In the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day 2011, three Access team members got together and created an Access web database that allowed users to post their plans and/or wishes for themselves and their loved ones on Valentine's Day. The team published the database to Access Services and then promoted it on the Microsoft intranet. Employees flocked to the site to add their ideas and then vote for their favorites. The ideas that got the most votes garnered prizes for their authors, and the whole event generated a lot of love for Access 2010!

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"The cloud" and related terms seem to be the new hotness these days. I wasn't sure what the terms meant, so I read some stuff online. Big mistake.

It took some time to figure out, but near as I can tell, here are what the terms mean…

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This “Office Show” episode features a common dilemma: The budget data you want to analyze in Excel contains so many rows and columns of numbers that it seems like an impossible task to get it all sorted out. This is where PivotTables in Excel come in. PivotTables are brilliant at making sense out data chaos, because they do a lot of the work for you. They can automatically organize and summarize your data, so you can immediately see things like what areas of your business need attention. So what situations really call for a PivotTable?

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This is the fourth in a series of quick video tips for business managers using PowerPoint by guest blogger, Bruce Gabrielle, author of Speaking PowerPoint.

Today Bruce shows how you can get exact color matches using this neat (and free!) software to pick the perfect color for any slide.

You can download Color Cop for free at http://colorcop.net.

-- Bruce Gabrielle

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Mi crosoft Project Conference 2012 will be held in Phoenix, Arizona on March 19 - 22, 2012. • Registration will open May 2011 • Sponsorship & Expo information will be announced in May 2011 • Add yourself to the keep me notified list at www.msprojectconference.com Project Conference is the premiere Microsoft-led event to share Project and Portfolio Management best practices and connect with your peers from around the globe. Join customers, partners, industry-leading experts and...

You can now download a bunch of help content around Getting Started with Project 2010. This content includes a guide to the ribbon, information on what’s new in 2010, and a PowerPoint you can use for training people on 2010: Basic tasks in Project 2010.html Getting_Started_with_Project2010.wmv Project2010Guide.exe Reference_Project_2007_to_2010.xltx Training Presentation - Getting started with Project 2010.pptx What's new in Project 2010.html Link to download location - http://www.microsoft...

The new Get control of page numbers, headers, and footers training course can take the headache out of headers and footers. The intermediate self-paced course for Word 2010 includes video, so that you can see what's going on in real time, and a practice session.

Start your training right away, or find out more...

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So many Office customers ask about "pivot table" that we've gathered the best answers in this blog post. Most likely, you are looking for information about how to create a PivotTable report that can help summarize and analyze your data. Or you already have your data in a PivotTable report and are looking for information about how to pivot it.

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Does your name appear as a spelling mistake in Word? You're not alone. As part of our Call-to-Action campaign, I recently asked our Microsoft Student Facebook friends to share their Word pet peeves. And this pet peeve was top of the list. Luckily, there's a quick fix. Add your name to the spell check dictionary.

Here's a quick video showing you how. Of course, these steps work for adding any word to the dictionary not just your name. For example, if you're using special technical terms or acronyms in your document.

Find more helpful links and information in the full blog post.

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Last week, we looked at class presentations, and this week we're taking a look at project plans as part of our 3-part 5-minute makeover series for PowerPoint 2010.

Once again, the idea is to rid your presentation of too much text in favor of graphic elements (including converting text to a SmartArt graphic) that will better convey your message and keep your audience focused on key elements -- rather than having to read lots of text while simultaneously trying to concentrate on what you're saying. Pretty tough, if not impossible, to do both. This makeover is designed to help fix that situation, and quickly, without you having to start from scratch or take a lot of time to do so.

Watch the video below, and then get the template used in the makeover.

-- Erik Jensen

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