Sunday, March 23rd, 2014

Easily Paste Web Content into Excel with Destination Formatting

When pasting large data tables from your web browser into an Excel file you’ll probably be displeased to find that they do not match the formatting of the worksheet.

By default Excel will paste the data with the formatting it used on the source web page instead. This is rarely useful, since it’s very unlikely the web page had formatting that is compatible with your document. As you can see in the image above, using the source formatting can result in the inclusion of links, improper font and font size, and a number of other formatting issues.

To make Excel paste the data with destination formatting (i.e. the formatting of the destination Excel worksheet), you’ll need to add a special command to your quick access toolbar. To do this, select File > Options > Quick Access Toolbar. Above the left column, select the Choose commands from dropdown and choose All Commands. Scroll down the list and find Paste and Match Destination Formatting. Select it and click Add, then OK.

Now whenever you wish to paste web data into Excel, click the Paste and Match Destination Formatting button in the Quick Access Toolbar instead of using the standard paste tool. This will result in the data being automatically formatted to match the look of the rest of your worksheet.

Helen Bradley

Helen Bradley

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

Holiday Gift Budget Worksheet

Don’t blow the budget this holiday season!

Our holiday gift buying budget worksheet will help you avoid a Yule tide spending blow out.

In the interests of helping you better control your spending this Holiday Season we have a free spreadsheet download in the form of a Holiday Gift Spending Budget.

Grab this version for Excel 2007/2010/2013 – gotta love the formatting available in those versions.

If you’re stuck in the land of Excel 2003 and earlier (or want to use it in Zoho, Google Docs, OpenOffice.org or anything else that can read Excel files), then grab this plainer but still fully functional version.

The worksheets are protected against wiping out key formulas and entering data in the wrong cells but there’s no password there so you can easily unprotect if you desire.

To use this worksheet, download the one for your Excel version, open it in Excel (or another compatible program), and then, in cell D2 type the amount you can afford  to spend.

Then add entries for family, friends, co-workers and others – determine what you will get them and  how much you are budgeting to spend. At this stage you can see if you are on track or already over budget.

As you buy presents, fill in the actual amount spent and in cell D3 you will see what you still have to spend of your budget amount or if have spent all you have allowed for.

 

 

Helen Bradley

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

More colours in Excel 2003 and earlier

I don’t know why, but there are heaps of colors available in Word for formatting text and lines but only a small subset of colors are available in Excel. Does Microsoft think we don’t like color in Excel?

Unfortunately we can’t specify additional colours for use in Excel workbooks either but we can change the colours that are displayed in the color palette to a mix of what we do like. So, if pink isn’t your thing, you can replace all the pinks with colors you do like and will use.

To do this, in Excel, choose Tools, Options, Color tab and select a color to change. Click Modify to choose a new color in its place. Repeat as desired.

Helen Bradley