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| Redefine a style to match direct formatting
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When you creating styles for a document or template, you
usually need to fine-tune them a few times to perfect them. However, you don't need to go back and modify your document's
text each time you modify one of its styles.
When you modify a
style, Word applies your changes to all the text that uses that
style.
Start, display the Styles And Formatting task pane by clicking the
Styles And Formatting button on the Formatting toolbar. Next, select any text that uses the formatting elements you wish to
apply to the existing style. Use the Styles And Formatting task pane's Pick Formatting
To Apply list to locate the style you wish to redefine. Hover the
pointer over the style's name, click the dropdown arrow that
appears to its right and then choose Update To Match Selection
from the resulting dropdown list
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| Rearrange table rows using the keyboard |
When you create a table in Word, you may find that after you
have
finished, you would like to rearrange the order of the table's rows. You can do so by selecting the table row to
be moved and
then dragging it to the new location.
However, you may find it
much more convenient to move table rows using the keyboard. To do
so, first select the rows you want to move. If you want to
move only one row, simply click in it - there's no need to select
the entire row. Next, hold down the [Alt][Shift] keys
and use the [Up Arrow] and
[Down Arrow] keys to move the row(s) to the desired position.
You can also use this keyboard shortcut to move one or
more paragraphs in your document. |
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| Control the colours used to track changes |
The Track Changes feature helps you keep track of all revisions
made to your document. You can turn the Track Changes feature on
and off by double-clicking on the TRK icon in the status bar, or
by choosing Tools/Track Changes from the menu bar, or by
pressing [Ctrl][Shift]E.
By default, Word uses a different colour
to track the changes that each user makes to a document. Although you
cannot assign a specific colour to each individual user, you
can assign the same colour for all users. You can also assign
specific colours for specific types of changes. When the revision
itself is more important than knowing who made it, this technique
can make tracked changes much easier to read through.
Regardless of the colours you assign, you can still find out
who's responsible for any tracked change by hovering the mouse
pointer over it to reveal the reviewer's name in a ToolTip.
To modify the colour assignments for the Tracked Changes feature,
choose Tools/Options from the menu bar and click on the Track Changes tab.
Select
the desired revision colour from each available Colour dropdown
list. The By Author option assigns a unique colour to each user,
whereas the individual colour options stay the same regardless of
which user is making the changes.
Remember that you can also
adjust the display for insertions, deletions, and formatting
changes to distinguish these different types of changes with
their own unique revision marks.
When you have finished, click OK
to return to your document.
NB. The changes you make on the Track Changes
property sheet stay in effect for all documents you
access using that particular computer. If you want other
users to see tracked revisions the same way you do, they
will need to apply the same settings in the Track
Changes property sheet. |
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| Change one type of section break to another |
By using section breaks to divide a document into sections, you
can apply unique page layout formatting to individual portions of
your document. When troubleshooting your document's
layout, you may need to change one type of section break to
another.
For example, you might want to prevent a new section
from starting on a fresh page by changing it from a Next Page
section break to a Continuous section break.
To change the break
from one type to another, you do not need to delete the existing
break and insert a new one. Instead, choose View/Normal to
switch to Normal view. Next, position the insertion point AFTER
the section break you want to change. Choose File/Page Setup
from the menu bar, and then click on the Layout tab. In the
Section panel, choose the desired break type from the Section
Start dropdown list and click OK. |
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MS EXCEL TIPS
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Counting text entries in Excel |
If you've ever tried to perform a simple count, such as the
number of names in a list, you may have been frustrated by the
results.
For example, say you have a series of names in cells
B2:B8. In cell B16, you enter the formula:
=COUNT(B2:B15)
Instead of the expected answer of 7, the formula returns 0.
This is because Excel's COUNT function only counts numeric
values.
To count any entry, regardless of type, you must use the COUNTA function. For example, the formula:
=COUNTA(B2:B15)
returns the number of name entries. Note that COUNTA counts any
non-blank cells in the specified range, so a cell will be counted
even if just displays an error message.
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| Hide items in a PivotTable's page field's selection list |
In a PivotTable, a page field is a dropdown list that lets you
filter the PivotTable to show only the data associated with the
selected field item.
For example, if a PivotTable's page field
is Country, you can filter the PivotTable to show just the data
pertaining to France. Then, selecting Germany from the dropdown
list alters the PivotTable to reflect the data associated with
Germany.
If you want to prevent items from appearing in the page
filter's dropdown list, right-click on the page field's label. Then, select Field Settings from
the menu bar. Select the items you want to hide in the Hide
Items list box and then click OK.
By default, data associated
with the hidden page field items is ignored from the
PivotTable's totals.
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| Preview how an Excel spreadsheet will look as a Web page |
Excel works with HTML files, making it easy to save a worksheet as a Web page.
Before you go through the steps to convert an Excel worksheet to
a Web page, you can get a quick preview of how it will look. To
do so, simply choose File/Web Page Preview from the menu bar
and an HTML version of your worksheet is opened in your browser.
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| Displaying text vertically in a cell |
Sometimes you may feel that a worksheet layout would benefit
from having text displayed vertically instead of horizontally.
For example, say you have created a complex reference table and
one row label caption could apply to many adjacent rows. You can
save space and make the table easier to read by merging the label
cells into one narrow, tall cell and then displaying the caption
text vertically.
To display such text, select the appropriate
cell and choose Format/Cells from the menu bar. Then, switch to
the Alignment tab. Finally, click on the preview text box on the
left side of the Orientation panel and click OK.
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| Easily pad text with space to improve readability |
If you want to add space between your data and a cell's borders,
don't resort to adding space characters to the data. Instead,
apply an indented text format to the cell.
Excel
lets you indent from the cells right, top, and bottom
borders. Note that the top and bottom indent options are only
available if you're using vertical text orientation (see tip above).
You can add or remove indents using
buttons on the Formatting toolbar. Alternatively, select the cells
containing the data you want indented and choose Format/cells
from the menu bar. Next, click on the Alignment tab and select the
appropriate indent alignment option from the Horizontal or
Vertical dropdown list. Finally, set the number of spaces you
want the text indented in the Indent text box and click OK.
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Sandy
Pratt
is a director of 4-consulting,
click
here to view his profile. |
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138 East Trinity Road, Edinburgh, EH5 3PR
Telephone: 0131 551 1035
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