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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 »

Keep your Table on One Page in MS Word

Monday, January 30th, 2012

When you create large, complex documents (i.e., technical manuals, theses, etc.) you will find that you are adding tables to them. It has been my experience that most tables in these documents are not very long and can very easily fit onto one page. Having said that, it can be problematic when there is a page break smack dab in the middle of your table.

Follow the steps below to prevent such behavior:

  1. Select all rows in your table.
  2. Display the Paragraph dialog box by clicking on Format | Paragraph in version 2003 and in versions 2007-2010, click on the Home tab of your Ribbon and click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Paragraph group.
  3. Be certain the Line and Page Breaks tab is selected.
  4. Select the Keep Lines Together check box.
  5. Click on OK.

Having done that, you now need to repeat the steps, with two very minor changes.

  1. First, in step one, select all the rows in your table except the last one.
  2. In step four, make sure the Keep with Next check box is selected.

This will make sure that your table stays together as a unit rather than staying with teh paragraph that follows it.

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

Highlight Information in MS Word Using Shading

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Word provides you with a very handy method of shading text in your documents. Shading can be added together with any border you may specify for your paragraph. This is a great little feature – it even allows you to precisely control the level of shading.

 Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Place your cursor in the paragraph that you would like to highlight.
  2. Click the Home tab of your Ribbon.
  3. In the Paragraph group, click the down-arrow to the right of the Shading tool that resembles a paint can to display the shading palette.
  4. Select one of the ten theme colors at the top of the palette. Each color has options under them to represent a different level of shading for that particular color.

If you are using an earlier version of word:

  1. Place your cursor in the paragraph that you would like to highlight.
  2. Click on Format | Borders and Shading to display the dialog box.
  3. Click on the Shading tab.
  4. Using the Style drop-down list, select a degree of shading you want to use for your paragraph.

  • Click OK.

Highlighting your text using the shading settings is completely different than highlighting text using the highlighter tool.  Personally, I think it is easier to do using shading and you have a lot more flexibility as well.

You can apply the shading technique to styles and create a character style that incorporates shading. You can then apply the character style to anything you would like to shade and you can easily remove the style, replace it with other formatting or search for the style.

The process is much more inolved when working with highlighting that has been applied using the highlighting tool.

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

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