Give your SmartArt "bounce" with PowerPoint 2010!

You can add a lot of pizazz to your presentation by applying custom animations to SmartArt.

After creating the desired SmartArt, select the object by clicking on it. The object will appear in a frame.

 

From the Animations tab on the ribbon, select an animation for the SmartArt. By clicking on the More button you can see the entire library! As you slide your mouse over a selection, you will see a live preview of the way the animation will appear.

Once you have chosen an animation, a number will appear to the left of the frame indicating that the object is animated.

Click the Effect Options button on the Animations tab to build the slide one piece of the object at a time.  Click the Preview button on the left end of the Animations tab to review the effects you have chosen. 

For even more control over the effects, click the Animation Pane button and a task pane will open on the right side of the Window. Each part of the animation will be listed, and by clicking on the drop down menus, you can select even more options! (The numbers in the task pane correspond to the numbers that appear to the left of the SmartArt object.)

Excel: Use AutoCalculate to get a quick total!

Do you need a total in a hurry but don’t want to bother with a function? Click and drag to select (highlight) the cells you wish to include in the total. Look at the status bar (bottom Window frame) to see the Sum, Average, Count, etc.

 

If the cells are not adjacent to one another, hold down the CTRL key while you select the cells.

Need other functions instead? Right click on the status bar to see a menu of other commands available.

Downsize a picture attachment using Windows 7 and Microsoft Outlook

This is a great option for Windows 7 users:

1. Select one or more picture files in an Explorer window.
2. Right click on a file name and choose Send to/ Mail recipient from the menu. The Attach Files dialog box will appear.
3. Choose Smaller, Small, Medium (the default 1024x768), Large, or Original Size.
4. Click the Attach button and a new message will be created with the images attached and sized as you have selected.

Downsize a picture attachment in Outlook 2010

After you have attached an image to a message in Outlook 2010, click the File tab. The backstage view of the message window will open in the Info category. Choose the option at the top to "Resize large images when I send this message." Images will be a reduced to a maximum of 1024x768 pixels, which must be done on a per-message basis. Click the File tab again to return to the message window.

Downsize a picture attachment in Outlook 2007

If you email photos using Microsoft Outlook 2007, you might like a quick and easy way to "shrink" the file size.

After you attach a photo, click the Insert tab on the ribbon, and then click the dialog box launcher in the bottom right corner of the Include tool group. The Attachment Options task pane will open on the right side of the message window.
Notice the Picture Options area in the bottom half of the pane: click the drop down arrow and choose to resize your picture to Small, Medium, or Large size. You might want to click the check box at the bottom of the pane to automatically "Show when attaching files."

Get a jump on your files using Windows7 jump lists

In Windows 7, jump lists are a list of the files you have opened recently
from an application. These appear on the Start menu when you point at the
application. Click on the file name and the file will open.

But wait... there's more! If you have a file you want to have quick access to,
"pin" it to the list. Slide your mouse over the file name, and then click on the pushpin you see to the right of the name. The file will now appear at the top of the recent list. If you need to remove a file name from the list, just click the push pin again to "un-pin" it.

Is opening the Task Manager for Windows a task?

A great keyboard shortcut to remember:

CTRL+SHIFT+ESC: Opens Windows Task Manager

Wow - that was fast!