Align anything in Word

When you want to make sure everything on a Word page lines up properly, display the gridlines.

To do this, first display the Drawing toolbar then choose Draw, Grid and choose the Display gridlines on screen checkbox. Set the Use Margins option to start the grid aligned on the left and top margins. Set the value to 1 for small squares and to 2 or 3 for a larger grid.

If you select the Snap Objects to Grid checkbox all objects will automatically line up against the grid.

If you don't want this to be the case, press the Alt key as you drag an object and it will be freed from snapping to align to the grid.

Snap an Excel range

Take a picture of a range in Excel to insert into Word as a picture or to place as an image in another area on a workbook. To do this, first select the area to snap and hold Shift as you open the Edit menu. Choose Copy Picture, select As shown on screen or As shown when printed and click Ok.

You can now paste the image wherever you desire. This Shift + Edit menu option also works for copying a clip art or other type of image inserted into an Excel workbook.

Random numbers in Excel

When you’re testing a workbook it is handy to be able to fill a set of cells with a sample value. The Randbetween function included in the Analysis Tookpak does this for you.

To enable this, choose Tools, Add-Ins and enable the checkbox for the Analysis Toolpak. Now write the function, for example, this provides a random number between 1 and 100 (including both numbers):

=randbetween(1,100)

Copy it to all the cells to fill. To fix the values so they don’t change each time something in the worksheet changes, select the cells with the formula, choose Edit, Copy then Edit, Paste Special, Values.

Quick Calculations in Word
Older versions of Word included a Calculate option on the Tools menu which let you make quick calculations.

You can add it back into later versions of Word by right clicking any toolbar and choose Customize. Select the Commands tab and, from the Categories list choose All Commands and scroll the Commands list to locate ToolsCalculate. Drag this onto the Tools menu and hold your mouse there until the menu opens and then drop the option into place. If desired, right click it and remove the word Tools from its name so it simply reads Calculate.

Now test it by typing some values eg 24, 25 & 26 and select them. Choose Tools, Calculate and the status bar will display "The result of the calculation is 75".

If you later click Control + V you will paste the result of the calculation (75) into your document.

To sum a column of numbers, hold Alt as you drag over the column with your mouse then choose Tools, Calculate. It also works inside tables and you can type a more detailed calculations such as 25*25 and it will calculate the result for you (answer: 625)

Snap a range
It's possible to take a picture of a range in Excel to insert into Word as a picture or to place as an image in another area on a workbook. To do this, first select the area to snap and hold Shift as you open the Edit menu. Choose Copy Picture, select As shown on screen or As shown when printed and click Ok.

You can now paste the image wherever you desire. This Shift + Edit menu option also works for copying a clip art or other type of image inserted into an Excel workbook.

Use this technique to print data from two Excel sheets on the one sheet of paper, something that's notoriously difficult to do otherwise - regardless of the fact that it's a feature we'd all love to have!

Edit Photo Metadata in Windows XP

Microsoft has a new tool called Microsoft Photo Info which is an add-in for Microsoft Windows. It lets you add, change and delete common metadata properties in your digital photographs and, it works from inside Windows Explorer.

You can edit images individually, or as a group and the program will recall recent entries such as Location, to save you retyping them. If your camera's clock was wrong, you can change the time of the image and view common EXIF properties.

The program supports JPEG, TIFF, WDP, HDP (HD Photo), NEF, CR2, and CRW1 files.

Find it for download at: PhotoInfo

Better looking publications in Word
When you're preparing newsletters, company reports and other formal documents in Word you will find that they'll look more professional if you condense your fonts slightly. Even a reduction as small as .3 points changes the look of the font significantly.

To do this, select the text to alter and choose Format, Font, Character Spacing tab and set the Spacing to Condensed and the By value to, say, .3 points. Print a paragraph at various values to find a value that is pleasing to your eye.

You can create a toolbar button to make it easier to set this condensed value in future. Right click any toolbar and choose Customize then select the Commands tab and, from the Categories list choose All Commands. Scroll to locate the Condensed: item and click it.

At the foot of the dialog a box appears from which you can select a point size to adjust to, for example, choose 0.3 pt and then drag the Condensed option onto the toolbar and close the Customize dialog. In future to condense your type, select it and click your toolbar button.

Color code your Outlook 2003 appointments
Make the appointments in your calendar stand out by color coding them. For example, show personal appointments as one color, meetings as another and blocked out time in the office as another.

To do this, click the Calendar and select the Calendar Coloring button on the Standard toolbar.

Choose Edit Labels and, opposite each color make sure the descriptions for the types of appointments you want to use are entered.

To color code an appointment click the Label drop-down menu and choose the color to use.

Check for Duplicates in an Excel List
To check an Exel list for duplicate entries, first select the list and name it using Insert, Name, Define and call it ListToCheck.

Now, select the list (and, assuming the list starts in cell A2), choose Format, Conditional formatting and type Formula Is and then
=Countif(ListToCheck,A2)>1

Then click Format to apply a format and click Ok.

Now each cell containing a duplicate entry will be formatted so you'll see it clearly.

Finding messages in Outlook
When you repeatedly perform a search to find messages matching a particular criteria, create a Search Folder so matching messages will be stored and updated permanently.

To do this, in Outlook 2003, locate the Search Folder entry in the folders list, right click and choose New Search Folder.

Configure the criteria such as mail from someone or including some particular word and click Ok.

At any time, open the folder to read matching messages.

AutoFormat an Excel cell

This Excel 2003 macro formats a cell depending on its contents when you type something in it. If you type a number, or a formula that returns a number, it is formatted one way, if you type a date it is formatted another way and if you type a word it is formatted a different way.

The macro uses the OnEntry event which fires whenever something is entered into a cell. Attach the macro to an Auto_Open macro to ensure it is run whenever the workbook is opened.

To create this, choose Tools, Macro, Visual Basic Editor and, choose Insert, Module to add a module to the current worksheet then type the code into it.

Back in Excel choose Tools, Macro, Auto_open to run the macro the first time to test it. Provided you have Excel configured to run macros, it will run automatically every time you open the workbook in future.

Sub Auto_Open()
ActiveSheet.OnEntry = "formatCell"
End Sub

Sub formatCell()
If IsNumeric(ActiveCell) Then
ActiveCell.Font.Name = "Verdana"
ActiveCell.Font.Size = 12
ActiveCell.Font.ColorIndex = 46
ElseIf IsDate(ActiveCell) Then
ActiveCell.Font.Name = "Verdana"
ActiveCell.Font.Size = 10
ActiveCell.Font.ColorIndex = 50
Else
ActiveCell.Font.Name = "Times New Roman"
ActiveCell.Font.Size = 12
ActiveCell.Font.ColorIndex = 5
End If
End Sub

Sub Auto_Close()
ActiveSheet.OnEntry = ""
End Sub

Smarter replacement in Word 2003

It is possible to use Word's search and replace option to add text to the search text.

To do this, choose Edit, Replace and, in the Find What box type the text to locate. In the Replace with box type the text to add to the text you're searching for and use ^& to refer to the search text.

For example, to replace Sydney with Sydney, NSW search for Sydney and replace with ^&, NSW.

Archiving messages in Outlook 2003

To ensure your Outlook .pst file stays trim and doesn’t get bloated with old and outdated emails, configure its AutoArchive options so that older messages are automatically removed or filed away.

To do this, right click the folder to archive and choose Properties, AutoArchive tab and select the Archive this folder using these settings option. Now enable the Clean out items older than and set the appropriate time period. Only select to Permanently delete old items if you really don’t want them saved. Enable, instead, Move old items to default archive folder and Click Apply.

If you haven’t got AutoArchive configured to run periodically, you’ll get a warning to this effect and Outlook will set it to 14 days by default. You can change the timing by choosing Tools, Options, Other, AutoArchive.

Now, every 14 days (or when you specify), AutoArchive will run and the old items will be moved to your archive folder. Your archive file will appear in your folders list so you can drag and drop messages from it back into your regular Outlook folder if there are archived messages you need to refer to.