Mason Sklut

In the new version of Microsoft Office (2008), you have probably noticed the massive improvements to the user-interface. Thanks to designers at EnhancedLabs, the interface is remarkably beautiful. One of the main features to point out in the new version of Office are the Toolbars which now carry so much functionality with the SmartArt Graphics, Quick Tables, Charts, and the Document Elements. You can do just about everything you can imagine possible with Microsoft Office 2008. I’ll get you started by pointing out where the new features are and how to use them.

Using Handy Toolbars in Word

1. When you first open Word, you’ll see a new toolbar with many new additions.
2. When you select something from the toolbar like SmartArt Graphics, it should appear directly within your document.
3. When it appears, go ahead and enter in any data you need to, then feel free to customize the looks of it with the Formatting Palette.

screenshots: 1-2 3

Word’s New Layout Views

1. In the new version of Word, there are new layout views such as Publishing Layout which is an amazing page-layout view with lots of templates.
2. The second layout update is the Notebook layout, which you just about customize any way you like.
3. I highly recommend you spend the time to go through each of those layouts and edit the built-in templates to learn all of the features they’re capable of.

screenshots: 1 2

Setting Up Default Fonts in Microsoft Office

1. If you used Microsoft Office 2004, then you probably remember that the default font was Times New Roman. That’s not the case with Office 2008 — it’s now Cambria.
2. Most of the documents I make with Word, must be in Times New Roman. To change the default font, hold down the ⌘ (Command) + “D” keys to activate the Font window.
3. Locate Times New Roman or whichever font you wish, then click on the “Default…” button in bottom left corner.

screenshots: 2-3

“Slide Thumbnails” Sidebar in PowerPoint

1. When you opened up PowerPoints in previous version of Microsoft Office for Mac, there wasn’t a sidebar that showed thumbnails of each slide. With the new version a sidebar has been included with this feature. I personally like it, so I can easily identify a certain slide and go right to it.
2. With PowerPoint open, just click on the sidebar in the left-hand side and select “Slides” instead of “Outline” to make the thumbnails appear.

screenshots: 1-2

PowerPoint Slide Transitions And Animations

1. Now in PowerPoint, adding Transitions and Animations has never been easier.
2. If you’d like to add a Transition, just choose “Transitions” from the Toolbar.
3. For Custom Animations, select the part of the slide for which you want to animate, then click on the icon in the Formatting Palette.

screenshots: 2 3

Changing The Looks Of Your Graphs in Excel

1. Just like in Numbers ’08, you can now easily change the look of your Excel Graphs right from the Toolbar.
2. Select the graph for which you want to change.
3. Select another style from the Toolbar.

screenshots: 2-3