Office 2010 – Removing Misspelled Words from Spell Checker

Spell check is a beautiful thing, until you accidentally add a misspelled word. Removing the misspelled word is easy, once you know where to find the word list. The word list is shared in all versions of Office, so the change you make in Word or Excel removes it from all applications including Outlook. The instructions below are for Office 2010, but the process is very similar for all versions of Office.

To remove a word from the spelling word list, in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, from the File tab, choose Options. (Remember, the word list is shared between these programs and Outlook, so it doesn’t matter which you remove it from.)

Choose Proofing, then click Custom Dictionaries.

Scroll to find the misspelled word, choose Delete. Click OK, then OK again to exit the Options menu.

Sometimes it’s the little things that trip us up. Which little things have you been struggling with?

I’m Twittering, soon to be Tweeting

I recently decided it was time for me to start using Twitter. Most people have heard of Twitter, but in case that’s as far as your knowledge takes you, Twitter is a free service that allows you to send short messages of 140 characters or less to whoever wants to read them. As a  Twitter user, you follow people and they follow you.

 

In case you are wondering why I want to use Twitter, there are two main reasons:

1. To learn from others. If Lady Gaga has 9,654,217 followers (@LadyGaga), that means there are over 9 million people using  Twitter. With that many Tweeters, there are bound to be a few that have something useful to say to me. After spending a few weeks learning about Twitter and following the advice of @Pistachio of OneForty.com, I have been listening. I have been listening to thought leaders in my field, and people tweeting about personal interests of mine. In a very short period of time, I’ve learned new things, and found new sources of information. 

2. To provide useful information to my clients. Back in the day, people would ask me which books I recommended. I still pick up an occasional book on technology (Twitter for Dummies is my most current read), but mostly I get my technical information online, through blogs, product & technical websites and webinars. Using Twitter, I will be able to conveniently send quick tips to my clients along with links to more lengthy information. I will also be Retweeting posts that I’ve found useful. Used this way, I think of Twitter as a stream of headlines, pointing
out interesting articles. If someone likes the headline, they can click into the longer article.

I am learning how to filter and prioritize the glut of information I’m encountering. I’ll share those strategies and more as I go. For now, if you too want to get started, follow @Pistachio’s advice, go to Twitter.com and listen. Oh, and follow me. I’m @TrainerLAS.

How and why do you Tweet? Do you have any tips for managing the glut of information?

Convenience = Efficiency: Customize Quick Access Toolbar

Convenience is important to me. I want the features that I use regularly to be one click away. With the Ribbon, that is not always the case. In previous versions of Word, for example, there are options on the toolbar that I use for all types of documents: Save, Print, New Document to name a few. In Word 2010, if I’ve clicked the Format tab, I don’t have access to those features. It’s inconvenient to click back to the Home or some other tab to find them. The Quick Access toolbar gives me the convenience I crave. I can add all the features that I want accessible no matter which tab I’ve clicked.

Office 2010 Time to Jump In

I have been working with Office 2010 for a few months. I skipped over Office 2007, only using it when convenient. My excuse? Too many of my clients were still using Office 2003 plus I was very efficient for my day to day work. Without the push from my clients, I lagged behind. When 2010 came out I decided to take the plunge and I’m glad I waited. Microsoft made some minor enhancements that make it more intuitive. My clients are starting to request Office 2010. Time to jump in, with both feet, NOW. 

 

Here are THREE free resources I’ve found to be helpful in my quest to get comfortable. If you are still struggling with 2007, the same resources are available for Office 2007.

1. Interactive Guide to Menu and toolbar commands for Office 2010

2. Printable list of Office 2010 commands and buttons

3. Ribbon Hero – an Educational game

Following is a brief description of each.

Windows 7 – Four First Impressions

I recently bought a new laptop with Windows 7. I didn’t even try upgrading my old Windows XP computer to Windows 7, as a matter of fact, I’ve never upgraded an operating system. I have gotten used to the Start menu not saying, Start. I’m still getting used to other differences such as the disappearance of the Quick Launch toolbar. Read on to see 4 of my first impressions.

Easy to Pin items

I discovered how simple it is to pin items to the task bar or the start menu: Right click on a menu item and choose Pin to Taskbar or Pin to Menu. Now my task bar combines the old functionality of the Quick Launch toolbar with new functionality.

Getting Lost in Facebook

I have been getting lost in Facebook lately. If you have joined Facebook you know what I mean. I can go on to take a quick peek and an hour later I’m still wandering around. I’ve actually been inundating myself with all kinds of social media lately and Facebook in particular for so many reasons:

#1 It’s what I do, professionally. My career for the last 20 years has involved learning new technology and making it easy for non-technical people to understand.

#2 It’s fun. I mean really fun. I joined Facebook less than a year ago. When I told my 23 year old niece I had joined, her reaction was “You are on Facebook? You are on Facebook? You are on Facebook?” Yes, 3 times, as if to say, “What possibly could an old person like you have to say in a a place like Facebook?” At the same time I had gone to a college reunion and my college friends would not take me seriously when i told them to join. Instead we spied on their kids. Since then, and mostly in the last few months, several of my siblings have joined, we have connected with several cousins (all over the age of 40), college friends, high school friends, and last week my almost 80 year old mother joined! I love it, it’s fun!

Commoncraft.com a really cool training website

As a trainer, I get excited when I see easy to understand explanations. I was referred to The Commoncraft Show today by a colleague who said it was a place to learn about Web 2.0 functionality. I wasn’t quite sure what that was to start with, so figured I’d go to find out.  What I found were many Video’s in Plain English. For example: 

Video: Wikis in Plain English

or

Video: RSS in Plain English

Video: Twitter in Plain English

They are simple, short and really kind of fun to watch.  What better learning tool?  Enjoy!

ILMIP – (I love my iPHone) My love affair has shattered

Ok, so perhaps my love affair with my iPhone hasn’t exactly shattered, but it has hit a serious bump in the road. I dropped it today.  I dropped it on hard ground.  I was at the Aquarium on a field trip and it fell out of my pocket as I was hurrying. I picked it up and almost cried. Had it not been for the 36 kids and their teachers and other parents I may have. It could have been worse, I could have been near the water, and it could have slid in.  At least it still works, and most of the cracks are towards the top, so I can still use it for a little longer, I think. So the screen shattering was my first shock.

The second shock came later when I called Apple support. I had a feeling the news was going to be bad when I called, but it was worse than I thought. The very nice support tech who answered my call within a few minutes informed me that this type of damage was not covered under warranty.  Then he gave me my 3 choices:

1. See if my homeowner’s insurance covered electronic items such as this.
2. See if AT&T would give me some sort of an upgrade (I think I used that when I bought the phone).
3. See if I could get it repaired by a third party in the neighborhood of $190.

Replacing the glass, is not just replacing the glass.  This is why I held off. It was no surprise to my DH that this happened. My old phone that worked just fine for so long, was beaten and battered because it went to the park, went to the pool, went to the beach, and I never worried too much about it because it was always the free phone. 

I did coddle my dear iPhone for quite some time (I’ve only had it since July), and I still was doing a good job of that, though I was getting a little lax. I allowed a few frivolous apps on it which invited my sweet boys to obsess over playing with it.

Why oh why does it have to cost so much to replace the glass? Apparently it’s not just glass.  It’s high technology and that is magic, and magic is expensive.

This post has been somewhat therapeutic. I had been a little obsessive with my dear phone. Perhaps this was my wake up call.

ILMIP (I love my iPhone) – Shazam v. Midomi at the Car Wash

I had 10 minutes on my hands today while I was waiting to get my car washed. One of my students told me about a cool new iPhone app called Midomi. It works like Shazamwhere it can listen to music on the radio then tell you the song, artist, etc. So I did a comparison. This car wash is located on a busy intersection, so in addition to the car wash noise, there is a lot of other background noise. The music was coming out of speakers mounted inside the top of an awning.

Three out of three songs Shazam identified correctly. I had to give it two tries on song 1 but it got it the second time. Unfortunately Midomi did not measure up. Three out of three songs were returned with none or incorrect information.  I will have to try it tomorrow in the car with the windows rolled up to see if it can do better.

The songs were:

Too Much Heaven by the BeeGees
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic by The Police
Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis

So, Midomi does allow you to sing or hum.  I just tried it and it picked up all three songs I hummed or sang. And, I’m not all that good at it. So kudos for Midomi. 

I’m keeping them both on my phone.
Total cost: $0.00!

I Love my iPhone

This Christmas several of my friends and colleagues have gotten iPhones. A few are people like me that had very simple phones, or in one case no cell phone at all (yes, really, no cell phone at all).  I want to share what I know about my iPhone because I really love it, and people can take or leave the info. 

Tonight I got an email from a friend requesting advice on my iPhone.  Did I like it? Did I do a lot of email, etc.  So, this will help formulate my response to her, and finally get me posting about it.

My Phone History

Prior to my iPhone I was using a $15 AT&T phone from Radio Shack.  It was my temporary phone until I got my iPhone. I was given good advice to wait until the 3G phone came out before purchasing.  My old Nokia phone was unusable.  I had dropped or thrown it too many times and could not read the screen. No, I didn’t throw it because I was mad, it would just randomly fly out of my hand, or fall out of my pocket.  So, I was nervous about having a fancy phone but couldn’t resist.  So, about a month after the new 3G phone came out, I went to the Apple store thinking there would be no wait, and well, there was a wait.  They were handing out place holder cards, but they were only for the 16gig phone.  I only wanted the 8gig.  I mean, I was upgrading from a $15 phone that was working quite well.

The Apple Store Experience