- Understanding the Task Pane
- The Search Task Pane
- Other Standard Task Panes
Other Standard Task Panes
The other two standard task panes that you will probably use a lot are the Insert Clip Art and Office Clipboard task panes. Although using these task panes is covered within the context of specific Office applications in the parts of this book, you can take a brief look at both of them in the following sections.
The Insert Clip Art Task Pane
How you find and insert clip art in the Office applications has been made much easier by the introduction of the Insert Clip Art task pane. This task pane enables you to quickly search for clip art using a keyword search. Clip art that matches your search parameters is then immediately listed in the Clip Art task pane as thumbnails.
To use the Insert Clip Art task pane, follow these steps:
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In an Office application such as Word or PowerPoint, select Insert, point at Picture, and then select Clip Art. The Insert Clip Art task pane appears (see Figure 3.4).
In the task pane's Search Text box, type keywords that Office can use to find your clip art images.
Use the Search In drop-down box to specify the collections you want to include in the clip art search. Selected collections are marked with a check mark in their check box that you can toggle on and off with a simple click of the mouse.
Use the Results Should Be drop-down box to specify the type of files that should be included in the search. You can select or deselect file types such as Clip Art, Movies, and Sounds.
When you have finished setting your search parameters, click the Search button. When the search is complete, the clip art that meets your search criteria appears in the task pane.
In the Image list, locate the image that you want to place into your Office document. Then, click the image. The application inserts clip art into your document.
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Figure 3.4 Search for clip art by keywords using the Insert Clip Art task pane.
Using the Office Clipboard
Microsoft Office XP provides a new version of the Office Clipboard that enables you to accumulate a list of 24 copied or cut items. This makes it very easy to paste items within an Office document, between Office documents in an Office application, or to copy, cut, and paste items among your different Office applications.
To use the Office Clipboard, follow these steps:
In an Office application, select Edit and then select Office Clipboard. The Office Clipboard task pane opens.
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As you cut or copy items from your various Office applications, the items are placed on the Office Clipboard, as shown in Figure 3.5.
To paste an item from the Clipboard, place the insertion point in your Office document at the place where you want to insert the item, and then click the item on the Office Clipboard task pane.
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Figure 3.5 Use the Office Clipboard to copy, cut, and paste multiple items in your Office applications.
You can remove items from the Office Clipboard at any time by placing the mouse on the item. A drop-down arrow appears; click the drop-down arrow and select Delete from the shortcut menu that appears. You can clear the entire Clipboard by clicking the Clear All button at the top of the task pane.