Unofficial Microsoft Office Stuff

What if the Truth Teller Fibs?

2009-07-05T03:39:00.000-07:00

Who ya gonna believe?

Snopes.com is a great source for answers about urban myths, legends and computer hoaxes.

These articles appear on the Snopes site:

TRUE: The Mississippi state legislature removed fractions and decimal points from the mathematics curriculum of public secondary schools.

FALSE: The restaurant chain formerly known as "Kentucky Fried Chicken" changed its name to KFC to eliminate the word "fried" from its title.

TRUE: At the moment the Titanic hit an iceberg in the north Atlantic, the silent version of the film The Poseidon Adventure was being screened aboard ship.

After you stop shaking your head, look at the bottom left corner of the page and click on "More information about this page."
False Authority Syndrome

[Edited entry from 5/27/2006]

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Rose 6 [Flickr]

2009-07-04T10:49:42-07:00

Doug Klippert posted a photo:

Get Hooked Up

2009-07-04T03:19:00.000-07:00

Link to apps in Outlook

The Outlook bar is handy to jump from Mail to Contacts to Calendars, but you can do more with it.

If you can locate the EXE of a program, it can be dragged to the Outlook bar to create a shortcut.

Here is a collection of more things that can be done with hyperlinks.

Slipstick.com:
Using Microsoft Outlook Links

[Edited entry from 5/26/2006]

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Rose 1 [Flickr]

2009-07-03T09:49:51-07:00

Doug Klippert posted a photo:

Rose 3 [Flickr]

2009-07-03T09:49:35-07:00

Doug Klippert posted a photo:

Rose 4 [Flickr]

2009-07-03T09:49:27-07:00

Doug Klippert posted a photo:

Rose 5 [Flickr]

2009-07-03T09:49:20-07:00

Doug Klippert posted a photo:

CSS, PHP, and all that stuff

2009-07-03T03:56:00.000-07:00

Collections of suggestions

Under the belief that more information leads to more understanding, here is a site that may help you round the corners of web design and function. Besides CSS templates there are PHP code nibblets.

In 2003 artypapers was created by R. Marie Cox as a springboard for ideas and a working space of technical implementation -- a place to test and build an extendable collection of core classes (alliteration!) that acts as an application framework for a diverse set of projects and applications.

artypapers.com

Also:
Links and Discussion About the Best CSS Resources Available on the Web.
CSS Help Pile

[Edited entry from 5/22/2006]

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Watermelon Pickles

2009-07-02T03:51:00.000-07:00

Actually quite good

Cut a watermelon into slices (for best results, use a melon that's not overly ripe).
Cut the rind off the pink portion and cube the flesh.
Soak the watermelon cubes overnight in brine made by dissolving 2 Tbsp. of pickling salt in 1 qt. water.
In the morning, drain the brine off the melon cubes.
Put a dill head and stem (or a couple of teaspoons of dill seed) in each quart jar. If you desire, also add a hot pepper (chili) and whole allspice and/or mixed pickling spice to each quart.
Bring to a boil 1 cup white vinegar, 2 cups water, and 1/2 to 1 cup granulated sugar (try the smaller amount first and increase the amount if you decide you like your watermelon pickles sweeter).
Pour the pickling solution boiling hot over the melon in the jars, filling them to 1/2 inch of the top of the jars.
Wipe the rims and seal the jars with sterilized lids and rings.
Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes, just long enough so the contents won't ferment. (If you process the pickles too long, they will be too soft.)

Here's the Volga Deutsch site:

Getting in a pickle

[Edited entry from 5/18/2006]

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Word Converters

2009-07-01T03:46:00.000-07:00

Pick a flavor

There are fewer word processing formats to worry about than there used to be.
For those that remain, MS Word provides "translators" or converters.

The following file formats are built into Word.
Web page
Web page, Filtered
Web Archive
Plain Text
Encoded Text
Rich Text Format (RTF)
XML
Recover Text (import only)
The following text converters are set to the Run from My Computer installation state.
Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95 RTF Converter
Recover Text Converter
Word 97 for Windows/Word 98 Macintosh
The following text converters are set to the Installed on First Use installation state
WordPerfect 6.x Converter
WordPerfect 5.x Converter
Microsoft Works for Windows 7.0

Support.Microsoft.com
Description of the text converters that are available with Word 2003

Additional text converters and image filters are available in the Microsoft Office File Converter Pack

[Edited entry from 5/16/2006]

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Thirtieth Condition Formatting

2009-06-30T03:05:00.000-07:00

Three is not always enough

Pre-2007 Excel gives the user the ability to specify up to three conditions under Format>Conditional Formatting.

If that is not enough, Frank Kabel and Bob Phillips of xlDynamic.com offer a free download that extends the conditions to 30!

Extended Conditional Formatter

Also see:
Conditional Formatting (including 2007)

[Edited entry from 5/15/2006]

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Access Tools for Free or Fee

2009-06-29T03:35:00.000-07:00

Shareware/Freeware

Peter De Baets has some for pay and some for free downloads at Peter's Software.

In the past I have used his Shrinker-Stretcher

ShrinkerStretcher will automatically rescale/resize your MS Access forms, controls, and fonts to fit any screen resolution, desktop scheme, or font setting.

Using ShrinkerStretcher means you can develop applications without concern for your end user's display settings! Scale your 800x600 application down to 640x480, or to any other screen resolution!

For free includes:

ChromaForm: Let your users set their own form color schemes.
Custom Time Functions -: Perform mathematical operations on custom time values that include fractions of a second.
TableLinker: Manage linked tables from multiple databases, ODBC sources, or any combination of the two. Easily refresh table links or connect to tables in a different data environment.

[Edited entry from 5/14/2006]

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30 Days Hath

2009-06-28T03:00:00.000-07:00

One Day at a Time

Here's how to add a calendar to your web page.

Publishing Outlook Calendars on the Internet or an Intranet
(From THE definitive Outlook/Exchange site - Slipstick.com.)

Other methods:

Htmlgoodies.com
It's actually just a simple table with a couple of additions. (free)

HTMLCal
HTMLCAL is a Web calendar maker and editor that lets you maintain a group calendar for your Web site or intranet.
This software will let you maintain live calendars on your site that anyone can view or update from any Web browser. ($25)

Htmlcalendar.com
HTML Calendar Maker Pro was designed with ease of use in mind. Now you can type your events quickly and easily and they will be transformed into a customized and professional monthly calendar within seconds. Simply follow the on-screen tutorial to create your calendar and then place the finished web page on your site. It's perfect for planning for the weeks ahead or noting past historic events. ($26.50 +)

All about Calendars by:

Claus Tøndering

[Edited entry from 5/13/2006]

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Exploding Slides

2009-06-27T03:23:00.000-07:00

Break up or Blow up

Kathy Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote, give the steps needed to make your shows a little more dramatic.

"Have you ever wanted to have a picture appear on your screen as one thing and then blow apart to separate elements? It is a great technique for explaining parts of a process, photo, or structure in detail.
We are going to step through blowing apart pictures, but this same idea can be used for expanding organization charts, process diagrams, and all kinds of other elements."

Blowing Things Up!

[Edited entry from 5/12/2006]

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Paper Skyscrapers

2009-06-26T03:56:00.000-07:00

Fold your own steamship

This beats paper airplanes. If you order you get hard paper cards with all the pieces.

What exactly is a Micromodel? Micromodels are card or paper models that were originally sold from the 1940's through the 1960's. Most were designed by Geoffrey Heighway.
Each model was made up of several small cards illustrated with the pieces of the model, all wrapped up in a label. You could cut the pieces out and carefully assemble an intricate little three-dimensional model.
Micromodels were known for the amazing details that people would add to customize their models. There were more than 100 original Micromodels of all types.

MicroModelsUSA

[Edited entry from 5/11/2006]

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Compact Before Synchronizing

2009-06-25T03:26:00.000-07:00

A DB two step

If you're working with a replicated database, always compact it twice before you synchronize.

The first time you compact, Access marks objects that need to be deleted, but it doesn't actually remove them.

The flagged objects are removed the second time you compact the database. Although there's no harm in additional compacting, there's no added benefit.

This is particularly important to do when working with the Design Master. Each time you make design changes to the Design Master, a copy of the original object is kept in the database.

If you edit and save a Report or Form 10 times, your database actually has 9 older versions of the form in it. The same is true if you change the schema of a Table or Query If you synchronize before compacting, all of the versions are sequentially sent to the other replicas until everything is in synch, and you can't reclaim the space taken up by the older versions.

However, if you compact the database first, only the most recent form version is sent to the replica.

[Edited entry from 5/10/2006]

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Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

2009-06-24T03:37:00.000-07:00

Up close and free!

Brian Friesen has created a web site called Freezerware.

One of the clever pieces of free programming on the site is named ZoomIn

ZoomIn is a screen magnification program allowing you to view any area of your screen under magnification. ZoomIn allows you to control the amount of zoom, view a pixels location and color, and save it as a bitmap.

ZoomIn is a very simple program to use. Place your mouse over the main window and click and hold the mouse button then drag the "zoom" window over the area of the screen to enlarge. The scrollbar controls the zoom amount.

As an alternative to using a mouse, you can use the arrow keys to scroll the "zoomed" view, and the plus and minus keys control the zoom. Once you have selected the area of the screen, release the mouse button.

By placing your cursor over the pixel in ZoomIn you can see the pixels coordinates as well as the color (in RGB format).

Some of the other free programs on the site are:

Briscola: a very famous Italian card game. Play against the computer in this one-on-one card game. There is included help with the rules of the game, for those who have never played Briscola before.
Dropper: allows you to get the exact color of any pixel on the screen and converts it to commonly used representations. .; [Edited entry from 5/7/2006]; See all Topics

Plus a number of others

Mail Your MDB-ACDB

2009-06-23T03:27:00.000-07:00

Don't let Outlook stop you

There was a lot of frustration with Outlook 200x. If an Access MDB file is received, Outlook expects the worst and blocks the attachment.

The trick has been to ZIP the file or change the extension to something like .DAT.

Here's a registry trick that restores Outlook to the good old days.

Outlook 2007, 2003, 2002 and Outlook 2000 SP3 allow the user to use a registry key to open up access to blocked attachments. (Always make a backup before editing the registry.) To use this key:
Run Regedit, and go to this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security 
(change 10.0 to 9.0 for Outlook 2000 SP3,11.0 for Outlook 2003, 12.0 for Outlook 2007)
Under that key, add a new string value named Level1Remove.
For the value for Level1Remove, enter a semicolon-delimited list of file extensions. For example, entering this:
.mdb;.url
would unblock Microsoft Access files and Internet shortcuts. Note that the use of a leading dot was not previously required, however, new security patches may require it. If you are using "mdb;url" format and extensions are blocked, add a dot to each extension.
Note also that there is not a space between extensions.

If you are using this registry entry, a glance at Help>About Microsoft Outlook will show Security Mode: User Controlled above the license information.
After applying this registry fix or using one of the above tools, the user still has to save the attached file to a system drive before opening it. In effect, the fix rolls the attachment behavior back to Outlook 2000 SR-1, with its included Attachment Security Fix.
An end-user cannot bypass this "save to disk" behavior and open the file directly from the mail message, though an Exchange administrator can.

Slipstick.com:

Opening .exe Attachments

Also see:
Shortcuts for Sending Access Objects via Email

[Edited entry from 5/8/2006]

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Presentation Prep

2009-06-22T03:21:00.000-07:00

Review before you're reviewed

Things to keep in mind as you prepare your presentation.

From Scott Hanselman's blog:

Speak their Language (Know the Audience)
Be Utterly Prepared (No excuses)
CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT (Have some)
System Setup (Be unique, but don't be nuts)
Speaking (Um ...)
Accessibility (Two words: Font Size, and this means YOU!)
Demos and Tools

You'll find the full suggestions here:Tips for a Successful MSFT Presentation[Edited entry from 5/6/2006]See all Topics

Clip Art at Home

2009-06-21T03:53:00.000-07:00

Install more

Do you remember all of the clip art that was available locally with Office XP?

When you have an Internet connection, you have access to the Office Online collection, but if you would like more clip art installed on your machine:

A small amount of sample clip art images was included The 2007 Office systems and Office 2003 and is part of the "local collection" that is searched when you do not have Internet access to the Microsoft Office Online Clip Art and Media Web site. Office 2003 no longer included a media content CD with additional clip art. However, the Microsoft Office XP Media Content CD can still be installed locally or on a network share.

The Office XP Media Content CD contains approximately 35,000 clips that are a subset of the clips that are available on the Microsoft Office Online Clip Art and Media Web site. The Office XP Media Content CD was included with Microsoft Office XP Professional, Microsoft Office XP Standard, and Microsoft Publisher 2002 Deluxe Edition.

To install the contents of the Office XP Media Content CD on a computer, follow these steps:
Exit all programs that are running

Insert the Office XP Media Content CD into the CD drive or into the DVD drive
(Hold down the SHIFT key to prevent the program from automatically starting. If Microsoft Windows Installer automatically starts, click Cancel)
Click Start, click Run, type the following command, and then click OK:
msiexec.exe /i CD_drive:\CAG.MSI ADDLOCAL=ALL /qb
(CD_drive is the letter of the drive that contains the Office XP Media Content CD)

Support.Microsoft.com
How to add clip art to Clip Organizer in a 2007 Office system and in Office 2003

[Edited entry from 5/5/5006]

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Scripts You Can Use

2009-06-20T03:36:00.000-07:00

DHTML, Javascripts, PHP

Dynamic Drive provides original DHTML & Javascripts to enhance your web site.

There is an extensive collection as evidenced by this TOC.

Calendars
Date & Time
Document Effects
Dynamic Content
Form Effects
Games
Image Effects
Links & Tooltips
Menus & Navigation
Mouse and Cursor
Scrollers
Text Animations
User/System Preference
Window and Frames

From

DynamicDrive.com

[Edited entry from 5/4/2006]

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Dead Yet?

2009-06-19T03:33:00.000-07:00

Approximate your last breath

Let me guess. The odds are that you are less than 77.6 years old.
The longevity figures have increased as medical science finds ways to hold off sending a final bill.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Center for Health Statistics have almost all the data you'll need between now and then:
Life Expectancy

My high school held a 100 year reunion September 15. 2006.
Of the 38,797 graduates, 24,176 or 62% could still be alive.

Living Graduates

CelebrateStadium.com

Stadium History

Maybe you saw the movie:
10 Things I Hate About You

[Edited entry from 5/3/2006]

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Über Updater

2009-06-18T03:25:00.000-07:00

Universal

To check on the latest version of a piece of software, you can poke around Tools, Tasks, About or some other menu.
To check out your whole machine including programs that weren't written by Microsoft, or Adobe, look at CleanSofts Update Notifier

What is Update Notifier?
The Update Notifier is a small utility that scans your computer for installed software and displays a list of updates. Also you can see the latest updates for applications from your Watch List.

It will show you updates for programs you forgot you ever installed.
It's a simple download app that is not "installed".

CleanSofts.org

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VBA Variable Problems

2009-06-17T03:33:00.000-07:00

Explicit protection

It's good practice to always use the Option Explicit statement in the beginning of your code modules to ensure that all variables are unambiguously declared in your procedures.

With this process in place, you'll receive a "Variable not defined" error if you try to execute code containing undeclared variables. Without this statement, it's possible to mistype variable names, which would be interpreted as new Variant type variables.

This could severely impact the results of your code, and you might not ever know it. If you do find a problem, tracking down where the error is can be a chore.

Although you can manually type the statement into your modules, changing a setting in Access can ensure that the statement is always added to new modules.

Open a module (start the VBA Editor)
Choose Tools>Options from the menu bar
On the Editor tab of the Options dialog box, select the Require Variable Declaration check box in the Code Settings panel
Finally, click OK

[Edited entry from 5/2/2006]

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Resend on Behalf

2009-06-16T03:53:00.000-07:00

Alternate to Forward

Let's say you get a message that you would like to forward, but you don't necessarily want to take "ownership."

Open the message in its own window
Go to Actions>Resend This Message
(Other Actions in 2007)
When you click Send, you will be reminded that you are not the original sender of the message
Click OK

The message will be from you, "on behalf of" the original sender.
IMPORTANT: If the recipient clicks the Reply button, his message will go to the original sender, not to you.

Thanks to Ed Bott for pointing this out,

EdBott.com

[Edited entry from 5/1/2006]

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SQL Warning in Word

2009-06-15T03:07:00.000-07:00

Merge Ahead!

When you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data source, you may receive the following message:

Opening this will run the following SQL command:

SELECT * FROM C:\file_name.log

Data from your database will be placed in the document. Do you want to continue?

This message helps protect you from unintentionally sending data to a malicious user.
To suppress this message, you must first create the following registry key:

Open Registry Editor.
Locate, and then click the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options

(Use 12.0 for Word 2007)
Click Edit, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Under Name, type:

SQLSecurityCheck
Double-click SQLSecurityCheck.
In the Value data box, type:

00000000

See
Microsoft KB 825765

Installing Office XP SP3 appears to cause the same problem. For Word 2002 (XP also known as 10.0) you need to place the registry key in: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Word\Options

(Thanks to Brian Livingston at WindowsSecrets.com for pointing the way to a solution)

[Edited entry from 4/30/2006]

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Julian Dates

2009-06-14T03:41:00.000-07:00

Gregorian to/from Julian

Julian dates refer to the number of days from the first of the year and the number of days until the end of the year.

The year -45 has been called the "year of confusion," because in that year Julius Caesar inserted 90 days to bring the months of the Roman calendar back to their traditional place with respect to the seasons. This was Caesar's first step in replacing a calendar that had gone badly awry. Caesar created a solar calendar with twelve months of fixed lengths and a provision for an intercalary day to be added every fourth year. As a result, the average length of the Julian calendar year was 365.25 days.

The Gregorian (Pope Gregory XIII) calendar is based on a cycle of 400 years, which comprises 146,097 days. Since 146,097 is evenly divisible by 7. Dividing 146,097 by 400 yields an average length of 365.2425 days per calendar year, which is a close approximation to the length of the tropical year. The Gregorian calendar accumulates an error of one day in about 2500 years.

Calendars by L. E. Doggett

From Chip Pearson's site CPearson.com:

"Many applications (especially mainframe systems) store dates in the Julian format, which is a 5-digit number, consisting of a 2-digit year and a 3-digit day-of-year number. For example, 24-August-1999 is stored as 99236, since 24-August is the 236th day of the year. Excel does not support Julian dates directly, but you can use them with only a few fairly simple formulas.
Converting A Standard Date To A Julian Date
The formula below will convert a standard Excel date in A1 to a Julian Date.

=RIGHT(YEAR(A1),2)&TEXT(A1-DATE(YEAR(A1),1,0),"000")

This formula takes the 2 right-most characters of the YEAR of the date in A1, and then appends the number of days between the date in A1 and the 0th day of that year. The TEXT function formats the day-of-year number as three digits, with leading zeros if necessary.

Converting A Julian Date To A Standard Date

The formula below will convert a Julian date to a standard Excel date.

=DATE(IF(0+(LEFT(A1,2))<30,2000,1900)+LEFT(A1,2),1,RIGHT(A1,3))

If the year digits of the Julian date are less than 30 (i.e., 00 to 29), the date is assumed to be a 2000 century year. If the year digits of the Julian date are greater than or equal to 30 (i.e., 30 to 99), the date is assumed to be a 1900 century year. This formula works by taking advantage of the fact that the DATE function can handle days beyond the "normal" days in a month. For example, DATE correctly computes 100-Jan-1999 to be 10-April-1999.

These Julian dates must have the leading zero or zeros for years between 2000 and 2009. For example the 123rd day of 2000 must be entered as 00123. Format the cell as TEXT before entering the data, or enter an apostrophe before the Julian date -- e.g., '00123. This will prevent Excel from treating the Julian date as a number and suppressing the leading zeros."

US Naval Observatory has this definition (and a calculator):

Julian dates (abbreviated JD) are simply a continuous count of days and fractions since noon Universal Time on January 1, 4713 BCE (on the Julian calendar). Almost 2.5 million days have transpired since this date.

April 29, 2004 at 6:00 AM would be 2453854.75

[Edited entry from 4/30/2006]

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World's a Web

2009-06-13T03:30:00.000-07:00

Join the group

Daniel Will-Harris is a designer and author. He has put together a web site with step-by-step instructions about how to set up your own web site.

" Everyone and their dog needs to build a web site these days. But even with the best software there's all sorts of stuff a mammal has to understand before it can create a truly useful site.

eFuse.com offers information, inspiration, and assistance written in plain English by professional writers and designers so it's easy to understand and use. eFuse.com is for everyone who wants to build a more attractive and effective web site. Learn what you need, painlessly. No experience necessary. You'll be web-savvy in no time.

Take a look at the site map.
eFuse.com:
Site Map

Learn how to Plan, Design, Build and Grow your web site

[Edited entry from 4/27/2006]

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Frequent XP Problems

2009-06-12T03:37:00.000-07:00

Windows XP answers

John Barnett has a nice site with over 100 good WinXP solutions.

"The Windows XP frequently asked questions section contains some of the more popular tips/tweaks. Obviously, this section will be updated pretty regularly so do keep visiting to check what new FAQ's have been added. All FAQ replies are supplied 'as is' I am unable to accept any responsibility resulting from the use of any of the FAQ replies. You use them at your own risk!'

Here's a sample:

How Do I Enable Show Hidden Files and Folders
How Do I Get XP To Empty The Temporary Internet File Folder When My Browser Closes (UPDATED)
How Do I Hide Icons In The Notification Area
How Do I Add/Remove 'Supplied By From Internet Explorer Title Bar
How Do I Replace a lost, broke or damaged Windows XP CD
How Do I Delete An Undeletable File
How Do I Create A Desktop Shortcut To The Windows Disk Defragmenter
How Do I Enable Single Clicking Of Icons To Open An Application
How Do I Disable The Windows XP Splash Screen
How Do I Change The Default Location Of The My Document Folder
How Do I Backup The Registry In Windows XP

Windows XP FAQ's

[Edited entry from 4/26/2006]

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Map Yourself

2009-06-11T03:47:00.000-07:00

Make your own

You know you've wanted to play with Google maps on your own. It's not super easy, but here's a description about how to do it.

"One of the great things about Google maps is it has its roots in XML. To translate for the non-web developers out there, it basically means Google maps are user hackable.

This how-to will show you how to make your own annotated Google map from your own GPS data. Plus, you'll be able to tie in images and video to create an interactive multimedia map.

We'll walk you through the steps we took to generate an annotated map of a walk we took recently through our hometown, now that it's actually starting to get warm enough to want to walk about!"

Make your own annotated multimedia Google map

Also:
gmaptrack.com
"gmaptrack allows you to create and place your own information onto Google Maps, and share with others."

[Edited entry from 4/25/2006]

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