How to Export an Outlook Distribution List

How to, videos0 comments

If you’ve got a distribution list on Outlook and you now want to use it in other programs such as email marketing, then you will need to download the list on to your computer.

This blog outlines the steps that you will need to take to download your distribution list and save it in a format that you can use in other software such as an email marketing or contact management program.

Alternatively you can watch the video below.

• First of all locate your distribution list on Outlook and double click to open it.

• You open up a new dialog box which lists the names and email addresses of the people on the list.

• Click on the “Send” drop down menu in the menu bar at the top and select “In Internet Format”.

• You open up a new email dialog box with the distribution list attached as a plain text file.  Open the plain text file attached to the email by double clicking on it.

• Copy the contents of the plain text file (information from the distribution list, eg names, email addresses etc) by selecting the text, right clicking on it and then selecting Copy from the menu.

• Now open up an Excel spreadsheet, click on the first cell in the sheet, and select Paste from the menu bar at the top.

• This will paste the names and email addresses from the plain text document into the appropriate columns in the spreadsheet.  You may need to adjust the width and height of the columns and rows.

• Ensure everything has been copied across correctly and then click on the Office button on the top left of the menu bar and choose Save As from the menu.  Give the spreadsheet a name and in the “Save as type” drop down box underneath, choose CSV (comma delimited).  This saves the spreadsheet as a CSV file which is basically the same as a normal Excel spreadsheet but without any formatting. Ignore any dialog boxes that pop up – just click on OK or Yes.

So now you have the distribution list in a format that be uploaded to other programs such as MailChimp or Aweber for email marketing, or Capsule for CRM database management.

10 Time Saving Tips for PowerPoint 2007

How to, Presentation, Time management0 comments

PowerPoint is a powerful tool for creating and designing eye-catching and dynamic presentations.  Below are 10 of the top functions that I use to help me work more effectively with PowerPoint.

• To quickly jump to slides during a presentation, type in the slide number and press Enter.  This is useful if you’re running out of time, and need to miss out on some slides without the audience knowing.

• In Slide Show view, pressing the B key makes the screen go black, which is great if you want your audience to focus on  what you’re saying for a moment rather than look at the slides.  Press the B key again to return to where you were before in the presentation.

• In Slide Show view, pressing Ctrl+H turns the pointer off so the cursor won’t appear during your presentation.  You can also turn the pointer on and off by pressing the A key.

• If you’ve ever presented, then you’ll know how frustrating it is when the screen freezes as you try to move between slides.  Well, there are various alternative ways of doing this.  To go to the next slide or animation build, press Down or Right arrow, Pg Dn, Spacebar, Left mouse click or Enter key.  To go to the previous slide or animation build, press Up or Left arrow, Pg Up, P key or Backspace key.

• To quickly animate multiple objects on one slide at the same time, select all the necessary objects and animate them as you normally would using the animation task pane.  This means that all the objects will be animated together.

• If you want to create a diagram with duplicate objects placed in particular locations on the slide, then create and format the object (eg rectangle), select it and with the Ctrl key held down, click your left hand mouse button and drag the object to the spot where you want it to be.  This is far quicker than copying and pasting the object and then having to spend time moving it to the correct location.

• Your file size can get too big if you have a lot of images in your presentation.  You can reduce the size of the file by up to 90% by compressing the images.  Select a picture in the presentation, go to the Picture Tools Format tab and click on Compress Pictures in the Adjust Pane.  Select OK to apply compression settings to all pictures, or click the check box to apply to selected pictures only.  You can adjust the settings by clicking on the Options button.

• To copy the formatting of text on one slide to another part of the presentation, select the original text then press down Ctrl+Shift+C, go to the text that you want to reformat and press Ctrl+Shift+V.  This command copies the formatting only, not the text.

• If you do find that you have too much text on one slide (there should be a maximum of 6 bullet points) then you can quickly split the slide into two using the Autofit option, which appears when you click inside the text box.  Click on the Autofit option to access the sub menu and select the Split Text Between Two Slides option.  PowerPoint will then automatically split the text evenly so both slides have as large font type as possible.

• Remember that if you are doing your presentation outside of your office, you will need to ensure that any videos or other linked objects are saved in a folder which you can access remotely, ideally the same one as the presentation.  Otherwise the media or objects will not display properly because the link they’re pointing to cannot be accessed.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these tips to help you save time and effort when working with PowerPoint.

10 Top Time Saving Tips for Word 2007

How to, Time management1 comment

Here are 10 shortcuts in Word that I’ve chosen at random and which you can use to help save you time when creating and editing documents.

1. If your document contains several hyperlinks and you want to get rid of them, it can be time consuming to do this individually.  Instead, select all the text (Ctrl+A) and press Ctrl+Shift+F9.
2. To convert text to a hyperlink, select the text you want to make into a link and press Ctrl+K.  The hyperlink dialog box then appears so you can type in the URL address.
3. An easy way to increase/decrease the font size of text is to select the text and then hold down the Shift+Ctrl keys together and press < to decrease and > to increase the font size in 1pt increments.
4. If you want to quickly move paragraphs around in a document, place the cursor anywhere within the paragraph you want to move, press Alt+Shift and the Up arrow to swap the paragraph with the one above it or Alt+Shift and the Down arrow to move it down.
5. You can easily change the capitalisation of text by selecting the text you want to edit and then pressing Shift+F3.  With the Shift key held down, keep pressing F3 to switch between lower case, Capitalise Each Word and UPPERCASE.
6. If you want to create sections within a document by having a horizontal line go across the width of the page, hit the hyphen key ( – ) three times and then hit Enter.
7. The Split View allows you to view and work in two parts of the same document in one screen. This makes it quick and easy to cut and paste text within sections of a long document.  Go to the View tab and select Split.  A horizontal line will appear which will move with your mouse.  Select a place where you want to split the page and click your mouse to place the line.  Your document can now be viewed through two panes and you can work in either one.  To come out of Split View, go back to the View tab and click on Remove Split.
8. Have you altered your document but now changed your mind?  Press Ctrl+Z to undo the last action and Ctrl+Y to redo the last action performed.
9. For indenting paragraphs, press Ctrl+M to indent to the right, and Ctrl+Shift+M to remove the indent and move back to the left.  If the paragraph is formatted with numbers or bullets and you want to create list sub-levels as you indent, then use Alt+Shift and the Right arrow to indent and Alt+Shift and the Left arrow to remove the indent and move back to the left.
10. If you want to check that you haven’t overused certain words or phrases, you can run a single search in Word that highlights every mention of that word or phrase in the document.  Start a search by hitting Ctrl+F and enter your search term; now click on the Reading Highlight button at the bottom of the search window and select Highlight All. Every instance of your search term will be highlighted.  To remove the highlighting, simply hit Ctrl+F again to bring up the search window, click the Reading Highlight button and select Clear Highlighting.

These are just a small selection of tips on how to use Word effectively.  There are certainly many more and I’d be interested to hear of any shortcuts that you use when editing documents.