Office 2007 For Dummies®

Chapter 19. Ten Tips for Using Office 2007

Microsoft Office is famous for burying tons of useful features that most people never know about, so this chapter is about exposing some of Office 2007's features so you can take advantage of them and make Office 2007 more convenient (and safer) for you to use.

Saving Office 2007 Files

Most people dump their documents inside a folder in the Documents folder, so to make retrieving files easier, you can customize each Office 2007 program to look for files in a specific folder.

In addition to defining a default folder to look for files, you can also define a default file format for your Office 2007 programs. Finally, to protect your data (as much as possible) from inevitable computer crashes and hard disk failures, Office 2007 programs include a special AutoRecover feature, which saves a temporary copy of your file at fixed intervals, such as every ten minutes. That way, if the power goes out, you lose only those changes you made in the last ten minutes and not all your changes.

Access doesn't offer an AutoRecover feature because it automatically saves any changes to your data anyway.

To customize the location, format, and AutoRecover feature of an Office 2007 program, follow these steps:

1. Load the Office 2007 program you want to customize (such as Word or PowerPoint).

2. Click the Office Button.

   A pull‐down menu appears.

3. Click the Options button.

   Depending on the program you're using, the Options button may read Word Options or Excel Options. An Options ...