Notes from the Help Desk…

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.

Office 2007 introduced a new graphics engine that lets you add special effects to text and graphics.  These effects have been expanded and enhanced in Office 2010.

Text Effects

To add special effects to text:

1. Select the text you want to change.
2. Click the Text Effects button in the Font group on the Home tab of the ribbon.



3. Click the effect you want, or select additional effects from the menus at the bottom (Outline, Shadow, Reflection and Glow).

Artistic Effects

Word 2010 includes a number of new ways to modify graphics in a document.  All of these options are in the Adjust group on the Picture Tools/Format tab of the Ribbon.

The options in this group are summarized below:

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.

In Office 2007, the Ribbon could not be customized.

In Office 2010, you can customize the Ribbon to add new buttons, new tabs or new groups.  You can also rename the existing tabs and groups to suit your needs.

To add a new tab or group to the ribbon:

1. Click the File tab.
2. Click Options to open the Word Options screen.
3. Select the Customize Ribbon category on the left.

Use the controls in this screen to add commands to the ribbon, or to create new tabs or new groups.

The .DOCX and .DOCM file formats introduced in Word 2007 were not compatible with earlier versions of Word.

Note: The DOCX format does not allow the document to contain macros.  If the document contains macros, save it as a DOCM (macro-enabled) file.

Word 2010 file formats are now compatible with earlier versions.

When you open files created in Word 2003 or earlier, the file will open in Compatibility View.  However, you can convert the file to the 2010 format so that you can take advantage of new features in Word.

To convert an earlier Word file:

1. Open the file you want to convert.
2. Click the File tab, select Info and click the Convert button.
3. Word will display the following message:



4. Click OK.

Tip:  If you want to save the original version for reference, save a copy with a different name before you do the conversion.

The much-maligned Office Button in Word 2007 has been replaced by a File tab, which includes the standard File options (New, Open, Save, etc.), as well as a collection of options for creating new documents and managing documents once they are created, such as printing, sharing, and encrypting documents.

Clicking on the File tab brings up the new Backstage View, which hides your document and displays a full screen of controls.

The options in Backstage View are summarized in the table below:

Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010 lets you create blog postings and publish them directly from Word. (Actually, I’m doing it right now!) Using Word is generally easier than most blogging software, which requires users to edit HTML code.

To create a blog posting from Word:

1. Click the Office button.
2. Select New, select New blog post, and then click the Create button (lower right corner).
3. Click the Register Now button in the dialog, and then select your Blog provider from the drop-down list.
4. Enter the appropriate information into the New Blogger Account dialog box.
5. Click the Picture Options button if you want to select a picture provider from the drop-down list.
   (If you don’t use a picture provider, select None-Don’t Upload Pictures.)
6. Type your blog posting, and click the Publish button on the Ribbon to publish it to the blog. (When you publish, Word will prompt you for your Username and Password.)

With past versions of Word, it has been challenging to completely remove changes made to a document while Track Changes was enabled. This problem sometimes resulted in embarrassment when a final document was sent with a history of changes and revisions hidden in the document and unknown to the author.

Luckily, Word 2007 has resolved this problem. Before distributing a document, you can use Word’s Document Inspector to completely remove all comments and revisions.

To prepare a document for distribution:

1. Click the Office button.
2. Point to Prepare and select Inspect Document.
3. Word will display the Inspect Document dialog box.
4. Check the first option: Comments, Revisions, Versions and Annotation.
5. Check any other options you want Word to inspect.
6. Click the Inspect button. (Word will prompt you to save the document if there are unsaved changes.)
7. Word will display the inspection results.

If any comments or revisions are discovered, you can permanently remove them by clicking the Remove All button in the Document Inspector dialog.

Students don’t realize how easy they have it these days…

Remember typing out a bibliography on a typewriter, only to make a mistake at the bottom of the page and have to type the whole darn thing over?  Or having to type the bibliography over because your professor required the Chicago style sheet and you used MLA?  No more.

Word 2007 includes a new bibliography feature that makes it easier than ever to manage sources and create a bibliography, according to the style rules you select.

As you conduct research, you can add each source to a master list of sources.  For each source, you’ll fill in the title, author, publication date, etc.  When you write the paper and quote one of your sources, you can insert a citation simply by selecting one of the sources from your list.  When you’re ready to create your bibliography, Word will create it automatically from the sources you entered.