300 office tips + Special feature
Microsoft Excel
75 tips and tricks for your favourite spreadsheet.
Convert rows to the running total ofthe Figures in Al to Pic the function you requir fom the | -
columns ‘5 the adacent column Ist bo nd ck on OK: Nowe z
You can caer roo columns aed Iighight te ces onwhichyou rant \ 4 oa
cleo orom)tyhesimsse EQ Remove hyperlinks scent ptm icamconne ‘Biota
cols you wan wo atch rund, from your work clkk on OK =
clicking on Edt, Copy selecting anew I Excl ha alady converted your
cell and then going to Edit, Paste writen URL into a hypertink, you can ————
Special. Finally place a tick in the cancel it by rghe-licking om the a
‘Transpose box onthe dalog box nd offending address and selecting
lick on OK, Hyperlink, Remove Hyperink from
‘he mena that pops up.
Calculate time
between dates Fit wide tables to the
tr in acl the formula =A2-Al, page width
whore AI isthe eater dat, and A2 To make your tables ft neatly on the
the later one. Dou forget to convert page, lick on le, Page Sewp.
the target cell to number format - do select the Page tab, cick on the Fito
this by highlighting the cell, licking on radio button and pick I page wide
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Preanees tad Tice your data from ee ‘ae certs a te
inter URLs as text, ing eyes mise your jester
Rothyyerians =? yevingeyes | Masters Sorc na
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eee eer re eee ce en eae
Ceeedissdien emis | etstupeniniaicad | seyetapetanr ta
cea Seeman ao neal
arate aoe eaten
Calculate visible again. ‘tab. Click on Import, then OK.
‘running totals
uariramerstenttn Use template ‘net cto btn
column A, say AL to AS, then enter worksheets as tnables you to browse
emnciyneaesag eee eee ons
Gone aame ee a aaecasoter ae
numbers in (in our example, BI to BS) worksheet. Click on Fle, New... select,
nd goto Et, Fl, Down. This places the Spreadsheet Solutions sb and
choose a template rom the list.
Access help for Lotus
users
Tyee cmened fom Las 125
indie ietentang won YD Use the
access help specie to your staion by AutoCalculator
dling on Help, Lows 1255 Help... you ned to caleat a sum based
nao 3 cok of Ages and
10u: you cant be bobered wping na
formula browser ‘xc, us sl your furs and
fly Doreen woywpeyom_ Seectaceland ckon te Paste gance down at he sas bar = you
Spent cao Funcion buon onthe main list, find he sum ofthe selected cl thee >
Tetacalalatrs: one returns the
‘arent ate theater
10 Last modified
41 Current:
Use angled exo 044
and graphs
SSCL CcceL Lote LoL ad
‘What's more ifyourightelick on the
‘sum a pop-up mena wil ppear offering
tonal quick calculation funtions
1 enter the time
‘Tomer the curent date or time click
‘om a cll and type =today0 or =now0.
Exel updates the result every tie you
‘open the sheets it's always curent
A quick way to
30/06/00
3
14st": a fixed time
‘into Excel
you want Eee tener the current
ate ore and fc it at that point for
example, 10 show the last date the sheet
‘vas modified ~ click on a cll and press
[Cl] + forthe date and (Cu + [3
for the time
15 Find the currently
active cell
you've been sraling around your
spreadsheet and you lose your place,
‘you can jump back othe curently
activ cel by pressing the [Cal] +
[Backspacel keys
1 ‘See the
big picture
youre working an a large sheet you
might want to switch o Fall Seren
mode simply click on View, Full
Sereen, Click ont again to return to 2
noemal window
1 Fit text
automatically
Mae jor wor ok wei by sing
the elvan clam, and king on
Format, Clumn,Autfit Selon.
Fast copy, no
18 clipboard
Pressing (C+ (isa speedy wey
dapat the foal or grein the
cellabove the oe yout in
19 feta cssy
tiple enti
yea ed eer fe sve
cel atone, snl select all the get
calls, type your formula as normal and
press [Oe + (Enter)
2 0 Pick cells for
‘AutoCalculator
You can select unconnected cel by
holding down [Cul while you cick on
the individual cll
71 Hide comments to
reduce clutter
You can hide notes and other comments
by using the Insert Comment function.
Highligh a cell, click on Insert,
‘Comment and type your text, Click
away fom the input box when you've
finished. The comment will appear
‘whenever you pass your mouse over
the relevant cel.
22 Re-colouring the
grid lines.
You can Stange he solu ofthe grid
by cicking on Tol, Options
seeing the View a, cicking on the
Ce: st box and cooing» ne
cola fo the pat, Choosing white
eft removes the gd compe
23 Angle your
entries
To make Exel splay the text n calls at
mangle of 45 degres, ghtlek on
‘he tolbar select Chat and pick cher
of the ab cons on the new tool
2 A to any degree
'you like
Ifyou want com angles eh on
the cell and select Format Calls,
From the popup ment, click an the
Alignment ‘ab, and then dag the Text,
polter inthe Orlentation window
Zoom into
2 your selection
‘a can ave Exc! pay st he aa
youre working in by highlghng the
relevant el, cleking on the arow on
‘he Zoom boon the obo and
selecting Selection fom the lis.
2 ‘Another default
‘entry direction
‘When eng cls the cursor moves
down when you press (Return. To
change the dietion dick on Tools,
Options... and sect Edit Cck on he
“Move seleedom afer Bert box and
hose anaerditetion from the Us.
2 Launch Excel, open
ur file
Launch Exe, open the Ble you use
mos often, and ack on File, Save
‘As. Inthe Save As dio, navigate to
‘the Xstarflder in your Office folder
and lick Save. Now the ie wil open
automatically when you launch Excel
QQ s*t decimal points
lick on Toos, Options... and selec
the Bdit a, ae ack inthe Fixed.
‘decimal ck box and use the arrows in
‘he Places: input box to set the number
of decimal places.
2 Calculate the
median value
To caleulate the median value of
numberof gues, ay AL 10 AI, enter
‘=median(A1:A10) int tho taste
3 #NAME! and
#NUMI errors:
el ens a #NAME or #NUME
errr wheneve a formu fr to no
eset names or mbes Tos
ou, re-enter he formula corey
3 Quick sort your
columns
‘The quest ay o sort column ino
thierry selec it and ck on
the Sort Ascending ° Sot Descending
‘buts (the ones with the AZ aw)
BD Quickly change
cell dimensions
The ques way to change acs
Penn
‘prt a008Pied ee eee ec
width or arow's eights to place your
‘mouse pole lose tothe oin beeen
‘90 columns or rows, then cick and
hold down the mouse button, and drag
the column or row to the desired se.
33. Erasing entries
while typing
I you misype your formula, poss
tse to cease the cas omen.
3 Enter number
‘sequences
Eve the rt oumber oa el, press
the (Cu kes, and neck, oi and
drag the cts hand wnt you've
reached the desired numberof els
Release the mouse buon st and
she he Ce hy
Bap See tormutss ata
glance
You can ew lof your fous at
nce by ccking on Tol, Opons
seeing the View an placing
fk inthe Formals tick bo.
BG rignisne cots of
akind
You can select al tcl of cern
tye by sng the Spel cons.
Clck on Eat, GoTo. cick on the
Spell. ton chose the cl ype
frm the do box and dick on OK.
3 | Switch off
the zeroes
You can prevent es from eutering
your sheets by licking on Tools,
Options... selecting the Vlew tab, and
lunscking the Zero values ick box
38 Protect
your work
Open the you ho pret and
clon Fle, Save As.» Chk onthe
General Options. nthe Tools
tena (i th tp ht came ofthe
Save As al and cera pase
inthe Pasavord to pen patos
Final, clk on the Save baton, You
ight wan 0 make oe othe
password belore coming
3 Customise
your dates
You can csomise the format of date
tna call sing the Caso ce fem.
“To do this emer date in el ck
on Format, all. clik on Custom
the Category: pane ick onthe
‘Type: input box and press [M
repeatedly unl the desed format
splayed inthe Sample aca above.
4 Quick
column copy
‘a can ot he cls ths column by
loubl-icking on cals handle.
xe il place copies ofthe cicked
cel each cell bow, stopping when
Heaths a cel wih lank eer ie
(Confused? ry hs eter gre n
col A, then eter gre cls BI 10
25 then double on As andl)
Merge cell
4 contents
‘To merge the content of els AI and
BI, eck on ell Cl and enter =AL&BL
The result snot asm but text.
string so merging 10 and 7 wil turn
107 rather than 17,
GD vs dynamic
formatting
‘i can set Ese alert you to excl
furs incl by seing i wp so the
color or Soe of text na given call
changes whenever a cert conden
reached, Selec cl (ay, th cil
ontsnng the ttl of your bank
talance) and eek on Format
Condiona Formating... Choose the
codons inthe pop-up dog (sy
“Col value ese han) and ick
the Format... bitten. Nowe choose a
ne colar in the Color is bos ad
dlck on OK. Click on OK agin 19
{nh From pow on Exe wil dsplay
our chosen figure in the new cour
whenever the Rie fl bow 20
GQ Sarde connected
cells
‘ican place a border around a group
cf ltd ols ~ ll he tots or
ample ~ by sling them and
licking on Format, Calls. then
selecting th Borde ta and cicking
nthe Dutine bon.
Shrink entries to
fit their cells
You ean force Exel o display the fll
‘ext of el by using the Shenk wo i
‘option. Glek on Format, Cel... click
(on the Alignment ib and place ack
In the Shrink to Bt tick box. Obviously,
the more text you have the smaller if
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Peet ety
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omy
cone een
Comercretton
snc
oy
eer
ea)
Serra
be, so this isnt practical for small ells
wit lots of content.
4 Create hyperlinks
‘to support files
“To pac inks nels ha enable you
tofoad other documents with one cick,
enter ame forthe ink na al and
pres [tf] + IK Clk onthe ile
Dut. Navigate tothe le you wish 0
lino, Doubl-cck ont and lik
OK. From ow on, whenever ou ck
in that el Excel wl ump tthe ile
Prevent all
‘ten fom
‘reaping
eihoourng
(als by Shining
mone
9 os.
10 ris ns sen srs
11 This has not been shru
ue “ 1 _ x
‘pil z008~Outlook, PowerPoint,
Bringing up the rear are Microsoft’s email client, presentation, and
DTP software. Here are the hottest 15 tips and 35 shortcuts...
— ECD oc ‘J o2ickty adjust font
( ae cach bos fo the opti speling sizes, no mouse!
‘gs. Hy want to sich the whole Gtng the fon ses ght paramount
a Find the contact thing off, you should untick the second _ to well-designed layout, and if youre
you're after quickly twin Constant Sing and sing ames,
Toc aeons fom hs faent ‘em bovme a of headate
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— —tremain tote hatch on tebox addressed email svicin nsx witout any mse
Senter ouremember ote Clonal Comtacs es he operations: igh ee 3 sh
onc name Ook the antago wat wo enall and cent cange and pes Cl +h
Cont snd oon hirer dasa a Acne, New Mewape to Conta. A sure race wnsease hee sa
dialog bo. ter mesage pane wi open wah he by api, and i +P se
coma adres deta ready bake dese # by one pou
coed ry
@) comer
[i |] Track
| lyour mail
You cn find out when your mail i read
by sending a receipt request with your
messages. lick on Tools, Opdons.
and clot the Preferences a. Clik on
‘ho E-mail options... and Tracking
Sesesn ||] | Options... buttons on the folowing
dialog. Finally, place a ek the You cn use the design gallery store your
Request a read receipt for all on page elements
messages I send tek box
Find Cnt begs wp 8 itd your own
eae Shred your waste, ANTE O pesign Gallery
“rmave the conectrom x don’t Bin it The Design Gallery is Publisher’ library
Youraddesbook | Onook doesn really delete mesages, of proesionlly-designed elements and
it places them in the Deleted items @ Resize objects using ‘objects that help o bring consistent
folder. To delete them cick on Took, central origin