Question: I hear the terms “workbook” and “worksheet” used frequently when people discuss MS Excel. What exactly is a workbook? A worksheet? Is there a difference?
Well, to begin with, there is definitely a difference. (But you knew that, didn’t you?)
A workbook is the MS Excel file in which you enter and store related data.
A worksheet (also known as a spreadsheet) is a collection of cells on a… Continue reading
Navigate Cells Without Deselecting
So… you’ve got a fairly large range of cells selected in MS Excel and you’re just about to move them, or copy, or print—whatever—but, oh no!
Right there, in the middle of the data, you’ve noticed something that needs to be changed.
Rats!
You know that this means you’ve got to lose the data selection in order to get into that cell and make the changes.… Continue reading
Selection Direction
Have you ever been working in MS Excel and found yourself wishing that the cell selection would go in some other direction after you hit the Enter key?
Let’s face it, sometimes the data needs to be entered in rows, not columns.
Never fear! A couple of clicks and bingo, you’ve changed the direction the Enter key moves the cell selection.
Wanna know how?
Sure you do.
To… Continue reading
Faster File Access
Do you have a file or two that you find yourself opening constantly? Maybe a template that is used almost daily?
Tired of waiting for a program to load so that you can finally use File / Open to get to the file? You know what I’m talking about—the file or template that you’re forever opening and closing.
The fastest way I know to open templates and… Continue reading
Q:
I often see and hear references to shortcuts. I know this has nothing to do with a map and my car—so what’s a shortcut?
A:
A shortcut is an icon that is linked to a specific file or program. When the shortcut is double-clicked it starts a program or opens a file and the program needed to view the file (it all depends on what it’s linked… Continue reading
Pictures In MS Word On Demand
Do you have a picture or logo that is frequently used in your MS Word documents?
Are you tired of the constant routine involved with the insertion of the picture into document after document?
I know I get pretty tired of it. (I can’t stand to repeat myself unnecessarily! :- )
Anyway, if you’re in this situation where you have a logo or other… Continue reading
Seeing The Roots
Have you ever found yourself working on a complicated Excel formula and trying to decipher where it all comes from?
I mean, this formula references another cell but when you get there you find another formula that references yet another cell. And so it goes… on and on. (These endless cells are the “roots” of the formula in question.)
Frustrated?
You bet.
Looking for a way to… Continue reading
MS Excel: Headers & Footers Demystified—Part 2
Let’s continue on our journey through the world of headers and footers. The train stops next at the MS Excel station.
To access headers and footers in Excel, you will go to the View menu, Header and Footer choice.
The Page Setup window will open with the Header/Footer tab already selected.
The top preview box shows the header for the worksheet(s) currently… Continue reading
MS Word: Headers & Footers Demystified – Part 1
(Yes, we accidentally ran part 2 of this Tues instead of today. Sorry about that, here’s part 1. If you want a review of part 2, click here)
So, now you know what they are, I’d bet that the next question you’re dying to ask is “How do I get to these wonderful little miracles?” (All right, I… Continue reading
MS PowerPoint: Headers and Footers Demystified – Part 3
Welcome back to our ongoing header and footer discussion! The previous two issues covered the two big MS Office Suite programs (Word & Excel). Now it’s time to wrap up our discussion by addressing PowerPoint.
You will get to the header and footer window in the same way you did in the other two programs: View menu, Header and Footer choice… Continue reading
Multiple Slide Selections In MS PowerPoint
Have you ever been working in MS PowerPoint and wished you could select more than one slide at a time?
Maybe you have several slides for which you’re going to set the slide transition the same.
Wouldn’t it be nice to set these things all at once instead of over and over again, one slide at a time?
Of course it would—who wouldn’t want… Continue reading
Why Can’t They All Look That Way?
Ever asked yourself that question as you’re looking at your latest Excel chart masterpiece?
I mean, you’ve just spent time creating a chart and it’s just gorgeous!
You’ve got the colors, fonts, text alignment… all of it! It’s just perfect.
Too bad you’ll have to reset all those things for the next set of data.
Or… maybe not.
What if we could save… Continue reading
See More Tabs
Do you find yourself constantly scrolling through the tabs of your large Excel workbooks?
Tired of the old Page Up / Down thing to move through the seemingly endless sheets?
Or, maybe you’re someone who uses the “right click” trick on sheet tab scroll buttons and then selects your destination from the worksheets in the list?
All are valid ideas—I use many of them frequently, but I… Continue reading
Word’s Readability Statistics
OK, so we’re all here for the same purpose, that is, to get Word to give us the scoop on a document’s stats.
The first step is to turn on the Readability Statistics feature.
Accomplishing this task is really quite easy. Go to the Tools menu, Options choice.
In the Options window you’re looking for the Spelling & Grammar tab.
At the bottom, you’re looking in… Continue reading
What’s Your Readability?
Do you find yourself preparing MS Word documents for a specific audience?
Ever worry that it’s just too complicated? Maybe it’s just written in a way that’s above the target audience’s abilities? Maybe it’s below their abilities?
In the course of my job as a teacher I’ve prepared hundreds of documents (project instructions, memos, letters… you get the idea) and I’ve always got to keep in mind… Continue reading
Give It A Break
You’re in the middle of a PowerPoint presentation and you need a break in the show… maybe you’ve got this great discussion breaking out and it’s time to wander from the presentation to explore the new ideas… or maybe it’s just plain old coffee break time.
Whatever your reason, you need a break in your presentation—what do you do?
(If you’d known that you needed the… Continue reading
Rearranging PowerPoint Slides
Have you ever finished a PowerPoint presentation and realized that the slide order needs to be redone?
What do you do to quickly rearrange? Do you need to re-do the entire presentation?
Don’t worry, the rearrangement can be complete in just a few clicks. (Whew!)
When you realize that you need to tweak the order of your slides simply go to the Slide Sorter view. You can… Continue reading
More or Less?
What do you do if you need another worksheet in your workbook?
Quick and easy solution: Go to the Insert menu, Worksheet choice.
Done! Worksheet inserted to the left of whatever sheet you were currently working on.
Trying to insert several worksheets at once?
Hold the Shift key down and select the tabs of several worksheets (the number you’re trying to insert). Then go to the Insert… Continue reading
Quick and Complete Worksheet Copying
Ever try to copy an Excel worksheet formatting, data, header, footer and all?
Most Excel users have tried at one time or another. Often when I talk to people, I find that they have varying levels of success. Some can copy only the data. Others have a little more success and can get the data and the formatting copied to a new sheet.
The elusive… Continue reading
Copying Excel Worksheets—Including The Formatting!
Have you ever tried to copy the contents of one MS Excel worksheet to another only to find that when you’re done pasting you’ve lost all your column and row formatting (such as column width and row heights)? How much time do you lose reformatting all those worksheets?
You just know there has to be an easier way, and of course, there is 
To… Continue reading
Excel Word Wrap For Many Cells
So, you’ve got a whole range of cells with a lot of text?
Maybe you’ve got a row or column of titles and the whole Alt + Enter thing would just take way too much time. I mean, who wants to go through cell by cell to get the word wrap set?
Not me either!
So what now?
Believe it or not, it’s as… Continue reading
MS Excel Wrapping In A Single Cell
We’ve all had them. They’re everywhere. They’re impossible to kill and hard to shrink. What am I talking about? (Sometimes I wonder about that myself.)
I’m talking about those column or row titles in Excel that are so long they’re awkward.
If you stretch the column width to accommodate the whole title, then the two-digit number looks ridiculous in the 3-inch wide column.… Continue reading
Inserting MS Word Bookmarks
Ok, so we’re all here to find out how to create and use MS Word’s Bookmark feature for quick navigation through our documents. With that in mind, let’s dive right in.
The first thing would be to decide where you need a bookmark. It could be a string of text, a picture or simply a blank space somewhere. (Whatever your bookmark location, make sure you have… Continue reading
Bookmark It!
Ever have a “monster” MS Word document?
Find it a bit of a pain to navigate?
Tired of the Page Up and Page Down buttons?
Yeah, me too. There’s just got to be an easier way to navigate through the entire mess, and, well, there is.
In fact there are several different ways to shortcut by all the navigational headaches—but today let’s discuss MS Word’s Bookmark feature.
First… Continue reading
Using Word’s Hyperlinks With bookmarks
On Tuesday we covered MS Word’s bookmark feature—all in all, a pretty quick way to navigate through large documents.
But… wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the ability to set up links within the document so you can jump from location to location without all the Go To stuff?
You know, like a web page—you click on a marked link and poof!… Continue reading
Did you know…
…that in “Print Preview” you can choose to display more than one page at a time?
I’m sure we all know about the benefits of Print Preview, but wouldn’t it be nice to see how the pages are flowing one after another? You know, to see where page breaks are landing, how pictures, tables and graphs are placed on the pages. Basically to make sure that it… Continue reading
Word: Sorting Data
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 data in… Continue reading
