Inserting Images in Word

In recent implementations of Word they broke the image insertion tool. When you insert an image it comes in as "Inline with text" which means it won't move, it breaks up lines and, in general, looks awful.

Luckily it's fixable and permanently so. To do this, choose Tools, Options, Edit tab. From the Insert/Paste pictures as dropdown list choose something like Square or In front of Text (in fact anything other than In line with text). Click Ok and the change will be permanent. Although you can, of course, always change the setting for any inserted image if you really do want to put it inline with text by selecting the option from the Picture toolbar on an image by image basis. My bet is you won't ever do it though!

Automatic Excel cell entries

We all love to save time and here's a great tip to make repetitive cell entries in Excel just so much easier to complete.

You do this by making a drop-down list in a cell so you can select your entry from it rather than having to type it fresh each time.

To do this:

1. Type the list of items to use in a single column in a spare sheet in the workbook.
   
2. Select these cells and choose Insert, Name, Define and type DataForList and click Ok.
   
3. Move to the sheet where the data goes, select the cells for the drop-down list and choose Data, Validation, Settings tab. From the Allow list choose List and, in the Source area, type =DataForList and click Ok.

Now, whenever you click a cell in this range you’ll see a list box indicator appear and you can choose the cell entry from the list.