Eyedropper Tool to the Max!

Those of you who are familiar with the Format Painter in Microsoft Office programs have probably wished there were a similar tool in other programs. Well in Adobe InDesign, you can use the Eyedropper Tool to quickly copy text formatting and apply it to other text, just like you can with the Format Painter!

Just follow these steps:

1. Format one paragraph the way you want it (I recommend using a paragraph style)
2. Select the Eyedropper Tool from the toolbox on the left
   
   
3. Click on the formatted paragraph. Your Eyedropper Tool should now appear to be filled (it's filled with the formatting characteristics of that paragraph)
4. You can now click on any unformatted paragraph with the Eyedropper Tool, and it will format them! Not only that, but it will even apply the paragraph style to those paragraphs!

Learn more about InDesign shortcuts and paragraph styles in one of our fun classes! Click here to register.

Sort Birthdays by Month, then Day, then by Year

Happy Birthday to me! Yes, as today is my birthday, it is only fitting that I post an IT training tutorial about sorting birthdays in Access.

To prepare for this tutorial, download our University Records database, and open a new query, by clicking on the "Create" tab, and then "Query Design."

• Add the Students table.
• Add these fields to the query: first_name, last_name, and birthday.
• Sort birthday ascending.

Your query should look like this:Here's the problem: When you run this query, it sorts first by year, then by month, then by day. Sorting like that makes sense because obviously December 25, 1953 came before October 31, 1975. However, we want our birthday list sorted by month, then day, and then year. That way we can send out birthday cards to everyone that was born in June, regardless of the year they were born.

Query Expressions
Were going to use some functions to pull out important information from our birthday field.

1. In query design view, clear the sort from the birthday field.
2. In the next column over, name a new field by typing (without quotes): "B-Day Month:"
3. Now type in the function: "Month()"
4. Now, between the parenthesis, we want to specify what value we want the month of, and that would be the birthday. So type: "[birthday]" between the parenthesis.
5. Sort this field ascending, and run your query. (final design view below)

To sort next, by day, add another column on your design view. Guess what the name of this function is...Day()!

• It should look something like this: "B-day Day: Day([birthday])"
• Sort ascending.
• Done

To learn more skills like this, sign up for one of our free Access classes. It will change your life in all the right ways.

Don't Curse the Cursors in Excel!

The first time you open Excel all the different cursors can be a little confusing. Perhaps you have used Excel before but get frustrated because of the unpredictable results you get by clicking in different places.

There is a lot more to it than just a simple click or double click - so buckle up and check out the table below that lists all the different cursors and their many behaviors. Some of behaviors require you to hold down keys on your keyboard (Shift, Ctrl, or Alt).

How can you try it out? Open up Excel and just playing! Or open up one of the files from our class page to try it out. If you get lost or want to learn more, sign up for one of free classes.

Combining First and Last Names in Access

Sometimes when I'm creating a query which will be used in a report, I like to display pieces of information together in one field. A common example of this is displaying first and last names together in one field. The principle itself is pretty straightforward, but sometimes the syntax can be a little confusing. We cover this topic in more depth in our Access Foundations Class (so you should click on the link and sign up) but this should get you on your way.

Whenever one creates a relational database in Access, it's important to separate information as much as possible in order in increase the flexibility of the queries that one can create. As a result, we often end up with a database where we separate elements that we normally combine. For example, when we address envelopes, we need the house number, street name, and zip code to be together. But when we enter those pieces of information in Access, we usually split them up so that we can sort, group and search them as separate elements.

In order to put them back together in a query, go to your

• Type the name of the first field in brackets (ex. [last_name])


• To add another field, type an Ampersand (ex> "&")


• Type the name of the second field in brackets (ex. [last_name]&[first_name])
  

You'll notice that this will just put the two fields together without any spaces, so it might be useful to put a space in between the two fields in quotes:

[last_name]&" "&[first_name]


Or you might even sneak a comma in there so it looks like this:

[last_name]&", "&[first_name]


Which will look like this:

"Urie, Jonathan"

In access, it will look like this:



The "Expr1:" from that picture simply refers to the name of this new field and the finished result looks like this: