Create Microsoft Outlook Appointments Automatically with Microsoft Excel

Do you work on projects whose due dates or events are kept in a spreadsheet? Wish you didn’t have to enter them manually into your Outlook calendar? Maybe you follow a sports team or have a child whose team’s schedule is posted online, and you have to type the times and dates into Outlook? You probably don’t realize it, but Outlook lets you import all these events with very little fuss. The key is to get the data into a Named Range in Excel, and then you can import it as appointments. For spreadsheet data, this is as simple as selecting all the cells you need, right clicking to select Name a Range, and then choosing a name. If the data you want to import is on a Web page in the form of a table, simply select the information on the Web page, copy it, and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet. You can then proceed with the import. One important note: It’s absurd, but Outlook 2007 can’t import Excel 2007 (XLSX) files. If you’re using Office 2007, remember to save your spreadsheet in the 97-2003 formats.

1. PREPARE THE DATA
Importing your appointments can be very simple, especially if you format the data well. First, put column names over data, so that it’s easy to specify which data maps to which Outlook fields. If you make those column names the same as Outlook’s own field names (like Location and Subject), then the fields will be mapped for you automatically. Second, if there’s a chance that I won’t recognize the event’s subject, I add a column with some general term that I’ll recognize. For example, the Stanford Tennis calendar I import lists only the Opponent and Date. So I add a column called “Stanford Tennis” as the Subject before I import the events. Finally, I add a column with a term that I import as an Outlook Category. That way if the event’s times and dates are updated, I can simply View by Category and delete all appointments in that category before re- importing the information.

To add alarms to events, title a column “Reminder on/off,” and use the code TRUE to set the alarm. Choose the alarm time with the headings “Reminder date” and “Reminder time”—you can even use formulas to set the reminder date or time to a certain interval before the Start Date or Time.

2. IMPORT THE SPREADSHEET
Importing appointments is fairly straightforward. Simply display your Calendar in Outlook and use the File Import and Export command, selecting Excel worksheet as the fi le type. Once you’ve selected the worksheet, you’ll get a list of named ranges in the fi le. Select the one (or more than one) you want to import. You can then map the columns in your data to Outlook’s native Appointment fields to customize your import. Then simply hit Finish and your appointments will be created.

3. CHECK YOUR CALENDAR
Once you’ve imported your events to Outlook, they appear just like any other appointments. For Outlook to get the times right, make sure you have your times and dates in the right format. For example, Outlook will recognize “3:00pm” as a time, but not “3pm.”






*.* Source of Information : March 2008 PC Magazine

Turn Excel Data and Charts into JPEGs

In Excel 2003 there’s a little trick. Hold down the Shift key and choose Edit from the menu. Note that instead of Copy it offers Copy Picture— select that item. You’ll be asked whether to copy as Picture or Bitmap, and whether to copy the image As shown on screen or As printed. You’ll almost always want to choose Bitmap and As shown on screen. If you choose Picture, the image will be copied as a resizable Windows Metafile, and not all programs can use that format.

Naturally, it’s different in Excel 2007. To copy a range as a picture, in the Home ribbon’s Clipboard pane click the Down arrow under Paste, choose As Picture from the menu, and then Copy as Picture. (If you’re surprised at having to choose Paste when you want to copy, remember this is coming from the same company that makes you click Start when you want to shut down.) As in Excel 2003, you’ll generally want to copy it as Bitmap and As shown on screen. But wait! In either version it can be easier, much easier. Just highlight the data range, chart, or whatever and press Ctrl-C. Excel puts the data into the clipboard in a variety of formats, so different programs can make use of it. It includes both formatted and unformatted text, as well as a format proprietary to Excel. And it also copies the data area as an image—Excel 2007 supplies four distinct image formats. When you switch to your graphics program and press Ctrl-V, the program will choose the clipboard format that suits it best.

*.* Source of Information : March 2008 PC Magazine