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Q How can I easily let users have the flexibility of specifying output file formats when Exporting Access data. A If users need to be able to export Access data from an application, you may use the OutputTo method to allow this. If so, you can provide users with the flexibility of exporting to a variety of formats without coding solutions for each contingency. To do so, create a macro that uses the OutputTo action but leave the Output Format and Output File arguments blank. When the statement is executed, a dialog box will be displayed that lists the supported export formats. Note that the same technique can also be used with the SendObject method and then a second dialog box is displayed that requests a file name. |
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Q: Many of my end users of my reports want to number the lines in the printouts. Is there an easy way to do this? A: If your first thought is to use an ID field based on an AutoNumber field, it probably won't do the trick because of gaps that can occur in the AutoNumber sequence. Here's an easy way to number the records in your report. Open the report in Design view and add an unbound text box to the Detail section. Open the Properties dialog box for the new text box. On the Data tab, set the ControlSource property to =1 for the new text box. At this point, you'll need to adjust the text box control's RunningSum property, which you'll also find on the Data tab. If you've grouped the report, set RunningSum to Over All. If you haven't grouped the report, set the property to Over Group. |
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Q: How can I print the file path name and document name at the bottom of each page of my reports? A With the report opened in Design view, add a text box to the Page Footer. Open the text box's Properties sheet, select the Data tab, and enter the following expression for the Control Source property. =[CurrentDb].[Name] & " " & [CurrentObjectName] When you do, Access will display the full path and filename of the Access database, followed by a space and the name of the current report. When the report prints, each page will display a label that looks something like this: C:\My Documents\DemoFooter.mdb DemoReport. |
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Q: When I type text into the
footer of a worksheet I get unexpected results. For eg I typed Proposed
R&D Budget and Excel displayed Proposed R10/15/2001 Budget. I then
inserted spaces on either side of the ampersand and Excel displayed
Proposed R D Budget. A: Occasionally, you may find that your worksheet headers and footers display unexpected results. This happens because the ampersand symbol (&) triggers the insertion of a field code. In this case, &D inserts the &[Date] code. Other combinations that cause problems include &P, which inserts the page number, and &F, which inserts the filename. If you follow an ampersand with a space or a letter that isn't recognized as a code, Excel simply replaces the ampersand and following character with a space. Fortunately, the solution is easy--just use two consecutive ampersands. In your case, you would use: Proposed R&&D Budget. |
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Q What is the difference between rounding and truncating numbers in Excel? A When rounding a value, Excel changes the displayed value but stores the complete value you entered. For instance, if you entered the value 123.456 in a Currency formatted cell, Excel would display $123.46 but store the value 123.456. (You can see the stored value in the Formula bar.) On the other hand, Excel chops off part of a value when it truncates it. So, if you enter the value 123.456 and Excel truncates to two decimal places, Excel displays and stores the value 123.45. |
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Hint Using Hfnetchk to check for security vulnerabilities Microsoft has introduced a free command line utility, called Hfnetchk, to help you determine whether you've applied all the necessary hotfixes and patches to your Windows NT and Windows 2000 computers. You can run Hfnetchk locally or remotely to determine which security patches you've applied and which you haven't, potentially exposing and helping you close any gaps in your system security. You can run Hfnetchk on all Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 systems. Hfnetchk will also check for vulnerabilities on computers running Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and 2000; Internet Information Server 4.0 and 5.0; and Internet Explorer versions 5.01 and above on Windows NT and Windows 2000. This utility is available from the Microsoft website
at: |
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Q When watching a slide show presentation I noticed that the presenter had popup text boxes when they hovered the mouse over certain objects. How do you create pop up text messages? A A quick way to create pop up text messages for use during a presentation is to make use of the ScreenTips option in the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. This way you can hover your mouse insertion point of an object on a slide and a text message will appear for about 20 seconds or until you move the insertion point away from the object. · First, select the object that you want to be able to hover your mouse insertion point over to prompt the pop-up text box. · From the Insert menu select Hyperlink or press [Ctrl]K ([command]K on the Mac) to access the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. · In PowerPoint 2000 and 2002, on the Link To Panel select Place In This Document. In PowerPoint 2001, click on the Document tab and then select Locate. · Then select the slide that your object resides on in the Select A Place In This Document window (and then click OK in PowerPoint 2001). · Finally, click ScreenTip to open the Set Hyperlink ScreenTip dialog box. In the ScreenTip Text text box, enter the message that you want to appear during your presentation. The text can contain up to 248 uppercase and lowercase characters, but you can't alter the font in any way (bold, italics, underline, etc.). · Click OK when you've finished entering the message and then click OK a second time to close the Insert Hyperlink dialog box. Now when you run your presentation and hover your mouse insertion point of the hyperlinked object your message with appear in a pop-up text box. |
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Q How do I reset my default blank presentation in PowerPoint? A When you launch a blank presentation in PowerPoint, all of your default settings all go into effect. This means that the first slide of your new presentation will be shown according to how you have the default settings adjusted. Often a user won't alter these settings even if he continually changes things such as the slide layout or the fill colour of AutoShapes to match a commonly used colour scheme or to incorporate the company's logo onto every slide. But if you follow a few quick steps to save a new blank presentation design template, you'll never have to go through the tedious tasks of changing them all at startup time again. · The first thing you need to do is launch PowerPoint and change all the settings until you have them the way you want them to remain as your new defaults. · Once you have everything adjusted the way you want, from the File menu select Save As, type Blank Presentation into the File Name text box, and select Design Template from the Save As Type dropdown list (Format dropdown list in PowerPoint 2001). In PowerPoint 97, choose Presentation Templates from the Save As Type dropdown list. · Select your Office folder and then open your Templates folder if you're not already directed there in the Save In dropdown list and navigation window. · Click Save, answer Yes or Replace if prompted and then you're all set. Now the next time you open a blank presentation your new settings will appear as the defaults. |
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Q How do I eliminate halos when using Unsharp Mask in Photoshop? A Occasionally, you may find that when you apply the Unsharp Mask filter a halo appears around areas of your image. · To eliminate the halo, change the colour mode to Lab, and select the Lightness channel. · Then apply the Unsharp Mask filter to your image. This will give you more control over how the filter is applied. |
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Q How do I make my text look like it's embossed using Photoshop? A Rather than actually having your design embossed (although it's much more elegant when it's real) fake it in Photoshop. · First, create a new document and fill the canvas with a colour. · From the Edit menu select Fill. · In the dialog box displayed, select Pattern from the Use pop-up menu. · Select a pattern from the Custom Pattern pop-up menu and change the Blending Mode to Overlay. Click OK. You should now have a nice textured paper to work on. · Type any word or words of your choice on your document in black. · To give your text the embossed look, select the text layer in the Layers palette and from the Filter menu select Stylize > Emboss. · When prompted to render your layer, click OK. · In the dialog box displayed, adjust the Height of your emboss to 15 pixels and the Amount to 90% and click OK to apply the effects. · Now go to the Layers palette and change the text layer's mode to Hard Light. Your text now has the illusion of being embossed. |
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Q Can I create TIFF files from GIF files in PageMaker (6.5x)? A You can create a TIFF copy of a paint-type graphic, such as a GIF graphic, in PageMaker. · With the Pointer tool selected from the File menu select Place. · In the Place Document dialog box (Place dialog box in Windows), select the GIF file and then hold down [command][option] ([Ctrl][Alt] in Windows) as you click the OK button (Open button in Windows). · PageMaker creates a TIFF copy of the paint graphic next to the original image. (The TIFF copy is designated by a .gif(p) extension on the Mac and a .tif extension in Windows.) · You can then click with the loaded icon to place the TIFF graphic. |
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Q When I am troubleshooting problems with the layout of a complex document, I find the document marks not enough. Is there anything else I can use? A In all versions of Word, you can click the Standard toolbar's Show/Hide button to view paragraph markers, which can help identify bad breaks or unnecessary blank lines. But when you're formatting a document that contains normal text, columnar text, and a variety of margin settings, the paragraph markers alone don't provide much help in keeping track of each discrete section. Word 2000, however, offers a new feature that can make editing easier for you and your users: It is called text boundaries. · To see your text boundaries, from the Tools menu select Options and select the View tab. · In the Print And Web Layout Options section, select the Text Boundaries check box. Click OK to make the change effective. When you return to your document, you'll see that Word 2000 displays a dotted line identifying your page margins, columns, and other objects. This line is only visible in the Web Layout or Print Layout views, and it doesn't appear on your hard copies. |
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Q I use a time-honoured trick used by many word processing operators that is to use an asterisk [*] to mark each place in a document where I need to insert new or custom information. I press [Ctrl]F to summon the Find And Replace dialog box, type an asterisk, and press [Enter]. After I close the dialog box, the asterisk remains selected, and then I can delete it by starting to type. I then click on the Next Find/GoTo button at the bottom of Word's vertical scroll bar. Is there a macro I can use so I can keep my hands close to the keyboard? If you'd like to keep your hands close to the keyboard when you're walking through the asterisks in a document, consider creating a macro to execute the find and assigning that macro to a keyboard shortcut. You'll want to make it a keyboard combination that you can easily remember and one that doesn't conflict with any built-in keyboard assignments that you or other users use routinely. · Here's an example of a macro you could use. You can customize this macro by replacing the asterisk with whatever text you use as a placeholder in your documents. Sub FindAsterisk() 'FindAsterisk Macro 'Selection.Find.ClearFormatting With Selection.Find .Text = "*" .Replacement.Text = "" .Forward = True .Wrap = wdFindContinue End With Selection.Find.Execute End Sub |
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Q I drag and drop my messages into the Outlook Today folder and they appear to have disappeared. How can I get them back? Outlook Today is just a folder home page that obscures the underlying folder so that the user doesn't see it. There are several different ways to retrieve the items. If the user is an Exchange user, he or she can do an Advanced Find (Tools | Advanced Find), set the Look In folder to the root folder of the mailbox (and ONLY the root folder), and then click Find Now. (Note: Leaving all of the fields blank will cause Outlook to find all items in that folder.) From the list of items that appears from these results, the user can right-click and move the items to other folders or delete them. Another option for Exchange users is to temporarily turn off the Outlook Today page so they can see the underlying folder. To do so, right-click the Outlook Today icon on the Outlook Bar, select Properties, and go to the Home Page tab. Clear the Show Home Page By Default check box and click OK. Now click the Outlook Today shortcut to see the root folder displayed, including all of the missing items. Now users can move or delete the items as they wish. If the users use a Personal Folder File (.pst) as their default delivery location, they can solve this problem by clicking File | New | Personal Folders File to create a new Personal Folders file. Then go to Tools | Options | Delivery to set that new Personal Folders File as the default delivery location. Exit and restart Outlook, and the Outlook Today page will now be attached to the new .pst file. Click View | Folder List and select the root folder of the old .pst file. All of the missing items will be displayed there. |
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Q I have a busy personal/family and business life and as I also share a calendar with other users in my organisation I find it very inconvenient to have it all crammed into one calendar. Can you create multiple calendars in Outlook? Creating a second calendar is extremely easy. · Simply go to the File menu and select New > Folder and create a new folder, designating that it will contain Appointment Items. You can then place this calendar as a subfolder of almost any other folder, although making it a subfolder of the main calendar is a good idea. Now that you have a new calendar folder, there are probably a number of personal appointments on the existing calendar that you don't want to have to re-create. Here are three simple ways to move items from one folder to the other. · You can drag-and-drop the items. If there are a large number of items, you can create a table view of the "old" calendar and set up a filter that only displays the appointments you want to move. Select those appointments and then drag-and-drop them to the new calendar. · You can open the folder list by going to the View menu and select Folder List, right-clicking the calendar, clicking Copy Calendar, and selecting the new calendar as the destination folder. This will copy all of the items from the old calendar to the new one. (This means that you may end up with a lot more items than you actually want.) · You can also export a file and then reimport it to the old calendar, if necessary. NOTE: You won't get any reminders from the items on the secondary calendars because Outlook reminders only fire from the primary (or default) folders and not from subfolders. |
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New Shareware software for Outlook There is a newly released a Shareware Outlook tool called Extended Reminders. It lets you set up reminders on any appointment, message, task or contact, no matter where it is in your default mail store (except for Deleted Items and Outbox) It even works on Sent Items! Extended Reminders works with Outlook 2000 and 2002 - with either Exchange mailboxes or PST files. Available for download click here - $15 shareware. |