Add a Stock Market Ticker Effect to your PowerPoint Presentation

You can add scrolling words to the bottom of your PowerPoint presentation so that it looks like the Stock Market Ticker Effect by using PowerPoint’s Crawl in Effect. You can add the same message to every page in your PowerPoint or just add it to the first page.



Step by step instructions:

1. Add a textbox onto the slide, and add the text that you want to scroll across the bottom of the screen.

2. Place the textbox on the bottom left, just beside the edge of the slide. (Move the textbox off the slide so that it can’t be seen)

3. Select Slide Show > Custom Animation

4. Select the textbox, and then click Add Effect > Entrance > Crawl In

5. On the Effect tab, Change the Direction to “From Right”

6. On the Timing tab - change the Speed to “20 seconds”; Change Repeat to “Until End of Slide”

Split the View in a Microsoft Word Document

Sometimes it is handy to be able to split the screen in Word in two (particularly with long documents). Look at the very top of the scrollbar on the right side of the screen and you will see a small grey shaped _ button. It isn't easy to see but the upward arrow button is directly below it. Click and hold the button and drag your mouse down the screen and release. Your document is now in two separate areas.

Free Online/Offline Email

Zimbra Desktop is free for anyone to download and use. It works on Windows, Apple and Linux computers. It combines email, calendar, contacts, and documents and there is an additional collaboration tool.

• Email, contacts, calendar, and documents all in one application
• Syncs Zimbra, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail email, contacts and calendars
• Read email from any POP or IMAP email account including AOL, Hotmail or business email
• Works on Windows, Apple, or Linux desktop computers
• No limit to the size of your email storage
• It works online AND offline

We think it's a great FREE alternative to Outlook.

Need to clear up cluttered icons on your desktop?

I could hardly see the wallpaper on my desktop for the array of icons scattered all over it! Have now discovered "Fences". Clean and organise your desktop by creating shaded areas which become movable and re-sizeable containers for your icons. Double click blank spaces on your desktop and all your fences will fade out, and back! I love it!

Get Help With Word 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 brings with it countless improvements over the 2003 version but some features, especially the new ribbon interface, can be a little tricky to get to grips with. This interactive guide from Microsoft takes you step-by-step through the transition from 2003 to 2007.

Download Guide

Free Alternative to Adobe Photoshop

Paint.net is intended as a replacement for the limited Paint progam that comes with Windows. Paint.net is a free image and photo manipulation program that supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects adn a number of tools and effects.

It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials and plugins. Apart from GIMP, it does not seem to have many rivals as far as freebies are concerned.

Request a FREE introduction on how to get started in paint.net.

Free Alternative Software to the Microsoft Office Suite

If you're looking for an alternative to Microsoft Office Open Office is a worthy contender and it's absolutely FREE!

Open Office, developed by Sun Micro Systems, is a hugely popular alternative and is free to download and use - not bad given that the standard edition of Microsoft Office costs in the region of £250.

The fact that it's free often leads people t think Open Office has limited features, but this is not true: the current Version 3 has functionality that rivals Microsoft Office. Open Office will also save files as Microsoft versions - useful for sharing with those using Microsoft products.

There is also readily available a selection of official Open Office Tutorials. If, however, you would like more in depth eduction the software, or prefer to be professionally trained on a one-to-one basis, then training is available from The Away PA.

Lessons are carried out in 1 hour modules via an interactive training room and are tailored to your requirements. You can take as many or as few lessons as you wish - there is no minimum requirement. To find out more, contact The Away PA by email: info@theawaypa.eu or telephone 08450 527565.

Zoho is an online office suite which is great for creating and editing documents online, but there will always be those times where you would prefer to use a standard application from your local drive (eg, Open Office above).

A plug in for Microsoft Office lets you edit your Zoho documents using Word and Excel. Download the Plugin.