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MS Office 101

A couple of weeks ago I ran a tip about keeping a cell reference constant in MS Excel. (To keep the row and/or column from changing as the reference is copied and pasted.)

The tip let you know that you simply had to enter a $ in front of the row number or column letter to prevent Excel from changing it during a copy/paste.

A few readers wrote in with a faster way to get the $ into the formula. (I have to say, it is a pain to hand-type the $, so I really liked this one.)

So, how do we speed the process up?

It's a quick matter of the F4 key.

Once a cell reference has been entered into formula simply hit the F4 key. (The cursor should be in the cell reference.) This will insert a $ in front of both the row and column reference.

Hit F4 again and it will insert only one $.

F4 again, and you will still have only one $. It will be in the other location.

One more time, you will have all $ removed.

Consistency completed quickly. (Treasure it - there isn't too much of that in the world.)

Office Tip of the Day

The Banishment of the "My Documents" File Monster

Have you ever wondered who decided that the "My Documents" folder is where all your files should be saved? Do you find yourself constantly navigating to a different location every time you save a file?

If your answers were yes and yes then this one is for you.

Believe it or not, it is possible to change the file monster that seems to have us all cornered in the "My Documents" folder. (You should be able to change this for MS Word, Excel, Access or PowerPoint.)

To change the default location of files for a program we'll need to go to the Tools menu, Options choice. (There's a shock - we always seem to start out there.)

Once the Options window is open you'll need to find the place where file locations are set.

In MS Word I found it under the File Locations tab.

Select the Documents line and click on the Modify button. This will allow you to navigate to the place where you'd like to save most of your Word documents. Click OK.

Now, instead of the default being the "My Documents" folder, you'll automatically be directed to the location you chose.

Both MS Access and Excel had the file location option on the General tab. (In Access it's referred to as the Default database folder instead of the Default file location. This means the same thing, it's just that we call Access files databases, not files.)

MS PowerPoint had the Default file location on the Advanced tab.

For all three of these later programs you will need to type in the file location you'd like to use. (These programs don't let you browse using a modify button like Word does.) Keep in mind that a / separates folder names. You will need to have all folders listed that must be opened to find the place where you save files. (Just a hint: I find that it is easier to modify the current location than to start a new location from scratch.)

When you've completed the change click on the OK button. That's it, you're done. When you try to save or open files the program will automatically bring up the location that makes sense to you.

Poof! The "My Documents" file monster has been banished!

If only we could banish a few of the other monsters that seem to live in our computer systems…