Do you use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or Excel? If so, there are two quick changes you can make to your Office settings that will save you time and disk space!
Fast Saves
The first change you need to make is to turn off Fast Saves. Fast Saves is a feature that (at first glance) looks like a good idea. After all, who doesn't want to save thier documents faster? Unfortunately, when you have Fast Saves turned on, you are actually telling Office to save your documents fast, but open them slowly.
When Fast Saves are on, the changes you make to your files are not made to the actual spot in the file, but instead are stored as a change log at the end of the file. Imagine if you will a book which has had changes made to it, but where the changes are listed on a separate page at the end of the book. If a paragraph is inserted, a marker is added that says, "Jump to the change log and read paragraphs 33 to 37, then jump back." If a page is deleted, a line is drawn through it, but the content is not removed.
With a book or letter that has change markings in it, this may not seem to have a big impact. But imagine if you will that you aren't removing the page, but replacing it. You now have both copies in the file. And if that page had pictures on it, you now have both the old and the new pictures in the book. Bad news, huh?
What can you do? Turn off Fast Saves. Open Word, PowerPoint or Excel and go to Tools--> Options. Find the Save tab. On that tab, you will see a checked box labeled "Allow Fast Saves". OK your way out and close the program. You have now turned off Fast Saves for all there programs. As you open and close files, the changes will be merged into the main file and each file will shrink in size.
A side benefit... Making this change will also cut your chance of having a corrupted file by at least 50%.
Full Menus
Someone at Microsoft decided that one way to make the Office products less confusing to use was to hide the features you don't use as often. That decision still doesn't make sense to me. Why take the features I don't use and hide them so that I can't easily find them when I do need them?
The solution to this problem is to turn on full menus. How do you know if you have full menus turned off? Simple. Open Word, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher or Excel and bring up a menu. Does the menu end in a bar that contains a downward pointing chevron? If so, you need this hint.
To turn on full menus, you are going to use Tools--> Customize. Go to the Options tab. Check the box for "Always show full menus". OK your way out and close the program. As with Fast Saves, your change will be automatically applied to all of the other Office products on your system.
What does this change do for you? First off, you are now seeing all of the possible functionality of each Office product. You will be surprised at how much more the products can do than you imagined. Second, you have taken back control of your environment. Instead of Microsoft deciding what functions you see and don't see, you have decided to see all of it at once.
One final note: If you use Office 2007, you don't need to make either of these changes. Both "features" were removed from the new version.
Looking to save time, disk space, effort, and money when using your computer? Coach Kathy offers the ultimate in short - easy to understand hints for making sure the computer doesn't get in the way of getting work done.
As well as being an MVP Seminars coach, Coach Kathy is a Microsoft MVP in OneNote and PowerPoint. Check out Coach Kathy's bio for more information.
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