I have a set of documents that I frequently use in Excel and Word. Most of the time I can find them using the Recent Documents menu, but at times when they are not listed (because I’ve opened so many other documents) I have to locate the files to open them. I am always looking for ways to speed up my workflow and that is why use Excel’s Pin up feature to keep my frequently accessed files available to me from the Recent Documents menu. If you would like to see how you too can use this feature refer to the screen shots below. If you have any other Office related, time saving tips, please post them below.

Note: The Pin up feature is available for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. If you would like to use this feature to Pin up your favorite programs in Windows Vista, then read Pin Up Your Shortcuts and Declutter Your Desktop.

1. Open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint and click on the Office Orb menu button. When the menu expands move your cursor to the Recent Documents section and click the Pin ()next to the document you would like to pin up.

2. The pin should have changed its appearance to look like it is pinned up and it’s color should now be green. To unpin a document just click on the pin and it should return to an unpinned state.

Like I stated in my previous post, I was able to get a copy of Office 2010 and have been playing with it since. The videos below are just a preview of each of the applications mentioned below, more will follow. Even though it is a technical preview I found it to be extremely stable throughout the installation and subsequent use of the various applications.

Over the next couple of days I will be releasing additional videos and screen shots covering some of the new features, improvements, and the overall experience while using the Office Suite. If you would like to stay up to date with future posts make sure to subscribe to this web site using the email subscription form or the RSS feed. Thank you for visiting.

Access 2010 Sneak Peek

Excel 2010 Sneak Peek

Word 2010 Sneak Peek

PowerPoint2010 Sneak Peek

]]> http://www.gilsmethod.com/sneak-peek-access-excel-powerpoint-and-word-2010/feed 4 http://www.gilsmethod.com/how-to-add-a-telephone-mask-in-an-access-table http://www.gilsmethod.com/how-to-add-a-telephone-mask-in-an-access-table#comments Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:16:05 +0000 Gilberto J Perera http://www.gilsmethod.com/?p=445 Continue Reading]]>

This post is a continuation of an Access How-to Series that I’m working on, the last article that I posted walked you through the creation of a table in Access. This how-to will address the application of masks to fields in your table, specifically the telephone mask. The Telephone Mask can be very useful if you would like to store telephone numbers in a table in your database, not only does it format the field as a telephone number would be displayed, but it also helps with the entry of the information. If you have any comments or questions, please post them below.

Note: I used Access 2000 for this tutorial

1. Open your Access database, click on the the table you wish to modify and click the Design button

Note: I will be using the same table I created in the first Access tutorial, tbl_employee

2. Enter a name for the telephone field in the Field Name column, leave Text as the Data Type, and add a Description that can be used for future reference. In the Field Properties section make sure the General tab is selected, click on the button with the 3 dots next to the Input Mask

3. Before you continue you will be prompted to save the changes you have made to your table, click Yes to save those changes.

4. Select the Phone Number mask from the Input Mask list, click Next

5. Unless you want to specify a different format, leave the default settings and click Next

6. You have the option of choosing how the data will be stored with the mask, with or without symbols (I chose the "With the symbols…" option), make your selection and click Next

7. Click Finish when you’re done

8. Click on the Save icon to save your changes. Open the table and enter a telephone number in the Telephone Number field you just created. The telephone number you enter should be displayed with the following format (123) 555-5555

Access Icon via benjigarner

In simple terms a database is a collection of tables that are related and/or unrelated to each other and can store information in various formats. In the previous tutorial I showed you how to create a database from scratch, in this tutorial I’ll show how to create tables (the foundation to any database) for your database using the Design View. When you create a table you are designing the structure of the table, you assign headings to columns in your tables, you specify the format of the data that will be entered in the specified field, you can even add pictures or create equations in table fields, the possibilities are endless, for now lets stick to basics. If you have any comments or questions, please post them below.

Note: I used Access XP (2002) to create this tutorial. You can also use the Wizard and the Create table by entering data option when building your tables.

1. Open your Database, click on the Tables section, double-click Create table in Design view

2. When you create a table in design view you will be given several options, I’ll highlight the most important below.

Field Name: The name you will assign to a field in your table (the column) in this case I’ll want to capture FirstName

Data Type: Depending on the format of the information you will be collecting, you must pick a format that matches the data, in this case it is a name so I chose Text from the drop-down

Description: A description helps identify the data field (future reference), purpose, equations, etc.

You can repeat this process for all the fields that you would like in your table.

3. Before proceeding any further lets make sure that we save your table, click on the Save (floppy icon) and enter a name for your database.

Note: I normally precede the name of the items I save in Access with a tbl_name for table, qry_name for query, etc.

4. You will be asked if there is a Primary Key defined, in order to stick to the basics of creating a table we’ll skip the topic of Primary Keys for now. Click No to proceed.

5. Once you have added all the fields you would like to collect information for and saved your table, click on the Display Table button.

6. Your table will be displayed, the Fields that were listed as rows in the Design View are now the column headings for your table. If you are satisfied with the data fields you have created, you can proceed to enter data in your table.

Note: Each row represents a record in Table View and each column in the Design View represents a Field

Table Icon Source – Tpkdesing.net

This article is the first in a series of articles that demonstrates the basics of using databases in Access. I will also create a series for those of you that use Open Office Base (an open source alternative to Access). The guide below will walk you through the process of creating a database. If you have any comments or questions, please post them below.

Note: I used Access XP (2002) to create this tutorial

1. With Access open, click on File > New…

2. A pane to the right will become available, click on Blank Database located below New

3. You must assign a name to your database and click Create, this will place a database file (.mdb) on your selected location.

4.When database creation is completed your database will be displayed (see above)