Cause Mapping ®

Excel ® Quick Start Guide

Quick Access Toolbar Setup Save (default)
Select Objects Undo/Redo (default)
The Quick Access Toolbar, located in the upper left hand corner of your Elbow Arrow Shapes (menu)
Excel program, allows you to add any Excel command for quick and easy Connector
access. To customize, Select File, then Options, then click on Quick Access
Toolbar. Once open, you must change the list of commands to All
Commands. You can now select any command to add to the toolbar. Some Align (menu)
of the commonly added Cause Mapping commands are shown to the right.

The 3 key functions you need to know…

Control-Drag (copy shortcut) Connector “Hot Key” Select Objects (arrow cursor)
To quickly copy and paste a new box, left click
Excel has built in “Hot Keys” that allow you to The arrow cursor allows you to select
directly on the border of an existing box. While
quickly select a function from the Quick Access drawing objects and should be added to
still holding down the left click, drag the box to
Toolbar above. Tap and release the Alt key to pull your Quick Access Toolbar (see above).
the desired location. Before releasing the left
up numbers on the Quick Access Toolbar. Once the function is selected, left click and
mouse button, hold down the Ctrl button on
hold in open space and drag the window to
the keyboard. You must release the left click
NOTE: Elbow Arrow Connector highlight the objects you want to select. An
before releasing Ctrl. in 1 position object will only be selected if it is entirely
inside the shaded selection window.
Started here
If you have placed the Elbow Arrow Connector in the
first position, then tapping the 1 key will give you a
connector that can be added to the Cause Map.

Connect the
Hold down Ctrl when then… then… boxes
Left click & drag releasing object (see Connector
Tap & release Tap & release Basics below)
Dragged to here

Box Basics
Resize
At the corners and
midpoints of the box
are nodes that can be
used to resize the box.
Connector Basics
Once you have used the “Hot Key” to select a connector
(tip listed above), left click and hold on the box node.
Rotate
The handle can be used
to rotate the object. Other Useful Functions
Moving boxes in a straight line Shift
Add Text
text… When moving an object, hold down on the Hold Shift as you
Simply start typing
Shift key to move the box only at 90-degree drag the box
after selecting the
box to add text. angles (left, right, up, or down). The shift
function also works when copying something in only a straight line to
Move maintain alignment. We call this the Ctrl-Shift-Drag method.
To move a box with text, focus on
grabbing the edge of the box. As you
move the cursor to the edge, it changes Align multiple boxes with
to a move icon (shown above) allowing
you to grab and move the object.
alignment functions
Align Left
If you want to align multiple objects together, Align Center
select the boxes using either the Select Objects
Align Right
cursor , or holding down the Shift key as you
select the objects. Once the objects are selected, Align Top
click on the appropriate command to align the Align Middle
boxes. Hint: Make sure you don’t select the Align Bottom
connectors or they will align as well.

Zoom-in, Zoom-out
A quick way to Zoom in and out on
the spreadsheet is done by holding
the Ctrl key down and then scrolling Hold down Ctrl
Drag the end connector end point to the box you up or down with the scroll wheel on and use the scroll
want to connect to and release the left click. an external mouse. wheel on the mouse

Questions? Contact us at support@thinkreliability.com or 281-412-7766