Microsoft Office is a huge player in the IT marketplace and is one of the most popular software suites available. That’s partly because it’s a bundle of programs that cover the needs of most businesses. As is always the case with software, its effectiveness depends partly on user skill. Here are some time-saving tips so that you can make the most of Microsoft Office tools.
General Shortcuts
There are some shortcuts that apply in all of the programs that make up Microsoft Office, including Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook. Microsoft has always prioritised consistency, so that you don’t have to wrestle with different commands and interfaces. Here are some that you can use in the different Office apps to save time and effort:
- Formatting tools: Commands that we all use all the time for formatting text are the same across the board. Easy shortcuts include those for bold text (Ctrl+B), italics (Ctrl+I) and underline (Ctrl+U).
- Common commands: There are also handy shortcuts for the other commands we use all the time. To quickly save a file, it’s Ctrl+S. To print, it’s Ctrl+P. To select the entire contents of a document, press Ctrl+A. To copy text, or an image, to the clipboard it’s Ctrl+C, and to paste your selection, it’s Ctrl+V. It may be only a few seconds faster than going via the menu, but those seconds add up to hours and hours over a year!
Find and Replace
Everyone ends up having to edit a document and replacing a word or phrase. This can be tedious, especially in a long document. Finding a character, word or phrase is straightforward with the shortcut Ctrl+F. Take it to the next level with Ctrl+H. This brings up the pane you need for more advanced editing, because it makes a whole variety of changes or corrections quick and easy. It can do more than just find characters or words. You can also use it to quickly edit formatting and layout, such as page breaks.
Personalizing Ribbons
All Microsoft Office programs have a ribbon, which is the set of toolbars at the top of a document. These can be altered to suit your purposes. It can take a bit of initial effort initially but it can save you time down the line. You can hide options that you never use, so that it’s quicker to find the commands and functions you do need, which might otherwise take several clicks to access. To give it a try, go to File>Options>Customize Ribbon.
These are just a few of the shortcuts that can make life easier for those of us who rely on Microsoft Office. Time is often in short supply, and anything that saves time can help enhance your productivity.
Quikteks can help with all sorts of productivity-boosting solutions for your business To find out more about how we can assist, give us a call at (973) 882-4644.