Setting Indents Using The Word Ruler
Have you ever wondered what all the little “triangle-looking things” are on the Word ruler?
If you haven’t noticed them, then take a quick look. See them now? They must be there for a good reason—want to know what it is?
Yes? Good, you’re in the right place since that’s what we’re going to cover today.
The “triangles” are actually markers for different paragraph… Continue reading
Making the Ruler Measure Up
Did you know that MS Word comes with a built in ruler?
No?
Well, it does if you’re using the Page / Print Layout view or the Normal view—and it’s pretty easy to access.
I find the Word ruler very helpful with layout decisions, setting tab stops and for making quick changes to paragraph settings.
To display Word’s ruler, simply use the View menu, Ruler… Continue reading
MS Word Footnote Fun
Here’s the scenario: you’re working in MS Word, happily moving through the material, creating a complete masterpiece. Suddenly you realize you need to footnote a statement. What do you do?
Well… you could do as I’ve seen so many do—type until you’re close to the bottom of the page and simply type the text into the middle of the document. Looks ok on the first run… Continue reading
Repeating Data Super Shortcut
When working in MS Excel do you ever find yourself repeatedly entering the same formula or data?
What do you do?
Do you type it again and again and again into each cell?
Maybe you save some time by entering it once then copy / pasting it everywhere else?
Not a bad way but what if you had a faster way?
Let’s say… a way that… Continue reading
The Leading Zero
Constantly frustrated with MS Excel because it keeps removing that leading zero from your inventory number? (Or any leading zero on any piece of data?)
Yeah, me too.
The problem is that Excel automatically sees the data as a number and leading zeros have no value in numbers, so it gets rid of them.
Convenient when you’re actually dealing with numbers, but a pain when it’s a… Continue reading
View It Your Way
Now that we know some of the possible “whys” for the Custom View feature—let’s get right to the “hows” of the process.
The first thing you need to do is to open your workbook and go to the location you want to work with.
At this point make the necessary changes to settings and other things at this location.
Now we’re ready to create the view.… Continue reading
MS Excel Custom Views
Do you work in huge MS Excel files and constantly find yourself scrolling this way and that trying to get to the right place?
And then again to another location?
And so on…
If you have enough of these locations you need to go to then it quickly becomes impossible to remember cell locations. That means the Go To feature is out!
In addition to all… Continue reading
Q:
I was working on a document the other day and made a big mistake. I messed up the entire document and it took forever to get it back to the way it was. Is there a better way?
A:
Yes. First, if you make a mistake, hit Ctrl+Z . In most programs, that will undo whatever it
MS Word Themes
OK, so you’ve decided a theme might be the way to go and you’re ready to take a look at all the choices.
Yeah 
Let’s dive right in.
To find the themes you need to go to the Format menu, Theme choice. (Alt then O then H works too.)
The Theme window will open.
On the left you have a list of themes to choose… Continue reading
Quick MS Tabs And “Stuff”
A couple of weeks ago (back on October 2nd ) we discussed using the MS Word ruler to set indents—but, as you may or may not know, there are other uses for the Word ruler.
One major, easy to do, item on the ruler is the ability to set tabs with just a click.
Yep, that’s right—you can set a tab stop with just a… Continue reading
We all know that Ctrl + A in MS Word selects the entire document—works great, and for everyone who likes to keep their hands on the keyboard, it’s a necessary tool.
But what about people who are more “mouse oriented”?
You know, people who have duties that require regular or constant mouse contact? It’s a bit annoying to keep removing their hand from the mouse to the keyboard and back… Continue reading
Get There & Work Now!
So, you’ve read all about MS Word 2000′s Click and Type and you’re ready to give it a try. Let’s get right to business.
The first thing you need to do is to double check that the Click and Type feature is enabled. To check go to the Tools menu, Options choice. On the Edit tab you’re looking for the “Enable click and type” check… Continue reading
Click And Type
So, you’re working in MS Word 2000 and you’re trying to make a title page for your latest masterpiece. What do you do?
Do you adjust the top margin to about 5 inches to get the title in the middle of the page?
Well… you could, but then you have to go back into the page settings and change the margins back for the rest of the… Continue reading
Clearly We’ve Got Some Options
So… you’re working in MS Excel with some data and you’ve got some changes to make.
If you need to delete data you would simply highlight the cells and hit the Delete key.
But, let’s suppose that you don’t want the data deleted but instead want the formatting removed. What do you do then?
You could spend time reformatting the cells or undoing whatever formatting… Continue reading
Undo / Redo Many Steps At Once
Many of us know about the Undo and Redo buttons located on the Standard toolbar. (Left arrow is “Undo” and right arrow is “Redo”.)
What do you do if you’ve got a lot of steps to undo?
Do you click the button again and again until you are finally returned to the place you’re looking for—or, do you hit Ctrl + Z
Dates Done Your Way
OK, so you’re frustrated with the standard Excel date formats and you’re looking for a way to meet your needs.
Well, be frustrated no more!
Today we’ve got just the information you need to make Excel to do things your way.
First you need is to select the cells that should be in the date format.
Now go to the Format menu, Cells choice. (Ctrl +… Continue reading
Dates In Excel
I’m sure by now you’ve realized that when you type a date into MS Excel the program seems to magically know what it is and treats it as such.
Cool—less work for us.
But have you ever wished the date was in a different format?
I mean, maybe you want just the month and day—10/15 for example. Or maybe you’re looking to have something like 15-Oct-03.
Well… Continue reading
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
Ok, so we know that Excel can graph (also known as charting) our data for us and I’m assuming you’re interested in the “how to”. So, let’s dive right in:
The first thing you need to do is to select the data range you want to chart. You need to highlight all data and along with the column and row labels.
With the… Continue reading
Comments Anyone?
Instead of several emails with ideas, you’re looking to get back the presentation with everyone’s comments right on the slides. So, you email it to one person and as they finish their ideas it goes to the next person then eventually lands back in your mailbox.
Makes sense, but where are the ideas?
Well, in the file, of course.
Now all you need is the “know how” for… Continue reading
Input, Input — Too Much Input
It seems to me that more often than not PowerPoint presentations are created and / or presented by many people. While one person may have done most of the actual computer time, the content and presentation are often a shared responsibility.
So what’s the process?
Let’s see… there might be a discussion about content (maybe not) and then someone goes back to their computer… Continue reading
Lost In Worksheets
Have you ever found yourself feeling lost while trying to move a worksheet inside a huge workbook?
I mean, you’ve got 20 or 30 worksheets and you’re trying to click on the sheet tab and drag it to its new home. So now you’re patiently waiting for the tabs to scroll by while you continue to hold that mouse button.
Oops—you just flew by the location you… Continue reading
Moving Right Next Door
As I’m sure we all know, you can re-arrange worksheets in an MS Excel file with a simple click-hold-and-drag of the sheet tab.
But, did you know that you can also move worksheets from one workbook to another using the same method?
No?
Well, good news—you can, and it’s really as easy as it sounds.
First, open both workbooks. (The one with the worksheet and… Continue reading
MS Excel Charts Done Your Way
OK, so you’ve made an absolutely beautiful Excel chart but you’re seeing a few things that you’d like to change.
Maybe you’d prefer a different font for the text.
Maybe you need a smaller font on some of the labeling so Excel will display all the category names.
Maybe you have money amounts graphed and all the “.00″ on the end are just too… Continue reading
Fix It With A Click, Click
Last week (back on Tuesday, November 4) we discussed charting—often called graphing—data in MS Excel.
We covered the basics of using the Chart Wizard and by the end we were in a position to quickly create some pretty slick looking stuff from our raw data.
Sounded great!
Everyone’s happy.
Or not…
What if you had gone completely through the charting process, had a beautiful… Continue reading
Zig or Zag—Which Way?
So, you’ve got this huge worksheet in MS Excel you’re trying to print and it seems that the pages are coming out completely scrambled.
Now what’s wrong with this stubborn machine that’s causing this to happen?
Honestly—nothing.
It’s all in the Page Setup choices you make.
What was that I heard you say?
You didn’t make any choices in Page Setup that would cause this chaos?… Continue reading
Vanishing Gridlines
Here’s a good tip that comes from a reader’s question regarding those pesky vanishing gridlines.
We all know that in MS Excel you can go into the Page Setup window (File menu, Page Setup choice) on the Sheet tab and check the box to have Excel print the gridlines with your data.
But what’s going on when those gridlines just aren’t showing up?
Another computer glitch?
Probably not.… Continue reading
Custom Shows In MS PowerPoint
Well, if you’ve come this far than you’ve decided that MS PowerPoint’s custom shows might be the thing for you and I bet you’re ready to dig right in.
So let’s get to it.
The first thing you need to do is to open your presentation.
Now you’re looking for the Slide Show menu, Custom Shows choice. (Alt then D then C will get you… Continue reading
