Two PowerPoint 2013 user tips for working more efficiently

Improved smart guides and resume reading are two easy-to-use features in PowerPoint 2013.

PowerPoint 2013 has two new features that many users will love. The first lets you pick up where you left off in a presentation. (Word 2013 also has this feature.) The second displays guides, on the fly that make positioning objects easier. They first showed up in PowerPoint 2010, but they're even smarter in 2013. You've probably noticed both, but you might not be using them to your advantage!

Resume reading

Launching PowerPoint and then pulling up the slide where you last worked isn't a difficult task, but it can be tedious if your presentation has many slides. PowerPoint 2013's new Resume Reading feature eliminates this opening task by pointing to that slide for you. When you close a presentation, PowerPoint automatically bookmarks the current slide and points to that slide the next time you open the presentation. 

When you open a 2013 presentation file, you'll see a callout at the right margin. You have to click it to truly appreciate it though. Doing so will access the bookmarked slide so you can go right back to work where you left off. If you don't want to start with that slide, just ignore the callout. Because PowerPoint uses a bookmark, this feature also works when saving to SkyDrive.

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Also read: Add flexibility with PowerPoint 2013's improved Presenter View

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Smart guides and more

PowerPoint has three types of visual guidelines for positioning and spacing objects: gridlines, static guides, and smart guides. To view static guides, right-click the slide's background and choose Grid and Guides from the resulting menu. Then, choose Guides. Smart guides are similar to static guides, but they appear on the fly. You can add guides to a Slide Master so they'll appear on all inherited slides.

Before we discuss smart guides, let's take a short detour to review alignment without guides. To align objects without smart guides, you select them as a group and then click the Align option in the Arrange group on the contextual Format tab. Displaying gridlines is helpful when spacing the objects. To shift a shape or object a pixel, you can use the arrow keys to nudge the object a bit.

The dotted lines are gridlines (shown below). The dashed line through the horizontal and vertical centers are guide lines. These two are in their default positions. (I changed the guide color to black, so they're easier to distinguish from the gridlines.) After displaying them by clicking Guides in the Show group on the View menu, you can move them by dragging them. Or, you can add more by holding [Ctrl] while dragging a new guide from one of the originals.

Smart guides are the next generation. PowerPoint displays them as you work to help you align, position, and resize shapes and objects. They appear automatically when two or more shapes are in alignment with one another. This behavior kicks in regardless of the shapes or sizes of each object. You can see with a quick glance when objects align - no guesswork or squinty eyes! The smart guide in the first figure denotes that the two objects are centered vertically. The next figure shows both the vertical and horizontal smart guides that appear when you align the two objects both ways.

PowerPoint 2013 enhances smart guides a bit. When positioning three or more shapes, PowerPoint 2013 displays arrows when the spacing between those objects is equal. Specifically, when moving an object into place, PowerPoint measures the distance between the other nearby objects and displays smart guides when the distance between the moving object and its nearest object equals the distance between the non-moving objects.

Smart guides are new in PowerPoint 2010. The resume reading and improved smart guides (equidistant) are available in PowerPoint 2013.

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10+ steps to using Excel 2013's new data modeling feature

Use Excel's new data modeling features to help you turn data into meaningful business information.

If you’re importing foreign data or sharing a workbook, the data often ends up in several sheets. As a result, turning data into meaningful information can be difficult. That’s where Excel 2013’s new data modeling capabilities can help even casual users. By building a relationship between sheets, Excel 2013 makes summarizing data spread across multiple sheets easy. 

 

Putting this new feature into practice is easy, but it works mostly behind the scenes. As a result, it can be difficult to get a handle on how to implement it. In the next 10 steps, we’ll define a reporting need and meet it using Excel 2013's new data model. 

This article is for users unfamiliar with the feature and trainers supporting Excel users. This feature isn't for serious database developers, and please don't blast me for Microsoft's unfortunate choice for naming this new feature.

1. Defining the need

Figure A shows two sheets with related data. As you can see, each record in Daily Totals contains a value that’s further described by date, personnel, and city. The records in Sites list the cities in each region. Now, suppose you want to total the values in Daily Totals by region.

Figure A

These two sheets contain records that are related.

Working through your data won’t always be this easy. I’ve purposely kept this example simple to keep the focus on the steps.

2. Convert data to tables

To use Excel's data model, convert the data into tables. When working with your own data, make sure your data set has a row of headers. Our data sets already have a row of headers. To convert data to a table, do the following:

1. Click anywhere inside the data set and click the Insert tab.
2. Click Table in the Tables group.
3. In the resulting dialog box, shown in Figure B, click OK. In this case, the header option is already checked. When applying this technique to your own data, you’ll want to check or uncheck this option, appropriately.

Figure B

Convert your data to a table.

Use the above steps to convert both data sets. Naming the new tables isn’t necessary, but it will make working with them easier. To that end, click inside a table and click the contextual Design tab. Then, enter a meaningful name in the Table Name field, as shown in Figure C. Name them DailyTotalsTable and SitesTable.

Figure C

Named tables are easier to work with.

3. Finding the related data

There’s no regional information in the data set that contains the values you want to summarize. With data modeling, that’s not a problem. All you need is a relationship between the table with the values you want to summarize and the regional data you’ll use to summarize those values. A relationship is a connection between two tables based on a single column in both. In other words, when two data sets share a similar column of data, they are related by that common column. In the case of our example, the City column relates the two data sets.

4. Create the relationship

Creating a relationship between two data sets is new to Excel, but don’t let that worry you—it’s easy. To create a relationship between the two tables do the following:

1. Click the Data tab.
2. Click Relationships in the Data Tools group. (If this option is dimmed, return to #2 and create the tables.)
3. From the first Table dropdown, choose DailyTotalsTable.
4. In the Column (Foreign) dropdown, choose City.
5. In the Related Table dropdown, choose SitesTable.
6. In the Related Column (Primary) dropdown, choose City, as shown in Figure D.
7. Click OK.
8. Click Close to return to the sheet.

Figure D

Specify the column that both columns share to create a relationship between the two tables.

5. Generate a blank PivotTable

To summarize the values, we’ll generate a PivotTable. Click inside DailyTotalsTable and click the Insert tab. In the Tables group, click PivotTable. When Excel displays the dialog shown in Figure E, click OK.

Figure E

Generate a blank PivotTable in a new worksheet.

You can use the new Recommended PivotTables option, but it won’t consider your second table, so it’s easier to start with a blank table.

6. Add the second table

Currently, the PivotTable frame evaluates only one table, DailyTotalsTable. Add SitesTable as follows:

1. Click the MORE TABLES link shown in Figure F.
2. In the resulting dialog, click Yes. Doing so engages the new data modeling feature.

As you can see in Figure G, both tables are now part of your PivotTable structure.

Figure F

Clicking MORE TABLES will engage the data modeling feature.

Figure G

Both tables are now available to you.

7. Add fields

It's time to start adding fields to the PivotTable. First, click the expand arrow to the left of DailyTotalsTable to see its fields. Check Value and City. Then, use the scroll bar to access SitesTable. Expand its fields and select Region. Doing so adds these fields to the PivotTable frame, as shown in Figure H.

Figure H

Thanks to the data modeling feature, you can add fields from both tables to the PivotTable frame.

8. Add regions to summarize

At this point, the PivotTable probably won’t be perfect, so it’s time to start tweaking a bit. Figure I shows the result of dragging the Region field to the COLUMNS section.

Figure I

Adding Regions summarizes the values accordingly.

9. A quick switch

If you don’t like that layout, you can quickly switch the column and row headings. Simply drag the City field to the COLUMNS section and the Region field to the ROWS section, as shown in Figure J.

Figure J

Switching the rows and columns is easy.

10. Oops!

If you’re paying close attention, you might have noticed the (blank) row. Can you guess where that came from? By reviewing the city headings for those items, you can quickly troubleshoot the problem. Using Figure A, you can determine that there’s no region value for Boston and Cleveland. Fortunately, it’s a quick fix. Add the values to SitesTable, as shown in Figure K.

Figure K

Add the missing regions for Boston and Cleveland.

After adding the new regional records, refresh the PivotTable. To do so, click inside the table and then click the contextual Analyze tab. In the Data group, click Refresh. Figure L shows the refreshed PivotTable.

Figure L

After refreshing the table, it displays the regional values correctly.

11: Bonus

Did you notice the little magnifying glass icon in Figure L? Clicking that will let you drill deeper into the details that aren’t currently visible. Clicking this icon with the Cleveland value selected, displays the dialog shown in Figure M. Figure N shows the results of drilling to the City, the cities in the Central region.

Figure M

This dialog defaults to SitesTable, but you can switch to DailyTotalsTable.

Figure N

Drilling offers quick access to unseen details without creating a new PivotTable.

To access the demo version of the Excel data used here in the examples, download the Excel file here: http://b2b.cbsimg.net/downloads/Frye/11142013Demo.zip

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Microsoft unifies Windows and Windows Phone store dev accounts

Redmond continues down the long path of moving its phone and desktop environments closer.

Over on ZDNet earlier this week, I made the argument that Microsoft needs to do something to invigorate its Windows Phone ecosystem to prevent it from being ignored by the developer community. 

That something, as I see it, would be a common, unified runtime that would allow Windows desktop developers to be Windows Phone developers, and vice versa. 

Microsoft continues to lay the groundwork for such a move, as the company announced today that it is merging developer accounts across its Windows Store and Windows Phone Store. 

In concert with the change, Redmond is lowering the annual price of an individual account to $19 for individuals and $99 for companies. 

Developers that already have an account on both stores that is linked to the same Microsoft account will receive a code for a free one-year renewal. 

While the accounts are merged, developers will still need to use the dashboards connected to each store in order to manage apps. 

It's a start from Microsoft, but there is a long way to go before developers can seamlessly publish one app to both desktop and phone environments.

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Microsoft unifies Windows and Windows Phone store dev accounts

Redmond continues down the long path of moving its phone and desktop environments closer.

Over on ZDNet earlier this week, I made the argument that Microsoft needs to do something to invigorate its Windows Phone ecosystem to prevent it from being ignored by the developer community. 

That something, as I see it, would be a common, unified runtime that would allow Windows desktop developers to be Windows Phone developers, and vice versa. 

Microsoft continues to lay the groundwork for such a move, as the company announced today that it is merging developer accounts across its Windows Store and Windows Phone Store. 

In concert with the change, Redmond is lowering the annual price of an individual account to $19 for individuals and $99 for companies. 

Developers that already have an account on both stores that is linked to the same Microsoft account will receive a code for a free one-year renewal. 

While the accounts are merged, developers will still need to use the dashboards connected to each store in order to manage apps. 

It's a start from Microsoft, but there is a long way to go before developers can seamlessly publish one app to both desktop and phone environments.

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October Office tip mailbag: Outlook settings and Excel conditional formatting

Susan Sales Harkins helps a reader find an old setting in a new version of Outlook and provides a unique Excel's conditional formatting rule.

This month, I help a reader find a familiar and friendly Word setting. In addition, I show a reader where to find a mail setting after upgrading to Outlook 2010. I also supply a unique conditional formatting rule that combines AND() and OR() - a bit unusual, but doable.

An Outlook setting

Jerry upgraded to Office 2010 and like most of us, he lost a few custom settings. By default, if you open a message and delete it, Outlook will return to the folder. However, Jerry prefers to go directly to the next message. This is a simple setting in Outlook 2010 and 2013:

1. Click the File tab.
2. Choose Options (under Help).
3. Select Mail in the left pane.
4. In the Other section, choose Open The Next Item from the After Moving Or Deleting An Open Item dropdown.
5. Click OK.

An Excel conditional format

Note: To help follow this tip a demo file is available as a free download.

Many readers ask for help with complex conditional formatting rules. Shannon wants to use two conditions to format, but putting them together in one rule was a challenge. The two conditions are:

• Value in column A is FALSE.
• Value in column B is one of five characters: K, D, S, V, or M.

To combine them into one formula, Shannon needs AND() and OR() as follows:

=AND($A1=FALSE,OR($B1="K",$B1="D",$B1="S",$B1="V",$B1="M"))

Now, let's apply this rule to a simple data range:

1. Select the range. Using the sample range shown below, that's A1:B15.
2. Click the Conditional Formatting option in the Styles group (on the Home tab). In Excel 2013, choose Conditional Formatting from the Format menu and skip to #4.
3. Choose New Rule.
4. In the resulting dialog, click the Use A Formula To Determine Which Cells To Format option. In Excel 2003, choose Formula Is from the Condition 1 dropdown.
5. Enter the rule shown above.
6. Click Format.
7. In the resulting dialog, click the Fill tab, choose a color, and click OK twice. In Excel 2003, click the Patterns tab. If both of the AND() conditions return TRUE, Excel formats the record.

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How to create windows bootable on usb

Create A bootable USB For Windows Installation (Windows 7,8)

 

This is what Microsoft has published on their official website to create bootable USB drive for windows Installation.

Overview

When you choose to download most software from the Microsoft Store, you have the option of using Download Manager or downloading from your browser. However, when you purchase Microsoft Windows 7 from Microsoft Store, you have an additional choice to make: whether to download a collection of compressed files or to download an ISO file. An ISO file combines all the Windows 7 installation files into a single uncompressed file.

These instructions are for Windows 7 only. If you're looking for instructions about downloading Windows 8, click here.

If you choose to download an ISO file (so that you can create a bootable file from a DVD or USB flash drive), copy your Windows 7 ISO file onto your media and, run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. After you do this, you can install Windows 7 onto your computer directly from the USB flash drive or DVD.

NOTE: When you download the ISO file, you must copy the file onto a USB flash drive or a DVD to install Windows 7. When you're ready to install Windows 7, insert the USB flash drive into your USB port or insert your DVD into your DVD drive, and then run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive.

The advantage to following this process and creating bootable media is that it allows you to install Windows 7 without having to first run an existing operating system on your machine. If you change the boot order of drives in your computer's BIOS, you can run the Windows 7 installation directly from your USB flash drive or from a DVD when you first turn your computer on. (Please see the documentation for your computer for information about how to change the BIOS boot order of drives.)

Copies

• To install the software, you may make one copy of the ISO file on a disc, USB flash drive, or other media.
• After you’ve installed the software and accepted the license terms that accompany the software, those license terms apply to your use of the software. The license terms for Windows 7 permit you to make one copy of the software as a back-up copy for re-installation on the licensed computer. If you do not delete your copy of the ISO file after installing the Windows 7 software, the copy of the ISO file counts as your one back-up copy.

If you need to download the software again, you can go to your Download Purchase History in your Microsoft Store account and access the download there.

Installation

To install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool:

1. Click to open the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool installation file.
2. When you are prompted to either save the file to disk or run it, choose Run.
3. Follow the steps in the setup dialogs. You'll have the option to specify where to install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

NOTE: You need to be an administrator on the computer you are installing the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool on. The tool requires the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 or higher.

System requirements

• Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
• 50MB of free space on your hard drive
• DVD-R drive or 4GB removable USB flash drive

For Windows XP users

The following applications must be installed prior to installing the tool:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 must be installed. It can be downloaded here.
• Microsoft Image Mastering API v2 must be installed. It can be downloaded here.

Using the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool

Before you run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, make sure you have already purchased the Windows 7 ISO download from Microsoft Store and have downloaded the Windows 7 ISO file to your hard drive. If you have purchased Windows 7 but have not yet downloaded the ISO file, you can download the file from your Microsoft Store Account.

To make a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file:

1. Click the Windows START button, and click WINDOWS 7 USB/DVD DOWNLOAD TOOL in the ALL PROGRAMS list to open the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.
2. In the SOURCE FILE box, type the name and path of your Windows 7 ISO file, or click BROWSE and select the file from the OPEN dialog box. Click NEXT.
3. Select USB DEVICE to create a copy on a USB flash drive or select DVD disk to create a copy on a DVD disk.
4. If you are copying the file to a USB flash drive, select your USB device in the drop-down list and click BEGIN COPYING. If you are copying the file up to a DVD, click BEGIN BURNING.

When your Windows 7 ISO file is copied onto your chosen media, install Windows 7 by moving to the root folder of your DVD or USB flash drive, and then double-click Setup.exe.

Frequently asked questions

The following are frequently asked questions about using the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool:

Where can I download .NET framework 2.0?

The .NET framework can be downloaded here.

Where can I download Image Mastering API 2.0?

The Image Mastering API can be downloaded here.

What size USB flash drive is required?

You need a USB flash drive with a minimum of 4 GB of free space.

Can I use my newly created USB drive to install Windows 7 on someone else's computer?

No. The Windows 7 ISO file on the USB flash drive is only intended to be used to install Windows 7 on the licensed user’s own computer.

Can I backup to a CD-ROM?

No. The Windows 7 ISO file is too large to fit on a CD.

Can I backup to a Blu-Ray DVD disk?

Yes, as long as your DVD drive can write to a Blu-Ray DVD.

If I have other files on the USB flash drive will the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool delete them?

This tool requires the USB flash drive to be completely blank before the Windows 7 files are copied. This helps ensure that the device is bootable after the copying has completed.

Can I backup to an iPod, camera, or other device with enough free disk space?

Yes, but this is not recommended.

• The device must be formatted in order for the device to be bootable.

A dedicated USB flash drive would be a better option.

Can I use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to backup other files?

No. This tool is only for use with the Windows 7 ISO file purchased from Microsoft Store.

Does the tool support dual-layer DVD discs for burning?

No. Currently, the tool does not support dual-layer DVD discs.

Troubleshooting

The following tips might help if you run into a problem using this tool.

The tool is requested that I install the .NET framework and Image Mastering API before I install the tool

For users running Windows XP, you must install the .NET Framework 2.0 and the Image Mastering API 2.0 before installing the tool. You can download .NET framework here and you can download the Image Mastering API here.

Please note that a restart may be required after installing the .NET framework and the Image Mastering API.

When creating a bootable USB device, I am getting an error about bootsect

To make the USB device bootable, you need to run a tool named bootsect.exe. In some cases, this tool needs to be downloaded from your Microsoft Store account. This may happen if you're trying to create a 64-bit bootable USB device from a 32-bit version of Windows. To download bootsect:

1. Login to your Microsoft Store account to view your purchase history
2. Look for your Windows 7 purchase.
3. Next to Windows 7, there is an "Additional download options" drop-down menu.
4. In the drop-down menu, select "32-bit ISO."
5. Right-click the link, and then save the bootsect.exe file to the location where you installed the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (e.g. C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apps\Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool).
6. Once the file has been saved, go back to the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool to create your bootable USB device.

My USB device is not in the list of available devices

If you don't see your USB flash drive in the list of available devices, please make sure the drive is inserted in the USB port, and then click the Refresh button beside the list of available drives.

I inserted a blank DVD in my DVD-ROM drive, but the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool doesn't recognize it

If there are multiple drives on the system, the tool will select the first one that is capable of burning DVDs. If you have multiple DVD-R drives, try inserting the blank DVD into another DVD-R drive. If that doesn't help, please make sure that your disc isn't damaged and that your DVD-R drive is operational. Contact Product Support if issues continue to arise.

Inserted a blank DVD in my DVD-ROM drive, but the tool won't let me burn it

Make sure the disc isn't a dual-layer DVD disc. Currently, dual-layer discs are not supported within the tool.

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Fix found for Windows 8.1 upgrade problems on Surface RT

Donovan Colbert couldn't find the Windows Update to 8.1 in the Microsoft Store on his Surface RT tablet, so he turned to Microsoft support for help.

Note: Microsoft temporarily halted and then resumed Windows update 8.1 for Surface RT since this article was written. The issues described here should eventually be resolved, but the commands I highlight are important troubleshooting steps that may be useful, in general, when encountering issues on Windows RT or 8.1 (especially Modern UI problems).

Microsoft released Windows 8.1 for Intel and RT on October 17th, but it didn't receive much buzz. Many people quietly upgraded without problems, while others upgraded and regretted it. One of the most frustrated groups may have been early adopters of Windows 8.1 Preview. In various forums, quite a few users complained that they couldn't find the Windows Upgrade in the Microsoft Store, and the information online didn't resolve the issue. After finding myself in the same situation, I turned to my last resort -- Microsoft support.

This is a knee-jerk reaction on my part, having worked for years in Microsoft technologies and knowing how difficult it is to get a live person who can actually help resolve an issue. But Microsoft has made great strides in supporting end-user consumers with Xbox, Zune, and other products and platforms. 

Before trying to contact Microsoft, I took the following steps: 

I brought up the charms bar and selected Settings | Change PC settings | Update and recovery, and then applied all the updates there until I was notified that none remained. When the 8.1 update still wasn’t available, I performed a system refresh from the Update and recovery menu. The reset looked promising. After rebooting, I checked updates and discovered that the patches either had to be reapplied or that more were waiting. 

When I went into the Classic desktop, I felt a surge of excitement when I saw that the Windows 8.1 Preview watermark was gone. Unfortunately, the This PC properties page revealed that the device was still on 8.1 Preview. To make This PC show on your Classic desktop on Windows 8, right-click anywhere on the desktop and select Personalize. In the Personalization control panel, select Change desktop icons, and in the Desktop Icons Settings view, add a check to the boxes next to the icons you want on your desktop. You can then right-click on This PC and select Properties to view the information on the System control panel.

Next, I tried Reinstall at the Update and recovery menu. The same issues persisted. More online research indicated that you can make a USB recovery disk with RT. This is a step that I had unfortunately neglected, because it would have allowed me to revert to Windows 8. 

I visited the Microsoft Surface Contact Us page, which was easy to find and navigate. I selected a live chat and was quickly connected to a support person named Conan. I explained my issue and the steps I had taken, and to my dismay, he said that he wanted to confirm that all the updates required for Windows 8.1 had been applied. Though dubious, I decided it couldn’t hurt to play along. The agent had me hit the [Windows]+[X] keyboard shortcut that brings up a menu with shortcuts to a variety of destinations, including the Control Panel, which he had me open. I was then directed to type “windows update” (no quotes) in the search box at the right top corner of the window (Figure A).

Figure A

Type "windows update" in the search box. 

Next, he had me click Check for updates. To my surprise, this Windows Classic view found a firmware update that the Modern UI update from the Charms menu missed. Once the updates were applied and the RT had rebooted, he had me check again. An additional update was found and applied, and another reboot followed (Figure B).

Figure B

Installing a firmware update.

This time, the Windows 8.1 Preview watermark was back, and no updates were available. I was then instructed to use the [Windows]+[R] keyboard shortcut and run the following command: "ms-windows-store:WindowsUpgrade” (no quotes). This launched the Microsoft Store and displayed the Windows 8.1 Update download screen. When I clicked the download button, it returned to the main Windows Store screen with no indication that the download was active. The Microsoft agent had me execute the same keyboard shortcut, but this time, he instructed me to enter the “ms-windows-store:installprogress” command. This brought up the install progress screen in the Windows Store, where I could see that it was going to be a long time before the upgrade was complete. 

TechRepublic blogger Deb Shinder also experienced this issue with a Microsoft Surface Pro, and I provided her a copy of the chat transcript, which resolved her issue. Deb advised me that Microsoft has since published these instructions on the Windows 8.1 upgrade site. However, if you’re having problems finding the 8.1 upgrade in the Microsoft Store on an ARM- or Intel-based device, these instructions may help.

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