Zombies, but in a good way: 20 how-to posts that just won't die

Which need-to-know info on Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Word do Office users keep returning to?

Ever since George Romero's 1968 movie Night of the Living Dead, zombies have kept popping up in pop culture like, well, like zombies. They appear when and where they're least expected, creating fun for some, havoc and fear for others.

But what about zombie blog-posts-- old posts that we might reasonably expect to have crumbled to pixel dust by now? Aren't blog posts like doughnuts--best consumed the day they're made?  

You, the readers of the Office Blog, apparently don't think so. I combed through our blog stats recently and discovered a milling crowd of zombie posts--aged from 6 months to 5 years old--that still get lots and lots of visits.

"No surprise" category for Excel

Excel Help writers Gary Willoughby and Frederique Klitgaard have their fingers on the pulses of Excel users, and they didn't raise an eyebrow at my list. "They're pretty common questions and popular features," Gary said. For example, "Chart Pattern Fills were an issue in Excel 2007. No surprise people are looking for it," Frederique said.

These Excel classics were among the 25 most-visited posts in the past few weeks:

• Combining Chart Types, Adding a Second Axis
• Can't find the Chart Wizard? No worries
• Create conditional drop-down lists
• More Conditional Formatting Features in Excel 2010
• Chart Pattern Fills

Outlook perennial faves

• Mail Merge: How to send a personalized e-mail to many people at once
• Multiple Exchange Accounts in Outlook 2010
• Office Casual - How to install the Outlook Social Connector (video)
• Can't find that email message? These three tips can help
• Better IMAP in Outlook 2010
• Changing your theme

Word's most popular posts

• Equation numbering
• Headers and footers and page numbers, oh my!
• Office in Education - How to insert symbols and special characters into a Word document (video)
• Equations in Word 2007
• Bibliography and Citations 101
• 60 Day Trial of Word 2007 Available. Note: Sorry, folks, but the 2007 trial version is no longer available. This post is being updated.

PowerPoint greatest hits

• PowerPoint 2010 Viewer Available for Download
• Moving beyond bullet points with Cliff Atkinson

Access oldie but goodie

• Writing a Count(Distinct) Query in Access

Final thought: Zombies have been around long enough now that they need their own support group. For your Office app support needs, go to Office.com.

-- Ramona Gault is a technical editor who supports the Office Blog team.