Outlook 2007 best practices

Some interesting ideas from the Outlook team on recommended best practices for using Outlook 2007

2 more MCAS exams

Yesterday I took and passed another two MCAS exams: 77-603 PowerPoint and 77-604 Outlook. That brings my total to four. Only Access to do – if work will pay for it 🙂

MS Office Themes

Apply Consistent Look to Word, Excel and PowerPoint

You might guess from the title that it is possible to achieve a consistent look to the documents that you create in Word, the workbooks that you create in Excel and the presentation that you create in PowerPoint. And indeed this is the case. This is achieved through the use of themes.

 

Word

In Word go to the Page Layout tab of the Ribbon and click on Themes (the first button on the left of the Ribbon). Select a theme from the list of default themes.

Excel

In Excel go to the Page Layout tab of the Ribbon and click on Themes (the first button on the left of the Ribbon). Select the same theme as you selected in Word.

PowerPoint

In PowerPoint go to the Design tab of the Ribbon and select the required Theme from the Theme section. Note that if required you can expand the theme selection by clicking on the down pointing black triangle below the scroll buttons of the themes list.

 

Creating your own theme

Although Microsoft have created a variety of themes that are available by default you may not be able to find one that matches your requirements, for example you may want one that uses the same colour scheme as your company. In this case you will have to create your own theme. But do not worry, you will only have to do this once. If you create a theme in one application then it is available for use in all the other applications.

 

To create your own theme:

1. From the Colors drop down click on “Create new theme colors” and specify your required colours for each aspect of your new theme
2. From the Fonts drop down click on “Create new theme fonts” and specify fonts for headers and content.
3. Although you can not specify your own fill effects for your custom theme you can choose the existing theme from which you want to apply fill effects.
4. Once you have chosen your colours, fonts and effects you need to save your theme by selecting Save current theme from the Themes drop down.

Your new theme will now be available in other applications, ensuring that you have a consistent look and feel across all applications.