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Beschreibung

Home and business users around the globe turn to Microsoft Office and its core applications every day. Whether you're a newcomer or a veteran Office user, this friendly-but-informative guide provides in-depth coverage on all the newest updates and enhancements to the Office 2013 suite. With an overview of tools common to all Office applications and self-contained minibooks devoted to each Office application, Office 2013 All-in-One For Dummies gets you up to speed and answers the questions you'll have down the road. * Explores the new Office interface and explains how it works across the applications * Features eight minibooks that cover Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher, OneNote, common Office tools, and ways to expand Office productivity * Highlights the new online versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as well as changes to the interface and new tools and techniques Office 2013 All-in-One For Dummies makes it easy to learn to use Office and gets you up and running on all the changes and enhancements in Office 2013.

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Office 2013 All-in-One For Dummies®

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012956418

ISBN: 978-1-118-51636-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-55025-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-55029-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-855024-3 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Peter Weverka is the best-selling author of many For Dummies books, including Office 2010 All-in-One For Dummies, as well as 38 other computer books about various topics. Peter’s humorous articles and stories — none related to computers, thankfully — have appeared in Harper’s, SPY, and other magazines for grown-ups.

Dedication

For Aiko Sofia and Henry Gabriel.

Author’s Acknowledgments

This book owes a lot to many hard-working people at the offices of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in Indiana. For the umpteenth time, I want to express my gratitude to Steve Hayes for his encouragement and the opportunity to write another For Dummies book.

Susan Christophersen knows the editing craft as well as any editor I have ever worked with. It was a pleasure — once again — to work with her.

Technical Editor Michele Krazniak made sure that all the explanations in this book are indeed accurate, and I would like to thank her for her diligence and suggestions for improving this book. I would also like to thank BIM Proofreading & Indexing Services for writing the index.

If you turn this page you will see, on the flip side, the names of all the people who worked on this book. I am grateful to all of them.

Finally, I owe my family — Sofia, Henry, and Addie — a debt for tolerating my vampire-like working hours and eerie demeanor at daybreak.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions and Editorial

Project and Copy Editor: Susan Christophersen

Executive Editor: Steve Hayes

Technical Editor: Michelle Krazniak

Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen

Editorial Assistant: Annie Sullivan

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cover Photo: © iStockphoto.com / kzenon

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Patrick Redmond

Layout and Graphics: Ana Carrillo, Jennifer Creasey, Joyce Haughey

Proofreaders: Jessica Kramer, Linda Seifert

Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Office 2013 All In One For Dumies ®

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/office2013aio to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Introduction

What’s in This Book, Anyway?

What Makes This Book Different

Easy-to-look-up information

A task-oriented approach

Meaningful screen shots

Foolish Assumptions

Conventions Used in This Book

Icons Used in This Book

Book I: Common Office Tasks

Book I: Chapter 1: Office Nuts and Bolts

A Survey of Office Applications

Starting an Office Program

Starting an Office program in Windows 7 and Vista

Starting an Office program in Windows 8

Finding Your Way Around the Office Interface

The File tab and Backstage

The Quick Access toolbar

The Ribbon and its tabs

Context-sensitive tabs

The anatomy of a tab

Live previewing

Mini-toolbars and shortcut menus

Office 2013 for keyboard lovers

Saving Your Files

Saving a file

Saving a file for the first time

Declaring where you like to save files

Saving AutoRecovery information

Navigating the Save As and Open Windows

Opening and Closing Files

Opening a file

Closing a file

Reading and Recording File Properties

Locking a File with a Password

Password-protecting a file

Removing a password from a file

Book I: Chapter 2: Wrestling with the Text

Manipulating the Text

Selecting text

Moving and copying text

Taking advantage of the Clipboard task pane

Deleting text

Changing the Look of Text

Choosing fonts for text

Changing the font size of text

Applying font styles to text

Applying text effects to text

Underlining text

Changing the color of text

Quick Ways to Handle Case, or Capitalization

Entering Symbols and Foreign Characters

Creating Hyperlinks

Linking a hyperlink to a web page

Creating a hyperlink to another place in your file

Creating an e-mail hyperlink

Repairing and removing hyperlinks

Book I: Chapter 3: Speed Techniques Worth Knowing About

Undoing and Repeating Commands

Undoing a mistake

Repeating an action — and quicker this time

Zooming In, Zooming Out

Viewing a File Through More Than One Window

Correcting Typos on the Fly

Entering Text Quickly with the AutoCorrect Command

Book II: Word 2013

Book II: Chapter 1: Speed Techniques for Using Word

Introducing the Word Screen

Creating a New Document

Getting a Better Look at Your Documents

Viewing documents in different ways

Splitting the screen

Selecting Text in Speedy Ways

Moving Around Quickly in Documents

Keys for getting around quickly

Navigating from page to page or heading to heading

Going there fast with the Go To command

Bookmarks for hopping around

Inserting a Whole File into a Document

Entering Information Quickly in a Computerized Form

Creating a computerized form

Entering data in the form

Book II: Chapter 2: Laying Out Text and Pages

Paragraphs and Formatting

Inserting a Section Break for Formatting Purposes

Breaking a Line

Starting a New Page

Setting Up and Changing the Margins

Indenting Paragraphs and First Lines

Clicking an Indent button (for left-indents)

“Eye-balling it” with the ruler

Indenting in the Paragraph dialog box

Numbering the Pages

Numbering with page numbers only

Including a page number in a header or footer

Changing page number formats

Putting Headers and Footers on Pages

Creating, editing, and removing headers and footers

Fine-tuning a header or footer

Adjusting the Space Between Lines

Adjusting the Space Between Paragraphs

Creating Numbered and Bulleted Lists

Simple numbered and bulleted lists

Constructing lists of your own

Managing a multilevel list

Working with Tabs

Hyphenating Text

Automatically and manually hyphenating a document

Unhyphenating and other hyphenation tasks

Book II: Chapter 3: Word Styles

All About Styles

Styles and templates

Types of styles

Applying Styles to Text and Paragraphs

Applying a style

Experimenting with style sets

Choosing which style names appear on the Style menus

Creating a New Style

Creating a style from a paragraph

Creating a style from the ground up

Modifying a Style

Creating and Managing Templates

Creating a new template

Opening a template so that you can modify it

Modifying, deleting, and renaming styles in templates

Book II: Chapter 4: Constructing the Perfect Table

Talking Table Jargon

Creating a Table

Entering the Text and Numbers

Selecting Different Parts of a Table

Laying Out Your Table

Changing the size of a table, columns, and rows

Adjusting column and row size

Inserting columns and rows

Deleting columns and rows

Moving columns and rows

Aligning Text in Columns and Rows

Merging and Splitting Cells

Repeating Header Rows on Subsequent Pages

Formatting Your Table

Designing a table with a table style

Calling attention to different rows and columns

Decorating your table with borders and colors

Using Math Formulas in Tables

Neat Table Tricks

Changing the direction of header row text

Wrapping text around a table

Using a picture as the table background

Drawing diagonal lines on tables

Drawing on a table

Book II: Chapter 5: Taking Advantage of the Proofing Tools

Correcting Your Spelling Errors

Correcting misspellings one at a time

Running a spell-check

Preventing text from being spell checked

Checking for Grammatical Errors in Word

Getting a Word Definition

Finding and Replacing Text

The basics: Finding stray words and phrases

Narrowing your search

Conducting a find-and-replace operation

Researching a Topic Inside Word

Finding the Right Word with the Thesaurus

Proofing Text Written in a Foreign Language

Telling Office which languages you will use

Marking text as foreign language text

Translating Foreign Language Text

Book II: Chapter 6: Desktop Publishing with Word

Experimenting with Themes

Sprucing Up Your Pages

Decorating a page with a border

Putting a background color on pages

Getting Word’s help with cover letters

Making Use of Charts, Diagrams, Shapes, Clip Art, and Photos

Working with the Drawing Canvas

Positioning and Wrapping Objects Relative to the Page and Text

Wrapping text around an object

Positioning an object on a page

Working with Text Boxes

Inserting a text box

Making text flow from text box to text box

Dropping In a Drop Cap

Watermarking for the Elegant Effect

Putting Newspaper-Style Columns in a Document

Doing the preliminary work

Running text into columns

Landscape Documents

Printing on Different Size Paper

Showing Online Video in a Document

Book II: Chapter 7: Getting Word’s Help with Office Chores

Highlighting Parts of a Document

Commenting on a Document

Entering a comment

Viewing and displaying comments

Caring for and feeding comments

Tracking Changes to Documents

Telling Word to start marking changes

Reading and reviewing a document with change marks

Marking changes when you forgot to turn on change marks

Accepting and rejecting changes to a document

Printing an Address on an Envelope

Printing a Single Address Label(or a Page of the Same Label)

Churning Out Letters, Envelopes, and Labels for Mass Mailings

Preparing the source file

Merging the document with the source file

Printing form letters, envelopes, and labels

Book II: Chapter 8: Tools for Reports and Scholarly Papers

Alphabetizing a List

Outlines for Organizing Your Work

Viewing the outline in different ways

Rearranging document sections in Outline view

Collapsing and Expanding Parts of a Document

Generating a Table of Contents

Creating a TOC

Updating and removing a TOC

Customizing a TOC

Changing the structure of a TOC

Indexing a Document

Marking index items in the document

Generating the index

Editing an index

Putting Cross-References in a Document

Putting Footnotes and Endnotes in Documents

Entering a footnote or endnote

Choosing the numbering scheme and position of notes

Deleting, moving, and editing notes

Compiling a Bibliography

Inserting a citation for your bibliography

Editing a citation

Changing how citations appear in text

Generating the bibliography

Book III: Excel 2013

Book III: Chapter 1: Up and Running with Excel

Creating a New Excel Workbook

Getting Acquainted with Excel

Rows, columns, and cell addresses

Workbooks and worksheets

Entering Data in a Worksheet

The basics of entering data

Entering text labels

Entering numeric values

Entering date and time values

Quickly Entering Lists and Serial Data with the AutoFill Command

Formatting Numbers, Dates, and Time Values

Conditional Formats for Calling Attention to Data

Establishing Data-Validation Rules

Book III: Chapter 2: Refining Your Worksheet

Editing Worksheet Data

Moving Around in a Worksheet

Getting a Better Look at the Worksheet

Freezing and splitting columns and rows

Hiding columns and rows

Comments for Documenting Your Worksheet

Selecting Cells in a Worksheet

Deleting, Copying, and Moving Data

Handling the Worksheets in a Workbook

Keeping Others from Tampering with Worksheets

Hiding a worksheet

Protecting a worksheet

Book III: Chapter 3: Formulas and Functions for Crunching Numbers

How Formulas Work

Referring to cells in formulas

Referring to formula results in formulas

Operators in formulas

The Basics of Entering a Formula

Speed Techniques for Entering Formulas

Clicking cells to enter cell references

Entering a cell range

Naming cell ranges so that you can use them in formulas

Referring to cells in different worksheets

Copying Formulas from Cell to Cell

Detecting and Correcting Errors in Formulas

Correcting errors one at a time

Running the error checker

Tracing cell references

Working with Functions

Using arguments in functions

Entering a function in a formula

Book III: Chapter 4: Making a Worksheet Easier to Read and Understand

Laying Out a Worksheet

Aligning numbers and text in columns and rows

Inserting and deleting rows and columns

Changing the size of columns and rows

Decorating a Worksheet with Borders and Colors

Cell styles for quickly formatting a worksheet

Formatting cells with table styles

Slapping borders on worksheet cells

Decorating worksheets with colors

Getting Ready to Print a Worksheet

Making a worksheet fit on a page

Making a worksheet more presentable

Repeating row and column headings on each page

Book III: Chapter 5: Advanced Techniques for Analyzing Data

Seeing What the Sparklines Say

Managing Information in Lists

Sorting a list

Filtering a list

Forecasting with the Goal Seek Command

Performing What-If Analyses with Data Tables

Using a one-input table for analysis

Using a two-input table for analysis

Analyzing Data with Pivot Tables

Creating a PivotTable

Putting the finishing touches on a PivotTable

Book IV: PowerPoint 2013

Book IV: Chapter 1: Getting Started in PowerPoint

Getting Acquainted with PowerPoint

A Brief Geography Lesson

A Whirlwind Tour of PowerPoint

Creating a New Presentation

Advice for Building Persuasive Presentations

Creating New Slides for Your Presentation

Inserting a new slide

Speed techniques for inserting slides

Conjuring slides from Word document headings

Selecting a different layout for a slide

Getting a Better View of Your Work

Changing views

Looking at the different views

Hiding and Displaying the SlidesPane and Notes Pane

Selecting, Moving, and Deleting Slides

Selecting slides

Moving slides

Deleting slides

Putting Together a Photo Album

Creating your photo album

Putting on the final touches

Editing a photo album

Hidden Slides for All Contingencies

Hiding a slide

Showing a hidden slide during a presentation

Book IV: Chapter 2: Fashioning a Look for Your Presentation

Looking at Themes and Slide Backgrounds

Choosing a Theme for Your Presentation

Creating Slide Backgrounds on Your Own

Using a solid (or transparent) color for the slide background

Creating a gradient color blend for slide backgrounds

Placing a picture in the slide background

Using a photo of your own for a slide background

Using a texture for a slide background

Changing the Background of a Single or Handful of Slides

Choosing the Slide Size

Using Master Slides and Master Styles for a Consistent Design

Switching to Slide Master view

Understanding master slides and master styles

Editing a master slide

Changing a master slide layout

Book IV: Chapter 3: Entering the Text

Entering Text

Choosing fonts for text

Changing the font size of text

Changing the look of text

Fun with Text Boxes and Text Box Shapes

Controlling How Text Fits in Text Frames and Text Boxes

Choosing how PowerPoint “AutoFits” text in text frames

Choosing how PowerPoint “AutoFits” text in text boxes

Positioning Text in Frames and Text Boxes

Handling Bulleted and Numbered Lists

Creating a standard bulleted or numbered list

Choosing a different bullet character, size, and color

Choosing a different list-numbering style, size, and color

Putting Footers (and Headers) on Slides

Some background on footers and headers

Putting a standard footer on all your slides

Creating a nonstandard footer

Removing a footer from a single slide

Book IV: Chapter 4: Making Your Presentations Livelier

Suggestions for Enlivening Your Presentation

Presenting Information in a Table

Exploring Transitions and Animations

Showing transitions between slides

Animating parts of a slide

Making Audio Part of Your Presentation

Inserting an audio file on a slide

Telling PowerPoint when and how to play an audio file

Playing audio during a presentation

Playing Video on Slides

Inserting a video on a slide

Fine-tuning a video presentation

Experimenting with the look of the video

Recording a Voice Narration for Slides

Book IV: Chapter 5: Delivering a Presentation

All about Notes

Rehearsing and Timing Your Presentation

Showing Your Presentation

Starting and ending a presentation

Going from slide to slide

Tricks for Making Presentations a Little Livelier

Wielding a pen or highlighter in a presentation

Blanking the screen

Zooming In

Delivering a Presentation When You Can’t Be There in Person

Providing handouts for your audience

Creating a self-running, kiosk-style presentation

Creating a user-run presentation

Presenting a Presentation Online

Packaging your presentation on a CD

Creating a presentation video

Book V: OneNote 2013

Book V: Chapter 1: Up and Running with OneNote

Introducing OneNote

Finding Your Way Around the OneNote Screen

Notebook pane

Section (and section group) tabs

Page window

Page pane

Units for Organizing Notes

Creating a Notebook

Creating Sections and Section Groups

Creating a new section

Creating a section group

Creating Pages and Subpages

Creating a new page

Creating a new subpage

Renaming and Deleting Groups and Pages

Getting from Place to Place in OneNote

Changing Your View of OneNote

Book V: Chapter 2: Taking Notes

Entering a Typewritten Note

Notes: The Basics

Moving and resizing note containers

Formatting the Text in Notes

Selecting notes

Deleting notes

Getting more space for notes on a page

Drawing on the Page

Drawing with a pen or highlighter

Drawing a shape

Changing the size and appearance of drawings and shapes

Converting a Handwritten Note to Text

Writing a Math Expression in a Note

Taking a Screen-Clipping Note

Recording and Playing Audio Notes

Recording an audio note

Playing an audio note

Attaching, Copying, and Linking Files to Notes

Attaching an Office file to a note

Copying an Office file into OneNote

Linking a Word or PowerPoint file to OneNote

Copying a note into another Office program

Book V: Chapter 3: Finding and Organizing Your Notes

Finding a Stray Note

Searching by word or phrase

Searching by author

Tagging Notes for Follow Up

Tagging a note

Arranging tagged notes in the task pane

Creating and modifying tags

Color-Coding Notebooks, Sections, and Pages

Merging and Moving Sections, Pages, and Notes

Book VI: Outlook 2013

Book VI: Chapter 1: Outlook Basics

What Is Outlook, Anyway?

Navigating the Outlook Folders

Categorizing Items

Creating a category

Assigning items to categories

Arranging items by category in folders

Searching for Stray Folder Items

Conducting an instant search

Refining a search

Conducting an advanced search

Deleting E-Mail Messages, Contacts, Tasks, and Other Items

Finding and Backing Up Your Outlook File

Cleaning Out Your Folders

Archiving the old stuff

Running the Mailbox Cleanup command

Book VI: Chapter 2: Maintaining the Contacts Folder

Maintaining a Happy and Healthy Contacts Folder

Entering a new contact in the Contacts folder

Changing a contact’s information

Contact Groups for Sending Messages to Groups

Creating a contact group

Addressing e-mail to a contact group

Editing a contact group

Finding a Contact in the Contacts Folder

Printing the Contacts Folder

Different ways to print contact information

Changing the look of printed pages

Book VI: Chapter 3: Handling Your E-Mail

Setting Up an E-Mail Account

Addressing and Sending E-Mail Messages

The basics: Sending an e-mail message

Addressing an e-mail message

Sending copies and blind copies of messages

Replying to and forwarding e-mail messages

Sending Files and Photos

Sending a file along with a message

Including a photo in an e-mail message

Being Advised When Someone Has Read Your E-Mail

Receiving E-Mail Messages

Getting your e-mail

Being notified that e-mail has arrived

Reading Your E-Mail in the Inbox Window

Handling Files That Were Sent to You

Saving a file you received

Opening a file you received

Techniques for Organizing E-Mail Messages

Flagging e-mail messages

Being reminded to take care of e-mail messages

Rules for earmarking messages as they arrive

All about E-Mail Folders

Moving e-mail messages to different folders

Creating a new folder for storing e-mail

Yes, You Can Prevent Junk Mail (Sort of)

Defining what constitutes junk e-mail

Preventative medicine for junk e-mail

Book VI: Chapter 4: Managing Your Time and Schedule

Introducing the Calendar

The Different Kinds of Activities

Seeing Your Schedule

Going to a different day, week, or month

Rearranging the Calendar window

Scheduling Appointments and Events

Scheduling an activity: The basics

Scheduling a recurring appointment or event

Scheduling an event

Canceling, Rescheduling, and Altering Activities

Book VI: Chapter 5: Tasks, Reminders, and Notes

Tasks: Seeing What Needs to Get Done

Entering a task in the Tasks window

Examining tasks in the Tasks window

Handling and managing tasks

Reminders for Being Alerted to Activities and Tasks

Handling reminder messages

Scheduling a reminder message

Making reminders work your way

Making Notes to Yourself

Book VII: Access 2013

Book VII: Chapter 1: Introducing Access

What Is a Database, Anyway?

Tables, Queries, Forms, and Other Objects

Database tables for storing information

Forms for entering data

Queries for getting the data out

Reports for presenting and examining data

Macros and modules

Creating a Database File

Creating a blank database file

Getting the help of a template

Finding Your Way Around the Navigation Pane

Designing a Database

Deciding what information you need

Separating information into different database tables

Choosing fields for database tables

Deciding on a primary key field for each database table

Mapping the relationships between tables

Book VII: Chapter 2: Building Your Database Tables

Creating a Database Table

Creating a database table from scratch

Creating a database table from a template

Importing a table from another database

Opening and Viewing Tables

Entering and Altering Table Fields

Creating a field

All about data types

Designating the primary key field

Moving, renaming, and deleting fields

Field Properties for Making Sure That Data Entries Are Accurate

A look at the Field Properties settings

Creating a lookup data-entry list

Indexing for Faster Sorts, Searches, and Queries

Indexing a field

Indexing based on more than one field

Establishing Relationships Between Database Tables

Types of relationships

Handling tables in the Relationships window

Forging relationships between tables

Editing table relationships

Book VII: Chapter 3: Entering the Data

The Two Ways to Enter Data

Entering the Data in Datasheet View

Entering data

Two tricks for entering data quicker

Changing the appearance of the datasheet

Entering the Data in a Form

Creating a form

Entering the data

Finding a Missing Record

Finding and Replacing Data

Book VII: Chapter 4: Sorting, Querying, and Filtering for Data

Sorting Records in a Database Table

Ascending vs. descending sorts

Sorting records

Filtering to Find Information

Different ways to filter a database table

“Unfiltering” a database table

Filtering by selection

Filtering for input

Filtering by form

Querying: The Basics

Creating a new query

Viewing queries in Datasheet and Design view

Finding your way around the Query Design window

Choosing which database tables to query

Choosing which fields to query

Sorting the query results

Choosing which fields appear in query results

Entering criteria for a query

At last — saving and running a query

Six Kinds of Queries

Select query

Top-value query

Summary query

Calculation query

Delete query

Update query

Book VII: Chapter 5: Presenting Data in a Report

Creating a Report

Opening and Viewing Reports

Tweaking a Report

Book VIII: Working with Charts and Graphics

Book VIII: Chapter 1: Creating a Chart

The Basics: Creating a Chart

Choosing the Right Chart

Providing the Raw Data for Your Chart

Positioning Your Chart in a Workbook, Page, or Slide

Changing a Chart’s Appearance

Changing the chart type

Changing the size and shape of a chart

Choosing a new look for your chart

Changing the layout of a chart

Handling the gridlines

Changing a chart element’s color, font, or other particular

Saving a Chart as a Template So That You Can Use It Again

Saving a chart as a template

Creating a chart from a template

Chart Tricks for the Daring and Heroic

Decorating a chart with a picture

Annotating a chart

Displaying the raw data alongside the chart

Placing a trendline on a chart

Troubleshooting a Chart

Book VIII: Chapter 2: Making a SmartArt Diagram

The Basics: Creating SmartArt Diagrams

Choosing a diagram

Making the diagram your own

Creating the Initial Diagram

Creating a diagram

Swapping one diagram for another

Changing the Size and Position of a Diagram

Laying Out the Diagram Shapes

Selecting a diagram shape

Removing a shape from a diagram

Moving diagram shapes to different positions

Adding shapes to diagrams apart from hierarchy diagrams

Adding shapes to hierarchy diagrams

Adding shapes to Organization charts

Promoting and demoting shapes in hierarchy diagrams

Handling the Text on Diagram Shapes

Entering text on a diagram shape

Entering bulleted lists on diagram shapes

Changing a Diagram’s Direction

Choosing a Look for Your Diagram

Changing the Appearance of Diagram Shapes

Changing the size of a diagram shape

Exchanging one shape for another

Changing a shape’s color, fill, or outline

Changing fonts and font sizes on shapes

Creating a Diagram from Scratch

Book VIII: Chapter 3: Handling Graphics, Photos, and Clip Art

All about Picture File Formats

Bitmap and vector graphics

Resolution

Compression

Color depth

Choosing file formats for graphics

Inserting a Picture in an Office File

Inserting a picture of your own

Obtaining a picture online

Touching Up a Picture

Softening and sharpening pictures

Correcting a picture’s brightness and contrast

Recoloring a picture

Choosing an artistic effect

Selecting a picture style

Cropping off part of a picture

Removing the background

Compressing Pictures to Save Disk Space

Book VIII: Chapter 4: Drawing and Manipulating Lines, Shapes, and Other Objects

The Basics: Drawing Lines, Arrows, and Shapes

Handling Lines, Arrows, and Connectors

Changing the length and position of a line or arrow

Changing the appearance of a line, arrow, or connector

Attaching and handling arrowheads on lines and connectors

Connecting shapes by using connectors

Handling Rectangles, Ovals, Stars, and Other Shapes

Drawing a shape

Changing a shape’s symmetry

Using a shape as a text box

WordArt for Embellishing Letters and Words

Creating WordArt

Editing WordArt

Manipulating Lines, Shapes, Art, Text Boxes, and Other Objects

Selecting objects so that you can manipulate them

Hiding and displaying the rulers and grid

Changing an Object’s Size and Shape

Changing an Object’s Color, Outline Color, and Transparency

Filling an object with color, a picture, or a texture

Making a color transparent

Putting the outline around an object

Moving and Positioning Objects

Tricks for aligning and distributing objects

When objects overlap: Choosing which appears above the other

Rotating and flipping objects

Grouping objects to make working with them easier

Book IX: Office 2013: One Step Beyond

Book IX: Chapter 1: Customizing an Office Program

Customizing the Ribbon

Displaying and selecting tab, group, and command names

Moving tabs and groups on the Ribbon

Adding, removing, and renaming tabs, groups, and commands

Creating new tabs and groups

Resetting your Ribbon customizations

Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar

Adding buttons to the Quick Access toolbar

Changing the order of buttons on the Quick Access toolbar

Removing buttons from the Quick Access toolbar

Placing the Quick Access toolbar above or below the Ribbon

Customizing the Status Bar

Changing the Screen Background

Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts in Word

Book IX: Chapter 2: Ways of Distributing Your Work

Printing — the Old Standby

Distributing a File in PDF Format

About PDF files

Saving an Office file as a PDF

Sending Your File in an E-Mail Message

Saving an Office File as a Web Page

Choosing how to save the component parts

Turning a file into a web page

Opening a web page in your browser

Blogging from inside Word

Describing a blog account to Word

Posting an entry to your blog

Taking advantage of the Blog Post tab

Book IX: Chapter 3: Working with Publisher

“A Print Shop in a Can”

Introducing Frames

Creating a Publication

Redesigning a Publication

Choosing a different template

Choosing a color scheme

Setting up your pages

Getting a Better View of Your Work

Zooming in and out

Viewing single pages and two-page spreads

Going from page to page

Entering Text on the Pages

Making Text Fit in Text Frames

Fitting overflow text in a single frame

Making text flow from frame to frame

Making Text Wrap around a Frame or Graphic

Replacing the Placeholder Pictures

Inserting, Removing, and Moving Pages

Master Pages for Handling Page Backgrounds

Switching to Master Page view

Changing the look of a master page

Applying (or unapplying) a master page to publication pages

Running the Design Checker

Commercially Printing a Publication

Book X: File Sharing and Collaborating

Book X: Chapter 1: Preparing to Use the Office Web Apps

Introducing the Office Web Apps

Storing and Sharing Files on the Internet

Office Web Apps: The Big Picture

Creating a Microsoft Account

Signing In and Out of Your Microsoft Account

Navigating in a Microsoft Account

Managing Your Folders

Creating a folder

Viewing and locating folders in the SkyDrive window

Going from folder to folder in SkyDrive

Deleting, moving, and renaming folders

Book X: Chapter 2: Using the Office Web Apps

Creating an Office File in SkyDrive

Uploading Office Files to a Folder on SkyDrive

Saving a File from Office 2013 to SkyDrive

Opening Office Files Stored on SkyDrive

Opening a file in an Office Web App

Opening a file in an Office 2013 application

Downloading Files from SkyDrive to Your Computer

Managing Your Files on SkyDrive

Book X: Chapter 3: Sharing and Collaborating

Sharing Files: The Big Picture

File access privileges

Links for sharing files

Sharing Your Files and Folders with Others

Seeing Files and Folders Others Shared with You

Investigating and Changing How Files and Folders Are Shared

Co-editing Shared Files on SkyDrive

Soliciting Information with a Survey Form

Cheat Sheet

Introduction

This book is for users of Microsoft Office 2013 who want to get to the heart of Office without wasting time. Don’t look in this book to find out how the different applications in the Office suite work. Look in this book to find out how you can get your work done better and faster with these applications.

I show you everything you need to make the most of each of the Office applications. On the way, you have a laugh or two. No matter how much or how little skill you bring to the table, this book will make you a better, more proficient, more confident user of the Office 2013 applications.

What’s in This Book, Anyway?

This book, comprising ten mini-books, is your guide to making the most of the Office applications. It’s jam-packed with how-to’s, advice, shortcuts, and tips. Here’s a bare outline of the ten mini-books of this book:

Book I: Common Office Tasks: Looks into the many commands and features that are common to all or several of the Office programs. Master the material in Book I and you will be well on your way to mastering all the programs. Book I explains handling text, the proofing tools, and speed techniques that can make you more productive in most of the Office applications.

Book II: Word 2013: Explains the numerous features in Office’s word processor, including how to create documents from letters to reports. Use the techniques described here to construct tables, manage styles, turn Word into a desktop-publishing program, and quickly dispatch office tasks such as mass-mailings. You also discover how to get Word’s help in writing indexes, bibliographies, and other items of interest to scholars and report writers.

Book III: Excel 2013: Shows the many different ways to crunch the numbers with the bean counter in the Office suite. Along the way, you find out how to design worksheets that are easy to read and understand, use data-validation rules to cut down on entry mistakes, write meaningful formulas, and analyze your data with PivotTables and the goal analysis tools. You find out just how useful Excel can be for financial analyses, data tracking, and forecasting.

Book IV: PowerPoint 2013: Demonstrates how to construct a meaningful presentation that makes the audience say “Wow!” Included in Book IV are instructions for making a presentation livelier and more original, both when you create your presentation and when you deliver it.

Book V: OneNote 2013: Covers how to write, store, and organize notes in the Office 2013 note-taking application. You find out how to record video and audio notes, link notes to files and web pages, find stray notes, and make OneNote a way to organize your thoughts and ideas.

Book VI: Outlook 2013: Shows you how to send and receive e-mail messages and files, as well as track tasks, maintain an address book, and keep a calendar with Outlook. If you’re one of those people who receive numerous e-mail messages each day, you will be delighted to discover all the ways to track and manage e-mail — and junk e-mail — in Outlook.

Book VII: Access 2013: Describes how to create a relational database for storing information, as well as query the database for information and gather the data into meaningful reports. Don’t be frightened by the word “database.” You will be surprised to discover how useful Access can be in your work.

Book VIII: Working with Charts and Graphics: Explains how to present information in charts and diagrams, and how to use photos and clip art in your Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets. You also discover how to create lines, shapes, and text boxes to illustrate your ideas.

Book IX: Office 2013: One Step Beyond: For people who want to take full advantage of Office, Book IX delves into customizing the Office 2013 applications. It also looks into alternative ways to distribute your work — in a blog or a web page, for example. You find out how to create brochures, pamphlets, newsletters, and other publications with Microsoft Publisher 2013, the “print shop in a can.”

Book X: File Sharing and Collaborating: Explores how to use the Office Web Apps, the online versions of the Office software, to share files with co-workers and collaborate online. You find out how to manage folders on SkyDrive, the Microsoft service for storing and sharing files.

What Makes This Book Different

You are holding in your hands a computer book designed to make learning the Office 2013 applications as easy and comfortable as possible. Besides the fact that this book is easy to read, it’s different from other books about Office. Read on to see why.

Easy-to-look-up information

This book is a reference, which means that readers have to be able to find instructions quickly. To that end, I have taken great pains to make sure that the material in this book is well organized and easy to find. The descriptive headings help you find information quickly. The bulleted and numbered lists make following instructions simpler. The tables make options easier to understand and compare.

I want you to be able to look down the page and see a heading or list with the name of the topic that concerns you. I want you to be able to find instructions quickly. Compare the table of contents in this book to the book next to it on the bookstore shelf. The table of contents in this book is put together better and presents topics so that you can find them in a hurry.

A task-oriented approach

Most computer books describe what the software is, but this book explains how to complete tasks with the software. I assume that you came to this book because you want to know how to do something — print form letters, create a worksheet, or query a database. You came to the right place. This book describes how to get tasks done.

Meaningful screen shots

The screen shots in this book show only the part of the screen that illustrates what is being explained in the text. When instructions refer to one part of the screen, only that part of the screen is shown. I took great care to make sure that the screen shots in this book serve to help you understand the Office 2013 programs and how they work. Compare this book to the one next to it on the bookstore shelf. Do you see how clean the screenshots in this book are?

Foolish Assumptions

Please forgive me, but I made one or two foolish assumptions about you, the reader of this book. I assumed that:

You own a copy of Office 2013, the latest edition of Office, and you have installed it on your computer.

You use a Windows operating system. All people who have the Windows operating system installed on their computers are invited to read this book. It serves people who have Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista.

You are kind to foreign tourists and small animals.

Conventions Used in This Book

I want you to understand all the instructions in this book, and in that spirit, I’ve adopted a few conventions.

Where you see boldface letters or numbers in this book, it means to type the letters or numbers. For example, “Enter 25 in the Percentage text box” means to do exactly that: Enter the number 25.

Sometimes two tabs on the Ribbon have the same name. To distinguish tabs with the same name from one another, I sometimes include one tab’s “Tools” heading in parentheses if there could be confusion about which tab I’m referring to. In PowerPoint, for example, when you see the words “(Table Tools) Design tab,” I’m referring to the Design tab for creating tables, not the Design tab for changing a slide’s appearance. (Book I, Chapter 1 describes the Ribbon and the tabs in detail.)

To show you how to step through command sequences, I use the ⇒ symbol. For example, on the Insert tab in Word, you can click the Page Number button and choose Top of Page⇒Simple to number pages. The ⇒ symbol just creates a shorthand method of saying “Choose Top of Page and then choose Simple.”

To give most commands, you can press combinations of keys. For example, pressing Ctrl+S saves the file you’re working on. In other words, you can hold down the Ctrl key and press the S key to save a file. Where you see Ctrl+, Alt+, or Shift+ and a key name or key names, press the keys simultaneously.

Yet another way to give a command is to click a button. When I tell you to click a button, you see a small illustration of the button in the margin of this book (unless the button is too large to fit in the margin). The button shown here is the Save button, the one you can click to save a file.

Icons Used in This Book

To help you get the most out of this book, I’ve placed icons here and there. Here’s what the icons mean:

Next to the Tip icon, you can find shortcuts and tricks of the trade to make your visit to Officeland more enjoyable.

Where you see the Warning icon, tread softly and carefully. It means that you are about to do something that you may regret later.

When I explain a juicy little fact that bears remembering, I mark it with a Remember icon. When you see this icon, prick up your ears. You will discover something that you need to remember throughout your adventures with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or the other Office application I am demystifying.

When I am forced to describe high-tech stuff, a Technical Stuff icon appears in the margin. You don’t have to read what’s beside the Technical Stuff icons if you don’t want to, although these technical descriptions often help you understand how a software feature works.

Book I

Common Office Tasks

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Contents at a Glance

Chapter 1: Office Nuts and Bolts

Chapter 2: Wrestling with the Text

Chapter 3: Speed Techniques Worth Knowing About

Chapter 1: Office Nuts and Bolts

In This Chapter

Introducing the Office applications

Running an Office application

Exploring the Office interface

Saving and auto-recovering your files

Opening and closing an Office file

Recording a file’s document properties

Clamping a password on a file

Chapter 1 is where you get your feet wet with Office 2013. Walk right to the shore and sink your toes in the water. Don’t worry; I won’t push you from behind.

In this chapter, you meet the Office applications and discover speed techniques for opening applications and files. I show you around the Ribbon, Quick Access toolbar, and other Office landmarks. I also show you how to open files, save files, and clamp a password on a file.

A Survey of Office Applications

Office 2013, sometimes called the Microsoft Office Suite, is a collection of computer applications. Why is it called Office? I think because the people who invented it wanted to make software for completing tasks that need doing in a typical office. When you hear someone talk about “Office” or “Office software,” they’re talking about several different applications. Table 1-1 describes the Office applications.

Table 1-1 Office Applications

Application

Description

Word

A word processor for writing letters, reports, and so on. A Word file is called a document (see Book II).

Excel

A number cruncher for performing numerical analyses. An Excel file is called a workbook (see Book III).

PowerPoint

A means of creating slide presentations to give in front of audiences. A PowerPoint file is called a presentation, or sometimes a slide show (see Book IV).

OneNote

A way to take notes and organize your ideas (see Book V).

Outlook

A personal information manager, scheduler, and e-mailer (see Book VI).

Access

A database management application (see Book VII).

Publisher

A means of creating desktop-publishing files — pamphlets, notices, newsletters, and the like (see Book IX, Chapter 3).

Table 1-2 describes the different Office 2013 editions. The Office Web Apps are free, abridged versions of Office software that were designed to help people collaborate online (Book X describes how to use them). Office 365 is a subscription service. For a monthly fee, subscribers to Office 365 can download and use Office software.

Table 1-2 Office 2013 Editions

Edition

Applications

Office 2013 Professional

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Publisher

Office 365

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Publisher

Office 2013 Home & Business

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook

Office 2013 Home & Student

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote

Office Web Apps

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote

If you’re new to Office, don’t be daunted by the prospect of having to study so many different applications. The applications have much in common, with the same commands showing up throughout. For example, the method of choosing fonts is the same in Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Access, and Publisher. Master one Office program and you’re well on your way to mastering the next.

Starting an Office Program

Unless you start an Office program, you can’t create a document, construct a worksheet, or make a database. Many have tried to undertake these tasks with mud and papier-mâché without starting a program first, but all have failed.

How you start an Office program depends on which version of the Windows operating system is on your computer. Read on.

Starting an Office program in Windows 7 and Vista

Here are the various ways to start an Office program on computers that run Windows 7 and Windows Vista:

The old-fashioned way: Click the Start button, choose All Programs⇒Microsoft Office 2013, and then choose the program’s name on the submenu.

The Start menu: Click the program’s name on the Start menu, as shown in Figure 1-1. The Start menu is the menu you see when you click the Start button. By placing a program’s name on the Start menu, you can open the program simply by clicking the Start button and then clicking the program’s name. To place an Office program on the Start menu:

1. Click the Start button and choose All Programs⇒Microsoft Office 2013.

2. Move the pointer over the program’s name on the submenu, but don’t click to select the program’s name.

3. Right-click the program’s name and choose Pin to Start Menu on the shortcut menu that appears.

To remove a program’s name from the Start menu, right-click the name and choose Remove from This List.

Desktop shortcut icon: Double-click the program’s shortcut icon (see Figure 1-1). A shortcut icon is an icon you can double-click to do something in a hurry. By creating a shortcut icon on the Windows desktop, you can double-click the icon and immediately start an Office program. To place an Office shortcut icon on the desktop:

1. Click the Start button and choose All Programs⇒Microsoft Office 2013.

Figure 1-1: Two of several ways to start an Office program in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

2. Move the pointer over the program’s name on the submenu, but don’t click the program’s name.

3. Right-click the program’s name and choose Send To⇒Desktop (Create Shortcut) on the shortcut menu that appears.

To remove a desktop shortcut icon from the Windows desktop, right-click it, choose Delete, and click Yes in the Delete Shortcut dialog box. Don’t worry about deleting a program when you delete its shortcut icon. All you do when you choose Delete is remove the program’s shortcut icon from the desktop and make your desktop a little less crowded.

Taskbar (Windows 7 only): Click the program’s icon on the Taskbar. To place a program’s icon on the Taskbar, right-click its name on the Start menu or All Programs menu and choose Pin to Taskbar. To remove a program’s icon from the Taskbar, right-click it and choose Unpin This Program from Taskbar.

Starting an Office program in Windows 8

Here are the various ways to start an Office program on computers that run Windows 8:

The conventional way: Right-click a blank area on the screen and click All Apps (located in the lower-left corner of the screen). Then scroll to the Office application you want to open and click its name.

The Start menu: Click the application’s tile on the Start screen, as shown in Figure 1-2. To place an Office application tile on the Start screen:

1. Right-click a blank area of the screen.

2. Choose All Apps (located in the lower-right corner of the screen).

3. Scroll to the Office application that needs a tile on the Start screen.

4. Right-click the application’s name.

5. Click Pin to Start.

You can find this command at the bottom of the screen.

Figure 1-2: Starting an Office program in Windows 8.

Desktop shortcut icon: Double-click the program’s shortcut icon. To place an Office shortcut icon on the Windows 8 desktop:

1. In the Start window, right-click a blank area on the screen.

2. Click All Apps on the Windows toolbar.

3. In the Apps window, scroll to the right until you see the Office application tiles (Access 2013, Excel 2013, and so on).

4. Right-click the name of an Office 2013 program and choose Send To⇒Desktop (Create Shortcut) on the shortcut menu.

To remove a desktop shortcut icon from the Windows desktop, right-click it, choose Delete, and click Yes in the Delete Shortcut dialog box.

Finding Your Way Around the Office Interface

Interface, also called the user interface, is a computer term that describes how a software program presents itself to the people who use it (and you probably thought interface meant two people kissing). Figure 1-3 shows the Word interface. You will be glad to know that the interface of all the Office programs is pretty much the same.

These pages give you a quick tour of the Office interface and explain what the various parts of the interface are. Click along with me as I describe the interface and you’ll know what’s what by the time you finish reading these pages.

Figure 1-3: The File tab, Quick Access toolbar, and Ribbon.

The File tab and Backstage

In the upper-left corner of the window is the File tab (see Figure 1-3). Clicking the File tab opens the Backstage (Microsoft’s word, not mine). As shown in Figure 1-4, the Backstage offers commands for creating, opening, and saving files, as well as performing other file-management tasks. Notice the Options command on the Backstage. You can choose Options to open the Options dialog box and tell the application you are working in how you want it to work.

To leave the Backstage and return to the application window, click the Back button. This button is located in the upper-left corner of the Backstage.

Figure 1-4: The Backstage in (clockwise from upper left) Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

The Quick Access toolbar

No matter where you travel in an Office program, you see the Quick Access toolbar in the upper-left corner of the screen (refer to Figure 1-3). This toolbar offers three necessary buttons: the all-important Save button, the trusty Undo button, and the convenient Repeat button. You can place more buttons on the Quick Access toolbar as well as move the toolbar lower in the window. I explain how to customize the Quick Access toolbar in Book IX, Chapter 1.

The Ribbon and its tabs

Across the top of the screen is the Ribbon, an assortment of different tabs (see Figure 1-3); click a tab to view a different set of commands and undertake a task. For example, click the Home tab to format text; click the Insert tab to insert a table or chart. Each tab offers a different set of buttons, menus, and galleries.

Collapsing and showing the Ribbon

To get more room to view items on-screen, consider collapsing the Ribbon. When the Ribbon is collapsed, only tab names on the Ribbon appear; the buttons and galleries are hidden from view.

Use these techniques to collapse the Ribbon:

Click the Collapse the Ribbon button (located to the right of the Ribbon).

Press Ctrl+F1.

Right-click a tab on the Ribbon and select Collapse the Ribbon on the shortcut menu.

Double-click a tab on the Ribbon.

Click the Ribbon Display options button and choose Show Tabs.

Use these techniques to show the Ribbon when it is collapsed:

Click a tab to display the Ribbon and then click the Pin the Ribbon button.

Press Ctrl+F1.

Right-click a tab and deselect Collapse the Ribbon.

Double-click a tab on the Ribbon.

Click the Ribbon Display options button and choose Show Tabs and Commands.

Want to hide the Ribbon altogether? Click the Ribbon Display Options button and choose Auto-Hide Ribbon on the drop-down list. To see the Ribbon again, click the top of the application.

Context-sensitive tabs

To keep the Ribbon from getting too crowded with tabs, Microsoft has arranged for some tabs to appear only in context — that is, they appear on the Ribbon after you insert or click something. These tabs are called context-sensitive tabs.

In Figure 1-5, for example, I inserted a table, and two additional tabs — the Design and the Layout tab — appear on the Ribbon under the heading “Table Tools.” These context-sensitive tabs offer commands for designing and laying out tables. The idea behind context-sensitive tabs is to direct you to the commands you need and exclude all other commands.

If you can’t find a tab on the Ribbon, the tab is probably context-sensitive. You have to insert or select an item to make some tabs appear on the Ribbon. Context-sensitive tabs always appear on the right side of the Ribbon under a heading with the word Tools in its name.

Figure 1-5: After you insert or select an item, context-sensitive tabs appear on the Ribbon.

The anatomy of a tab

All tabs are different in terms of the commands they offer, but all are the same insofar as how they present commands. On every tab, commands are organized in groups. On every tab, you find group buttons, buttons, and galleries. Group buttons, buttons, galleries — what’s up with that?

Groups and group buttons

Commands on each tab are organized into groups. The names of these groups appear below the buttons and galleries on tabs. For example, the Home tab in Excel is organized into several groups, including the Clipboard, Font, Alignment, and Number group, as shown in Figure 1-6.

Figure 1-6: Each tab is organized into groups; some groups offer group buttons.

Groups tell you what the buttons and galleries above their names are used for. On the Home tab in Excel, for example, the buttons in the Font group are for formatting text. Read group names to help find the command you need.

Many groups have a group button that you can click to open a dialog box or task pane (officially, Microsoft calls these little buttons dialog box launchers, but let’s act like grownups, shall we?). Group buttons are found to the right of group names. Move the pointer over a group button to open a pop-up help box with a description of the dialog box or task pane that appears when the button is clicked (refer to Figure 1-6).

Buttons and galleries

Go to any tab and you find buttons of all shapes and sizes. What matters isn’t a button’s shape or size, but whether a down-pointing arrow appears on its face. Click a button with an arrow and you get a drop-down list with options you can choose.

You can find out what clicking a button does by moving the pointer over it, which makes a pop-up description of the button appear.

Built in to some tabs are galleries. A gallery presents you with visual options for changing an item. When you move the pointer over a gallery choice, the item on your page or slide — the table, chart, or diagram, for example — changes appearance. In galleries, you can preview different choices before you click to select the choice you want.

Live previewing

Thanks to live previewing, you can see the results of a menu or gallery choice before actually making the choice. Here’s how live previewing works: Move the pointer over an option in a gallery or drop-down list and glance at your page or slide. You can see the results of selecting the option. For example, you see a different font or shape color. You can judge whether choosing the option is worthwhile without choosing the option first.

Mini-toolbars and shortcut menus

A mini-toolbar is a toolbar that appears on-screen to help you do a task, as shown in Figure 1-7. You can select an option from a drop-down list or click a button on the mini-toolbar to complete a task. Mini-toolbars are very convenient. They save you the trouble of going to a different tab to complete a task

Similar to mini-toolbars are the shortcut menus you get when you right-click, as shown in Figure 1-7. Right-click means to click the right, not the left, mouse button. Right-click just about anywhere and you get a shortcut menu of some kind.

Figure 1-7: A mini-toolbar (top) and shortcut menu (bottom).

In Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, you see a mini-toolbar and a shortcut menu when you right-click text.

Office 2013 for keyboard lovers

People who like to give commands by pressing keyboard shortcuts will be glad to know that Office offers Alt+key shortcuts. Press the Alt key and letters — they’re called KeyTips — appear on tab names, as shown in Figure 1-8. After you press the Alt key, follow these instructions to make use of KeyTips:

Go to a tab: Press a KeyTip on a tab to visit a tab.

Make KeyTips appear on menu items: Press a KeyTip on a button or gallery to make KeyTips appear on menu items.

Figure 1-8: Press the Alt key to see KeyTips.

Saving Your Files

Soon after you create a new file, be sure to save it. And save your file from time to time while you work on it as well. Until you save your work, it rests in the computer’s electronic memory (RAM), a precarious location. If a power outage occurs or your computer stalls, you lose all the work you did since the last time you saved your file. Make it a habit to save files every ten minutes or so, or when you complete an important task.

These pages explain how to save a file, declare where you want to save files by default, and handle files that were saved automatically after a computer failure.

Saving a file

To save a file:

  Click the Save button (you’ll find it on the Quick Access toolbar).

Press Ctrl+S.

  Go to the File tab and choose Save.

Saving a file for the first time

The first time you save a presentation, the Save As dialog box opens. It invites you to give the file a name and choose a folder in which to store it. Enter a descriptive name in the File Name text box. To locate a folder for storing your presentation, see “Navigating the Save As and Open Windows,” later in this chapter.

Declaring where you like to save files

When you attempt to save a file for the first time in the Save As dialog box, Office shows you the contents of the Documents folder on the assumption that you keep most of your files in that folder. The Documents folder is the center of the universe as far as Office is concerned, but perhaps you keep the majority of your files in a different folder. How would you like to see it first in the Save As and Open dialog boxes?

To direct Office to the folder you like best and make it appear first in the Save As and Open dialog boxes, follow these steps:

1. In Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Access, go to the File tab and choose Options.

You see the Options dialog box.

Converting Office 97–2010 files to 2013

When you open a file made in an earlier version of Office, the program switches to compatibility mode. Features that weren’t part of earlier versions of the program are shut down. You can tell when a file is in compatibility mode because the words Compatibility Mode appear in the title bar next to the file’s name.

Follow these steps to convert a 97–2010 file for use in an Office 2013 program:

1. Go to the File tab.

2. Choose Info.

3. Click the Convert button.

A dialog box informs you what converting means. If you don’t see the Convert option, your file has been converted already.

4. Click OK.

2. In Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, select the Save category; in Access, select the General category.

Figure 1-9 shows the topmost options in this category.

3.