233Chapter 9 ✦ Building Integrated Documents Moving and resizing linked objects You can move or resize a linked object just as you can move or resize an embedded object. You can also edit it in its source application by double-clicking it, with one difference: When you double-click an embedded object, the menus and toolbars of the originating program are displayed in the destination document’s application. Double-clicking a linked object opens the source document in the originating application: In the case of the previous example, it would open the source document in Excel in a new window. Editing and updating links If you have a lot of linked objects in the same document, the easiest way to work with them is to choose Edit_Links. This opens a dialog box similar to the one shown in Figure 9-6. (Its appearance varies slightly among the various Office applications.) Figure 9-6: Edit your links using these controls. The list box includes all the linked objects in the current document (in this case, only one). Down the right side are additional controls: ✦ Update Now updates the linked object in the destination document to match the source. ✦ Open Source opens the source file in its originating application. ✦ Change Source lets you browse your computer for a different source file. Obviously, changing source files is likely to completely change the appearance of your current document. You can also use Change Source to find a source file that has been relocated, thus repairing the severed link. ✦ Break Link turns the linked object into a picture, severing its connection with the source file. You can also choose to either automatically update the linked object whenever you open the destination document or whenever the source file changes, or you can choose to update the linked object only when you click Update Now. 234 Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office 2003 Using the Locked and Save picture options Some applications include two additional options in this dialog box: Locked and Save Picture in Document. If Locked is available, you can select it to deactivate the Update Now button and prevent the linked object from being updated automatically. You might do this to freeze the data in your document at a particular point in time. Save picture in document is normally checked. If you uncheck it, you can save a graphic as a linked object instead of inserting it into your document. This can save disk space. Other Methods of Sharing Data The four main Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access) offer additional ways to share data. You’ll look at collaborating on a network (including the Internet) in a separate chapter, but there are several other ways in which Office applications work together. For a full explanation of how you can collaborate on a network with Office applications, see Chapter 16 of this Super Bible eBook. Sending a Word document to PowerPoint Word lets you send the currently active document to PowerPoint as the basis of a new presentation. It automatically turns each paragraph of the document into a new PowerPoint slide (see Figures 9-7 and 9-8), which you can then edit and format as you wish in PowerPoint. To send a document to PowerPoint, choose File_Send To_Microsoft PowerPoint. You can reduce the amount of formatting you’ll have to do in PowerPoint by using styles. PowerPoint will interpret each Heading 1 style as a title slide, each Heading 2 style as the next level of text, and so on. For that reason, a Word outline actually makes a better PowerPoint presentation than a Word document consisting of long paragraphs of text. Cross- Reference 235Chapter 9 ✦ Building Integrated Documents Figure 9-7: This ordinary Word document can be sent to PowerPoint . . . Figure 9-8: . . . where it becomes a presentation in which each paragraph forms a new slide (although obviously some formatting work is needed!). 236 Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office 2003 Analyzing Access data in Excel Access is a great application for storing and retrieving, but when you want to analyze data, Excel wins out. For that reason, Office makes it easy to analyze Access databases in Excel. To do so, open the Access table you want to analyze, and then choose Tools_Office Links_Analyze it with MS Excel. Excel opens the table and converts it into a spreadsheet, where you can play with the data to your heart’s content. Publishing Access reports with Word Access has a disadvantage when it comes to designing reports for its data: Its tools can seem awkward if you aren’t thoroughly familiar with it. But one advantage of Office’s integration is that you can usually use data from any application in another application with which you’re more comfortable. For that reason, Access also makes it easy to publish reports in Word. Open the report you want to publish in Word in Access, and then choose Tools_Office Links_Publish it with MS Word. Access opens Word and converts the report into a new document in RTF format. Merging Access data in Word Access also lets you easily merge data from a database table with a Word document. To do so: 1. In Access, open the table you want to merge, and then choose Tools_Office Links_Merge it with Microsoft Word. This opens the wizard shown in Figure 9-9. Figure 9-9: Use this wizard to merge Access data in Word. 2. Choose either to link your data to an existing Microsoft Word document — a form letter, for instance — or to create a new document and then link the data to it. If you choose to use an existing document, you’ll be asked to select it. 237Chapter 9 ✦ Building Integrated Documents 3. Access opens Word and either displays the existing document you chose or a blank document that you can create and format. You can’t see it, but the Word document and the Access document are linked. 4. From here on, the process of using the Access data is the same as creating any other mail-merged document in Word. Sending a PowerPoint presentation to Word Just as you can turn a Word document into the basis of a PowerPoint presentation, you can turn a presentation into a Word document which you can then edit and format. This can be a great way to create a hard-copy version of it. To do so, open the presentation you want to turn into a Word document, and choose File_Send To_Microsoft Word. This opens the dialog box shown in Figure 9-10. Figure 9-10: Turn your PowerPoint presentation into a Word document, laid out just the way you like it. Choose how you want to lay out the pages (you can position slides two to a page, with notes or blank lines beside them; one to a page, with notes or blank lines below them; or send the outline only, without any slide images), and whether you want to paste (embed) the presentation into Word or paste it as a linked object. Click OK. PowerPoint creates a new document in Word and pastes the presentation into it. 238 Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office 2003 Sharing Data with XML As has been pointed out several times already in this book, Office 2003 offers XML (eXtensible Markup Language) as a native file format — meaning you can save your files as XML files instead of as Office files. XML is described in greater detail elsewhere, but it’s worth reiterating what is likely the clearest definition of differences between HTML (the markup language used to create Web pages) and XML: XML was designed to describe data, focusing on what data is, whereas HTML was designed to display data, focusing on how data looks. That makes XML an ideal format in which to exchange data between applications, especially between Office and non-Office applications (provided they, too, support XML to the extent Office does). However, because Office applications do a fine job of interacting with each other with their standard file formats, there’s no particular reason to use XML instead when sharing data between them — unless you’re also planning to share that data with non-Office applications. In which case you’ll find the techniques for inserting linked and embedded files work with Office documents saved in XML format just as they do for Office documents saved in their standard formats. Summary In this chapter, you learned ways to build documents using more than one Office application at a time. Key points included the following: ✦ There’s more than one way to insert an object from one application into another. You can copy it and select Paste Special, choose Insert_Object from the menu, or, in some applications, use built-in tools. ✦ When you use Paste Special, you can choose to insert an object in a number of formats, which vary depending on what kind of object you copied. Typical options include inserting the object as text, as a picture, as a linked or embedded object, or as HTML. ✦ Embedded objects can be edited using the program that created them by double- clicking them. ✦ Linked objects can be edited in the same way. The difference is that linked objects are created from a source file, and if that source file is changed in the originating program, the display in the destination document also changes. This is useful for keeping documents up-to-date when data is changing rapidly. ✦ You can edit all the linked objects in your document by choosing Edit_Links. You can choose to update links automatically or manually. 239Chapter 9 ✦ Building Integrated Documents ✦ Other ways to share data in Office include sending Word documents to PowerPoint presentations (and vice versa) and sending Access data to Excel for analysis or to Word for publication or mail merging. ✦ You can integrate Office documents saved in XML format exactly the same way as those saved in standard Office formats — useful if you need to keep your documents in XML format for sharing with non-Office users. ✦✦✦ 10 10 In This Chapter Integrating Outlook with Office Creating a mail merge Sending an e-mail from an application Importing and exporting data CHAPTER Integrating Outlook with Other Applications C omputers are wonderful and complex tools. Unlike a simple tool such as a hammer, a computer is intended to handle many very different tasks. This versatility is the result of the broad range of software that is available for modern computers. In all likelihood, your copy of Outlook came as a part of Microsoft Office. But even if it did not, you probably have software that provides word processing functions, other software that manages database information, and software that handles calculations. You probably have many other applications on your computer, too. All these different pieces of software may seem totally independent of each other, but as you learn in this chapter, you may want to use some of them to complement each other. You might, for example, want to use the contact information that you have in Outlook to help you create perfectly addressed letters using your word processor. You might also want to send a spreadsheet file that you’re working on as an e-mail message. These are just a few of the benefits you can gain from integrating Outlook with some of the other applications on your computer. Integrating Outlook with Office As you would probably expect, Outlook works very well with the other applications that are a part of Microsoft Office. If you want to use your Outlook Contacts list to create a mail merge in Microsoft, you’ll find a command right on the Outlook menu to 242 Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office 2003 begin the process (Tools _ Mail Merge). In fact, if you want to share information between applications, Outlook is ready both to provide information to other programs and to use information that is provided by other programs. Much of this two-way data sharing can be thought of as common to many different programs. It’s often quite easy to share data between programs provided by different software manufacturers. You don’t have to use Word, Excel, or Access to share information with Outlook. Of course, because Microsoft would like you to use their products, they’ve made it just a bit easier to share information between the programs of Microsoft Office than with other programs. One way to share information between programs is to use linking or embedding to place an object from one program into a document in another program. Linking places a link in your document so that changes in the original object are reflected in your document. Embedding places a static copy of the object into your document. Linking offers the advantage of smaller document size and always up-to-date content, but embedding offers the advantage of having everything combined into a single package. You might include a chart from an Excel worksheet in an e-mail message to show your team members how expenses have really increased over the past year. Or you might use a Microsoft Visio image to illustrate an important point about how your new building proposal will fit in with the existing structures in the neighborhood. Here’s a quick example of how you might place an Excel chart into an e-mail message: 1. Create the chart in an Excel worksheet. 2. Select the object that you want to use in your e-mail message. In this case, select the chart of monthly expense. 3. Select Edit _ Copy to copy the object to the Office Clipboard. 4. Switch back to Outlook. If the taskbar is visible, you can click the Outlook icon on the taskbar, or you can use Alt+Tab to switch between applications. 5. Click the Mail Button Bar icon and then click the New Mail Message button to display a new Message form. 6. Choose Format _ Rich Text. 7. Enter the addresses and subject line. 8. Type your message. 9. Select Edit _ Paste Special to display the Paste Special dialog box. You could simply choose Edit _ Paste, but this won’t enable you to choose the link option. A link option sends only a link, not actual data. 10. Choose Paste to embed the object. Note [...]... an Office 2003 application, you’ll next see a message similar to the one shown in Figure 10-8 Choose the format that best suits your needs and then click OK Figure 10-8: Choose the proper document format 5 Select the message recipients 6 Enter any additional text and set any message options as necessary Figure 10-9 shows the message ready to send 251 252 Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office. .. options on the Send To menu, but most will include a Mail Recipient option 249 250 Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office 2003 Figure 10-7: You can send a document from within the application that created it 3 Choose the option you prefer: • Mail Recipient generally sends the document as a file attachment, but in Office 2003 applications, you can choose to send the document as an HTML page •... Document button to display the Merge to New Document dialog box, shown in Figure 10 -5 247 248 Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office 2003 Figure 10 -5: Select the number of records you want to use in your merge 14 Click All, Current Record, or specify the range of contacts you want included in the mail merge 15 Click OK to complete your mail merge Figure 10-6 shows an example of a completed... involve different sequences of steps, but the import process will be similar in all cases You must choose the type of data, the source file, and how to handle duplicates 253 254 Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office 2003 Exporting information from Outlook Just as you can import data into Outlook from several different formats, you can also export Outlook data into a number of formats... to save the mail merge data for future use You might want to choose this option to provide a permanent record of the contacts that you used for this mail merge Normally, 2 45 246 Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office 2003 though, you’ll want to perform a new mail merge each time you need the information so that you don’t accidentally use outdated information 8 Select the type of mail merge... Other Applications 255 1 Select the message that you want to save 2 Select File _ Save As to display the Save As dialog box, shown in Figure 10-10 Figure 10-10: Save a message rather than exporting it if you want the message text to appear in a file 3 Choose the destination for the file 4 Enter a filename for the message By default, Outlook will use the message subject as the filename 5 Click Save to save... with Word tracking who made each change Marking documents with revision marks Comparing and merging documents Comparing documents side by side Using Reading Layout view 258 Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office 2003 Placing Comments in Documents Word’s comments feature is a quick and easy way to add ancillary information to a document You can use comments to leave reminders for yourself... with the new Tip The View tab of the Options dialog box (Tools_Options) includes an option for showing or hiding the highlight both on-screen and when the document prints 2 65 266 Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office 2003 Using Reviewing Tools You can use the Track Changes/Reviewing feature to keep track of the changes made to a document, no matter how many people work on it Instead of... to send a form letter to your relatives, you could create a view that shows only those contacts in the family category You can learn more about filtering your contacts in Chapter 9 of Wiley’s Outlook 2003 Bible To create a mail merge using records in your Contacts list, follow these steps: 1 Open the Contacts folder 2 If you want to use a subset of the records in the mail merge, do one of the following:... capable program, but that doesn’t mean you have to use it in isolation As you learned in this chapter, Outlook works well with other programs You saw that Outlook integrates with the other programs in Microsoft Office You also learned how to use Outlook’s Contacts list to produce form letters using mail merge You saw that sending e-mail from within other applications is sometimes easier than switching back . other ways in which Office applications work together. For a full explanation of how you can collaborate on a network with Office applications, see Chapter 16 of this Super Bible eBook. Sending. Part II ✦ Collaborating and Integrating with Office 2003 Sharing Data with XML As has been pointed out several times already in this book, Office 2003 offers XML (eXtensible Markup Language). between applications, especially between Office and non -Office applications (provided they, too, support XML to the extent Office does). However, because Office applications do a fine job of interacting