Microsoft Office

Excel, PowerPoint, Word, etc.

Why can't I open .docx files?

For those of you who have inadvertently been sent a Microsoft Word document in the new .docx (x for xml) format and can’t open it in your older version of Microsoft Word, this N.Y. Times Personal Tech article
has the explanation and some alternatives.

How do I disable Microsoft Office Desktop Alerts?

If you’re interested in changing the behavior or just outright disabling Microsoft Office Desktop Alerts, like that “new mail” alert for Outlook that pops up out of the taskbar, here’s how:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Turn-new-message-alert-pop-up-on-or-off-9940c70e-b306-442e-a856-d94b20318481

How can you open documents created in WordPerfect with MS Word?

If you have MS Word 2000 or higher, you’ll be able to open WordPerfect files and if the document was created with WordPerfect 6.0 or later.

To do this, open a blank document in MS Word. Go to the Tools menu and click on Options. Select the General tab and check mark the box that reads “Confirm Conversion at Open.” Then click OK. Open the WordPerfect files and a box will prompt you to choose the conversion. Select WordPerfect 6.×.

Here’s the reference link from Microsoft Tech Support:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211692

I haven’t tested it, but this site http://www.zamzar.com/ claims to be able to convert WordPerfect to Microsoft Word format.

Windows 7/Office 2010 License Activation Issues

If you are experiencing problems with clients connecting to the campus KMS servers and you have confirmed that your DNS has been setup properly, you can manually force activation of a license.

HSSEAS has posted instructions.

Microsoft Office Home Use Program

The Microsoft Home Use Program allows employees at eligible companies to buy an annual subscription of Microsoft 365 Family or Microsoft 365 Personal at a discount for use on personal devices.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/home-use-program

How do I enable special add-in and tools in Excel?

You can turn on certain tools in Excel such as data analysis tools or equation solving tools from Excel itself.

Once Excel has been installed completely:
Navigate to TOOLs and then Add Ins.

You can check the box next to each free tool offered by Excel for free.

Excel Tricks

How to Print Multiple files in MS Word

Note: To select multiple files click the first file, and then shift click the last file and all consecutive files will be highlighted. To selected individual files ctrl click the desired files.

The following advice was found on that page:

Word makes it easy to print several files at once. The user does not even need to open them first.

(This sends the files straight to the printer without allowing you to adjust your printer settings.)

1. Click the File Menu
2. Select Open
3. After the open window displays, select the files you wish to print.
4. Right click on one of the selected files to open the context menu
5. Left click Print from the context menu.

This is perfect when your boss wants last month’s reports printed NOW!

Help with Microsoft Office Applications

Does anyone know if there is a campus group that provides assistance with setting up a database in Access or who can answer questions? Lynda and Google have been my friends, but now I need human help. :-)

Enabling Presenter mode in Powerpoint

Microsoft Powerpoint supports notes with each slide, yet the default slideshow view on most Powerpoint installations is a standard slideshow only, which hides the notes from the presenter.

The Mac versions seem to be the notable exception in that more of them default to “Presenter” mode for slideshows, which shows the Powerpoint slides only on the external display and the slides w/timer, forward/back filmstrip of slides, and the slide notes on the computer display.

To enable this in Microsoft Office 2003’s Powerpoint:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA010565471033.aspx

Ensure the projector is connected first and active, and set to clone the display.

  1. In PowerPoint, on the Slide Show menu, click Set Up Show.
  2. Under Multiple monitors, select the Show Presenter View check box.
  3. In the Display slide show on list, click the monitor you want the slide show presentation to appear on.

To enable this in Microsoft Office 2007’s Powerpoint, it is almost identical:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA100673831033.aspx

How to Create a Poster in PowerPoint

To create a poster in PowerPoint, design one “slide” with its page size set to the size of your poster. Any color scheme that offers good contrast between foreground and background is acceptable, although you may find that white or light colored backgrounds with dark text work best.

1. From the File menu go to:

2. To add text:

3. To add tables or graphs:

4. To add scanned images:

5. Save and submit your file for printing as a PowerPoint presentation (.ppt file).

This information was originally posted on the now defunct UCLA Photographic Services Website.
Submitted by George Helfand george@lunaimaging.com, formerly with UCLA Photographic Services.

Microsoft OneNote for OS X

Microsoft is now offering OneNote for OS X 10.9 as a free download—

Early thoughts—

Should anyone have input on their experiences with the product, feel free to link them here

Using Equation Editor in Word 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 has a new “ribbon” to replace conventional menus, and a new Equation Editor in Microsoft Word.

To use the old Equation Editor 3.0 if you need easier access to advanced functions, per MTU:

https://help.we.mtu.edu/index.php/Equation_Editor_in_Word_2007

The workaround is to continue to use Equation Editor 3.0, instead of the new equation function. To do this, ignore the equation icon that appears in Word 2007’s ribbon bar under Insert, Symbols, Equation. Instead, choose Insert, Text, Object, Microsoft Equation 3.0. This will give you the equation editing interface that is familiar from previous versions. In the general access computing labs and classrooms, an equation icon has been added to the “Quick Access Toolbar” that appears in the upper left of the Word 2007 window. This is a shortcut to the old Equation 3.0 function which is the recommended method of creating and editing equations at this time.
-——

If you wish to use the old Equation Editor frequently, you can place a button for it in the Quick Access Toolbar adjacent to the new round Office button. From the same link as above:

Adding a button that opens Equation Editor is a simple two-part process. Step one is recording the macro, and step two is adding your recorded macro to the Quick Access Toolbar.

1. Recording the Macro:1. Open Word and click on the View Tab2. In the Macros group, click the Macros button and choose Record Macro3. In the resulting Dialog name your macro EquationEditor and choose All Documents (Normal.dotm), under Store Macro in4. Click OK to begin recording5. Click the Insert Tab in Word’s Ribbon6. Click the button labeled Object, located in the Text Group to open the Insert Object Window.7. Click on Microsoft Equation 3.0 and click OK.8. This will open Equation editor.9. Click anywhere on the Word document to return to normal display of the Word Ribbon and then click on the View tab.10. Click on the Macros button and choose Stop Recording.11. The Macro has been recorded.2. Adding your recorded macro to Word’s Quick Access Toolbar: The Quick Access Toolbar located in the upper-left portion of the Word window, is a customizable toolbar into which you can place buttons for your frequently used commands and of course, macros.
  1. Right-click on the Quick Access Toolbar and choose, Customize Quick Access Toolbar… to open the customization dialog.
  2. From the pull-down menu labeled Choose commands from: select Macros.
  3. Click once on the macro name Normal.NewMacros.EquationEditor.
  4. Click the Add button.
  5. Optional: You can click the Modify button to apply an icon of your choice to this button.
  6. Click OK.
  7. You now have the macro button for Equation Editor located in the Quick Access Toolbar. Any time you wish to insert an equation at the cursor simply click the button in the Quick Access Toolbar and Equation Editor will open ready for you to begin typing your equation.
    -——

How to Import Scans of 35mm Slides into a PowerPoint Presentation

  1. Older versions of PowerPoint cannot rotate imported scans. If you are using an older PowerPoint version, you’ll need to use image manipulation software to correct any pictures that are not properly oriented, before attempting to bring them into your presentation.
  2. Open a blank slide in a new or existing PowerPoint presentation. Make sure the Slides Sized for choice list (in Page Setup under the File menu) is set to 35mm Slide, if you want the imported scan to fill the slide area exactly.
  3. Drop down the Insert menu in PowerPoint and select Picture:From File. In the resulting dialog box, navigate to the desired picture-containing directory. Choose a picture file and click the Insert button.
  4. To prevent unwanted cropping, the imported scan must fit within the slide area. Position the picture by clicking and dragging somewhere within the picture area. Scale the picture by clicking and dragging on a corner handle. If necessary, you can use PowerPoint’s zoom tool to view the entire picture without having to scroll.
  5. If the imported scan does not fill the slide area, you can change the slide’s background color using the Format:Background command. Selecting “Black” as the background color will make the picture appear to float on the projection screen.

This information was originally posted on the now defunct UCLA Photographic Services Website.
Submitted by George Helfand george@lunaimaging.com, formerly with UCLA Photographic Services.

How to disable auto resize of fonts within body text in PowerPoint

By default, PowerPoint will automatically adjust the font size of your body text on each slide depending on the amount of text. This can create inconsistent font sizes for each slide if one slide’s body text only has a few lines of text and another slide’s body text has much more. To disable this feature:

  1. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options.
  2. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
  3. Under Apply as you type, select or clear the AutoFit body text to placeholder check box.

MS Word Replacing Characters with Line Breaks

You can use the Find and Replace in MS Word to replace any characters with a Line Break or other special characters or properties (i.e. creating a page break, em dash, column break, etc.) by using the Find and Replace with “Special” function.

…

Microsoft Word has long had the ability to find & replace non-standard and non-displayable characters:

Special characters you can use with Find and Replace in Word

–or–

WD: Control Codes to Use with Find and Replace

How to merge data from Microsoft Excel into Microsoft Word

“In addition to the features and functions of Excel that make your database useful, you can also use the database to merge information into Word for large mailings. This means that you will not have to duplicate information you already have in your Excel database to perform a mail merge.”

http://www.uwec.edu/Help/Word03/MM-withxls.htm

Previously activated Office 2010 constantly loses activation

In some cases, a previously activated Microsoft Office 2010 installation may lose its activation.

Reapply the MAK does not help as it loses activation immediately thereafter. Querying the Office 2010 activation status confirms it is activated, then activation is loss without explanation. Conventional methods as described via the Microsoft Technet forum link below do not work.

In this situation, the Office Software Protection Platform Service may have a corrupt tokens.dat and cache.dat which needs to be removed and the MAK re-entered.

  1. Type in services.msc in the search box and stop the service called Office Software Protection Platform
  2. Go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform and rename tokens.dat to tokens.old
  3. Go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\Cache and rename cache.dat to cache.old
  4. Restart the computer and open any Office program. You’ll be asked to retype your product key and then restart again. Again open any Office program and you may have to type in the key one more time. It will then ask you to activate online and you’re good to go.

http://helpdeskgeek.com/office-tips/fix-office-2010-cannot-verify-license-error-message/

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/f1a1cc72-d835-4d1d-8fa5-0c0d298fe4bc/why-does-office-software-protection-platform-service-continue-to-run-after-completing-a-licensing?forum=officesetupdeployprevious

Office 2010 (and Windows 7) Manual Activation

For manual activation of Office 2010 and Windows 7 through the campus KMS server:

http://www.seasnet.ucla.edu/software/software-download/frequently-asked-questions/mcca-licenses

PowerPoint Preferences / Options

Microsoft PowerPoint sets a large amount of default preferences which may not be in the best long term interest of user.

To access these settings, open PowerPoint and go to “Tools” > “Options…”. Mac Office users can go to “PowerPoint” > “Preferences”.

“Allow Fast Saves” – Turn off, per Microsoft. Future versions of MS Office do not have the Fast Save option.

“Save Auto-Recover Info Every” – 3 to 5 minutes is recommended.

“Save PowerPoint Files as” – ‘PowerPoint 97-2003 & 95 Presentation’ is recommended to best facilitate file transfer between users and collaborators.

Similar settings are advised in other Microsoft Office products.

Shrink PowerPoint Files

Problem
Pictures added to PowerPoint are added in a non-optimized form. Consequently, large images added to PowerPoint result in a large file size.

Solution
In Microsoft Office XP/2002/2003, use the “compress pictures” feature. Mac Office does NOT have this feature (grmph).

Open PowerPoint, go to View (menu) > Toolbars (submenu) > Picture (menu item). On the resultant toolbar, click the picture icon with four arrows pointing inward. In the “compress pictures” windows set as needed.

Inserting a Macromedia flash animation into a Powerpoint presentation

One easy way to insert a flash animation into Powerpoint is to install Shyam’s Toolbox. It contains an easy to use Flash Movie Wizard, and lets you insert flash with a couple of simple mouse clicks.

Shyam’s Toolbox download link and instructions:
http://skp.mvps.org/toolbox/download.htm

Note: Make sure that the security level of Powerpoint is set to Medium or lower, or the toolbox will not install.

How do I convert a .docx file on a Mac OS X

By default, Office 2007 saves documents in a new XML format (.docx). Please follow the link below to download a widget that allows users to convert files straight from the MAC OS X desktop.

DOCX Converter

Have fun!

• • •

For best compatibility across versions of Microsoft Office, it is best to change the default file format to NOT save as Office XML.

Microsoft’s official converter from pre-MacOffice 2008 versions is Open XML File Format Converter for Mac :
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=164915

How do I manually specify a KMS server to activate MS Office 2010

1. Launch a command window with elevated privileges.
◦Type cmd in the search bar to locate the command window.
◦Right click on cmd and click Run as administrator from the context menu, or select cmd and hit CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER on the keyboard.
◦Click Yes at the User Account Control prompt to open the command window with elevated privileges.

2. At the command prompt, type

cd \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\

◦If running 32 bit Office 2010 on 64 bit Windows, type

cd \Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\

3. Run this command to manually specify the KMS activation server.

cscript ospp.vbs /sethst:kms.softwarecentral.ucla.edu

4. Run this command to activate Office with the KMS server:

cscript ospp.vbs /act

In excel, how to I add a an external sheet to my current (or new) workbook?

You need to open both workbooks (or whatever workbook you want to copy from and to…)

activate the workbook to copy from, select the sheet(s) to copy and
click on > Edit >Move or Copy Sheet > Create a Copy
(if you dont click on create a copy… it’ll move it!)
and nominate the workbook to copy to from the pull down menu.

tada!

When does this work?

A user asks “I have 3 sheets on 3 diff seperate files, and I want to consolidate them into one workbook….”

tada!

Sharing Office 365 calendar with an iOS device

To share an Office 365 calendar with a non-EM user (such as a g.ucla.edu or non-ucla account), follow these steps:

https://thepracticalsysadmin.com/add-office-365-calendars-to-google-calendar/

Beware! Depending on the platform, you might import the current calendar rather than subscribe to it.

To subscribe, you want to copy the long url rather than “share” it.

Subscribe to ICS calendar in iOS

To get a calendar subscription, you need to subscribe as described here.

https://www.imore.com/how-subscribe-calendars-your-iphone-or-ipad

This procedure worked for me using the .ics link (rather than the .html link) on iOS 11.4.1

Read mode in Microsoft Word

Some users have reported issues that documents they could previously edit in Word are no longer editable.

After checking document security options and finding no security applied that would prevent editing, it turns out the document had somehow defaulted to opening in Read Mode.

From the ribbon, go to View , then Edit Document .

Once the normal editing tools are restored, the View ribbon will show the usual viewing options on the left side, which usually comprise: Read Mode, Print Layout, Web Layout, as well as Outline and Draft.

Reference:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/8666ac8e-000d-4151-a185-271bc900807c/unable-to-edit-a-word-2016-document-when-loading-an-existing-document?forum=word

Change the default save location in Microsoft Office

To customize the default save location in Microsoft Office. This may be particularly useful in later versions of Microsoft Office as the default location is often changes from a user’s local Documents folder (inside My Computer) to Onedrive (Microsoft OneDrive), which may be confusing to users who do not realize their default save location has changed.

Steps:

  1. Open the Office application where you want to change the default save location.
  2. Click on Options (usually at bottom-left)
  3. Click on Save (left-hand column)
  4. In the Save documents section (Word)/Save workbooks section (Excel)/Save presentations section (PowerPoint), please check the box for Save to Computer by default.
  5. Verify the Default local file location is set to the user’s preferred location.
  6. Hit ok to save your changes.

https://support.centrestack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034998913-How-to-change-the-default-save-location-to-a-custom-path-in-Office-365-2016
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/customize-the-save-experience-in-office-786200a7-f5f2-4d26-a3ae-b78c60dd5d3b