The first step is to select all the sheets-an easy trick for most Excel users:
- Right-click a sheet tab.
- Choose Select All Sheets from the resulting shortcut menu.
After grouping the sheets, you're ready to add the header data. To do so, click the Page Layout button in the bottom-right corner to switch to Page Layout view. In Excel 2003, choose Header and Footer from the View menu. Page Layout is new to 2007.
Now you're ready to add the header data:
- Click the Click To Add Header prompt and enter your header text. The layout view supports the left, center, and right sections that you're probably familiar with from earlier versions.
- Click the left section and using the contextual Design tab, click Picture in the Header & Footer Elements group. Locate the picture file and click Insert. Excel will display the &Picture code until you move to another section of the header.
- To display the sheet name, click Sheet Name in the same group.
- You can also enter descriptive text by simply typing it.
When you're done, click any of the sheet tabs to remove the grouping. As you move from sheet to sheet, you'll see that they all have the same header. This technique works with footers too. Headers and footers are visible only in Page Layout view and in Print Preview.
This simple grouping technique can save you a lot of time for many tasks, not just creating headers and footers. Anything you need to repeat a task on more than one sheet, grouping might be a great time saver.
Microsoft Word
Save mouse clicks with Word's highlight shortcut
Word's highlighting feature lets you display color behind text. (Don't confuse the term highlight with select-they're not the same, although many people use the terms interchangeably.) In Word 2007/2010, the highlighting option's in the Font group on the Home tab.
Similar to most formatting options, this one's easy to use. Select a color from the dropdown and select your text, which makes this option just a bit different than others because you select the color before you select the text. A second click disables the tool. To remove existing highlight, select the text and choose No Color from the Text Highlight dropdown.
Most of you already know about this tool; what you might not know about is 2007/2010's new keyboard shortcut for this tool. Simply select the text and press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+H to highlight the current selection. It acts as a toggle, so repeat those steps to remove the highlight. Since you're not selecting a color, this method applies the currently selected color, but if you don't change the color often, you can probably live with it.
It's a great addition to the ribbon version, but, if you're using Word 2003, there's no keyboard shortcut for this feature. You can add one of your own as follows:
- From the Tools menu, choose Customize.
- In the resulting Customize dialog box, click Keyboard (it's all three tabs).
- Choose All Commands from the Categories list.
- In the Commands list, choose Highlight.
- Click inside the Press New Shortcut Key control.
- Press the keys you want to assign to this shortcut-perhaps, [Alt]+H.
- Click Assign.
- Click Close twice.
Now, in Word 2003, you can select text, press [Alt]+H and apply (and remove) a highlight.
Microsoft Outlook
Save mouse clicks with Word's highlight shortcutDisable send and receive mail options in Outlook
Most of us use Outlook to both send and receive email messages, but you might have a user or two that only wants to do one or the other - not both. Fortunately, you can configure Outlook to send or receive messages, but the option isn't where you might first look, in the mail options section.
To configure Outlook to only send or only receive messages, do the following:
- Click the File tab and choose Options under Help and choose Advanced in the left pane. In Outlook 2003 and 2007, choose Options from the Tools menu and click the Mail Setup tab.
- Click the Send and Receive button in the Send and Receive section.
- Select the account you're modifying (All Accounts might be your only choice), and click Edit.
- In the Account Options section, uncheck the appropriate option: Send Mail Items or Receive Mail Items.
- Click OK, Close, and then OK.
That's it! Outlook will still offer both options, as before, but the account will behave accordingly to the new setting.
When you disable the send operation, Outlook will still let users create an email. Then, when they initiate the send and receive operation, Outlook will move the message from the Outbox to the Sent folder, but it won't actually send the message. Nor will it alert the user to that fact, so use this option carefully. Users could think they're sending email when they're not. This is also a good starting place when a user says Outlook has stopped sending and/or receiving email. Often, the user has accidentally disabled the feature without realizing it.
Susan Sales Harkins is an IT consultant, specializing in desktop solutions. Previously, she was editor in chief for The Cobb Group, the world's largest publisher of technical journals.
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