Let’s take a look at creating a Mail Merge document using Microsoft Office Word 2010.

What is Mail Merge?

Mail Merge mass produces letters, mailing labels or other documents. To perform a mail merge you need two types of files: a Data file and a Form file. The Data file, or datasource, contains records. All the variable (changeable) information in the document combines to form a record.

The first step in the creation of the data source is to give each piece of variable information in the document a name. Each piece of variable information is called a field. All the fields combine to form a record.

The Form file contains the portion of the document that remains constant, plus field codes that link to the data source file.

For the purposes of this article, we will be using Mail Merge to send copies of a letter to multiple persons. Start a new blank Word document, click Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Word. You can download a free trial of MS Office, which you can use for 60 days, here, if you don’t have Microsoft Office installed.

Click the Mailings tab. In the Start Mail Merge group click Start Mail Merge button and click Step by step Mail Merge Wizard….

Since we will be writing a letter, select that as the default. Click Next: Starting document.

We are starting a new document, so we will use the current one. Click Next: Select recipients.

This is a new document and we are creating a fresh list for the purposes of this article. You have the option, if your contacts are stored in Outlook, to use that. If you don’t have any contacts you can create new ones from scratch, which is what we will do. Select Type a new list and then click Create.

This will bring up the New Address List window. Microsoft Word will pre-populate the window with common fields for the recipients. To simplify things and avoid confusion, we will customize and create our own columns for the purposes of this article. At the bottom of the window, click Customize Columns….

Here you will see the list of pre-populated fields. Select each one and click Delete until all are removed.

Once you have cleared the fields, enter your own. For the purposes of this article, I will be using the following fields: Name, Addr1, Addr2, Addr3, and Title. Click Add and enter the field name and then click OK. Repeat this step for each field until all are entered.

Once you have all the fields entered, click OK.

Proceed to enter the information for each record. To enter a new record, click New Entry or you can press Tab to go to the next row. When you have completed this step, click OK.

You will be prompted to save your data source. The datasource is saved as a Microsoft Access database. You can give it a logical name such as Contacts or Addresses.

The Mail Merge Recipients window will appear. Here you are given an opportunity to review and edit the recipient information. You can also uncheck any recipients you don’t want to send the letter to. For instance, you might get a last minute response from a recipient telling you they won’t be able to attend. After reviewing and accepting the changes, click OK.

You will notice that groups previously grayed out in the Mailings tab, such as Write & Insert Fields, are now active. This means we are ready to type our letter and enter our Mail Merge fields.

Below is a sample letter I will be using for my mail merge letter.

—————————————————————————————————-

Andre Brown <——————Field1—–Name
Cross Keys P.O. <————– Field2 —–Addr1
Manchester <——————–Field3—–Addr2
Jamaica W.I. <—————— Field4—–Addr3

Dear Mr. Brown <—————Field5——Title

We will be keeping our annual Youth Group fund raising event next week at the Cross Keys Social Center. Our Youth Group would like to invite you to this special event and hope you will be able to invite your friends and family members as well. Please make every effort to be in attendance on June 20, 2011 at 8:00 PM in the main hall.

See you there.

Yours,
Sarah Smith

————————————————————————————-

Since the letter starts out with the address, we can begin inserting the Merge Fields. To do that, click on Insert Merge Field, located in the Write & Insert Fields group.

Repeat this step until all the appropriate Merge fields are inserted, see below:

The next step is to start writing the body of the letter.

Merging the Files

Once you have completed all the necessary steps, you need to merge the letter with the appropriate addresses. To do that, on the Mailings tab in the Finish group click Finish & Merge and then click Edit Individual Documents.

Select All then click OK. Microsoft Word will now work its magic.

All recipients addresses have been merged producing four unique letters to different persons and addresses. Your options include printing and saving these documents.

How to Create a Mail Merge Document Using Microsoft Word is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

With Remove Background you can easily remove the background in a photo. So, if you just want to have a foreground object such as a plant or person, you can do that. Lets take a look at how to do that using the following example:

First make sure your photo has been inserted. (Insert > Picture).

Select your photo then click on the Picture Tools (Format) tab.

In the Adjust tab, click Remove Background button.

An anchor box will appear over the photo, resize it until the entire area of the part of the photo you would like to keep is selected.

Microsoft Word will automatically analyze the photo and accurately identify what you want to keep. You can see this in the preview above.

Once you are satisfied with the preview, click on Keep Changes.

Here is another example:

Say we want to remove the background in the photo above. Simply select the photo

Click on the Mark Areas to Remove button in the Refine group, then use the pencil pointer to make marks on the areas of the photo you would like to have removed.

Click Keep Changes.

There you have it. You can even do some cool effects like the following:

Remove A Photo’s Background Using Office 2010 is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Let’s take a look at how to set it up in two popular email clients from Microsoft:

Windows Live Mail

In Windows Live Mail, click File > Options then click Mail.

Go to the Receipts tab.

Under Requesting Read Receipts, check the box that says Request a read receipt for all sent messages. Click Apply and OK to confirm changes.

In Microsoft Outlook

Click File > Options.

Click Mail then scroll down to Tracking. Then check Read receipt confirming the recipient viewed the message.

Click OK.

That’s it! From now on, you will know when important email messages have been received and read.

How to enable Read Receipts in Windows Live Mail or Microsoft Outlook (Quick Tip) is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Lets take a look at how to do that.

Click Start, type: programs and features.

Hit Enter on your keyboard

Scroll down and select the edition Microsoft Office or the Office application your would like repair. Select it, then click Change on the command bar.

The Microsoft Office setup wizard will begin. Select Repair from the list of options. Click Continue.

The setup wizard will attempt to repair any problems with your Office installation.

After repairs have been completed, click Close and prepare to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Reinstall Microsoft Office

The same procedures apply, the only difference being, you will select Remove, see below:

Click Continue and follow the on screen wizard. You will be prompted to restart your machine.

After your computer restarts, proceed to reinstall Office by launching the setup program.

How to Reinstall or Repair Microsoft Office is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Your scenario might depend on whether you have an older or newer version of Microsoft Office installed. Only the 32 bit version of Office 2010 can be run side by side with Office 2003 or older. 64 and 32 bit versions of Office cannot co-exist. For the purposes of this article, I will be installing Office 2003 alongside an existing installation of Office 2010.

The first thing you will need to do is create a folder for the desired version of Office you want to install in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office folder. The folder will have a specific name.

Office 2010 has the filename Office14 and Office 2003 has Office11 as its filename.

Navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office to begin.

Create a folder for the version of Microsoft Office you would like to install. Office14 or Office11.

If you are running a 64 bit version of Windows 7, C:\Program Files(x86)\Microsoft Office is the folder you want to create.

Insert your Microsoft Office disc.

Start the installation.

Select the option on the setup page to Customize your installation.

Browse to the folder where you created the folder for Office.

Click Open.

Click Next to proceed with the installation.

Setup will take care of the rest.

The Start menu > All Programs will now display Office 2003 and Office 2010 applications.

If you are install Office 2010 32 bit along side an older version of Office, click Customize during the setup wizard. Then select the File Location tab and click Browse. Then navigate to the Programs folder for Office 2010 (aka Office14).

There you have it, the above screenshot displays two different versions of Microsoft Word running on the same installation of Windows 7.

How to create a side by side installation with different versions of Microsoft Office is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

What is a database?

A database is a container which stores a variety of information. The principal way of storing information in a Microsoft Access database is with tables. You can use a database to store information about the students in a school, members of a church, your friends or varieties of plants in your garden. You can then use that information to search for particular information for referencing purposes, do mathematical operations and sort your data using simple commands from customized menus.

A description of the Microsoft Access 2010 interface (click to enlarge).

What is a Table?

A table contains all the information about a specific subject. Each row in a table is called a record. Every record is unique and made up of elements called fields. Before creating a table in Access, decide on all the fields that will make up your record. Each field in the record must be given a:

• field name
• field type
• field description

Other field properties become necessary depending on the field type chosen. For our first database, we will focus on creating our first table.

Create your first database

First, launch Microsoft Access. Click Start, type: access 2010.

Hit Enter on your keyboard. Alternatively, you can click Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Access 2010. Please note that Microsoft Office Access is only available in the Professional edition of Microsoft Office, and as a standalone application. If you would like to try it out for the purposes of this article you can download a free trial, which you can use for 60 days, here.

In Microsoft Access, select Blank Database under Available Templates.

Give the database file a name. For the purposes of this article I will call mine “Youth Group.” Click Create.

By default, Microsoft Access will setup a preconfigured table for us. But we want to customize it a bit. In the Home tab, click in the View group and click Design View.

In design view we can customize the attributes of our database. Before proceeding we are prompted to give our table a name. I will call this table ‘Members’ since I am creating a database of all the members in my local youth group.

Click OK when complete.

We are now in what is called the Data Dictionary view of Access. Here we have control over designing our database. Specifically, we can control details about the table that will contain the information about the members of my youth group. As we noted earlier, a database is used to store information. So we will create a table of some information we would like to keep about members here. This can include things like: first name, surname, phone number, age and membership. These attributes will constitute the fields that make up the table in our database of members.

Let’s start entering the information.

In the above screenshot I entered my first field, which is “First Name.” the Data Type for this field would be Text. When we define the data type it lets Access know what kind of value to allow in a field. This lets us keep strict control over the information entered into the database. So if more than one person uses and updates the information, they have to enter the right information every time.

As you can see, there are a variety of data types. Let’s describe some of the common ones we will use:

In the above screenshot, we provide a description of the purposes of this field. This can be quite useful if more than one person is involved in designing the database.

Once we have filled out all the necessary information for our database dictionary, click Save on the Quick Access Toolbar.

We can now start entering information into our database. To do that, click the View button.

Entering information into our first Access database

To enter information, just click in the cell and enter the text appropriate for each field. You can quickly move to the next field by pressing Tab. Repeat these steps until you have filled out all the fields.

You can save the database, close, open and update it at anytime. You can also create other tables with other unique information related to your database, such as a table with the members’ parent information, for instance.

A database is not something you create on a whim, though. It should be carefully planned so maintenance and updating can be easier. Here are some tips to consider when building your database.

• What type of information you would like to have stored in your database.
• Define the type of fields that will make up your database
• Consider keeping it simple and not have too many fields in a table for a particular scenario, consider creating additional tables to store related information.
• Make sure you use the data dictionary to help define your database, this will be essential for future purposes when you start using advanced features in Access such as Relationships, Queries and your database starts to get large.
• Think big, databases are meant to store large amounts of information, so design your database with growth in mind, this encompasses everything previously noted when designing your database.

How to create your first Microsoft Access database is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Chart Jargon

Charts have certain terms associated with them. Understanding these commonly used words makes for building great charts:

Links: the data points used to create the chart. They are dynamically linked to the chart, so if the data points change, the chart also changes accordingly.

X-Axis: the x-axis is the horizontal line at the bottom of a line or bar graph, it is also called the category line.

Y-Axis: the value axis of Y-Axis is the vertical line on the left, to which to which the value of data is plotted.

Example 1

Example 2

Data series/Data Points: in the screenshot above are examples of data series and data points. With pie charts, you have one data point for each data series. Bar and line charts can have up to 255 data series and up to 32,000 data points for each data series. The above screenshot has four data series (total, average, maximum, minimum). Each data series has four data points.

Title: Titles appear to the left of the Y-Axis, beneath the X-Axis and at the top of the chart.

Legend: The legend identifies each of the data series.

Creating Charts

Now lets create some charts!

Pie Charts

The first chart we will create is a Pie chart summarizing the data in Example 2.

Start by blocking (highlighting the data, or selecting it, with the mouse) from cell A8 to B11 as shown above.

Click on the Insert tab and click Pie in the Charts group.

The Pie gallery displays different types of pie charts available in 2-D and 3-D. For our first chart, select the first pie and click it.

This will insert an embedded chart as shown above in the spreadsheet. As you can see, our pie chart is quite basic, simply displaying 4 data points in color along with a legend at the side. Lets display more information in our chart.

You will notice that Excel displays some contextual tabs related to Chart Tools. This will give us additional options to emphasize our chart.

On the Design tab in the Chart layouts group there are additional options available for displaying more information about the chart. Click the More button to reveal additional chart options.

Click on Layout 6. This will display more information, such as the percentage, along with a Title Bar.

As you can see our chart displays more information, which will help to give us better insight. You can click the title and edit with information about the chart.

There you have it: your first Pie Chart.

Bar Charts

If you want to compare multiple values, bar charts are highly recommended. Let’s take a look at how to do that. Earlier we had talked about Data points. In this particular chart we will be comparing information from four different data points instead of just one (which is what we did with the pie chart).

Highlight the information just like we did in the pie chart, then go to the Insert tab and click the Bar button. This will display a gallery of different types of bar charts.

Let’s try one of the 3D Bar charts. Click the first 3D bar chart in the gallery.

Our chart is displayed successfully, but it’s a bit squished, because we are displaying a lot of information. A chart like this would be best displayed in its own sheet where we can clearly visualize all the information. To do that, click on the chart, then click the Move Chart button in the Location group.

This will bring up the Move Chart dialog:

Select the option New sheet: (you can give the sheet a name in the process). Click OK.

Our bar chart looks much better this way. If you want, you can change the chart layout and add a title and additional information representing each bar.

There you have it: your first bar chart.

You can experiment with other chart types available in Excel: Column, Line, Area, X Y (Scatter), Stock, Surface, Doughnut, Bubble and Radar. Be careful to use charts according to the data types, though. Simple information doesn’t necessarily require a bar chart ,as we created above, so focus on making the information easy to understand first.

How to create Charts using Microsoft Excel is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

I’ve been using Skydrive for quite a while now and it has gradually improved over the years. It is still not where I want it to be, though, with one of my complaints being file size limitation (although that has been improved a bit in this new update).

I have always liked Skydrive’ collaboration capabilities: you can share your files easily with friends and colleagues, also. When you upload an attachment, whether it is Microsoft Office files or photos, you can choose to have them stored on Skydrive for easy access and quick editing if necessary.

The new Skydrive takes on a familiar Windows Explorer look which should be more attractive and welcoming for first time users of the service. Files are displayed in a default details layout along with the default ‘My Files’ location, which displays all file types.

There are some limited customization capabilities built in: you can change the default view from details to Thumbnail preview.

If you want to see more information about your files or folders, just hover over the file and click the blue i that appears. A TaskPane will appear on the right side of the screen with attributes about the file. This will have options that will let you add information, edit in Word Web App, Open in Microsoft Word or download to your hard disk. You can also see version history and edit the document’s permissions.

The new Skydrive features greatly improved search with a new suggested results feature. Just start typing a few words and the most relevant results will appear as you type. You can also see that you have quick access to other options beneath the document, such editing in the browser or view properties information.

The new Skydrive strongly focuses on quicker access to tools. The toolbar, for instance, displays quick links to creating a new Office file such as a Word document, spreadsheet, presentation or notebook. You can also create a new folder, add files or view synced files. Because you are using the browser instead of Windows Explorer to manage and create files, such improvements are welcome.

You can quickly organize and view common file types using the new Skydrive. For example: the Navigation Pane has a Documents and Photos link so you can quickly view all related files. In the above screenshot, I am in the Documents view where I view a combination of folders and Word documents. I have similar organization tools I can find in Explorer, such as columns, for viewing files. A nice feature is viewing the size of a folder.

You can also use the Quick Views capability first introduced in Hotmail to quickly access recently added documents or documents shared with you. The Groups feature allows you to easily collaborate with groups you might have set up on Windows Live Messenger. A very well integrated experience across core Windows Live services.

Photos

The new Photos view is nicely done in Windows Live Skydrive. By default, photos are displayed in Thumbnail Preview. One of the nice features I noticed include a faint watermark on the bottom right of the total number of photos in a folder. See below:

Another nice thing I discovered is that each thumbnail preview is an actual mini slideshow, see below:

Mini slideshows dynamically changing

Overall, these improvements are welcome and will make Windows Live Skydrive a more attractive option to use. However, the file size limitation still remains a big deal. Individual file sizes have moved from 50 to 100 MBs, but that is still not enough for what most people would like to use the service for. Especially for video and photos that can balloon in size. It’s something Dropbox still beats Skydrive on.

The other thing would be synchronization. Although Windows Live Sync is easy to use, there is a set it and forget it approach to Dropbox: just install the free client, type in your account information and files are automatically synced up. That seamless experience is still something Skydrive lacks.

That said, if you like Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9 integration, just like Hotmail, you can drag and pin the Windows Live Skydrive web icon to your Windows 7 taskbar for quick access with built in Jump List. It’s a good effort focused on making the service easier and more accessible. And in the end, it’s a free service, so its definitely worth a try. There’s nothing to lose.

How to use the new Windows Live Skydrive is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

The Microsoft Office Web Apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote are being updated as part of SP1. The Google Chrome browser support is also now officially supported.

There are two ways of obtaining Service Pack 1 for Office 2010. You can download the full installer for 32 bit or 64 bit or you can download through Windows Update.

How to Install Office 2010 SP1 – Direct Download

If you plan on downloading the full installer, make sure you find out which architecture you are running. To do that, open any of the main Office 2010 applications you use such as Word 2010 or Excel 2010.

Click File > Help, look under About Microsoft Word or whichever Office 2010 application you are in. There you will see the version number along with the architecture, for example, I am running Version: 14.0.5128.5000 (64-bit).

You can then go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads and download the appropriate version of Office 2010 SP1:

• Office 2010 32 bit Service Pack 1
• Office 2010 64 bit Service Pack 1

Click Download and save the file to your Downloads folder.

Once you have downloaded the file, browse to where you saved it, double-click the setup file to begin the installation.

Check the box to accept the Software License Terms and click Continue.

Extracting files to assist the installation.

Determining list of programs to be updated.

Office 2010 SP1 installing

Reboot when prompted

How to Install Office 2010 SP1 - Windows Update

If you prefer to use Windows Update, launch it and click Check for Updates.

Click the link to view important updates that are available.

Check Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2010 then click OK to begin the download.

To confirm your installation of Office 2010 Service Pack 1, open any Office 2010 main application such as Word or Excel.

Click File > Help > Under About Microsoft Word, click Additional Version and Copyright Information.

Office Web Apps now supports Google’s Chrome Web Browser

Major Microsoft Office 2010 SP1 Changes and Fixes

Here is a run down of some of the improvements in Office 2010 SP1:

* Outlook fixes an issue where “Snooze Time” would not reset between appointments.
* The default behavior for PowerPoint “Use Presenter View” option changed to display the slide show on the secondary monitor.
* Integrated community content in the Access Application Part Gallery.
* Better alignment between Project Server and SharePoint Server browser support.
* Improved backup / restore functionality for SharePoint Server
* The Word Web Application extends printing support to “Edit Mode.”
* Project Professional now synchronizes scheduled tasks with SharePoint task lists.
* Internet Explorer 9 “Native” support for Office Web Applications and SharePoint
* Office Web Applications Support for Chrome
* Inserting Charts into Excel Workbooks using Excel Web Application
* Support for searching PPSX files in Search Server
* Visio Fixes scaling issues and arrowhead rendering errors with SVG export
* Proofing Tools improve spelling suggestions in Canadian English, French, Swedish and European Portuguese.
* Outlook Web Application Attachment Preview (with Exchange Online only)
* Office client suites using “Add Remove Programs” Control Panel,  building on our work from Office 2007 SP2

Click here for a complete list of the fixes in Office 2010 SP1.

How to Install Microsoft Office 2010 SP1 is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

How to Backup and Restore in Microsoft Outlook 2010

Click File then click Open then click Import.

This will start the Import and Export wizard.

Select the action ‘Export to a file’ then click Next.

Select Outlook Data File (.pst) then click Next.

Select Personal Folders and make sure Include subfolders is checked.

Browse to where you would like to have it stored, such as a thumb drive, external hard disk, another partition or location on the hard disk. Click OK.

Click Finish to complete the action.

How to Backup and Restore in Microsoft Outlook 2007/2003/2002

How to backup and restore your Outlook Personal Folder (Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003 & 2002) is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.