Tip of the Week Blog
May 2007, Week 3 Merging Excel Data Source Into Word For Staff... Getting the formatting right when you use an Excel data source for mail merge can be extremely frustrating. There are ways to correct the formatting by using switches in the field codes, but it can be a time-consuming and frustrating exercise. Fortunately, there is an easy way to circumvent the use of switches and still have your data appear as you would like it. 1. With the main document open, click the Tools menu 2. Select Options. 3. On the General tab, select Confirm Conversion at Open 4. Click OK When you select an alternate data source such as Excel, it will ask you to choose the type of data source. When presented with the choice, select MS Excel Files via DDE. When you merge the document with the data source, the formatting from the Excel data source will be retained. Ethics: Which Half Are You In? In the past several years, many law firms and paralegal associations alike have come to the realization that all employees in a law firm setting are in need of ethics training just like the attorneys that work for them.
Reprinted with permission from The Payton Company. To be continued in the following weeks.... | ||||||||||||||||||||||
May 2007, Week 1 Someone Sent Me a Microsoft 2007 File. What Do I Do? For Staff... Microsoft Office 2007 has been released and is already on a lot of computer desktops. If you haven't received one already, it's just a matter of time before you receive documents written in Word 2007, spreadsheets charted in Excel 2007 or presentations prepared with PowerPoint 2007. Is your Microsoft Office version ready to handle this? A new version of Microsoft Office means new file formats and file extensions - therefore documents written with Office 2007 programs won't open directly on computers running Office 2003, XP, 2000 or Office 97. What's the alternative for users who won't immediately migrate to Office 2007? Well, there's absolutely no reason to worry about such issues. Microsoft has created some useful document converters, viewers and other useful add-ons. Get the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. The Compatibility Pack will let you read Office 2007 documents in Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003. So you can open a .docx file with Word 2003 or .pptx with PowerPoint 2003. Download Office 2007 Compatibility Pack Legal Technology Resource Guide If you know you need to upgrade or purchase technology for your firm, but aren't sure where to find what you need -- or even figure out WHAT you need, go to Legal Technology Resource Guide. A client decided she needed to have a "real" IT person (and not her partner's college-age son who was handy with computers) after the system crashed. Yes, they had religiously backed up their data on a weekly basis. However, when they went to retrieve the data, it was blank. Apparently, no one had checked to ensure that the back-up data was recoverable. A very expensive lesson. At least once a month, try to restore a couple of documents from your back-up tapes. It only takes a couple of minutes, but could save your practice. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
