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.)

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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.

Happy Sunday, everyone :) Thanks for waiting for this follow-up... As promised, following are links and more information on topics addressed during this past Friday's webcast on PowerPoint diagrams.

To review tips covered in the webcast:

Perfect is easier than close enough -- earlier blog post addressing many of the tips from the webcast for creating diagrams in PowerPoint

Information about creating diagrams in PowerPoint for use in Word:

Using PowerPoint as a Word document tool - earlier blog post covering some of the content about using PowerPoint to create graphics for Word that I did not get to cover in the webcast on Friday

I also mentioned creating a sizing guide for the graphic you're going to create in PowerPoint, so that you don't have to contend with content that shrinks to an ineffective size when you resize it to fit the space you've allotted on your Word page. Doing this is simple -- when you use a table to create your page layout in Word - you can use the dimensions of the table cell you've set aside for the PowerPoint graphic to create a sizing guide in PowerPoint. Here's how to get that done:

- In Word, click in the table cell where your graphic will be placed (note that it's important to give the graphic its own table cell in order to for this to work -- and for the fastest\easiest layout and editing).

- On the Table menu click Table Properties. In that dialog box, note the row height and column width of the active cell (note that this is easier to do in Table Properties than on the ruler because it's very easy to accidentally change row height when you depress the Alt key while clicking on the bottom edge of the row to see the height on the vertical ruler -- also, the measurements in the Table Properties dialog box give you the full cell width and height, while the measurements on the rulers will subtract any cell margins -- giving you less space to work with.)

- In PowerPoint open the slide master (View, Master, Slide Master). Create a rectangle with the same height and width as your table cell. Then format the rectangle so that it's easy for you to see, but won't interfere with the look of the graphic you create (I like to use no fill and a fairly thick red line border). Note that I place it on the slide master so that you can see the sizing guide but it won't be on the slide to get in your way when you need to select, align, or group elements of your diagram.

- Close the slide master and zoom in on the rectangle you created so that you can see the entire thing, but not much else. As long as you create your graphic inside this space, it will fit perfectly in the Word table cell when you copy it to Word, without any extra work or revisions.

- To get your completed graphic into Word, first group it and then copy it. In Word, click in the table cell you set aside for the graphic. Then, on the Edit menu click Paste Special and select Picture (Enhanced Metafile) as the paste format - click OK. Then, double-click the picture to open the Format Picture dialog box and, on the Layout tab, select In Line with Text. When you do this, the picture will drop right into the table cell you created for it.)

More info for the person who requested info on working with shapes in Visio:

In January, I gave an advanced webcast with tips for creating diagrams in PowerPoint or Visio. Many of the same PowerPoint topics as we looked at on Friday are covered in this session along with a bit more advanced PowerPoint diagram tips -- and tips for creating diagrams with Shapes in Visio are also covered. Please check this out and, if it doesn't address your Visio shapes question -- just post a comment here explaining what you need to know and I'll try to help. Advanced Tips & Tricks for Creating Business Diagrams with PowerPoint and Visio

Additional Resources:
Just for easy reference, following are links to the additional resources I recommended at the end of the session:

Office Online Training - dozens of free courses on a wide range of Office 2003 topics (and check back once you start using Office 2007 to find courses on the new version of Office as well)

Great Tips - view topics and register for upcoming Office webcasts and get additional tips as well

Microsoft At Work - great resource for collected content from across the Microsoft Web site, as well as original content for help on a wide range of Microsoft technologies -- for both basic and advanced users.

Office Discussion Groups - a great place to go to get help from other MVPs as well as a variety of Office experts, including some of the folks at Microsoft who work on the Office product team. You can also search for the answer to your question in the discussion groups -- if you're stuck on something, it's not unlikely that someone else has run into the same issue.

Help and additional tips from my Office 2003 book:

If you have a copy of my first book, Microsoft Office Document Designer (MODD), and you have installed the tools from the MODD CD, click the 'How Do I' button on the MODD toolbars in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint for a dialog box that will access a collection of 75 articles and tip sheets for help o na wide range of document production tasks, including several for creating graphics in PowerPoint. And, use the tools on the MODD toolbar in PowerPoint to save time on some of the tasks discussed above - including creating a sizing guide and copying your diagram to Word. Click here for the Amazon page with more info on the book.

Next webcast:

Please join me this coming Thursday (April 27th) for a level 200 tip session on creating fabulous Excel charts:

Complex Excel Charts Made Simple
(1 hour session, begins at 9am Pacific, noon Eastern)

Need more help from Friday's session?
If the above post doesn't give you the information you need, or you have further questions from Friday's session ... please post a comment and I'll reply as quickly as possible (usually within a day or two at most).

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!