Have you ever wanted to blur the background of a photo but you don’t want to use Photoshop?  In the video below we show you just how to do this. We’ve also provided a step by step process below. This is an awesome photo technique in PowerPoint.  It’s a technique that many designers have been doing in Photoshop.  If you don’t have Adobe Photoshop you can still apply this effect. You do need to have Office 2010 (or 2011 for the Mac).

To begin you will need to choose a photograph, the best option is one that has people or an object as the main photo but has a distracting background that you would like to blur out, one that has a depth of field is ideal.  For this technique you will use these functions in PowerPoint, Copy and Paste or the Duplicate Command, Background Removal and Artistic Effects.

Step by Step:
1.) Choose your photo. Again one with depth of field is ideal.

2.) Duplicate your image, you can select your image and copy and paste using the Ctrl-C (Copy) and Ctrl-V (Paste) keyboard shortcuts.

3.) Next align your two images. Click your Format Tab, select the Align option, then Align Left and Align Top.

4.) Select your foreground image. The best way to confirm you are selecting the correct images is to click on Select on your ribbon bar and choose Selection Payne. You will now see everything listed on this particular slide. You can rename the selections foreground and background.  Select your foreground image, on the format tab select Remove Background option and the select Keep Changes.

5.) Select the background image, Select Artistic Effects and choose Blur.

This is a great video from Ron Owens from the Microsoft Word Blog. Ron shows us how to use the co-authoring (simultaneous editing) tool in Word 2010. He notes that you can “Cut your all-nighter in half”. He’s not kidding! This video also highlights how authors can be in different locations utilizing SkyDrive, Microsoft’s Cloud storage solution. Our two cents, at just under three minutes this is a great video and worth the watch.

Video Link: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/redir/va102757656.aspx

Interested in Microsoft Publisher 2010?  KnowledgeWave and Log on to Learn have you covered!  The below video is a great preview to an upcoming live webinar event scheduled for Thursday, May 26th at 1:00 PM EST. Priced at $99 this is a great event that no doubt with bring you a wealth of Publisher knowledge. As a reader of our blog we are extending a very special discount of $79 off the list price! Attend this event of only $20!

Video Tip: Getting a picture in Publisher 2010 is only the beginning.  In this tutorial we cover the different text wrapping options so our images sit on the page in the way we’d like them to appear.

Text Tip: Hyphenation of Text in Publisher 2010

While in specific instances hyphenation in a document may be necessary, as a general rule, it’s best to turn off hyphenation in your design layouts.  You can accomplish this several ways in Publisher.  To make the change globally (throughout Publisher), go to the File tab and choose Options.  Then select Advanced and from the Editing Options region, deselect Automatically hyphenate in new text boxes.  To change hyphenation rules for a specific text box, select the box and go to the Text Box Tools, Format contextual tab.  Click the Hyphenation button and deselect the Automatically hyphenate this story box.  This will do away with hyphenation for this text box and all connected text boxes. 

Want some more great content for Microsoft Publisher? Attend our Live Webner Event. 

Live Webinar!
Extra! Extra! A Guide to Creating Dynamic Newsletters in Microsoft Publisher 2010

Event Overview:
Whether you are using newsletters to share information with family and friends or to attract new business and customers, Microsoft Publisher’s newsletter function provides total layout and design flexibility. Publisher provides an easy-to-use interface that allows you to select the design layout and color scheme, format text and insert images quickly and easily to create a custom newsletter.
This 60 minute Webinar covers the following topics:
• Exploring the Newsletter Templates
• Modifying a Template
• Creating Pages from Scratch
• Inserting Text and Frames
• Inserting Pictures and Clip Art
• Moving and Nudging Objects
• Using Text Overflow
• Formatting Text and Headings
• Working with Bullets and Numbering
• Paragraph and Line Spacing
• Spell Checking and Autocorrect
• Using the Design Checker
• Printing your Newsletter

Start Date: Thursday, May 26, 2011
Start Time:1:00 PM (EDT) U.S
Fee: $99 Only 20*! Use code BLOG at checkout to discount from $99 list price.
Register Online: Click Here

Here’s a  great Microsoft Windows 7  Tip!

Keyboard-shortcut lovers! Windows 7 finally includes the ability to add new folders from the keyboard with a shortcut key combination. To create a new folder, simply press Ctrl+Shift+N with an explorer window open and the folder will instantly show up, ready to be renamed to something more useful.

In this session, we will show you how to Freeze and Split panes in Excel 2010. Freeze panes allow you to freeze columns and rows making them visible as you scroll within a worksheet. Split panes allow you to split your worksheet into multiple views, letting you scroll in one pane of the worksheet, while other panes remain static.

Have you ever gotten lost in your own presentation?

PowerPoint 2010 has a new Sections feature that helps organize slides, similar to how folders organize the files you use. By using sections you can keep your slides in logical groups. Furthermore, the function makes a useful outlining tool at the point of creating your presentation.

To add a section go to the ribbon and click “Add Section”. Once the section is created right click on section label and select “Rename Section”.

Once your sections are created you can expand and collapse them as needed, apply themes to a section, print a section and drag and drop sections to change the order of your presentation.

Brand new to Excel 2010, Sparklines are tiny little charts located in a single cell that provides a visual representation of data.  This allows you to, in most cases, view your data and the chart at the same time. In this session we will show you how to add and remove Sparklines from an Excel worksheet.

Like this tip? Follow us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/knowledgewave for more great tips.

This is a great video tip. Short and to the point.

Tables are an incredibly helpful function in Word.  In this brief tutorial we show you how to save applied table formatting as a Quick Table for later use in any document you create. This is a must-see tip for those who create many tables.

Themes are a collection of fonts and colors that we can add to an entire document. Themes work very well with Microsoft Word Styles. Watch as we show you how to apply and use various themes. Although themes are a collections of fonts and colors we will show you how to separate the two after you’ve applied a theme.

Log on to Learn offers much more Microsoft Word 2010 screencast content too! Try our free 10-day trial to test it out yourself!  www.logontolearn.com/offers/

Have you ever wondered what the actual differences were between Adobe Reader and Acrobat or what Adobe Acrobat can do? Although they share a common history, these are not the same application. Adobe Acrobat has many more features and capabilities. This short clip brought to you by Log on to Learn should help.

Click Here to Watch the short Tutorial Clip

Brought to you by Log on to Learn