MS PowerPoint: When You Need More Undos

MS PowerPoint: When You Need More Undos

Do you “undo” a lot in MS PowerPoint?

Ever run out of undo steps and wish for more?

If your response was yes, here’s what you need to know about PowerPoint to get a few (or a lot) more undo steps added to your list.

Use the Office Button / File tab of the Ribbon, PowerPoint Options button, to get to the Options dialog box.

We need the Advanced category of options, Editing section.

Set a value between 3 and 150 in the Maximum number of undos: field.

Click OK.

That’s it. You now have the power to undo more steps than you can probably even remember!

And… as a special bonus, you can use this technique in other MS Office programs to increase the number of available undos… one trick, many places of application.

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Auto Clicker Typer

Auto Clicker Typer

It seems like in this day and age; computers should be able to do more of our work for us. Just last week, I was working on a project and I had to print 30 different web pages, and set the same special printer settings for each one. Talk about something being painstakingly boring! So, I searched for a solution and found Auto Clicker Typer, which is a macro recorder. A macro is a set of instructions for your computer, and Auto Clicker Typer records and automates mouse clicks and keyboard strokes in a macro. Your computer executes these instructions as if you were sitting at the desk doing them yourself! Try and think of some boring repetitive tasks that you have to do on a regular basis… Auto Clicker Typer can and will do them for you!

Auto Clicker Typer’s download page can be found here. Near the bottom of the page, you’ll find, Please Click Here to start your download.

Follow the simple setup wizard. In the final step, the wizard will ask you if you’d like to install a new search engine. If you’re not interested, be sure to uncheck the Install checkbox.

Double click the Auto Clicker Typer icon on the desktop, and presto, it opens!

To become familiar with how to use Auto Clicker Typer, let’s learn the two main hot keys. Hit the Hot Keys button.

Here we can see to begin recording our macro we type Ctrl+Shift+0, and to stop it type Ctrl+Shift+1. These hot keys will save us time in making macros.

Now we are ready for a test run in making macros. This macro will open the Control Panel for us.

First, hit Ctrl+Shift+0 to begin recording, then press the Start Button and then Control Panel. Now typeCtrl+Shift+1, and we are done! Not too hard, nah?

You’ll notice that Auto Clicker Typer translated our actions into instructions the computer can understand. To watch our macro at work, click the Play button and the Start button will click, followed by the Control Panel.

Ready to give it a spin on your own? Just begin with the record hot key Ctrl+Shift+0 and begin your task on the computer and when you’ve completed, select Ctrl+Shift+1. Then press Play to test it out. Works almost like magic!

To save your macros so you can use them whenever you want, select Save List, name and choose the destination of your macro, and press Save.

To open a saved macro, just select Open List, find your macro and click Open.

To save yourself some hassle, you can assign hot keys to your macros. From the Auto Clicker Typer interface, click Auto Script Keys, and one window will open up.

Simply choose a key combination, and browse for your macro files to pair them up. Easy!

The last tip I have for you is if you want your macros to repeat on their own. For example, when I had to print 30 documents and adjust my printer settings 30 times, automatic repetition would have helped a ton. In the top right-hand corner of Auto Clicker Typer there is a loop function. Just check the box and enter how many times you’d like the macro to repeat.

And that’s it; with a little practice, I know all of you can become macro masters! If you encounter any difficulties, leave a comment below and we’ll be sure to help you out.

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Creating Visual Breaks without using Cell Borders in MS Excel

Creating Visual Breaks without using Cell Borders in MS Excel

When setting up a worksheet where we need to separate one section of information from another, and present that separation clearly, we often use cell borders to accomplish the job.

Obviously that option is a great way to get the job done, but we tend to use those for everything… so making that visual break between data sections requires a bit of finesse with those borders.

What if we could create a visual break with a line created from a single character… let’s say an X or a ~ or maybe even a combination of X~? What about a word or phrase…

No, I’m not suggesting that you sit there and repeatedly hit a specific key or type a word over and over. If you’re going to use the line several times then you either do a lot of copy / paste work or end up with lines of different lengths… not necessarily the preferred situation.

Today I’m going to throw the use of the REPT formula out there for your consideration.

This formula allows you to state specific characters to be repeated and the number of times to repeat them without the hassle of actually entering each character separately.

Here’s how the formula is set up:

=REPT(“characters to repeat“, Number of times to repeat the characters)

For example, if I want a line of ~ marks that is 95 characters long, I would enter =REPT(“~”, 95) into the cell where the line should begin.

The result looks like this:

If you want a fancier line, try =REPT(“~**”, 60) to get this one:

Let’s look at the possibilities with actually marking it with text… such as confidential…

*** To get this line of characters into multiple cells at one time simply select all the cells where the REPT formula should be placed (use the Ctrl key to select non-adjacent cells), enter the formula then use Ctrl + Enter to put it into all selected cells at once.

Also, as I’m sure you noted when looking at the examples above, you can further change the appearance with the font type and other formatting tricks available to you; such as color, bold, size, etc…

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Windows 7 Libraries

Guide to Windows 7 Libraries

A Library in Windows 7 is a set of folders within your computer to categorize things in a better way, with more control to group or save the files anywhere on the PC. We have been using similar features in earlier versions of Windows (and in Windows 7) which are My Pictures, My Documents etc. But back then, you could save your files to that particular location specified for those libraries. With the new Library feature in Windows 7, you have total control on adding folders from all over the PC to any such Library, save files to any of them and even create new Libraries depending on your needs.

INFO: Head over to Microsoft to learn more about the Library feature.

Creating a New Library

Open the explorer window and right-click on Libraries. Go to New>Library. Name the library whatever you like.

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How to start up folders in Vista and Windows 7 with menu on the top

How to start up folders in Vista and Windows 7 with File, Edit, View, Tools, etc. on the top

Instead of this:

Wouldn't it be nice to have it like this?

Vista and Windows 7 has the “old” way of having the menu on top disabled by default, but it does let you enable it temporarily, if you would like.

When you have a folder open, press the Alt key and the menu will appear. Press Alt again and it will disappear.

Temporarily is fine, but here is how to do it so that the menu bar stays there:

First, open one of your Windows folders. I opened the User folder. To access it, go to your Start button and left-click. The Start menu will pop up; go up to the very top of the right pane where your name is (under the picture), and left-click on it.

Your user folder will pop up and the top-left of the folder will look something like this:

To enable the menu bar permanently (or until you want to change it back), left-click on Organize. On the drop-down menu, left-click on Layout. A new menu will pop up.

Okay, last step. Point your Cursor to Menu Bar (it's at the top of the menu) and left-click to put a check by it.

That's it! Now every time you open a folder in Windows, the menu bar will be there.

(Note: If you decide you want it disabled, just follow the above instructions, only when you get to Menu Bar, left-click on it to remove the check mark.)

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