Posts Tagged ‘cell’

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Change Cell Patterns in MS Excel

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

MS Excel will allow you to change the background patterns used in your cells.  There could be any number of reasons why you may want to do this, but luckily it is very easy to accomplish.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

version 2003:

  1. Select the cells whose patterns you would like to change.
  2. Select Cells from the Format menu to discplay the dialog box.
  3. Be certain the Patterns tab has been selected.

  1. Use the Pattern drop-down list to select one of the patterns available to you.
  2. Click on OK.

Versions 2007, 2010:

  1. Select the cells whose patterns you would like to change.
  2. Click on the Home tab of your Ribbon.
  3. In the Cells group, click the Format tool and then click Format Cells to display the dialog box.

  1. Be certain the Fill tab has been selected.
  2. Use the Pattern Color drop-down list to select the color of your choice for your background.
  3. Use the Pattern Style drop-down list to select the pattern of your choice.
  4. Click on OK.

Cool stuff:  Because any pattern you select appears in the background of your cell, that means that it appears behind any information in that cell. So, if you combine patterns and pattern colors along with other formatting options, you can be very creative with special effects!

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Posted in Excel 2003, Excel 2007, Excel 2010, Microsoft Office Excel | No Comments »

Calculate Totals Within a Table in MS Word

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

When you have a list of numbers and you want to show totals, you do not need to start Windows’ built-in Calculator to sum them.

MS Word can calculate totals and averages and do other simple calculations. In order to do this though, you must have your Tables and Borders toolbar visible.

Before you start, click on View | Toolbars or right-click on an empty space on an existing toolbar and select Tables and Borders.

Follow the instructions below to begin summing figures:

Simply place your cursor in a blank cell of your table, below or to the right ofthe numbers you would like to total.

Click the AutoSum (resembles a sideways letter M) button on the Tables and Borders toolbar to calculate totals automatically.

To make other types of calculations, Click on Table | Formula. This will open the dialog box.

If your figures should change, you must recalculate the formual. To do this, select the formula and press the F9 key.

When you place a formula in a table, the numbers appear with grey shading. They will not print in grey though. The grey shading simply lets you know that you have a formula, not just typed figures.

You can also total figures in paragraphs in MS Word. The Calculate function in MS Word ignores any text that is not a number, except for currency symbols, periods and commas, which it recognizes when they are part of a number.

For operations other than addition, you must include the mathematical operator. To force a calculation out of precedence order, enclose the expression in parentheses.

You can add the Tools Calculate button to any toolbar or shortcut menu by following the steps below:

  1. Select Tools | Customize.
  2. Click the Commands tab.
  3. In the Categories column, select All Commands.
  4. Scroll down until you find Tools Calculate.
  5. Drag the command to the Tools menu and place it wherever you  like or, you could just drag it to your toolbar.

It may appear greyed out as Tools Calculate is only available when you have selected text. By default, the Calculate command will add any set of selected numbers separated by white space. Word tmporarily displays the result in the status bar and also places it on the clipboard.

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Posted in Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Word, Office Productivity, Word 2003 | No Comments »

Move to the End of a Long Column in MS Excel Quickly

Monday, April 6th, 2009

This is one of those little tips that most folks aren’t aware of but are ever so grateful for the knowledge once they have learned it. Why??? Because it saves time and keystrokes of course!

To jump to the bottom of a very long column, simply select a cell in the column and double-click the top or bottom edge of the cell.

In a nanosecond you will be at the bottom of the data in that column, regardless of whether its 12,000 rows long!

To return to the top of your data, click the edge of the cell. Clicking the left or right edge of the cell works in the same manner for going across rows.

Now aren’t you glad I shared that with you? Just think what else you could learn if you were a Premium subscriber!

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Posted in Excel 2003, Excel 2007, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Excel | No Comments »

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