Creative Computer Tips with Cara

 What is Mail Merge; How and Why is it Used? A mail merge is an automated process of creating personalized mass emails by using data from a spreadsheet or database file.   Creating a mail merge is helpful in many ways to increase efficiency and decrease work. When typing a document to many others, it will reduce work time by inserting a customized greeting and inside address from your contact data.   It requires two components: 1) A template of a letter or an email with specific placeholders in the body. 2) A spreadsheet with a set of data that should replace placeholders for each individual recipient.   STEP 1 Begin by creating your document, leaving the address and greeting fields blank and no placeholders,     STEP 2-3 Type your recipient list by clicking on the mail merge tab and type a new list (unless you have a saved data table then choose existing list.   STEP 4 Save your address list to a file.   ...

Inserting a Textbox How & Why a Textbox is Inserted Text boxes can be useful for drawing attention to specific text and can also be helpful when you need to move text around in your document.   When working with images on a page, using a textbox can ensure that the inserted text goes where it's intended.   Follow these steps to easily insert a textbox: Step 1-- Go to INSERT and on the text ribbon select INSERT TEXTBOX. Step 2-- Select TEXTBOX- then click on the DRAW TEXTBOX option and place the box anywhere you would like your text to go, Step 3-- Type your text into the box and click outside it when finished.

Templates in Microsoft Word: When, How, and Why They Are Used Templates let you reuse the same structure and styles in numerous documents. When you apply a template to a document, Word applies the template’s styles and structure to the new document.   A few reasons we may use a template are consistency, accuracy, professionalism, and efficiency. It is a lot faster than editing all of the details out ourselves.    The best time to apply a custom template is when you create the document using the New option (on the File tab). Word displays two template categories: Featured and Personal. To choose one of your custom templates, click the Personal tab and then click the custom template you want to apply. Many times we want to use a template but would like to modify it. It is simple and the steps are as follows: On the File screen, choose the Options command. The Word Options dialog box appears. Choose Add-Ins from the left side of the Word Options dialog box. Choo...

 The Easy Way to Change Between Uppercase, Lowercase, and Title Case. In Microsoft Word, you can use the keyboard shortcut Shift + F3 to change selected text between uppercase, lowercase, and title case. Highlight all the text you want to change. Hold down the Shift and press F3. When you hold Shift and press F3, the text toggles from sentence case (first letter uppercase and the rest lowercase), to all uppercase (all capital letters), and then all lowercase.

Why, Where, and How Reference Initials Are Used You can use reference initials when contracting a business letter to another professional. This allows recipients to know who typed their letter. The person writing the letter may not always be the one who types the finished letter. It can be helpful for professionals to hire someone to edit and type their message effectively. People usually assume that the person who signs the letter also typed it unless otherwise specified. Therefore, you don't need to include any reference initials if you type a letter yourself. Usually reference symbol are placed on the bottom of a business letter, two lines after the writer's signature. Try to insert the initials on the left side of the page. If there's an enclosed note, you can place it underneath your reference initials.

 The Difference Between a Tab and a First-line Indent in Word. You can indent paragraphs, or selected text, in your document from the left margin, the right margin, or both the margins.  Whether you would like to adjust a single line or an entire paragraph, you can set indents and tabs to specific places throughout the entire document. TABS Tabs are set to distribute text evenly between the left and right margins.  By default, every time you press the Tab key, the insertion point will move 1/2 inch to the right.   You can add tab stops to the Ruler, which allows you to change the size of the tabs. INDENTS In many types of documents, you may want to indent only the first line of each paragraph.  This helps to visually separate paragraphs from one another. Generally, if the insertion point is at the beginning of an existing paragraph, it will create a  first - line   indent ; otherwise, it will create a tab.

International Dialing Codes: How to Make an International Call International calls can be expensive and it’s not always clear how you connect to a phone number based on the other side of the world. To make an international call on a landline phone standard desk phone, you need to dial your country’s international direct dialling (IDD) number, followed by the country code you’re calling to, then the phone number you’re calling including the area code or city code if it has one. You Can Follow these steps to make an international call: Simply dial 1, the area code, and the number you are trying to reach.  To call a phone in another country, dial 011, and then the code for the country you are calling, the area or city code, and the phone number. For example, to dial France from the United States and the United Kingdom, two different codes need to be added at the beginning of the international phone number.

 How to Total a Column or Row of Numbers in Word. When working with Word, if you need to sum values in a table, it can be done without entering the data into Excel and then copying and pasting it into Word. Lets Begin. Click Formula in the Data section of the Layout tab. We are going to multiply the Units by the Unit Cost and then total the Total column. Enter the following in the Formula edit box on the Formula dialog box to multiply the two number to the left of the current cell: =PRODUCT(LEFT) Click OK to accept the settings and insert the formula into the cell. The result of the formula displays in the cell. Follow the same steps to multiply the Units and Unit Cost in each of the other rows.