Tips for Microsoft Office 2003/XP

Why Reinvent the Wheel?
Trying to make a calendar in Excel or a newsletter in Word? Microsoft offers hundreds of downloadable Office templates online that look great and are ready to go—everything from agendas and award certificates to invitations and newsletters. They are even given user ratings, so you know at a glance which templates are the best. Go to office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/FX100595491033.aspx.


Split Personality
In Microsoft Word, you don't have to keep mousing up to the View menu to toggle between different views of a document (say, between the Print Layout and the Web Layout). Word lets you see two views at once. Choose Split from the Window menu, click in the upper document and select one view, then click in the lower document window and assign a different view.


Side by Side
Need to compare two Excel workbooks? Forget toggling between them or trying to resize their windows manually—Excel will do it for you, automatically. Simply open both documents and choose Compare Side by Side from the Window menu. You can choose a vertical split with the worksheets in a side-by-side view, or a horizontally split above/below view. Bonus: You can synchronize scrolling, so the two views move in tandem.


Flag Day
Never again overlook an important e-mail message in your cluttered Outlook Inbox folder. Simply right-click on a message header, and scroll down to Follow Up. You can then attach a flag to the selected message so it stands out. (Outlook 2003 offers six color choices.) You can also assign a meaning to each flag color (follow up, forward, and so on) and ask Outlook to remind you to take said action by a date you set. You can even use the Arrange By menu (under the View menu) to sort your Inbox or other folder by flag type.


Follow the Conversation
Outlook 2003 has the ability to sort your mail by the thread (or "conversation"), not just by date or sender. Click on the Arrange By menu (under the View menu) and select Conversation. This lets you more easily follow a given thread, or file or delete threaded messages without having to hunt through your Inbox folder to find all the related e-mail.