HOUSECALL information technology

Using forms saves time and energy while ensuring that needed information is provided in an easy to read format. Creating forms can be a major headache. Fortunately Word 2007 provides some easy to use tools to help create customized interactive forms. Most users choose not to take advantage of these powerful tools because they seem overwhelming.  This guide will explain just how simple it is to create forms in Microsoft Word 2007.

A form is a document with pre-defined fields for a user to complete. To start creating one, decide what type of form you’d like to create. For this example, we will be creating an Employee Leave form.

Open Microsoft Office 2007 and click the Office Button  and choose “New”

Under the Templates heading, choose “My templates…”

In the new window, select “Blank Document,” click the “Template” radio button, and click “OK”

Congratulations, you’ve just created a blank template! We are now going to add content to your form.

Click the Office button and select “Word Options”

Click “Popular,” check the box next to “Show Developer tab in the Ribbon,” and click OK. This adds a new tab to the ribbon at the top of the Office 2007 screen. The Developer tab contains all the controls you need to create simple or complex forms.

On the Developer tab, the section labeled “Controls” contains a number of icons, each of which create a different form item.

is the Rich Text button, which creates a Rich Text fill-in field.

is the Text button, which creates a basic Text fill-in field.

The difference between these two buttons is that Rich Text allows you to group form fields. For our purposes, we will only use the Text button.

is the Drop Down Box button, which creates a drop down box form item, which you can fill with items to select between.

is the Combo Box button. This allows you to either select from a list of choices (like a Drop Down Box) or insert your own text (like a Text or Rich Text button).

is the Date Picker button. This allows you to quickly pick a specific date from an on-screen calendar and formats the date any way you’d like.

is the Picture Content Control button. It allows you to insert a picture from a file into a predetermined area on your document.

is the Legacy Tools button. This allows you to add a number of basic form fields including radio buttons and check boxes.

Now that we know a bit about the different controls we can use, let’s create that Employee Leave form.

First, let’s create the basic layout of the form. In the end it should look something like this:

As you can see above, there are a number of areas that need to be filled in. Let’s start by adding a few Date Picker buttons. This will clean up the overall appearance of the form and give the employee a nice visual interface when they are filling it out.

Click next to where it says “Date:” in the top right corner of the document.

In the Developer tab, click the “Date Picker” button

This gives you a basic calendar to pick a day from. We are now going to customize it. Click the “Properties button” in the Controls section of the Developer tab.

Under properties, you can give the button a Title and Tag, which will label the button. You can also choose to lock the button so that it can’t be deleted or have it’s properties edited.  Check the first box (Content control cannot be deleted) but not the second (Contents cannot be edited). If you check the second box, users will not be able to change the date. Choose the appropriate date format and click OK.

You now have a Date form that still says “Click here to enter a date.” In order to change the text to something more instructive, click the “Design Mode” button in the Controls section of the Developer tab. You’ll notice that brackets appear around the form.

Click inside the brackets and replace the text with something more descriptive. Once you’ve done that, unclick the Design Mode button. The final result will look like this:

You now have added a Date Picker control to the form. I am going to add two more Date Picker controls in place of the “Requested Leave Start date” and “Requested Leave End date” fields. The form will then look like this:

Next let’s add a Drop Down Box so employees can choose their name from a list.

Click next to “Employee Name” and select Drop Down list  from the Controls area of the Developer tab.

Click Properties from the Controls area of the Developer tab and add employee names by clicking the “Add” button and inserting their names. You can also change and delete names from the list in this window.

Once you’ve added all the employee names, select the first item “Choose an item” from the list of names and click Remove. Check the “Content Control cannot be deleted” box and click OK.

Change the title of the” Employee Name” drop down box by clicking on the Design Mode button and changing the text inside the brackets from “Choose an item” to something more descriptive. I chose “Your Name”

Since not all information can be added to a drop down box , let’s add a text box for “Total Time requested” and “Special notes”

Click next to “Total Time requested” and choose the Text content control . Click the Properties button in the Controls area of the Developer tab and check the “Content Control cannot be deleted” box and click OK.

Click the Design Mode button in the Controls area of the Developer tab and change “Click here to enter text” to something more applicable for the form. I chose “Please enter time in days and hours.” Once you are finished, uncheck Design Mode.

To create a multi-paragraph text box, you only need to change one setting. Let’s create one by clicking next to “Special notes” and adding another Text content control.

Click Click the Properties button in the Controls area of the Developer tab and check the “Content Control cannot be deleted” box as well as the “Allow carriage returns (multiple paragraphs)” and click OK. Now you can type multiple paragraphs in one text control box.

Click the Design Mode button in the Controls area of the Developer tab and change “Click here to enter text” to “Add any additional information here.” Don’t forget to uncheck Design Mode.

Almost all of our fields are now filled out. We could use a drop down box for the “Leave type” field, but this would also make a great occasion to learn how to create radio buttons. Radio buttons allow you to pick one option out of a group (whereas check boxes allow you to pick multiple options.

To start, click next to “Leave type” and click the Legacy tools button  from the Controls area of the Developer tab.

This will create an item called “OptionButton1.” Click the Properties button on the Controls area of the Developer tab. Find the item called “Caption” and change it to “Annual Leave”

To

You can add as many additional Radio buttons as you’d like. I’ve added two more buttons.

As one last touch, I’m going to add a check box next to the statement that begins “I have given…” This is very simple, all you need to do is lace the cursor in front of the statement “I have given…” and select the check box from Legacy tools.

It will automatically add the check box and the form will end up looking like this:

Now all you need to do is save the form in the correct way so that people can only edit the form data and not the forms themselves.

Click the Protect Document icon on the Developer Tab and chose “Restrict Formatting and Editing

On the left side of the screen, check the box labeled “Allow only this type of editing in the document:” and select “Filling in forms” from the drop down box.

Click “Yes, Start Enforcing Protection” and enter a password to protect the document.  Click OK and your document is now protected.

Click the Office button and choose “Save as à Word Template”

Select “Word Macro-Enabled Template” from the “Save as type” drop down box and your document is now ready to be used.

Most companies and organizations have a set limit on how much space you are allotted for email. Combine that with many people wanting to save every email they ever send or receive (you never know when you’re going to need to dig it back up) and the stacks of email that a person usually gets in the average business day and mailboxes can fill up very quickly. This article is going to focus on checking your inbox size, archiving and sorting your email in Outlook and Entourage. If you’re looking to clear out your gmail inbox, here are two great articles, one from lifehacker and one from web worker daily, on giving your gmail a fresh start.

Outlook

Outlook allows you to archive and sort emails by using personal folders, which are also known as archive folders and PSTs. The terms personal folders, archive folders and PSTs are terms that can be used interchangeably, so for simplicity we will refer to them as personal folders.

To create a set of personal folders in Outlook, go to the File menu, select New, and click Outlook Data File. You will be given a choice between two types of files. Chose Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst). Click OK. You are then given an option of where you would like your personal folders to live. If you have space on a server, it’s a good idea to put your personal folders file there. Click on My Computer to see a list of drives available. When you’ve chosen, click OK.

Next you will be asked to name your personal folders. You can pick any name for them you’d like and you can always change the name later. Here you can add a password if you’d like, but it’s not recommended. If you lose your personal folder’s password it is difficult to recover. When you’re finished click OK.

Your personal folders will appear on the left of Outlook under your mailbox folders with the name you chose. Click the + sign to expand the folders. Here you can add more folders to organize your email. Right click and select New Folder.

Name your folder. Under “select where to put this folder” you can choose which folder you’d like to contain your new folder. The folder you right clicked to create a new folder will be the default.

Now you can archive your emails. There are two ways to do this. One option is to manually chose what emails you want to archive. In this method you drag and drop your emails directly into your personal folders. Doing one email at a time would take forever, but you can select multiple emails at once with the control (ctrl) and shift keys.

The ctrl key lets you select emails individually. Just hold down the ctrl key and select emails, then drag them into your personal folders.

The shift key selects a set of emails in a row. Select the first email you want to move, then hold down the shift key and select the last email. All the emails in-between will be selected and you can move them into your personal folders.

Your second option is AutoArchiving. To setup your AutoArchive settings, to go the tools menu, click options, and click the other tab. Click AutoArchive.

Here you can edit the auto archive settings. Choose how often you want the auto-archive to run. We recommend checking the box next to Prompt Before AutoArchive Runs so that you will know when AutoArchive is running and you can cancel it before it begins. Make sure the following boxes are checked: Archive or Delete Old Items, Show Archive Folder in Folder List, and Move Old Items to. Click the Browse button to navigate to the personal folders file you created earlier. Note that when you AutoArchive items it will create folders in your personal folders that are identical to the folders you are archiving from. So if you just have an Inbox and a Sent Items folder it will create a folder called Inbox and a folder called Sent Items in your personal folders. You can click the Run AutoArchive Now button to auto archive your files immediately.

You can also use rules to automatically archive emails when they come into your inbox. This is helpful if you belong to a mailing list or subscribe to a newsletter. See our blog entry on Outlook rules for more information.

Entourage

Archiving emails in Entourage is incredibly simple. First, expand the section under your inbox called On My Computer by clicking the triangle next to it. You can drag emails into the inbox or sent items folders here, or you can create your own folders. Create your own folders by right clicking or holding down the control key and clicking On My Computer and selecting New Subfolder.

You can create as many subfolders within subfolders as you would like.

There is no AutoArchive option for Entourage but you can move emails over manually. The command and shift keys help you select multiple emails at once:

The command key lets you select emails individually. Just hold down the command key and select emails, then drag them into your personal folders.

The shift key selects a set of emails in a row. Select the first email you want to move, then hold down the shift key and select the last email. All the emails in-between will be selected and you can move them into your personal folders.

There are many different methods for organizing your email once your folders are created. You can choose to have a different personal folder for each year, or you can have different folders for projects you are working on. Another option is the trusted trio method from LifeHacker. How you sort your email is up to you.

Having an organized inbox is just as important as keeping a clean workspace. But, if you’re getting hundreds of emails daily, it can be difficult to find time to sort through your many messages. Outlook and other email applications can help you keep your inbox tidy and highlight the important information with rules.

In Outlook, rules are a set of conditions, actions, and exceptions that process and organize messages automatically. Rules are completely customizable to your specific needs and can do many functions that help organize, customize and clean your mailbox. To create a rule for your mailbox, look in the tools menu bar for “Rules and Alerts” and open it. Here, Outlook lets you decide whether to create a rule using a pre-created template or to create a new rule from scratch. While the pre-created templates can be useful, creating a rule from scratch gives you the most flexibility and is what we recommend.

Since there are countless options for creating a rule, we will use an example to explain the process:

Say you want to create a rule that will automatically put all the emails you receive with the word “finance” in the subject into a folder labeled “Financial Information” in your personal folders. Find where it says “Start from a blank rule.” Then choose “Check messages when they arrive.” This tells Outlook to check the emails you receive as opposed to the ones you send. Click next. Check the box next to “with specific words in the subject.” Here you’re telling Outlook to look in the subject line for a specific word or phrase. Other options include looking for emails sent from a specific person, or sent to a certain email address—if you want to sort out emails that are sent to a distribution list you’re on. By clicking the blue underlined “specific words” at the bottom of the page it will let you customize which words you want to specify. Type in “finance” and click add. Now this rule will run on any email that arrives in your inbox with the word finance in the subject. Click OK to return to the previous box and click next.

Now you will designate what you want done with the emails. Check the box next to “move it to the specified folder.” You will need to specify which folder to send it to by clicking on “specified” at the bottom of the dialogue box. Choose the folder in the personal folders labeled “Financial Information” (you will need to create the folder you want the messages to go in beforehand) and click OK to set that option and then click next. This brings us to the exceptions. For the example, we’ll say that you would like this rule only to apply to those messages sent directly to me, if you are being CC’ed they will stay in your Inbox. Choose the box next to “except where my name is in the CC box” and hit next. The rule is now set up! You can now decide whether to run this rule on the emails in that are already in your inbox. This will move any emails in your inbox that follow the rule into the specified folder. You can also choose to turn on or leave it off for the time being. Rules and alerts are only active if they are checked in the “Rules and Alerts” box and the rules you set up will only be active when your Outlook is open.

There are many rules and alerts to customize and we suggest that you utilize this feature to improve efficiency and minimize your workload. For more information and tips on using rules, check out Tips for Managing Your E-Mail Using Rules from Microsoft Office Online.

Please contact us for assistance or further information for other email applications, including Entourage, Apple Mail, etc.

Anyone working in today’s environment will have opened many PDF files from email attachments or downloaded from the Internet. PDFs can be opened on any computer using Adobe’s free PDF reader software Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is most likely already on your computer. Reading a PDF is effortless, but what about you want to create one? You might want to create a PDF to distribute a document while making sure no one edits your work. Small file size is another reason to create a PDF. A PDF is usually smaller than the same document would be in Microsoft Word. The process for creating a PDF is different than you might expect, but it’s easy and there are a few different methods depending on what operating system and software you’re using.

You can create a PDF out of just about anything that is printable, including pages from the Internet. You can convert any file into PDF using familiar software such as Microsoft Word or Publisher, software from the Open Office suite, or Apple’s iWork software to name a few. You can create a PDF by printing to PDF. This may sound strange since printing usually involves creating hard copies of documents on the tray of a printer. It may help if you think about a PDF as a “digital hard copy.” If you created a document, spreadsheet, or presentation, The PDF is the final draft of your work. But, instead of distributing it the old fashioned way, you can distribute it electronically.

A handy example of printing to PDF is anytime you need to keep a record of something you see on the internet, like a page indicating your receipt for a recent purchase.  Instead of printing the receipt on paper, you can opt to print it as a PDF and keep a digital copy on your designated hard drive.  It is much easier to keep a digital folder of receipts than just a paper folder.

Adobe Acrobat Professional
Adobe Acrobat Professional (Acrobat Pro) allows you to not only create PDFs but also offers tools for doing more with your PDFs such creating PDF forms. The software is powerful, but expensive. If you have Acrobat Pro installed on your computer, you can easily print to PDF. When you are finished with the document you want to turn into a PDF, go to the File menu and then select Print, or you may “save as” a PDF. (If you are using Microsoft Office 2007, you will go to the Office menu instead.) You will see the usual screen with printer options, including selecting a printer from the drop-down menu. From the drop down menu select “Adobe PDF” and choose where you want to save your PDF. Then click Save. It will take a few seconds or longer to create the PDF depending on the size of your document. When the PDF is created, it will open in Acrobat Pro. If you choose to “save as” a PDF, you will be prompted for a PDF file name similar to printing in PDF.

CutePDF
Printing to PDF using CutePDF works the same way as using Acrobat Pro. CutePDF is a free application that can be downloaded from the Internet. (Note: Always check with your Systems Administrator before downloading software from the Internet.) If you are a HouseCall client, CutePDF should already be installed on your computer. When you’re ready, go to the File or Office menu and then select Print. The printer options screen will appear, including a drop-down menu of the printers installed on your PC. From the drop down menu, select “CutePDF Writer” and choose where you want to save your PDF. Then click Save. It will take a few seconds or longer to create the PDF depending on the size of your document. When the PDF is created, you will find it in the folder you selected.

Office 2007
With Microsoft Office 2007 installed on your computer you can create PDFs from your Office files using an extension that you can download and install here. Once the extension is installed, creating a PDF from your Office 2007 document is easy. Just go to the Office menu and go to Save As and select Save As PDF or XPS. Select the folder where you would like to save the PDF. Make sure the Save as Type is set to PDF. Click Publish. Your new PDF will automatically open in your default PDF viewer, most likely Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Mac OS X
If you use a Mac and have OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later (this includes Leopard and Snow Leopard) you do not need any additional software to create PDFs. With the document you want to turn into a PDF open, simply go to the File menu and select Print. A window with options will appear. Click the button labeled PDF in the lower left hand corner. From the drop down menu click Save as PDF. Choose where you want to save your PDF and click save. You will find the PDF in the folder you selected.

Going Green: The more you accomplish your goals by just printing PDF, the less paper you will consume.

If you have any questions or if you are interested in any of the software mentioned feel free to contact your HouseCall Systems Administrator.