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| Navigate tables using shortcut keys
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Press [Alt][Down Arrow] to move one cell to the right
([option][down arrow] in Word 2001)
Press [Alt][Up Arrow] to move one cell
to the left ([option][up arrow] in Word 2001)
Press [Alt][Home] to move to
the beginning of the row ([control][home] in Word 2001)
Press [Alt][End]
to move to the end of the row ([control][end] in Word 2001)
Press [Up Arrow]
to move one cell up Press [Down Arrow] to move one cell down
Press [Alt]
[Page Up] to move to the top of the column ([control][page up] in Word 2001)
Press [Alt][Page Down] to move to the bottom of the column ([control][page
down] in Word 2001)
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| Change the location of entire
paragraphs with a simple shortcut |
When you need to change the location of one or more
paragraphs, you can avoid both the click-and-drag method and the cut-and-paste
method. Instead, try using the keyboard equivalents of the Move Up and Move
Down commands that are normally available in Outline view.
First, select the
paragraphs you want to move. To move a single paragraph, just place the
insertion point anywhere within that paragraph.) Next, press [control][Shift]
[Up Arrow] to move the selection up one paragraph, or press [control][Shift]
[Down][Arrow] to move the selection down one paragraph.
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| Change the default bullet format |
You have probably found that the Bullets button on the
Formatting toolbar often seems to have a mind of its own. You just never know
what kind of bullet character you're going to get. Fortunately, you can
control the Bullets button's default bullet character.
When you're creating
and revising a document, just use the Bullets And Numbering dialog box the
first time you want to apply bullet formatting. Y ou can access this dialog
box by choosing Format | Bullets And Numbering from the menu bar.
When you
click OK to exit the Bullets And Numbering dialog box, Word remembers the
bullet format you chose and assigns it to the Bullets button on the
Formatting toolbar.
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| Take control of how Word selects words |
Selecting text is hardly a complicated task, but sometimes
it can get a little tricky. Because the mouse pointer isn't the most precise
pointing device, you may occasionally have trouble starting and ending a
selection at the right place.
You might begin a selection on the second or
third character of a word when you meant to start at the beginning. Or you
might over- or undershoot the end of a word when you wanted to extend a
selection exactly to its end.
Fortunately, Word offers an option--Automatic
Word Selection--that makes selecting text easier. When this option is on,
you can start selecting text anywhere in a word, and as soon as you extend
past the end of that word, Word selects the entire word. In addition, each
time you extend the selection into the next word, Word selects that entire
word too.
If you don't always want to select complete words, you may prefer to
turn off Automatic Word Selection. To do this, choose Tools | Options from the
menu bar and click on the Edit tab.
Next, deselect the When Selecting,
Automatically Select Entire Word check box and click OK. You can still quickly
select an entire word when the option isn't active. Simply highlight the word
you want to begin the selection by double-clicking on it. Continue to hold
down the mouse button after you make the second click. Then, drag the mouse
to extend the selection a whole word at a time.
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MS EXCEL TIPS
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Automatically timestamp Excel worksheets |
It is possible to create a timestamp for a worksheet that is created automatically
whenever a user saves the Excel file. You can accomplish this using Visual
Basic for Applications (VBA). To do so, open the workbook you want to add the
timestamp to and press [Alt][F11] to open the Visual Basic Editor (VBE). Then,
double-click on ThisWorkbook in the Project Explorer. Select Workbook from the
Object dropdown list and then select BeforeSave from the Procedure dropdown
list. At the insertion point, enter
ActiveSheet.PageSetup.RightHeader = Now
Finally, save the module and close the VBE. From now on, each time a user
saves the workbook, the current date and time will be entered in the current
worksheet's right header.
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| Edit Excel formulas with the Formula palette |
| You may have used Excel's Formula palette to create
complex formulas, but you should also be aware that you can use it to
edit existing formulas. First, select the cell containing the formula
you want to edit. Then, click the Edit Formula button, which is the
equal sign next to the Formula Bar, to open the Formula palette. The
last function used in the formula appears in bold in the Formula Bar and its
arguments appear in the Formula palette. If the formula contains several
functions, you can change which function is reflected in the Formula palette by
simply clicking on the function name in the Formula Bar.
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| Quickly change the series order in an Excel chart |
When you have a chart that contains multiple data series,
you may find that you'd like to change the order in which the series are
displayed. Changing the order is easier than you'd think.
First, click on
one of the data series in your chart (Excel 95 users will need to
double-click the chart object first to activate it). You'll notice that the
Formula bar displays a formula resembling
=SERIES(Sheet1!$B$1,Sheet1!$A$2:$A$4,Sheet1!$B$2:$B$4,1)
The last number in the formula is called plot_order, and it determines the
position that the series appears in within all of the data series in a
chart. The first series is number 1, the second is number 2, and so on.
To change the order, simply change the plot_order number, being careful not
to affect anything else, and press [Enter].
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| Quickly duplicate merged cells in Excel |
| If you're using an Excel worksheet to create a form, you'll
often use merged cells to create user-friendly input areas. When the
merged cells will be adjacent to each other, you can quickly create multiple
merged cells that have the same dimensions. To do so, set up the first merged
cell. Then, drag the fill handle (the small box in the lower-left corner of
the cell) to create the additional merged cells.
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| Hide Excel values with a null format |
| Sometimes you may want to hide values in individual cells. You can do this by assigning a null number format to the cells. To do so,
select the appropriate cells. Then, choose Format | Cells from the menu bar. Select Custom from the Category list box. Then, in the Type text box, enter
three semicolons (;;;). Finally, click OK.
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Sandy
Pratt
is a director of 4-consulting,
click
here to view his profile. |
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4-consulting
138 East Trinity Road, Edinburgh, EH5 3PR
Telephone: 0131 551 1035
Copyright © 2008 4-consulting |
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