TIPS Minute Takers Meeting Minutes Tips Sheet 1

Helpful Tips for TIPS Minute Takers Using Meeting Minutes in Microsoft Word

A Few Quick Shortcuts for Microsoft Word Using the Command or Control Keys

Mac PCTo make text BOLD Highlight more than one word

or double click on a single work and hit CMD and B at the same time or (⌘ and B)

Highlight more than one word or double click on a single work and hit Ctrl and B at the same time

To ITALICIZE text Highlight more than one word or double click on a single work and hit CMD and I at the same time or (⌘ and I)

Highlight more than one word or double click on a single work and hit Ctrl and I at the same time

To UNDERLINE text Highlight more than one word or double click on a single work and hit CMD and U at the same time or (⌘ and U)

Highlight more than one word or double click on a single work and hit Ctrl and U at the same time

To Undo the Last Action Hit CMD and Z at the same time or (⌘ and Z)

Highlight more than one word or double click on a single work and hit Ctrl and Z at the same time

Justify to Right Click anywhere in the line of the text that you want to justify and hit CMD and R at the same time (⌘ and R)

Click anywhere in the line of the text that you want to justify and hit Ctrl and R at the same time

Justify to Left Click anywhere in the line of the text that you want to justify and hit CMD and L at the same time (⌘ and L)

Click anywhere in the line of the text that you want to justify and hit Ctrl and L at the same time

Justify to Center Click anywhere in the line of the text that you want to justify and hit CMD and E at the same time (⌘ and E)

Click anywhere in the line of the text that you want to justify and hit Ctrl and E at the same time

Save file Hit CMD and S at the same time (⌘ and S)

Hit Ctrl and S at the same time

To Copy text Highlight more than one word or double click on single word and hit CMD and C at the same time (⌘ and C)

Highlight more than one word or double click on single word and hit Ctrl and C at the same time

To Paste text Highlight more than one word or double click on single word and hit CMD and V at the same time (⌘ and V)

Highlight more than one word or double click on single word and hit Ctrl and V at the same time

To Cut text Highlight more than one word or double click on single word and hit CMD and X at the same time (⌘ and X)

Highlight more than one word or double click on single word and hit Ctrl and X at the same time

**Many of these actions also can be completed by “right clicking” after you highlight text.

TIPS Minute Takers Meeting Minutes Tips Sheet 2

Things to Accomplish in Word with Meeting Minutes Before a Meeting: At the beginning of the year , make a folder in which you will store all Meeting Minutes.

You may want to label this by your school initials with PBIS and the school year (e.g., BES_PBIS_2013_2014).

o One of the easiest ways to make a folder is to start on your desktop and then “right click” in the middle of the desktop. You will then see options that include “New Folder.”

oo Sel

ect this

option. You can then create the folder and then drag it to the location you would like to store it.

Next, make sure that you store a Master Copy of the Meeting Minutes form that is free from any information. This will be your back-up file in case something ever happens to any of your other Meeting Minutes files or in case you want to start fresh again.

Before each PBIS meeting, you will want to prepare the Meeting Minutes file. This includes (1) cleaning up notes on previous Meeting Minutes and (2) copying and pasting items from one part of the form to a new section (e.g., moving information from the “New Problems” section to the “Previously-Defined Problems” section). Here are some basic tasks.

o Open the file to the last team meeting and save it under a new name that indicates the date of your next team meeting.

o Review your Meeting Minutes form on this newly saved file and change the date, time, location, and roles for the upcoming meeting to reflect this new meeting.

o Add the information for the next meeting (if available at this time)o Uncheck or remove formatting that you use to indicate team attendance at the

meeting (you will reformat this during the next meeting).o Remove previous agenda items and update with topics that are going to be

discussed at your next meetingo For right now, skip over the Previously-Defined Problems section – we will come

back to this part…o Review the “Administrative/General Information and Issues” section and remove

and update as needed for your next meetingo For the moment skip the “New Problems” section and quickly go to the

“Evaluation of Team Meeting” section. Remove any “X’s” from the “Our Rating” table.

o Now, scroll back up to the “New Problems” section and copy information row by row from the first 5 columns (Precise Problem Statement through Goal & Timeline). After you have copied this information, go to the “Previously-Defined Problems” section and if needed add more rows – you can do this quickly by

TIPS Minute Takers Meeting Minutes Tips Sheet 3

putting your cursor in the last cell in the last row and column of the table and then hit the “Tab” key. This creates a new row with the same formatting as the previous rows. Once you have a blank row, put your cursor in the first cell and paste the content you copied from the “New Problems” section. Notice that you will have two columns with no data – this will be completed during your meeting. Repeat this for each “New Problem” that you discussed at your last meeting.

o Of note , if your team did not finish defining all elements of the “New Problem” from the last meeting such as not identifying a goal or Effectiveness of Solution data to be used, then this information should be kept in the “New Problems” section and be completed during the upcoming meeting.

o Next, review the previously discussed “Previously-Defined Problems” and remove any that are no longer a problem or are no longer under discussion/review by the team.

o As a final step, make sure that you have saved this file as a new one that is identified by the next meeting date.

o Once done, close the file.

Things to Help you Navigate in Meeting Minutes in Word During a Meeting:

Open the correct file for the meeting date and quickly scan to make sure that all information is accurate.

At the start of the meeting – and during if needed – mark members who are present. You may do this by formatting team members’ names who are present in bold (Ctrl + B or CMD + B) or by putting and “X” or check mark alongside their names.

Input relevant information in the Meeting Minutes form but be prepared to move around as needed (e.g., during the middle of the meeting, a team member arrives late – you may want to indicate his or her presence by marking or formatting his or her name at the top of the page).

If you need to create more rows, place your cursor in the last column in the final row and hit the “tab” button.

If you need to undo a previous action, hit the Ctrl + Z or CMD + Z keys. If you need to merge cells in a table, highlight those two cells and then “right click.” An

option will be present in the menu that will allow you to merge the cells selected. Additionally, you can highlight the cells you want to merge and then select the Table Format menu where an option to merge cells is provided.

TIPS Minute Takers Meeting Minutes Tips Sheet 4

If your Meeting Minutes form includes check boxes, you will need to double click on anything that needs changing and select the radio button to indicate “checked” if you need to select an item or “Not checked” if you want to deselect that item.

At the end of the meeting, make sure that you have all needed data included in the Meeting Minutes form such as the time, date, and roles for the next meeting and “Save” the file under the date that indicates the current meeting.

Things to Help you After a Meeting:

After a meeting you may want to review the Meeting Minutes and clean up any extra wording or formatting. Use this time now to make these formatting changes rather than stress about them during the meeting.

Again, save the file and then distribute to team members.

Congratulations you are done! Just repeat these steps before your next meeting!