Tip Archive

5/2/13	When clicking a link in your browser, you can control whether or not the page opens in a new window or tab— by right-clicking on the link and selecting how you want to open it from the shortcut menu. Alternatively, to open the link in a new window or tab (depending on your browser settings), you can press the Ctrl key while left-clicking the link. On a Mac, press the Apple key while clicking the link to open the page in a new window or tab.
4/16/13	Do you need help making sense of your calendar? You can assign categories to calendar entries, with color coding by category. Then you can see at a glance which appointments are personal, which are meetings you can't miss, and which are events you'd like to attend if you're not in the middle of something else. If you keep your boss's calendar, you can also create a category for those appointments. To assign a category to a calendar item in Outlook: Open or create the appointment. Click the Categorize button on the ribbon. If the category you want is listed, select it. If not, click All Categories, and either select an existing category, or click New, enter a category Name, select a Color, and click OK. Click the Save & Close button on the ribbon.
3/19/13	Do you know the alphanumeric sort order used by Excel? Alphanumeric fields may contain letters, numbers, and special characters. When you sort an alphanumeric field, it uses the following sort order: Numbers, 0 – 9 Characters—space, ! “ # $ % & ( ) * , . / : ; ? @ [ \ ] ^ _ ˋ { \| } ~ + < = > Letters, A – Z So, in addition to the obvious (Alpha5 before Alpha6), M106 precedes M50, and beta@example.com precedes betaz@example.com. Excel ignores apostrophes (‘) and hyphens (-), but if two entries are otherwise identical, Excel sorts the hyphenated entry after the entry without a hyphen.
3/5/13	Did you forget to save an Excel workbook, or save changes under the original name instead of a new one? You can recover the file for up to 4 days after forgetting to save it. Open Excel and click on the File tab. Click Recent on the left, and then click the Recover Unsaved Workbooks button. In the Open dialog box, you'll see the contents of your UnsavedFiles folder. Click on the file you want to recover. Note: Your UnsavedFiles folder is usually located under C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local \Microsoft\Office\.This folder will contain new, unsaved or temporary files, such as those you might open from an email or file transfer.
2/19/13	Are you using Enhanced EIIs yet? Here are some of the EII enhancements: PeopleSoft remembers the Enhanced EII you were working on when you select another EII menu option. When transferring a cost to another department, you don't need to know the project/grant number. You can attach supporting documents directly to an EII in PeopleSoft, where they will be available for review by anyone looking at the EII. See Creating an EII for more information.
2/5/13	Do you lose your table headings when a table breaks across pages in Word? You can let Word do the work to repeat table headings on every page, automatically adjusting the placement of the heading when you add or remove content from the table: Place your cursor in the first row, or select the rows you want to repeat. Select Table > Heading Rows Repeat from the menu bar, or click Repeat Header Rows on the Table Tools Layout ribbon. Note: The repeating headings are displayed only in Print Layout view, not in Normal, Outline, or Web Layout view.
1/29/13	What’s in Course Offerings and where does it come from? All active, approved courses for a term are pulled from the Schedule of Classes into the online Course Offerings for that term. Changes that are pending in CUP (saved but not submitted, or submitted but not yet approved) do not appear in the Schedule of Classes, and therefore do not appear in the online Course Offerings. However, when changes are pending in CUP, the course is still in the Schedule of Classes, with the previously approved data.
1/8/13	Did you know that if you are tracking the progress of a task in Outlook, you can send a status report that shows your tracked status? Open the task for which you want to create the status report. If necessary, update your status on the task. Select Send Status Report from the Task ribbon (or from the Standard toolbar of the Task message). On the new email, enter any additional information or clarifications you'd like to include in the message. Address and send the message as you normally would.
12/11/12	If you can't move the Excel workbook you use all the time to another folder, you can designate a different folder as the start folder, and open all the files in that folder when you launch Excel. To designate a different start folder in Excel: Select File > Options on the File tab or click the Office button and select Excel Options. Click Advanced, and scroll to the General area. In the At Startup, Open All Files in field, enter the path for the folder you want to use as the start folder. Click OK. Important! Since this opens ALL the Excel workbooks in the folder when you launch Excel, don't designate a folder with lots of complex Excel workbooks as the start folder.
11/28/12	If you always use the same Excel spreadsheets, you can open them automatically when you launch Excel! Just put the files in your XLSTART folder on your hard drive. Locate the XLSTART folder using your Find or Search feature. Move your files into the folder. *Tip!* This is the same folder where you can find (and customize!) the default template Excel uses for new workbooks.
11/13/12	Did you know that in Excel, you can convert measurements from one unit to another using a formula? To convert a measurement: In the cell where you want the converted measure, type =CONVERT(. Click on the cell that contains the number to be converted, then type a comma. A list of measurement units appears. Double click on the type of unit represented in the cell you are converting from, and type a comma. Double click on the unit you want to convert to, and type the end parenthesis. Press Enter to see the converted value. *Tip!* If the unit you are looking for is not in the list, you may still be able to type it in. For example, if you want to convert to or from millimeters, you can type "mm". If this doesn't work, the Analysis ToolPak add-in may not have been installed. You can do this yourself, even on a DeSC machine: In Excel, choose File > Options or Office > Excel Options. Click Add-Ins. At the bottom of the tab, select Excel Add-ins and click Go. Select Analysis ToolPak and click OK.
11/5/12	OK, my table or paragraph (in Word) looks great! How can I use this formatting again without going through all this work? Create a paragraph style and put it on your Quick Style list. With your table row (or paragraph) still selected, click the arrow at the bottom of the Styles section of the ribbon (under Change Styles). In the Styles panel, click the New Style button at the bottom right. In the Name field, enter a name for your paragraph style, i.e., Table Body or Table Heading. Make sure Add to Quick Style list is checked, and select New Documents Based on this Template. Click OK. Now you can simply select the style from your Quick Style list any time you want to format a paragraph the same way. Note: You can create a paragraph style this way for any paragraph you have formatted, not just for paragraphs in table cells. You can also use this technique to create character styles, but you will need to change the Style Type to Character.
10/16/12	Are your table borders a little too close in Word? Just tweak the paragraph spacing to provide a little elbow room. Select the row and then click the arrow at the bottom of the Paragraph section of the ribbon. To add space at the top and bottom of the cells, increase the value in the Before and After text boxes in the Spacing section.(Tip! Use the arrows for 6 point increments, or type a smaller amount, such as 4, in the text box.) To add space along the left and right edge of the cells, increase the value in the Left or Right text box in the Indentation section. Click OK.
10/2/12	Display a cheat sheet for your function right in the formula bar. To insert the function arguments right in the cell or formula bar: Enter the function in a cell, along with its opening parenthesis—i.e., =SUM(. Press Ctrl+Shift+A to enter the arguments right within the active cell (or the Formula bar if you're working directly in the Formula bar). Replace each argument with your relevant data or cell reference.
9/18/12	Did you know you can undo moving a message in Outlook? Press the Ctrl + Z keys to reverse many actions in Outlook, including moving a message to a new folder, deleting a message, or typing a sentence in an e-mail. Unfortunately, this doesn't work for everything. For example, you can't undo sending a message or meeting request. Keep in mind that you must press Ctrl + Z before doing anything else, and give it a try the next time you immediately wish you "hadn't done that!"
8/21/12	Did you know you can calculate on the fly in Excel? Use the Auto Calculator instead of reaching for a calculator to check your math. Select the cells containing the numbers to be calculated. The average, count, and sum of the selected cells are displayed in the Status Bar at the bottom of the window. To select a different calculation, right-click on the sum to display a menu that offers other calculations.
8/7/12	Did you know that hundreds of online software and business courses are available to you for free? Through Princeton, you can access any online courses offered at Lynda.com. Just go to http://lynda.princeton.edu and sign on using your Princeton netID and password. You can select courses for a specific software application, such as PhotoShop or Captivate, or you can search for courses by subject area, such as Business 3D and Animation Audio, Video Design, Developer Photography Web and Interactive Home Computing And you don't have to be at work to access these courses. For example, if you want to learn PhotoShop for your own personal interest, you can sign on from home and take the course.
7/24/12	Did you know you can draw images on your PowerPoint slides while presenting? Use these shortcut keys to change your mouse pointer to a pen and back: Ctrl + P turns the cursor to a pen, so you can draw on the screen. E erases the drawing that you drew. Ctrl + A turns the pen back to a pointer arrow. Ctrl + H hides the pointer. And if you want the audience’s attention to come to you instead of the slide, press the B key or the period (.) key to black out the slide.
7/10/12	Have you ever heard the phrase "Death by PowerPoint?" One way to avoid terminal boredom in PowerPoint presentations is to keep the text on each slide minimal: Audiences can't read and listen at the same time, so don't put what you're saying on the slide! Use graphics to illustrate your point instead of text, but don't let your graphics get too complex either! Don't put your text on top of a background image. That makes it harder to read! If your text doesn't fit using the standard font size, you're putting too much on the slide! If you can't eliminate text, break up your material into more than one slide.
6/26/12	Have you ever wanted to move a message out of your inbox, but have it come up as a reminder on a later date? You can set a reminder using standard text, or set your own custom text: Open the message for which you want a reminder. Click the Follow Up drop-down in the ribbon, and select Custom... if you want to set your own text. Otherwise, select Add Reminder. In the Flag to field, enter the text you want to when the Reminder window pops up. Enter the Start date and Due date. Click the Reminder checkbox, and select the date and time when the reminder should appear. Click OK to save the reminder as a task. You can move the message out of your inbox. It will appear in the task window, if you open the task from the reminder.
6/13/12	You've created a table in a new document, and then realize that you need to add text above the table. How do you create extra space above the table when the table begins on the first line of the document? Place the insertion point in the upper left cell, before any text in the cell. Press Enter. The entire table moves down one line, and a blank paragraph is inserted above the table, so you can enter text. Note: This only works when there is no text (or blank paragraph) already positioned above the table. If there is already text above and outside the table, this only inserts a paragraph in the table cell above the existing text.
5/29/12	Do you want to remove all the zeros in a spreadsheet without removing those that are part of another number? Set the Match Entire Cell Contents checkbox before you click the Replace All button: On the Find and Replace dialog box, set the Find value to 0 and leave the Replace value blank. Click the Options button on the Replace tab to display advanced settings. Select the Match Entire Cell Contents checkbox. When you click Replace All, Excel will only replace 0s that are the sole content of a cell.
5/15/12	I forgot my voice mail pin number. How can I reset it? You can reset your pin by first requesting a reset through the Outlook Web Application (OWA), and then entering a new PIN from your phone: In your browser, go to www.princeton.edu/owa, and sign in. Click the Options drop-down (under your name on the top right), and select See All Options... In the menu at the left, select Phone. In the Reset PIN section, click on Reset my voice mail PIN… Click OK to confirm. An email will be sent to you with a new PIN. Dial 258-MSGS, and use the new PIN. You will be prompted to change the PIN number. Enter a new PIN number and press # (pound). Enter the number again and press # (pound) to confirm the new PIN.
5/1/12	I've got a caller on the line who needs to talk to someone who is unavailable. How can I transfer them directly to the person's voice mail? Use the transfer feature on your phone as follows: Press the Transfer key (or keys) on you telephone. Enter the voice mail call-in number, 8-MSGS (258-6747). When you hear the recording, press * # # and enter the person's 5-digit extension (as in 8-9999). Press the Transfer key again to connect the caller to the voice mailbox.
4/18/12	Text preview is garbling my messages in UM. How can I turn it off? In OWA (webmail), click the Options drop-down and select See All Options... Then select Phone from the left menu. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and uncheck Include preview text with voice messages I send through Outlook Voice Access (the second option under Voice Mail Preview). Click the Save button (green checkmark) at the bottom right of the page. Tip! You can also turn off text previews of voice messages you receive, by unchecking Include preview text with voice messages I receive (the first option under Voice Mail Preview).
4/3/12	I work in an open environment, and usually turn off the voice commands. How can I make this setting permanent? After you dial in to 8-MSGS (258-6747, say "Personal Options" and then press 4. This changes your command interface from voice to key (or key to voice) until you change it back. Note: This changes how you enter commands; in either interface, you will still hear the voice prompts.
3/20/12	Do I need to do anything special the first time I access the new voice mail system? Yes, you should change your password (pin) to a new number, at least 6 digits long. Although a default greeting is generated by the system, you will probably want to record your name and a personal greeting to be used when you don’t answer your phone. To do these things, dial UMSGS (8-6747), enter the pin number in your notification email, and follow the prompts.
3/6/12	My phone service is migrating to Unified Messaging. What is that? Unified Messaging (UM) combines your voice mail, e-mail, and calendar in one centralized location, your Outlook Exchange inbox. Now you can receive and respond to voice messages, e-mail messages, and calendar information from your phone or from your email inbox. Faculty and staff will be migrating to Unified Messaging between March and May of this year. You will be notified of the migration 2 weeks before you are scheduled to be moved, and again 2 days before. Student migrations are still in the planning stages. For more information on how to use the new UM services, see www.princeton.edu/um. And stay tuned here to find selected tips about the new UM features.
2/21/12	Need to find out if a vendor has been paid? To find the check status for a single transaction, you can drill down from the project grant statement. Navigate to University Financials - Reports > Financial Departmental Reports > PGS001 Project Grant Statement. To find the check status for multiple transactions at once, or to search for the information by vendor name, navigate to University Financials - Reports > Purchasing and Accounts Payable > AP003 - AP Vendor Check Status Report. To see if a payment has been made and then drill down to see if the vendor has actually cashed the check, navigate to University Financials - Reports > Purchasing and Accounts Payable > AP004 - Paid Distributions Report with Drills - List to PDF.
2/7/12	Do you want to budget for an anticipated expense other than a PO or Labor Accounting commitment? You can enter a departmental encumbrance to budget for and track anticipated expenses. The encumbrance is entered in PeopleSoft Financials, and appears on your Project Grant Statement, with a drill-down to the Encumbrance report for details. For more information, see the Managing Departmental Encumbrances quick reference card.
1/24/12	Want to compare appointments on different days in your calendar? To display specific dates side-by-side in Outlook, select the Day view, and then hold down the Ctrl key while selecting the dates from the date navigator (the little calendar on the top right).
1/5/12	Do you wish someone could show you how to do something in PeopleSoft HR or Student Admin? You can play an interactive demo that will walk you through any departmental function in PeopleSoft HR, Student Records, or Curriculum Management. Click the Help link at the top right on any PeopleSoft page to open the UPK player. If there is only one topic for the page, the topic will be displayed. Click the Try It! button above the topic pane to walk through the function with interactive prompts to show you how it works.
12/13/11	You can control whether or not a new page opens in a new window or tab when clicking the link in your browser — by right-clicking on the link and selecting how you want to open it from the shortcut menu. Alternatively, to open the link in a new window or tab (depending on your browser settings), you can press the Ctrl key while left-clicking the link. On a Mac, press the Apple key while clicking the link to open the page in a new window or tab.
11/29/11	Are you plagued with disappearing graphics or mysterious format changes in Word? Try working with formatting marks visible. Then you can see the blank paragraphs, extra spaces, object anchors, and tab marks that may be messing up your document. To display formatting marks, In Office 2010: Click the File tab, select Options, then Display. In the second section, check Show all formatting marks, and click OK. In Office 2007: Click the Office button, then the Word Options button. Select Display, and check Show all formatting marks, and click OK.
11/15/11	What's in Course Offerings, and where does it come from? All active, approved courses for a term are pulled from the Schedule of Classes into the online Course Offerings for that term. Changes that are pending in CUP (saved but not submitted, or submitted but not yet approved) do not appear in the Schedule of Classes, and therefore do not appear in the Online Course Offerings. However, when changes are pending in CUP, the course is still in the Schedule of Classes, with the previously approved data, and will appear in the Online Course Offerings.
11/1/11	I copied a course into the new term, but it's not there. What happened? There are several reasons why a course might not be copied into the new term: The current component types defined for the course in the catalog don't match the component types included for this course in the term from which you copied it. The course was cancelled in the term from which you copied it. The course has an inactive status in the course catalog, effective on or before the new term. The course was not offered in the term you copied from.
10/18/11	Can I check the schedule for a course without opening it in CUP? You can check the schedule in two places: For this term and the past two years, see Course Offerings Online. For any term, see the Schedule of Classes, under Curriculum Management in PeopleSoft.
10/4/11	I made Schedule Only changes in CUP, but forgot to post them before leaving the page. What do I do now? The course is now in CUP with a status of In Progress. You will have to open the course with a Type of Change of Course and Schedule, verify your changes, and then submit them for approval. Only after your changes have been approved by the Registrar's Office will they be moved to the Schedule of Classes.
9/20/11	I made changes to a course in CUP, but they're not in the Schedule of Classes. What happened? After making changes to a course in CUP, you must either submit the changes for approval, or post them to the Schedule of Classes, depending on how you opened the course in CUP. If you opened the course with a Type of Change of Schedule Only, you must post the changes to move them into the Schedule of Classes. If you opened the course with a Type of Change of Course and Schedule, you must submit the changes for approval. Only when the changes have been approved will they be moved into the Schedule of Classes.
9/6/11	When scheduling classes for the new term, I found a course in the Schedule of Classes that I didn’t open in CUP. How did it get there? If you copied a course from a prior term into this term (Prior Term Copy), it will be in the Schedule of Classes, even if you don’t make changes to it in CUP. Prior Term Copy loads the selected courses into the Schedule of Classes for the designated term. If there are no changes to the course, you don’t need to open it in the Schedule of Classes. It will still be in the schedule for the new term. If the course doesn’t belong in the new term, request the Registrar’s Office to cancel the course.
8/23/11	How can I change the case of text without retyping the words? In Word, press the Shift + F3 key to toggle between cases. The results differ, depending on what is selected: If you position the cursor anywhere in a word with nothing selected, the Shift + F3 key toggles from title case (initial caps on every word), to lowercase, to uppercase. If you select a single character, the Shift + F3 key toggles between upper and lower case. If you select a sentence (the selection includes a period or other end-of-sentence punctuation), the Shift + F3 key toggles from sentence case (first word is capitalized), to lowercase, to uppercase. If you select text with no end-of-sentence punctuation, the Shift + F3 key toggles from title case (initial caps on every word), to lowercase, to uppercase.
8/9/11	How can I print just a group of cells, without hiding the data I don't want to print? Set up a print area that includes only the data you want to print, provided that data is contiguous. Select the range of cells you want to print. Click on the Page layout ribbon, and choose Page Setup. Select Print Area and then Set Print Area. Print your document as usual. In pre-ribbon versions of Excel, you would choose File > Print Area > Set Print Area from the menu bar in step 2. All other steps are the same as above.
7/26/11	You can find text in cell comments in Excel! Simply set the Find options to look in Comments. Click the Find & Select button in the Home tab's Editing group, and then choose Find from the dropdown list (in pre-2007 versions, choose Edit > Find from the menu toolbar). If necessary, click the Options button to expand the dialog box. Select Comments from the Look in dropdown list, and finish your search as you normally would.
7/12/11	Be careful with your USB flash drive! Mishandling it could lose your data. Make sure the computer has recognized your flash drive by locating the removable disk or new drive letter in My Computer. Then you can transfer files to or from the flash drive safely. When removing the flash drive, make sure the data has been copied, and then click the USB icon in your system tray and select Safely Remove. When you see the Safe to Remove Storage Device pop-up window, you can physically remove the USB drive.
6/28/11	I want to keep the attachment when I create a task from an email. How do I do that? Don't drag the message to the Task button in the Navigation pane. Instead: In the message list, right click on the email you want to use to create a task. Choose Move To Folder from the shortcut menu. In the Move Items dialog box, select the Tasks folder from the Move The Selected Items To the Folder list box, and click OK. The new task opens with the Subject line filled in, and an attachment in the message area. Click on the attachment in the message area to display the original message along with any attachments.
6/14/11	Want to add part of an open Word document to an email or task in Outlook? You can drag it there: Reduce the size of the Word window so you can see the Navigation pane (below the folder list) in your Outlook window. Highlight the material you want to drag over. Drag the highlighted text to the Mail button or the Task button below the folder list in the your Outlook window. A new message or task opens with the text already entered, and the cursor in the To field of the message or the Subject field of the task.
5/31/11	Need to know the spending restrictions on your project? Look in the Information Warehouse under University Financials – Reports > Invested Funds, and select the IF001 Invested Fund Establishment and Restriction Information by Spending Department report. You can search by department or by project grant. In addition to spending restrictions, this report provides information on the establishment of the fund, with dates, amounts, and the latest value.
5/17/11	Want to know how much you've purchased from a specific vendor in a given time period? Look in the Information Warehouse under University Financials - Reports > Purchasing and Accounts Payable, and select PO006 - PO Details List to Excel - Distribution Level . Search by vendor and date range, and limit the results to POs with a status of Approved, Dispatched, and Complete to eliminate canceled POs from the totals.
5/3/11	Need to find the PO number for a particular purchase? Look in the Information Warehouse under University Financials - Reports > Purchasing and Accounts Payable, and select the PO001 - Purchase Order Details Report - Distribution level . Enter a date range and use the Enter item Description Text parameter to search for the item. Note: The text search is case sensitive.
4/19/11	Want to know who is charging POs to your project, and what the total charges were during a particular time period? Look in the Information Warehouse under University Financials - Reports > Purchasing and Accounts Payable, and select the PO006 - PO Details List to Excel - Distribution Level report. Note: This report returns only distributions against the project grant you specified, so it may not include all lines of the PO.
4/5/11	Need to find out who received an item from a particular order? Look in the Information Warehouse, under University Financials - Reports > Purchasing & Accounts Payable, and select the PO004 - Requisition Details Report - Distribution Level report. You can search by PO number or range, vendor, approval date, or project grant range. The report lists the lines, with receiver ID and receipt information for those items that have been received, and dashes indicating those lines that have not yet been received.
3/22/11	Need to find info on a project grant, such as who is the lead PI or the sponsor of the award? Look in the Information Warehouse, under University Financials - Reports > Financial Reference Information > Chartfields. Select one of the following reports: If you are authorized for the project grant, select Project Grant and COEUS Reference Info (Authorized PGs) . If you are not authorized for the project grant, select Project Grant Reference Info . You can still find the lead PI, project name, and owning department, but not the award sponsor or amount.
3/8/11	Need to find out if a person can access your project grant? Check out the Security Profile reports in the Information Warehouse. Navigate to University Financials - Reports > Security Profile, and then select the report you need. To find out what project grants a person has access to, run the SEC001 Security by Person report. To find out who has access to your project grant, run the SEC002 Security by Project Grant Range report.
2/22/11	Need to find out if a vendor has been paid? To find the check status for a single transaction, you can drill down from the project grant statement. Navigate to University Financials - Reports > Financial Departmental Reports > PGS001 Project Grant Statement. To find the check status for multiple transactions at once, or to search for the information by vendor name, navigate to University Financials - Reports > Purchasing and Accounts Payable > AP003 - AP Vendor Check Status Report. To see if a payment has been made and then drill down to see if the vendor has actually cashed the check, navigate to University Financials - Reports > Purchasing and Accounts Payable > AP004 - Paid Distributions Report with Drills - List to PDF.
2/8/11	Need to create a departmental contact list quickly? Use the Person Reference Info report in the Information Warehouse. In the Information Warehouse, navigate to University Financials – Reports > Financial Reference Information > Person Reference Info . Select your department, and an Affiliation Status of Active. Run the report. Then select the appropriate View in Excel Option to export the file to Excel, where you can easily remove the extra columns.
1/25/11	Can't find a report in the Information Warehouse folder where you expected it? There may be more reports in the folder than your default number of entries will show on one page. Set your default number of entries to a number higher than 25: Click the My Area arrow (next to the little person icon) in the orange toolbar, and select My Preferences . Change the Number of entries in list view to a number between 25 and 35.
1/11/11	Do you need to put together a department contact list for your department quickly? Run the Person Reference Info report in the Information Warehouse, specifying your department, and looking for an Affiliation Status of Active. You can find this report in the University Financials - Reports folder, under the Financial Reference Information folder. If you want to sort the data, or remove or rearrange fields, you can export the data to Excel by selecting the appropriate View in Excel option from the menu at the top of the report.
12/14/10	Did you know that in Exchange 2010 there are two different vacation messages, and you need to set the same message for both? Internal vacation messages are sent only to Exchange users at Princeton. Princeton users who are not on Exchange get the External message, which is also sent to people outside of Princeton. To avoid sending the wrong message, set the same away message for "inside my organization" and "outside my organization." For more information, including complete instructions, see the KB solution #1031.
11/30/10	Do you need to temporarily remove a few names from an Outlook distribution list? Click the plus (+) sign that precedes the list's name after you've entered it in the To, Cc, or Bcc field. That displays all the names on the list. You can delete any of the names before sending the email. Note: This does not remove the name(s) from the distribution list permanently, but only for this one email.
11/16/10	Did you know you can print Word documents without opening them in Word? Simply select the file in Explorer and right-click it. Then select Print from the shortcut menu. If you want to print more than one file from the same folder, select them all using Shift + click or Ctrl + click. Then right-click any of the highlighted files and select Print from the shortcut menu.
9/7/10	Are you looking for information on the new Project Grant Statement and Sponsored Project Report in the Information Warehouse? There are quick reference brochures explaining each of these reports on the PeopleSoft Financials page on this website. On the same page, you can also find quick reference cards for POs, Departmental Charges, and Departmental Encumbrances.
8/24/10	Do you want to budget for an anticipated expense other than a PO or Labor Accounting commitment? You can now enter a departmental encumbrance to budget for and track anticipated expenses. The encumbrance is entered in PeopleSoft Financials, and appears on your Project Grant Statement, with a drill-down to the Encumbrance report for details. For more information, see the Managing Departmental Encumbrances quick reference card.
8/10/10	Want to navigate through PeopleSoft menus more quickly? Click on the yellow arrow before the menu item rather than clicking on the menu item itself. This works like clicking the plus sign before a folder in File Manager—it opens the menu, but does not redisplay the navigation pane on the right. The navigation is faster, because it doesn't have to regenerate the page. You can continue opening sub-menus this way until you reach the link to the page you want to open.
7/27/10	Need help with words in Word? To find a synonym quickly, right-click on the word you want to replace, and choose Synonyms from the shortcut menu. Select the word you want from the list, or select Thesaurus for more options. To look up a word in the dictionary, right-click on the word and choose Look up from the shortcut menu. The definition is displayed in the Research pane on the right.
7/13/10	Did you know you can store and reuse text in Outlook messages? Try the Quick Parts feature on the Insert tab of the Message ribbon. To save text that you use often: In the New Message window, highlight the text you want. Click the Insert tab of the ribbon. Select Quick Parts and then Save Selection to Quick Parts Gallery. Type a name to identify your text. Click OK to save your text. To use text you have saved, click the Quick Parts button on the Insert ribbon, and select the text you want to use.
6/29/10	Need to send a mass e-mailing? Try using Word's Mail Merge to Email instead of Outlook. In Word, click Start Mail Merge on the Mailings tab of the ribbon. Select E-Mail Messages. Type your message in the document window, then click Select Recipients. (Tip!* If you select recipients from your Contacts, be sure to uncheck the ones you don't want to include!)* You can insert merge fields, and preview your results to check for errors. When everything looks good, click Finish & Merge to send the e-mail.
6/15/10	Want to compare appointments on different days in your calendar? To display specific dates side-by-side in Outlook: Select the Day view. Hold down the Ctrl key while selecting the dates from the date navigator (the little calendar on the top right).
6/1/10	Not happy with the reminder time in Outlook? Open the Tools menu, choose Options, and select a new time from the Default Reminder drop down list in the Calendar section.
5/18/10	Need to repeat the same value down a column or across a row in Excel? Select the cells you want to fill, beginning with the one that contains the value. Then press Ctrl+D to fill down the column, or Ctrl+R to fill right (across the row).
4/27/10	Like to use keyboard shortcuts? These are some useful keystrokes in Excel: To create a quick chart from a range of data, select the data, then press the F11 key. To insert a line break in a cell, position your cursor where you want to break the line and press the Alt + Enter keys. To insert the current date, press the Ctrl + ; (semicolon) keys. To insert the current time, press the Ctrl + : (colon) keys.
4/13/10	Want to remove all evidence of tracked changes and comments before distributing a Word document? Try Word's Document Inspector: Click the Office button and select Prepare > Inspect Document. Make sure that at least the first two options and the last are selected. Click the Inspect button. The Document Inspector returns the results with a Remove All button next to each group where information was found. To remove the information, click the Remove All button. Important! Clicking the Remove All button for Comments, Revisions, etc. accepts all tracked changes. If you do not want to accept all tracked changes, close the Document Inspector and use the Track Changes toolbar to accept or reject each change manually.
3/30/10	I don't have time to take a class, and I need to find out how to do something right now! Some short, targeted, online classes are available to run at your desktop. They take only a few minutes each, and you can repeat them as often as you need. To find online classes: Sign onto the Employee Learning Center. Select eLearning from the left menu. Locate the topic you need, and click the link to run the class. eLearning classes are available for the Information Warehouse, and PeopleSoft online grading and transcript processing. If you would like to see additional topics, please contact training@princeton.edu.
3/16/10	I clicked the Help link in PeopleSoft, but the displayed topic didn't seem to be the right one! Some pages are explained in multiple topics. If there are multiple topics for the page, the player displays a list of the topics that might apply. Select the topic you want, and then click the Try It! button. To get a better idea of what functions the topics are associated with, click the View filtered outline link above the topic list. If none of the topics look right, uncheck the Applicable checkbox to see an outline of all available topics.
3/9/10	I'm in the middle of a PeopleSoft function, and can't remember what to do next. I don't want to play a whole UPK demo; what can I do? If you know how to start the function (in HR, CAP/CUP, or Student Records), but want to see later steps in the process, click the Help link in PeopleSoft to open the UPK player. When the topic opens, click the down arrow on the Try It! button to see a list of jump-in points. To print a job aid for the function, click the Print It! button. When the job aid is displayed in Acrobat, click the Print button on the Acrobat toolbar to print it.
2/23/10	*Do you wish someone could show* you how to do something in PeopleSoft HR, Curriculum Management, or Student Records? You can play an interactive demo that will walk you through any departmental function in any of these PeopleSoft modules. Click the Help link at the top right on any PeopleSoft page to open the UPK player. If there is only one topic that applies to the page, that topic will be displayed. Click the Try It!** button above the topic intro page to walk through the function, with interactive prompts to show you what to do.
2/9/10	Do you want to send an Information Warehouse report in multiple formats via email? You can select multiple email formats along with email options when you select Run with Options from the report toolbar to the right of the report name. For complete instructions on emailing reports, see the Quick Reference card "Accessing Information Warehouse Reports."
1/26/10	Does it take forever to run an Information Warehouse report in Excel? Maybe you're not selecting the right Excel option. Generally, you should select the version of Excel that you have on your computer when you view or save a report in Excel format. For example, if you have Office 2007 on your computer, select View in Excel 2007 Format . Note: If you need to perform calculations on a report that contains text fields over 156 characters long, you should select View in Excel 2000 Single Sheet Format. For instructions on viewing reports in different formats, see the Quick Reference card "Accessing Information Warehouse Reports."
1/13/10	If you are updating only the schedule for a course, remember to Post the course when you complete your changes! If you open a course in CUP with Schedule Only = Y, you must post your changes before you navigate away from the course in CUP. If you do not post your changes, the only way you will be able to re-open the course in CUP is with Schedule Only = N, which requires you to submit your changes for approval before they can be included in the Course Offerings.
1/6/10	Did you know that you can quickly subtotal information from the financial data you download from the Information Warehouse? You can sort the data, filter it to show only certain values, or use pivot tables to restructure the data the way you need it. Not sure how to do this? Come to one of our Financial Analysis classes, offered monthly. Learn tips and tricks on how to sort, filter, subtotal, and create pivot tables with your financial data.
12/16/09	When clicking a link in your browser, you can control whether or not the page opens in a new window or tab— by right-clicking on the link and selecting how you want to open it from the shortcut menu. Alternatively, to open the link in a new window or tab (depending on your browser settings), you can press the Ctrl key while clicking the link. On a Mac, press the Apple key while clicking the link to open the page in a new window or tab.
11/17/09	Does your graphic go away when you delete another paragraph? Move the object anchor to another paragraph: Make sure object anchors are visible (see last week’s tip). Click on the graphic and look for the object anchor (the icon that looks like an anchor). When you find the anchor, click and drag the anchor to a different paragraph. Then you can delete the original anchor paragraph without deleting the graphic.
11/10/09	Are you plagued with disappearing graphics or mysterious format changes in Word? Try working with formatting marks visible. Then you can see the blank paragraphs, extra spaces, object anchors, and tab marks. To display formatting marks: Click the Office button (at the top left), then the Word Options button. Select Display, and check Show all formatting marks. Click OK.
10/26/09	To move quickly across a line selecting text as you go, add the Shift key to the navigation key shortcuts: To select word-by-word, use Shift + Ctrl + the left or right arrow key To select everything from your cursor to the end of the line, press Shift + End. To select everything from your cursor to the beginning of the line, press Shift + Home.
10/19/09	To move quickly across a line, use the following keyboard shortcuts—When entering or editing text, use the End and Home keys to go directly to the end or beginning of the line. You can also use the Ctrl key with the left and right arrow keys to move across a line word-by-word. These shortcut keys work in most applications.
10/13/09	To quickly capitalize a word you've already typed in an Office document—Click anywhere in the word and press Shift + F3. This toggles from lower case, to initial caps, to all caps.
10/6/09	To quickly display or hide the ruler in a Word 2007 document—Click the new View Ruler tool located at the top of the scroll bar on the right side of the window.
9/29/09	If your Excel 2007 workbook has too many sheets to see all the tabs—You can quickly select the worksheet you want by clicking your right mouse button on the worksheet tabs navigator buttons at the lower left of the window. A list of all your worksheets will be displayed. Click to choose the one you want.
9/22/09	For quick access to your favorite links in Internet Explorer, put them on your Links toolbar. Drag the web page's icon from the Address bar (or drag a link from a web page), and drop it on the Links bar when the cursor becomes an I beam. Note: If your Links toolbar is not displayed, click View, Toolbars, Links. If your menu bar is displayed, the Links toolbar may not have room. To provide more room, you may need to unlock the toolbars (View, Toolbars, Unlock) to move your Links toolbar.
9/15/09	Do you often copy/paste repetitive text into email messages? Try Outlook 2007's new Quick Parts feature, located on the Insert Tab of the Message ribbon.