BONUS! SPECIAL REPORT How to Add Value to Your Administrative Procedures Documentation: Creating Screenshots, Graphics, and Custom Bullets By Julie Perrine, CAP-OM, MBTI Certified Founder and CEO, All Things Admin 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC
Creating Graphics One way you can create graphics for your administrative procedures is to take screenshots which you can turn into graphics using the Paint or Microsoft Office Picture Manager programs (which come standard on most older computers) or the Snipping Tool (which comes standard on most NEW computers with Windows 7). Then you insert the graphics into your electronic documents. I recommend using graphics in your procedures as much as possible to make them more visual instead of so heavy with text when it makes sense to do so. To Capture a Screenshot (In Windows 7) Windows 7 has a fabulous new feature called the SNIPPING TOOL. Here s what it looks like and how it works: Click on ALL PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, SNIPPING TOOL This screen will appear. Click on NEW. Your screen will fade out. A crosshair will appear. Using your mouse, select the portion of your screen you d like to capture as a graphic. As soon as you release the mouse button, the image will appear and ask you if you want to save it. You can save it as a graphic OR you can immediately open the document where you want the graphic and simply paste it into the file. Saving the graphic is not required. Explore the other options available under the NEW drop down menu and the OPTIONS screen. This is one of the coolest and handiest little tools Microsoft has come up with yet! NOTE: I also recommend when you go to ALL PROGRAMS and ACCESSORIES that you RIGHT CLICK on SNIPPING TOOL and choose PIN TO TASKBAR and/or PIN TO START MENU so you don t have to navigate to find it each time you need it. I keep it on my taskbar 24/7. www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 2
To Capture a Screenshot (In versions of Windows prior to Windows 7) Press PrtScn or PrintScreen button to capture everything visible on your screen. EXAMPLE: Here is a screenshot that includes the entire screen including the taskbar at the bottom, toolbars at the top, and the print screen in the center. www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 3
Press ALT+PrtScn (print screen button) to capture only the forward most window on your screen. EXAMPLE: In the screenshot above, if I only wanted the print screen without all of the other items on the entire computer screen, ALT+PrtScn would only capture this image. You can now paste this into the procedure at the appropriate location. If you want to CROP the graphic further, click on the picture formatting menu and choose the crop tool: Use the handles that appear on each side of the graphic to crop it to the specific portion that you need. You may want to insert a shape (oval, circle or square) to highlight a certain area. You will need to format the shape to have a TRANSPARENT background if you want to be able to see through the shape. (See examples of this in the next graphic where I use a yellow box with a thick line and a transparent background to highlight the area of the screen I want you to take note of. Inserting a screenshot is that easy for documents. If you choose to get a little fancier or need to capture a screenshot and make a graphic that you can use again and again as a PNG, JPEG, or GIF file, keep reading. www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 4
Using Microsoft Office Picture Manager to Create Graphics Open Microsoft Office Picture Manager (typically located by navigating on your start menu to All Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Tools folder on your computer) Paste the image anywhere onto the Microsoft Office Picture Manager screen (outlined in yellow). www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 5
Use the edit pictures tools to crop, resize, adjust color, etc. When you click on Edit Pictures, you ll see this bar appear on the right side of your screen. Using the various icons, you can adjust the image color, brightness and contrast. You can crop, rotate, and flip. You can resize the image and compress it for document use. Play around with these options on a sample graphic and you ll see how quick and easy this program is to learn and use for graphics creation. I recommend compressing all graphics for document use once you ve finished making all of the other edits. This removes some of the image megapixel size so the final file size won t take up so much room on your computer. Note: Once you ve edited a graphic or photo, SAVE AS or EXPORT so you don t ruin the original photo files. www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 6
To compress pictures for your documents, click on the Compress Pictures. This menu will appear on the right side of your screen. Click the option next to documents Click OK Once you re finished editing and compressing your graphic, Microsoft Office Picture Manager will allow you to export the image as a JPEG or GIF image which you can insert into your document as a graphic. www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 7
On the FILE menu, click on EXPORT. You ll see the export options appear on the right side of your screen. Choose the file location you want to save the finished graphic to in Original locations. Give the file a name in Original file names. Choose the file format that you want to use (recommend JPEG or GIF for website use). Click on OK. www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 8
Using Paint to Create Graphics Click on Print Screen on your keyboard. This will capture the material that you want to copy and paste into Paint. Open Paint. (Find it by clicking on Start - All Programs Accessories Paint) Click on Paste. Your image that you copied should now appear on the Paint work space. www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 9
Click rectangle marquee in the toolbox. Select the area that you want to crop by using the marquee tool. Right click and copy. Click on FILE NEW. Right click and paste the graphic onto a new workspace in Paint. www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 10
Click on FILE SAVE AS Choose a JPG or GIF file format. Choose the file name and file location to save it to. Click on SAVE. Free online programs you may find helpful in creating graphics Paint.net (an alternative to Photoshop) GIMP.org Photoscape.org Other programs you may find helpful in creating graphics Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Fireworks www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 11
How to Create Custom Bullets If you ve noticed the FUN little bullets that I use in many of my documents and would like to add some interest to your documents, let me show you how! I ll give you the step-by-step instructions for Microsoft Word versions including 2003, 2007, and 2010. In Microsoft Word 2003, here s how you create custom bullets very easily: Click on the FORMAT drop down menu. Click on BULLETS & NUMBERING. On the BULLETS tab, click any bullet option shown. NOTE: I recommend choosing the bullet type you like the least because the next few steps will replace it with the NEW one you create instead. Click on the CUSTOMIZE button. Click on CHARACTER to choose from symbols or other font types such as Webdings or Wingdings. OR Click on PICTURE to create your own custom bullet from a graphic or image you have saved on your computer previously. www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 12
In Microsoft Word 2007-2010, you can create custom bullets very easily, too. Click on BULLETS menu Click on DEFINE NEW BULLET. This menu will appear: Click on SYMBOL and browse from options that are already available through fonts or symbols installed on your computer. A screen similar to this will appear (see next page). www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 13
Choose the symbol you d prefer and click OK. NOTE: You can also browse symbols available in other fonts such as webdings or wingdings (two great options) by choosing other options from the FONT drop down at the top of the screen. OR - instead of choosing SYMBOL on the Define New Bullet screen, click on PICTURE to use a custom image that you may have created yourself (like my pushpin or post-it note bullet). You will have to navigate to where you have the graphic or image saved and import it into the bullet library. NOTE: The key to keep in mind here is the image you choose must be legible even when it is used at a very small size so keep it simple. www.allthingsadmin.com 2011 Julie Perrine International, LLC Page 14
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