All By Itself
If you use Excel to create charts, then I’m sure you’ve noticed that in the last step of the Chart Wizard, you can choose to create your chart on its own page OR as an object embedded in a worksheet with data and other charts.
I’m sure that most of the time we tend to put the chart within a worksheet. That choice tends to give us… Continue reading
Second Sort Criteria in MS Outlook
Most of us know how to sort e-mail messages in Outlook by clicking on the column heading of the field to use as the sort criteria (see today’s Quick Tip above).
An up arrow is sorting messages in ascending order and a down arrow sorts in descending order based on the data in the column you chose.
But did you ever find yourself… Continue reading
The Click-Less Presentation
Do you give presentations using MS PowerPoint?
Is it the mouse click you hear over and over again as you advance through your presentation? Or are you constantly reaching to hit a button on the keyboard?
And, let’s talk about moving backward through that presentation. If you’re only trying to move a slide or two back, it’s either to the keyboard you must go or through the… Continue reading
Create It My Way
Do you have settings in MS Excel such as formatting or choices from the Options window that you’re constantly changing because Excel’s blank workbook never seems to have things “the way you left them”? For example, Monday’s setting for accepting labels in formulas. Excel’s default is to not have that option checked.
Wouldn’t it be nice to make these changes just once so that all new… Continue reading
Title Your Columns
When you have a title at the top of a column of data, you can use that title in formulas instead of the cell reference.
For example, let’s suppose that you have two columns labeled “Original Price” and “Discount”. Now let’s say you want to create a third column that calculates the sale price of the items (Original Price – Discount).
Your formula for the third… Continue reading
An Update On Updating
In the last issue of the MS Office Tips newsletter (Thursday, October 27, 2005), we discussed formulas and using them in MS Word. At the time, my common sense meter must have been a quart or two low, because I simply wasn’t coming up with any of the good ways to get your formulas to recalculate and reflect any changes you’ve made to values.… Continue reading
Do you use MS Outlook notes, tasks, calendar, etc? Ever find that you need to take a task or other item and create an email from it?
Here’s a quick way to take all this information from its original location into a new email without a single copy / paste or (banish the thought!) entering the information by hand twice.
Simply select the item that’s to create the email then… Continue reading
Mark It Up
We all know about watermarks, those light pictures or text placed behind our text on printed documents. They can mark a document as a draft or as confidential, or they could be used to enhance the appearance of a document.
With older versions of MS Word you had to do quite a bit of work to get that watermark. You were forced to go through the header… Continue reading
Fraction Frenzy
Use a lot of fractions in MS Word?
Do you love how it turns 1/2 into ½?
Did you ever notice that it does this neat little trick with only the most common of fractions? I’m also sure that some of you have found access to a few additional choices through the Insert menu, Symbols choice, but I’d bet that you’re frustrated that neither of these work for… Continue reading
Need A Little Backup?
Do you have important Excel files that would create nothing short of chaos and disaster for you if you were to lose those files?
Now I’m sure that you regularly make copies of these files just in case – but wouldn’t it be nice if Excel could help us out a bit on this score?
Yeah – I thought so too so I did… Continue reading
Background Save? What’s That?
I received another question from a reader regarding the background save options in MS Word. (This can be found via the Tools menu, Options choice, Save tab.)
Pretty much the question was “what is it?” The reader expected this option to have Word frequently save the file quietly in the background – avoiding your need to initiate saves. (Let’s face it – not too… Continue reading
Sorting Data In MS Word
Have you ever found yourself wishing that the list you just typed into MS Word was alphabetized? Or, for those of you who are good with Excel, you’re probably wishing that you typed the list in Excel in the first place (where it’s so easy to sort data).
Well, stop dwelling on the “should have, could have” stuff and smile. It’s very easy to sort… Continue reading
Space It Out
By default, MS Word documents are single-spaced, which is great for most of the work we do, but what about those documents where you need double space?
Now, as I’ve said before, I’m a teacher. I have a lot of opportunities to see how people (both students and staff) are using their technology. I’m always amazed when I find someone using the enter key to double-space their… Continue reading
Just Picture It
Yesterday we discussed adding the Options button to our MS Office Toolbars and when we were done our button was a rather plain looking thing simply labeled with the word Options.
Now, how is it that the buttons Microsoft uses are pictures and all we get are words?
Well – fortunately this is a situation we can do something about.
There’s two ways to handle the situation… Continue reading
Just A Suggestion
If you’re an avid reader of the MS Office Tips, then you’ve probably noticed by now that we tend to use the Options choice located in the Tools menu frequently. We may use it so frequently that by now you’re sick of the whole Tools menu, Options choice process.
If you’re a fan of keyboard shortcuts, then you probably already access this with Alt, T then O… Continue reading
Change It Up
Do you use MS PowerPoint’s design templates? You know – the cool backgrounds that PowerPoint offers ready-made that can really help brighten up a presentation.
If you’re like me, you tend to have a hard time deciding which one to use and often change your mind several times while working on the presentation. During all the mind changing, do you ever wish for a quick and easy… Continue reading
Now Who Told Excel To Paste That Data?
Have you ever found yourself asking that question? (Or, in my case, asking the computer the question in my “I’m not amused, just annoyed” voice).
You may have, especially if you work with hidden cells. (You know, hidden rows and columns with data in them that’s necessary but not to be displayed.)
When you select a range of cells to copy that… Continue reading
Convert It To A Value
Do you have an Excel formula in a single cell that needs to be converting to its value?
No problem. Simple select the cell and press F2 then press F9.
Voila! The cell contains the value of the formula not the formula itself.
Unfortunately, you’ll find that this little trick doesn’t work on multiple cells – so now what?
Tackling this one isn’t as difficult… Continue reading
More Than A Simple Paste Button
Working with a newer version of Excel? Let’s say Excel XP or newer?
Have you ever noticed that your Paste button has a little extra?
Take a good look… do you see the down arrow to the right of the Paste button?
Yep – that’s right, the down arrow means that Excel has a supercharged Paste button that can do more than you’d… Continue reading
In the vein of recent tips dealing with ways to dress up your documents, worksheets, presentation, etc., let’s check out another way to create unique and eye-catching elements. (Just one last “fun” thing before we get back to all that productive stuff.)
What I’m talking about today is the Shadow button from your Drawing Toolbar.
It’s another simple way to change a basic object into something that really adds… Continue reading
Are you new to MS Word? Did you recently switch from WordPerfect to Word?
Do you find yourself confused sometimes? Can’t quite find what you need?
Would you like Word to provide a little assistance with your transition?
Well, if you’re answering “Yes!” then here’s the way to get Word to give you a helping hand.
First you’ll need to go to the Tools menu, Options choice.
Then on the… Continue reading
A reader wrote in with an interesting Excel question. They were wondering if there was a way to set the column widths and row heights using pixels rather than the default numeric values. Hmm. Good question!
I did some looking around and found a solution – probably not the one the reader was hoping for but it’s worth mentioning.
While I couldn’t find a place to type in an actual… Continue reading
Do you use Word’s built-in styles for quick and easy text formatting? You know, using the drop down list to the left of the font name?
Works great—not too difficult.
But… for everyone who likes the headings but hates using the mouse here are a few keyboard shortcuts to help you apply the most common styles.
Change It Up
Do you use MS PowerPoint’s design templates? You know – the cool backgrounds that PowerPoint offers ready-made that can really help brighten up a presentation.
If you’re like me, you tend to have a hard time deciding which one to use and often change your mind several times while working on the presentation. During all the mind changing, do you ever wish for a quick and easy… Continue reading
Case Sensitive Sorts
Do you sort a lot of data in MS Excel? Ever find that you have case sensitive data (part numbers, account numbers, etc.) that just don’t seem to sort properly? Does Excel ignore upper and lower case and sort purely on letter content? Is this a problem for you?
If it is, then it seems to me that you do a lot of manual manipulation of your… Continue reading
Many of you know that you can add to Word’s AutoCorrect “replace as you type” list. You know, the little gadget quietly using a preset list to automatically correct many common typos such as changing “teh” into “the”.
Well, a question came in from a reader who was looking to put specially formatted text into this list so that a simple
hh
might be replaced with
color and all… Continue reading
From Another Workbook
Last week we discussed how to write Excel formulas that reference cells located on a different worksheet within your workbook. Well, the logical occurred – a reader wrote in inquiring about formulas that reference cells from a completely different workbook.
Good question – one that I immediately set out trying to answer and here’s what I found…
The easiest way to tackle this one is to let… Continue reading
