Posts Tagged ‘table’

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.

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

Working with Database Files in MS Access

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

When I first started using MS Access and downloading databases I was really confounded when it came to renaming the database.  When I tried to use File | Save As, it came up with something other than what I expected or wanted!

Well now I have learned how to accomplish this simple task (it’s always simple once you figure it out, isn’t it?) and I will share my knowledge with you.

All you really need to do is change the name of the .mdb file. You can do this from My Computer or Windows Explorer. You can even do it from Access itself!

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Close your database file if it is open.
  2. Click on File | Open.
  3. Navigate to the File in the open dialog box.
  4. Right-click the file and select Rename.
  5. Type a new name for your database.
  6. Click Enter.

Before you set out to rename your database, remember that MS Access does not automatically update links, so if any other database links to a table in the database whose name you would like to change, you will have to open that other database and redo the links. You would, of course, use the Linked Table Manager to accomplish this.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Access 2003, MS Access, Microsoft Office | No Comments »