Carol Bratt

A reader asked if there was any formula in Excel that would convert a date shown in the European format of day-month-year to the U.S. version of month-day-year. Technically, it may not be necessary to do this. Excel maintains dates as numeric values ... and displays them using various formats. If the dates are numeric values in your worksheet, then you can simply change the format and the dates will be displayed in the U.S. format. The day you see in a worksheet could instead be a text value rather than a numeric value. To see if the date is truly an Excel date or text value, you can change the ... (view more)

Sometimes, even though you have beautiful graphics in your PowerPoint presentation, a voice explaining a principle can be so much better. People learn in different ways. Some folks are more visual than others and some learn better by hearing someone ... explain something to them and others learn best by seeing AND hearing. If you can record it, you can include it in your presentation. To record a single message or unique sound, follow the steps below: Click on Insert | Record Sound. In version 2007, you can find this option in the Sound options drop-down list, found in the Media Clips group on ... (view more)

At times, it can be a real problem when an URL is entered into a cell and MS Excel automatically creates a clickable hyperlink. There may be times when you would like to disable that particular feature. Preventing the automatic creation of ... hyperlinks can be accomplished by three different methods. Follow the steps below to learn how:From version 2000 forward, the automatic creation of hyperlinks can be disabled by reconfiguring the AutoCorrect settings by following these steps: Click on Tools | AutoCorrect. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Under Replace As You Type, uncheck Internet And ... (view more)

The default in the MS Outlook Calendar is to display all of the days of the week for you. For whatever reason, however, not everyone wants to see those days in their calendars. And sometimes they get a little cranky about having to look at them ... every single day . Turns out it is easier than you would have thought to change all that! We don't need anymore crankiness in the world now do we? Follow the steps below: First, launch MS Excel and open the Calendar. Secondly, click on File | View. Select Work Week. Notice the difference in the screen in front of you since you selected Work Week View. ... (view more)

Most of you are familiar with the AutoSum feature in MS Excel and find it very handy indeed. All you have to do is click that icon on your toolbar and bingo! your formula for the sum of a data range is located just above whatever cell you have ... selected. I know that there are lots of folks out there like me who prefer to use the keyboard as much as they can because we like fewer keystrokes and saving time! So if you are one of those folks, here is another quick and easy way to sum in MS Excel.Select the cell below your column of data Then simply click ALT + = (Alt, plus the equal sign). Ta-da ... (view more)

Have you ever printed out your presentation with your black and white printer only to be very nonplussed about the way it looks? Your beautiful color slides that took you so long to get to perfection now look very blah and nobody warned you about ... that! Well take heart, there is a quick and easy way to view exactly how your slides will look when you print them, thereby saving time and ink by previewing them. To preview your MS PowerPoint presentation in gray scale, follow the steps below: Click on View | Color/Grayscale. Select Grayscale. Your presentation will immediately change to grayscale ... (view more)

If you use the Find feature in MS Word, you know how very helpful it can be, but if you keep trying to find the same word or phrase multiple times, you most likely have found, as I have, that the Find window sometimes is in your way and you have to ... move it to get a good look. A lot of folks that I have spoken to about this have said that they find it much easier to just leave that Find window open and hitting Find Next rather than to keep opening the window. That is true, but there is an easier solution that you can use! Follow the steps below:Click on Edit | Find (or use the quick key ... (view more)

I am sure that a lot of my readers have no idea what the lowly F4 key will do for them in MS Outlook. So I feel the need to educate you as to what this little key can actually do for you. I think you will see that it is quite a little performer! Try ... the two features below and you will become a believer:CTRL + F4 will close a file. ALT + F4 will close the program. Perhaps some of you have, in the past, tried CTRL + F4 when you h ad an email or appointment open and alas and alack -- nothing happened. In MS Outlook, you use ALT + F4 to close a currently open item. It will not close the entire ... (view more)

Have you noticed that when you try to close MS Excel 2007 by clicking the little red 'x' in the upper right-hand corner that it just closes the workbook but not the application? Well, you aren't the only one who has been aggravated by having to ... click the red x twice to actually close the application. I have researched this behavior and have found out that this phenomenon usually occurs when you are using hidden workbooks or have a hidden workbook open. If all of your open workbooks are unhidden, you don't seem to have a problem using the quick method of clicking the red x. So, once again, I ... (view more)

Many times, in an office setting, you have an Excel spreadsheet that has to be sent to different departments on a weekly basis. Even if you have a distribution list setup in MS Outlook, it still takes some time to setup your e-mail and proof it ... before sending it out. Why not let MS Excel do it for you? Follow the steps below to lighten your workload: Launch MS Excel if it is not already open. Open the workbook containing the report you want to send. Click ALT + F11. The Visual Basic Editor will open. In the Project-VBA Project pane, double-click ThisWorkbook. Go to Insert | Procedure. Click ... (view more)