Are you a Microsoft Office guru?

I always considered myself to be pretty proficient at using the Microsoft Office suite, and most of the hints and tips that I find on the web are usually things I already know. However, I just came across a series of Office tips from Payne consulting, covering Excel, Outlook, Word and PowerPoint, which included quite a few very useful things that I never knew about. Here are some highlights:

Outlook: Change the subject of a received message. Just edit it (even though it doesn't look editable, it is) and then save the message. Great for messages without subjects, or where the subject no longer reflects what the message is about.

Outlook: Lookout is a free utility that you can download from Microsoft that allows lightning fast search through all your email folders at once, whether local or on the server.

PowerPoint: Holding down both mouse buttons for two seconds will return you to the first slide of a presentation. You can also configure the right mouse button to go backwards rather than open a menu (Tools > Options > View tab > Uncheck 'show menu on right mouse click')

PowerPoint: Compress and crop all pictures in your presentation to make the file size smaller. (Choose Compress Pictures from the Picture toolbar)

Word: Press Shift+F5 when you open a document and it will jump to the last place you were working before you saved it.

Word: You can customise the menu to include a Work menu, and add documents to it for quick access. Perfect for, I don't know, thesis chapters, maybe?

Word: Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V can be used to copy and paste formats.

Excel: Some toolbar buttons have undocumented opposite actions, accessed by holding down shift when you click them. So, Shift+Save will Open and vice versa, Shift+Print Preview will Print and vice versa. Lets you shrink your toolbar to make room for other useful commands.

Excel: You can colour code sheet tabs by right clicking the sheet tab and choosing Tab Color. OK, I knew about this one, but it's still cool.