30 May 2004

Sorting in Excel Sorting by a single column in Outlook is a simple matter of clicking on the column head. Sorting by multiple columns, however, is not so obvious. But it's actually quite easy. First, sort by the first criterion, such as From, by clicking on the column head. Then hold the Shift key down as you click on a second heading, such as Received. Your messages will be sorted primarily by sender, and all the messages from each sender will be ordered chronologically. You can even add additional columns to sort by. Outlook will sort your messages by each additional criterion within the earlier criteria to give you a multicolumn sort. 1:15:44 AM      comment [] Lists in Excel In earlier versions of Excel, it was difficult to create a chart that expands when data is added to the end of one or more of the series. Excel 2003's List feature solves this problem. To designate a data area as a list, click in a cell in the soon-to-be list, and choose Data | List | Create List. Then create your chart using the list data. Now, whenever you add new data to your list, the data area plotted by the chart expands automatically to include it. Lists are good for other things as well, they can be published, maintained and synchronised with Windows SharePoint Services lists.  So its a good idea to get into the habit of using them whenever you can. 1:12:06 AM      comment [] Split window in Word Are you worried about the consistency of your introduction and conclusion? A spectacular yet underused feature is Word's ability to display two different parts of a document at the same time. To do this, you can either select the Split option from the Window menu to display a dividing line in the current window. Alternatively, you can drag down the tiny divider tool at the top of the right scroll bar. You can navigate to different parts of the document in each pane and use F6 to jump between them. 1:07:04 AM      comment [] Compare documents In Word 2003, you can compare documents side by side. Open two documents. Then, from the Window menu of one of them, select the Compare Side By Side command. If you have only two documents open, the command will automatically choose to compare them. If you have three or more documents open, you'll have to select which document to compare with the current file. A floating toolbar with two buttons will open. If the button on the left is selected, Word will scroll both documents at the same time. Press the button on the right side of the toolbar to return to where the cursor was located when you started comparing. 12:42:00 AM      comment [] Calculator in Word Did you know you can add a calculator to Word's toolbars or menus? Go to View | Toolbars | Customize and choose the Commands tab. In the list of categories, go to Tools, select Tools Calculate in the list of commands, and drag it to a toolbar or drop-down menu. After you drop the command on the toolbar or menu, immediately right-click on the command, choose Change Button Image from the pop-up menu, and choose the calculator icon. You can use the same pop-up menu to specify whether to display text, an icon, or both in the toolbar. Now, type a simple calculation (try 2 + 2) in a Word document, highlight it, and click on the new icon or menu item. To replace the calculation with the result, just press Ctrl-V. Before you press Ctrl-V, note that the result appears in the status line at the bottom of the window. 12:39:55 AM      comment [] Lines in word You can create a line across the page of your Word or Outlook document with just a few keystrokes. Type three consecutive hyphens and press Enter to get a normal line. Type three underscores and Enter, and you'll get a bold line. And if you type three equal signs and press Enter, you'll get a double line. 12:38:27 AM      comment [] Zoom in and out with your scroll wheel You can use the scroll button on your mouse to zoom in and out of documents quickly. Just hold down the Ctrl key and roll the scroll wheel forward to get a closer view of the document, or roll it back to shrink it. 12:34:04 AM      comment [] Moving paragraphs Do you need to swap the second and third paragraphs in the document you're working on? Don't waste time dragging text around within your document using the mouse. Just click on the paragraph you'd like to move, hold down Shift-Alt, and move the paragraph up or down using the arrow keys. Each press of the arrow key causes the selected paragraph to jump over one adjacent paragraph. 12:32:39 AM      comment [] Preview slide show whilst editing For a quick preview of a slide show while you're editing a presentation, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on View Show in the Slide Show menu. Instead of launching in full-screen mode, the presentation, starting with the current slide, will appear in a small window atop the slide being edited. To edit the slide and see your changes in real time, resize the PowerPoint window so the preview slide is in view. Any modifications you make will instantly appear in the preview window. If you have two monitors it appears that the slide show has to be on your primary, but no problem, just move your editing window to your secondary. 12:31:21 AM      comment []

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