25 TIPS TO MASTER MICROSOFT OFFICE FOR iPad

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MICROSOFT’S NEW WORD, EXCEL AND POWER POINT APPS FOR iPad

1 INSERT HYPERLINKS IN WORD

Include hyperlinks by selecting your chosen word, tapping the Insert tab, selecting the hyperlink button and then entering your URL.

2 SAVE YOUR CONTENT

Sadly there are times when there is no Wi-Fi or mobile signal, and so you are unable to save or open your documents to the cloud, or you may want to store documents on your iPad just in case there will be no
internet access where you are going. Microsoft has obviously thought about this and has catered for this
eventuality. When you come to save a document, you are presented with an option to save to either a cloud
service of the iPad itself.



3 PRINT DOCUMENTS

You can print directly from your iPad via an Air Print compatible printer. Which is great, but if you don’t happen to have an Air Print printer, here’s a small workaround. Save the document to a cloud service of your choice, or email to yourself, open the Microsoft Word web service (free to all) and open the document there. With all of this done, you can now print files as though you were using the desktop version of Word.

4 UNDO

As with all Office software applications, the Undo button is a staple tool for those of us with butter fingers,
when we have accidentally deleted that crucial paragraph or sentence. The tool is featured atop the Ribbon bar and is a simple arrow pointing backwards. As with the desktop version of Word, selecting the Undo button will pretend the last action you took never happened.

5 SHARE YOUR DOCUMENTS

Once you have created or edited your document you may need to share it with others. This can be achieved by either sending the document as an attachment on an email, or copying a link to where the document is stored in a cloud location. You’ll find an icon in the top-right of the screen, shaped like a person with a ‘+’ next to it, which is all you need to tap for these sharing options to appear.

6 FIND AND REPLACE

A feature that is surprisingly unknown is the Find and Replace command. Working within Word, you can specifically search for certain words and then replace them within the document with a different word, without having to read through the entire content. To make this happen, simply tap the magnifying glass at the top of the ribbon, and then fill in the fields with the word to find/change.

7 PAGE NUMBERING

If you are used to creating a large document on your iPad, you’ll likely be used to seeing page numbers in the lower corner of the interface. Surprisingly this is not a feature that is enabled by default within the Word app. There is good news, though; you can enable this feature by tapping the Layout tab, followed by the Page Numbers button to the right of the ribbon. Page numbers will now appear.

8 TRACK CHANGES

The Word app provides you with the ability to collaborate with colleagues or family using the Track Changes function. Enabling this means that any changes to the document made by others will be highlighted, with the
original content crossed out and new text in its place. To enable, select the Review tab on the ribbon and select the Track Changes toggle switch.

9 COUNT AND AVERAGE

Under the Formulas tab of the ribbon, and the Auto Sum or Sigma button to the left, lies the very useful Count function and Average function buttons. The Count function provides you with the number of cells within the worksheet that contains your data. The Average function provides you with the mathematical average of the data in the range of cells you have selected. Each can save a lot of time.

10 LOOK UP AND REFERENCE

If you are a new Excel user you may not be overly familiar with the large range of functions that it can provide. While the desktop version of Excel has its Help section, so too does the Excel app, but in the form of Look-up & Reference. The drop-down menu provides access to all of the functions that Excel can provide, so be sure to take a look at this section.

11 COPY AND PASTE

Excel of course, provides you with the ability to copy and paste as you would in any other app on an Apple device, and there’s a great way to take advantage of this. Word and PowerPoint are unable to create graphs or charts, but the Office apps allow you to paste across apps. So you can create a chart in Excel, and then copy and paste it to Word or PowerPoint.

12 RECENT FUNCTIONS

With all the functions available in Excel, it’s easy to forget where everything is, or find the formulas you use the most. Microsoft clearly had this in mind when it was creating the Excel app and decided to add the Recent button, which is located under the Formulas tab. Clicking Recent will present you with a drop-down
containing a list of your most recently used functions.

13 INSERT/ DELETE CELLS

As per the standard desktop version of Excel, comes the ability to add, remove, and shift over cells, rows and columns. To edit your worksheet and add, remove or move cells, start by selecting the cells you wish to delete, move, or add additional column or rows to. Once done, navigate over to the Home tab and then select the little icon shaped like a mini spreadsheet with a tick and cross within it.

14 TEMPLATES

As standard, Microsoft provides access to ready made spreadsheets, with great-looking design and functions already built it. This makes it easy to select a great-looking template and include your own data within it. When you launch Excel, you will be presented with the initial start screen, with options to load your own documents. To the right lie templates already created.

EXCEL

Excel is Microsoft’s number crunching powerhouse, which has almost no rival in the market, much like Microsoft Word. Excel is a standard piece of software for almost any enterprise or small business and is easily the most fully-featured of the Office suite.Although the Excel app does not feature the same plethora of functions that the desktop version does, it is more than adequate for what most people would use it for. The app supports formulas, graphs and charts, tables, multiple tabs of data and the ability to link the data between them. In addition
to the functionality, Microsoft has designed a custom
keyboard especially for the Excel app. Being a heavy number-based application, the numbers that sit atop the standard iPad keyboard are not ideal for quickly entering data, so Microsoft has provided a specific number pad version, with numbers displayed as they would be on a normal desk-based keyboard. Lastly, Microsoft has also designed a bespoke text bar with a small function button to the side so that you can
quickly select the formula presets you need.

15 SORT & FILTER DATA

You can easily Sort and Filter all of your data in spreadsheets by using the A/Z button, by either ascending or descending format.

16 FREEZE PANES

A well-known feature of the desktop version of Excel is the Freeze Panes option. The good news for fans of this command is that it is also in the iPad version. With lots of data on screen you will no doubt have to scroll down a page, which means you lose the headers at the top. Enabling the Freeze Panes feature means you can scroll down the page as far as you need, keeping your headers.

17 AUTOSUM

Excel provides a large of number of options to manage your data, create formulas, and add up a huge amount of numbers in one go. To use the AutoSum feature, select two or more cells (either by individual cells, or a large column of cells) tap the Formula tab, followed by the AutoSum button to the left of the ribbon. You’ll be presented with Sum options, with which to manage the selected data.

POWER-POINT


Microsoft’s PowerPoint is widely used in business, and with its availability now on the iPad, it will mean that giving presentations will be even easier. PowerPoint is unique in the Office set of apps, in that it has additional functionality without a paid subscription. While you are unable to create any PowerPoint presentations, you can still give presentations, in addition to viewing the slides separately, so the full presentation potential is there. The creation side of PowerPoint is almost as full-featured as that of the desktop version, with image libraries, a huge suite of transitions between slides and multimedia options. You can easily create or edit a PowerPoint presentation on the iPad wherever you are, and be ready to present wherever you are going. PowerPoint also provides a feature to wirelessly give a presentation. With this, the
main slideshow is on one screen and your own personal version, complete with notes, is on the iPad screen for a seamless experience.

The creation side of PowerPoint is almost as full-featured as
the desktop version, with libraries and multimedia options

18 USE A LASER  OR A PEN

While giving a presentation, you have at your disposal a laser pointer, a highlighter, or a pen that you can use to draw attention to certain slides, or items within the slides. Hold your finger anywhere on the screen while you are presenting, to enable the laser pointer. Move your finger to move the laser, or select the pen icon at the top of the screen for the pen.

19 SLIDE TRANSITIONS

To add some character to your presentation, Microsoft has included a host of transitions for you to customize the progression between slides. The available options are found under the Transitions tab and then the Transition Effect and  Effect Options. All of these allow you to choose how the next slides appears and from which direction, and whether it is subtle or an explosion!

20 SLIDES

When creating a slide show, you’ll initially start with just one slide, which will appear on the left-hand side of the screen. As you add more slides they will also show up on the left side, as small thumbnail previews. Tapping on a slide will show it in the main window pane, tapping again provides options to delete the slide, copy or even hide it.

21 NOTES

At the bottom of the slide creation page, in the right hand corner, is a small Notes button. Tapping on this expands a full-screen window where you can add notes about anything.This is a great tool if you are collaborating with other people on a slide show, and need to make notes or suggest amendments. This is
available on each slide.

22 PRESENTATION MODE

When giving a presentation, the slides are presented full-screen on the iPad, however swipe down anywhere on the screen in a Windows 8-type manner to see more options. This action will reveal the Pen icon, Pen settings (where you can alter the color of the pen), and the ability to end the slide show.

23 PICTURE EFFECTS

PowerPoint has a vast array of picture-editing options once you have added a picture to your slide (you can insert images from your picture library via the Insert tab). With a picture selected, a new tab appears, aptly named Picture. This tab provides various options to change the style of the picture, the shadow, and even the
ability to flip the reflection.

24 PIN YOUR PRESENTATIONS

If you travel often, or have a vast array of presentations stored on your iPad or in the cloud, then it can be quite a pain to try and find your files when you need them. A simple solution to this problem is to ‘pin’ the presentations you require, so they are at the top of your list. This is done when you go to open a recent document.

25 NEW SLIDE

When creating  or editing a slide show, you can of course add new slides. This can be achieved by tapping
the New Slide button on the Home tab. Once this has been tapped, a box appears with a number of different slide types for you to pick from, including templates for different slide designs and colours, in order to help you create or edit while on the move.

Previous
Next Post »