Many users have learned how to cut, copy and paste text and other objects using Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other program. You have learned to recognize the Cut, Copy and Paste buttons, which Microsoft displays identically in all Microsoft Office applications:

Many users have also learned the keyboard shortcut for these commands:

• Cut - Ctrl X
• Copy - Ctrl C
• Paste - Ctrl V

These commands are actually part of the Windows Operating System. Because they operate independently, they can be used to capture data in one application and paste it into another. For example, you can capture a pie chart created in Excel and easily paste it into a Word document using either the buttons or the key equivalent keystrokes.

Or, you could surf the Web, highlight some text (such as the text you are reading) by dragging your mouse through it , press Ctrl C to capture it, then paste the text into a Word document.

Many applications also offer a special version of the Paste function called Paste Special. It has some very useful applications. For example, suppose you have an invoice created in Excel that includes a unit price, a quantity and a total column. You want to copy the totals and paste them into another column. But when you do, Excel displays only zeroes. Why?

Assuming the totals were calculated using formulas that referred to the Unit Price and the Quantity cells, Excel pastes the formulas into the target column. Because of relative cell referencing (discussed in Excel 2000 Module 1 and Excel 97 Module 1), the new formulas refer to the wrong cells.

What you really want to do is simply paste the salary amount, not the formula that created it.

Paste Special to the rescue!

After capturing the column of salaries:

1. Move the cell pointer to the start of the destination column
2. Click on Edit on the menu bar
3. Click on Paste Special...

You will see this dialog box:

By default, Excel will paste all the data in the cell (the formula, the value it produces, the cell formatting, etc.)

4. Click in the Values radio button
5. Click on OK

This tells Excel to paste only the cell value, not the formula.

Paste Special has a slightly different function in Word, but again can be very useful. For example, if you go to a Web site and capture some text that is strangely formatted, you can remove this formatting and paste only the text using Paste Special.

Paste Special is discussed in Excel 2000 Module 3 and Excel 97 Module 3.

Both Word and PowerPoint provide an applet for creating a simple organization chart. An applet is a mini-application that provides a special service for a larger, more powerful application such as Word. The applet used to create organization charts in Word and PowerPoint is called MS Organization Chart Several versions have been developed. Word 2000, for instance, includes version 2.0.

(MS Organization Chart 2.0 was actually developed by a company called Blue Banner Software. Blue Banner makes a more powerful version than the applet bundled with Office).

In order to use MS Organization Chart, it must be installed on your PC. If it is not, you can add it by inserting the original Office CD and running the Add/Remove Programs option in the Control Panel.

To create an organization chart:

1. Click on Insert on the menu bar
2. Click on Object...
3. If necessary, scroll down and double-click on MS Organization Chart

The Organization Chart window will appear superimposed on Word or PowerPoint. When it is running, Word or PowerPoint "sleeps" in the background.

4. Maximize the Organization Chart window by clicking on its Maximize button

Organization Chart provides its own menu bar and toolbar for creating the chart. When finished, you can exit from the applet and return the chart to Word or PowerPoint. To do so:

5. Click on File
6. Click on Exit and Return to {document name}

When you do so, you will see a message like this:

You are being told that the contents of the org chart have changed since it first loaded. Clicking Yes will copy the chart into the application (a Word document or PowerPoint slide) as a graphic object. Only click No if you change your mind and want to abort the chart.

Once the chart appears in the application screen, you can drag it to a new location or resize it, just as you would any other graphic object.

Organization charts are covered in detail in Word 2000 Module 4 and PowerPoint 2000 Module 1.

Suppose you are creating a monthly financial report in Word that needs to include a pie chart that displays sources of revenue for your business. Each month, the pie chart must be updated as the new figures are added. You used Excel to create the pie chart, and you have learned that the chart in Excel is automatically updated each time the numbers change. You would like the copy of the pie chart in Word to automatically update too.

You can do so quite easily. The trick is to insert the pie chart into Word using a special version of the Paste command.

1. Select the pie chart in Excel. If the pie chart is embedded in the sheet containing the numbers that generate it, click on the chart so selection handles appear around it, then click on the Copy button. If the pie chart is displayed in its own sheet, just click on the Copy button at the top of the screen.
2. Activate Word and the document into which you wish to insert the pie chart.
3. Move the cursor to the location in the document where the pie chart is to be inserted.
4. Click on Edit on the menu bar
5. Click on Paste Special...

You should see a dialog box like this:

Clicking on the OK button at this point would insert a static copy of the pie chart in Word. Changes to the original in Excel would not be reflected in the copy in Word. You could, as the Result box indicates, edit the chart manually be double-clicking on it. However, we want the updates to occur automatically.

6. Click on the Paste link button

When you do, the description in the Result box changes to:

7. Click on OK

The copy of the pie chart in Word is now linked back to the original Excel spreadsheet. Any changes you make to the Excel numbers will update both the pie chart in Excel and the copy in the Word document. If the Word document is not open when you change the Excel values, it will be updated the next time you retrieve it.

Microsoft knows that its users need to import and export data from one application to another, such as the pie chart we just described. It tries to make this task easier through OLE technology. OLE stands for Object Linking and Embedding. Although OLE is a somewhat complex technology, to the end user it simply means that many Office document objects (text, graphics, tables, and so forth) can by copied from one application to another.

If you've been working in the Windows operating system for some time, you are probably aware that objects can be captured (copied or cut) from one program and pasted somewhere else. For example, you can copy or cut text in a Word document and paste it somewhere else using either the buttons on the toolbar or the equivalent key strokes:

Function	Toolbar Button	Equivalent Keystrokes
Copy		Ctrl C
Cut		Ctrl X
Paste		Ctrl V

The three buttons are always displayed the same in all Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access) so that they are readily identified by users. If the program you are using does not display these buttons, you can almost always use the equivalent keystrokes to capture or paste objects.

These buttons are part of the Windows operating system. Data you capture using them is stored in a special block of RAM memory called the Clipboard:

After copying an object to the Clipboard, you can paste it somewhere else by first positioning the cursor in the destination location and clicking on the Paste button (or pressing Ctrl V). A copy of the object remains on the Clipboard even after you paste it, so you could, if you wanted, continue to paste it in other locations. Once you exit Windows, the Clipboard contents are erased.

Great as the Windows Clipboard is, it has one major drawback: it can only store one object at a time. No matter how large or small the object is, capturing (Copying or Cutting) another object causes the current occupant of the Clipboard to be removed.

Microsoft decided to solve this problem by introducing a new, separate Clipboard with Office 2000: the Office Clipboard. Unlike the Windows Clipboard, this one is able to store up to 12 items at the same time. To help manage multiple items, the Office Clipboard includes a small toolbar that often appears automatically whenever you capture a second object. For example, after capturing two separate blocks of text in a Word document, the Clipboard toolbar will look like this:

Since the icon doesn't tell you the contents of the Clipboard item, you can find out by hovering the mouse pointer over each. The first 50 characters of text will be displayed like this:

To paste an item, click on its icon. To paste the contents of every icon, click on the Paste All button. To remove all the items from the Clipboard, click on the the button to its right.

You can also use the Office Clipboard to capture objects in different Office applications. For example, if you capture a slide in PowerPoint, a paragraph of text in Word, and a range of cells in Excel, the toolbar would look like this:

This toolbar will expand, if necessary, to show icons for additional items. Notice that the icon tells you the source application for each captured object.

If the Office Clipboard is not visible, you can display it by clicking on View on the toolbar, pointing to Toolbars..., and selecting it from the list.

The Office Clipboard and Windows Clipboard do share some functionality. For example, when you copy multiple items to the Office Clipboard, the last item is also copied to the Windows Clipboard. If you use the Paste button on the application toolbar or Ctrl V, the last item on the Office Clipboard is pasted.

Microsoft Office programs like Word and Outlook try to be helpful by automatically formatting text as you type. One of these "autocorrect" features causes the first letter of a word following a period mark to be capitalized. The program assumes that the period represents the end of a sentence; thus the word that follows must be the first word of a new sentence. If you don't capitalize it, the program automatically makes the correction.

There are times, however, when the period represents something other than the end of a sentence. For example, you may type an abbreviation like Mpls. as in "He went to Mpls. last week for a visit". The program sees the period and converts the l in "last" to upper case.

Erasing and re-typing does no good; each time, the program converts "last" to "Last".

The solution is to immediately invoke the Undo function by pressing Ctrl Z. This is a universal command, and in this situation will normally restore the word to its state just before it was autocorrected.

The Drawing toolbar is a great way to create vector images to enhance your Word documents or PowerPoint slides. (A vector image is one that can be re-sized without becoming fuzzy or jagged - great for fitting it into different-sized spaces in a document). What if you wanted to capture one or more of your drawings for future use? You can do so by adding them to the Clipart Gallery.

After you've created the drawing, it will probably consist of several objects (rectangles, ovals, lines, Autoshapes, etc.). The first step is to combine all these objects into one.

1. Click on the Select Objects button on the Drawing toolbar:

2. Starting to the left and just above the cluster of objects, hold the mouse button down and drag diagonally to the lower right corner of the object. A dashed line will be displayed:

3. Release the mouse button

You will see selection handles around each of the objects:

4. Click on Draw on the Drawing toolbar
5. Click on Group

You should now see a group of selection handles around the entire image.

6. Capture the image to the clipboard by pressing Ctrl C
7. Click on the Insert Clip Art button on the Drawing toolbar:

The Insert ClipArt dialog box will appear.

8. Select the desired category in which to insert the image. Or, create a new category if you wish
9. Paste the image into this category box by pressing Ctrl V

You will see a dialog box like this:

10. Type in a description for image
11. If you prefer to store the image in a different category, click on the Categories tab and select by clicking in its checkbox
12. Click OK

The Drawing toolbar and its tools are covered in detail in Word 2000 Module 4.