7 ways to organize your email

With meetings and the general chaos of a normal work day, your email Inbox can quickly get cluttered. An unorganized mailbox can make it difficult to find the email you need and know where to get started. This messy situation can be remedied. Microsoft Outlook offers great tools that help you organize your messages in meaningful, easy-to-control ways. Whether you’re using Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007 or still using Outlook 2003, you’ll be able to stay on top of your mail.

Not using Outlook at all? Perhaps you’re using Outlook Express, or you’re using Windows Live Mail or Windows Live Hotmail. These programs offer some features similar to those described here for Outlook, but they don’t offer the same breadth of tools for email management. Use the Microsoft Outlook Connector to add your Hotmail account to Outlook, and then you can use these tips to organize your Hotmail also. Or read about the Hotmail features that can help you organize information in your Hotmail system. For instance, you can combine mail from your other email accounts, like Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, so that you can receive, read, and respond to all your email in one place.

You can use one or more of the tools covered in this article to help shrink your Inbox and make it easier to find the information you need.

1. Sort messages quickly

Outlook 2010 has a great new feature for organizing messages by date and arranging them by Conversation. Using this feature, messages that share the same subject appear as Conversations that can be viewed expanded or collapsed by clicking the icon to the left of the Subject line. The messages within each Conversation are sorted with the newest message on top. When a new message is received, the entire Conversation moves to the top of your message list, making tracking email threads a snap.

To turn on Conversations, on the View tab, in the Conversations group, select the Show as Conversations check box. You can reduce the size of a conversation with Clean Up, which deletes duplicate messages in the conversation. On the Home tab, in the Delete group, click Clean Up, and then click Clean Up Conversation.

In all versions of Outlook, you can find messages in mailbox folders more quickly by changing how they’re sorted in your email folders. For example, you can arrange your email by date, sender, file size, or level of importance.

Change message sorting:

• In Outlook 2010

• In Outlook 2007

• In Outlook 2003

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2. Group similar messages in folders

By creating new mail folders you can group messages related to each other. For example, you can group messages by topic, project, contact, or other categories that make sense to you. You can even create a folder for all the messages from your manager or that include tasks that you have to complete.

• To create a new folder in Outlook 2010, on the Folder tab, in the New group, click New Folder.

• To create a new folder in Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003, on the File menu, point to New and then click Folder.

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3. Create Search Folders to find messages fast

Search Folders are a quick and convenient way to look at predefined collections of email messages. They don’t actually store any messages themselves, but instead are virtual folders that offer a view of all the messages stored in your mailbox depending on the attributes you’ve defined. Outlook provides default Search folders—such as Unread Mail—but you can also create your own. For instance, you can use Search Folders to help you find all the information related to a particular project, an important client, or an upcoming conference.

Create a Search Folder in Outlook 2010:

• In Mail, in the Folder tab, in the New group, click New Search Folder.

Create a Search Folders in either Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007.

• In Mail, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Search Folder.

In all versions of Outlook, specify whether you want to use a predefined Search Folder or create your own custom folder, and then follow the instructions on the screen.

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4. Route mail efficiently using mailbox rules

By creating rules for Outlook, you can automatically perform actions on both incoming and outgoing messages based on the criteria you establish. For instance, you can automatically forward to your manager all messages sent by a certain person as soon as they arrive, assign the category Sales to all messages you send that have the word “sales” in the Subject line, and much, much more. Routing mail efficiently not only organizes your mail for you—but also frees up your time from performing routing tasks.

Create and manage rules:

• In Outlook 2010

• In Outlook 2007

• In Outlook 2003

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5. Reduce unwanted email with junk filters

Keep distracting and unwanted messages out of your inbox by using Outlook Junk Email filters. These filters send email flagged as junk to a separate mail folder under your Mailbox. You can review the contents of this folder to ensure that no legitimate messages have been sent there, and if they have, you can adjust the filter to avoid flagging such messages in the future.

Learn more about the Junk Email filters:

• In Outlook 2010

• In Outlook 2007

• In Outlook 2003

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6. Assign a color category

Assign a color category to a group of interrelated email messages, as well as to other items in Outlook such as notes, contacts, and appointments, so that you can easily identify and organize them. For example, keep track of all the messages, meetings, and contacts for the Morris project by creating a category named Morris Project and assigning items to it.

Create and assign color categories:

• In Outlook 2010

• In Outlook 2007

• In Outlook 2003

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7. Flag for follow up

You can use the Flag for Follow-Up feature to flag email messages, tasks, and more to help classify them or mark them for action. Flags can remind you to follow up on an issue, indicate a request for someone else, or set a reminder for a message or contact. Best yet, they make organizing your mail folders a breeze, because you know exactly what to do—and when to do it. Note that when you create a task and set a due date, the task is automatically flagged, so that you don’t let that due date slip past you.

Flag messages:

• In Outlook 2010

• In Outlook 2007

• In Outlook 2003

4 ways to take control of your email Inbox

 

Do you have an effective way to process and organize your email so that you can get to an empty Inbox on a routine basis? If you have lots of email in your Inbox (we know people with as many as 7,000 messages), you might want to rethink your processing methods. Really, it is possible to empty your Inbox. The key is to evaluate how you are processing and organizing your email and then make some changes.

No doubt you’ve opened an email and thought, “Hmmm, not sure what to do with this. I’ll deal with it later!”—and promptly closed the message. If you do this over and over again, it doesn’t take long to end up with several hundred—or even several thousand—messages in your Inbox.

Developing a new approach to processing your Inbox can help you to gain more control, improve your response time, and keep up with critical actions and due dates.

This article covers four key factors that can help you process your email more efficiently.

1. Set up a simple and effective email reference system

The first step toward an organized Inbox is understanding the difference between reference information and action information.

• Reference information is information that is not required to complete an action; it is information that you keep in case you need it later. Reference information is stored in your reference system—an email reference folder, your My Documents folder, or a company intranet site, for example.

• Action information is information you must have to complete an action. Action information is stored with the action, either on your to-do list or on your Calendar. (If the action needed is a detailed reply, try converting information into professional communication using Office themes formatting and the Paste with Live Preview feature.)

Most people receive a considerable amount of reference information through email. Sometimes as much as one-third of your email is reference information. So it is essential to have a system that makes it easy to transfer messages from your Inbox into your email reference system—a series of email file folders where you store reference information to ensure you have easy access to it later. Learn more about setting up a reference system.

After you take care of filing your reference information, you can use the next three steps to handle the email that you have to do something with—your action information.

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2. Schedule uninterrupted time to process and organize email

How many times are you interrupted every day? It’s nearly impossible to complete anything when you allow constant interruptions from the phone, people stopping by your office, and instant messaging. So it’s critical that you set aside uninterrupted time to process and organize your email.

Many email messages require you to make a decision. The best decisions require focus, and focus requires uninterrupted attention. Establish a regular time each day to process your email so that you can empty your Inbox. Of course, you can scan your email during the day for urgent messages or requests from your boss.

Book yourself a recurring appointment for an hour a day to process email, and mark that time as “busy.” During that hour, don’t answer the phone or take interruptions, and work only on processing your Inbox.

At first, keeping these appointments will take discipline, but over time, the discipline becomes habit. And after you completely empty your Inbox, you’ll see the value of this one hour a day and you’ll stick to it like glue.

Microsoft Outlook 2010 makes it easier to keep this email appointment and to process your inbox. The new anywhere access features of Outlook 2010 mean that you don’t have to be at home or at the office to keep your daily email management appointment.

Conversation view in Office 2010 enables you to organize email folders by date and conversation. When Conversation view is turned on, messages that share the same subject appear as conversations that can be viewed as expanded or collapsed, helping you to quickly review and act on messages or complete conversations.

Also, improved search tools in Office 2010 make it easier to narrow your search results by using criteria, like sender or subject keywords, and other information, such as attachments. The Search Tools contextual tab includes a set of filters that efficiently focus your search to isolate the items that you want. For more information, see Find a message or item by using Instant Search.

Instant Search in Outlook 2010 provides many ways to search your email for specific messages.

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3. Process one item at a time, starting at the top

When you sit down to process your email, the first step is to sort it by the order in which you will process it. For example, you can filter by date, by subject, or even by the sender or receiver of the email message. In Outlook 2010, on the View tab, in the Arrangement group, click the arrangement option you want.

From the View tab, you can filter your email by date, category, sender or receiver, and more.

You can also change the arrangement directly from your Inbox. To display the list of options, under the Search box, right-click the Arrange By: box.

The Arrange By: box in your Inbox gives you convenient access to even more options to arrange your messages.

Tip:  If you use Outlook 2010, enable the reading pane (called the preview pane in Outlook 2007) so that you can view your messages without having to open them. To enable the reading pane, on the View tab, in the Layout group, click Reading Pane. To enable the Outlook 2007 preview pane, on the View menu, click AutoPreview.

Resist the temptation to jump around in your Inbox in no particular order. Begin processing the message at the top of your Inbox and only move to the second one after you’ve handled the first. This can be hard at first, when you might have thousands of messages in your Inbox. But as you reduce the number of messages over a few sessions, eventually you’ll get to the point where you can process the 60–100 messages you get every day and regularly get your Inbox down to zero.

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4. Use the “Four D’s for Decision-Making” model

The “Four Ds for Decision-Making” model (4 Ds) is a valuable tool for processing email, helping you to quickly decide what action to take with each item and how to remove it from your Inbox.

The expanded Ribbon in Office 2010 is designed to help you quickly find the tools that you need to complete your tasks. Features are organized in logical groups collected together under tabs. You can also customize the Ribbon to include tabs you personalize to match your own style.

The expanded Ribbon in Outlook 2010 replaces Outlook 2007 menus, giving you easy access to tools on conveniently organized tabs.

The Quick Steps feature, new in Outlook 2010, speeds up managing your email even more. This feature enables you to perform the multi-stepped tasks you use most often, such as moving email to a specific folder or moving a message and replying to it with a meeting request, with a single click. The Quick Steps gallery includes buttons for one-click file and flag, sending messages to your team, and other popular commands. For more information, see Automate common or repetitive tasks with Quick Steps.

The Quick Steps feature turns your most frequent tasks—whether forwarding messages to your co-workers or copying messages to a specific folder—into a one-click operation.

Tip: Learning a few basic keyboard shortcuts in Outlook 2010 can make performing these tasks even easier and faster. Read the MSDN Blog on keyboard shortcuts for Outlook 2010.

Decide what to do with each and every message

How many times have you opened, reviewed, and closed the same email message or conversation? Those messages are getting lots of attention but very little action. It is better to handle each email message only once before taking action—which means you have to decide what to do with it and where to put it. Under the 4 Ds model, you have four choices:

1. Delete it

2. Do it

3. Delegate it

4. Defer it

Delete it

Generally, you can delete about half of all the email you get. But some of you shudder when you hear the word “delete.” You’re hesitant to delete messages for fear that you might need them at some point. That’s understandable, but ask yourself honestly: What percentage of information that you keep do you actually use?

If you do use a large percentage of what you keep, your method is working. But many of us keep a lot more than we use. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you decide what to delete:

• Does the message relate to a meaningful objective you’re currently working on? If not, you can probably delete it. Why hang on to information that doesn’t relate to your main focus?

• Does the message contain information you can find elsewhere? If so, delete it.

• Does the message contain information that you will refer to within the next six months? If not, delete it.

• Does the message contain information that you’re required to keep? If not, delete it.

Outlook 2010 helps you get rid of the “noise” in your Inbox by providing two new commands: Ignore Conversation and Clean Up Conversation. If a conversation is no longer relevant, you can prevent additional responses from appearing in your Inbox. The Ignore command moves the whole conversation and any future messages that arrive in the conversation to the Deleted Items folder.

Easily delete an entire conversation so that no new responses to it will appear in your Inbox.

When a message contains all the previous messages in the conversation, you can click Clean Up to eliminate redundant messages. For example, as people reply to a conversation, the response is at the top and the previous messages in the conversation are below. Use the Clean Up command to keep only the most recent message that includes the whole conversation. For more information, see Use Conversation Clean Up to eliminate redundant messages.

Cleaning up your conversations makes it easier to stay focused on the task being discussed.

Do it (in less than two minutes)

If you can’t delete it, then ask yourself, “What specific action do I need to take?” and “Can I do it in less than two minutes?” If you can, just do it.

There is no point in filing an email or closing an email if you can complete the associated task in less than two minutes. Try it out—see how much mail you can process in less than two minutes. I think you will be extremely surprised and happy with the results. You could file the message, you could respond to the message, or you could make a phone call. You can probably handle about one-third of your email messages in less than two minutes.

Office 2010 helps you respond to email messages faster. You can view the availability of a person and instantly reach out to them using a variety of communication methods—all on a new easy-to-access contact card. You can even customize the context menu of the contact card to include tasks you perform most often, saving you more time.

Delegate it

If you can’t delete it or do it in two minutes or less, can you delegate it?

If you can delegate it, do so right away. You should be able to compose and send the delegating message in about two minutes. After you delegate the action, delete the original message or move it into your email reference system.

Defer it

If you cannot delete it, do it in less than two minutes, or delegate it, the action required is something that only you can accomplish and that will take more than two minutes. Because this is your dedicated email processing time, you need to defer it and deal with it after you are done processing your email. You’ll probably find that about 20 percent of your email messages have to be deferred.

There are two things you can do to defer a message: Turn it into an actionable task, or turn it into an appointment. When you’re using Outlook, you can defer emails that require action by dragging the messages to your Task List to turn them into tasks. Name the task to clearly state the required action so that you don’t have to reopen the email message. The result is a clearly defined list of actions on your Task List that you can prioritize and schedule to complete on your Calendar. Or you can turn the message into a meeting request by dragging it to your Calendar.

Tip Use the To-Do Bar in Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007 to drag an email message from an email folder to a date on your Calendar or to your Task List. On the View tab, in the Layout group, click the To-Do Bar. When the bar appears, drag the message to your Calendar or to your Task List. This copies the message to the new location; it doesn’t move it out of the original mail folder, so you’ll still be able to find what you need.

Use the 4 Ds model every day

Using the 4 Ds model on a daily basis makes it easier to handle a large quantity of email. Our experience shows that, on average, people can process about 100 email messages an hour. If you receive 40 to 100 messages per day, all you need is one hour of uninterrupted email processing time to get through your Inbox. Our statistics show that of the email you receive:

• 50 percent can be deleted or filed.

• 30 percent can be delegated or completed in less than two minutes.

• 20 percent can be deferred to your Task List or Calendar to complete later.

Of course, if you have a backlog of hundreds of messages, it will take time to get to the point where your daily routine keeps you up to date. It’s important to get that backlog down, so I would suggest setting blocks of time aside to work through it. Then, you can really enjoy processing your messages every day using the 4 Ds.

4 ways to simplify your PowerPoint presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint is a terrific medium because it allows you to reinforce your message with visual prompts. But too often, the power of PowerPoint is lost because the speaker doesn’t use it to help viewers focus on the message. Instead, PowerPoint itself becomes the focus.

 

If you want to feel more relaxed and confident the next time you’re using PowerPoint to deliver a presentation, try these four tips to maintain the focus on your topic—not the medium.

1. Make consistent style changes on all slides using the slide master

If you’re tired of changing things like bullet styles and indentations on every slide in your presentation—listen up. PowerPoint will do this for you! You only have to make the changes you want once—to the slide master. The slide master stores information about the theme and slide layouts of a presentation, including the background, color, fonts, effects, placeholder sizes, and positioning.

I use this feature in every presentation I create. It makes my life a little easier to know that each slide will be consistent without much effort on my part. Let’s take a look at how you can make changes to the bullet styles PowerPoint automatically sets up for you.

Note: The instructions for using slide masters in this section are for PowerPoint 2010 and PowerPoint 2007. For PowerPoint 2003, take this training.

To make changes to the theme or slide layouts, from anywhere within your presentation, click the View tab, and then click Slide Master. You will see a slide master, as shown here.

The PowerPoint slide master stores information for your entire presentation.

The slide master includes placeholders showing the layout of text on the slides, and the style that the text will be formatted in. The slide master includes corresponding layouts to accommodate different types of information. You can apply a layout to a selected slide in Normal view: On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the arrow next to the Layout icon.

Remember that changes you make to the layout or formatting on the slide master are automatically applied to all the slides in your presentation. If you want to change the placement or text styles for a specific slide only, start in Normal view with that slide selected. Then, make any of the types of changes mentioned here.

To change the bullet style for all first-level bullets in a presentation, make the change on the slide master:

1. From anywhere within your presentation, click the View tab, and then click Slide Master.

2. Click anywhere in the first bullet.

3. Click the Home tab.

4. In the Paragraph group, click the arrow beside the Bullets icon and then click Bullets and Numbering.

5. Select the bullet style and attributes you want for your first-level bullets, and then click OK.

   

   You can change the style for all first-level bullets in your presentation.

In a similar way, you can make other adjustments to the style and format of the slide master, using formatting options on the Home tab. For example, you can change the text color and size, and you can change the indentation of the bullets from the Paragraph dialog box.

You can use slide masters for a lot more than adding repeated information or changing formatting, too.

Find more ways to use and customize master slides

In PowerPoint 2010

In PowerPoint 2007:

• Create and customize a slide master

• Create a new slide master (HP Learning)

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2. Include a date or a slide number on your slides

You can include a date, a slide number, or other information that will appear in the footer (bottom) portion of either a specific slide or all the slides in your presentation.

1. In Normal view, click the Insert tab.

2. In the Text group, click Header and Footer, Date and Time, or Slide Number, specify the information you want to appear, and indicate the slides it should appear on.

   

   Specify slide number or other footer information in the Header and Footer dialog box.

In this dialog box, you can also turn on slide numbers and add footer information. Each item will appear in the placeholder and in the style indicated on the slide master.

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3. Reinforce your message with automated charts

You’ve probably seen presenters who have very cool charts in their presentations. People retain information in different ways—by reading text, by seeing graphical representations, and by listening to what you say. So, if you want your audience to really remember your message, it’s important to learn to create at least simple charts in PowerPoint. With the automated formats PowerPoint provides, you have literally dozens of ways to build a unique presentation and make your message memorable. If you have Excel installed on your computer and use PowerPoint 2007 or PowerPoint 2010, the chart you create is an Excel chart, with access to all the advanced charting features available in that program.

Insert a chart or graph in your presentation

PowerPoint 2010

PowerPoint 2007

PowerPoint 2003

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4. Jump easily between slides

If you didn’t know how to use a hyperlink, you wouldn’t be reading this online article. You may already use hyperlinks for quick and easy access to the web if you are connected to the Internet while making your presentation. Too often, however, a cool way to use hyperlinks within a presentation is overlooked. It happens when presenters include additional information at the back of a presentation as “backup” slides and then never refer to them because it’s too difficult to navigate to the end and then return to the main presentation. But if the information is important enough to reference in a backup slide, why not make it accessible within the slide show, too?

With PowerPoint hyperlinks, you don’t have to ignore that information at the end of your presentation, because it’s easy to jump between slides. And creating links between slides in your own presentation is just the beginning. You can also create hyperlinks in your PowerPoint presentation to slides in other presentations, email addresses, a page or file on the web, or new files.

Insert hyperlinks between slides in your presentation and to references outside your presentation

PowerPoint 2010

PowerPoint 2007

PowerPoint 2003

Note: Trying to find out whether your link works? Hyperlinks are active only when a slide show presentation is running—not while you’re working on your presentation in Normal view or in Slide Sorter view. To check links in PowerPoint 2010 and PowerPoint 2007, click the Slide Show tab. In PowerPoint 2003, on the View menu, click Slide Show.

Creating links between slides in your own presentation is just the beginning. You can also create hyperlinks in your PowerPoint presentation to slides in other presentations, email addresses, a page or file on the web, or new files.

12 tips for creating better presentations

You have a presentation to create. It’s important. But, formatting diagrams can take forever and the text on your slides seems to have a mind of its own. Then, there’s the sad fact that everybody’s Microsoft PowerPoint presentations look the same.

Sound about right? If so, I’ve got good news for you! Creating professional, unique presentations can be much easier than you think.

This article will help you find the right tools to get exactly the presentation you want. We’ll look at three components of creating effective presentations, and provide time-saving tips to help send your presentation off in style:

• Grab the viewer’s attention

• Clearly communicate your information

• Stay in control of your presentations

Looking for tips for an earlier version of PowerPoint? Get tips for creating better presentations with Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003.

Grab the viewer’s attention

Creating slides that get the viewer’s attention is not about how much you can fit on the screen. It’s about using the space on your slides effectively. Don’t crowd your slides, and only include elements that contribute to the points you want to make. When you use graphics on a slide, choose images that serve a purpose (such as a chart or diagram that displays a direct benefit of your idea). Compare the two slides below, for example.

Two versions of the same content: The slide on the right uses a simple graphic to replace some of the slide text and makes a much stronger point.

Check out these four ways to help grab and keep your viewer’s attention.

1. Select or create your own theme.

Themes are the evolution of design templates in PowerPoint, but they’re also much more than that. The themes features was introduced in Microsoft Office 2007 to help you easily create the right look for your presentations and to coordinate all of your Microsoft Office documents almost instantly.

A theme is a coordinated set of fonts, colors, and graphic effects that you can apply to your entire document with just a click. The same themes are available for your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Excel workbooks, and even your Microsoft Outlook email messages (and in Office 2010, your Microsoft Access database forms and reports), so it’s easy to create your own personal or business branding throughout all of your documents.

In PowerPoint, the theme also includes the slide master and slide layouts, which you will learn more about later in this article, and slide background options.

Five versions of the same slide: It took just one click to apply a theme that changed the fonts, colors, graphic effects, and slide design for each option shown here. Shown clockwise from top are the Office (default), Adjacency, Couture, Newsprint, and Slipstream themes.

When you apply a theme in your presentation, you automatically get slide layouts, color, fonts, and graphic effects that go together, and you can format content with just a few clicks, as you’ll see later in this article.

• Find many built-in themes in the Themes gallery on the Design tab, in the Themes group. Just point to options to preview that theme in your documents. In Office 2010, you also see a selection of themes in this gallery that are automatically updated periodically from Office.com.

• You can also mix and match a slide design with different theme colors, fonts, and effects to quickly create your own look. Select separate theme color, theme font, and theme effect sets from their respective galleries on the Design tab:

  

  You can even easily create a completely custom theme with your own colors, fonts and slide designs.

Tip: If you change the theme in your presentation and the formatting doesn’t change, you may not have used theme-ready formatting when you created your presentation. When you start with a new PowerPoint 2010 or PowerPoint 2007 presentation, theme-ready formatting is automatic for fonts and colors on slide layouts and for Microsoft Office graphics, such as SmartArt graphics, charts, and shapes.

Learn how to customize and save a theme. Note that the link provided is for Office 2010 but also applies to Office 2007.

2. Use video and audio to convey your message more effectively.

Dynamic content, such as a brief video that illustrates an important point, is a great way to engage your audience. Using audio that helps convey your message can also help you keep your slides clean and approachable, such as by adding recorded narration to slides when sending your presentation to others to view on their own.

In PowerPoint 2010, video you insert from your files is now embedded by default, so you don’t have to include multiple files when sharing your presentation electronically. You can also customize your embedded videos with easy-to-use tools such as video trim, fades, and effects. And with PowerPoint 2010, you can insert a video that you’ve uploaded to a web site to play directly in your presentation.

• Learn about working with video:

  In PowerPoint 2010
  In PowerPoint 2007

• Learn about recording narrations and slide timings:

  In PowerPoint 2010
  In PowerPoint 2007

• Learn more about working with audio:

  In PowerPoint 2010
  In PowerPoint 2007

3. Use graphics to emphasize key points

A well-chosen chart or diagram can often convey much more to your audience than boring bulleted text. Fortunately, creating charts and graphics has never been easier. In Office 2010 and Office 2007, Office graphics coordinate automatically with the active theme in your presentation.

• If Excel is installed on your computer, you automatically get the power of Excel charts when you create a chart in PowerPoint. Just click the chart icon on any content placeholder in the PowerPoint presentation to create a chart.

  

  When your chart is created, an Excel worksheet opens where you can add and edit your data. And when you select the chart in your document, you see the Chart Tools Design, Layout, and Format tabs that make it easy to format and edit your chart. Find chart styles on the Design tab that automatically coordinate with your active document theme. Learn more about working with charts:

  In PowerPoint 2010
  In PowerPoint 2007

  SmartArt graphics, introduced in Office 2007, enable you to create a professional-quality diagram literally as easily as typing a bulleted list. You just type in the SmartArt text pane and the diagram is automatically built for you. SmartArt layouts are available for many types of diagrams, ranging from simple lists to process diagrams, organization charts, timelines, and much more.

  Click the SmartArt icon on any content placeholder to add a SmartArt graphic.

  

  

  When you type in the text pane, SmartArt adds your text to the graphic. Press enter to add a new shape or content at the same level, and then press Tab to create a sub-shape or sub-content, such as shown here.

  When you select a SmartArt diagram, the SmartArt tools tabs become available on the Ribbon. On the SmartArt Tools Design tab, you can use galleries to select a SmartArt style that coordinates with the effects of your theme and choose from several color options that also coordinate with your theme. You can even select a different SmartArt layout to apply to your active diagram. The layout is updated, but your content and formatting remain. And you can just point to options in any of those galleries to see a preview of your selection on your active graphic before you apply it.

  Tips:

  • Convert a bulleted list to a SmartArt graphic with just a few clicks. To do this, right-click in the list, point to Convert to SmartArt, and then point to a layout to see a preview of the diagram on your active slide, or click to apply the layout of your choice.

  • In Office 2010, dozens of additional SmartArt graphics are available, including more organization chart and picture layouts, as well as improved tools for working with picture diagrams.

4. Use animations and transitions wisely.

Having text and graphics appear on-screen just when you need them can be a nice touch. However, using too much animation can distract from your presentation’s content.

• For effects that emphasize your points without overwhelming your audience, limit animation to key points, and use consistent animation choices throughout the presentation.

  Customize, preview, and apply animations directly from the Animations tab in PowerPoint 2010. In PowerPoint 2007, find the Custom Animation pane on the Animations tab.

  Tip: Animation effects in PowerPoint 2010 are improved to provide more realistic movement. You can also trigger the animation of an object to begin when you reach a specific point in the playback of audio or video content on your slide.

• Consistent or complementary choices in slide transitions can also provide a professional touch without being distracting.

  Customize, preview, and apply transitions from the Transitions tab in PowerPoint 2010 or the Animations tab in PowerPoint 2007.

PowerPoint 2010 adds several new 3-D slide transitions with stunning visual effects, such as the gallery transition shown here.

Learn about working with animations and transitions:

In PowerPoint 2010
In PowerPoint 2007

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Clearly communicate your information

Want slides that clearly communicate your most important points? You might be surprised at how little work it takes to go from basic to brilliant. PowerPoint provides a host of tools for keeping your slides consistent, precise, and professional.

Take a look at two versions of a basic bulleted text slide below. The text in both slides is identical. Which would you prefer to present?

Two versions of the same content: The version on the right uses the slide master and layout formatting in the presentation theme for a more organized, readable slide.

5. Start by outlining your presentation.

Take time to outline your presentation before you begin to create your slides. Doing so can save time and help you give a more clear and effective presentation.

You can create your outline by typing a slide title and bullets points for your main topics on each slide. But you can also use the Outline pane to type your entire presentation outline in one window and add slides to your presentation as you go. To do this:

1. In the Slides pane that appears on the left of your PowerPoint screen in Normal view, click the Outline tab. (If you don’t see the Slides pane, on the View tab, click Normal.)

2. Notice that a slide number and icon appears for your first slide. Type a title for the slide and then press ENTER to create your next slide.

3. Press TAB to demote the text level and add points to the current slide in your outline. Or press SHIFT+TAB to promote the text level and add an additional slide.

The Outline pane is available in both PowerPoint 2010 (shown here) and PowerPoint 2007.

Tip: PowerPoint 2010 adds a new feature called slide sections that enables you to divide your presentations into logical sections for easier organization, such as to assign a set of slides to one author or to easily print just one section of slides. Learn about working with slide sections.

6. Use masters and layouts to save time and get better results.

The slide master is one of the most important tools in PowerPoint for creating easy-to-use, great-looking presentations. The master gives you a central place to add content and formatting that you want to appear on all (or most) of your slides. Formatting and layout that you do on the slide master automatically updates throughout the slide layouts in your presentation, saving you a tremendous amount of time and effort, and helping to keep your slides consistent. For example, place your logo on the slide master, and it will appear on all slides in the presentation.

• A slide master includes a set of slide layouts for different types of content. Nine slide layouts are available by default in the Layout gallery on the Home tab, and they are formatted based on the slide master. You can customize any of these layouts individually and create your own custom slide layouts as well.

  

  The Layout gallery displays the name of the active theme at the top and provides thumbnails of each available slide layout. When you add custom layouts to your presentation, those appear in this gallery as well.

• If you just need a single slide that doesn’t fit an existing slide layout and won’t need to be reused, you can use the Title Only or Blank slide layout and do your own thing right on the slide. But if you will reuse a layout for multiple slides in the same (or another) presentation, create or customize a slide layout to avoid doing the same work multiple times and to keep your slides looking professional and consistent.

To access the slide master, on the View tab, click Slide Master.

Learn to create or customize the slide master:

In PowerPoint 2010
In PowerPoint 2007

Tips:

• To hide graphics that you place on the master for just one slide, on the Design tab, in the Background group, click Hide Background Graphics.

• Masters are also available for formatting notes pages and handouts. Find these options on the View tab.

7. Consider differences between print and on-screen presentations.

Presentations designed to be viewed on screen don’t always work well when you print them. Dark backgrounds that look good on slides, for example, rarely print well. Similarly, footer content that you need in print is likely to be distracting on-screen. Fortunately, PowerPoint makes it easy to switch between print and screen presentation options. Here are two features that can help:

• When you format your presentation using a theme, slide master, and layouts, as described earlier in this article, you can change from a light background to a dark background in just a click, and text on your slides automatically changes color to be visible on the new background. Find the slide background gallery on the Design tab, in the Background group.

• To quickly show or hide footer, page number, and date content on all slides at once, on the Insert tab, click Header & Footer. In the Header and Footer dialog box, you can select the options to display them on screen or clear selections to hide content, and then click Apply to All. (Note that if you remove the footer, page number, or date placeholder on any slide, the slide will not display this content even if you turn it on in this dialog box.)

  

8. Use notes pages and handouts to help deliver the story.

Use the Notes pane that appears below the slide in Normal view to write notes to yourself for your presentation or to create notes that you can print for your viewers instead of crowding your slides with too much text. You can also format and print handouts that contain up to nine slides per page.

Create and print notes pages:

In PowerPoint 2010
In PowerPoint 2007

Create and print handouts:

In PowerPoint 2010
In PowerPoint 2007

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Stay in control of your presentations

Custom colors, layouts, and graphics can do a lot for your presentation. But a misaligned flowchart, or a presentation that crashes on your client’s computer, isn’t likely to make the impression you want. For example, take a look at the two timeline graphic images below.

Two versions of the same content: Nudging and fussing to create the graphic on the left took about an hour, and it’s far from perfect. Using available PowerPoint tools, it took just a few minutes to create the flawless diagram on the right.

9. Keep file size manageable.

A common cause of stress when you work in PowerPoint is that the file becomes too large to edit or for the presentation to run smoothly. Fortunately, this problem is easy to avoid by compressing the media in your files and using native PowerPoint features whenever possible (such as tables, charts, SmartArt graphics, and shapes) instead of importing and embedding objects from other programs.

Learn about compressing pictures in your presentations:

In PowerPoint 2010
In PowerPoint 2007

Tip: PowerPoint 2010 gives you the ability to compress the embedded video and audio files in your presentation as well. Learn about compressing media.

10. Use the tools available to get it right the first time.

You’ve already seen in this article that you can use features like slide layouts to quickly create consistent slides. Or use tools such as SmartArt graphics to create a professional-quality graphic in no-time. But when you need to do your own thing—and that thing doesn’t belong on a slide layout or fit an available graphic style—PowerPoint still provides tools to save you time and improve your results.

• Learn about working with alignment tools in PowerPoint 2007.

• PowerPoint 2010 makes layout and alignment even easier with new Smart Guides. Learn about alignment tools in PowerPoint 2010, directly from the PowerPoint team.

11. Turn off (or manage) AutoCorrect layout options.

PowerPoint provides several automatic formatting options to help your slides conform to the provided layouts. They can be big time-savers, but they can also be frustrating if you’re not using them intentionally and they cause formatting (such as the font size in slide titles) to become inconsistent from one slide to the next. If you don’t want your text to shrink automatically to fit content, you can easily disable those features in the AutoCorrect Options dialog box.

1. In PowerPoint 2010, click the File tab to open Backstage view, and then click Options. In PowerPoint 2007, click the Microsoft Office button and then click PowerPoint Options.

2. On the Proofing tab, click AutoCorrect Options.

3. On the AutoFormat As You Type tab, clear the AutoFit title text to placeholders and AutoFit body text to placeholders check boxes.

12. Know exactly what your viewers will see.

When you want to be sure that what you send is what viewers see, you can save the presentation in the PowerPoint slide show format, so that the show starts for the recipients as soon as they open the file. But, some variables, such as whether media will play correctly on the recipient’s computer, may still affect what viewers see.

PowerPoint 2010 introduces a new feature that makes it easy to share your presentation perfectly with almost anyone, anywhere. You can now create a high-quality video of your presentation, complete with your saved narration and timings, in just a few clicks. PowerPoint creates the video in the background while you keep working. Learn how to create a video of your presentation.

为你写诗

爱情是一种怪事
我开始全身不受控制
爱情是一种本事
我开始连自己都不是
为你我做了太多的傻事
第一件就是为你写诗
为你写诗为你静止
为你做不可能的事
为你我学会弹琴写词
为你失去理智
为你写诗为你静止
为你做不可能的事
为你弹奏所有情歌的句子
我忘了说
最美的是你的名字

爱情是一种怪事
你的笑容是唯一宗旨
爱情是一种本事
我在你心里什么位置
为你我做了太多的傻事
第一件就是为你写诗

为你写诗为你静止
为你做不可能的事
为你我学会弹琴写词
为你失去理智
为你写诗为你静止
为你做不可能的事
为你弹奏所有情歌的句子
我忘了说
最美的是你的名字

为你写诗为你静止
为你做不可能的事
为你我学会弹琴写词
为你失去理智
为你写诗为你静止
为你做不可能的事
为你弹奏所有情歌的句子
我忘了说
最美的是你的名字

我什么都能忘记
但唯一不忘的是你的名字
我什么都能忘记
但唯一不忘的是你的样子
我什么都能忘记
但唯一不忘的是你的名字
我什么都能忘记
但唯一不忘的是你的样子

Departure her…

 

 

I wish she could have stayed a little longer

She should have done something better

To do nothing, but surrenders

She lost in her lonesome darkest world

She’s tried to overcome what’s messing up her soul

It does not make any sense to insanity of shadow

The more she tried, the more she fail herself though

Thing is such a mess, worst ever to failures

The world can’t simply gives what she’s deserved to

She may think right, but it’s so wrong to go on

Life is a bitter coffee without cream to think of future

Go on and on without hope, thus it’s truly chipped

The dent is made while she has given trials

I wish to do whatever to convince and please her

Life isn’t easy to move on top of the pop things

原谅我一次

如果不小心伤害了你
你不要太伤心
因为我真的不是故意
让你受委屈
既然相爱了那么久
不能就这样分手
因为我们的爱来之不易
我真的不想放弃

Baby So Sorry
Baby 别 伤 心
我依然爱着你 想着你
别离去 没有你的日子真的好空虚
BABY 在 一 起
BABY 别 哭 泣
我依然疼着你 念着你
我的心 永远属于你
原谅我 这一次
我真的，好想你
不管你离我多么遥远
我会一直等着你

Ha…ha…
Oh baby I know you still love me
Come Back My lover My love

 

Her wishes..

wishes that She has expected and would wish to see to granted very quickly:

to live in love, friendship and happiness
to solve all problems
to give happiness those she loves
to possess a beautiful, big house for her family
to travel, to take vacations
to start an amusing, absorbing hobby
to start a new business which is very successful
to see those that she loves succeed
to make new friends and develop new relationships
to get married and to have a family
to have more control and more optimism in her life
to bring good fortune to those that she loves
to discover the ‘true love’ of her life
that her love returns to her
and she stays in love for ever
to become a simple someone
that her children get good grades and are happy
to have more good luck in her life
to succeed in everything that you undertake
to inspire in others admiration and respect…

I hate her now..

I hate her is the same old song, nothing make she felt alright. The emptiness can’t be filled and suffering can’t be melt. I just don’t understand why people can’t live simple lives? why would bother about others? people are usually care so much about other views.. for me I don’t care at all, as long as I can live a happier life with the one I can be with forever.

It’s so complicated to live just simple lives, and worse than that.. the more she wants and concentrates on.. in contrast it practically turned out the odds.. that is the more take her close to the point of getting defeated. Not sure why it is such a mess?? so mean, so cruel… I don’t expect any fancy things, I don’t have any expectation neither nor special requirement, why the same old song make she cried her tear again tonight, I knew it… I knew you may laugh by the time her tear rolling down, I had no choice, it’s useless weeping tear, no other better solution to hold this silly teardrops. Though, just let it flow, let’s go and roll down one by one, don’t want to stop it any longer. I only hope tomorrow gonna bring her another better day. I wanted her to be stronger, have more confident and be who she is the best she could do to struggle life, let’s stand her up and cheer this lonely night. She has no one just now, only the crying tear would keep her away from this darkest side of lonesome world. I wish she were someone else I never knew before and now. If I could turn back the time, I would do whatever to stay far away from this world.  I hate her now..