Excel: Dynamic Dependent Dropdown Lists

In Advanced Excel training, you learned about creating dropdown lists using Data Validation. That was pretty handy on its own… but what if you would like to create a dynamic dependent dropdown list?

For example, below I would like to select a Dessert Type in Column A, and have only those specific desserts appear in my secondary list in Column B.

This can be an incredibly useful tool; imagine lists of cities by state, or students by class, and so on. Lets see how we can set up this slightly more complicated Data Validation.

Exercise File

Interested in following along? Use the exercise file below.

DependentDropdownExercise

Primary List

When you attended Excel: Advanced Formulas with me, you learned all about Data Validation. The first part of this setup will feel just like what we did in training.

1. Select all of Column A.

2. In the Data tab, select Data Validation.

3. In the popup:

- - Under Allow, select List.
  - Click into the Source box
  - Select the cells with the dessert types: E1 through J1. Click OK.

All the cells in column A now have a dropdown list of dessert types.

Dependent Dropdowns

So far, this is nothing new… but remember that your goal was to create a dependent dropdown list: i.e. when someone selects “Cake” as a Dessert Type, you would like only the cake options to appear, and so on.

Named Ranges

1. Select the entire range that contains the lists: E1 through J12.

- Notice how Cake has more options than any other type: we will address that later, but for now, cast as wide a net as possible to include all the desserts.

2. In the Formulas tab, Defined Names group, select Create from Selection.

3. Check Top Row and click OK.

This is going to create named lists based on that top row. Which could have a variety of uses… one will be what we will do next.

Apply Data Validation

For Column B, similar to the first step, you want to again apply some Data Validation, but this time, the options you want to appear need to be based off of what users select in Column A.

1. Select all of Column B.

2. Revisit Data Validation: go to the Data tab and select Data Validation.

3. Change Allow dropdown to a List, just like in the first Data Validation

4. For Source, instead of selecting cells, insert the formula =INDIRECT(A1).

- This is going to reference cell B1 to look at A1, and through the magic of Relative References (also discussed in Advanced Formulas training), each subsequent row will reference the cell to the left of it to access those named lists you established in the “Named Ranges” step.

5. If you receive an error message that the Source “evaluates to an error,” click Yes.

- Don’t worry, this error is not an issue; the formula is currently evaluating blank cells in Column A and doesn’t know what they reference.

The fun part: try it out! Select a Dessert type in column A, and look at the customized options that appear.

We still have work to do, though. Remember how we have lists of different lengths? This is especially apparent when you pick a shorter listed dessert type, like Confections.

This leads to some trailing blank spaces in those named range lists. We will get rid of these blank spaces in the next step.

By the way, if it looks like you can’t see all your options in that secondary list, there is a slider bar on the right… At this stage, you might have to scroll up on some of the shorter lists. Again, we will fix that shortly.

Remove Blanks

You might remember this trick from a previous Byte, which covers how to Remove Blank Rows in a Document:

Excel: Remove All Blank Rows in a Document

In this case, we are going to remove a few blank spaces with the goal of cleaning up those dependent dropdown lists that contain blanks.

1. Select the range of cells surrounding your lists.

2. In the Home tab, find the Find and Select dropdown and select Go To Special

3. Select Blanks and click OK.

4. Right click over the selected blanks and click Delete.

5. Select Shift cells up and click OK.

That takes care of the rogue blanks in the dropdowns in Column B. Much better!

Cleaning up the Header Row

This is optional, but if it bothers you that your header (in this case cells A1 and B1) both contain unnecessary dropdowns with Data Validation, you can remove those as a last step.

Select Cells A1 and B1
Go to Data tab, Data Validation.
Select Clear All in the lower left, and click OK.

One More Thought

In real life, you would likely set this up with your source lists on a separate, hidden sheet. That would look much cleaner than having all the lists in view, like we did here. But for the simplification of this example, I included them all on one sheet here.

Thoughts?

What do you think, will you use dependent dropdown lists in your workbooks? 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

- Caroline Beach

Teams: Breakout Rooms

Breakout Rooms in Teams: I know so many of you have been awaiting the addition of this feature before you were comfortable moving classes and meetings from Zoom to Teams.

Now that Teams Breakout Rooms have launched (hooray!), lets take a look at how they work…

Creating Breakout Rooms

You will need to start your meeting in order to access the Breakout Rooms feature. At this time, you cannot set up rooms in advance of the meeting.

In your meeting, you will find a button for Breakout Rooms in the upper right menu of your Teams meeting, represented by two squares.

The Breakout Rooms button will toggle out a menu on the right side of your Teams Meeting screen.

In this screen you can control:

A. The number of rooms
B. Assignment of members: automatic vs manual assignment
C. When finished press Create Rooms.

Note: Unlike Zoom, clicking Create Rooms will not move your participants. There will be an additional step.

Once you create your rooms, a side panel will appear showing the rooms that have not yet been opened. There are a few additional options you can set before you open the rooms.

Options and Settings

In the upper right of the Breakout Room screen is an ellipses (…). Click on this to access Rooms Settings.

Here you can control:

Whether participants will move automatically to rooms when you open them (this defaults to being on).
Whether participants can return to the main meeting on their own (this defaults to being off).

Start Rooms

Once your Breakout Rooms are set up and you are ready to move participants, click Start Rooms.

Note: Unlike Zoom, it can take some time, around 30 seconds or so, for attendees to be moved into their rooms.

After the rooms have been started, you can join your attendees in specific rooms by clicking on the ellipses next to each room and selecting Join Room.

Returning Participants to the Main Room

In the Breakout Rooms menu, where you opened the rooms, will be a new option to Close Rooms. This will return all the participants to the main meeting.

If you had toggled on the ability for attendees to return to the main meeting on their own, they will have a new option in their Meeting menu:

In addition to a Leave button will be a Return button.
Be sure they know to click Return if they would like to come back to the main meeting. If they click Leave, they will leave the entire meeting.

Want to know more?

This post just scratches the surface of breakout rooms. If you would like to see more details and options, take a look at this helpful writeup from Microsoft: Use Breakout Rooms in Teams Meetings

Thoughts?

What do you think, will you use Breakout Rooms in Teams? Or maybe you have used them already? I would love to hear how the feature is working for 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

Corey Herl
Evan Ohlman

Teams: Polls During a Teams Meeting

Happy New Year, friends! Here is something to celebrate: the ability to launch Polls during a Teams Meeting. What a fantastic way to add interactive elements to your virtual Meetings! Incidentally, you may have explored the Polls feature in Zoom; the Teams Polls are a very similar concept (but even cooler in my opinion, though of course I am biased). Let’s check it out.

1. Create a Meeting

Start by Creating a Teams meeting however you are comfortable; either by utilizing the Calendar app in Teams, or via the Teams plugin in Outlook. Send this invitation as usual.

Important: You must invite at least one person to this meeting. Otherwise, it is just an event on your calendar, and won’t be treated the same way in Teams.

2. Add Forms to the Meeting

After you have sent the meeting invitation, find your meeting in the Calendar app in Teams. Click on the event, and select Edit.

In the upper right of your meeting, click on the + sign…

Select Forms. This will add a new Polls tab to the top of your meeting’s Edit screen, along with the ability to use Forms to create polls to your meeting.

You may be prompted through some tours about how to use Forms, particularly if this is your first time utilizing this feature.

3. Create Polls

Once you have added Forms to your meeting, you will be prompted to Create New Poll.

This is very similar to the Forms polls we talk about in Teams Essentials, for use within your Teams (app) posts… though notice you have a few options at the bottom regarding anonymity, sharing results, and whether you would like to allow cohosts to control the polls as well.

You can create multiple polls if you would like. They will all be listed in your new Polls tab in the Edit view of your meeting.

4. Launch Polls

It’s time for your meeting! During the meeting, you will notice a new Forms button in the toolbar at the upper right.

Click on this button to pop out a side menu with the polls you created prior to the meeting. Each of these can be Launched via a button at the bottom of the poll question.

When you launch the poll, attendees will see voting options in the center of their screen:

… followed by the results of the poll:

If you would like to add additional polls, there is also an option to Create New at the top of the polls list.

After each poll, toggle the menu underneath the question and close, export results, or delete the poll.

Accessing Results

After your meeting, return to the Edit view in the Calendar app to access the Polls tab. Here you can view or export results.

If your polls were not anonymous, the exported results will show the names and votes of participants.

Adding Forms During a Meeting

What if you have already joined your meeting, and realize you would like to utilize Forms to take a Poll? No problem.

Now that your Teams Meetings launch in a new window, leaving the rest of your Teams app free, you can easily minimize your meeting window to access the Calendar app in Teams. Then follow the exact same process to edit the meeting and add a Forms tab. Forms/Polls will become immediately available in your meeting.

Thoughts?

What do you think? Do you think you will start using polls during your Teams meetings? I would love to hear what you think and how you use this feature!

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

Meredith Dwyer
Yumi Foster
Amy Drassen Ham
Ellen Walker

OneNote/Teams: Collaboration Inspiration

Don’t worry, this is not a missing episode of Schoolhouse Rock… but it is almost as fun. I wanted to share with you some collaboration inspiration utilizing OneNote in Teams. These examples are by no means the only ways to collaborate, but this may incorporate something new you hadn’t thought of. These tips would be great for a Team used for a class, or for coworker collaboration. Let’s check it out.

The Scenario

The particular scenario I am going to outline here is a faculty member utilizing some collaboration tools in Teams and OneNote with the goal of student engagement.

1. Use the Desktop Version of OneNote (even for Teams Notebooks)

Unlike the Teams view of OneNote, the full desktop application of OneNote gives you maximum capabilities with the program, including some of the features we are going to look at next. Additionally, many people tell me that they prefer the desktop version.

The good news is, you can open a Team notebook in OneNote desktop application. Here is how.

If you are using the Class Team type, or one of the other Team types that incorporates the customized OneNote, be sure that you are in the Collaboration space. This means that people who are not owners of your Team will be able to edit.
- Want to learn more about Team Types? We talk about these in Teams Advanced training. Visit myTraining for times.
Create a new Section for the presentations/content.
In the Open in Browser dropdown, select Open in Desktop App.

2. Insert Your File as a File Printout

This example is assuming a faculty member has a PowerPoint they are wanting to work from, but you could also insert a Word file, Exel file, or image. Once you are safely in the Desktop version of OneNote:

Visit the Insert tab.
Select File Printout.

3. Browse for your file.

This will not only insert an attachment version of your file, but also a “printout” view of the presentation.

You may even like to try out Insert as Printout for other OneNote uses, beyond collaboration. Inserting as a printout works with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

3. Set Picture as Background

The goal is to allow students to draw on top of this PowerPoint, so this next step will allow them to do so, turning the file into a stagnant image in the notebook.

1. Make sure you are still in the desktop application of OneNote:

2. Right click on the image/presentation and select Set Picture as Background.

4. Return to Teams, OneNote

When you return to your OneNote view in Teams, you may have to refresh (button in upper right) to see the changes.

Troubleshooting trick

Sometimes when you bounce back and forth from the OneNote desktop app and the OneNote tab in Teams , you will try every which way to Sunday to get the notebook to update, and it simply won’t do it. This has worked for me every time this happens:

- - In the Teams OneNote, create a new page. That’s it. You will delete this page in a couple seconds, but in those seconds, all your changes from the desktop application will suddenly appear.
  - Don’t ask me why this works when the sync button doesn’t. It’s a mystery.

5. Collaborate (the fun part!)

It’s time for your class, meeting, or presentation! Let’s see what your collaborators can do from here…

Remember, you inserted this PowerPoint as an image, so students/members can’t change the text on this image. However, they can interact with it as the background.

Idea 1: Type Questions/Comments

Have people to type questions or comments out to the side of the presentation, maybe as you are presenting, maybe seperately.

It is so intuitive in OneNote, since they will be able to pretty much click and type wherever they would like.

Who wrote that?

Want to know which comment belonged to whom? No problem.

- In the View tab, select Show Authors.

- Author names will appear next to each comment.

Idea 2: Draw/Play

Your collaborators will also have access to draw on top of your PowerPoint images. They may need an introduction to how to access this feature (just grab this screenshot below to use in your classes if you’d like).

All the tools they will need for drawing are on the Draw tab in their class notebook. From here they can select different colors, highlighters and more.

Here is an example from a fake history class (don’t judge me, this was my worst subject). Maybe the professor would like to keep the students interacting during a presentation by putting a check mark next to their choice… More on this in a minute.

Side note: these Draw tools can be a life saver in remote math classes. Often it is simpler to write out an equation than to search for symbols.

Idea 3: Icebreakers

The Draw tools are also great for icebreakers. Here are a couple examples:

Use the Draw tools to have attendees select a meme/idea/choice.
Use the typing tools to have them select a line to add comments
- If you go this route, it can help to add bullet points for them to select a space to type, since collaborative writing can get crowded!

Bonus: Searching Content: OneNote’s OCR

OneNote (in all its forms) supports Optical Character Recognition. This means that your text will be recognizable on any images/PowerPoints that you insert.

This also means that people will be able to utilize the search (A) to search sections or pages (B), and OneNote will find that text, even if it is the text of an image or PowerPoint (C).

Thoughts?

I can’t wait to hear back from you all about this one. If you use some of these collaboration tricks, I would love to hear how it goes! Or, if you have more ideas, I would also 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

Amy Chesser
Whitney Fiene
Judy Lewis
Stephanie Sauls
Sarah Shaffer

What is Microsoft Stream, and how does it integrate with Teams? (plus Video!)

Have you ever recorded a meeting in Teams? Did you notice some mysterious language about something called Microsoft Stream? I’ve got you covered. Today we are going to demystify Microsoft Stream, and how it integrates with Microsoft Teams.

Before we get started… big thanks to both Gisuk and Anita who inspired this byte with their excellent questions about Microsoft Stream.

Video

Here is a video to walk you through the process. Additionally, I have written instructions below with screenshots. I would love to hear from you to know if you would like to see more videos, or if you prefer to read written instructions (or if you like both!)

Meeting Recordings

In Teams Essentials training, we talk about how it is possible to record a meeting.

As a refresher, you can access this ability in a meeting by clicking on the ellipses (…) and selecting Start Recording.

After your meeting is over, you, and everyone who attended your meeting, can access this recording in the meeting chat.

But a lot of you are curious about this… where is this recording saved? Why do you see reference to something called Microsoft Stream when you record videos? These are great questions.

Meeting recordings live in the Stream account of whomever recorded the meeting. By default, the people who were invited to the meeting are granted access to this recording.

One quick way to access the recording in Stream, is to click on the ellipses (…) next to the recording, and select Open in Microsoft Stream.

You can also access Stream via O365 online. Let’s look at that method below, and then we can dive into Stream navigation.

Accessing Stream via O365

In addition to clicking on the Open in Microsoft Stream option above, you can also access Stream by visiting Office 365 Online.

In a new browser window, type into your address bar: o365.wichita.edu. You can also access Office 365 via the link at the upper right of myWSU.

Sign in information is always your myWSUID@wichita.edu
Password is your myWSUID password
You may be asked to authenticate with Duo

2. When you are logged in, click on the App Launcher at the upper left. Select All Apps to see a full list of options.

3. Select Stream.

Video Options

Once you have logged into Stream, in the upper left, you will see a ribbon of options.

Click on the dropdown next to My Content. Select Videos.

2. Here are where all your saved meeting recordings live.

To the right of each video are a series of options.

Click on the ellipses (…) to:

Share: generate a link; people will be prompted to log in to view
Trim your video, or
Download the video

Click on the pencil to access video details.

In here, you can:

Rename the video
Grant additional permissions (note that whoever attended the meeting has access by default).
Choose a thumbnail image
Make the video public:
- Note: Meetings default to private, but you may have to double check this privacy setting when uploading your own videos to Stream
And more…

Channel Options

In addition to sharing individual Stream videos, you may find that you need to share a group of videos with your Team. This is where creating a Channel will come in handy.

While you are logged into Stream in O365, in the ribbon, Select My Content, and Channels.

2. Select Create a New Channel.

3. In the popup, give your channel a name and a description. Next to Select group, type in the name of your Team. Press the spyglass to find your Team. In this screen, Team and Group are the same thing.

Note: if your Team is brand new, it may take some time to appear in Stream as a group option.

Add videos to your channel

To add videos to your channel, look at the options to the right of your videos, click on the square with a + sign (see below).

In the popup that appears, select Channels from the dropdown.

2. Search for your channel and select it from the list.

You can add any video from your Stream to your channel by following this process.

Channel Sharing Options

One more thing before we leave Stream and return to Teams. When you are in Channel view, notice the ellipses (…) next to the channel name. Click on this to see the Share option.

Just like when you generate a link for an individual video via share, you can also generate a link for an entire channel. Click copy to grab this link for use in the next step.

Creating a Stream Tab in Teams

Let’s return back to Teams for a bit. You have seen how you can generate a link with either a video or a channel. And you could share these links as… well… links. But this would require people to log in with their WSU accounts every time they want to access the videos. Here is a cool thing you can do in your Team itself.

Go to the Teams module and select your Team. Create a tab with the + sign at the upper right.

2. Select Stream.

4. Paste in the link for your channel. Press Save.

Now your Team can access any videos you put into this channel by simply accessing this tab in Teams. So cool!

As you add more videos to this channel, this will populate automatically.

Thoughts?

What do you think, will you set up a Stream tab in Teams for your Team? 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

Carolyn (Kay) Officer

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

Teams: New Meeting Experience

If you have attended Teams Essentials training, you may remember when we talked about where to visit to see the latest updates in Teams. This software is evolving so quickly, many of you notice new features every time you log in! Here is one I didn’t want you to miss: the New Meeting Experience.

The Old Meeting Experience

If you have already been meeting in Teams, you are used to a view that looks something like the image below.

Features and controls can be accessed by hovering your mouse in the center of the Teams screen and selecting from a menu that appears in the center.

Also, perhaps somewhat frustratingly, the old meeting view opens up within your Teams program. Navigating within Teams during the meeting shrinks down the meeting view to a small square in the corner of the Teams screen. Many were not crazy about this tiny screen.

The New Meeting Experience

There is a lot to be excited about with this new meeting view. Here is a run down:

Popped Out View

Perhaps what I am most excited about is the new meeting view is a popped out view! Yes, meetings are in a new screen entirely. This leaves the rest of your Teams application free for easy navigation, while still maximizing the size of your meeting screen.

Menu Changes

The Menu has moved from the center to the upper right, where you will find all your favorite options from the old meeting view…

…plus some new ways to view participants, like large gallery and together view (greyed out here, but will activate with participants):

End Meeting

If you are the creator of a meeting, you now have the ability to either leave your meeting or end the meeting for everyone. This will prevent people from staying after you have left the meeting. Several faculty have wanted to know about this one for classes held in Teams!

How to Activate the New Meeting Experience

Do you want to try out this new meeting experience? First, be sure you are in the desktop application of Teams (not in browser).

1. Click on your bio pic or initials at the upper right of the screen. Select Settings.

2. Stay on the general section, and scroll down until you see a series of checkboxes. Check the box next to “Turn on new meeting experience…”

3. Restart Teams. This means completely quitting the program, which you may not do very often. To do this, right click on the Teams icon at the bottom of your screen and select Quit.

4. Reopen Teams and enjoy your new meeting experience. Maybe even have a test meeting or two…

Thoughts?

Are you going to try out this new meeting view? I would love to hear what you think. I would also love to see you at Teams Essentials training! Please check myTraining for a list of times. All sessions are currently being held remotely.

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

Candace Bolinger
Ashley Cervantes
Kyle Garwood
Jennifer Snyder
Andrea Wilson

PowerPoint: Morph Transition (plus video!)

Have you noticed a new transition in PowerPoint? It is hard to miss, since it is right at the front of the list. This new transition is called Morph, and it is pretty spectacular. That being said, it takes a little bit of tinkering to make it work correctly. Let’s take a look at how this works.

Video

You can get a much better idea of how the Morph transition looks by seeing it in action. To this end, I made a video for you today… but I also included some more instructions below, so do read on when you are done watching!

Morph Transition

I hope you enjoyed seeing Morph in action in the video above. Here is a quick recap of some of the basics.

The Morph Transition is one of the first transitions listed in the updated Transitions tab in PowerPoint (Office 365).

Simply applying this transition to a slide, however, is often a deflating experience. If not set up correctly, Morph looks very similar to the Fade transition.

How to Set up a Transition

Luckily, Microsoft has included some handy instructions for successfully setting up the Morph transition. Hover your mouse over Morph for details:

To quote Microsoft:

Duplicate a slide
Move things around
Apply the Morph Transition

Basically, Morph works the best when two slides are very similar, but contain some minor differences. These instructions are a great way to ensure that this is the case.

More Options: Working with Text

Working with text? You may need one more step… after you select the Morph transition, look to the right for Effect Options.

Try Words or Characters if you are working with a slide that is text, rather than objects. One of my very favorites is the Characters option:

Objects and Morph

In the video, I showed you a couple ways to incorporate different objects with the Morph transition. For instance, try using Shapes, and modifying them slightly in your “morphed” slide.

SmartArt is another favorite with Morph. Just remember for best results to follow Microsoft’s recommendations: duplicate a slide, make some changes to the second slide, and then apply the Morph transition.

You will have to let me know what sort of creative Morph ideas you come up with in your presentations!

Thoughts?

What do you think of the Morph transition? Did you notice this new transition in PowerPoint? Has this post inspired you to give it a try? 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

Suzanne Hawley
Amy Solano

Teams: Notify Me When a Coworker is Available (or Offline)

With so many of our coworkers working remotely, it can become challenging to know who is really “here” and who has “left” at a given time. After all, we can’t exactly wave hello or goodbye as they walk past our desk! In lieu of these familiar “in person” notifications, here is a quick way to be notified virtually via Teams.

Teams Settings

In the upper right of your Teams screen is either your image (at WSU this is imported from Outlook), or your initials. Click on this circle to access a variety of options. We are selecting Settings for this one.

Notifications

1. On the left side of the Settings screen, select Notifications.

2. Scroll all the way to the bottom under the header Status. Select Manage Notifications.

3. In the search bar, Search for the person for whom you would like to be notified.

- - Quick Note: when searching for people in Teams, try searching by the wording in front of the @ symbol in their email address; e.g. firstname.lastname for faculty/staff, and initials lastname for students.

4. Select your person from the dropdown list. They will now appear in a list under Manage Status Notifications.

- At any time you can revisit this setting and select Turn Off to stop receiving notifications.

Notification Banners

That is all there is to it! Now you will be notified when this person becomes available…

And when they go offline…

Pretty cool!

Teams Essentials Training

Are you interested in learning more about Teams? I would love to see you in one of my remote Teams Essentials trainings! Sessions are listed in myTraining. There will always be a listing or two of this session, so if you don’t see a time that works for you, not to worry, simply select Notify me of new sessions to receive an an email when a new session is listed.

Thoughts?

What do you think, will you activate notifications for any of your Teams contacts? 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

Lora Lea Pickering
Mikayla Irish
Kelly Eden

PowerPoint: All About Audio

What happens when you insert audio into your PowerPoint presentation? For many, the little audio button that appears in the slide is a source of some confusion. What are you supposed to do with that button? Do you always need to press play during your presentation? What if you want audio to play across slides? Let’s explore some of PowerPoint’s audio options that are not readily apparent.

Inserting Audio

Like visual elements, audio elements also live on the Insert tab in the ribbon.

1. Go to the Insert tab, Media group, and select the dropdown for Audio.

2. There are a couple options here, allowing you to browse for an existing mp3 file, or record your own audio.

Remember that if you are recording your own audio, you will need a computer with a functioning microphone.

3. Once Audio is selected or recorded, PowerPoint throws an audio button in the center of the slide…

This button can be moved around if desired.

Audio: During the Presentation

The default audio setting has this button appearing during a presentation, but we will explore how to make an adjustment if that is not what you were hoping…

Since no defaults have been changed so far, if we start this presentation, the presenter will either need to trigger the action with their clicker, or press the Play button on top of the audio button with a mouse.

Playback Contextual Tab

Like so many contextual tabs, the Playback contextual tab that comes along with Audio in PowerPoint is often ignored, but there are so many amazing adjustments that can be made back here! Let’s check it out.

1. Be sure that you have Selected the audio button to trigger the appearance of the Playback contextual tab on the right side of the ribbon.

2. Select the Playback tab. Take a look at the Start dropdown in the Audio Options group. This will allow you to set audio to start automatically, rather than in a click sequence.

3. The Audio Options group contains some additional settings that may interest you. Do you want to hide that audio button during a presentation? Have audio play across slides? There are checkboxes for these popularly requested settings, and more.

4. Some popular preset settings are also available to the right of Audio Options group, in the Audio Styles group. Do you want audio to play in the background? Select this button, and some check boxes in Audio Options will be selected for you. With this setting, your audio will:

Play across slides
Loop until stopped
The audio button will be hidden during the presentation

Thoughts?

What do you think, do these tips help you as you are working with audio in your PowerPoint presentations? 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

Exercise File

Primary List

Dependent Dropdowns

Named Ranges

Apply Data Validation

Remove Blanks

Cleaning up the Header Row

One More Thought

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Creating Breakout Rooms

Options and Settings

Start Rooms

Returning Participants to the Main Room

Want to know more?

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

1. Create a Meeting

2. Add Forms to the Meeting

3. Create Polls

4. Launch Polls

Accessing Results

Adding Forms During a Meeting

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

The Scenario

1. Use the Desktop Version of OneNote (even for Teams Notebooks)

2. Insert Your File as a File Printout

3. Set Picture as Background

4. Return to Teams, OneNote

Troubleshooting trick

5. Collaborate (the fun part!)

Idea 1: Type Questions/Comments

Who wrote that?

Idea 2: Draw/Play

Idea 3: Icebreakers

Bonus: Searching Content: OneNote’s OCR

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Video

Meeting Recordings

Accessing Stream via O365

Video Options

Channel Options

Add videos to your channel

Channel Sharing Options

Creating a Stream Tab in Teams

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!

The Old Meeting Experience

The New Meeting Experience

Popped Out View

Menu Changes

End Meeting

How to Activate the New Meeting Experience

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Video

Morph Transition

How to Set up a Transition

More Options: Working with Text

Objects and Morph

Thoughts?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Teams Settings

Notifications