You can change the default toolbar options, such as showing the toolbar icon and text, or you can create new toolbars and customize the existing ones to maximize your efficiency. If you frequently use a toolbar, you can show it all the time and specify whether you want to dock or undock it, if available. Undocked toolbars (floating) are movable; you can drag—the vertical bar at the left edge—entire toolbars to new locations on the screen.
Click the View menu, and then click Customize Toolbars and Menus.
Click the Toolbars and Menus tab.
Do either of the following:
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Existing toolbar. Double-click the toolbar to which you want to add buttons.
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New toolbar. Click New, type a toolbar name, and then click OK.
The toolbar is displayed.
Click the Commands tab.
Click a category, and then click a command.
Drag the command to a toolbar to add it to the toolbar or drag a button off the toolbar to remove it from the toolbar.
If the command has a button icon associated with it, that icon appears. If it doesn’t, the name of the command appears.
Repeat steps 5 and 6 to add all the buttons you want to the toolbar, and then click the Close button on the toolbar.
Click OK.
You can customize the existing menu bar by adding buttons, commands, and macros that you use frequently. Adding items to the menu bar is a great way to have easy access to features without adding more buttons or toolbars. The ability to drag features from different parts of the program window makes it easy to add items to the menu bar. Imagine, having a menu with all of your most commonly used formatting, sorting, or printing commands.
Click the View menu, and then click Customize Toolbars and Menus.
Click the Commands tab.
Click a category, and then click a command.
Drag the command to a menu to add it to the menu or drag a command off the menu to remove it from the menu.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add all the commands you want to the menu.
Click OK.
As you gain experience and familiarity with Office, you might find it more useful to use keyboard shortcuts for many commands rather than lifting your hands from the keyboard to use your mouse with the toolbars or menus. Most commands are assigned a default shortcut key combination, but you can edit these defaults in Word and Excel to make the most frequently used commands easier to remember, or to suit your preferences for typing speed (i.e.: some keystrokes are easier to replicate while maintaining typing speed than others).
In Word and Excel, click the Tools menu, and then click Customize Keyboard.
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You can also click the View menu, click Customize Toolbars and Menus, and then click Keyboard.
Click the category with the command you want to change.
Click the command that you want to change shortcut keys.
Click in the Press new keyboard shortcut box, and then press a new keyboard shortcut.
Click Assign or Add.
To remove a keyboard shortcut, select the current keys, and then click Remove.
To reset all keyboard shortcuts back to defaults, click Reset All, and then click Yes.
Click OK.
If you find yourself repeating the same set of steps over and over, or if you need to add new functionality, you can use a macro. A macro is a step-by-step series of commands in script form that performs a task. You create a macro by writing a script to replay the commands you want using a programming language, such as AppleScript or Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Office 2004 supports AppleScript and VBA, while Office 2008 only supports AppleScript. If you have Office documents with macro-enabled VBA scripts from Office 2004 or Office 2007 for Windows, you cannot view, run, or edit them in Office 2008. However, if you have older macros from Excel 4.0 without any VBA, you can run and modify them in Excel 2008. You can store old macros for use in Excel 2008 in the following folder: Microsoft Office 2008:Office:Add-Ins. Instead of using older macros, Word 2008 provides a set of built-in macros for you to use. For example, you can accept all changes in a document, ignoring filter settings.
In Excel, click the Tools menu, and then click Macros.
Click the Macros in drop-down, and then specify where the macro is stored: This Workbook, All Open Workbooks, or a specific opened workbook.
Click the macro you want to use.
To set macro options, click Options, specify the options you want, and then click OK.
To run the macro a step at a time, click Step Into.
To run the macro, click Run.
When you open an Office document—created with Office 2007 for Windows or Office 2004—with a macro, VBA, or other software code, Office 2008 programs display a warning alert (New!) to let you know the document contains scripting code not supported by Office 2008. You have the choice to keep the code in the file for use with Office 2007 for Windows or Office 2004, remove the VBA or macro code from the file, save the macro in another macro-enabled file format, or create a new macro by using AppleScript. If you keep the code in the Office 2008, you cannot view, run, or edit the macro.
Click the File menu, and then click Open.
Click the Where drop-down, and then navigate to the file.
If necessary, click the Enable list arrow, and then click All Office Documents.
Click the document with macros you want to open.
Click Open.
In the This file contains Visual Basic macros alert, click one of the following options:
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Keep macros. Click Open.
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Remove macros. Click Open and Remove Macros.
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Save macros. Click Open. Use the topic on the next page to save the file with a macro-enabled file format.
Macros are created using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) or AppleScript code. Office 2004 and Office 2007 for Windows support VBA, while Office 2008 supports AppleScript. If you add a macro to a document, you need to save it with a file name extension that ends with an “m” (New!), such as Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook (.xlsm), or Excel Macro-Enabled Template (.xltm). If you try to save a document containing a macro with a file name extension that ends with an “x” (such as .xlsx or .xltx), the Office program displays an alert message, restricting the operation. These file types are designated to be VBA code-free.
Click the File menu, and then click Save As.
Click the Where drop-down, and then click the folder where you want to save the file.
Type a file name.
If necessary, click the Format drop-down, and then select the macro format you want:
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<Program> Macro-Enabled <File type>. A document that contains VBA or AppleScript code.
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<Program> Macro-Enabled Template. A template that includes pre-approved macros.
Click Save.
When you open an Office 2008 program, the Office Script menu—a scroll shaped icon—appears to the right of the Help menu. The Office Script menu provides easy access to ready-made AppleScripts and Automator workflows (New!) designed for the open Office 2008 program. For example, you can use a sample Automator workflow to send a PDF version of a presentation in an Entourage message from PowerPoint. To add a script or workflow to the Office Script menu, copy it to the program Script Menu Items folder located in your Documents/Microsoft User Data folder.
In an Office 2008 program on the right side of the menu bar, click the Office Scripts icon.
Point to a category.
Select a script option.
Some of the useful scripts include:
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Send an HTML version in an Entourage message. Sends an Web page version of an Office document in an Entourage message.
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Convert text to audio and send to an iPod (Word).Converts text to audio and send it to your iPod.
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Send selected text in an Entourage message (Word).Sends selected text in a document in an Entourage message.
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Send selected content to PowerPoint or Word (Excel).Sends selected content to PowerPoint or Word.
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Combine presentations (PowerPoint).Combines two presentation together.
Automator is a program that lets you automate the things you frequently like to do on your Mac. You don’t need to be a programmer to create automations. With Automator, all you need to do is assemble a series of actions into a workflow to complete a task. Each action performs an individual step, such as opening a file. You can create your own actions or use one of the many pre-built ones available in Automator library. The best way to learn how to create a workflow is to go through an example. Automator comes with three example workflows you can open to see what a completed one looks like.
Open the Applications folder, and then double-click the Automator icon, click the Custom icon, and then click Choose to open Automator with a blank workflow.
Click the Help menu, and then click Open Example Folder.
Double-click the Process Images. workflow icon.
Examine the following actions in the Workflow pane:
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Ask for Confirmation. Displays a dialog box with information you provide for the user’s benefit. You can change the button names and click the Robot icon to change it.
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Get Specified Finder Items. Lets you specify the files you want to process. You can use the Add or Remove buttons or drag files directly from the Finder.
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Copy Finder Items. Makes copies of the files to protect the originals.
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Apply Quartz Composition Filter to Image Files. Applies the filter to the selected image files.
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Open Images in Preview. Opens the specified image file in Preview.
To execute the workflow, click the Run button on the toolbar.
You can use AppleScript right away, by working with AppleScripts created by the friendly folks at Apple. To gain access to the ready-made scripts, open the Applications folder, select the AppleScript folder, and then select Example Scripts, or do it the easy way by activating the built-in Script menu. When you activate (display) the Script menu, the Script icon appears on the right side of the menu bar and is available in the Finder and whenever you open an application. For example, you can click the Scripts icon, point to Printing Scripts, and then click Convert To PDF.
Open the Applications folder, and then open the AppleScripts folder.
Double-click the AppleScript Utility icon.
Select the Show Script menu in menu bar check box.
Select or clear the Show Computer scripts check box to show or hide library scripts.
Click the top or bottom option to specify where to show application scripts on the menu.
Click the Close button.
Anyone can write AppleScripts. All it requires is the Script Editor application available with Leopard, and knowledge of the AppleScript language. The AppleScript editor lets you type script directly into the editor window, or you can click the Record button, and then perform some Mac operation, as the editor records each step as you work. There are many places where you can go to increase your AppleScript understanding; however, point your browser to http://www.apple.com/applescript/, and then click the Resources link to access current resources dealing the creative techniques for AppleScript.
Open the Applications folder, point to the AppleScript folder, and then double-click the Script Editor icon.
Type the Script directly into the Script Editor window to create a new one or click the File menu, and then click Open to edit an existing one.
Click the Record button to record within the active script.
Click the Run button to run the active script.
Click the Stop button to stop the running of the active script.
Click the Compile button to create a version of the active script.
Click the File menu, and then click Save, or Save As to save the script using a unique name and location.
If you’re having crashing problems with Office 2008 and you don’t know where to turn, check out the Apple Web site at www.apple.com and search for some technical support. If you can’t find what you need and you don’t know what to do, you can remove Office 2008 from your computer and then reinstall it from your Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac installation DVD. Before you perform this task, be sure to back up all your Office documents.
