Software.LifeTips.com

Software.LifeTips.com

Category: Excel 2000 Subcategory: Charting Tip: Adding gridlines to your chart in Excel Gridlines can make it easier for people to estimate the values represented in your chart. To add them in, select the chart and select Chart Options from the Chart menu. Select the Gridlines tab at the top. From this screen you can add both minor and major gridlines to the X and/or Y axis. Subcategory: Dates and Times Tip: Largest amount of time which can be entered in Excel The largest amount of time which can be entered in Excel is 9999:99:99. Subcategory: Formatting Tip: Display Range names directly in the Excel worksheet To display Range names directly in a worksheet, zoom out to 39 percent or less. Excel puts a border around each range and shows the name of that range in blue (this feature is for display purposes only and will not print). Subcategory: Navigation Tip: Go to the last cell in your Excel table To move to the last cell in your table in Excel, hold down the control key and press end (this is a little unreliable, but give it a go). Subcategory: Pivot Tables Tip: Maximum items in an Excel pivot table report? The maximum number of items which an Excel pivot table can contain is 8,000. Subcategory: Selection techniques Tip: Select sequential Excel worksheets To select sequential Excel worksheets, click on the name tab of the first worksheet, hold

down the Shift key and click on the name tab of the last worksheet. Subcategory: Technical specs Tip: Maximum width of an Excel cell The maximum width of an Excel cell is 255 characters. Subcategory: Text Functions Tip: Excel's LOWER function - What does it do? Excel's LOWER function will convert all text (whatever the case) to lowercase text. If cell A1 contains MiCHaeL, then: =LOWER(A1) returns michael Tip: Excel's SEARCH function - What does it do? Excel's SEARCH function searches for a text string within another text string and returns the position at which it finds it. If cell A1 contains Michael Gurner and cell B1 contains Gur, then: =SEARCH(B1,A1) Would return 9. Tip: Excel's VALUE function - What does it do? Excel's VALUE function converts a text string which represents a number to a number. If cell A1 contains 123 (formatted as text), then =VALUE(A1) returns 123 (formatted as a number). Category: Excel 97 Subcategory: Charting Tip: Change the data an Excel chart is based on If you've spent time creating an Excel chart, it can be really frustrating to have to recreate the chart every time you want to add a column or row. To change the selection that a chart is based on, select the chart and select Data Source from the Chart menu. From the Data Source dialog box, simply drag over the complete selection that you want to include in your chart and press OK. Tip: Formatting your Excel chart Once you've created your Excel chart, you can format almost every part of it simply and quickly. Either double clicking or right clicking (and selecting Format) on the element

you wish to format will bring up a dialog box which allows you to do just that. Subcategory: Dates and Times Tip: Converting seconds into hours, minutes and seconds in Excel To convert a number of seconds into a more conventional hours, minutes and seconds time format in Excel, follow these two simple steps: 1) Divide the number by (24*60*60), so if the number is in cell A1, put in a calculation which says =A1/(24*60*60). 2) Then choose the required time format from Format, Cells, Number. Subcategory: Formatting Tip: View more than one Excel worksheet at once Constantly switching between Excel worksheets can be frustrating and can really damage your productivity. To show more than one worksheet on screen at the same time, follow these simple steps: 1) From the Window menu, select New Window (do this for each additional worksheet which you want to view) 2) Select Arrange from the Window menu 3) Put a tick in the 'Windows of Active Workbook' box 4) Choose the way you want your window arranged (tiled, vertical etc) and press OK Each window will now be displayed separately and you can show a different worksheet in each one. Subcategory: Lookup and reference Tip: Excel's ADDRESS function - What does it do? The ADDRESS function creates a cell reference as text, given specified row and cell numbers. If cell A1 contains 15 and cell B1 contains 10, then: =ADDRESS(A1,B1) would return $J$15. Subcategory: Selection techniques Tip: Select an entire Excel worksheet To select an entire Excel worksheet, click the select all button, which can be found in the top left hand corner between the row and column headings. Subcategory: Text Functions Tip: Excel's ADDRESS function - What does it do? Excel's ADDRESS function creates a cell reference as text, given specified row and cell

numbers. If cell A1 contains 15 and cell B1 contains 10, then: =ADDRESS(A1,B1) would return $J$15. Tip: Excel's CODE function - What does it do? Excel's CODE function returns a numeric code for the first character in a text string. If cell A1 contains Michael Gurner, then: =CODE(A1) returns 77. Tip: Excel's FIXED function - What does it do? Excel's FIXED function formats a number as text with a number of decimals which you specify, with or without commas. If cell A1 contains 123456 (formatted as a number), then: =FIXED(A1,3,TRUE) returns 123456.000 Subcategory: Using Formulas Tip: Let Excel know you're entering a formula Excel needs some help in differentiating between text, numbers and formulas. To let Excel know that you're entering a formula, always start the formula with an = sign. Category: Internet Explorer Subcategory: Browser appearance Tip: Display help in Internet Explorer To display help when working in Internet Explorer, press the F1 key. Subcategory: Navigation Tip: Open a link in a new window in Internet Explorer When you find a link which you would like to investigate in Internet Explorer, it's sometimes useful to keep the original page open too. This can be achieved by opening the link in a new window. To do this, right click on the link and select Open in New Window. The link will open in the new window, leaving the original window open in the background. Tip: Wipe the record of sites that I've visited in Internet Explorer If you want to clear the list of sites you've visited which Internet Explorer keeps, select Internet Options (from the Tools or View menu depending on your version). Select the

General tab and press clear history. Subcategory: Working with Explorer Tip: Open the Organize Favorites dialog box in Internet Explorer To open the Organize Favorites dialog box in Internet Explorer, hold down the Ctrl key and press B. Category: Outlook Subcategory: Contacts Tip: Add birthdays to your calendar in Outlook (97/98/2000/XP) If you add a birthday (or anniversary) to a contact, Outlook will automatically add that to your calendar as an Event. To add a birthday, open your contact and click on the Details tab. You will see a drop down list by the side of the Birthday section which allows you to select the required date. Subcategory: Inbox Tip: Mark an email as read in Outlook (97/98/2000/XP) It's sometimes useful to mark an email as read in Outlook, even if you haven't read it. To do this, right click the message in the message window and choose Mark As Read. Category: PowerPoint 2000 Subcategory: The Presentation Tip: Move to the first slide using the keyboard when in PowerPoint's Slide Show view To move to the first slide in your presentation in PowerPoint's Slide Show view using the keyboard, just press the Home key. Subcategory: Viewing a presentation Tip: Save a presentation in HTML format in PowerPoint

To save your presentation for display on the web, use PowerPoint's Save as HTML function. Select Save as HTML from the File menu and follow the instructions - you'll be surprised at how straightforward yet powerful a tool it is. Category: PowerPoint 97 Subcategory: PowerPoint-general Tip: Right clicking without a mouse in PowerPoint Right clicking in PowerPoint can bring really useful productivity gains, as it allows you to dramatically reduce the number of clicks needed to complete some tasks. If you don't have access to a working mouse, are working on a laptop or just prefer to use the keyboard, then try this: Hold down shift and press F10 - the shortcut menu will appear. Category: Project 98 Subcategory: Technical Specs Tip: Maximum exceptions per Project calendar The maximum number of exceptions which can be added to any Project calendar is 1000. Tip: Maximum predecessors and successors per task in MS Project There are no limits to the number of predecessors and successors per task in Project. Tip: Resources per project file in MS Project The number of resources you can add to a project file is limited only by the available memory. Subcategory: The Steps Involved Tip: Step 2 - Adding your task list in Project Once you have Project set up effectively, you need to add your list of tasks. This can either be done by starting with a list of categories and adding tasks to each category (Top Down) or by adding all tasks you can think of then categorising them afterwards (Bottom Up). For more information, refer to the Managing Tasks section.

Category: Word 2000 Subcategory: Formatting Tip: Activate the format painter with the keyboard in MS Word Use Ctrl Shift C to copy formats and Ctrl Shift V to paste formats in MS Word. You can continue to apply the formatting by selecting new text and pressing Ctrl Shift V. Subcategory: Housekeeping Tip: Restore the normal template in MS Word If you've modified the normal template in MS Word and would like to revert to the original template, then just delete or rename the current normal.dot and restart Word. When Word doesn't find the normal template in your templates folder, it will create a new one itself which contains the default settings. Subcategory: Long documents Tip: Pick up where you left off in MS Word Each time you open a Word document, by default the cursor will appear at the start of the document. If you're working on a large document, this can be time consuming as well as inconvenient. Word provides a Go Back To command which will automatically take you back to the last place in a document where you made a modification. To activate this, hold down the Shift key and press F5. Subcategory: Navigation Tip: Activate the Go To menu in MS Word There are a number of different ways to activate the Go To dialog box in Word. Try any of these: 1) Select Go To from the Edit menu 2) Press the F5 key 3) Hold down the Ctrl key and press G Tip: Go to the last place you were working in MS Word When you open a Word document, it automatically opens up at the start of the document. If you were working somewhere in the middle of your document, then it can take ages to scroll your way through to the correct bit. To automatically move to the last place you were working, hold down the Shift key and press the F5 key.

Subcategory: Selection techniques Tip: Sort outside of tables in MS Word Most people are aware that you can sort information in a Word table (if you weren't, then I guess you are now), but you can also sort any other text within your document. Select the text that you'd like to sort (either paragraphs, lists or bulleted/numbered lists) and select Sort from the Table menu. Select Paragraphs from the Sort By menu and then choose either Text, Number or Date from the Type menu. Select either ascending or descending and press OK. Subcategory: The Four Autos Tip: Set AutoFormat Options in MS Word To control the formatting which Word's AutoFormat function uses on your document, select AutoFormat from the Format menu. Before you click OK, click the Options button and make any modifications you require. Category: Word 97 Subcategory: Drawing Tool Tips Tip: Drawing perfect shapes in MS Word To draw a perfect shape (such as a circle from the oval tool) in MS Word, hold down the Shift key while you draw your shape. Holding down Shift when you draw an oval will make a perfect circle, the rectangle tool will draw a square etc. Subcategory: Long documents Tip: Easy table of contents in MS Word Creating a table of contents can be a bit of a nightmare in MS Word if you have to create it manually. Luckily, Word has a built in Table of Contents feature which can take most of the hard work out for you. Word builds the table of contents based on the Styles you've used to create your document (heading1, heading2 etc). Select Index and Tables from the Insert menu, select the Table of Contents tab and click OK. Subcategory: Navigation

Tip: Go to the last place you were working in MS Word When you open a Word document, it automatically opens up at the start of the document. If you were working somewhere in the middle of your document, then it can take ages to scroll your way through to the correct bit. To automatically move to the last place you were working, hold down the Shift key and press the F5 key. Tip: Move around a Word document one paragraph at a time To move around a Word document one paragraph at a time, hold down the Ctrl key and use the up and down arrow keys. This can really help to speed up your navigation through your document. Subcategory: Paragraph Formatting Tip: Remove paragraph formatting in MS Word To remove paragraph formatting in MS Word, hold down the Ctrl key and press the Q key. Subcategory: Selecting text Tip: Select a line of text with the keyboard in MS Word To select a line of text using only the keyboard in MS Word, place the cursor at the beginning of the line, hold down the Shift key and press the down arrow. Tip: Select a sentence in MS Word To select a sentence in MS Word, hold down the Ctrl key and click anywhere inside the sentence. Subcategory: Styles Tip: View the full style list in MS Word To view the full style list in MS Word, hold down the Shift key and click on the drop down arrow by the side of the Style Box. A longer list of styles will appear, including a scroll bar to the right hand side which allows you to see all available styles. Subcategory: The four Autos

Tip: AutoFormat works in MS Word Word has an AutoFormat tool which is generally overlooked, yet it is surprisingly useful. The tool is found under the Format, AutoFormat and allows you to either review each change as Word makes it or to let it make all the changes in one go. Give it a go - you may be surprised how effective it is. Even if you need to make a few modifications yourself, it should save you some time. Subcategory: Using Clip Art Tip: Multiple level ungrouping in MS Word If you've ungrouped a piece of clip art in MS Word but can't select the piece you want to (for example you want to select a foot but you keep getting the leg as well), then you may need to ungroup another level. Select the piece you want and right click - select ungroup from the Grouping menu - if the option is available, then you can ungroup further.