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Microsoft Table of Operators for Access: breaks down the expressions into the major categories

Useful Arithmetic Operators (“+”, “-“, “* “, “/ “, “\”, “Mod”, “^”) that you should know

Comparison Operators (“<” , “>” , “=” , “<>” ,”<=”, “>=”) that you need to know

Logical Operators (“AND”, “OR”, “XOR”, “NOT”, “EQV”, “IMP”) that you must know

Handy Concatenation Operators (“& “, “+”) that you must know

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Format Painter Tip #1:  Learn the double-click mode of Format Painter

Knowing the double-click mode of Format Painter is essential for efficiency.  It allows you to be able to use this tool on multiple selections that are not or connected or “contiguous”.  Why is this mode a huge time saver?  Because single clicking Format Painter only applies formatting with one click or drag action.  If you double-click on Format Painter, it will stay on until you turn it off.  Thus, it avoids the hassle of having to turn it back on for multiple cell ranges that are non-adjacent.  When finished applying formatting in the double-click mode, simply turn it off by clicking on the Format Painter icon or by pressing Escape.

Format Painter  Tip #2:  Use Format Painter to paint properties to an entire column

Even experienced users of Excel may never discover that Format Painter can paint column properties from one column to another column.  The process is first to select the column that you want another target column to look like.   Activate Format Painter by clicking on its icon and then finish by immediately clicking on the heading letter of the target column.  Use this process to quickly match the width of one column to another column.   Or if you have a specific number format setup for a column (for example a percent style with a certain number of decimal places), paint those same properties quickly to another target column using Format Painter.

Format Painter Tip #3: Apply Format Painter across Excel sheets and Excel workbooks

A quick approach to getting an identical formatting look to other sheets and to other workbooks is to use Format Painter. To have Format Painter work across sheets, select a cell or a column that has properties that you want have on another sheet.  Then simply click or (double-click if you want to apply to multiple selections—see Tip #1) on Format Painter and immediately go to another sheet and click on your target cells or target column headings.   To have Format Painter work across files, once you activate format painter, simply go the other file if it is open or proceed to get it open.   Then use the Format Painter tool in the normal click and drag manner   Please keep in mind, however, that the best setup for maintaining the same formatting look across sheets or across files is to start using Styles. Styles offer the ability to get instant changes across sheets when you need to do any updating to the custom formatting look.   Everyone should learn how to create custom styles, modify custom styles, and merge them into other files for the ultimate setup for maintaining formatting consistency.

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TIP #1:  Make global setting changes in your Captivate projects by editing the Preference settings.

How: 

Go to Edit > Preferences

Advantages:

If you make changes to these preferences when no file is open, then all new Captivate projects will have the new settings.  If a file is open, then the settings you update will only be reflected in the current file.  Some common settings to tweak are the default save locations, default slide duration (Figure 1), and default object durations.  If you are doing software simulations, then go to the Recording section.  Here you can choose default options for keyboard tap sounds, camera sounds, the video color mode, and what objects you want to be added to the stage during your recording sessions.  No longer will have to select these for each recording session.  For example, I often turn off the automatic addition of Failure captions for click boxes and text entry boxes during the Assessment Simulation mode.

TIP #2: Use the Master Slide to create Content layouts for your major slide types.

How: 

Go to Window >  Master Slide

Advantages:  

The Master Slide area allows you prep default content that is needed on all slides or multiple slides in your project. The top master slide on the left hand side panel is called the Main Master.  The smaller indented ones underneath it are called Content Masters (aka. second tier masters) (Figure 2).  They control the look on specific slides where they are the chosen layout.  Changes made on the top Main Master layout are automatically applied to all indented Content layouts.  For example, if a new background color is picked on the Main Master, every content layout will have that background color.  The Blank layout (Figure 2 Pt. A) operates a little bit differently than the other Content Masters. It is designed to suppress the inheritance of objects from the Main Master, so that you have always have a slide layout that truly stays blank.  For example, if the company logo is put on the Main Master, it will not be shown on the all Content Masters except the Blank content layout.

TIP #3:  Use the Object Style Manager to change the default look of slide objects.

How: 

Go to Edit >  Object Style Manager

Advantages:

Often we use the Properties Panel to customize the default look of standard objects on the stage to specific colors, fonts and font sizes that help us achieve the exact look we want.  Instead use the Object Style Manager to change the default look of objects so they immediately have the settings we want when we add them to the stage.   In Figure 3, the default look of the Text Caption style is being modified.  The Object Style Manager can also be used to create new styles with unique names by cloning a style and then renaming the clone.  Use the export and import buttons (Figure 3 Pt. A) to move styles between projects.

TIP #4:  Use “Save Changes to Existing Style” to quickly update the style that you have customized on the stage

How:   

After you make a customization to the look of an object on the stage, go to the Properties panel. Click on the tiny menu button next to Style Name (Figure 4 Pt. A).  In the drop down menu that appears, select “Save Changes to Existing Style” (Figure 4 Pt. B).

Advantages:

By selecting, “Save Changes to Existing Style”, the style of that object is updated without even having to go to the Object Style Manager (see Tip #3).  As a result, the look of that particular object will be automatically changed throughout the project.  Additionally any time a new instance of that object of that type is added to the stage it will be ready to go with the desired look.  However, please be aware that this action may not affect individual objects whose styles have already been customized using the Properties panel.  This is because direct formatting edits are considered style overrides.  A quick way to know if a style is in an overridden state, is to see if the style name listed in the style name box start with a plus (+) followed by the style name.  To update such overridden objects, select the object and click “Reset Style” in the Properties panel (Figure 4 Pt. C).

TIP #5:  Create  and Share Custom Themes

How: 

Go to Themes  > Save Theme As…

Advantages:

Themes help you get a consistent design. Themes contain master slide layouts, object styles, skin and TOC settings, and recording defaults.  When you start a project, you are using the default theme.  In a normal install of Captivate it is called the “White” theme.  Captivate provides a few more additional built-in themes under the Themes drop down menu on the toolbar.    Use these built-ins as a starting point and then make modifications to your liking in the Master Slides area (Tip #2), in the Object Style Manager (Tip #3), in the color set and in your TOC setting and recording defaults.  Save your modifications as a custom theme with a unique theme name by going to Themes >  Save Theme As.  The file extension of a theme file is cptm.  Once created, your custom theme will be viewable under Themes drop down list on the main toolbar to reuse on multiple projects (Figure 5).  If a colleague needs to use the custom theme you created, save the theme to a shared location and then tell your colleagues can browse to the theme from the Theme drop down.  Another bonus of themes is that Captivate makes it extremely easy to switch themes in the middle of a project just by applying a new theme.

TIP #6:  Create  and Share Template files

How: 

Go to Save As >  Save as type: Captivate Template File (*.cptl)

Advantages:

Templates help you start a project with prefilled in slide content, already imported media, and ready to go Advanced Action scripts, and question pools.  Create templates when you need a particular framework for your course setup.  For example, maybe you need some common slides to use in multiple courses or you have a navigation menu that cannot be placed on Master Slides.  Since Themes live inside template files, it is a good idea that before you save and share a template file to have created a Custom theme inside it.   The extension of a Captivate template file is cptl.

Templates must be chosen at the start of a Captivate file.  Choose File > New Project >  Project from Template and then navigate to the template file.    The template file will open with an unsaved name of Untitled1.cptx.  Save as you normally would with a unique name to that particular project. 

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A couple of key things need to be considered when adding field validation rules.  First, think about adding “OR IS NULL”  to your rule.  With this addition, you will have the added benefit of still being allowed to leave the field blank.  Otherwise, you may find that you cannot leave the field empty once the validation rule is setup.  Another key tip is to consider thoughtfully about whether your validation rule covers 100% of the cases that can be dreamed up.  If your validation rule falls short of handling all cases, then do not add that particular validation rule as it cannot be bypassed once in operation.  A better alternative route would be to add an event to your form that gives a heads-up warning that some criteria may not be met for a particular field.

How to enter a Validation Rule:

The easiest place to set them is in table design view.  Enter the rule using the Validation Rule box found in the lower half.   Validation rules can also be added into the Property Sheet when in datasheet view.

Example Validation Rules for Fields:

This table provides some useful example of field validation rules.  See this post for more examples.

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This method helps you achieve your branding look through the creation of a new style sheet in the Assets Directory and telling your SharePoint site to use this sheet as an alternate CSS sheet. After that is set up, snippets of CSS code in operation are copied to your style sheet using Code Inspector as your investigative tool. These snippets are then modified to your exact branding specifications.

Step 1:  Create a new alternate CSS style sheet:

1. Open your site using SP Designer.
2. Click on Site Assets (A) on the left hand side menu.
3. Use the Asset (B) button located on the Ribbon to choose CSS (C) file.
4. Give this new CSS file a meaningful name.

Step 2:  Attach this new style sheet to your site:

1. From the gear menu of your SharePoint site, select Site Settings.
2. Under the “Look and Feel” category on the right, choose Master Page.
3. Scroll to the bottom section for setting an Alternate CSS URL.  Select Specify a CSS file to  be used for this site and all sites that inherit it.  Then Browse to the style sheet file you created in Step 1.

Step 3:  Add styles to the style sheet:

1. On your site in the browser, hover over the element of which you would like to modify properties.
2. Right click and choose Inspect Element.
3. The lower half of your screen opens up the Code Inspector.  The CSS is on the lower right hand side. When you find the style you wish to modify, go to the small expand/collapse arrow on the left of that style group, right click on it and choose Copy Rule.
4. Go to SharePoint Designer and paste this code into your CSS file. Then modify specific CSS attributes as needed.

Example 1: Change font

To change the font, copy the group of CSS that contains the font-family attribute that comes first in the code inspector. Paste that line of code into the CSS file. Modify it by adding your desired font as the first font listed in the font-family list.

For example, if you want Garamond font, modify the CSS copied from font-family line (as shown in Figure 3) to look like this:

font-family: Garamond, “Sego UILight”, “Segoe UI”, “Segoe”, Tahoma , Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;

Example 2: Add a Background Image

To add a background image to your page, first add the image to your Site Assets either through the regular browser interface or through SharePoint Designer.

Then type in your style sheet this line of CSS in a new line. Substitute Tulips.jpg with the exact name of your image file you added to your site assets.

.ms-backgroundImage                  {

                                background-image: url(‘Tulips.jpg’);

                                }             

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How to change template Header & Footer content for Page 2 and beyond:

To have different Header & Footer content for page 2 and beyond, the technique is pretty straight forward.  Just add enough placeholder content to generate page 2 and turn on the “Different First Page” checkbox.  Luckily, once you proceed to set different content for the  header and footers content of Page 1 and Page 2 and then, delete the placeholder content in the main body to get back to one total page of content, Word remembers the new Page 2 Header and Footer settings when the template  content reaches two page length or more.

The specific steps are as follows:

1.  Add enough dummy content to the body of the document so that Page 2 is created.  A quick way to do this is by typing in =rand(8,6) followed by hitting enter.  This creates 8 paragraphs of random text with 6 sentences in each paragraph.
2. Click into the Header.  Put a check-mark in the Different First Page checkbox.
3. Add the Header and Footer content  desired for Page 1. For example,  add company logo, company name, and address,
4. Add the Header and Footer content desired for Page 2.  For example,  add page numbers to the footer.
5. Delete the dummy placeholder text.
6. Do a quick test by adding dummy placeholder text back in to see if Word retains the knowledge of different Header and Footer content for Page 2 and beyond.

How to make template Page Margins different on Page 2 and subsequent pages:

The workaround to get a different top margin on Page 2 and beyond is pretty slick.  The top margin for Page 2 and subsequent pages will be controlled by the Margin settings set for the overall document on the Layout tab.  The top margin will be different on Page 1 by using the trick of adding a text box to Page 1 header.  This text box forces the body text to start lower on Page 1, thus in effect giving “the look” of a bigger top margin on Page 1.

Use these steps to accomplish this:

1. Complete the steps #1-5 in the previous section because it is important to have the setting of Different First Page turned on.
2. Change your document margins to what you want for Page 2 and beyond by the normal method of going to the Layout tab and clicking on the Margins button.  Select either a built-in set of margins or go to Custom Margins and set the particular ones you want.
3. Go to the Header of Page 1.  Add a Text box to the header that has a Wrap Text setting of “Top and Bottom”.  Set its width to around 8.5″.  Give the text box a height that makes it block enough of the upper region of the page so that the typing of the text in the body is exactly where you want the text for Page 1 to start.  Finish by making the text box hidden by removing its outline/border.  Choose a fill color of “No Fill” so any graphics behind it will be seen.

The end result is that you have sneakily used the text box to falsely create the look of a bigger top margin on Page 1.

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Often I get asked for a work around to the fact that you should never upload the same document to multiple SharePoint libraries.  Trying to maintain two copies of a document is ugly and never recommended!  So then how do we meet the need, that can sometimes be crucial, to have a document that is located in a particular home library “show up” in another library.  When I say “show up”, I mean be visually shown with the other documents in that library but in reality be a shortcut to the real document stored in an outside library.  A way to accomplish this easily is to use the “Link to a Document” feature that can be turned on for any library.

Part 1:  Enable the library to contain this type of content

Note: This first part only needs to be done once per library.  Full or Administrator privileges are needed.  But after this setting is turned on, even someone with only Contribute privileges can setup the link in Parts 2 and 3.

1. Go to the Library that you need to create a link in. Click on the Library tab and select the Library Settings
2. Click on Advanced Settings (A).       
3. Set Allow management of content types to Yes (B). Click OK.
4. In the Content Types section, click on Add from existing site content types (C).
5. In the box called Available Site Content Types, find the one called Link to a Document (D) and Add it to the other side.  Click OK.

Part 2:  Get the document URL

1. Go to the library containing the file you are creating a link to.
2. Click once on the desired file’s more ellipses (E)
3. Click once in the URL box (F). Then rt. click and choose Copy.
   

   

    

Part 3:  Setup the link to the document in the other library

1. Make sure you are in the library that will contain the link.
2. Go to the File tab
3. Click on the words of the first icon New Document to make a drop down list appear. A list of the content types that have been enabled for this Library will be shown.
4. Select Link to a Document (G).
5. In the next window, enter a name for the linked document. Paste in the URL you copied in Part 2 into the Document URL box (H).
6. Click OK. The linked document will appear in the library and its icon will have a curved arrow to indicate it is a link (I).

Advantages:

This “Link to Document’ feature gives so much flexibility to be able to open and modify documents outside the library without having to actually navigate there.   It also allows you to mix content type. The URL box can be used to add a link to a particular website or a link to a file in another system.

For those of you using SharePoint Online, the steps are a little quicker, as Part 1 typically does not have to be done.  See this article for the particular steps for linking to a document in SharePoint Online.

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