HELP!

I need somebody. Not just anybody. You know I need a Help menu. Yes... a help menu. If you are having trouble with Word, or Excel, or PowerPoint, or Outlook, or our new Online Catalog, etc., use the Help menu.

Generally, help menus can be searched via keyword. For example, if you want to know how to view someone else's calendar in Outlook 2003, you would go to help and type something like "view someone else's calendar". The first topic is exactly what you need.

Or, you are having trouble printing an Excel document so that it fits all on one page?... Go to Help and type something like "print on same page" and look through the results.

Or, you saw someone's PowerPoint presentation and you liked the way the words faded in and out. Go to Help and type something like "words fade in and out".

Help menus can also be searched via a table of contents. For instance, if you are using Outlook Web Access and you click on Help, you will not receive a keyword search option. Rather, you will see a table of contents. Scroll through the table of contents to see what you need.

The same is true for the Help menu on our public home page. Click on Help and look to the left sidebar for the contents.

Also, general Web searches work great as well, especially for error messages. You would be surprised at what you find on the Web in regards to doing certain tasks. Probably nearly a third, if not more, of all of my visits to this blog are from folks around the world doing google searches on different topics.

Help menus are a great, easy, underutilized resource. Try it the next time you are in a bind. I know that I certainly do appreciate them being around.