DigIT and I will be discussing how to use different views when trying to locate files or other items on a computer.

Editor: DigIT, can you explain why this topic recently caught your interest?

DigIT: My regular computer operator (my human friend) was recently complaining that she could not find a file on her computer. I asked her which one and when she told me, I was able to find it immediately. I could not understand why my friend had trouble. She attempted to explain it to me, but I found her reasons confusing; she mentioned a strange character named Waldo that seemed to always be missing.

E: Oh, you’re referring to the Where’s Waldo book series. Those are fun—what don’t you get?

D: Why do you humans like Where’s Waldo?  It seems pointless to me if you do not like looking for things.

E: Well, Where’s Waldo started out for younger children, most of whom would only be playing games or doing learning activities on a computer.  The adults, like your friend, would typically be working; trying to produce things for other people.

D: She told me that finding a file is like looking at a Where’s Waldo picture, without the fun; that finding one file among all the other files should be easier.

E: That’s probably because Where’s Waldo is a game, and finding files is typically thought of as work for us.  Maybe you need to understand that we humans see the two similar tasks as entirely different things.  Work for a human is something we have to do if we want to eat, have a place to live, or have a computer.  Something like Where’s Waldo is for entertainment, something we make a choice about doing, which has an entirely different value scale.

D: That explanation makes it somewhat clearer, although I doubt I will ever understand you humans completely.

E: It works both ways, believe me. So, were you able to offer any suggestions to make files easier to find?

D: I really do not find those Waldo pictures very challenging, and finding files is something I do without even thinking. I recommended that she try eliminating some of the files; even rearranging them might be beneficial.  We discussed displaying the files in a different order, such as sorted by size or date.

E: Oh, yes, the Details view in Windows Explorer can sort items that way. It can be very helpful. But what can you recommend for locating other types of items, like e-mail messages? I often have trouble finding specific messages in my Inbox.

D: In e-mail, there are many ways to arrange items to make it easier to find the one you want, such as sorting by columns. You can also filter out some of the items to give you a smaller group to look at. In Outlook, Search Folders provide an efficient method of filtering messages by using a specific set of criteria.

E: Search Folders are great, and so are the built-in views.

D: I could elaborate further on changing views, but the options depend on which program you are using.  My human friend said she was going to provide some tips for some of the most common software applications.

E: She did, and I’ll be sure to post those on the blog entry for this podcast. Any last words, DigIT?

D: Please try to remember the view options, and the other tools at your disposal, to assist you when searching for specific items. It is unfortunate that most of my family has not mastered the trick of talking to humans. If they could, it would probably make life for you humans much easier, but I am afraid it might also shock many of you.

By the way, here is a trick you can use for solving those Waldo pictures. Just look for the pattern in his shirt, then check for the hat and glasses to find the exact match. But I digress; I will stick to those bits and bytes.

E: Thank you for joining us this week, DigIT. We look forward to speaking with you again in the future to gain more insight on the computer world from your unique perspective.

Here are the tips for this week. You can find links for these in the blog entry for the podcast, at www.productiveUpodcast.com.

• Changing the view in a Windows Explorer folder
• Using different views in Outlook
• Using different views in Lotus Notes
• How to create your own view in Outlook
• How to use the Full Screen Reading view in Word
• Creating and using Custom Views in Excel
• Using the Slide Sorter view in PowerPoint
• Changing the Zoom level in PowerPoint
• Using different message views on a BlackBerry device
• Using different calendar views on a Windows Mobile device

Thanks for listening to our podcast. If you have any recommendations for future episodes, be sure to let us know by writing an iTunes review, or by droppping us a line on Twitter @productiveUcast.

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

But it’s a little early to be thinking of summer, isn’t it? So why would I mention this in the middle of February?

Oddly enough, even in the dead of winter, with temperatures in the single digits and several feet of snow piled up around the house, I still love a good ice cream sundae. Especially if it has peanut butter ripples, frozen pieces of candy, or chunks of cookie dough.

Some things are just better when they’re frozen, but a computer is definitely not one of them.

When your computer decides to freeze up or hang, it usually does so at a crucial moment, like when you’ve just spent several hours editing a Word document and haven’t saved it yet.

That feeling of dread sets in. You begin to panic, and then you fear the worst: that all your hard work will be lost.

Sometimes, unfortunately, this is the case. But there are some steps you can take to ensure that your work will be recovered in the event that Word crashes.

If you enable the AutoRecover feature, which is available in several of the Office applications, it will periodically save a backup version of the file you’re working on. Then, if the program quits unexpectedly, it will prompt you with the recovered file the next time you open that program.

There is no guarantee offered with the AutoRecover feature, and at times it will fail to recover your work, so your best bet is still to save frequently when working in a file. You may find it much easier to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+S to save your work as you’re typing, without your fingers ever leaving the keyboard. If you can get into this habit, you might just find your left hand automatically reaching for those keys without you even realizing it!

When the Deep Freeze sets in, whether it’s Windows, an Office application, or a mobile device, we don’t want you to be left out in the cold. The tips for this week will provide you with a starting point for when it seems like all is lost.

• What’s Frozen? – How to determine whether it is Windows or an application that is frozen
• An Ounce of Prevention for File Loss – How to enable the AutoRecover feature for Microsoft Office applications
• Mittens for Your Computer – How to clear out temporary Internet files, cookies, and browsing history
• Save Your Fingers By Letting Your Fingers Save Your Work – Using a keyboard shortcut to save while working in a file

And since you can also experience crashes on mobile devices, here are a few tips that can help you with BlackBerry and Windows Mobile:

• Just In Case – How to back up your BlackBerry data
• How to Thaw a Frozen BlackBerry – Resetting a frozen BlackBerry device
• Frozen In Your Hand – Resetting a frozen Windows Mobile device

We hope you’re enjoying the podcast and all the tips. If there are any topics you’d like to see covered in a future episode, please let us know in an iTunes review, or leave us a message on Twitter @productiveUcast.

That’s all for this week. Try to stay warm even when your computer is freezing, and we’ll see you next time!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

Chocolate chips, snickerdoodles, and gingerbread men by the dozen. We humans have a tendency to celebrate various occasions with food, and I am by no means opposed to this time-honored tradition.

More than the joy of indulging in the sweet treats, however, I am fascinated with the process of creating all these dozens of cookies, especially those for which a cookie cutter can be used.

Using just one gingerbread man cookie cutter, for example, one can amass an entire teeming population of a gingerbread village. But even though they are all born from the same dough and cookie cutter, are they all really the same? Heck no! During the decorating process, each one can be customized with gumdrops, icing, or other accessories. For instance, you can sharpen a candy cane to a fine point and arm your gingerbread village inhabitants so they can protect themselves in case the evil fruitcake monster attacks!

Oh, what? Like you’ve never armed your gingerbread men cookies with sharpened candy canes so they can protect themselves in case the evil fruitcake monster attacks?

Anyway, another process which many people undergo during this time of year is that of sending holiday greeting cards. And it just so happens that there is a tool that can aid in this process. A tool which, like the cookie cutter, allows you to create dozens of greeting cards from a single document, yet still personalize each one with ease.

I’m referring to a software tool in this case: the Mail Merge feature in Microsoft Word.

Performing a mail merge operation greatly simplifies the process of sending out personalized mass mailings. All you need is a merge document and a data source. The data source is typically a set of contact information fields, such as first name, last name, address, etc. These fields can be housed in an Excel workbook, an Access database table or query, or it can even come right from your Outlook contacts.

The merge document can be in the form of a letter, a set of mailing labels, or envelopes. This document gets associated with the data source file during the merge process. Then, wherever a piece of personalized information needs to appear, you can insert a merge field from your data source. During the last step in the merge process, you can choose to either create a set of documents from the merge document (one for each record in your data source), or just send the documents directly to the printer.

Of course, a Mail Merge will really only save you time if you know your way through the process. Since it can be a bit tricky for novices and pros alike, we’ll include some tips that should help you through it.

The tips include:

• Mass Messages: getting started with Mail Merges in Word
• Start at the Source: tips for setting up Excel data to be used in a merge
• Do Not Label Me: using the Mail Merge feature to create mailing labels
• Pushing the Envelopes: using the Mail Merge feature to create mailing envelopes
• Split ’em Up: using Excel’s Text to Columns feature to split data into separate columns
• Published en Masse: performing a mail merge in Publisher

In all seriousness, I think you need to really think this through. I mean, if the evil fruitcake monster attacks the gingerbread village and they don’t have any sharpened candy canes with which to protect themselves, it’s really going to get ugly.

Oh, well. Don’t forget to stop by and visit us on Twitter @productiveUcast, or head over to write a review of the podcast on iTunes!

Until next time, keep cranking out those cookies and holiday greetings by the dozen!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

One of the more thoughtful gifts I received recently was a GPS system. I am plagued by a complete lack of direction, so before acquiring this device, I had a keen ability to take two turns while driving and promptly find myself lost and very afraid.

Eventually, I would find a road that would lead me to something familiar, but having a GPS guiding me along is like knowing secret shortcuts to every destination. What was once a three hour journey along the scenic route is now a twenty minute trip in the express lane.

I’ve always been fond of shortcuts. There are levels in Super Mario World that I can’t even describe because I always used the Warp Zones to skip them. Life is short! I’ve got places to go and naps to take once I get there! Show me the shortcut and then get out of my way!

I guess I’m just a true product of our impatient society. We like our oatmeal instant, our photos developed in under an hour, and our computer files close at hand. Just look at a typical Windows Desktop: it’s a beautiful mosaic of icons that open programs and network folders. Without them, we’d be digging around in the Start Menu to launch an application, or spelunking in the darkest depths of a network server to reach a folder that’s buried ten levels deep.

So for this week’s tips, we offer you quicker ways of getting there. The tips include:

• Man, He’s Quick – Using the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows
• Favorites Folders Faster – Creating shortcuts for the Office applications’ Open and Save dialogs
• Short and Sweet – Creating shortcuts in Windows
• Files in Files – Embedding a file as an object in a Word document
• Ready for Action – Linking to a file with Action Buttons in a PowerPoint presentation

You can find links for these tips on our blog at www.productiveUpodcast.com. If you’ve got any feedback, comments, or suggestions, let us know in an iTunes review, and write a review of our podcast while you’re there. You can also find us on Twitter @productiveUcast.

That’s all for this week’s edition. Until next time, get lost—and let modern technology swiftly guide you home.

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

Welcome back to the podcast!

This week’s edition…

“Out with the Old and in with the New”: Using Find and Replacê in Microsoft Office

I’m a bit of a digital packrat. I keep everything. Not only do I keep stuff, I also have multiple back-ups of the documents I have saved.

I suspect I am not unique, either. Recently, I was talking with a colleague and she admitted that she keeps everything too – but she never goes back to use it again. She said she makes backups so she has “just-in-case” copies, but readily admits that she creates the same documents over and over again from scratch.

When I hear her complaining about how she cannot remember how she worked around a particular glitch, I ask her the same question: “Why didn’t you just copy the old one and change it?” Her reply: “It’s too much work.”

It may seem like too much work, but repurposing content is an age-old practice. For example:

Did they cancel “Bewitched” when the first Darren didn’t work out? No, they just found another Darren

And then there’s Shakespeare. Why create new content when you can just replacê Romeo and Juliet with Maria and Tony and call it “West Side Story”?

Make your life easier; use Find and Replacê.

Almost every Microsoft Office program enables you to Find and Replacê, even the basic text editor Notepad.

In this week’s podcast, we offer Find and Replacê tips for a gaggle of Office apps. Among them:

• Change is Not Always Hard: Using Find and Replacê in Microsoft Excel
• Presto-Chango: Using Find and Replacê in Microsoft Word
• Go Green with PowerPoint: Recycle slides using Find and Replacê in Microsoft PowerPoint
• Adding can be Maddening: Using paste special to alter numbers in a worksheet
• Up to Date: Using update queries in Microsoft Access to update values in a table

That’s it for this week’s podcast. Until next week, and keep this in mind: It’s OK to reuse files, but not OK to reuse tissues.

You can find all of our tips on our blog at www.productiveUpodcast.com. Hate us? Love us? Have a suggestion? Tell us in an iTunes review. We would love to hear what you have to say.

See you next time!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

Sounds kinda Twilight Zone-y, doesn’t it?

“You’re traveling through another dimension—a dimension where there is no screen less than a light-year wide. On this journey into the unforgiving abyss of your imagination, maximum resolution spans multiple infinities. You’ve just entered…the Widescreen Zone.”

Not everyone has a monitor that requires a yardstick to measure, but a lot of people enjoy multi-monitor setups for their computers. Having two or three monitors at your disposal can be just as useful, especially when you need to have several windows open at one time.

Whether using multiple monitors or a high screen resolution, the problem you occasionally run into is one of increased distance. It was once only a stone’s throw from the bottom of your screen to the Formatting toolbar at the top of a Microsoft Word document; now it feels like your mouse cursor is trekking across the Sahara. I think I see the Bold button! Nope, it was just a mirage.

Well, let go of that mouse and rest a while at the oasis, and I’ll let you in on a little secret: there’s a shortcut. In fact, there are hundreds of shortcuts, right at your fingertips. They’re called keyboard shortcuts, and once you get comfortable using them, you might just want to bury your mouse in the sand.

That Bold button that you wish could be just a little closer? You don’t need it. Just hold down the Ctrl key and the B key together to toggle Bold on and off. Ctrl+I for italics, Ctrl+U for underline. Looking for more advanced formatting options? Use Ctrl+D to open Word’s Font dialog, chock-full of all the wonderful checkboxes you need to add Strikethrough, Small caps, and Shadow effects to your text. I know what you’re thinking:

“Checkboxes, eh? Sounds like something I’ll need to click on. I’ll just reach for my mouse…”

Not so fast! Even within the Font dialog box, you can keep your hands on the keyboard and still apply any of the options you see before you. In fact, you can use keyboard shortcuts to navigate through any menu. While you’re still in the Font dialog box, take a look at the underlined letters for each option. Those are little cheat sheets for keyboard shortcuts that work in conjunction with the Alt key. Hold in the Alt key and press K, and you’ve got Strikethrough.

These keyboard shortcuts work in every Microsoft Office application, and some extend to other programs, too. There are links in this week’s blog entry to some great tips on using keyboard shortcuts. This week’s tips are:

• Showing Off Your Keys - displaying keyboard shortcuts in menus and ScreenTips
• Feeling Bold? – using keyboard shortcuts to apply text formatting
• Ctrl+D, Alt+K – navigating through menus and dialog boxes with the keyboard
• Text Downsizing – increasing and decreasing font size with the keyboard
• One Touch Formatting – applying number formats in Excel with keyboard shortcuts
• Hands-On Control – learning the keyboard shortcuts for Office applications

Thanks for joining us for week’s podcast. Armed with these keyboard shortcuts, hopefully you’ll find that the Widescreen Zone isn’t so scary after all.

Until next time, be sure to stop by www.productiveupodcast.com to leave us your comments. Also, follow us on Twitter @productiveUcast and visit our podcast on iTunes, where you can write a 5-star review for us!

See you next week!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

Have you heard? We’re all doomed! You may have even seen the signs. Well, you may have at least some signs being held by some very “out-there” kind of people wandering the streets in front of your favorite coffee house.

According to some doomsday predictors, the next apocalypse is scheduled for December 21, 2012, when all the planets in our Solar System will supposedly be aligned. What can we expect to happen? Floods, earthquakes, and other natural calamities? Or will it be just another day, like Y2K—where I spent my New Year’s Eve with my friend from a telecom company on call with our cell phones and pagers strapped to our waists like we were wearing Batman and Robin’s utility belts.

Before you go stocking up on bottled water for your bomb shelter, try to keep in mind that much of the hype surrounding this galactic phenomenon is pure sensationalism. Once every few decades, someone conjures up a similar theory to get everyone into a panic, and it always fizzles out into nothing. But at least we’ll get another box-office hit depicting a gruesome demise of the human race by natural disasters. Or a sudden surge in Kool-Aid sales. Those are always fun. Oh, yeahhh!

While we’re on the topics of alignment and disasters, we might as well mention how a misaligned list of bullets or numbers can have cataclysmic effects on your Word document. If you’ve ever struggled hopelessly trying to get those bullets or numbers to line up the way they’re supposed to, you know where I’m coming from.

Don’t get caught in a crossfire when your disaster moment hits! Stray bullets can be dangerous!

Thankfully, there are a few tricks you can try out to wrangle those lists into formation. Here are links to some tips that should help you avoid a catastrophe when working with bullets and numbering:

• Stray Bullets – A few things to try to get your lists in order
• Off the Mark – Using the Format Painter to align bullets and numbers

Having alignment issues with something other than bullets and numbering? Here are some more tips to set you straight:

• Where Does It Stand? – Using Word’s text alignment feature
• Start a Tab – Setting up tab stops in Word
• Get to the Point – Using decimal tabs in Word to align numbers on decimal points

That’s all for this edition of the podcast, but be sure to leave us your comments at www.productiveupodcast.com, visit us on Twitter @productiveUcast, or write a review of our podcast on iTunes.

Until next time, keep watching the skies…but don’t hold your breath waiting to see those planets line up. And certainly don’t drink the Kool-Aid!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

This week’s edition: “Inventing the Wheel was a One-Time Deal”

If you hang around any business office long enough, you’re likely to hear workers uttering the same banal buzzwords or expressions:

• “Is it Friday yet?”
• “Take that off-line and we’ll circle back later.”
• “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.”

Some of these are examples of corporate jargon and some are just phrases that have become so overused that they no longer have any real impact on the listener.

I know someone who asks, “Is it Friday yet?” every day of the work week. Yes, even on Friday. The phrase has just become so deeply entrenched in his vernacular that it’s now as common a greeting as “Hello.”

You probably know people like this, too. Maybe they don’t use these particular phrases, but I’m sure you’ve heard them spout off common business slang without ever giving a thought as to how frequently these expressions are being used. Don’t they ever stop to listen to themselves? Can no one stop them??

Sadly, no. Tell your boss you’re sick of hearing him use the phrase, “thinking outside the box,” and you may find yourself living inside a box on the side of the road.

But let’s back up a moment to the expression, “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.” As tired as I am of hearing people use this phrase over so many years, its meaning still rings true: “Why create something new when you can reuse something already created?”

To me, this points to one simple solution: templates.

Templates, in their many forms, serve the purpose of allowing us to create a basic design for something once, then apply that design toward creating many more similar things. Templates promote efficiency in many different industries. Even the clothes you’re wearing started out as templates in the form of clothing patterns. From just one pattern, several thousand identical t-shirts were created. Now don’t you feel unique?

In much the same way, template files can be created in many software applications. Microsoft Word, for example, allows you to create a document template. You can start with a new, blank document and then set all the options to your liking: create styles, set a default font, include some text in a header or footer, even include AutoText entries. Save this file as a document template, and now you can reuse it to create countless other documents that require the same styles, font settings, and other options. You can then add or subtract anything you like from this new document without changing the original template.

Sounds useful, doesn’t it? Maybe you’ve found yourself in this situation before: every month, you need to create a document on company letterhead. This might include a logo in the header with some contact information, and maybe a very specific font size and page margins. Maybe what you do every month is find the document you created the previous month, delete all the text from it, re-save the file with a new name, then type in your new text. Well, those days are gone. Today you can find that document you created last month, delete the old text, and then save it as a template. When you open the template, it’s already blank and ready to go with all the proper settings. Using this method greatly reduces the chance that you’ll accidentally overwrite any changes to that previous document.

Word isn’t the only application that makes use of template files, either. The tips included in this week’s blog entry will show you how to create templates for Excel, PowerPoint, and even Outlook.

This week’s tips include:

• Set the Standard: Creating new document templates in Word
• Making Normal Your Own: Setting formatting defaults on Word’s global template
• You Set the Rules: Creating a default template for Excel workbooks
• Put Some Style Into It: Creating and applying design templates in PowerPoint
• Déjà Vu: Creating an e-mail template in Outlook
• Give Your E-mail a Makeover: Using Stationery in Lotus Notes

So think about the files you work with on a frequent basis and consider creating a template for these. You’ll save yourself some time and effort, and you’ll avoid having to reinvent the wheel or anything else.

Thanks for joining us this week! If you have any other examples of corporate jargon that gets under your skin, let us know in the comments! Also, feel free to keep up with us on Twitter by following @productiveUcast, or visit our podcast on iTunes and write a review.

See you next week!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

This week’s edition: “A Sign of the Times (New Roman): Exploring the World of Fonts.”

On my commute into the office this morning, I had a striking revelation: we are surrounded by more words than we sometimes realize. This revelation came to me as I slammed on my brakes to avoid striking the Mercedes in front of me; at that point, I was close enough to be able to read its bumper sticker. That just proves that there are so many opportunities to observe this, no matter where you are.

Take a moment right now to examine your own surroundings. How many instances of text do you see? Obviously you see the computer screen right in front of you, but if you can pry your eyes away from this compelling box of light for just a few seconds—no, really, just look away from the computer. I know you can do it. Okay, good. Now—what do you notice? You probably see at least a few examples of text. If you are in an office right now, you might see memos, printed e-mail messages, maybe motivational posters around the office, or even a calendar on the wall. If you drive to work as I do, you probably saw street signs, billboards, advertisements printed on the sides of buses or cars, or even graffiti. If you take public transportation, you no doubt saw some text on advertisements posted inside of the bus, on the walls of the train station, or on magazines and newspapers being sold in the train station concourse.

Now take a closer look at some of that text and observe the different fonts that are being used. The style, color, and even size of the fonts may vary depending on the purpose and message of the text. This is because, in different situations, certain fonts are usually more appropriate than others. For example, when you create a new document in Microsoft Word, you can choose any font that is installed on your computer; but for professional documents, you wouldn’t want to choose a fancy font that’s difficult to read. But there may be other situations where such a font is entirely appropriate, such as in an advertisement where there is not as much text to be read, or on a formal invitation, where flowing calligraphic fonts are often used.

So what happens when you open Word and don’t choose a different font? By default, you’ll get a font called Times New Roman. It’s been the default font for Word in versions 97 through 2003, so it should come as no surprise if you notice it on the majority of documents you’ve dealt with in the past 10 years or so. It’s much older than that, though; Times New Roman was created in 1931 by font designer Stanley Morison after he criticized British newspaper The Times for their current font choice, Times Old Roman. After that, The Times used the new font for 40 years, and its popularity grew. (Read all about the history of Times New Roman here.)

What has kept this font so popular through the years? Well, as I already mentioned, it’s the default font in most versions of Word. Some people might not care enough, or might not even know it’s possible, to change Word’s default font. Other people have just become so familiar with it that they prefer to use it over other fonts. In Word 2007, the new default font is called Calibri—arguably easier to read than Times New Roman, but if you’re one who doesn’t welcome change, you can easily choose a new default.

At this point, you might ask what makes some fonts easier to read than others. It might help here to know a bit of French and Dutch. Calibri falls into a category of fonts known as sans-serif fonts; “sans” coming from the French word for “without” and “serif” coming from the Dutch noun “schreef,” which translates to something like “stroke of the pen.” This category of fonts lacks the ornamental details that appear on some characters in a serif font such as Times New Roman. You’ll see these if you look at the bottom of a lowercase “n.” In a serif font such as Times New Roman or Georgia, this character will have little “feet” that do not appear on sans-serif fonts such as Calibri, Verdana, or Arial.

In Word 2007, you can easily test this out with a new feature called Live Preview. Type some text in a document, select it, and then click the Font drop-down list on the Home tab of the Ribbon. As you hover your mouse over different fonts, you can preview how your text will look in that font without actually committing to the change.

Anyway, some people argue that these “feet” in serif fonts help move your eyes along the text, making it easier to read; other people say the serifs can be distracting. Some say “po-TAY-to,” while still others say “po-TAH-to.” And around and around we go.

The bottom line is this: you should strive to find a font that suits your text. For large blocks of text, such as a formal document, you will want to avoid any fonts that are too fancy, flowy, or curly (or Moe, or Larry, or even Shemp, for that matter). While we’re on the point, try to stick with a color that is easily readable. Black text on a white background is always a safe bet. Blue text on a pink background? Your readers might go into seizures before the end of the first paragraph.

But that’s not to say that you should always stick with the defaults, either. There is a wide world of font formatting options and text effects available in Word that you can use to help your text stand out, and these are particularly useful for heading styles. If used in moderation, you should be able to create some eye-catching text that maintains professionalism. The tips in this week’s blog entry will show you where to find these options and how to apply them to your fonts. You can get the links for these tips at www.productiveUpodcast.com.

The tips for this week are:

• Strike Out – exploring the text effects available in Word
• Fix Your Fonts – adjusting the character spacing for text
• The Space Between – adjusting the font kerning
• Start Fresh – clear the formatting from selected text
• Making Normal Your Own – changing Word’s defaults for font, paragraph, and page setup styles (Word 2003 and earlier, Word 2007)
• Using Live Preview with Fonts in Word 2007
• Installing Fonts in Windows

For all you Mac users out there, we haven’t forgotten about you! Here are a couple of tips you can use for managing your fonts:

• Changing fonts in applications
• Enabling/disabling and installing/uninstalling fonts in Font Book

That’s all for this week. As always, if you found these tips useful or have some questions you would like to see covered in a future episode, you can leave us a quick note on Twitter by following @productiveUcast. Or, if you want to spread the love, write a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Until next time, remember: actions may speak louder than words, but when words are all you have, be sure to make them look good!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum

This week’s episode: “What’s in a name?” OR “Not Breaking Up is Hard To Do.”

You know, using hyphens can be a real pain, but more so if you’re dealing with names in Microsoft Word.

What set me off thinking about this was an article I had read about one woman’s woes after hyphenating her last name in marriage. It sounds like a common enough situation; but in the article, she describes her exasperation as dry cleaning clerks, doctor’s office receptionists, and film developers fail to grasp that her full last name is Chance-Rainwater. She winds up having to offer some guidance when they try to locate her prescription under R instead of C, and correcting them when they refer to her as simply “Mrs. Rainwater.” You can read the full story here.

I have to wonder if Rebecca Romijn-Stamos ever encountered similar tribulations during her marriage to John Stamos. It seems as though we have no trouble getting celebrities’ last names correct, even when they contain hyphens. Luckily for her (and maybe also for her career), Ms. Romijn and Mr. Stamos have since divorced and she has reverted to using only her maiden name. Maybe the constant gigging of Jesse and the Rippers was simply too much for their marriage to endure?

As much trouble as we may have when it comes to hyphenated names, the trouble is even greater when working with those names in Microsoft Word. Maybe you’ve stumbled upon this conundrum while typing in a document: if a hyphenated word falls at the end of a line, that word will often get split at the hyphen and the rest will get moved to a new line. This can be understandably vexing; if that was your last name, I’m sure you wouldn’t want it to be split up like that. If you happen to be a fan of The Simpsons, you’ll surely realize what a terrible situation this would be for Selma Bouvier-Terwilliger-Hutz-McClure-Stu-Simpson. But maybe a multi-hyphenated name isn’t really her biggest problem anyway.

Another, possibly worse situation would be having a phone number in a document that gets split onto two lines at a hyphen. As you can imagine, this is not the ideal method for displaying such data. Word doesn’t know any better, of course; it thinks it’s doing you a favor by using that document space efficiently. And naturally, Word is equally oblivious when it comes to spaces. But you may have a group of words separated by spaces that you want to keep together on the same line, such as a company name or even your own name.

Shouldn’t any break-up be mutual? Ideally, yes, but rarely does this happen to be the case. So how do we tell Word nicely that we don’t appreciate it breaking up our text without our permission?

Luckily there are special characters called nonbreaking spaces and nonbreaking hyphens that you can insert between words to prevent them from being separated when they fall at the end of a line in a document. When it encounters a nonbreaking hyphen instead of a standard hyphen, Word knows to move all of Chance-Rainwater to a new line if there is not enough space, instead of keeping Chance- at the end of one line and moving Rainwater to the next. The same goes for nonbreaking spaces; they can be used in the place of regular spaces any time you want to ensure that a group of words does not get split up onto multiple lines.

The tips in this week’s blog entry will show you how to insert these special characters:

• Let’s Stay Together – Using Nonbreaking Spaces
• Break Up Your Way – Using Nonbreaking Hyphens
• Whose Line is It, Anyway? – Using Optional Hyphens
• Bridging the Gaps – Using Word’s Hyphenation Options

Well, that’s all for this week’s edition. Hopefully you’ve come to the conclusion that when it comes to Microsoft Word, not breaking up really isn’t that hard to do, after all.

If you find these tips useful, be sure to leave us a comment at www.productiveupodcast.com, visit us on Twitter @productiveUcast, or write a review of our podcast on iTunes.

See you next time!

Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum.