Time saving keystrokes in MS Office

Time saving key strokes in MS Word

How to make your time work better!
And remember - when it doubt, right click. :)
 

You may not know it, but MS Office applications - and most publishing software - share a multitude of keyboard commands that accomplish the same tasks as the more time consuming 'mouse click and menu' commands.

To get started, we are going to practice a few. There are many more in MS Office Suite than we will use in class, but we are going to focus on a few that will help you in your school work.

Learning goals for this activity:

We are going to identify and practice using some handy on-keyboard time savers. By doing this you will begin to better understand type and character attributes and how they are applied in MS Office applications.

End product for this activity:

You are going to create an e-book from the Tom Sawyer Detective file attached to this activity. You will do it by using the commands we practice in class.

Part One.

Open a new document in MS Word. Use Control + N.

Select all the text in the file. Try using Control + A.

Copy and paste the text from the Tom Sawyer Detective file onto your page without using the menu bar. Try using Control + C to copy and Control + V to paste.

Insert a header with text and a page number.

Get rid of the extra space between paragraphs.

Apply a style from the template field to the chapter headers.

Create a text style you like for the text fields by using the font and paragraph attributes windows. You may open it by using the Control + Shift + P function.

Save it by using the Control + S function.

Now copy the style from the new text by using Shift + Control + C function.

Paste the style from the new section you just copied into the other sections of text by using the Shift + Control + V function.

Did it work?

If you don't get them at first, practice. It's OK. Look at the handout often. There's quite a bit on it.

^p^p

^l^l

• Gain some confidence with keyboard shortcuts.
• Know that even though they are not all identical, they are generally very similar.
• Copy and paste text from a web file to word document.
• Modify text and paragraph attributes.

Keyboard commands handout

Tom Sawyer Detective

United States Constitution

Tom Sawyer Detective in MS Word

Part Two.

Make sure the extra spaces are out from the between the paragraphs. Use the Control + F > Replace functions if needed. You probably want to replace ^l with ^p. If you don’t want to bother with it at all, I loaded an MS Word version of the document to the web site. You may open it and paste it all the text to your version of the document and the formatting problems will be gone. You may also just open and use it from scratch by re-applying the headers and page numbers to the pages and saving it to your H Drive.

Apply the style Heading One to all you chapter headers. Don’t worry about how it looks right now, just apply the style to the chapter headings.

Define how you want your paragraphs to appear. I suggest a simple serif font such as Georgia, Baskerville, or Bookman, but you can choose what you want. I think the size should be somewhere between 10 and 12 with 14.5 – 17 points of line spacing. I think first line indents of .1 to about .3 inches look best.

 Change the character formats to suit your taste. I suggest you use the full font menu – not just the one on the ribbon.

Once you find the paragraph set up like, copy the format. Use the handout I gave you to find out how to do it.

 Paste the format from your paragraph to the other text in your book.

SAVE your document.

Insert a page break before each chapter.

Try this if you make a mistake -
Fall in love with the Control + Z function.

Here are your helps for the text file.

^p^p
^p

^l^l
^l

Part III.

Find a partner and check each other's skills. Start with a new document and go back through the checklist at the top of this table.

Go back and correct as needed.

Part IV.

Working with PIXLR.

We will edit our photos in PIXLR and add them to our publications.

Save your home photos to your H Drive.

Save at least two medium-sized photos from a Google image search by using the Search Tools feature.

Log in to PIXLR at www.pixlr.com. Use the PIXLR editor Web App button located on the left side of the window.

Begin by opening at least one of your photos and checking for image size and color levels. You may want to modify your images as needed. Pay attention in class on this one! Your images need to be 96 dpi for computer-based images and 180 dpi for most printed images.

NOTE >> Don't just expand the dot count on an image. Starting with more than you need and work your way down is much, much better.

Save your modified images as needed back to your H Drive.

Here are the steps to creating a collage for your Tom Sawyer Detective cover in Pixlr.

You will always use the mover tool in Pixlr during this process.

Open or create your original 1530 x 1980 canvas in Pixlr.

Google image search > Search tools > Size > Medium

View image > Copy URL

Go back to PIXLR File > Open image URL

Paste URL into text bar in the pop up window

Click on mover tool

Click on File > Open URL

Control + A > Control + C on the picture that just opened.

Click on your 1530 X 1980 canvas.

Again, with the mover tool in use, type in Control + V to paste the image on to your canvas.

You will notice the new image appears on a new layer in your document. You may adjust the new layer without affecting the other images on other layers.

At this point it is a very good idea to SAVE your canvas as a layered document.

SAVE > Format > Pixlr Layered Document

To view the handout we used in class, click here.

Photo resolution guidelines

Part V.

The Newsletter

You will be creating a family newsletter. You will use your pictures, if available, and write the copy for the stories yourself.

See the examples to the right for some layout ideas.

Your newsletter will include the following features from Word:

• Header
• Text Wrap
• Independent text boxes
• Columnized stories
• About 10 photos with captions. four to five of them will be in a single collage.
• At least one frame with a colored background.
• Page numbering.
• It needs to have good eye appeal.
   

Here are two great ideas to make your newsletter project easier and to help it really sparkle >>
1. When you have a complex function to do in Word. Make a new document and use it for your scratch pad. And speaking of scratch pads, laying out your newsletter on a sheet of plain paper is a great timesaver.
2. You may want to look at some of the examples linked to the right. You can also search for some of your own. Use the ideas you find to start your imagination working!

Sample Template One

Sample Template Two

Sample Template Three

Sample Template Four

Take a look at this newsletter sample. It may help you start your thinking about how you want your newsletter to appear. It also has some notes on the sidebar to help you understand how you can put it all together.

Expert One - Text boxes
Learn about text boxes on the following links:

• One
• Two
• Three

Expert Two - Objects
Learn about inserting and modifying objects at the following links:

• One
• Two
• Three

Expert Three - Photos
Learn about inserting and modifying photos at the following links:

• One
• Two
• Three

Newsletter examples

• One
• Two
• Three
• Four
• Five
• Six
• Seven
• Eight

How to set a transparent background for textboxes in MS Word

How to change the header style in an MS Word document