Weekly Computer Tip # 206
8 September 2007

set default formatting properties of drawing objects (Microsoft Office)

If I would get a penny for every time I hear course participants say "I wish I would have known that ages ago" I'd be rich. That said, I would have had to pay myself a penny this week when I found out that I could have saved myself a helluvalot time over the past years by setting the default formatting of my circles I use to draw attention to a specific part of a screenshot in my bespoke training handouts. So rather than every time changing my circles to have no fill, a red line color (sic) and a line weight of 1.5 I could simply specify that any future objects I draw should have those properties.

Here's how:

1. Create a drawing object with the look, line style, color, and other formatting that you want.
2. Right-click the object and select Set AutoShape Defaults.

In future, any objects you add (say, a rectangle rather than a circle) will have those formatting properties applied. OK, you have to do this once for each MS Office application, but I sure could have saved myself a lot of work creating my handouts in MS Word!

Finally, apologies for missing yet another week. It's just manic and some things start to slip, either intentionally or unintentionally... for instance, when I arrived in the training room the other day I noticed the normally ever so efficient repro guys had not delivered any training handouts. So I reported it to the powers that be and started the session with outdated material we still had left. After about half an hour somebody entered the room and told me a box was delivered a couple of days ago and that "an elderly lady took hold of it". Elderly lady? Well, that couldn't have been me! Or was it? While humming the Alzheimer theme tune I passed around the handouts I found in one of the cupboards.

Until next week.

PS I’m committed to sharing the best of what I know with others so please don’t keep me a secret. If you enjoyed today’s tip, please forward it to anyone you feel may benefit. Alternatively, feel free to reprint it (with full copyright and subscription information) in your newsletters and message boards.

Home   Training   Support   Clients   Contact Details   News   Disclaimer