TO ASK A QUESTION: If you have a question or need help with Office, please feel free to use the 'Click to Contact' link at the bottom of this page. You'll get a form that you can use to email a question to me. (I had been getting a ton of spam when accepting direct emails, so only emails that use this form will get through to me.)

Please be sure to mention the version of Office you are using when you send your question.

I answer all e-mails that I receive via this form, as long as they are polite :)

Since disabling comments on this site, I'm actually hearing from more of you with questions ... so, as it seems people prefer to email rather than comment, I'm going to leave comments disabled. As always, you can ask me any Office-related questions you have. If the question is outside of my expertise, I'll try to direct you to where you can get an answer.

Hi again, I also promised to post a list of some of my favorite keyboard shortcuts in response to a question from yesterday's webcast ... so here they are :)

This is just a quick list of a top few favorites.... in stream-of-consciousness order :) If you're looking for a shortcut to do something in particular and you don't see it -- post a comment. Also, remember that you can search the topic Keyboard Shortcuts in most Office programs for a fairly comprehensive list from Office Online help. In fact, click on this link for Office Online search results on that topics, and you'll find probably much more than you could ever need ... Office Online Keyboard Shortcut Search Results

F4 - repeats the last action in Word or PowerPoint and for some Excel tasks as well.

Ctrl+Z - undo your last action in most Office programs and several Windows applications outside of Office (such as Moveable Type, which I'm writing in right now).

Ctrl+Y - redo your last action in most Office programs and several outside of Office. This keystroke differs from F4 because F4 will continue to repeat the same last action when you press it consecutively. Ctrl+Y will do the same ONLY if there is nothing in the Undo queue. If you have undone any actions, then Ctrl+Y will redo them in order as you press it and stop when it reverts the last undone action.

Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V - copy and paste (respectively) font and\or paragraph formatting from one selection to another in Word or PowerPoint. The keyboard equivalent of the Format Painter -- but better because it acts like a clipboard. Once you copy any set of formatting in one application, that formatting remains available to be pasted to any other selection in the same application until you copy another set of formatting or exit the application.

Ctrl+F1 - toggle task panes on and off in most Office programs (doesn't work in Outlook).

Ctrl+Shift+S - access the style box on the formatting toolbar in Word (F or P instead of S access the Font box and the Point size box, respectively, in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).

F11 - create a clustered column chart on its own sheet, from selected data in Excel.

F2, Escape - enables you to use the arrow keys to move selected text boxes on an Excel chart.

Arrow keys on an Excel chart - cycles through selecting different chart elements. You can then use Ctrl+1 to open the format dialog box for the selected chart element.

The F9 series of shortcut keys in Word - create and edit fields on screen. See my earlier post Lets Talk About Fields, Baby for details.

Alt+F3 - add selection to AutoText in Word (and F3 to insert AutoText entry after typing its name).

Shift+F10 - open the applicable right-click shortcut menu instead of right-clicking. Works throughout Office.

I also use keyboard mnemonics (Alt + the underlined letter in menus and dialog boxes) a lot. For example, I use tables ALL THE TIME in Word -- but there are hardly any table-related shortcuts. So, I'll use Alt+A, C, T to select a table - which is the same as going to the Table menu and clicking Select, then clicking Table.

Happy Wednesday everyone! ... and post a comment to share your own favorites if you have a chance...