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Artificial Intelligence Meets Microsoft Office

11/7/2020

 
Many have written about the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its potential in our personal and professional lives. So far, most of the literature describes the impacts as “futuristic” and arriving several years from now. But did you know that you can take advantage of AI today? More specifically, AI is available in many of your favorite Microsoft Office applications, and taking advantage of these tools can provide tremendous benefits. Read on, and in this article, you will learn about four specific instances of artificial intelligence in Office applications.

Word's Editor Feature

Let me begin by admitting that I do not consider myself a good “native” writer. That means that as I write articles such as this, I typically struggle with sentence structure, punctuation, and the like. In the past, I engaged an editor to assist me in “cleaning up” my text. However, with Word’s Editor feature – which became available with Word 2016 – the need for outside assistance is diminished dramatically.
Picture
Figure 1 - Word's Editor Feature As An AI Tool
As shown in Figure 1, Editor examines my document it real-time and alerts me to issues that potentially require action. In the example presented, Editor recommends that I address two items – Grammar and Vocabulary. I can click on issues that Editor raises, and it provides recommendations to improve the readability and quality of my document.

For example, clicking on Vocabulary opens the Editor pane shown in Figure 2. In that pane, I can choose to accept or reject the AI-driven suggestions. I can also modify the setting Editor uses to deliver its Artificial Intelligence-based recommendations to me. In sum, I find Editor to be a terrific assistant that helps me create documents that are free of punctuation and grammatical errors. Moreover, Editor’s recommendations help create passages of text that are easier for readers to comprehend.
Picture
Figure 2 - Editor's Vocabulary Pane

Grammarly - Another AI Tool for Word
In addition to Editor, I use Grammarly (www.grammarly.com), a tool that provides a second set of Artificial Intelligence-based recommendations on the documents that I create. Grammarly is a subscription-based service, with a free option available. However, I found the Premium subscription ($139.95 annually) to suit my needs better.

Grammarly’s Premium subscription appears to have a more comprehensive set of rules and writing standards than Editor. Further, Grammarly allows me to define the tone I want to convey in my text, and, upon doing so, it tweaks its recommendations to ensure I meet my objectives. It even works in Outlook, helping to ensure that my outbound email messages are error-free.

Both Editor and Grammarly provide outstanding (and often needed!) functionality. The Artificial Intelligence engines that power these tools are terrific.  If you are currently using Word 2016 or newer, check out Editor. Additionally, if you want to go deeper with AI as a means of improving your writing, take a careful look at a Grammarly subscription.

PowerPoint's Design Ideas Feature

Artificial intelligence meets Microsoft Office in other applications besides Word. For example, PowerPoint now boasts a feature known as Design Ideas, which you will find on the Home tab of the Ribbon. Design Ideas appeared with PowerPoint 2019. This feature provides users with recommendations to improve the appearance of a slide in a presentation.

To illustrate the effectiveness of the AI-based Design Ideas feature, consider the image in Figure 3. In that image, I used PowerPoint’s Design Ideas feature to convert the tired-and-stodgy bullet point slide at the top of the image to the more modern and contemporary one at the bottom of the image. And all that was necessary to achieve those results was to click Design Ideas on the Home tab of the Ribbon.  Upon clicking Design Ideas, PowerPoint provided ten alternatives to the original slide.
Picture
Figure 3 - Using Design Ideas In PowerPoint

Like Editor and Grammarly, Design Ideas in PowerPoint uses Artificial Intelligence to help us get better results in less time. More specifically, Office Intelligent Services powers Design Ideas and other AI-based features available in Office.  

Artificial Intelligence in Excel

Not to be outdone, Artificial Intelligence meets Microsoft Office in Excel too. Features such as Stock and Geography Data Types, Dynamic Arrays, and the ability to insert data into a spreadsheet by taking a picture are all examples of Artificial Intelligence available in our spreadsheets. So, too, is Excel’s Ideas feature.

Ideas is an Excel tool that can quickly analyze your data and help you uncover trends, outliers, and other observations. Importantly, Ideas can help you identify issues that you may have missed with the human eye. When you use Ideas, you are taking advantage of Artificial Intelligence to analyze data more thoroughly and faster than could be done with traditional manual procedures.

To take advantage of Ideas, click in the data in your spreadsheet. Then click Ideas on the Home tab of the Ribbon. Excel will take over from there and create numerous charts, PivotTables, and other analyses for you, resembling the output shown in Figure 4. Moreover, you can even type a command such as “Total Order Amount” directly into the Ideas pane, and Ideas will respond with an answer. For those who are afraid that they might miss key trends, observations, and outliers in their data, the Artificial Intelligence features available in Ideas may be the solution needed.
Picture
Figure 4 - Using Excel's Ideas Feature


Summary

For many, Artificial Intelligence once seemed like something that was a great concept but would never materialize at a practical level. Yet today, Artificial Intelligence appears quietly in ways that many have yet to recognize. Examples of this spread include the ways that Artificial Intelligence meets Microsoft Office and enhances the various Office applications. If you have not yet explored these tools, now might be the time to see how helpful they can be for you. Further, keep your eyes open for other new features in applications and services that you use every day – many of them will likely incorporate Artificial Intelligence too!

Interested in learning more about Artificial Intelligence or Microsoft Office Applications? If so, consider a K2 Enterprises CPE course. Click here to view your options.

Tommy Stephens

Deleting All Tab Stops

9/6/2020

 
Working with tabs is a challenge for most users. Here’s a tip that will enable you to easily delete all the tab stops in a document. Press Ctrl+A. This action selects the entire current document.

  1. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  2. Click on the small icon at the bottom-right of the Paragraph group. Word displays the Paragraph dialog box.
  3. Click on the Tabs button at the bottom-left of the dialog box. Word will display the Tabs dialog box.
  4. Click the Clear All button.
  5. Click OK.

Alan Salmon

Understanding the PDF/A Format

8/4/2020

 
Everybody is familiar with the standard PDF file format. Very few are familiar with the PDF-a format (sometimes written as PDF-A or, as PDF/A). It is a version of a PDF file that is optimized for long-term storage of the documents. This format has everything embedded in it, rather than allowing internal links to external information. A PDF/A document cannot contain the following:

  • Video or Audio content
  • Executable files (or links to external executable files) or JavaScript
  • Encryption of any type
  • Embedded files, such as other PDF files
  • Transparent objects (graphics) and layers

The reason for these limitations is to make sure that the PDF/A file contains everything required to display the file contents in the future, regardless of how the technology may change. For further information about the PDF/A check out the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF/A

Word saves documents in the regular PDF format by default. To force Word to save in the PDF/A format, you need to follow these steps:

  1. Press F12 to display the Save As dialog box.
  2. Click the down arrow beside the Save As Type drop-down list and choose PDF as your file type.
  3. Click on the Options button. Word displays the Options dialog box.
  4. Make sure the PDF/A check box is selected.
  5. Click OK and close the Options dialog box.
  6. Enter a name for the PDF/A file in the File Name box.
  7. Click Save.

Alan Salmon

How to Align Positive and Negative Whole Numbers in a Column

7/4/2020

 
You have a document where you have a series of whole numbers in a table column. The negative numbers have parentheses around them, such as (2,345). You are looking for a way to align the positive and negative whole numbers in a manner that allows for an "implied" right parenthesis to the right of positive numbers.

One solution, if you don't have many negative numbers, is to add a right parenthesis to the positive numbers and then format it as white text. It will take space in the document, but be invisible on the printout.

If you have many such numbers, however, then you should consider adding decimal tabs to the column. Follow these steps:

  1. Select the column containing the numbers.
  2. Make sure the column is left justified. (Display the Home tab of the ribbon and, in the Paragraph group, click the Align Text Left tool.)
  3. Click on the tab indicator at the left side of the ruler until you see the symbol for a decimal tab. (It is the only symbol that has a decimal point in it.)
  4. Drag the decimal tab to the desired position on the ruler.

That's it; the numbers will now align in the column. Noe, there is no need for a decimal point for this to work. (Whole numbers have no decimal points.) Word still aligns the numbers correctly, assuming the existence of an implied decimal point. It even recognizes parentheses around a number as a negative sign and aligns the numbers accordingly.

Alan Salmon

How to Print an Outline

6/4/2020

 
If you are using the Outline view, Word will print only the heading levels you have chosen to display. This means you can print an outline for your document easily and quickly. To print a single copy of your outline, follow these steps:

  1. Make sure your outline shows all the headings you want to be displayed.
  2. Make sure each heading is formatted in the appropriate manner.
  3. Print your document as you usually would.

Alan Salmon

Displaying the Ruler

5/3/2020

 
The ruler appears at the top of every Word document window. The ruler is used to adjust formatting and align elements of your page. It is beneficial if you are using Word with a mouse.

Word allows you to control whether the ruler is displayed or not. To do this, first, display the View tab of the ribbon. Note the Ruler checkbox in the Show group. If the checkbox is selected, the ruler is displayed; if it is not selected, the ruler is hidden.

Alan Salmon

Selecting Paragraphs

4/2/2020

 
When you are using the mouse, Word provides several ways to select an entire paragraph. One of the easiest ways is to triple-click anywhere within the paragraph simply.  

Or, you can move the mouse pointer to the left of the first character in any line of the paragraph you want to select. When you do this, the mouse pointer turns into an arrow pointing up and to the right. Now double-click with your mouse and the paragraph is selected. 

If you are a keyboard short cut fan, you can select the current paragraph by pressing Ctrl+Up Arrow (this moves the insertion point to the beginning of the paragraph) and then pressing Ctrl+Shift+Down Arrow.

Alan Salmon

Using the Selection and Visibility Pane

2/4/2020

 
Word includes a handy management tool called the Selection and Visibility pane (in Word 2010) or the Selection pane (in Word 2013 and beyond). This tool is meant for working with objects in your document, particularly shapes and images. To use the tool, display the Page Layout tab of the ribbon and click the Selection Pane tool in the Arrange group. The pane appears at the right side of the document. (The Selection Pane tool is a toggle; clicking it a second time hides the pane.)

The purpose of the pane is to list all the objects on the current page. You can then use the controls in the pane to hide or display the objects or to change the order in which they appear. Assuming there are objects listed for the current page, note that there is a small icon at the right of each object's name. Click this and you alternately hide or display the object.

When you select an object in the Selection and Visibility pane Word also selects it in the document itself. With an object selected you can adjust the ordering of that object, relative to other objects on the page, by clicking the up and down buttons at the bottom-right of the pane. Ordering only has practical value if your objects overlap each other in some manner; in that case the ordering determines which object is in front of or behind the other objects.

It should be noted that the Selection and Visibility pane displays only the objects on the currently displayed page, not all the objects in the document. This means that as you scroll through the document, what is listed in the pane will necessarily change as you move from page to page.

Alan Salmon

Combining Word Documents

1/6/2020

 
Picture
Word provides a very easy way to combine documents, without the typical cut-and-paste routine. This is great for boilerplate text in your document. All you need to do is use the INCLUDETEXT field within a document. Follow these steps:

  1. Insert a pair of field braces by pressing Ctrl+F9.
  2. Within the field braces type INCLUDETEXT, followed by a space and the name of the document you want to include. Make sure you surround the document name with quote marks. For instance, if I wanted to include MyFile.Doc, my field would look as follows:    { INCLUDETEXT "MyFile.Doc" }
  3. Press F9 to update the field.

At the point, the specified file should appear within your document. If it doesn't (for instance, if you get an error message), then make sure you typed the document name correctly, and that you included a full path name. (You must include the full path name if the document is in a directory different from the one in which the current document is located.)

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    Authors


    Ward Blatch
    Ward provides consulting and training services as the Managing Director of K2E Canada Inc. He joined K2E Canada in 2005 and is responsible for the Canadian operations of this international consulting group, which provides professional development technology education for accountants across Canada and the US. Ward lives in rural Nova Scotia and can be reached at ward@k2e.ca.

    Tommy Stephens
    Tommy is one of the shareholders in K2 Enterprises, affiliating with the Firm in 2003 and joining as a shareholder in 2017. At K2, Tommy focuses on creating and delivering content and is responsible for many of the Firm's management and marketing functions. Tommy resides in the metro Atlanta area. You may reach him at tommy@k2e.com.

    Randy Johnson
    Randy is a nationally recognized educator, consultant, and writer with over 40 years experience in Strategic Technology Planning, Accounting Software Selection, Paperless, Systems and Network Integration, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning, Business Development and Management, Process Engineering and outsourced managed services. Randy can be reached at randy@k2e.com


    Bernie Smith
    Bernie coaches businesses to develop meaningful KPIs and present their management information in the clearest possible way to support good decision making. As the owner of Made to Measure KPIs, he has worked with major organisations including HSBC, Airbus, UBS, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Lloyds and many more.

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