[August 15, 2008]

The weather in my area has been a bit cooler lately. It almost feels like the beginning of Fall. I know it will get warm again because it always does but I can hear the crickets singing at night now and it's a bit cool in the morning. My thoughts have definitely been turning toward homemade bread and knitting and crocheting as they do when Fall is just around the corner.

Once September gets here I will be taking a mini vacation to Charleston and Savannah and I am looking forward to it. But I am jumping way ahead of myself here, we still have to finish out Summer!

I hope you have all had a nice vacation or at least some down time to regroup and prepare to go forward with a little bit of inner peace from your respite.

Let's get to the tips now!

Carol's Signature

Table of Contents

Limit What is Shown in the Formula Bar in MS Excel -Some workarounds for earlier versions.

Resize Columns in MS Excel the Quick Way - Another time saver!

Carry your Outlook Contacts with you Everywhere - You don't have to remember!

Limit What is Shown in the Formula Bar in MS Excel

In Excel 2007 you now have the ability to prevent the Formula bar from displaying more than one line of text. In this way, the worksheet is not obscured by the Formula bar when a cell with a large amount of content is selected.

One of my subscribers wrote to me inquiring if this was an option in Excel 2003 or earlier version. I hated to tell him, but the answer is no. This feature is new in Excel 2007 and there is no equivalent of it in earlier versions.

  • What folks did in the past, in earlier versions, was turn off the display of the Formula bar completely by clicking View | Formula Bar.
  • Alternatively, some folks inserted a blank "dummy row" at the top of their worksheet that they didn't mind being overwritten with the expanding Formula bar.

I am sorry that I cannot give you a better way to accomplish but thank goodness we now have version 2007 eh?

Return to Table of Contents

Resize Columns in MS Excel the Quick Way

I bet you didn't know that you could make MS Excel resize multiple columns in one fell swoop did you? Yes, that's right, you can resize them so that each will accommodate its longest line perfectly.

I am sure that you all know how to fiddle with the width of columns in MS Excel by now. You can go to each column and click your mouse and then drag the column to widen it. But that is the old fashioned way! We are all about saving time and keystrokes right? Darned right we are!

Follow the steps below to learn how to save some time and keystrokes:

  • Position your mouse at the right-hand column header. You will know when you are in the right spot when your cursor changes to a left-right arrow.
  • Just double-click in that spot and presto! chango! the column is now just large enough for its widest text.

You can perform this feat with multiple columns as well.

  • Select a contiguous group of columns by clicking one column header and dragging sideways until they are all selected.
  • You can also select a non-contiguous group of columns by clicking one column header and then using your CTRL key while clicking the rest of them.
  • Once you have selected your columns, simply double-click the divider at the right-hand edge of any of your selected columns and they will all automatically adjust to the perfect width.

You can always use the Text Wrapping option too, if you prefer.

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Carry your Outlook Contacts with you Everywhere

You could take a memory course at your local community college and try to remember all of your Contacts in MS Outlook but I don't think that would work do you?

If you travel a lot and need to have your Outlook contacts handy you might consider using a flash drive. They are sometimes called thumb drives too and they are small and very economical nowdays.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

  1. Click on File | Import and Export to a file.
  2. Click Next.
  3. Select Personal Folder File (.pst) from the list of file types.
  4. Click Next.
  5. From the folder tree, select Contacts.
  6. Click Next.
  7. Save the exported file as a file on your flash drive.
  8. Click Finish.

You can now open the .pst file on another computer that has MS Outlook installed. Isn't high tech just grand??

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  • Adjust, Hide and Restore the QAT in MS Word 2007
  • Create a Macro in MS Excel 2007 Using Visual Basic
  • Customizing the Status Bar in MS Word 2007

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