June 10, 2008

Taking Control of Cursor Movement in Word

Looking for a way to move through one of your MS Word documents with some control and speed, all while still using your keyboard?

Well, look no more, because I've got just the thing for you today!

Besides the usual arrow keys to move one space/line in the appropriate direction and the Page Up/Down option that moves part of a screen in either direction, there are a couple of extras that can be used to make your movements quick and easy.

  • If you combine the Ctrl key with an up or down arrow, you'll move to the top of the previous/next paragraph.

  • The Ctrl key + a left or right arrow will move you to the start of the previous/next word.

  • Ctrl + Page Up/Down will move you to the top of the previous/next page in the document.

  • Home will take you to the beginning of the current line of text.

  • End moves you to the end of the current line of text.

  • Ctrl blind date propecia + Home or End will move you to the very top or bottom of the document.

Those are all pretty common, but here's another set of options I recently ran across. I didn't know about them until now, but they could certainly be very useful.

  • Alt + Ctrl + Page Up will move you to the top of the current screen of text. (The documents will not jump anywhere. The cursor is simply moved to the top of the currently visible text).

  • Alt + Ctrl + Page Down will move the cursor to the bottom of the current screen of text.

There you have it. Quicker navigation in Word is literally at your fingertips!

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June 9, 2008

Excel – Make It Fit the Page

Do you have an MS Excel worksheet that is sized just barely over the width of a page? If so, if you need to print it on one page only, that extra width is a problem, isn't it?

So, what did you do?

Maybe you went back to the worksheet and started adjusting the column widths or maybe you started changing the margins to accommodate your printing needs.

Whatever you did, I bet it was a painful process and maybe even impossible.

How would you like a method with just one setting that ensures the worksheet will print on exactly the number of pages you require?

Interested?

Yeah, I thought you might be!

If you're using older versions of MS Excel, what you're looking to do is make a quick change in the Page Setup window. You can get there through the File menu, Page Setup choice.

  • Now, you're looking for the Page tab.

  • In the center section (the Scaling section), you need the "fit to" choice.

  • When you make that selection, you have a couple of settings to change. If you look closely, you'll notice it actually says "fit to # page(s) wide by # tall." The number of pages is what you need to change.

    If you want the worksheet to print on a single page, just set it to 1 page wide by 1 tall. If the printed data columns are long, you may need 1 page wide by 2 tall. You get the idea. Excel then scales everything down to fit on exactly the number of pages you've specified, with no column width changes required!

  • Once you've entered your settings, click OK to save the changes and return to the worksheet. Or, you can choose Print Preview to take a look at your handy work.

For those of you working with Excel 2007, you'll need to look in best price generic propecia a slightly different place. What you need is on the Page Layout ribbon.

  • You're specifically looking for the Scale to Fit section.

  • In that section, you'll find a setting for both Width and Height. Each of them have a drop down list where you can set the maximum number of pages for printing in whichever direction you need.

  • Make a choice and Excel will then adjust your worksheet immediately.

I love this one. It certainly beats column width and/or margin changes anytime!

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Order Up

Here's best place to buy propecia a tip specifically for users of MS Office versions prior to Office 2007!

Have you ever found yourself wishing your toolbar buttons or menus were in a different order?

Maybe their current order just doesn't work efficiently for you or maybe you're used to some other program and you would like to make a smooth transition to your new habitat.

Whatever the case may be, if you're looking for a way to quickly rearrange the "furniture" (that is, your menus and buttons), I've got just the tip for you!

  • First, hold down the Alt key.

  • Now, using your mouse, click-hold-and-drag the menu name or button to its new location.

  • You should then notice that the pointer becomes a vertical bar, showing you exactly where the button or menu will be located.

  • When it's positioned as you wish, simply release the mouse button.

Voila. You can't make rearranging any easier than that!

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May 25, 2008

Tracing the Path

Do you sometimes use complicated MS Excel formulas? You know, where a formula references cells that, in turn, reference other cells, which can lead to a big chain reaction of values. One wrong or inadvertent change to a cell's value and you could cause a multitude of errors with the reported values.

Ever find yourself wondering just where that value really came from? I mean, which cells in the worksheet actually contribute? It'd be nice to see how it's all connected, especially when you're trying to solve a problem.

Well, to get a visual, all you need to know are the right buttons to click.

In older versions of Excel, you're looking for the View menu, Toolbars submenu, Formula Auditing choice.

If you're using Excel 2007, you need the Formulas ribbon, Formula Auditing section.

To use the auditing tools, you must first select a cell containing a formula that references other cells.

Now, to have Excel draw the path of cells that contribute to the formula, click the Trace Precedents button. In older versions, it's the second button from the left and in Excel 2007, it's the top button on the left side.

Instantly, you'll have a visual with cell outlines and arrows that shows you what other cells in the worksheet contribute to the cell you originally selected.

Click the button a second time to have Excel trace another level of formulas.

In older versions of Excel, use the Remove Precedent Arrows button to reverse the visuals. Each click of that button will remove one level of tracing.

In Excel 2007, you'll need to click the down arrow on the Remove Arrows button and then choose Remove Precedent Arrows.

To have Excel give a display of cells containing formulas that depend upon the value in the cell you've selected, click the Trace Dependents button. (In where to get viagra older versions of Excel, you'll only see the picture, but it looks the same).

The result looks a lot like the precedent arrows, but it tells you where the value feeds go, instead of where they came from.

To remove those traces, click the Remove Dependent Arrows button. (In Excel 2007, you'll find it in the Remove Arrows options list).

I know this has been quite a bit to take in, but I have one more button to show you!

In older versions of Excel, the next button over (the one that looks like an eraser) is the Remove All Arrows button and it will do just that. It removes both the precedent and dependent arrows with just one click.

In Excel 2007, you can achieve a complete erase of all the arrows by clicking on the Remove Arrows button instead of its down arrow.

That's it. A quick and easy way to get a good picture of where everything is coming from and where it's going!

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May 24, 2008

How do I… remove the built-in icons from the Office My Places bar?

Date: June 18th, 2007

Author: Susan Harkins

This information is also available as a PDF download.

As I discussed in a previous entry, the My Places bar was introduced in Office 2000. It appears on the left side of the File Open and File Save As dialog box in all Office applications. My Places offers shortcuts to frequently used folders, but customizing it isn’t exactly an intuitive process.

Initially, the bar displays icons for the following Windows folders:

  • My Recent Documents
  • Desktop
  • My Documents
  • My Computer
  • My Network Places

Most of us don’t use these default folders, or not all of them. Fortunately, you can add the folders you do use frequently. In the Open or Save As dialog box, select the folder you want to add from the Look In drop-down list. Then, choose Add To My Places from the Tools menu in the dialog box. To move or resize an icon in the bar, right-click on it and choose the appropriate command from the shortcut menu.

Office applications share one common My Places bar. Changes will show up in all the applications’ dialogs. Note that you can’t alter My Places in Office 2000, and Office XP’s user interface for updating My Places is more limited than 2003’s.

Removing the built-in icons

Removing custom icons from the My Places bar is simple. Right-click on the icon and choose Remove from the shortcut menu.

It isn’t as easy to remove the built-in icons, which is too bad: Deleting them would free up a lot of space for shortcuts you do use. To get rid of those icons, you have to edit the registry.

As always, before you begin editing the registry, be sure you back it up. where to buy viagra in uk Also, while you’re in the registry, don’t change anything unless instructed to in the following steps:

1. From the Windows Start menu, choose Run.

2. Enter regedit and click OK to launch the Registry Editor.

3. As shown in Figure A, expand the nodes to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\Open Find\Places

Figure A

4. Update the version number 11.0 in the above key if appropriate. The StandardPlaces key contains the built-in icon values. UserDefinedPlaces contains custom icons. (Don’t worry if you don’t have a UserDefinedPlaces folder yet.)

5. Right-click on the Places key and choose Export. You’re creating a backup file of the current My Places bar. If anything goes wrong, you can simply double-click the file and the Registry will automatically restore the My Places keys, using the contents of the backup file. Give the file an appropriate name and save it where you can find it later. Click Save to create the backup file.

6. In the Places or the StandardPlaces key, double-click on the key you want to disable. Doing so updates the key values to the right. If the icon you double-clicked on has a Show value, double-click on it to display the Edit DWORD Value dialog box.

7. The Value Data value will probably be 2. Replace it with 0 (zero), as shown in Figure B, and click OK.

8. After disabling all the built-in icons that you don’t want to see, exit the Registry Editor.

Figure B

If the built-in icon values don’t include Show, add it as follows:

1. Click on the key that represents the built-in icon you want to disable.

2. Choose New from the Edit menu and select DWORD Value. The Registry will display a new value in the pane to the right. Name it Show and press Enter.

3. Repeat steps 6 and 7 above for each key, accordingly.

The results

When you display the Open or Save As dialog box, the built-in icons will be gone, as you can see in Figure C.

Figure C

Unstable My Places

The My Places user interface isn’t particularly stable, so you might experience problems after adding custom shortcuts or disabling the built-in icons. Usually, you can tell that things have gone awry when the Move Up and Move Down commands are grayed out. If this happens, reboot your system. Sometimes, this clears it up. If it doesn’t, and you want to shuffle your shortcuts, return to the registry and reset the Index values for each key, where 1 shifts an icon to the top, 2 positions an icon just below the first shortcut, and so on. Just remember that the custom shortcuts are in the UserDefinedPlaces key.

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