Microsoft Office is still the number one office suite used by companies and students alike. With programs such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and OneNote, collaborating and working on important files has never been easier.

But because these programs have so many features, we tend to overlook some of the most interesting and helpful of them all. So to help, here are some MS office hacks you can use to maximise the use of your office suite.



Copy and paste several selections
One of the most annoying things to do is copying and pasting different selections of a text to another document. Especially if you are still in school doing review of related literature or if you are in the research field, working with multiple sections of a single text, while important, is a waste of time. Good thing there is a “spike” function which allows you to copy different parts of a selection and paste them all at once.

Co-authoring on a document
The appeal of Google Docs is the easy co-authoring capability that allows you and your colleagues or group mates to work on a file together, in real time. But you can also do this with the MS Office, especially programs such as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

All you need to do is save the file in a cloud, in this case, OneDrive or Sharepoint. And then share the link with your workmates. The documents you save in a cloud can also be accessed on any device.

Add more options on your shortcut menu on Excel
Shortcuts that can be typically found in the top menu are Save, Undo, and Repeat Typing. But if you want easy access on an Excel feature you frequently use, just go to File -> Options -> Quick Access Toolbar, and add your preferred shortcuts.

Use wildcards when doing a search on your spreadsheet
If you want to a search in your Excel spreadsheet but are not exactly sure what you are looking for, use the wildcards. There are three different wildcards used on Excel:

● Asterisk * - can be used to take the place of any number of characters. (e.g. S*t can mean Shut, Sachet, Salt, etc.)
● Question market ? - can be used to take the place of one character (e.g. S*t can mean Sit, Sat, Set, etc.)
● Tilde ~ - can be used to mean that the character in place should be treated as part of the element you are looking for and not a wildcard (e.g. S~?t will match only with S?t and not Sit or Sat)

Aligning images on Powerpoint 
You can align your images with a single click on Powerpoint. Just click on an image, and then select the other images you want it to align with while holding the Shift button. Then click on the Align button and select the alignment you want. Now you do not have to rely on your mouse and your eyes to scale.

Making your title pop on your presentation
There are a lot of ways you can make your title pop out. You can download fonts or use Word Art to give it more of a colourful effect. But you can also maximise the Format Text Effects in Powerpoint. You can play around with transparency, Size, Blur, Angle, and more. 

If you just bought a new laptop and wish to buy an original Office software, you can check out MS Office products online from Harvey Norman. They offer the complete office suite to help you start your documents and presentations.