Take Screenshots Without Opening OneNote

Sometimes you want a picture of something on your screen. Screen shots allow you to capture your whole screen or just a part of it and save it as a picture.

OneNote has a great tool for taking screen shots or "screen clippings." However, you may not want to have to open OneNote every time you want to take a picture. So, you can actually place OneNote in your taskbar, and access just the screen clipping tool from there.

How to place OneNote in the taskbar:

1. In OneNote, select Tools at the top
2. Select Options...
3. Select Other from the menu on the left
4. Check the check box at the top labeled: Place OneNote icon in the notification area of the taskbar

Now, you should see the OneNote icon in the bottom right area of your screen in the taskbar.

How to use the screen clipping tool:

1. Right-click the OneNote icon in the taskbar
2. Select Create Screen Clipping
   You may have also noticed the shortcut (Window + S)
3. Your screen will turn faded, and you can click and drag your cursor over the area you want a picture of

OneNote will automatically open and place the screen clipping on a page. The picture is also placed on clipboard, so you can now paste that image anywhere, even in documents outside of OneNote.

Learn more about the awesome capabilities of OneNote in our class! Click here to register.

Format Painter

One of the quickest ways to format text or objects in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is with the Format Painter. For example, if you have several lines of text in a Word document that you want to look the same, it can be a hassle to format each line of text individually. So, after you have formatted the first line of text, you can copy that formatting with the Format Painter and apply that formatting to the other text lines. The Format Painter works the same in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

How to use the Format Painter:

1. Format one of the objects, cells, or lines of text
2. Select the object or cell (or highlight the line of text)
3. Select the Format Painter button (located on far left corner of the Home tab)
4. Select the unformatted objects or cells (highlight the unformatted lines of text)

This method allows you to format objects one at a time. If you have multiple objects that need to be formatted, simply double-click on the Format Painter button in step 3 (see steps above). The Format Painter stays on so you can apply formatting to multiple objects, cells, or lines of text. Then, when you are finished, de-select the Format Painter button.

The Format Painter is an awesome tool that will save you time and effort as you make your format your documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.

Learn more tools and shortcuts for Microsoft programs in our fun classes! Click here to register.

Fancy gradient for your webpage

In this tutorial I will show you how to create a gradient in Photoshop and then add it to the background of a web page you are making in Dreamweaver. To learn other awesome skills like this one, sign up for our Dreamweaver of Photoshop Foundations class.

Last names 255 characters long? Yeah, right.

Anytime you create a table in Access that includes text fields, the default field size is 255. Well, most people change this (or should!) every time they create a new field; and 255 is almost always bigger than the field needs to be.

Is there a way to change the default to something other than 255?

Of course! Its actually very simple.

1. With Access 2007 open, click on the Office Button in the top left corner.
2. When the menu opens, click "Access Options" in the bottom right corner of the menu.
3. After you have clicked Access Options, a box will open. On the left is a list of option categories - click Object Designers (and that's what you are!)
4. At the very top of these options you will see a line that says "Default Text Field Size: 255" - change that number to anything less than 255! The screen shot below shows this step.
5. That's it!
   
   

To learn more about the basics of tables and working with Access, click here to sign up for our free Access Foundations course.