Carol Bratt

Sometimes we receive e-mail messages referring to some earlier messages that we don't remember and cannot find. That is always perplexing. There is a command in MS Outlook that is often overlooked that can help with this and it's very simple. Follow ... the steps below to learn about it: Select a message and click on Actions | Find All | Related Messages. Outlook will now search for all messages with the same subject line, including all forwarded versions. This is really a shortcut for using the Advanced Find feature, but with the search criteria already entered for you. Outlook adds a shortcut ... (view more)

Many times we copy text from some place on the Internet and then blithely paste it into our half-finished Word document to complete a report for someone in our office. But now it doesn't look quite right and you cannot seem to edit it for some ... reason! That is because when you copy the text from a Web page or another document, you bring the source's formatting from what you copied into your document. Follow the steps below to prevent that from happening when you copy and paste text: Click in your document where you want to paste the text that you have just copied. Click on Edit | Paste | Paste ... (view more)

This tips sounds fairly innocuous but believe it or not, there is some information in here about selecting your text in MS Word that you may not have been aware of: Follow the steps below to see if there is something YOU didn't know about: To select ... a word, double-click your left mouse button on the word. To select a sentence, hold down CTRL and single click your left mouse button on the sentence. To select a line of text on the screen, single-click with your left mouse button in the left screen margin at the line you want to select. To select a paragraph, triple-click your left mouse button ... (view more)

I am sure that you have on more than one occasion run into the problem where you have just completed a document and it is perfect except that the last sentence of two flows over onto the next page. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could have that ... document fit on one page without going to a lot of trouble to change the formatting? Well you can absolutely make that happen in MS Word! Follow the steps below to learn how: Launch MS Word if it is not already open. Open the offending document that will not fit onto one page. Click on File | Print Preview. Select Shrink to Fit. That's really all ... (view more)

Many of us have and use MS Excel Worksheets that accumulate more and more data over time. Pretty soon you will find yourself mucking about in all of that data, trying to search for something specific. We all know that we can search in MS Excel by ... using CTRL + F to display the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box and do a search of the entire worksheet. If you want to place a limit on your search, however, there is another way to do this. Follow the steps below: Select the range you want to search before you press CTRL + F. Perhaps you only want to search a specific column in your ... (view more)

When you have a document that contains tables and you decide to change the page setup, by default, tables will not change their width to match your formatting. For instance, say you have created a table that extends from the 1.0" page margin on the ... left to the 1.0" page margin on the right. Should you decide to change the margins to 0.5", the table moves to the left. You could try to reposition your table by clicking and dragging the table borders so they continue to extend to the right margin or you could try formatting the columns and their contents to achieve that result. ... (view more)

You do not always need a formula in MS Excel. That's right, you can just look at the Status bar to view a quick calculation. On the right-hand of the Status bar, at the bottom of the Excel screen, calculations can be displayed for the average, ... count, number or numbers, maximum/minimum value, and sum of any given range of numbers. Follow the steps below to see how: Select a range of cells in MS Excel. In Excel version 2003, right-click on the Status bar, where you see the calculation listed, and choose the function to be performed. In Excel version 2007, look toward the bottom of your screen. ... (view more)

It is very frustrating to see headings as the last line on a page, or referred to and then displayed on the following page. This can easily be prevented with one click. There are four different advanced page layout commands and you should be aware ... of how they relate to one another. Follow the steps below to learn how: In Word versions 97-2003, click on Format | Paragraph. In Word 2007 Click on ALT + H for Home and the Paragraph Group.) Click the Line and Page Breaks tab. The first four options are the ones that you should consider: Keep with next - keeps both the selected paragraph(s) and the ... (view more)