Word Editor Tools: Refine Essays and Check for Similarity to Online Sources 📃

Hey the semester is almost over! Whether you are a student working on a final paper, or a professor about to read one (or twenty), you might want to check out Word’s improved Editor Tools.

About Office 365

You will need Office 365 to have this feature, and even within 365 there are various update schedules, so the feature may look a little different.

Here is a hack: if your desktop application of Word does not have the Editor tool, or it is pared down from what I show you below, try uploading the document to OneDrive and opening it in your browser, or if you can alternatively upload the document to Teams and open within the Teams application to see the full feature.

Editor

You can find the Editor tool on the right side of the Home tab and on the Review Tab.

When you select the Editor, a menu will appear on the right side of your document.

In addition to the old Spelling and Grammar checks that you know and love, there are a ton of new goodies to help you refine your document. Scroll down to look at refinement suggestions, like Clarity and Formality.

Speaking of Formality, you can set the level of writing to Formal, Professional, or Casual, to see varying suggestions.

Details and Settings

Select the suggested Refinements to see further explanations and choose to change or ignore the suggestions.

While reviewing refinements, you can also change Settings and ask Word to check (or not check) for specific Refinements.

Check for Similarities to Online Sources

There is a new ability to check the similarity between a Word document and content on the web.

In the Editor pane, scroll down to the Similarity section. Select Check for similarity to online sources.

The document below, for instance, has some potentially problematic text.

Review the similarities to see where Microsoft has found similar content online.

Document Stats

One more feature worth mentioning in the Editor tool is Document Stats.

Take a look at the Document Stats to see Readability Statistics, like counts, averages, reading grade level, passive sentences, and Flesch Reading Ease.

Thoughts?

Are you planning to use the new and improved Editor tools? I would love to hear from you! By the way, this is a feature you will want to keep an eye on; there will be more to come in future updates. Until then, have a fantastic end of semester, and happy writing!

Top 5 Microsoft Office Tools for Students 💻

As a Microsoft trainer who is also a returning adult student, I have been meaning to write about this topic for ages… Here are my top 5 favorite tools in Microsoft Office for students. These are in random order, because there was no earthly way to pick a favorite!

1. AutoSave Important Documents

Have you ever spent hours typing a paper without saving? Sometimes we get away with this sort of thing, and other times… Word, or your computer, might “encounter a problem,” leaving you stranded, with nothing to show but lost time and effort.

Consider using the AutoSave feature in Word by saving your paper to OneDrive.

Open up an Office file (for example Word). You will notice an Autosave slider at the upper left of the screen.

When you toggle that on, you will be prompted to save your file to OneDrive.

Once you do this, your document will constantly save automatically every time you make a change.

Also, by saving your document to OneDrive, you will be able to access your file from any computer or mobile device. Win Win!

2. Dictation Tools

Think about those classes where you have to do a lot of reading and are trying to simultaneously take notes while reading.

Take a look at how quickly I was able to take notes for my fictional CARB101 class, below:

Here is how you can try out this feature, and one caveat, you will need Office 365 for this one:

Open up a Word document (or some versions of OneNote). On the right side of the Home tab, click on Dictation.

As you are reading your textbook, read out loud the passages that you would like to include in your notes.

Pro Tip: there are commands within the dictation tools for punctuation, moving to the next line, and so on. If you want to see those, click on the question mark next to your Dictation tools:

3. OneNote: Organize Class Notes and Documents

There are so many ways you can utilize OneNote as a student. In fact, I had so much to say about OneNote that this was difficult to summarize, but here goes:

Note Taking: Most obviously, OneNote is an excellent way to organize your class notes:

Files: You may also find OneNote to be a handy place to organize class handouts, syllabi, and so on. Try inserting content as a File Printout (Insert Tab):

This will serve to attach a file to your notebook, with the addition of a handy readable printout within the note itself. Here is my fictional syllabus, as an example:

Printout File Options: This printout method will work with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files. Maybe your professor has shared a series of PowerPoints, for instance. Insert as a printout!

Search Features: OneNote has robust Search features, particularly the Windows desktop version of OneNote.
- Bonus: when you insert documents as a printout, the content within the attachment is also searchable. Search tools are either found on the upper right of your OneNote screen, or on Mac and online versions, at the upper left via a spyglass.
- OneNote also has OCR technology, meaning it can search the text within pictures.

There is much more to say about OneNote, but this will get you launched!

4. Word: Citation Manager

You may have heard of EndNote and Zotero, but did you know that Word has a built-in citation manager? Word’s citation manager will allow you to save sources, cite sources in a variety of formats, and also create an instant Works Cited/Bibliography in a variety of styles.

Bibliography dropdown

I have an entire entry on the Citation Manager in Word here: Word: Citations and Bibliography.

Fair warning: You do still have to double check yourself for typos!

5. Word: Style Sets

Will you be writing copious papers for one class, with specific formatting guidelines that will apply to all of these papers? For instance, “all papers must be in Times New Roman, 12 point font, double spaced.” You could set up each paper with these settings one by one, or you could utilize Word’s Style Sets so that you can apply all these special settings to future papers with a click of a button.

Step 1: Changing Existing Styles

Open up a blank word document. Instead of changing text by hand, in the Home tab, Styles group, right click on the Normal style.

Select Modify.

In the popup screen that appears, make the various font customizations: in this case, Times New Roman, 12 point font, double spaced.

Note: you can do more advanced formatting in the Format dropdown in the lower left.

… like hanging indents, spacing, etc.

Step 2: Save the new style

Go to the Design tab, Document Formatting group, and click on the arrow at the lower right.

Select Save as a New Style Set.

Choose a name (perhaps the class name), and click Save.

Step 3: Access the style

Going forward, you can apply these exact font settings to a new Word document:

Go to the Design tab, Document Formatting group, and click on the arrow at the lower right.
You now have a Custom section with your presets ready to apply to the new document.

In other words, with just a couple clicks, you can jump right in to typing your paper with the exact prescribed formatting.

Thoughts?

Do you think you will use these tips as a student? Or even as a non-student? I would love to hear what you think!

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

Deana Beek

Daniella Blair

Cheyenne Dealy

Janise Eck

Shelly Ellis

Word: Translation Tools

Do you need to translate a document in a hurry? You might check out Microsoft’s translation tools… you have an array of languages at your fingertips. Let’s take a look.

How to Translate a Word Document

Here I am looking at a fictional syllabus for my fictional class. The syllabus is written in English, and I would like to translate it into Vietnamese.

1. Start in the Review tab of the ribbon. Select the Translate dropdown. You will see options to either translate a selected portion of your document, or the entire document. Here I chose Translate Document.

2. The Translator menu will appear on the right side of the Word screen. Here you can select your starting language (or allow Auto-detect to determine this), and then your translation language.

3. Once you have selected languages, click Translate.

A new word document will appear in front of your original document with your translated content.

Note: No translation is perfect, particularly machine generated translation, so it is possible there will be some mistakes or imperfections in the results.

More Applications

You will see these Translation tools in your other Microsoft Office applications, like PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. This is an incredible tool to help enhance communication.

Thoughts?

Do you think you will use these translation tools on your Office documents? I would love to hear from you!

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

Mumenah Burnshire

Word: 5 Things You Should Know About Hyperlinks

Have you ever created a hyperlink in a Word document? For the most part, this is a fairly straightforward process. That said, there are a few hidden gems in the hyperlink options that you may not have explored. Let’s check it out.

Applying a Link

A quick review: to create a hyperlink in a Microsoft Office program, start by selecting the word(s) where you would like to apply the link, and then either…

Right click and select Link (or Hyperlink):

… or remember that one of my favorite shortcuts for accessing this hyperlink popup is Ctrl + K. This shortcut works in a wide variety of programs, so it is worth memorizing!

You will arrive at this familiar screen…

It is this Insert Hyperlink popup screen that I would like to explore with you today.

1. File or Webpage

In the Insert Hyperlink screen, the most common goal is to link to a webpage, so conveniently that is the default view.

Webpage

To link to a webpage, paste the webpage address into the Address field and click OK.

File

A lesser known option in this default view is the ability to link your words to a file.

Note that, in the box above where you paste your hyperlink, you can instead select folders and files from your list and the address will populate a location of the file.

After you create this type of link, clicking on the link will open the file you selected. How cool!

Be cautious with this option. If your goal is to send this document to others, the link may not behave correctly if they don’t have access to the file location.

2. Place in this Document

On the left side of the Insert Hyperlink page, notice that there are additional tabs. Here you have options beyond a simple web address or file location.

The first one I want to show you is my favorite: Place in This Document. There is so much you can do with this powerful tool.

Glancing at this tab doesn’t always tell you what you need to know, however. Here are the basics:

Location Options

You have several choices for linking to a Place in This Document.

Headings

Another wonderful way to navigate is by utilizing Styles. If you would like to learn more about Styles, I hope to see you at a Word Essentials training, where we cover Styles in great detail!

If you would like to utilize Styles to link to a location in your document:

1. Use Styles to apply Headings to your document.

2. Revisit your Insert Hyperlink options

3. Look under the Headings section of the Place in This Document tab.

This is extremely helpful if you are referencing different locations within a large file and would like your readers to be able to easily skip ahead or back to specific sections.

One caveat… sometimes if you have heavily modified a header (also discussed in Word Essentials), you may find that it does not appear in the Headings list. This is where the next trick comes in handy…

Bookmarks

In addition to utilizing Headers, you can bookmark any location within your document and link back to this location with a hyperlink.

1. Place your cursor where you would like to insert the bookmark.

2. Go to the Insert tab, Links group, and select Bookmark.

3. In the popup that appears, name your bookmark (no spaces may be used), and press Add.

4. Revisit the Insert Hyperlink popup and select the bookmark from the Bookmarks section to create a link to the location.

3. Create New Document

The next option on the left is Create New Document.

If you select this option, the link will create a New Word file in your Documents Folder. You have further choices to name this document, and choose whether the link will prompt you to edit the document now or later.

Note: As with the File example, people would need access to the path (save location) for this link to work.

4. Generate an Email

Email Address is the last tab on the left side of the Insert Hyperlink popup. Select this option and enter an email address and subject line.

When you create a link with this setting, clicking on the link will open Outlook, or the user’s default mail program, and create a new email to the specified address, with the specified subject line.

5. Target Frame Options

We have talked in detail about the tabs on the left of the Insert Hyperlink popup, but there is one item on the right that I want to mention: Target Frame. In other words, how would you like your link to behave as it opens?

This option is something you will likely care more about if your end goal is to publish this document online somewhere; exporting it as html or PDF, or utilizing cloud services to publish and share a document to be opened in browser.

The most common selection I see people utilize in this screen is New Window, for when you want the original document to remain on its own tab when your readers click on the link, while the linked content will open in a new browser tab.

Thoughts?

What do you think, does this open up some new possibilities for utilizing hyperlinks in your document? I would love to hear from you!

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

David Gomez
LaDawna Hobkirk
Judi McBroom
Amy Smith
Brittany Ulmer
Carrie Wyatt

Word: Convert Text to Table, or Table to Text… in 3 Clicks

There are a variety of reasons you may need to move text into (or out of) a table in Word. Sometimes you inherited a document with an odd layout, or you exported from another source, and for whatever reason the text just looks odd. You could insert a table and copy and paste for half an hour, or you could do this little trick.

Starting Place: Comma (or Tab) Delimited Values

In my case, my starting values are separated by commas. This is common for a lot of text exported from other sources. But you may also run into documents that export with other delimiters, like tabs, paragraphs, semi colons, etc. Those can all be addressed.

Convert Text to Table

I am going to use the example of the comma separated values above.

1. Highlight the block of text.

2. Go to the Insert tab and select the Table dropdown. Select Convert Text to Table…

3. Word will guess the delimiter. In my case, Word has caught on that the values are separated by commas. Note you could change the delimiter under the Separate text at section, if Word does not pick up on it automatically.

4. Press OK and a simple table will be created with the text values you highlighted.

Don’t forget… you have a lot of options for styles and formatting in the Table Design and Layout tabs.

Make sure you have clicked onto your table for these to appear, as they are contextual tabs.

I always go for green for some reason…

Convert Table to Text

Sometimes the inverse is true… you have inherited a document with a table and you need it to be converted to text. This can happen when you are trying to meet accessibility standards, or when an old table formatting just doesn’t behave well in modern versions of Office.

1. Click into your table to activate the Table Design and Layout contextual tabs.

2. Select the Layout contextual tab.

3. In the Data group, select Convert to Text.

4. You will have the option to choose how to separate your text at the existing cells. I chose Tabs for mine, but I may sometimes select Commas when I want to export as a comma separated value (CSV) file.

5. The table is now a list of tab separated values, ready for you to work with outside of table formatting.

Thoughts?

What do you think, will this save you some headaches in your Word documents? I would love to hear from you!

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

Denise Gimlin
Kelly Gurik
Debra Haslam
Alma Hidalgo
Angie Myrtle
Denise Northup
Tisha Whitehead

10 MORE Secret Commands in Microsoft Office

Almost immediately after I posted my Top 10 Favorite Secret Commands in Microsoft Office, so many more came to mind… So without further ado, here are 10 more commands that go above and beyond our usual well-known commands.

Ctrl + K = Hyperlink

This command works in all your Microsoft Office programs, and other programs as well (like OU Campus!). Select your text, and rather than going through a right click menu, press Ctrl + K to access your hyperlink options.

Think about how quick this action can be if you have already copied your hyperlink, you can simply select text, Ctrl + K, Ctrl + V (paste), enter, and you are done.

Ctrl + ; = Insert Date (Excel)

This is different than the =TODAY function we talk about in Excel Advanced Formulas class. This command, Ctrl + ; does not insert a formula; rather, it inserts today’s date as stagnant text.

By the way, a similar command is Ctrl + Shift + ; to insert the current time.

Ctrl + 1, 2, 3… = Outlook Navigation

We have talked before about how Outlook has some incredible time-saving commands, and here is one of my favorites. Ctrl + (a number) will take you through the basic Outlook navigation.

Here are the basic navigation commands in Outlook:

Ctrl + 1 = Mail
Ctrl + 2 = Calendar
Ctrl + 3 = Contacts
Ctrl + 4 = Tasks
Ctrl + 5 = Notes
Ctrl + 6 = Folders
Ctrl + 7 = Shortcuts
Ctrl + 8 = Journal

So the next time you are in your mail module, and want to take a look at your calendar, try Ctrl + 2 to quickly access it!

Ctrl + Shift + < or > = Adjust Text Size (Word, PPT)

Do you want to increase a block of text by exactly one font size? In Word or PowerPoint, select your text, then try the commands Ctrl + Shift + > to increase all selected text by one font size or Ctrl + Shift + < to decrease.

Ctrl + [Drag] = Duplicate

We have talked about Ctrl + [drag] in Acrobat fillable forms, but did you know if works in Microsoft Office as well?

If you would like to duplicate a block of text in Word: select the text, hold down your Ctrl key, and with your mouse click and drag it to a new location. You will have an exact copy of the selected text.

Same story in Excel. Want to copy a block of cells? Select them, hold down the Ctrl key, and with your mouse click and drag them to their new location

One note in Excel, you will want to hover your mouse on the line of selected text, until you see the four headed arrow cursor. Otherwise, Ctrl will simply deselect one of the cells in your group, rather than move them.

Ctrl + Shift + C = Copy Formatting

Almost like the Format Painter in command format… you know that Ctrl + C is copy, but did you know that Ctrl + Shift + C copies formatting?

This will work in most of your Microsoft Office programs. Select the text you would like to copy, and press Ctrl + Shift + C.

Select the text where you would like to copy the formatting, and press Ctrl + Shift + V. The Format Painter as a command, how cool!

Ctrl + Alt + V = Paste Special

Ctrl + V is paste, and we just learned that Ctrl + Shift + V is use when copying formatting… here is another paste option: Ctrl + Alt + V will Paste Special. This will work in most of your Microsoft Office programs.

Frequently used in Excel, but also when transferring Excel data to Word… Select your data and copy (Ctrl + C), select the new location and press Ctrl + Alt + V to access Paste Special options.

Ctrl + Shift + $ = Currency Format (Excel)

There is nothing wrong with selecting a number format from the ribbon, but if you know you want currency, it could speed things up considerably to select your cells and press Ctrl + Shift + $.

Ctrl + Shift + ! and beyond= Number Formats (Excel)

While you are looking at the numbers on your keyboard, try out a few more. Ctrl + Shift + ! will give you a standard Number format. Ctrl + Shift + % will give you percentages, and so on. Test out a few, and see if there are number formats you find yourself reaching for regularly.

Alt + F = File Tab

The Alt commands are a powerful tool in Microsoft Office. Alt will take you to the ribbon in your Office programs, and there are so many paths you can learn and memorize from there. Here is a great one to get you started:

Alt + F will take you to the File menu.

From here, notice the highlighted letters letters on top of popular commands. S for Save, P for Print and so on…

Even if you don’t end up falling in love with all the Alt commands in the ribbon, Alt + F is an easy one to learn and utilize.

Thoughts?

What do you think, will you use these shortcuts to save time in Microsoft Office?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

Stephanie Versch (Picture coming soon!)

Word: The Spike Feature

Have you ever heard of the Spike feature in Word? If you are shaking your head, you are not alone… it is not well known. This is a handy hidden feature that could be an enormous help to you if you are copying and combining separate pieces of data. It is kind of like your clipboard, but if utilized properly, can be a lot faster. Let’s check it out.

The Scenario

The best uses for Spike involves the need to move and combine separate blocks of text. In the example below, we want all the important, highlighted text to be pulled together at a separate location, removing it from the extemporaneous paragraphs. We could copy and paste three times, or we can utilize the Spike to do it all at once…

Step 1: Cut Content to Spike

Start by selecting the first piece of information to be moved. With that text selected, press Ctrl + F3 on your keyboard.

It will appear that this text has disappeared, but it has been cut to a special location… and if its disappearance bothers you, ctrl+ z (undo) would bring it back.

Repeat this step with the second and third important piece of information. Now you will be left with only extemporaneous information.

Step 2: Paste Content from Spike

There are a several options to paste this content, and none of them involve the usual methods. All of these techniques will paste the entire contents that you previously cut to the Spike.

The First Method: Type “Spike”

Note: This method will not clear out what you have stored in the Spike, and as you cut more items to the Spike, it will be added to existing content.

Place your cursor where you would like the text to go
Type the word “Spike”; you will need to type slowly and you will see some helper text appear above the word.
Press enter to insert the text.

The Second Method: QuickParts

You can also paste content from your QuickParts… this method will also not clear the contents of the Spike.

Place your cursor in the desired location.
Go to the Insert tab
Select QuickParts
Hover over AutoText
Select Spike.

The Third Method: Ctrl + Shift + F3

This method will clear out what has been store in the Spike as well as paste the joined contents in a new location.

Place your cursor in the desired location
Press Ctrl + Shift + F3 on your keyboard.

Remember, if you picked one of the first two methods, at some point you will need to do this last method to clear the contents of the Spike.

Function Keys

It is worth mentioning, as a lot of us are working from laptops at the moment… Since you have to incorporate a function key (F3), remember that you may have to activate your function keys for this, or any function key feature, to work. Many laptops have keys that serve dual purpose as function keys and other features, like volume or brightness.

Look for a key that says “Fn” to toggle on the function keys.

Thoughts?

What do you think? Do you have a use for the Spike feature in your Word documents?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

Susan Norton (picture coming soon!)

Compatibility Mode: How to Re-Activate Your Favorite Features

This happens frequently after a PivotTables session… An attendee excitedly returns to their computer to create a PivotTable from an existing Excel file, only to discover that the PivotTable screen looks a lot different than it did in class, and a lot of their favorite features are grayed out in the ribbon. This is not just an Excel issue… sometimes this happens Word or PowerPoint: certain features are mysteriously faded in the user’s ribbon. The culprit? Compatibility Mode. Let’s talk about this setting, and how to escape from it, in your Microsoft Office documents.

What is Compatibility Mode?

The intentions of Compatibility Mode are in the right place. Its purpose is to make a document as functional as possible with older versions of software. So if you are using Office 365, and your friend is running Office 2010, you could send this Compatibility Mode document to them and rest assured it will look the same to them as it does to you.

For this reason, you will often see data that is exported from other programs; Reporting Services and WSU Reporting, for instance; default to Compatibility Mode. The software programmers aren’t sure what version of Office you will be using, so they err on the safe side, and have the export default to Compatibility Mode.

Another possibility: you are opening an old document. If someone created this document in 2001, and never updated the file format since then (we will talk about this further down), chances are you are in Compatibility Mode by default.

Missing Features

Earlier I mentioned that PivotTables are often the first place people notice missing features in the ribbon…

… But this happens in other Excel tabs, PowerPoint, and Word as well.

The features that gray out vary from version to version, but bottom line, newer features are what disappear in Compatibility Mode. When someone is experiencing these ghosts of buttons, this is almost always the culprit.

How to identify Compatibility Mode

How do you know for sure if your document is in Compatibility Mode? There are several ways.

1. You might have some visual cues; the icons look slightly different in Compatibility Mode, shown below, on the left side of the icons.

2. At the top of your document, next to the title, you might see the words Compatibility Mode

3. Go to your Save As screen (File, Save As). What do you see in the dropdown under the title? If it says Excel 97-2003 Workbook, you are in Compatibility Mode.

In fact, stay in the Save As screen, and I will show you how to fix this.

How to Escape From This Setting (and get your favorite features back)

In your Save As screen (shortcut: F12), Compatibility Mode reads as Excel 97-2003 as the File type (dropdown under the document title).

To fix this issue, click on the dropdown under the title, and select the first option for Type: Excel Workbook in this case (Word Document for Word and PowerPoint Presentation for PowerPoint).

Important: you must close the file and reopen it to see the new options appear.

That’s it! You have your features back! I hope this helps with some of your legacy documents or documents exported from various sources.

Thoughts?

What do you think? Have you been plagued by the trials and tribulations of Compatibility Mode?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

Top 10 Secret Key Commands in Microsoft Office

Whenever I mention one of these shortcuts in a session, I see people taking out their pencils to write them down. Most of us know some commonly used keyboard commands in Microsoft Office; Ctrl + Z to undo, Ctrl + C to copy, and so on… but I have some lesser-known favorites to share with you today. Also, take a moment to check out this article, which contains some more general shortcuts.

F12 = Save As

If you have taken any of my Essentials sessions, you know this one, one of my absolute favorites. Remember in the old days when you used to be able to select Save As from the menu, and you would be taken directly to a dialog box with everything you wanted in one place? If you are like me, you found that box to be way faster than clicking through the options one by one in the new File/Backstage menu.

So just press F12. It does everything you want, and works in all your favorite Microsoft Office programs.

F7 = Spell Check

Want a quick spell check? No need to visit the ribbon, just press F7.

Especially useful in Excel, where we don’t get the red squiggly lines underneath misspelled words like we do in Word.

F7 will also work in PowerPoint…

Alt + Q = Find Features

This is a big one. Sometimes you know that a feature exists in Microsoft Office, but you are just not sure where to find it. Press Alt + Q to search for it.

Forget how to get to the Accessibility Checker? Press Alt + Q and search for it…

While I still think it is a good idea to know where features live in the ribbon, this is an excellent tool to find what you are looking for in a hurry.

Ctrl + Y = Redo

Companion to the famous Ctrl + Z (undo), Ctrl + Y gets a lot less fanfare, and I have no idea why. It is a great cheat if you don’t know a key command for something. Ctrl +Y will simply recreate the last action.

Let’s say you want to insert a row into Excel in a variety of different places. Maybe you don’t know the key command (Shift Ctrl + +), so you insert one row… with the old-fashioned right click , Insert.

To insert another row, go to the new location, and hit Ctrl +Y. Click on the next location, Ctrl +Y, and so on. This will be much faster than performing the old “Right click, Insert” method 20 or so times.

It also works for formatting. A couple weeks ago, I was editing a Word document with quite a few pictures that I wanted to have identical style formatting. I selected one picture, applied a style format, then selected the remaining pictures, pressed Ctrl + Y and voila! All the same formatting was applied.

Note: Ctrl + Y will only apply the last action, so if you were making several format changes to an item, you might be better off copying formatting with the Format Painter. Please attend an Excel, Word, or OneNote Essentials session to learn more about this amazing feature!

Ctrl + Home/Ctrl +End = Go to the Beginning or End

Need to get back to the top of a document, or conversely, need to find the end? Try Ctrl + Home or Ctrl + End to navigate.

Ctrl + Home will take you back to the top of your document, and Ctrl + End will take you to the bottom.

Note: this will require that you are using a full keyboard… sometimes the Home and End buttons are not present on smaller keyboards or laptops.

Ctrl + Shift+ (arrow) = select an entire column or row

If you have attended Excel Advanced Formulas you know this one. Ctrl + Shift + Down Arrow will select all the data in a column. This also works with a right arrow to select all the data in a row. And in Word, it will select an entire row of data at a time.

Outlook: Ctrl + Shift + M = Create Email

I mentioned in a previous article that Outlook has some amazing time saving shortcuts. This one and the next one are my two favorites.

Regardless of the Outlook module you are working in, Ctrl + Shift + M will create a new email message. No need to return to the mail module.

Below I was in my Calendar module, and started an email with this command.

Outlook: Alt + S = Send Email

Once you are done typing your email, don’t touch that mouse… Alt + S will send the email.

There have been occasions where someone was standing behind me as I used this command and the last in Outlook, and they exclaim, “How did you do that??” The wizardry of key commands!

Word: Alt + Ctrl + 1 (or 2, or 3) = Format as Heading

We are all utilizing headers after attending Word Essentials, right? Well, here is a quick way to set a line to Heading 1, 2 or 3: Alt + Ctrl + 1 (or 2, or 3).

Excel: Ctrl + T = Convert Range to Table

After you attended Excel Essentials, you ran back to your computer to convert all your ranges to tables, right? The functionality we see for tables goes even beyond what we see in Essentials and Pivot Tables sessions. It is just a good practice to start utilizing them.

Instead of using the Table feature from the Home tab of the ribbon, place your cursor in the middle of your data and press: Ctrl + T.

Of course, you can still make adjustments via the contextual Table Tool tab.

Thoughts?

What do you think, are any of these one of your favorite shortcuts? Or do you have a different favorite secret shortcut to share?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

Kaleb Basham
Joan Wilson

Microsoft PowerUp! Videos Posted: Check Out What’s New in Office 365

Almost 150 people attended the special Microsoft PowerUp! Sessions… If you missed them, or even if you attended and wanted to revisit some of the special content, videos are available now!

The purpose of these sessions was to give everyone a quick update on some of the highlights now available (or coming soon, depending on your update schedule) in Microsoft Office 365. Keep an eye out for future sessions as more updates are released…

PowerPoint Updates

Word Updates

Excel Updates

Bonus Content: Sandy

This is Sandy (Power User!), with a very kind testimonial. 😊😊

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

Erin LeBegue (not pictured)

Chris Leonard

Tyra Miles

Marsha Compton

About Office 365

Editor

Details and Settings

Check for Similarities to Online Sources

Document Stats

Thoughts?

1. AutoSave Important Documents

2. Dictation Tools

3. OneNote: Organize Class Notes and Documents

4. Word: Citation Manager

5. Word: Style Sets

Step 1: Changing Existing Styles

Step 2: Save the new style

Step 3: Access the style

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

How to Translate a Word Document

More Applications

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Applying a Link

1. File or Webpage

Webpage

File

2. Place in this Document

Location Options

Top of the Document

Headings

Bookmarks

3. Create New Document

4. Generate an Email

5. Target Frame Options

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Starting Place: Comma (or Tab) Delimited Values

Convert Text to Table

Convert Table to Text

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Ctrl + K = Hyperlink

Ctrl + ; = Insert Date (Excel)

Ctrl + 1, 2, 3… = Outlook Navigation

Ctrl + Shift + < or > = Adjust Text Size (Word, PPT)

Ctrl + [Drag] = Duplicate

Ctrl + Shift + C = Copy Formatting

Ctrl + Alt + V = Paste Special

Ctrl + Shift + $ = Currency Format (Excel)

Ctrl + Shift + ! and beyond= Number Formats (Excel)

Alt + F = File Tab

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

The Scenario

Step 1: Cut Content to Spike

Step 2: Paste Content from Spike

The First Method: Type “Spike”

The Second Method: QuickParts

The Third Method: Ctrl + Shift + F3

Function Keys

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

What is Compatibility Mode?

Missing Features

How to identify Compatibility Mode

How to Escape From This Setting (and get your favorite features back)

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

F12 = Save As

F7 = Spell Check

Alt + Q = Find Features

Ctrl + Y = Redo

Ctrl + Home/Ctrl +End = Go to the Beginning or End

Ctrl + Shift+ (arrow) = select an entire column or row

Outlook: Ctrl + Shift + M = Create Email

Outlook: Alt + S = Send Email

Word: Alt + Ctrl + 1 (or 2, or 3) = Format as Heading

Excel: Ctrl + T = Convert Range to Table

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

PowerPoint Updates

Word Updates