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Published 
3 min read

Line or scatter chart? 

<p>Ah, the great questions of life: Paper or plastic? Line chart or scatter chart? Choosing the wrong chart type for your data can easily happen when it comes to line and scatter charts. They look very similar, especially when a scatter chart is displayed with connecting lines, but there is a big difference in the way each of these chart types plots data along the horizontal and vertical axes. Let Excel writer Frederique be your guide as to which type of chart to use and when.</p>
Published 
1 min read

Livescribe smartpen users can now easily connect to OneNote 

<p>Smartpens are wonderful devices that can record everything you handwrite (and everything you hear, such as in a lecture). Livescribe smartpen users can now send pencasts of their notes and audio recordings directly into OneNote, where such content becomes fully searchable, thanks to OneNote's fantastic ability to search for text in handwriting, images, and even audio recordings. Read the full blog post to learn where you can download the new version of Livescribe Connect that now adds full OneNote support!</p>
Published 
3 min read

Free gradebook template for Excel 2010 

<p>Earlier in the year I worked with Beth Melton, an Excel MVP, to create a super easy and visual gradebook template in Excel 2010. It’s built for teachers with little to no Microsoft Excel experience. In fact, all of the grade calculation formulas are taken care of for you. We built the template in Excel 2010, because of all the new 2010 data visualization features. It even includes a printable student progress report! Take a look at what this new gradebook template has to offer. </p>
Published 
4 min read

Create Convincing Visualizations by Adding Reference Lines to Your Excel Charts 

<p>Have you ever wanted to add a horizontal or vertical line to your chart to indicate a key value, sales threshold, important date, or the average of your data?  Are you looking to impress managers and convince clients with your superb charts? Reference Lines (see the dotted black line on the chart below) can be powerful tools in effectively communicating important points in your data.  There is currently no specific built-in functionality for creating Reference Lines in Excel 2010, but there are still a few ways to add them to your chart. </p>
Published 
1 min read

Download Office 2010 Service Pack 1 

<p>The Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) -- a bundle of updates based on what we've learned during Office 2010's record-breaking first year-- was released yesterday. Learn more about it in the SP1 announcement on the Microsoft Updates (Sustained Engineering Team) blog, or just go ahead and download it now from the Download Center. SP1 will be available through Microsoft Update as an automatic update in 90 days. It's available there now as a manual update to those who've installed all Office Automatic Updates. </p>
Published 
2 min read

Understanding images: Part 3 – Anchoring 

<p>Why do figures, or images, sometimes jump to a different page in your Word document? This is one of the great mysteries of Word and today, I’ll reveal the answer. To get to the bottom of this question, it’s important to understand the concept of anchoring. Every floating figure in a Word document is actually attached to the page. This point of attachment is called the “anchor” and is indicated by a small anchor icon. To see this, you’ll need to enable the display of the icon by clicking the File tab and then clicking Options. In the Display section, select the check box next to Object Anchors. Now, when you select a floating figure, you’ll see the anchor icon appear on the page. </p>
Published 
3 min read

Understanding images: Part 2 – Wrapping styles 

<p>Wrapping text around figures, also known as graphic objects or images, can help give your documents a more polished look and help focus attention on the most important content. Last week, I wrote about the basics of inline vs. floating figures. One of the big differences between these types of images is that floating images are positioned separately from the text, allowing text to wrap around, over, and behind the images. Word has several wrapping styles that give you control over how the image integrates with the document. Today, I’ll explain the options and share my thoughts on when to use each one.</p>
Published 
2 min read

Understanding images: Part 1 – The basics 

<p>Figures can add a ton of pizazz to a document, but they don’t always behave the way you might expect, which can be incredibly frustrating. With a little behind the scenes information, you can put your figures in their place. Theresa Estrada, a program manager on the Word team, writes today about the basics of working with graphic objects--shapes, text boxes, pictures, and more. This is the first of a series of posts about graphic objects.  </p>