Originally Posted June 8, 2008

You may already take advantage of the Fill Series feature in Excel (where you can fill in a series of dates like January, February, March, etc or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc.) in a simple drag of your mouse.  You an create a custom Fill list for your needs that does the same thing for your company divisions, product lines, managers, or whatever.  Here's how you do it.

In Excel 2003
1. Tools > Options...

2. Click the 'Custom Lists' tab
-In the 'List entries' field
3. Enter the first name in series that you want to have filled-in.  Be sure to type a ', ' comma and a space before typing the next name
-Continue until you  have your series complete
4. Click 'OK' when done

How to use:
1. Enter the first name in the series in cell, then press ENTER

2. Place your cursor on the cell you just typed
3. Place your mouse on the black box at the lower right-hand side of the cursor (the black box around the highlighted cell)

4. Drag across (or down) to fill-in the cells with the cells with your custom fill-in series

In Excel 2007
In Excel
1. Click the 'OfficeButton'
2. Click the 'Excel Options' button

-Under the Top Options for working with Excel section
3. Click the 'Edit Custom Lists...' button


-In the 'List entries' field
4. Enter the first name in series that you want to have filled-in.  Be sure to type a ', ' comma and a space before typing the next name
5. Continue until you  have your series complete
6. Click 'OK'
7. Click 'OK' again

How to use:
1. Enter the first name in the series in cell, then press ENTER

2. Place your cursor on the cell you just typed
3. Place your mouse on the black box at the lower right-hand side of the cursor (the black box around the highlighted cell)

4. Drag across (or down) to fill-in the cells with the cells with your custom fill-in series

That's it!

Originally Posted May 5 2008

I don't mean to keep repeating the same topic, but if you are using Microsoft Office (that means Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, etc.) your files are saved in a format that is not directly compatible with Microsoft Office version 2003.  This means that if you create a document in Word 2007 and email it to someone using 2003, they won't be able to open it unless they go to Microsoft and install the converter software.

There is an easier way than relying on others to download and install the converter - set your Microsoft Word 2007 to default to 'Save As 2003 version'.

In Microsoft Word 2007
1. Click the Office Button

2. Click Word Options

3. Click 'Save'
4. Select 'Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)
5. Click OK

That's it!

This same process will work for the other Microsoft 2007 software (PowerPoint, Publisher, etc).

Originallyl Posted April 14, 2008

A nifty feature in Excel 2007 is Conditional Formatting.  It will help you identify numbers that meet criteria that you set by highlighting it or denoting it another way.

For example, let's say you have a list of numbers and you need to identify the cells with values less than 500.
-In Excel 2007

1. Highlight all the cells that have the numbers you want to evaluate
2. Click the Conditional Formatting button in the Ribbon

3. Select Highlight Cells Rules > Less Than...

-In the Format Cells Less Than field
4. Enter '500'
5. Click 'OK'

-All Cells less than 500 are highlighted

You can also apply:

• Color Scale
• Data Bar (kinda like a bar graph)
• Icons

As other methods to identify numbers.

That's it!

You may find yourself working on a spreadsheet when you run into a formatting conundrum.  How to get all the text in a Cell to be displayed without adjusting the width of the column and wrecking the your spreadsheet formatting.  In Excel, this feature can be done with the Wrap Text function.  Better yet in Excel 2007 it is on the ribbon.

In Excel 2007
1. Click on the Cell that you want to wrap
2. Click the Wrap Text button

In Excel 2003 or earlier
1. Format > Cells
2. Click the Alignment Tab
3. Check 'Wrap Text'
4. Click OK

That' it!

Oct 29 1007
If you are using the 2007 version of Office, you probably are still trying to get used to the Ribbon that has replaced the Toolbar.  Well, one handy feature of the Ribbon is that you can hide it while working on a Word document, Excel Spreadsheet, etc. giving yourself a little more room to work.

Here's how to set it up:
1. Start a Microsoft Office 2007 program - like Word
2. Click the 'Customize Quick Launch Toolbar' button

3. Select 'Minimize the Ribbon'
-Here's the Ribbon afterward

Just click Home, Insert, Page Layout, tab and the ribbon is revealed.

That's it!