By default, Outlook shows a Desktop Alert when you receive a new email, a meeting request, or a task request for 5 seconds, and then the notification disappears from your desktop. However, there are no duration settings in Outlook. You only can turn on or turn off desktop alerts. Hard to believe, but you will find the duration in the Ease of Access group that contains settings for people with vision problems.

The Control Panel application is the primary place for various Windows settings controlling Windows looks and feel, and behavior of other software. The Control Panel applets configure field and number separators in Excel (you can switch semicolon to comma, comma to semicolon, comma to point, etc.) or measurement system in PowerPoint.

From time to time you need to change a computer or laptop no matter what, e.g., a breakdown or upgrade. To keep the habitual work environment, you need to backup and restore personal ribbon customizations.

Excel provides three easy ways to print chosen ranges: print the selection, define the print area in the Page Setup dialog, or create the print area. The first two methods work well for occasional printing but, if you need to print a specific range or ranges of worksheet frequently, defining one or multiple areas to print, significantly reduce the efforts. Moreover, with print areas, you can easily add new ranges to the existing selection.

Protecting a workbook is different from protecting the Excel file with a password to prevent reading/writing or locking the spreadsheet elements to prevent editing. Workbook protection forbids other users to add, move, rename or delete worksheets and defends against viewing hidden worksheets or hiding worksheets.

If you need to count the number of dates between two dates in Excel, you don't need to use DATEDIF and other Excel date manipulation functions. Date in Excel isn't a separate type, but a number with proper formatting. The integer part of this number represents days since the fixed moment for all dates. Subtract one date from another, and you will get the number of days between two dates. Also, you can add or subtract an integer from the date, and get the date in the future or the past.

Users of Microsoft email services are well acquainted with the OST format, which is used to store data in encrypted form. Converting OST files allows you to get rid of format restrictions, after which mailings will become available to the user for offline work in Outlook.

The standard Outlook work weekdays are Monday-Friday, and work hours are 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM. The Scheduling Assistant uses this information to show your availability when someone want to schedule a meeting with you. Skype for Business can forward your phone calls to an alternate phone using this information.

The address book is usually created when you create a Personal Folders profile, but only one address book is connected to the profile. Fortunately, you can easily create additional address books out of the profile for your own needs.

If you are giving a presentation, you need to do more than just prepare a speech. You need something else for your audience to engage with to make sure they take in the information you are talking about. One way is to create a PowerPoint presentation.

Iterative processes are the core of any business, and Microsoft PowerPoint provides several templates for cyclic processes: basic cycle, text cycle, block cycle, etc. Cyclic diagrams provide an easy way to illustrate a circular flow of money and goods of the buy, product, and sell process; or steps of iterative decision making of the marketing process.

When you create a presentation for a graduate thesis or dissertation, often, you need to insert Greek letters into the slide. Mathematical symbols and Greek letters are pervasive today and used everywhere, from physics to social science. You may use the equation block for inserting those symbols, but this block will have different format settings than the rest of your text, and you will not be able to edit it in older versions of Microsoft Office. If you need to insert just a symbol, use the Symbol dialog box or Alt+code shortcuts.

When you are a college student, you have to do loads of work ranging from assignments to lab experiments to projects to research work. The workload gets a lot, and you look for any help that you can get.

Hyphens play two essential roles in writing – they break single words into parts on syllable boundaries (optional hyphens), and they join separate words into a single word (mandatory hyphens). In the Automatic hyphenation mode, Microsoft Word automatically detects syllable boundaries and inserts optional hyphens for words at the end of the line. If you edit the text in a way that the hyphenated word is no longer at the end of the line, Word removes the optional hyphen.

If you need to illustrate the people or department structure of your company or organization, you don't need specialized software or expensive templates. The Organization Chart template from the SmartArt graphic gallery provides powerful tools for making organization diagrams. Check Using the Organizational Chart Tool for the details of creating the new organizational chart. Moreover, it relieves you from tedious and cumbersome work on repositioning and updating layout when you add a new entity to the organization structure or remove an existing entity from the organization structure.