Get Office 365 for free on your own laptop

Get Office 365 for free

Bring your own laptop to the Library’s “Tech on the Go” lunch time drop in session on Thursday and we can help you download Office 365 for free.

Why do I want Office 365?

To get Microsoft software for free including:

• Word
• Excel
• Powerpoint
• Publisher

What else at the “Tech on the Go” drop-ins?

Get help to :

• log in to Moodle
• log in to Student Portal
• log in to Student Email
• set up free wifi access on your own device
• get library notices by text message

Can’t make this Thursday?

Don’t worry.  We are running “Tech on the go” drop-in sessions every Thursday lunchtime in February and March.

Save time in Microsoft Word – Use Autotext

Have you ever been working in Microsoft Word or Outlook and wished you could save content you might want to use again later e.g. a header or a footer or a form letter?

Well its time then to get to know how to automatically insert text using autotext.

How to use Autotext in Word 2013?

 

1. In your document, highlight the text that you want to reuse often.
2. On the Insert tab, in the Text group:

– click the icon for Explore Quick Parts (Note if you have a wider screen the words Quick Parts show)

– click AutoText,

– click Save Selection to AutoText Gallery.

3. Fill out the information in the Create New Building Block dialog box.

(Most of the default values are fine.)

4. Change the Name to something short you will remember.

5. Click OK

5. In your Word document, add your saved autotext by either:

• Clicking on the Explore Quick Parts icon and clicking on your autotext from the gallery.

or

• Type into your Word document the name you gave your autotext  and pressing F3 on your keyboard. (This pastes your specified autotext into your Word document).

A video on Microsoft Word’s Quick Parts 

Here’s a 3 minute video from Jim Galloway’s Law Practice. (Note: Jim is using Word 2010).

Adding student and page numbers to my footer in MS Word 2013

Here is a set of instructions about how to set up your  document (Word 2013) with your student number and automatic page numbering. (Thanks to Angela our Microsoft expert on the Library team for this info!)

1. Open your Microsoft word document.

2. a. Select  Insert

b. Select Footer

3. Scroll down and select

4. Under Header & Footer Tools select Insert Alignment Tab

5. a Select Left

b. Select OK

6. Add your student number e.g.

7. Select Insert Alignment Tab again in the top ribbon

8. a. Select Right

b. OK

9. a. Select Page number

b. Select Current position

c. Select Plain number or another option of your choice

 

10. Your footer should now display correctly on each page.

11. If you have a cover page and you don’t want the numbering to start on this page you can  tick “Different first page” in the “Header and Footer Tools” ribbon and alter as required.

Click Adding student and page numbers to my footer in MS Word 2013  for a PDF of these instructions.

For further assistance ask one of the library staff or ring 940 8089.

For answers to other common questions visit our other FAQs in the blog or our How do I subject guide.

How do I get Microsoft Office on my PC or MAC for free?

Studying at CPIT but don’t have Microsoft Office on your home PC, Mac, laptop, iphone or android?

Then you’re in luck as you can get Microsoft Office 365 Proplus on most of your devices while you are enrolled as a CPIT student.

What is Microsoft Office 365 Proplus?

Office 365 Proplus is the version of Office that comes with many Office 365 plans.  It includes Access, Excel, Infopath, Lync, Onenote, Outlook, Powerpoint, Publisher and Word.

How do I get it?

Just login in to your student email. (If logging in to your email for the first time you need your original password.  See a librarian for assistance).

Follow these downloadable instructions once you have accessed your student email.

Remember to ask a librarian if you would like assistance.

Notes:

a. You will only be able to access  Microsoft Office 365 Proplus while you are a student at CPIT.

b. You can also access these above instructions from the Campus Life page under Support for you and IT Help.

c. Office 365 ProPlus is a full version of Office. The programs have the same features and functionality as other versions of Office.

d.Even though users don’t need to be connected to the Internet all the time to use Office 365 ProPlus, users must connect to the Internet at least once every 30 days. This is so that the status of their Office 365 subscriptions can be checked.

For answers to more commonly asked questions see our FAQs or How do I guide.

 

 

 

Find synonyms fast!

Here’s a tip for quickly finding synonyms (i.e. different words that have the same meaning).

Type a word into MS Word or Outlook email, highlight it with your left mouse button, then right mouse click on the highlighted word.  A list of options will appear – select synonyms. You’ll often get a list of alternative words but there will also be a link to a thesaurus, so you can click that to see more suggestions.

Another trick is to use Google. Just enter define: (define colon space) followed by the word. e.g. define: thesaurus. If that doesn’t provide enough info, try clicking the extra links below the entry (see image below). The Merriam Webster dictionary even provides suggestions for words that rhyme with your word, e.g. thesaurus – Centaurus, sonorous.

These could be really handy tools if you’re trying to think of synonyms when preparing a database search, or if you want to come up with a different word to use in an essay. 

If you want to explore word meanings in more depth, try the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which contains over 600,000 words and is considered the best authority on the meaning, history and pronunciation of the English language. Bookmark the OED now or add it to your Favourites – it’s bound to come in handy!

Word Tip

Want an easy way to add your name, student number, page numbers to your document? If so try this:

Double click at the top of the document and this will open the header/footer space and the Header & Footer Tools tab in the ribbon. 

On the right in the Position Group is the Insert Alignment Tab.

Click on this and then tick the position you want to enter the information required, it is best to work from left to right in the header or footer or you will find it will put entries on multiple lines.

If you want to add page numbers go to Page Number in the Header & Footer group on the left and from the drop down box choose Current Position and select the number style.