Tip of the Week

Tip 0

Displaying formulas in Excel

Useful tip for students to display their formulae view of a spreadsheet is to open excel worksheet and hold down ctrl and funny key on left hand side above the tab key with ¬ ` symbols on it (don't know it's technical name) then release both and the formulae will stay.  You can then ctrl A and copy entire sheet, open a new worksheet and ctrl V to paste it onto it.  This way you can show both examples without using unreadable screen shot trick.

 To resolve this click on the view as  webpage ( top right of the active window)and all should appear.

Tip 2

Open Excel Powerpoint and Word on your PC

Hold down  the Alt  and tab key ( on the keyboard)

This Cycles through all open applications. Pres Tab to advance to the next one and release both keys to switch to the selected application

Tip 3

EXCEL- Fitting your printout onto a specific number of sheets of paper.

From the File menu, choose Page Setup and then you can select theFit To option and choose how many pages wide by how many pages tall you would like it.

You can also select portrait  or landscape  from here.

Tip 4

Basic Keyboard Shortcuts

Using the Control Key (bottom left on the keyboard) with a combination of these letters will cut down the  use of  pull down menus and icons. Selecting and editing can also  be used in file management also.( see Tip 10)


Selecting and Editing

Ctrl-A: Select All
Ctrl-C: Copy
Ctrl-V: Paste
Ctrl-X: Cut

Font Style

Ctrl-B: Bold
Ctrl-I: Italic
Ctrl-U: Underline

Tip 5

e-Register in Excel

How to put a tick or a cross into a cell

Change the font in that cell to Wingdings 2, then type capital P for a tick or capital O for a cross (i.e. shift-P or shift-O).

For more crosses or ticks drag the cell across or down.

Tip 6

Creating a screen shot



To take a photograph of the screen press Prt Sc (or Print Screen) on the keyboard. Open Word or Powerpoint and press Ctrl-V:(Tip 4)  to Paste.

Tip 7

How to change text size settings in the internet

Tip 12

Wild Card search for files

 

When doing a search you can use an asterisk (*) in place of letters or numbers.

This is called a "wild card".

Let's say you're looking for a file that starts with "ran" but aren't sure what the rest of the name is. Just type in...

ran*

All files of any type that begin with "ran" will be found such as "random.doc" or "rand.exe".

Say you know that your file is a Word dococument. Then type in "ran*.doc".

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Tip 13

Sum Function in  Excel With Just 2 Keys

Many of us are familiar with the AutoSum (Greek Sigma icon) button in MS Excel.

Those of you who prefer to use the keyboard for everything may be wondering if there's an equivalent shortcut to use.

Select the cell below your column of data.

Now simply use Alt + =

The formula to sum the column of data is inserted with the cell references in place, just as if you'd actually clicked the AutoSum button.

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Tip 14


Checking the contents of the Recycle Bin

Not sure what you have deleted?

Right-click the Recycle bin icon (Not available on College Network) and choose Open to see the contents before you delete it.

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Tip 15

Arranging icons on the Desktop

Do you have icons scattered all over and would like to organize them?

Right-click the Desktop and select "Arrange Icons". You'll be presented with a sub-menu that has icon arrangement options. I personally use the "By Type" option, since I have many different icon program types residing on my desktop.

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Tip 16

Word Definitions



Need a quick definition of a word? Just use Google! Simply type in:

define: YOUR WORD HERE

For example, if you want to define the word Ambidextrous, you'd put in:

define: Ambidextrous

Click Search and you'll get a variety of definitions from various sources.

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Tip 16

Highlighting Text


Are you having trouble when you try to highlight text? Put your cursor at the point where you want to start highlighting (selecting) the text.

Then hold down your SHIFT key and use your up / down arrows. You'll find when you hold down an arrow that the text scrolls (and highlights) by at a much more manageable rate.

 

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Tip 17

Saving your  Web Favorites

Here's a simple way to save all of your favorites. In Internet Explorer, go to File and click the Import/Export option. The Wizard window will appear . Choose Export Favorites and click Next.

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Tip 18

Case Changing 

In Word, change the case of text by highlighting it and pressing shift+f3. This will cycle through three variations.

eg

GLASGOW RANGERS, glasgow rangers and Glasgow Rangers.

If you are working in Excel copy and paste the data into Word and then paste back.

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Tip 19

Quick Printing
 

Need to print a recently used document?
 
Don't waste time opening up the application you created it in.
 

Right-click the document you want and select Print from the drop down menu.

Tip 20

Forward and Back slashes (/)

Ever get those slashes mixed up?

You do use them quite often, so it would be helpful to have an easy way to remember the difference between them, wouldn't it?

Well, a forward slash is / and a backslash is .

An easy way to remember is that the name tells you which direction the top of the slash points.

Forward slashes tell your computer you're looking for something external to your system, like Web pages. Backslashes tell your computer you're looking for something inside your system, like a drive or a file.

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Tip 20

Start Menu



Here's another little keyboard trick.If you are in a hurry to start up a program and you don't feel like using  your mouse, just hit CTRL + ESC to open your Start menu.

Tip 21

Internet Browser shortcuts

There are several Internet Browser shortcuts, but here are a few that you might use more often than others:

ALT + Home = Homepage
ALT + Left Arrow = Back to the previous page
ALT + Right Arrow = Forward to the next page
ALT + Up Arrow = Scroll page up
ALT + Down Arrow = Scroll page down

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Tip 22

Do you get annoyed when, every time you use a tool (eg drawing an arrow) from the Draw toolbar, Word draws a large box first? 

It's called the Drawing Canvas and is unnecessary for most purposes - get rid of it like this:

In Word, click on Tools/Options and click on the General tab

Click on the bottom checkbox to uncheck  the option and OK.

Tip 23



Avoiding the Recycle Bin ( Be careful though!)

To take the process down to one easy step, simply highlight the item you want to delete and hit Shift + Delete.  In one step, the item is gone from your computer for good! Just keep in mind that this removal tip is permanent, so be sure that you'll never want it back.

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Tip 24

Menu Key

This is the  Menu Key.When you press it, it opens up a drop down menu for whatever program you're in. The menu includes all the information you would see if you right clicked, so  you could also call it the Right-Click Key.

 

Next time you're typing away and need an edit menu or some other feature that you normally right-click to get, use the Menu Key.

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Tip 25

Changing your Homepage
 

If you want to change your homepage (you can only do this in your own PC at home due to restrictions), simply find the website that you want to make home and in the address bar drag the little e –over to the homepage icon in Internet explorer.

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Tip 26

F4:

There are several uses for the F4 function located on your keyboard. First of all, you can use it to close any open applications. Just make sure the program you want to close is selected, press Alt+F4 and that window will automatically close. Now, if you're using one single application that has many different documents within it, press Ctrl+F4 and just that one window will close instead of the whole program.

You can also use F4 to shut down your computer. Make sure all of your programs are closed and press Alt+F4. That will bring up the "Turn off computer" box and you can proceed with the normal shut down. Pressing Alt + F4 is the same as Start, Turn off computer.

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Tip 27: Web Query In Excel

Click on the file below to keep up to date on the World Cup by using Excel to absorb data from the web.

Setting up a web query

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