MS Office Tips & Tricks

Quick Graphs in Excel 2007

If you have data in an Excel spreadsheet which you want to represent in a graph, just select any cell containing the data and press the F11 key. Right-click on the graph border to change the graph type, location or data.

Format Painter functions using keystrokes
The Format Painter tool is frequently used when
consistent formatting is need in a document. You can perform this function using key combinations too. Just select the format required, press Ctrl + Shift + C. Then press Ctrl+ Shift+ V to copy the formatting to the desired location.

Fast find-next in Word
The Find function is commonly used in Word to look for just about anything in a document and Find Next takes you to multiple locations of the search item. But, in this method, the Find dialog box obscures a part of the document view. To avoid this, press Esc at the first occurrence and use Shift + F4 repeatedly to move to next occurrences. Get rid of the annoying Find dialog box and look at a clear page!

Deleting words in a jiffy
Are you tired of pressing the Delete or Backspace key for deleting every character? Just hold down the ‘Ctrl’ key to speed up the process. Ctrl + Del deletes word by word from the right of cursor point, while Ctrl + Backspace deletes word by word from the left. So if you want to delete three words from the right, press Ctrl + Del thrice!

On screen Word Count
If you want to keep a count of things while working, you can use the Word Count toolbar. This is available in Word 2002 and 2003. Instead of going to the Word Count command each time, check Show Toolbar in the Word Count dialog box to view the count of words, lines and pages you want to count. Click Recount whenever you want the latest score!

Calculations in Word

Have you ever thought that you could calculate in Word? Well, there is a neat trick to make Word calculate simple expressions like 28*12-6 =?
For this go to Customize in Tools and click on the Command tab. Then select Tools from the list of Categories and choose Tools, and then Tools Calculate in the Commands: list box on the right. Now drag and drop the Tools Calculate command from the dialog box to any place in the toolbar space. Click on close to dismiss the Customize dialog box. The tool will appear grayed out till you select an expression to calculate. To see the result of an expression as above, highlight it, and click on Tools Calculate and voila! The answer is in the status bar.

Write Equations in Word
Writing the symbols to denote sigmas, deltas, gammas, greater than or equal to, and other mathematical signs, you can use the Equation Editor in Word, provided it has been installed with Word. To bring the Equation Editor toolbar in Word, click on Customize in the Tools menu. Click on the Command Tab. Select Insert from the left hand side list, and pick Equation Editor from the right-hand one. This puts the Equation Editor icon in the toolbar. Click on it to start writing equations.