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Changing your table's horizontal position |
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To change the alignment of a table so that it is
centred on the page, or positioned against the right
margin is a bit more difficult than centring text in a
row or cell.
To start, select the table or click anywhere in the table.
Next select Table/Table Properties from the main menu and ensure that
the Table tab is in view. Choose from the Alignment
group of options either Left, Center, or Right and then
and click OK.
If, in the Table Properties dialog box, you've selected
Left
under Alignment and None under Text Wrapping, then the
Indent
From Left option is available. In this area, you can
specify a
distance to indent the table.
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Navigate quickly from place to place in your document |
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Most people are familiar
with the arrow, Home and End keys to move quickly round
a document.
If you want to move
quickly to the top of a specific page, press F5 (or [Ctrl]G
([command]G on the Mac) to open the Go To dialog box
where you can specify the page you want. You can also
jump to a particular section, bookmark, table, or other
object in the Go To dialog box. This shortcut is very
handy when you are working in a long document.
You can use Ctrl-Up
Arrow and Ctrl-Down Arrow to move to the previous or
subsequent paragraph. Similarly, use Ctrl-Left Arrow
and Ctrl-Right Arrow to move left or right in one-word
increments. (On the Mac, use the Command key in place
of Ctrl.)
To move to the beginning
of a document, press Ctrl-Home. Ctrl-End takes you
straight to the end of the document. Pressing Ctrl-Page
Down and Ctrl-Page Up takes you to the beginning of the
following page or previous page. (On the Mac, use the
Command key in place of Ctrl.)
If
you edit one part of your document and then move to
another part of the document to continue editing, you
can easily return to the previous place you were editing
by pressing Shift-F5 or Alt-Ctrl-Z ([option][command]Z
on the Mac). This command takes you to the last place
you typed text rather than the last place you clicked
the mouse. |
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Repeat formatting quickly |
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While editing a
document, if you find yourself repeating a command
several times, you can use the F4-key or Ctrl-Y. These
shortcuts repeat the last single toolbar button or
keyboard formatting change you made. The commands are
even more useful when you are using dialog boxes because
they repeat all the formatting changes you made in the
dialog box. In other words, if you make 3 or 4 font
changes to a word in the Font dialog box, you can select
a different word and hit F4 or Ctrl-Y to repeat those 3
or 4 changes instantly!
From
Word 2002 onwards, you can also hold down Ctrl to select
non-contiguous words, and then use F4 or Ctrl-Y to
repeat prior formatting on all selections at once. |
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Displaying text boundaries to simplify formatting |
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If your Word documents
involve columns, text boxes,
graphics, drop caps, tables, and other layout complications, it can be
difficult sometimes to figure out where you can type in
the document. If you
display the text boundaries, Word shows you
the boundaries for each
element of your document.
First, switch
to
Print Layout view, then, select
Tools/Options from the menu bar
and
select the View tab. In the Print And
Web
Layout Options area select the
Text
Boundaries check box and click OK. When the Options
dialog
box
closes, you will see thin,
grey
lines showing the typing areas for your document. |
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Change the default Date field format |
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Word
has many field codes that you can use to automate
various functions and generate document information.
One of the most popular Word fields is the Date field
that generates the current date. A quick way to insert
a Date field in your document is by selecting
Insert/Date And Time from the menu bar. In the
Available Formats list that appears in the dialog box,
choose the date format you want and click OK to insert
the field in your document.
It
is more difficult to choose a date format when you use
other Word features that employ the Date field, such as
AutoText and the Field dialog box. When you do not
specify a date format, Word uses the default date
format, which might not be the one you require.
If
you find that you use the same date format in most of
your documents, you can change the default date format
to increase your documents' consistency. Simply select
Insert/Date And Time from the menu bar, select the
format you wish as the default and then click the
Default button. Click Yes when Word asks whether you
would like to set the default format to the setting you
chose. Finally, click OK to insert your date field
using the new default setting. |
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Track document statistics without tracking changes |
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Sometimes you only want to
know if a document has been accessed, amended or printed
without knowing any of the details that Track Changes
can give you.
You can refer to Word's
Statistics
property sheet instead by opening the document and
choosing
File/
Properties from the menu bar. In the Properties dialog
box and click on the Statistics tab.
The dialog box will
display he dates the
document was created, as well as the dates it was last
modified,
accessed and printed. You can also find
out who last saved the document, how many times the document has
been revised and how much editing time has been put into it. You will
also find a summary of statistics including the counts
of pages, paragraphs, lines, words and characters.
If you want to know who
created the document, click on the
Summary tab and refer to the Author text box although
this can be changed by anyone.
If
you do not want to open the document, you can also
access all of the above information by locating the file
using a file browser
such
as Windows Explorer. Right-click on the file name and
choose Properties from the resulting shortcut menu. In
the resulting dialog box, you will
find
much of the same information, depending on the file type
and
operating system. |
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Test
out font sizes quickly |
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When
you want to change your font size, try using Word's Grow
Font and Shrink
Font tools to see how the changes look. Select the text you want to
adjust and press
Ctrl-Shift-> to grow the font or press Ctrl-Shift-< to shrink
the font. The font size changes according to the increments listed in
the
Font
Size dropdown list on the Formatting toolbar.
To
change font sizes in one-point increments, press Ctrl-]
to
increase the size, and press Ctrl-[ to decrease the
size.
To
add these functions to a toolbar, choose the View option
from the main menu. Select Tools/Customize to display
the Customize dialog box. Select the Commands Tab and,
choose the Format option in the left-hand pane. Now,
look in the right-hand pane for the commands for Grow
Font and Shrink Font. Click and drag these commands to
the
Formatting toolbar, and click Close. |
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Save
all open documents and templates simultaneously |
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There is a fast way of saving all open documents
simultaneously. Simply, hold down the Shift key and
select File/Save All form the main menu. This function
also saves changes to Normal.dot and any other open
templates.
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MS EXCEL TIPS
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Display Excel's page breaks in your worksheets |
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Excel’s default is not
to display page breaks unless you chose Print Preview or
print the work area. As a result, it is all too easy to
find a row or column orphaned on another page. However,
you can set Excel’s option to show page breaks all the
time.
First, select Tools/Options from the menu bar, then,
click on the View tab. Select the Page Breaks check box
in the Window Options panel and then click OK. |
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Edit
Excel hyperlink text |
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Changing the text in a
worksheet hyperlink can be awkward as Excel follows a
hyperlink as soon as you click in the cell containing
it. You can avoid this by clicking in an adjoining cell
and then moving to the hyperlink with the arrow keys.
There is an easier way to select the hyperlink by simply
holding down the Ctrl key and selecting the hyperlink.
You will find that you can enter the new hyperlink text
directly in the cell without triggering the link. |
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Entering a carriage return into a cell |
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Sometimes you want to
enter a carriage return in the middle of some text that
you are entering into a cell. Carriage returns are
useful for presenting large amounts of text in a cell.
You
can add a carriage return by pressing ALT-Enter. |
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Using the Name Box to move quickly round large workbooks |
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The Name Box is located in the top left corner of the
Excel work-area and just to the left of the formula
bar. Whenever you select a named range of cells, the
range name appears in the name Box. You can select a
named range by clicking on the drop-down arrow at the
right-hand end of the Name Box. A good trick is to
create single-cell named ranges and use them as
bookmarks that can be easily selected from the Name Box. |
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See
Excel ranges on your display |
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If you reduce the zoom
level of your spreadsheet sufficiently, you can see all
of the named ranges outlined on each sheet and the names
of each range are displayed in blue.
To
see your named ranges, you must be in Normal view, not
Page Break Preview. To reduce the zoom factor, select
View/Zoom from the menu bar, select the Custom option on
the Zoom dialog box, enter 39 in the percentage text box
and click OK. The range names appear in faint blue
lettering in the appropriate places. The range names
only appear on the screen; they will not print with your
data. |
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Hide
Excel values with a null format |
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Many people will know
that you can hide cells by setting the Hide checkbox on
the Protection tab of the Format Cells dialog box.
However this only works when you password protect the
worksheet. A better way is to assign a null number
format to the cells.
First, select the appropriate cell(s) and then choose
Format/Cells from the menu bar. Select Custom from the
Category list box, then in the Type text box, enter
three semicolons (;;;) and, finally, click OK. |
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Change how long Excel maintains its record of changes in
shared workbooks |
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When
you set up a workbook to be shared by multiple users,
Excel maintains a record of changes so that you can
resolve conflicts or revert back to previous values. By
default, the record is maintained for the 30 days. If
you want to change the length of time that Excel stores
the change information, select Tools/Share Workbook from
the menu bar, click on the Advanced tab, change the
number in the Keep Change History For spinner box and
click OK. You can also disable change tracking
completely from this dialog box. |
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Use
Excel's fill handle to copy formats |
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Most people know that the
Format Painter allows you to copy formats to other parts
of a workbook. However, an easier way for contiguous
data is to use the fill handle.
First, select one of the formatted cells. Then
right-click on the small square in the bottom-right
corner of the cell and drag to select the area you want
to apply the copy format. Finally, release the mouse
button and choose Fill Formats from the shortcut menu. |
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|
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