Office 365

Tech’ top tips – #55. 365 day access to your files and content

Ian Pettit

This tip is provided by the Centre for Enhancing Learning through Technology (CELT). The images in this post will expand when clicked.

O365 tileWhile enrolled at DMU, students have access to Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 provides access to 1tb of storage for each student and the ability to edit and create content using online versions of Microsoft Office.

Students also have the option to download Office applications on up to five devices. Office 365 can be accessed via MyDMU at https://my.dmu.ac.uk and clicking on the Office 365 tile.

Tech’ top tips – #40. OneDrive to drive them all

Ian Pettit

This tip is provided by the Centre for Enhancing Learning through Technology (CELT). The images in this post will expand when clicked.

The Office 365 MyDMU tileStudents, did you know that you have 1tb (yes, a whole terabyte!) of cloud storage at your disposal while at DMU?

Using your pnumber and password you can log in to Microsoft OneDrive via MyDMU or direct at https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-gb/signin/ to access your own personal storage.

The OneDrive iconUse your OneDrive to store copies of important documents, large multimedia files or anything else you want* 😊

Your OneDrive can also be synchronised with your PC to help make sure those really important files are backed up automatically.

*Student use of Microsoft OneDrive is subject to DMU’s student regulations and policies at https://www.dmu.ac.uk/current-students/student-support/exams-deferrals-regulations-policies/student-regulations-and-policies/index.aspx

Tech’ top tips – #39. Head(ing)s we all win!

Ian Pettit

This tip is provided by the Centre for Enhancing Learning through Technology (CELT). The images in this post will expand when clicked.

When writing using Microsoft Word it is useful to use the Heading Styles to ensure our documents remain as accessible as possible.

The Heading Styles in MS Word

To our eyes, formatting headings and sub-headings using just the font size/colour, bold and underline functions may look ok but to the computer these cosmetic changes mean nothing. By using the built in Headings Styles, we ensure that our headings are preserved for those reading our documents in different formats (on the web or as .pdf). More importantly accessibility technology such as screen readers will translate our headings properly and our documents will be more accessible.

Tech’ top tips – #36. Can you do the splits?

Ian Pettit

This tip is provided by the Centre for Enhancing Learning through Technology (CELT). The images in this post will expand when clicked.

When working with long documents or spreadsheets it can be really useful to use the Split Window view to help with formatting, reading and to track calculations. I find this especially useful in the following scenarios:

1. When inserting images or graphs into Word splitting the window helps to ensure I get the alignment and placement consistent throughout the document. Selecting View>Split means that I can scroll through different sections of the document and make sure formatting is consistent.Here’s how the draft of this post looks when split in MS Word. By splitting the window I can get my images sized consistently before aligning them.
2. When electronic papers are provided for meetings it is useful to split the window to ensure we see any papers while keeping of the agenda. Here’s an example of a 72 page set of amalgamated meeting papers with the agenda (page 1) at the top and one of the associated papers (page 23) showing in the bottom half of the screen. To create this view in Adobe Reader click View>Split.
3. As mentioned, splitting the window can help us to keep track of large spreadsheets but unlike Word and Reader Excel can be spilt two ways to enable four separate areas of a spreadsheet to be viewed simultaneously. This spreadsheet ranges from A:1 to CV:5712 but with a split I can see all four corners at the same time.

Tech’ top tips – #33. Office templates

Ian Pettit

This tip is provided by the Centre for Enhancing Learning through Technology (CELT).

Saving a PowerPoint templateA tip I learnt recently is how to create templates in Microsoft Office to save setting up styles each time. I have known for a while how to edit the Normal template to ensure MS Word behaves just how I like it when opening a new document but using this technique we can create templates for all Office applications.

In this example, I’ll look at PowerPoint – yes there’s the Master slide view for ensuring consistency within a deck of slides but what if we’re delivering a series of presentations and want each one to be on point. Using a template we can ensure the formatting, fonts, placeholders etc. are the same every time.

Opening your PowerPoint templateOpen a new blank PowerPoint presentation and use the Slide Master view to get the themes and other elements just how you want them. Now, close the Side Master and click on File>Save As – in the drop down box select PowerPoint Template (*.potx). Notice that the save location automatically changes to your local Custom Templates folder. Click Save to save the template and the next time you open PowerPoint or click File>New you will be able to select your template. Here’s my view of File New in PowerPoint with a couple of templates I have available.

Thanks to Anna Richards for the inspiration for this tip!

Explore some of the 9000 video courses available through the LinkedIn Learning Pilot trial

Sukhtinder

linkedIn learning for decorationBoost your skills or feed your curiosity by exploring some of the
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Make the most of the opportunity to access to LinkedIn Learning for free as part of our pilot trial subscription which ends in June 2019. Our guide will explain how you can access and get started in LinkedIn Learning, discover the varied learning routes available to you and provide further useful tips.

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Find out more in our guide on LinkedIn Learing and here in this link on  how to get started.

Tech’ top tips – #24. Excel when it comes to data

Ian Pettit

This tip is provided by the Centre for Enhancing Learning through Technology (CELT).

Currently, my two favourite tools in Microsoft Excel are ‘Text to Columns’ and the ‘Concatenate’ function. Both of these tools really help when we have long lists of data and we need to either sort them or maybe merge data from different cells into one string.

A comma seperated string in ExcelText to Columns enables us to split long strings into individual cells for sorting. For example, a database export containing addresses produces one string per address.

By using Data>Text to Columns we can tell Excel to split the string down using the Commas that appear in the text string.

The Text to Columns wizard

Text to Columns resultWhen the Finish button is clicked, our text string is now displayed across multiple columns – ready for sorting by whichever column we desire.

 

But what if we want a text string and all we have is data in columns? This where Concatenate comes in.

A basic Concatenate formulaBy typing a formula we can bring data from separate cells into a text string – the key is the ‘&’ symbol.

 

Basic Concatenate resultsHowever, the formula above will mash all of the data together without any spaces, not very good if we’re going to use this for a mail merge data source or if we need to read it.

 

Concatenate with spaces addedBy using the speech marks, we can augment the formula to add a space in between the contents of each cell.

Now, our data appears as one string but with the appropriate spacing for reading and using.