Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
Table of Contents Getting Started ............................................................................................................ 1 The Welcome Center................................................................................................... 1 Finding and Installing a Network Printer ...................................................................... 2 Personalizing the Desktop ........................................................................................... 4 Adding Shortcuts to the Desktop ................................................................................. 6 Using the Sidebar ........................................................................................................ 7 Editing Gadgets........................................................................................................ 8 Removing Gadgets .................................................................................................. 8 Adding Gadgets ....................................................................................................... 9 Moving Gadgets ....................................................................................................... 9 Closing the Sidebar ................................................................................................... 10 The Start Menu .......................................................................................................... 11 Logging Off and Shutting Down in Vista................................................................. 11 Search.................................................................................................................... 13 Navigating through Your Computer........................................................................ 15 The Control Panel...................................................................................................... 17 Networking ............................................................................................................. 18 Power Saving ......................................................................................................... 19 Managing Multiple Programs ................................................................................. 21 Using Office 2007 ...................................................................................................... 23 Microsoft Word ....................................................................................................... 23 Microsoft Excel....................................................................................................... 27 Learning More About Vista and Office 2007 .............................................................. 30
Getting Started
Windows Vista offers computer users all kinds of new functionality, such as better search capabilities, improved file system navigation, and new built-in applications. Although, the first thing you may notice about the new operating system is its new look, a sleek interface with translucent title bars, rounded edges, and sophisticated color schemes. The same is true of Office 2007. In the new bundle of Microsoft programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) each program has a clean new look with larger tool buttons. This document will briefly introduce you to the newest features of Vista and Office 2007 to allow you to get back to work using your new system as quickly and easily as possible.
The Welcome Center
When you first log on to Vista the Welcome Center window will appear. This window allows you to quickly and easily personalize your computer. Links appear in this window to help you: view computer details, personalize Windows, connect to the Internet, add a printer, learn about what’s new in Windows Vista or review Windows basics. If you expand the list to show all nine items, there are additional links to Windows’ Ease of Access Center, demonstrations of Windows Vista and access to the Control Panel window.
Click on “Personalize Windows” to change your desktop wallpaper and customize the sounds, images and settings on your computer.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
1
ETS, School of Education
Finding and Installing a Network Printer
From the Welcome Center window there is a link to “Add a printer” to your computer. This will allow you to find and install network printers to your computer. Note, you should know the name of your printer before you begin the finding and installation process. Each printer usually has a label with its name on it for you to reference. From the Add Printer window you can choose to add a local or network printer. Since most printers are included on the network, select “Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer” and press “Next”.
If the printer you need does not automatically appear then you can select “The printer I want isn’t listed”. From the following window, you can search for the desired printer in the network directory or select the printer by name.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
2
ETS, School of Education
If you search for the printer in the directory, the following window will appear. To speed up the search process, it is helpful if you type the beginning letters of the printer’s name in the name box.
Select a printer from the list in the bottom of the window and click “OK”. Follow the remaining windows in the Add Printer wizard and select if you would like to make the printer a default printer and/or print a test page.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
3
ETS, School of Education
Personalizing the Desktop
When you click “Personalize Windows” information appears at the top of the Welcome Center window concerning customizable features.
If you double click on the “Personalize Windows” link it will take you to the Personalization window as shown below:
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
4
ETS, School of Education
To change the desktop background double click on the “Desktop Background” link, this will bring you to the Desktop Background window where you can select from a variety of high quality desktop background images included in Windows Vista.
Select the image you would like to use as your desktop background and click “OK”. The new image will appear as your desktop image.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
5
ETS, School of Education
Adding Shortcuts to the Desktop
To add a shortcut to your desktop, right click on the screen and select “New” from the appearing menu. In the New menu select “Shortcut”.
This will allow you to type in the location of the program for which you would like to make a shortcut or browse for it on your computer.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
6
ETS, School of Education
Using the Sidebar
The different items, or gadgets, that appear on the right side of the desktop screen are attached to the Sidebar. The Sidebar is an area of the desktop that automatically appears on the desktop in Vista. This section will discuss how you can customize or remove the sidebar and its gadgets.
If you right click on the Sidebar, you will be able to open up the Sidebar properties. From here, you can control the position of the Sidebar on the desktop and/or allow it to remains on top of other open windows in which you are working.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
7
ETS, School of Education
Editing Gadgets When you place your mouse pointer over a gadget, three buttons will appear in the upper right hand corner of the item as shown below:
Each gadget has an edit window which allows you to change the appearance and settings of the gadget. To edit the gadget click on the wrench shaped button and the below window will appear.
You can also edit the opacity of the gadget by using the right click gadget menu as shown on the following page. Removing Gadgets To remove the gadget from the Sidebar, click on the “X” button. You can also use the right click gadget menu as shown in the following section.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
8
ETS, School of Education
Adding Gadgets When you place your mouse pointer over a gadget and right click, the below menu will appear:
Select “Add Gadgets” from the menu and the Gadgets window will appear.
To add a new gadget to your Sidebar simply double click on the chosen item and it will appear. You can find more gadgets online by clicking on the “Get more gadgets online” link. Moving Gadgets To move a gadget on the Sidebar simply place your mouse pointer over the selected item and click and drag to the desired new location.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
9
ETS, School of Education
Closing the Sidebar
If you would like to remove the Sidebar, right click on the Sidebar and select “Close Sidebar” at the bottom of the appearing menu.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
10
ETS, School of Education
The Start Menu
From the desktop, when you click on the button, the Start Menu will appear in Vista in the same lower left location of the screen as in previous versions of Windows. When the Start Menu is initially called up several quick launch buttons appear in the main menu area. To view all of the programs on your computer click on the “All Programs” link at the bottom of the menu. The quick launch buttons will be replaced by a list of all programs as shown below.
In addition to programs on your computer, from the Start Menu you can access the Search, Computer and Network windows and the Control Panel.
Logging Off and Shutting Down in Vista
To log off of Vista click on the button with the padlock symbol. To shut down the computer click on the power button.
To view a menu of logging off and shut down options click on the arrow button.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
11
ETS, School of Education
When you select the arrow button, a menu will appear giving you options to: switch users, log off, lock, restart, sleep or shut down your computer.
If you “Switch User” or “Log Off”, your computer will remain on and another user may be able to log into it for their own use. If you “Lock” the computer, your windows and programs will remain open and no one will be able to access the machine without your username and password. If you choose to have your computer “Sleep” it will power down but not be turned off completely.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
12
ETS, School of Education
Search In Vista it is even easier to search for files, programs and e-mails on your computer. From the Start Menu, you can simply type in key words into the search box at the bottom of the menu to find what you are looking for.
Alternatively, you can select the “Search” option from the Start Menu to display the following window:
To conduct a search type a search word or phrase in the search box in the upper right hand corner of the screen and click on the magnifying glass button.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007 13
ETS, School of Education
You can choose to view all the results of the search or sort by e-mail, document, picture, music or other (such as folders). In addition to sorting the search results you can conduct an advanced search if you did not find the desired item.
The below screen shows “Other” results with an advanced search box:
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
14
ETS, School of Education
Navigating through Your Computer Another way to find items on your computer is to use the “Computer” link on the Start Menu. This will bring you to the following window. Please note that this view is slightly different from the navigation window used in Windows XP.
If you select your name on the folders menu all of the built-in Vista personal folders will appear in the right hand side of the window.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
15
ETS, School of Education
Please note that “My Documents” in Windows XP is now simply called “Documents” in Windows Vista.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
16
ETS, School of Education
The Control Panel
The Control Panel can be accessed directly from the “Control Panel” link on the Start Menu. As shown below, many different aspects of your computer can be accessed from the Control Panel window.
This document will review setting up networking and power saving options.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
17
ETS, School of Education
Networking To view networking options double click on the “Network and Internet” link in the Control Panel window. This will take you to the Network and Sharing Center. From here you can manage the different systems and information you are sharing with other users. From this window you can also find links to: • View computers and devices, • Connect to a network, • Set up a connection or network, • Manage network connections, and • Diagnose and repair problems.
To access a wireless network click on the “Connect to a network” link and follow the screens in the wizard to find and connect to an available wireless network within range.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
18
ETS, School of Education
Power Saving To view power saving options double click on the “Hardware and Sound” link in the Control Panel window. This will take you to the Hardware and Sound window. From here you can access links to control different hardware and sound on your computer.
From the above window select “Power Options” and choose a preferred power plan from the menu. The sidebar also provides links to further control power management setting such as when the display will automatically turn off or sleep.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
19
ETS, School of Education
If you do not want to shut down your computer when you press the power button you can change the settings by selecting the “Choose what the power button does” link. From the resulting window below, you can choose to have the computer do nothing, sleep, hibernate or shut down when the power button is pressed.
Hibernate and sleep options do not turn your computer off completely, but instead put it in a limited energy usage mode.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
20
ETS, School of Education
Managing Multiple Programs When you have multiple programs open on your computer they will appear on the bottom of the desktop screen in the toolbar. In Vista, if you place your mouse on top of a program button on your toolbar you will see a preview of the running program as shown below.
Within Vista you can easily switch between open programs by pressing the Control-Alt-Tab buttons simultaneously. This will display a menu across the middle of the desktop as shown below:
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
21
ETS, School of Education
Vista has a new feature to allow you to view open program in three dimensional form across the desktop. To access this “Aero Flip” option press the Control-Tab buttons simultaneously.
You can flip through either menu by using the arrows on your keyboard.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
22
ETS, School of Education
Using Office 2007 Office 2007 introduces new features and formatting to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access. In each of these programs the toolbars familiar to most users are now ribbons with larger buttons. Similar drop down menus from previous versions can be found by selecting the words that run across the across the screen. This document includes a brief overview to some of the visual changes and layout to Microsoft Word and Excel. Microsoft Word As shown below, a new document in Word 2007 looks fairly similar to previous versions of the program with a larger toolbar and increased graphics. This is called the ribbon. The ribbon makes it possible to view options previously buried in the drop down menus. The ribbon will change correspondingly to the word selected at the top of the screen – Home, insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review and View. The File drop down menu has been replaced by the Office 2007 symbol ( hand corner of the screen and a corresponding drop down menu. ) in the upper left
The Home ribbon, as shown above, is similar to the Standard toolbar used in previous versions of Word.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007 23
ETS, School of Education
When you click on the symbol a menu appears in the upper left hand corner of the screen. From this menu you can create a new Word document, open an existing document, save the current document, print, prepare or send the document via e-mail. This newer version of Word is also designed to interface with SharePoint workflows.
Prior to printing a document you can use the preview option to view what it will look on the printed page.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
24
ETS, School of Education
The “Print Preview” option can be found from the Office drop down menu.
To change some of the automatic settings in Word, select the “Word Options” button from this menu.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
25
ETS, School of Education
From the Word Options window, automatic settings such as the color scheme, display, proofing and advanced options can be changed.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
26
ETS, School of Education
Microsoft Excel As shown below, a new workbook in Excel 2007 looks fairly similar to previous versions of the program with a larger toolbar and improved graphics. This is called the ribbon. The ribbon will change correspondingly to the word selected at the top of the screen – Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, View and Add-ins. As with Word, the File drop down menu has been replaced a drop down menu.
The Home ribbon, as shown above, is similar to the Standard toolbar used in previous versions of Excel.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
27
ETS, School of Education
When you click on the symbol a menu appears in the upper left hand corner of the screen. From this menu you can create a new Excel workbook, open an existing workbook, save the current workbook, print, prepare or send the workbook via e-mail. This newer version of Excel is also designed to interface with SharePoint workflows.
To change some of the automatic settings in Excel, select the “Excel Options” button from this menu.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
28
ETS, School of Education
From the Excel Options window, automatic settings such as the color scheme, formula, proofing and advanced options can be changed.
The chart feature is Excel 2007 can be found from the Insert ribbon. If you would like to view the Charts window you can click on the arrow in the lower right of the charts section of the ribbon.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
29
ETS, School of Education
Learning More About Vista and Office 2007 If you have additional questions about Vista you can access “Help and Support” from the Start Menu. From here you can search Vista’s extensive help index and access online support.
From Word or Excel, look for the Help button on the right hand side of the screen. This button will bring you to the Help window, where you can search for program information.
Introduction to Vista and Office 2007
30
ETS, School of Education