Tip of the Week
For those of you who missed them the first time around, here are the weekly tips I send out via email.
Tips from the 2001-2002 school year are still online here!
Hit the Refresh or Reload button to see any new updates to this page.
If you have an idea of a tip that you'd like to learn, let me know and I'll be glad to add it to my list!
Tech Tip #1--Setting your email to require a password
If you want to secure your email to where it requires a password to get into the email, follow these steps (for Word 2000):
· Right click on the Outlook icon.
· Select Properties
· Click Show Profiles
· Highlight your name and click Properties
· Click properties again
· Click the Advanced tab
· Under Logon Network Security, select None
· Then OK, OK and Close.
It will now bring up a box for username, domain and password whenever you open your email. Remember your domain is FAYETTE!
For Word 2003 follow these directions:
Open Outlook
Select Tools
Select Options
Click the Mail Setup tab
Click the Email Accounts Button
Make sure that View or Change an existing account is selected
Click Next
Highlight your account (if there is only one called Microsoft Exchange Server, choose that)
Click Change (you should then see your name)
Click the More Settings button
Select the Security tab
Check the box next to Always prompt for username and password.
Then OK your way back to your email.
Tech Tip #2--Putting a signature on your email
If you would like to add an autosignature to all of your email messages (like the one I have below) follow these simple steps:
· Open Outlook
· Choose Tools
· Then Options
· Select the Mail Format tab at the top of the window.
· Click the Signature Picker button at the bottom
· Choose New
· Next
· Type in the signature that you want to show up in your email
· Then Finish, OK and OK again.
You might want to send yourself an email as a practice run to see if it shows up and looks the way you want it to. You can always go back in and edit it.
Tech Tip #3--Changing your
password
This week's tip is how to change your
login password. It is important that you change your password from time to time
and never give it out to other people. Treat it like you would your PIN number
for your debit card. Here is how to change your password
using Windows 95
 |
Click START |
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Click SETTINGS |
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Click CONTROL PANEL |
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Double click PASSWORDS |
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Click CHANGE OTHER PASSWORDS |
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Highlight MICROSOFT NETWORKING |
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Click CHANGE |
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Type in your old password TAB then type your new one TAB and then type your new one again. |
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Click OK |
To change it on Windows 2000 see below:
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CTRL + ALT + Delete |
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Click CHANGE PASSWORD |
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Type in your old password TAB then type your new one TAB and then type your new one again. |
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Click OK |
Tech Tip #4--Sending a blind carbon copy in email
If you have need to cc someone on an email that you are sending, but you don't want others receiving the email to know that this other person will be getting it to, you can BCC them. BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy.
This also comes in handy when you are emailing class news out to parents, but you don't want all of the parent's email addresses showing for everyone to see. Put them all in the BCC field
Here's how:
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Open the message that you want to send. |
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Click on View |
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Click on BCC Field (you may have to expand the menu to see it--do this by either waiting a few seconds, or clicking on the arrows at the bottom of the menu.) |
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Then type the name of the secret recipients in the BCC field. |
The question I've had before when doing this was that if someone were to reply to all, would it go to the people that were BCC'ed? And the answer is no. Your recipients can only reply to you and those who are in the TO or CC field, but not to anyone who was Blind Carbon Copied.
Tech Tip #5--Moving clip art around in Word
Sometimes when you insert clipart or other graphics in Word it will put the clipart on a line all by itself or move the text around and leave lots of space around the graphic. It also keeps the clipart on one side of the document and doesn't let you move it around in the text. To take care of this situation, follow these steps below:
| Right click on the picture |
| Go to Format Picture |
| Select the Layout Tab at the top of that window |
| Then select Square. |
What this does is format the picture to allow text to fit around it. So you can move the picture throughout the document and the text will fit around the square that the picture is in.
Tech Tip #6--Customizing your toolbar in Office programs
Are there features that you use often in Word that don't have a button on your toolbar? It used to bother me that there was no button to double space documents on the student computers in the lab. That's when I discovered that I could add one. Here's how you can add your own buttons to any toolbar in Word, Excel, or other MS Office programs.
| With Word (or the other program) open, Click View on the menu bar |
| Go to Toolbars |
| Click Customize |
| A new window will pop up. Then choose the Commands tab. |
| If I were adding the double space button, I would scroll to find Format in the left side of the window. (I know to look in Format, because that's where I go in the menu bar if there is no button. If you don't know where it is, just start looking.) |
| When I choose Format, a new list will appear in the right side of the window and I scroll to look for Double Spacing. |
| Then I just click, hold and drag that up to the toolbar where I want it to be and drop it there. |
| Now you have a new button on your toolbar. |
You can add as many new ones as you like. Also you can move your toolbars by clicking on the gray bar that gives you the four directional arrows when you put your cursor over it. Just click and drag to move it around.
Tech Tip #7--Attaching a file to an email message
Want to be able to send out that homework sheet to a parent of a student that's missed school? This week's tip is how to attach a document or file to an email message.
| Open the email message. |
| Click on the paper clip on the toolbar or if that isn't there click Insert then File |
| Then look for the place where the file is saved. |
| Highlight the document and then click Insert. |
| Once it's inserted, you will see the icon in the email message. Then you can type a message or send the email. |
Tech Tip #8--Adding an email address to your Contacts in Outlook
Good morning! This week the tip tells you how to add an address to your contacts (similar to your personal address book) in Outlook.
| Click on File |
| Select New |
| Then select Contact |
| When you see this new window pop up, you will put the person's name where it says full name and then in the box to the right of the window about mid-way down, you will type their email address (i.e. jdoe@aol.com) |
| Then click Save and Close |
Now when you want to email that person, you can either type their name (just like you entered it in the Full Name box) in the To box or you can go into your address book and find Contacts and highlight their name. When you see their name underlined in the To box, you know that it has found their address and will send the message to them.
Tech Tip #9--Setting up folders in your email
The most common way is to set up
folders in your inbox. The advantage of this is
that you can get to then through webmail since it is on the server.
And you can even set up rules to immediately put some email directly
into a folder when it arrives (more on this later). But the disadvantage
is that it still takes up server space, so if you are getting a lot
of messages from the System Administrator about the size of your
mailbox, this won't help you.
Another type of folders you can set up are Personal Folders. The advantage is that these folders would be saved on your hard drive or in your users folder on your school's server so that it wouldn't take up space in your email server. That means no messages from the System Administrator. The disadvantage is that you wouldn't be able to get to them wherever you access your webmail.
If you want to set up your email
to send messages directly to a folder, this is a TIP for another
day, but if you want to try and figure it out on your own, click
the Organize button on your toolbar and see if you can get it.
|
Tech Tip #10--Copy and Paste up to 12 Pieces of Information at Once
If you're constantly copying text and data between different Office programs, here's a way to save time by copying multiple items at once.
For example, you can copy a chart in Excel, switch to PowerPoint and copy a bulleted list, switch to Internet Explorer and copy a page of text, and then switch to Word and paste the collection of copied items into your document.
Here's how:
| In any Office 2000 program, on the View menu, point to Toolbars and click Clipboard to display the Office Clipboard. |
| Select an item you want to copy. |
| Copy the item into the Office Clipboard by clicking Copy on the Edit menu or clicking the Copy button on the Clipboard toolbar. |
| Repeat steps two through four until you have copied all the items (up to 12) you want. If the item you want to copy is in another program, switch to that program first. |
| In an Office program, click where you want to paste the items. |
| To paste all the items at once, click Paste All on the Clipboard toolbar. Or to paste the items one at a time, click the icon for the item you want to paste. |
Tech Tip #11 -- Setting up groups in your email address book
This
week my tip leads you through setting up an email group in your contacts in
Outlook. It's known as a Personal
Distribution List.
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In Outlook, open your address book and go to Contacts at the
bottom of the Global Address List. |
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Click on the first button that looks like a Rolodex card or choose
File and New Entry. |
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Highlight New Distribution List and click OK. |
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Click Select Members. You
will now see your address book. You
can choose anyone who is on the global list or already in your Contacts to be a
member of this group. (If you want
to add new members, click Add New... and put in the name and the email address.)
Select the name and click Add. |
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Name the list. |
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Be sure to Save and Close |
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Now that group will appear in your Contacts in bold letters to
denote that it is a group and not an individual. |
Tech Tip #12--Organizing your My Documents folder
| First, open my documents. (If you
have Windows 2000 or XP a shortcut to this folder is already on your
desktop. If you have Windows 95, you will need to go into My Computer,
then C:, then you will see it.)
| Then you can either Right Click and
choose New then Folder OR
go to File then to New then to Folder
| Name the folder whatever you want (i.e.
Tests) and hit enter.
| Now you can click on any file and drag it
on top of the folder you just created. When the folder is highlighted,
you can 'drop' the file and it will move into that folder. | |
Create as many folders as you need. You can even open the folders you've made and make folders inside those folders. This will make it much easier to find things when you need them.
Tech Tip #13--Organizing your email with color
Tech Tip #7A
Have you ever wished that you knew which of your many emails were being sent just to you and nobody else? (If it's sent just to you, then there's a real good chance somebody is waiting on you to respond. If it's sent to lots of people, they may or may not be waiting on you for a response.) If so, there is a way to flag those emails with color. Here's the idea: Messages that are sent where you are the only recipient can be shown in RED (or any color you choose) while messages that go to more than one person are shown in BLACK. Here's how to do it:
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When you are in your Outlook Inbox, click on the "Organize"
button on your toolbar.
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When you see the menu pop down, choose the "Using Colors" link
on the left side of the menu.
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The second bullet says: Show messages sent only to me in ..."
Click on the drop down arrow and choose a color.
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Then click the "turn on" button.
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Close the Organize window by clicking on the X.
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The messages sent only to you should now appear in the color you chose.
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| When you are in your Outlook Inbox, click
on the "Organize" button on your toolbar.
|
|
When you see the menu pop down, choose the "Using Colors" link
on the left side of the menu.
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The first bullet says: Color messages from or sent to (select
"from" in the drop down box), then in the next space, type the
person's name (last name, then a comma, then a space, then their first
name. Ex. Whitmer, Paula) then select the color.
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Next, click on the "Apply color" button. You should then
get a message next to that button that says "Done!"
Check your Inbox and see if it worked.
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If the person is not in your Contacts list, then you can actually type
in their email address in the spot for the name. If you've
received at least one message from them that you still have, you can
select that message and it will automatically insert their name.
It works either way.
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Tech Tip #14--Selecting a single word or paragraph quickly in Word
When you are working in Microsoft Word, you can select a single word in your document by double-clicking it. You can select a paragraph by triple-clicking anywhere in the paragraph. This can be useful when you are cutting and pasting, or if you want the spell check a single word or paragraph.
Tech Tip #15--Excel tips
| Choose FILE and PAGE SETUP
| About halfway down under the print
heading, check the box next to ROW AND COLUMN HEADINGS.
| Now when you do a Print Preview you
should see the ABC's and 123's.
| Do the same to turn it off. | |
How can I change the font size,
color, etc for the whole page?
| To highlight the entire worksheet, click
the corner of the headings (directly above the 1 and to the left of the A)
| Then you can either change the font on
the formatting toolbar or ...
| Choose FORMAT
| Then CELLS
| Then select the FONT tab and you can make
the changes there. | |
How
can I outlines cells or make the grid print?
|
 |
How can I uniformly change the width of columns or height of cells?
| Highlight the columns (by clicking on the
letter headings and dragging) or rows (by clicking on the number headings
and dragging) that you want to change
| Then adjust the width or height of one
column or row by clicking and dragging on the line that separates the
headings.
| When you have finished adjusting that one
column or row, it will adjust all of the highlighted rows to the same size. | |
How can I adjust all columns to
fit the contents of the cells?
| Highlight the entire sheet (or just the
columns you want to adjust)
| Double-click on the line that separates
the column headings
| This will automatically adjust the
selected columns to fit the contents of that column. | |
Tech Tip #16--Accessing webmail from home
Did you know that you can access your school email from home? Here's how:
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Go to this site http://webmail.fcps.net
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At the login box type your email address (i.e. jdoe@fayette.k12.ky.us)
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Then a login window will come up.
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Here you must type your username as fayette/jdoe
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And then your password is case sensitive (may need to be capitalized,
may not....it depends on how you entered when you changed it.)
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Then you will see a webmail screen that looks a little different from
your outlook at school, but not a lot different.
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Just a couple of things to know.
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If you want to delete an email, you must check in the box next to the
message and then when you've checked all that you want, you can click on
the button that has a check mark on it. (When you hold your cursor over it
you will see "Delete Marked Items.")
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Webmail is set up so that it does not
save copies of email you send. If you want to save a copy in sent
items, you will need to select the Options tab at the top of the message
you are sending and check the appropriate box.
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If you have any questions or need help with webmail, let me know!
Tech Tip #17--Using the Insert Key to Paste
| Choose Tools, then Options.
| Click the Edit tab.
| Select "Use the Ins key for Paste."
| Click OK. | |
Tech Tip #18--Inserting Symbols in Word
| First, when typing the
word, stop when you get to
the point where you want to insert
the symbol or special character
| Choose Insert from the file menu
| Then select Symbol.
| You will see this window pop up: | |
| When you click on the character you
want, it will show up larger (as shown) so you can see if it's what you
need.
| Then you choose Insert.
| Close the window and go on typing. | |
| Second, if there are
characters that you use often, you can use the shortcut keys to type them.
| Look at the picture above and you will
see the shortcut key hint at the bottom.
| If you want to type a º then
you can do that by holding the Alt key in while typing 0186 on the
number keypad to the right of your keyboard. | |
Tech Tip #19--Displaying Margins and Replacing Text in Word
Displaying the margins in Word
Would you like to see the margins when you type in Word? You can display your margins right on the page, as follows: - Choose View + Page Layout to display your page in Layout view.
| Choose Tools + Options and click on the View tab.
| Under Show, select Text Boundaries.
| Click on OK. | |
Stop wasting keystrokes
| Select the text you want to replace.
| Type in your new text. | |
Tech Tip #20--Sorting your email in Outlook
Usually email is set up to sort by the date/time it is received. But occasionally a stray click may change the way your email is sorted. Do you want to know how to get it back to the way it used to be? Here's how!
If you click on the field title (i.e. From, Subject, Received) at the top of your email list it will sort by that field. For example, if you want to sort by who it's from, click on the From field. If you want to sort by Subject click on that. And if you want to sort by how it's received (the default) click on the Received field heading. You may have to click twice because it can sort by ascending date or descending date.
What if one of those fields is missing? Perhaps a stray click took away the From field so that you no longer see who your mail is from.
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Right click on the other field headings (Subject and Received in this case). |
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Go to Field Chooser and click. |
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Scroll until you find the missing Field (in this case From). |
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Click and drag it up to the Field bar where you want it to be. |
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When you drop it, it will return. |
Tech Tip #21--Click and Type feature of Word 2000
Word 2000 has a Click and Type feature. This feature allows you to double-click your mouse in any open area of your document (where there is not text), and begin typing right away. It only works when you are in Print Layout or Web Layout view.
You can tell if Click and Type is active by how the mouse pointer behaves on screen. If the mouse pointer, when moving within the document window, looks like a simple I-beam insertion pointer, then Click and Type is not turned on. If, instead, it looks like an I-beam with some horizontal lines near by, then Click and Type is active and ready. These lines indicate the formatting of the text that you can insert. There are four possibilities:
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Left aligned. If the horizontal lines are near the
upper-right side of the I-beam, then it indicates that double-clicking your
mouse will result in a left-aligned paragraph where you click.
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Left aligned, first line indent. If the horizontal lines
are near the upper-right side of the I-beam, but there is also a very small
arrow at the left side of the first horizontal line, then double-clicking
will result in a left-aligned paragraph where you click, with the first line
of the paragraph indented.
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Centered. If the horizontal lines are directly beneath
the I-beam, then you can enter a centered paragraph by double-clicking your
mouse.
|
Right aligned. If the horizontal lines are near the
upper-left side of the I-beam, then it indicates that double-clicking will
add a right-aligned paragraph where you click. | |
Remember that Click and Type only works if you are viewing your document in Print Layout view or in Web Layout view.
If you don't like or don't use the Click and Type and want to turn it off, follow these steps:
- Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
- Make sure the Edit tab is selected.
- Make sure the Enable Click and Type check box is cleared.
- Click on OK.
Tech Tip #22--Cleaning out your email box
Today's tip deals with keeping your email inbox cleaned out. (You can find other helpful email hints on our intranet page at http://intranet.fcps.net/EdTechnology/email.asp)
- First make sure that you don't have any messages with really large attachments. (Hint: you can sort messages by size just by clicking on the size heading in your inbox.)
- Check the Sent Items folder. Highlight and delete any items in there that you don't need.
 | You may highlight several things at once,
by clicking on the first item, holding the shift key down and then
clicking on the last item. That will highlight everything in between.
| You may highlight several things (but not
everything) by holding the Ctrl key down while you click. This allows
you to leave a few items unselected. | |
Tech Tip #23--Quickly see if a Read Receipt is requested
I
like to know if people have requested read receipts on e-mail messages they've
sent me. Here's how you can customize your Outlook Inbox so you can see at
a glance which messages have read receipts attached: Open
your Outlook Inbox, and on the View menu, point to Toolbars
and click Advanced to show the Advanced toolbar. On
the Advanced toolbar, click Field Chooser. In
the Field Chooser drop-down box, select All Mail Fields. Scroll
down until you see Receipt Requested. Click
Receipt Requested and drag it onto the column heading in your Inbox.
The double red arrows indicate where the column will be placed when you
release the mouse. Close
the Field Chooser box. Now
you'll see a new column in your Inbox with the label Receipt Requested
that will have a Yes in it when the message has a read receipt request
attached or a No if it does not.
Tech Tip #24--Freezing Rows, Printing Headers in Excel
Have you ever created a chart or table in Excel and you want the first row with the header information (like Name, Address, Phone number, etc.) to stay visible while you scroll through the pages and pages of entries in your spreadsheet? This is easily done by freezing the row(s).
|
Open Excel |
|
Enter your column headings in the appropriate row.
| Highlight the row below the one your want to freeze by clicking on the row heading number.
| Select Window from the menu bar
| Choose Freeze Panes
| Now as you scroll through the document, that row should remain visible at the top. |
Now what if you want that row to print at the top of every page? That won't happen if you just freeze the panes as we did above, but you can do this easily by doing the following.
|
Select File
| Choose Page Setup
| Click the Sheet tab
| Where it says "Rows to Repeat at the Top" choose the button in the right side of that box
| The window will shrink and you will be able to scroll to find the row you want to repeat and then select that row(s) (by clicking on the row heading number)
| You will see that row description turn up in the box and you will need to click the button on the right side of that box again.
| Then click OK
| Now when you print, that row will print at the top of every page. |
These same directions can be followed to select Columns to freeze or repeat in printing.
Tech Tip #25--Automatically spacing after sentences in Word
| Select TOOLS
from the menu bar
| Choose
OPTIONS
| Click the
SPELLING & GRAMMAR tab
| Click the
SETTINGS button
| Then set the
Spaces required between sentences to either 1 or 2 depending on your
preference.
| Then OK back
out | |
If you have it set to two spaces and you only type one, the green line (indicating a grammatical error) will show up in that place and when you do a spelling and grammar check, it will suggest that you add another space.
Tech Tip #26--Recovering deleted items and recalling sent messages in Outlook
| In the Folder
list, click Deleted Items.
| On the Tools
menu, click Recover Deleted Items.
| Click the
item you want to recover. To select multiple items, click the first item,
and then hold down CTRL and click additional items.
| Click the
Recover Selected Items button. | |
| Click Sent
Items.
| Open the
message you want to recall or replace.
| On the
Actions menu, click Recall This Message.
| To recall the
message, click Delete unread copies of this message.
To replace the message with another, click Delete unread copies
and replace with a new message, click OK, and then type a new
message. It's been my experience that the second of these two works
better.
| To be
notified about the success of the recall or replacement for each recipient,
select the Tell me if recall succeeds or fails for each recipient check box. | |
Tech Tip #27--Changing the homepage and organizing links in IE
| Open Internet
Explorer
| Navigate to
the page you want to use as your home page
| Choose Tools
from the menu bar
| Then select
Internet Options
| You will see
a box that is labeled Home page
| In that box,
click the button that says Use Current.
| That will set
the page you are currently on to be your home page.
| Just click OK
and you are done. | |
| Open Internet
Explorer
| Click
Favorites
| Click
Organize Favorites
| Now you can
create folders for the different types of sites you have saved (i.e. light
and sound, space, chemistry, earthquakes, etc.) by clicking the Create
Folder button.
| Then drag the
links on top of the folder they should go into
| Now whenever
you save a new site, you will click Favorites
| Then Add to
Favorites
| Then to see
all your folders, click the Create in button
| Double click
on the folder you want to save that link in and then click OK. | |
Tech Tip #28--Changing all CAPS to lowercase
It happens all the time--a student types a portfolio piece in ALL CAPS and they need to change it. Well, here's how you can change it without having to retype it. There are two ways to do it:
With the mouse:
- Highlight all.
- Format Menu--> Change Case
- Select Sentence Case.
With the keyboard:
- Press Ctrl + A (Select All)
- Press Shift + F3 until you get the look you want. This toggles between several options (all caps, all lower case, or sentence case)
