Microsoft Software Tips
1)
Purchasing Microsoft Software – Never before has there been such a
bewildering array of software options available. There is currently a choice of
full and upgrade versions of Office 2003 Basic, Small Business, Standard and Professional
editions. The Basic version is only available with a new computer system and
comes with Word, Excel & Outlook. The standard version also includes Powerpoint, the small business edition also includes Powerpoint and Publisher and finally the professional
version includes Powerpoint, Publisher and Access.
Upgrade versions are compliant
checking products which means that qualifying software must be detected
installed on the relevent hard disk before it will
install. Qualifying products for an upgrade to an Office 2003 version are all
versions of Office 97, 2000, XP or Works. Each installation must be registered
and Office 2003 can only be installed on a maximum of two computers, allowing
for one desktop and one laptop owned by the same user. Incidentally student
licences are also available at a fraction of the cost, wherever a student is
using the computer. Licence forms contained in the student version are stamped
by the appropriate academic institution and the CD’s are then delivered from
Microsoft are often highlighting
that many of the features requested by users are actually already included
within their software and so appear to be focusing on making on making these
features more accessible and user friendly. A greater emphasis has been placed
in the past on intelligent help being provided by the software to assist the
user find what they are looking for, however the office assistant has been made
redundant ( although he can be re-employed by the user
if required ) and new task panes have been introduced as part of the effort to
make the software more user friendly.
2)
Troubleshooting Office Problems – Office XP / 2003 are dynamically
updating product via the Internet and so ideally problems are reported to
Microsoft from the computer and fixes designed and implemented through seamless
updates over the Internet. In addition to this solutions to a wide range of
problems are posted to Microsoft’s bulletin board, which can be extensively
searched to try and pinpoint identical problems.
Microsoft’s web site also
contains a host of free downloads for most of their products, even older
versions. Major office improvements are released in the way of service packs,
although these can take a long time to download and also require the original office
CD-ROM to be inserted before they can be installed. There is also a very useful
additional resource of business templates on Microsoft’s website and all in all
Microsoft’s support is impressive.
3)
Office Toolbar Issues – probably one of the most widely reported
problems by users. Most office toolbars have a “||” symbol immediately to the
left of the toolbar. Often what seems to happen is one
of the toolbars is accidentally dragged and merged into another. If you notice
the “||” symbol repeated half way along the toolbar then it is because two
toolbars are merged. To rectify the problem drag the "||” symbol on to the
workspace and let go. The toolbar will then become
maximised and can be dragged back to its desired location. This operation can
also be used to re-arrange the position of the toolbars or the menu bar on the
screen. Up to 13 toolbars can be made visible on the screen and toolbars can be
added or removed according to preference in the View Menu by clicking to select
/ deselect under the toolbars option.
4)
Office File Compatibility Issues – Microsoft software traditionally
only lists its own file types when selecting File and Open. Any file in the
same directory as that being viewed is made invisible. There is a fair degree
of logic in this as showing and potentially trying to open incompatible files
by mistake would be a pointless exercise. However with some practice it is
possible to make virtually any document file compatible with one of the office
applications.
Firstly try and save the file you
are looking to bring in to an Office application as compatible as possible.
E.g. any word processor can save a file in a .txt format, which can then be
easily brought into Word. In order to bring in a non-office file ensure that
you select the relevant file type in the open dialogue box. E.g. in the Word
open files box there is a section labelled Files of type and this
understandably set to Word Documents. Clicking on the drop down list reveals
many different types of files that Word can import. Among them will be most
other Word Processor types. However as discussed before every Word Processor (
from 1985 onwards ) can save files on one of the file types listed making Word
100% compatible with other applications.
5)
Importing Pictures – Pictures cannot be loaded as Office documents,
however they can be inserted into an existing or blank document. For example in
Word this can be achieved by selecting the Insert menu and choosing Picture and
From File. Most common picture types can be selected; however it is usually
possible to save pictures in one of Word’s recognisable formats. Digital camera
images can also be imported in this way and finished documents can also be
saved in HTML format making them Internet compatible. Extensive clipart is also
available, however the bulk of this will be stored on the original Office CD’s
which are automatically searched for in the CD-ROM drive, when clipart is
selected from an Office application. Dedicated DTP programs such as Publisher
are best at handling pictures, however even Word is capable of limited text
flow and picture manipulating features.
Please
email support@ITCroydon.co.uk
for questions or support on Microsoft Office issues.