Posts Tagged ‘list’

MS WORD STYLES IDENTIFICATION IN VERSION 2007

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

I recently heard from a reader who wanted to know how he could tell which Style Set was in use in an MS Word 2007 Document.  It seems that someone e-mailed him a document and the style set, which he saved in his QuickStyles folder, but he has several similarly named styles and wants to know how he can easily see which style is in use in his document.

Below is how I advised him:

Display the Home Ribbon if it is not already visible.

Right-click the tiny arrow at the lower right-hand end of the Style box (or use the key combination ALT + CTRL + SHIFT + S.

That will drop down the Style list and the style being used will be highlighted.

Another solution is to to into the Customize dialog box and select Commands Not in the Ribbon and then select the Style item.

When you hover over it, it will say Commands Not in the Ribbon | Style (StyleGalleryClassic).

Add it to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) and it will always show the current style, the same as the one on the toolbar in MS Word 2003.

If you open the Style dialog box by clicking the little arrow in the right-hand corner of the Style Group on the Home Ribbon, you will see an icon for Manage Style which lets you restrict or recommended styles.

If you use the Option button, you can control which styles are displayed in the Style dialog box. You can also asisgn which styles you wish to display in the Home group Quick Style Gallery by right-clicking on any style in the Style dialog and choosing to add or remove it from the Quick Style Gallery.

You can learn about this and many other nuances of MS Word 2007, especially navigation tips in my book found here.

Add AutoNumbering to your MS Excel Spreadsheet

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Autonumbering will advance your numbered rows and keep them current, even if you should delete or add a row.

Unfortunately, MS Excel does not ship with an autonumbering feature like that found in MS Access, that increments a number each time you add a new row. In Excel 2003 and 2007 however, you can use the Row function to add your own autonumbering to a list.

Say you want to create a list of all of your school’s classes and their corresponding learning materials.

Follow the steps below to add autonumbering to the list:

  • In A1, enter the formula below:

=TEXT(Row(A1),”000-000″)

  • Enter the name of the first class in B1.
  • Enter the learning material of the first class in C1.
  • Copy cell A1 to A2.
  • Enter the name of the second class in B2.
  • Enter the learning material of the second class in C2.
  • Select A1:C2.
  • Go to Data | List and select Create List.

Data List Dialog Box

  • In Excel 2007, press CTRL + T and then click OK.

Notice, that when you type the name of the next class in B3 and press Tab, MS Excel will automatically provide the next number for you.

Autonumbered List

Create a Drop-Down List in MS Word Forms

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Lots of times there is a need to create a form within MS Word wherein the form is e-mailed to a colleague or a client and they fill out the form and send it back to you.

It can be very tedious to sort through the information when users insert data that you are not specifically looking for and that is where drop-down lists come in very handy, because you can create a drop-down list with specific items for selection.

To create your drop-down list, follow the steps below:

If your form template has already been created, open it and remove protection from the form.

If you are just creating your form, right-click on an empty spot on your toolbar which will open the list of Toolsbar.  From there, click on the Forms Toolbar, which will open a floating toolbar.

Click the Drop-down Form Field button.

Double-click the field to open the dialog box.

Type each choice for the drop-down list and click Add.

Make sure you arrange them in the order you prefer.

Click OK.

The form will display the typical arrow next to the field. When you click it the choices are displayed for you.

Don’t forget that you will not be able to use the form until you protect it!

You can use these same techniques to create an online form for the Web. In this case, however4, use the tools on the Web Tools toolbar to creatre the form fields, which has many of the same controls as the Forms toolbar.

Go ahead and experiment with it. I think you will find that it is fun to create forms and not difficult at all!