1. Resizing Graphics in PowerPoint
In previous issues of the newsletter I have discussed how you can resize and resample graphics (especially digital photographs) before you insert them on a slide. The advantage of using a graphics utility like IrfanView is that the file you insert on your slide is much smaller and this makes your PowerPoint file much smaller. Today I want to extend the discussion by talking about how you can resize the graphic once it is in the slide. One important tool is the cropping tool, which allows you to cut off some of the slide so you show only the part you need to show. I discussed this before, and as a recap, to get to the cropping tool, click on the graphic to select it. If the Picture toolbar does not automatically display, click on the View menu and click on the Toolbars menu item and select the Picture toolbar. The cropping tool is the icon on the Picture toolbar that looks like two plus signs. When you click on it, it turns the cursor into the cropping tool. You can then select a corner of the graphic and move the corner into a new spot, which will exclude any part of the graphic outside of the new boundary. When you are done, click on the cropping tool on the Picture toolbar to return the cursor to the normal arrow cursor. To resize your graphic, click on the graphic to select it, then grab one of the sides or corners by clicking your left mouse button on one of the handles (the little boxes around the graphic) and drag the spot to the new size. Beware that this may alter the look of your graphic by stretching or squashing it. To preserve the exact aspect ratio (ratio of height to width), hold the Shift key down as you resize the graphic. To resize with the same aspect ratio around the center of the graphic (so it adjusts the size from all corners at the same time), hold down the Ctrl key as you drag one of the corner handles. Now your graphics will look exactly as you want them to so they add to your message.
2. Excel’s Find All feature
Many Excel users will be familiar with the Find feature of the program. It allows you to find text in the values or formulas of a spreadsheet. If you are searching for multiple instances of the text, most people use the Find Next feature which just re- runs the Find command starting from the current point in the spreadsheet. But on the Find dialog box (where you enter the term to search for), there is another button that can be very useful when searching for multiple occurrences of text. It is the Find All button and it creates a list under the search criteria of all cells containing the search term. If you click on a cell in this list, the system takes you directly to that cell in the spreadsheet. This can be useful if you need to check each occurrence of an item. This idea and more searching ideas for Word, Outlook and the Web are found in my book “The 20% Your REALLY Need To Know About Finding Information on Your Windows PC”. You can read more about it and place your order on the web site at: http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com/findinfo.htm
3. Useful Resource – Get More Out of Windows
We all have to use an operating system to run our computer, and most of us, myself included, don’t always know how to get the most from the operating system we have. PC World magazine recently put together 76 tips for getting more from Windows. It covers tips that can help with the different versions of Windows, so it should have some valuable ideas for almost any Windows user out there. You can check out the article at: http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,114147,pg,1,00.asp