If you are a user who has ever had difficulty explaining a tech support issue to a technician, or if you are a technician who has ever had trouble understanding a user’s problem, then you need…the Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder.

This is a nifty little feature of Windows 7 that lets you automatically record screenshots of a problem you are having.  After the screenshots are recorded, Windows zips them up so you can send them to a technician, who can unzip them and view them in a browser.

To use the Problem Steps Recorder:

1. Type PSR in the Start Menu search box.
2. Windows will display the Problem Steps Recorder:



3. Click the Start Record button.
4. Perform all the steps you want to record.
5. Click the Stop Record button.
6. Windows will offer to save all the steps and screen shots in a zip file.
7. The zip file will contain an MHT file which can be viewed in any browser.

If you want to snap a window to the left side of the screen quickly (technically Aero-Snap), hold down the Windows key and press the Left Arrow Key.

If you want to snap a window to the right side of the screen quickly (technically Aero-Snap), hold down the Windows key and press the Right Arrow Key.

If you right-click a file in Windows Explorer, and then select Send To, you’ll see the standard list of Send To options.

To reveal a list of additional options on the Send To menu (in Windows 7), including often-used folders, hold down the SHIFT key before you right-click the file.

Get used to dragging things around in Outlook.

For example, if you drag an e-mail message to the Contacts button, Outlook will create a new contact for the sender, with Name and E-mail fields already filled in.  The body of the e-mail message will appear in the Notes field.

If you drag a Contact to the Mail button, Outlook will create a new e-mail message to that Contact.  Very cool!

Drag a Contact to the Calendar button, and Outlook will create a Meeting Invitation ready to be sent to that person.

Drag a Contact to the Tasks button, and Outlook will create a Task Request addressed to that contact.

All Office 2010 applications now include a screen capture utility to help you quickly capture any area of the desktop screen.

The tool will automatically take screenshots of all open applications on your desktop (that are not minimized), and let you insert them directly into your document.

Inserting a Full Screen Screenshot

To insert a full screen screenshot:

1. Click Screenshot in the Illustrations group on the Insert tab of the Ribbon.
2. Word will display thumbnails of all open applications that are not minimized.



3. Click the thumbnail you want to insert the screenshot in your document at the insertion point.

Slicers are a new feature in Excel 2010 that let you add a snapshot view of a pivot table to a worksheet.  Slicers are like visual filters.  You may want to use a slicer when you only need to display a section of a pivot table.

For example, the pivot table below shows conference registrations broken down by city and state.  You can add slicers to this pivot table to display the data from one state or from only one town from one state.

Sparklines are miniature graphs that fit inside single worksheet cells.  They can show you trends or changes that may not be easily noticed by viewing the values in the spreadsheet.

Although Sparklines can be located in any cell, they are most effective when placed next to the data to which they refer.

Note that Sparklines are only available in .XLSX or .XLSM files. The option is greyed out in .XLS files.

Word 2010 includes a new feature that conveniently displays a preview of your document and a selection of print options in one screen.

To preview your document and select print options:

1. Click the File tab.
2. Select the Print category on the left.
3. Word will display a preview of your document and set of options:

Word 2010 includes a new Paste feature – the Paste Options Gallery, which puts a number of options for pasting at your fingertips.

As in earlier versions of Word, when you paste, you will see a Smart Tag that lets you select a variety of paste options.

As you hover over the options in the Paste Options gallery, the Live Preview feature temporarily displays your data as it will look if you select that option.

Viewing the Paste Options Gallery

To view the Paste Options gallery:

1. Press the CTRL key or click the Smart Tag.
2. Word will display the Paste Options Gallery:
3. Hover over an option to preview your pasted data.
4. Click an option to paste the data into your spreadsheet.

On some charts, you may want to plot a data series that contains different numbers on a different scale.  For example, you may want to show monthly sales figures and percentages on the same chart.  If you use the same scale for both data series, the percentages will be too small to show up on the chart.

To plot a data series on a secondary axis:

1. Create your chart.
2. Select the smaller data series by clicking the drop-down list on the Layout tab of the Chart Tools ribbon.
3. Click the Format Selection button.
4. Excel will display the Format Data Series dialog box
5. In the Series Options category, select Secondary Axis.
6. Click the Close button.
7. Excel will plot the data series on a secondary axis.