you can add their comments using the PowerPoint reviewing tools.

Keep these simple rules in mind and you’ll soon be creating great looking presentations. A short PowerPoint training course could help you get even more out of PowerPoint and many other Microsoft packages.

You finally installed Office 2007 and guess what? You cannot find commands you are used to in the Menu!

It will certainly take a while to adjust to a new Menu. So what you can do to locate where your favourite Office 2003 commands are in the new Office 2007 interface?

Microsoft developed visual, interactive reference guides to help you quickly learn where things are. You can download and install them on your computer.

The only downside to it is that you have to download these guides for each of the Office 2007 Applications.

If you are not sure if it will help it, try an online demonstration from one of those listed at Microsoft Office Online.

If you are happy to proceed, use the following links to download command reference guides for each of the Office applications:

Word 2003 to Word 2007 interactive command reference guide

Excel 2003 to Excel 2007 interactive command reference guide

PowerPoint 2003 to PowerPoint 2007 interactive command reference guide

Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007 Interactive Command Reference Guide

Access 2003 to Access 2007 interactive command reference guide

PDF is a fixed-layout electronic file format that preserves document formatting. It ensures that when the file is viewed online or printed, it retains exactly the format that was initially intended, and that data in the file cannot easily be changed.

Before the release of Office 2007 we had to either buy Adobe Acrobat for about £450 in order to convert Office files into PDF format, or install a third party software solution.

With the release of Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft introduced a file format called XPS. It is similar to PDF in that you can save a file to this format and share or print it at a later date. This XPS format is not the global standard, and not many people know what it is when they receive it.

The following Office applications can be used to convert files to PDF format:

• Access
• Excel
• InfoPath
• OneNote
• PowerPoint
• Publisher
• Visio
• Word

In order to convert files, you need to install 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS. 

Let’s use Microsoft Word application to convert a Word file into PDF format.

1. Open a Microsoft Word document you want to save in PDF format
2. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then navigate to Save As, and click PDF Or XPS.

 

 

3.  In Save as Type, make sure that PDF is selected.

 

 

If you want to open the file immediately after saving it, select the Open file after publishing check box. This check box is available only if you have a PDF reader installed on your computer.

 

4. Click Publish to create your PDF.

Did you know that around 1 million PowerPoint presentations are given every single day? Unfortunately, many of these feature classic readability errors such as using bullet points with white text on a dark background, text that’s far too small to read and other errors! What do we mean by readability? We’re talking about presentations which are attractive, simple to follow and easy on the eye. So how can you make sure your own audience is sitting on the edge of its seat – not falling asleep?

Keep colours simple

A dark background provides a much more relaxing background for your audience – and helps them focus on the content. If you do choose a lighter colour, don’t go for white. It’s far too bright and can even become painful to look at.

Go for a font colour that strongly contrasts with the background colour. Don’t rely on the way the text looks on your computer screen. Instead project the image to check your audience will be able to see it.

Another tip is not to use red text on a green background or vice versa as these combinations don’t work for people with colour blindness.

Audience-friendly fonts

Don’t get too fancy with your fonts. Keep them simple and straightforward. For starters, your font size should be big enough so that it can read by people at the back of the room. Are you giving your presentation in an office, a hall or lecture theatre?  Keep the presentation space in mind when planning your talk. In general you should use 38 to 48 point type for titles and 24 to 32 point type for bullet points.

Put formatting first

Make your slides consistent with the same size style and font, and with text positioned in the same place on all your slides. This means you’ll get more of a ‘wow’ factor when you do change the font type, size or position for a particular slide.

You’re not obliged to fill every inch of each slide! If you do have so much text on your slide that you need to use small text, try to use a serif font like Times New Roman. Those clever little serifs (the bits that stick out on each letter) will help your audience to read and understand small text.

Don’t let your text come into the slide from the left. It’s distracting for Western audiences who are used to reading from left to right. Bringing your text in from the right or fading in words from the left will make your presentation much easier to follow.

Keep it consistent

Be kind to your audience – use the same font style and size throughout your presentations. Try to avoid using italicized type and lines in all capital letters, as they’re difficult to read.

So now you know some of the secrets behind giving great PowerPoint presentations. Interested in learning more? Find out how a short PowerPoint or Effective Presentations training courses could help you get even more out of electronic presentations.

Sometimes it is imperative to temporarily black out the screen while you are running Slide Show. In this case, press the letter b on a keyboard.

To return to the Slide Show from the blank black side, press the letter b again.

Suppose you want to start a PowerPoint file in a Slide Show but without opening a PowerPoint file. What shall you do?

If you double-click on a PowerPoint file, PowerPoint opens and shows the first slide in editing mode. To avoid this you can do the following:

• Locate the PowerPoint file you want to open in Slide Show
• Right click on the PowerPoint file’s icon with your mouse
• Select ‘Show’ from the displayed shortcut menu.

Your presentation will start in a Slide Show format. When it finishes, the file will be closed.

People are much more likely to buy into something when they can see and hear it. That’s the difference between telling your potential customers about your product or service – and showing them, with Microsoft PowerPoint. We all know that making a sale is about winning people over. A powerful presentation can play a big part in influencing and inspiring your potential customers. As humans we’re much more likely to take in and remember information when we can see and hear it. After just a short Microsoft PowerPoint training course you’ll be well on your way to making the most of this resource to bring your business to life and increase your sales.

Power up Your Sales

The more you learn about PowerPoint the more you’ll realise its potential for improving your sales. A PowerPoint training course will give you the skills to create a multi-dimensional sales pitch that you can duplicate and deliver many times to lots of different audiences. These presentations aren’t just great for a “live” audience! You can send PowerPoint presentations direct to clients – or even build them into your business website.  Static text is no match for a powerful combination of images, sounds, and movement.

Advanced Features

Lots of us have seen and used PowerPoint at some stage, but most people aren’t aware of how much they can get out of it. PowerPoint training will show you how to create professional-looking visuals – without the expensive graphics or fancy production software. A training course will also equip you to time presentations so that they run automatically, use special effects, embed sounds, add interactive controls, and even integrate Microsoft Word and Excel features.

Bring Your Business to Life with Embedded Video Files

Imagination is the most powerful sales resource of them all. So why not encourage your customers to see themselves having a great time using your particular product or service? You could include a video of real people enjoying your products and services in your presentation. Integrating video files to add depth and professionalism to your presentation is easy with the right training.

Share Your Message with a Narration Soundtrack 

A PowerPoint training course will give you the skills to embed a sound file and time your slide presentation to automatically follow along. PowerPoint puts you firmly in control of the order of your pitch. It allows you to maintain the flow and order of your presentation to suit you. You can build up the ideas in an way that will inspire your audience.

Get Interactive  

Get trained and you’ll find out how to add extra features to make your presentation stand out even more. You could add in some interactive features at the end of your timed presentation to build on the main information. Sending your presentation by email? Here’s an idea. If your presentation highlights three different products, why not add clickable images and link them to slides with further information, pictures, and video demonstrations about the products?

We’ve all seen dull presentations given by people who haven’t been trained how to use PowerPoint’s many great features. Make sure your presentations keep your potential customers interested – instead of sending them to sleep!  With a short PowerPoint training course you can inform and engage your contacts and stand out from your competition.