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Automatically insert the current date
in a Word document |
| If you are constantly
editing today's date in a Word document, consider using
a Word date field code. The field code will insert the
current date (based on your system clock) automatically
without you typing it.
To insert an automatic date field,
position the insertion point where you want the date to
appear. Choose Insert/Date And Time from the menu
bar. Pick a date format in the Available Formats list box.
If you want Word to insert the current date, check the
Update Automatically check box and click OK.
If you
open an existing document with a date field code, place
your insertion point in the field code and press [F9] to
update the date. If you don't update the field before
you
print Word will automatically fill in the
current
date when you print. |
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|
Turn off Word's automatic word selection feature |
| When you click and drag to select two or
more words in your document, Word automatically selects
the entire word (plus the space following each word),
even when you select only part of a word. You can turn
this feature off temporarily by pressing and holding
down the [Alt] key and then dragging to select text.
However, to turn this feature off permanently, select
Tools/Options from the menu bar, and click on the Edit
tab. Then, clear the When Selecting, Automatically
Select Entire Word check box and click OK. |
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|
Change the shape of a text box |
| You can add visual variety
to your documents quickly by changing the shape of a
text box.
Word considers a text box to be a
drawing object and you can change the shape of a text
box by changing the AutoShape that is assigned to it.
A text box'sdefault shape is the Rectangle AutoShape. To
change the AutoShape assigned to a text box, select the
text box and select Draw/Change AutoShape from the
Drawing toolbar. Select an AutoShape category from
the resulting submenu, then select the AutoShape tool
you wish to use from the group's submenu. Word will
change the text box shape to the AutoShape you
specified. |
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|
Hiding pictures and drawing objects in
Word |
| When you work in a
document containing a large number of graphics, Word may
be slow to scroll through the document. This is
because Word has to allocate a substantial chunk of its
resources to load and display the graphics and before it
can continue scrolling, it must retrieve all of the
graphics information.
You can speed up scrolling by hiding
your document's graphics - switch to Page Layout view
and select Tools/Options from the menu bar. Click on the
View tab, then select the Picture Placeholders check
box. This will hide inline pictures. To hide floating
objects and drawing objects, clear the Drawings check
box. When you have finished, click OK. Remember
that Word applies these settings to all documents so, if
you want to display pictures and drawing objects in a
different document, you will need to reset the default
settings. |
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|
Quickly move or remove toolbar buttons |
| Word helps to work more
effectively by allowing you to customise your toolbars
by creating new buttons, removing toolbar buttons you do
not use and moving existing buttons to more
convenient locations.
Normally, you move or remove a toolbar
button by opening the Customize dialog box by selecting
Tools/Customize or View/Toolbars/Customize from the menu
bar or by right-clicking on a toolbar and choosing
Customize from the resulting shortcut menu. As
long as the Customize dialog box is open you can move a
toolbar button by dragging it to a new location on a
toolbar or you can remove it by dragging it to the
document area.
However, this method is a bit pedantic
and there is a much quicker method. Simply press
and hold down the [Alt] key and drag the toolbar button
to a new toolbar location or to the document area |
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|
Create AutoCorrect entries as you type |
| Word's AutoCorrect
feature recognises commonly misspelled words and
corrects them for you. You can add new entries to Word's
default AutoCorrect list in the AutoCorrect dialog box,
which you can access by selecting Tools/ AutoCorrect
from the menu bar.
However, if you have Word's automatic
spell checker turned on, you can create AutoCorrect
entries as you type. First make sure the automatic
spell checker and AutoCorrect features are turned on by
selecting Tools/Options from the menu bar. Then
click on the Spelling & Grammar tab, select the Check
Spelling As You Type check box, and click OK.
To turn on Word's AutoCorrect feature,
select Tools/AutoCorrect from the menu bar, select the
Replace Text As You Type check box, and click OK.
Word's automatic spell checker marks unrecognised words
in your document with a wavy red underline. To add
an unrecognised word and its correct spelling to the
AutoCorrect list, right-click on the word. f
Word's spell checker is able to suggest alternative
spellings for the unrecognised word, AutoCorrect appears
on the resulting shortcut menu. Select AutoCorrect, then
choose the word you'd like to replace it with from the
submenu. Word adds the unrecognised word and its
replacement to the AutoCorrect list; the next time you
type the misspelled word, Word automatically replaces it
with the word you specified |
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Correcting sentence spacing with Word's
Replace command |
| With the advent of
variable-width fonts, many people no longer bother use
the traditional two spaces between sentences.
Regardless of your preference, you've probably had to
edit documents to conform to your organisation's style.
Word's Replace command offers a handy way to convert two
spaces to one, or vice versa, throughout a document.
To convert each occurrence of two
spaces after a period to one space, you start by
positioning the insertion point at the beginning
of the document. Next, choose Edit/Replace from
the menu bar to open the Find And Replace dialog box.
In the Find What text box, enter a period and two
spaces. In the Replace With text box, enter a period and
one space. Next, click Replace All. Word scans the
document and replaces each period-space-space
combination with a period and a single space. When Word
presents a message telling you how many replacements it
made, click OK and then click Close to return to your
document. |
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Non-breaking spaces for greater clarity in documents |
| Non-breaking spaces are a
good way for ensuring that
your document has no unsightly or confusing text
breaks. For
instance, when you enter a date such as 29 May 2006, you
want to make sure Word doesn't place May and 29 on
different
lines. Similarly, you don't want Word to break the line
between
a person's first name and middle initial.
To enter a non-breaking space, press
the Ctrl/Shift/Spacebar keys together.
In contrast to the
dots that
Word uses to denote normal spaces in Show mode, Word
represents
a non-breaking space with a degree symbol. The
degree symbol will not appear when you print the
document. |
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MS EXCEL TIPS
|
|
Edit Excel hyperlink text |
| Changing the text in a
worksheet hyperlink can be awkward because an Excel
hyperlink is followed 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.
However, an easier way is to. Just
hold the [Ctrl] key and select the hyperlink. You'll be
able to enter the new hyperlink text directly in the
cell and not have to worry about triggering the link. |
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|
Control text wrapping in Excel |
| You can force Excel to
wrap the text in cells or chart legends by press the Alt
and Enter keys together wherever you want to force a
carriage return. |
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| Using the Underline
button |
| To underline the contents
of a cell, the normal way is to select Format/Cells from
the menu bar, select Double from the Underline dropdown
list and click OK.
A faster way is simply to press the
[Shift] key and then click the Underline button on the
toolbar. |
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| Convert numbers entered in Excel as text |
| Sometimes you encounter numbers in cells
that were entered with a preceding apostrophe (')
resulting in the number to be formatted as text.
However, converting the value to a number changing
the format to a number format does not work.
Rather than re-enter the numbers, you can enter the
number 1 in any blank cell. Select the cell and choose
Edit/Copy from the menu bar. Then, select all the cells
containing values you want converted. Next, choose
Edit/Paste Special from the menu bar, select the
Multiply option button and click OK. |
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| Using
Excel's Formula Palette |
| Excel's Formula Palette is
really useful for building formulas with functions that
you might not be familiar with.
To use the Formula Palette, click the Fx sign
in the Formula Bar and select the function you need
to work with from the dropdown list that appears. You
can then use the palette to define the arguments for the
function.
One drawback to the Formula Palette is that it may
obscure the range of cells you are working with.
However, the Palette is not docked in place and you can
drag it with your mouse to a section of your worksheet
away from your data.
|
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|
Edit Hyperlinks in Cells |
| It can be quite tricky to edit a
hyperlink in a cell because Excel immediately follows a
link as soon as you click on a cell containing a
hyperlink. One way of avoiding the
problem is to click in an adjoining cell and then move
to the hyperlink using the arrow keys.
A better solution is to hold down the
Ctrl key and select the hyperlink. You will now be able
to enter the new hyperlink text directly in the cell
without triggering the link. |
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|
Hide Excel values with a null format |
| If you want to hide values
in individual cells you can assign a null number format
to the cells.
Select the appropriate cells and
choose Format/Cells from the menu bar. Select
Custom from the Category list box and enter three
semicolons (;;;) in the Type text box. Finally,
click OK |
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| Keep
external data fresh |
| If you use Excel workbooks containing
external data ranges brought in with MS Query, you will
need to ensure that you are working with the most
up-to-date data possible. You can do this by
removing external data when a file is closed and
automatically refreshing the data when the file is
opened.
Start by right-clicking on the external data range
and then choose Data Range Properties from the shortcut
menu. Next, clear the Enable Background Refresh
check box and select the Refresh Data On File Open and
Remove External Data From Worksheet Before Saving check
boxes. Finally, click OK. |
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|
Sandy
Pratt
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