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Communicating Using Technology
Vol. 2 Issue 24 November 25, 2003
Published and Copyright by Dave Paradi
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In this issue:
New article you can reprint or share
1. Best Fit for Columns
2. PowerPoint Custom Show Bug
3. Useful Resource - Free text faxes by e-mail
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Privacy Policy: I will never sell or distribute your
e-mail or information to anyone.
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If you have received this as a forward from a friend, sign up
for your own copy at:
http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com/newsletter.htm
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I have recently turned the results of the survey on what
annoys people about bad PowerPoint presentations into an
article. This new article summarizes what the survey was
about, the results and the conclusions on what presenters
should do better. I am making it available on the web site
and allowing you to reprint it in your organization
newsletter, internal web site or magazine as long as you
include the bio paragraph at the bottom of the article. If
you use it, please send me a copy of the publication so I
know it was published. Here is the article link:
http://tinyurl.com/wfl3
1. Best Fit for columns
If you need to resize a word table column or an Excel column,
here is a quick tip on how to set the column width to fit the
longest text in the column. Place your mouse on the right
column border and the cursor will change into a double arrow,
with one arrow pointing left and one pointing right. Double
click the left mouse button with the cursor in the double
arrow mode and the column width will automatically change to
fit the width of the data in the column. This works in both
Word and Excel. Of course if you do this and realize that
due to one very long string your column is now far too wide,
remember that you can click the undo button (the button in
the toolbar that looks like an arrow swooping counter
clockwise) or click on the Edit menu and click on Undo to
return the column to the previous width. Then you can
manually move the right column border by dragging it to the
right so the column is a more acceptable width.
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Who else wants to sell more and boost their career with
better PowerPoint slides? Learn an easy 13-step process in
under two hours with this e-book. Click on this link:
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2. PowerPoint Custom Show Bug
I think that the Custom Show feature in PowerPoint is one of
the most useful features in the whole program. To recap,
what it allows you to do is to create a new show from the
existing slides by selecting which slides you want to show
and in what order. I use it all the time to create
customized versions of key presentations. But I recently ran
into a bug that can really mess up your custom shows. If you
have an existing custom show and you delete a slide from the
file that was in that show, you can no longer reliably edit
the show. You won't be able to move any slides to new
positions or add new slides into a certain spot. I had to
recreate a 180 slide custom show twice because of this bug.
I am using PowerPoint 2002/XP, but my guess it that it may
happen in earlier versions as well. The best solution I have
come up with is to never delete a slide you no longer need,
just move it to the end of the file. You can remove the
slide from the custom show with no problem, the problem is
when you delete it from the file.
-------------------------------------------------------
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http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=52955
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3. Useful Resource - Free text faxes by e-mail
When I was searching the web recently for fax to PC services,
I came across an interesting site and the service they offer.
Click on over to http://www.tpc.int/faxbyemail.html and you
will discover a service that allows you to send a text only
fax via an e-mail. You follow their instructions as to how
to format the e-mail address, which contains the recipient
name and the fax phone number. Then you send a plain text e-
mail and they deliver the fax to the recipient. I tried it
out last week and it looks like a neat service to use in a
crunch if you need to get something to someone in hard copy
or need to print some text and only have a fax machine
available. There is a limit to how many faxes you can send
each day and each week, which I guess is to stop fax
advertisers from using the service, but as a backup it seems
to be a good idea.
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Would you like me to speak to your professional association
or chapter event? I am always looking for opportunities to
share my information with others and would consider speaking
to your group if you are in or near the following areas:
Rochester, NY, Buffalo NY, Detroit, MI, Cleveland, OH,
Pittsburgh, PA or Toronto, ON. Just e-mail me at:
dave@communicateusingtechnology.com for more info.
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Check out the books, e-books and other learning tools at:
http://www.communicateusingtechnology.com/tools.htm
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