Your Business Quick Tip Alert from Debbie Mayo-Smith

Vol 18 No #161 – 2nd of April 2019

I thought to try something different in this issue and give you four tips focusing on the theme of using colour to save you time in both MS Office and Google. You’re sure to love these tips.

EMAIL

Problem: You get loads of emails but don’t want to use rules to sort them. Or you need certain emails to stand out immediately because of the source, or whom they’re from. Or perhaps emails arrive with certain types of problems you need to address immediately.

Solution: Automatically Colouring Your Emails (and Calendar and Tasks)!

Outlook: A fabulous, but hidden feature is Conditional Formatting. You set a condition to look for (such as email address, word, subject line). Next specify the colour, font, size of font and bold or italics for the email to automatically change into when the condition is met. For example, I have every email that arrives with the word trining in it turning green, bold, and with a larger typeface than the others. (see image to the right)

Outlook 2010-2019 View Ribbon>View Settings> select Conditional Formatting. A window opens and you have three steps- 1. Give it a name. 2. State the condition you want met. 3. Select your font, colour, size.
Even better, when you set one up, it will work retroactively on emails already in your inbox!!!

Calendar & Tasks – If you would like to use conditional formatting on these items, the result and the action steps are the same for email. You simply have to complete the steps for each of the Outlook programs (it doesn’t move across)

Please, if you do like the tips – your greatest compliment would be to refer your colleagues and friends to the newsletter.

Gmail: I’m sorry to say there are three steps to accomplish this feat in Gmail (and they’re a bit advanced) – see image below

Create a label (the equivalent of folders) from the top navigation bar across Gmail
Click the three dots on the label and assign it a colour
Create a filter that sets the condition to look for in an email to apply to the label. When the new email arrives it will have the label name and colour preceding the subject line.

SPREADSHEETS

Problem: You have a large spreadsheet of information and you need to find specific data quickly. You need patterns of data to stand out, or certain information highlighted in some manner. For example, certain post codes. Who has done what training. The top 10% of sales. All the sales by one person. Amounts over or under a certain amount or even a coloured view based on range of values (top, middle, bottom).

Solution: You can with (low and behold) Conditional Formatting.

Excel – Home Ribbon>Styles Menu> Conditional Formatting (then follow the drop-down menu)

Bonus: Here’s a How-To Video from my Quick Tip Boot Camp Excel – Lesson 13 (Link to Video is here) The video is 1 minute 40 seconds long. If you like this lesson, there are 15 more! Learn more

Google Sheets: Use advanced conditional formatting

On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
Select the cells you want to format.
Click Format Conditional formatting.
Under the “Format cells if” drop-down menu, click Custom formula is. …
Click Value or formula and add the formula and rules.
Click Done.

Did you like these tips? Why not save more time and improve your business results with our Fabulous Brand New Training Options available from Mid-June. You are the first to know about them! Here’s a brief description:

Microsoft Office Mastery – How to get more done in less time with Intermediate and Advanced Tips and Tricks covering your choice of a pic & mix of Word, Excel. PowerPoint. Outlook
Microsoft Office 365 – Learn the benefits of, and how to use, the Microsoft cloud programs: OneDrive, Sway. OneNote. Skype. Flow. Forms.
Art of Persuasion – Effective Communication secrets, tips, tricks and how-to’s. Learn how to craft great stories, persuasive discussions and fabulous presentations and documents.
Excel Not Just Numbers. Magical tips, tricks and how-to’s working with lists, databases in Excel. Saving a massive amount of time working in Excel and large spreadsheets
Conquer Your Email Overload – Outlook or Gmail

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Duration (One hour through one day)
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Contact Debbie now for a quote and full content debbie@debbiespeaks.com