By Susan Harkins, Mary Ann Richardson and Jody Gilbert
Thursday, June 25 2009 01:49 PM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/techguide/office/0,39044682,62055441,00.htm

Microsoft Access

---

Add sounds to your Access form events

Would you like a sound to play each time a user opens or closes a form or clicks on a form control? Access lets you play a sound for any form event.

For example, to have a sound play when a form is opened, follow these steps:

1. Open the Form in Design View.
2. Press Alt + F11.
3. Go to View | Project Explorer.
4. Insert | New Module.
5. Enter this code at the prompt:

Declare Function apisndPlaySound Lib "winmm" Alias "sndPlaySoundA" 
(ByVal filename As String, ByVal snd_async As Long) As Long

Function Playsound(sWavFile As String) 

'Purpose: Plays a sound. 

'Argument: the fu11 path and file name.

If apisndPlaySound(sWavFile, 1) = 0 Then 

MsgBox "The Sound Did Not Play!" 

End If 

End Function

1. Press Alt + Q.
2. On the form's Property sheet, click in the OnOpen event box on the Event tab.

1. Click the Build button and then enter the code below at the prompt. (Be sure to use the full pathname to your sound file.)

Playsound ("C:I386Chimes.wav")

1. Press Alt + Q.

Microsoft Excel

---

Quickly add a series to an existing Excel chart

Excel makes it easy to create a quick chart. You select the data and click the Chart Wizard button and a few clicks later, you have a great looking chart.

It seldom stops there though. It isn't uncommon at all to update the underlying data and subsequently need to update the chart.

For instance, if a chart displays sales for only the first three quarters of the year, eventually, you'll want to add the fourth quarter. You could recreate the chart but usually, you've done enough customizing that you won't want to start over from scratch.

Fortunately, adding a series to an existing chart is a simple copy task:

1. Select the new data that you want to add to the chart. Don't select the entire worksheet--select only the new data. As you can see below, the existing chart's data consist of the first three quarters. To add the fourth quarter to the column chart, select just the fourth quarter data.

2. Press [Ctrl]+C to copy the new data to the Clipboard.
3. Select the chart.
4. Press [Ctrl]+V to copy the new data from the Clipboard to the new chart. A simple copy and paste task updates the existing chart by adding the fourth quarter series.

Microsoft Word

---

34 timesaving mouse tricks for Word users

Keyboard shortcuts are a mainstay for most Word users who are trying to streamline their work. Even brand-new users start slinging around Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V soon after mastering the intricacies of scrolling.

But keyboard shortcuts are often nonintuitive and hard to remember. (What mnemonic would you use to recall that Ctrl+E centers document text or that Ctrl+T produces a hanging indent?)

That's where mouse shortcuts--the unsung hero of built-in functionality--can take up the slack. Users probably know the basic moves: Right-click on an item to display a shortcut menu, double-click to select a word, triple-click to select a paragraph.

But Word has quite a few additional mouse tricks up its sleeve. This overview will help you (and your users) learn some easily remembered techniques to gain quick access to a host of Word options.

Formatting
Action	Result
Double-click an indent marker on the horizontal ruler	Opens the Paragraph dialog box
Double-click the vertical ruler (in Print Preview) or the gray area of the horizontal ruler	Opens the Page Setup dialog box
Double-click a tab marker on the horizontal ruler	Opens the Tabs dialog box
Double-click the style area	Opens the Style dialog box. (To display the style area, make sure you're in Normal view, choose Tools | Options | View, and enter a value in the Style Area Width text box.) This is a particularly neat trick for those who prefer setting style options in a dialog box instead of in the task pane.
Double-click a section break mark (visible in Normal view)	Opens the Page Setup dialog box with This Section selected in the Apply To drop-down list. "This" refers to the section above the section break mark you clicked on.
Double-click a paragraph properties mark	Opens the Line And Page Breaks tab in the Paragraph dialog box. The mark is a small black square that appears to the left of a paragraph that has the Keep Lines Together, Page Break Before, or Keep With Next option enabled. (The display of Formatting Marks must be turned on to see these marks; you may need to click Show/Hide ¶ on the Standard toolbar to turn on the display.)
Double-click a number in a numbered list	Opens the Numbered tab in the Bullets And Numbering dialog box
Double-click a bullet in a bulleted list	Opens the Bulleted tab in the Bullets And Numbering dialog box
Objects and pictures
Action	Result
Double-click the frame of a text box	Opens the Format Text Box dialog box
Double-click an AutoShape	Opens the Format AutoShape dialog box
Double-click a WordArt object	Opens the Edit WordArt dialog box
Double-click an embedded object, such as an Excel worksheet or PowerPoint slide	Opens the object for editing
Double-click a picture	Opens the Format Picture dialog box
Double-click a control (check box, command button, etc.)	Launches the VB Editor and open the properties and code window for that item
Miscellaneous tasks
Action	Result
Hold down Ctrl and click within a sentence	Selects sentence
Hold down Ctrl and drag selected text or an object	Creates a copy of the text or object
Double-click the split bar at the top of the horizontal scroll bar	Splits the window into two panes; double-click the top border of the lower pane to remove the split
Double-click in the header or footer area (in Print Layout view)	Activates the header or footer; double-click in the main text area to return to it
In Print Layout view, click between pages	Shows or hides the white space between them
Double-click an unused area beside any toolbar	Displays the Customize dialog box
Right-click on any toolbar	Displays the toolbars list
Double-click a footnote/endnote marker	Jumps to the corresponding footnote/endnote (and vice versa)
Double-click the top border of the Reviewing Pane	Closes the pane and returns you to the main text area
Double-click the right border of the Document Map or Thumbnails pane	Closes the pane
Double-click the document title bar	Toggles between maximized and restored window size. (Little-known related trick: The same thing happens if you double-click the gray square at the intersection of the horizontal and vertical scroll bars.)
Double-click a Move Table Column marker (those little dotted squares you see on the horizontal ruler when you're in a table) or the Table Move Handle (the four-headed arrow that appears at the top-left corner of a table in Print Layout view)	Opens the Table Properties dialog box
Click the Table Move Handle	Selects the table
Double-click the plus symbol next to a heading in Outline view	Expands or collapses the heading's subordinate text
Status bar tools
Action	Result
Double-click the status bar anywhere to the left of the REC item	Opens the Go To dialog box
Double-click REC on the status bar	Opens the Record Macro dialog box
Double-click TRK on the status bar	Turns track changes on and off. (Right-clicking on TRK will bring up a shortcut menu of additional options.)
Double-click EXT on the status bar	Turns extend selection mode on and off
Double-click OVR on the status bar	Turns overtype mode on and off
Double-click the Spelling And Grammar Status icon on the status bar	Checks document spelling and grammar. (Right-clicking will bring up a shortcut menu of additional options.)