Excel Tips
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Formatting Cells in Excel
To quickly bring up the Format, Cells dialog box in Excel, select the cells you need to format and press Ctrl + 1.

Fill Multiple Cells With the Same Information in Excel
If you need to fill a group of cells with the same information, you can first select the cells you want to use and then type the information into one cell. Press Ctrl-Enter, and the data appears in all the selected cells. To enter the data into noncontiguous cells, select the first group of cells, then press and hold the Ctrl key while you select other ranges. When you finish selecting all the ranges, type in your data. For this to work, you simply type your data as soon as you finish selecting cells. Don't click a cell first - this will deselect all your cells.

Working With Excel Grid Lines
If you would like to view your worksheet with colored grid lines, run Excel and open a blank worksheet. Choose Tools, Options and, when the Options dialog box opens, click the View tab. Under Window Options, click the arrow at the right side of the Gridlines Color list box and select a new color. Make sure the check box labeled Gridlines is selected and click OK to close the dialog box and apply your new color.
To put colored lines around all boxes, select the range of cells you want borders on, click the down arrow next to the Border button and choose All Borders.
If you have a color printer and want the gridlines to print in color, go to File, Page Setup and choose the Sheet tab. Check Gridlines under the Print options.

Adjusting the Office XP Task Pane
To adjust the width of the docked task pane in any Office application, move the pointer over the left edge until the pointer changes to a double-sided arrow. Then click the edge, and drag to the desired width. To make the task pane float, double-click its title bar. You can then move it to any position on the page. To return the task pane to its docked position, double-click the title bar again. To adjust the size of a floating task pane, move the pointer over any edge until the pointer changes to a double-sided arrow. Then click the edge, and drag to the desired size.

Excel Gridlines In Color
You can view Excel gridlines in a color other than the default black. To do this, choose Tools, Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the View tab. Click the arrow at the right side of the Gridlines Color list box (lower left-hand corner) to open the color palette and select a color. Click OK to close the dialog box and save your color selection.

Excel Borders
One way to produce a more attractive worksheet in Excel is to put a border around your data, or segments of your data. As an example, open a blank worksheet and type some data into several contiguous cells. Now, select the cells that contain data and choose Format/Cells. When the Format Cells dialog box opens, click the Border tab. Choose a Style. Click the down arrow next to Color and choose a color for your border. Then click on the 'Outline' preset. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply your new border.

Taking Pictures in Excel
Excel allows you to capture "pictures" of your worksheets that you can use in other worksheets. This may sound odd, but it is quite helpful at times. The easiest way to capture pictures is to use the Camera tool. You can customize your toolbar to make the camera tool available. (When you are doing your customizing, the Camera tool is available on the Commands tab in the Tools section.) With the Camera tool in place, follow these steps:

1. Select the cells or range of which you want a picture taken.
2. Click on the Camera tool. The mouse pointer changes to a large plus sign.
3. Change to a different worksheet.
4. Click where you want the top left-hand corner of the picture to appear. The picture is inserted as a graphic on the worksheet.

Now you can manipulate the picture the same as you would any other graphic--stretch it, resize it, crop it, move it, or whatever. The really neat thing, however, is that the picture is dynamic. This means that if you change the information in the original range (that you selected in step 1), then the information in the picture changes as well.

Viewing Whole Menus in Office Programs
If you have to click on the double arrows located at the bottom of the menus in Office programs to see all of the options, there is a faster way to view the whole menu. If you double-click the menu name, it will expand to show all of the items.

Undo Excel Cell Change
If you are working in Excel and accidentally change the contents of the wrong cell, you can Undo to put it back. But, if you're still in the cell and the accidental changes aren't complete you could use a one-button solution. Press the Esc key. You should find that whatever changes you were in the process of making are gone and that the cell has been returned to its original content.

Add a Row or Column in Excel
To add rows or columns, first select a row or column on your worksheet. Then press Ctrl + Shift + +(the plus sign) as many times as the number of rows or columns you wish to insert. Rows will be inserted above the selected row. Columns will be inserted to the left of the selected column.

Excel Cell Formatting Trick
To quickly access the Format Cells window, use the key combination of Ctrl + 1. This opens the Format Cells dialog box.

Insert Date/Time in Excel
Current date: Press Ctrl + ; (semicolon)
Current time: Press Ctrl + Shift + ; (semicolon)

Enter a Line Break Within a Cell
You can control the line breaks for multiple-line headings or labels in your Excel worksheet.

1. Click the cell where you want the label or heading to appear.
2. Type the first line of information.
3. Press Alt + Enter.
4. Type the second line. Then repeat step 3 if you have additional lines to enter.
5. Press Enter when you've finished typing.

Quickly Clear All Spreadsheet Formatting
To quickly clear all formatting in your Excel spreadsheet, click any cell in the spreadsheet and then press Ctrl + A to select all cells in the worksheet. On the Edit menu, go to Clear, and then click Formats.

Moving Backwards in Excel
After you have pressed the Enter key, you may want to move back up to change something in the cell. Shift + Enter will move your selection up instead of down. The Tab key works the same way. Tab moves across the row, Shift + Tab moves your selection backwards.

Resizing Columns in Excel
A quick way to adjust a column to fit the longest entry is to move your mouse pointer over the column heading to the right-side border. (The little vertical line between the letters.) Then double-click. The column should be resized to fit the largest entry. To use this trick with multiple columns, select all the columns to change and double-click on the right side of a selected column header.

Hide Whole Worksheets in Excel
You can hide Excel worksheets to reduce the number of sheets on the screen and to prevent unwanted changes. When you hide parts of a workbook, the data disappears from view but is not deleted from the workbook. Select the sheets you want to hide by holding the Shift key down while you click on the sheets. Go to Format, Sheet, and click Hide. To view the sheets again, go to Format, Sheet, and click Unhide. A box will come up asking you which sheets you wish to unhide.

Color-Code Your Excel Sheet Tabs
In Excel XP, you can color-code sheet tabs for easier identification or grouping of related sheets. Select the sheets you want to color by clicking on the tab. Go to Format, Sheet, and click Tab Color. Chose your color and click OK. You can also right-click the sheet tab and then click Tab Color.

AutoFill In Excel
If you want to enter a series beginning with 1 and you drag the AutoFill handle on the cell with the number 1, you'll end up with nothing but ones, unless you know the trick. Hold down the Ctrl key while you click and drag the AutoFill handle. You'll get 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. If you drag down without using the Ctrl key, you'll get 1, 1, 1, 1, etc.

Printing Excel Worksheets
You can choose to print certain sheets from your Excel workbook. Hold down the Ctrl key while you click the desired sheet tab names. Then just print as usual.