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MS Office 101

The Word Highlighter

Have you ever been working on a Word document and come to a point where you need to enter a fact that you're not sure of? Do you really want to stop this very minute to look up the information?

I'm not sure about you, but I hate to stop every few minutes to look something up. I'd rather keep going with the typing part, look information up after I'm done and double check the facts during the editing stage.

So the new question becomes, "How do I remember everything I have to check on?" I mean, what can you use to remind yourself of the places you know you may need to change?

There's a neat little feature in MS Word that can help you with this situation, it's called a highlight. It works just like the highlighter you use on printed pages. (I can remember the countless highlighters I used in college - makes me shudder - fortunately I like this one a whole lot better.)

The Highlight button is on the Formatting Toolbar and looks like this:

To use the Highlighter, simply use your mouse or keyboard to highlight (select) the text to be highlighted. Then, click on the Highlight button.

That's it - the selected text should now be highlighted - just like the good old fashioned marker type (except it doesn't make a mess on the monitor).

By clicking on the little arrow to the right of the highlighter in the button, a color palette will be displayed. This will allow you to change the color of the highlighter. Sometimes color coding information is extremely helpful.

To remove the coloring completely, highlight (select) the text and select the None choice from the color palette.

Now that you have a digital highlighter, have fun!

P. S. This is also a good tool when you have someone else proof reading your work. It draws their attention to specific places you need them to check carefully. There are an endless number of uses for the highlighter. Pretend you're a kid again and these are the new Crayolas!

Office Tip of the Day

Excel: Hiding Columns

Ever have a beautiful MS Excel worksheet, I mean absolutely perfect, except that one column. You know - the one column with the necessary data for your calculations but not really a part of the presentation. The essential column that you must keep, but don't want displayed for a presentation or on the hard copy.

Often, Excel users have a lot more data in the worksheet then they need to display in the final presentation. Some users will put this data far to the right on the worksheet. They then set the print area so that it does not include the unwanted columns.

Others will put the extra data on a different worksheet and have the formulas draw from that location. This can be a good solution to the problem, but can be time-consuming because of the extra time spent going back and forth between the worksheets.

There are many different solutions to this particular problem and everyone will have their favorite.However, I think the easiest solution is the one that people are usually unaware of. Simply hide the column!

Hide the columns?

Yes, hide them! They will not be visible on the screen or in the printouts, but rest assured, the data is there and can be displayed again.

So, how do you hide a column?

Well, the first thing you need to do is select a single cell in the column to be hidden.

Then go to the Format menu, Column choice. When the submenu pops up select the Hide choice.

Poof! Your column is gone. But is it really?

Take a look at the column letters at the top. Notice anything?

You should. Careful inspection will tell you that a letter has been skipped. The missing letter is your hidden column.

All formulas dependent on the data in this column are still working, you just don't see the raw data any longer.

Now, how do you display the column again if you need to edit or add data to it?

• Locate where the column should be.

• Select one cell from each column on either side of the hidden column. (For example, if column C is hidden, select cells B3 and D3.)

• Go to the Format menu, Column choice. From the pop-up submenu select Unhide, and presto! The column is back in its original location with all of the original data.

Now, here's another cool fact. You can do this same stuff with the rows.

In the Format menu, choose Row instead of Column. Then follow the same Hide and Unhide procedures.

That's it. It's a little trick that sometimes comes in pretty handy.

Once again, if only I had this option in life. Tons of stuff to hide - the undone laundry, the sinkful of dishes, the mosquitos in the backyard, the bills in the mailbox, the cat's litterbox... The list goes on and on...