Carol Bratt

When you have a list of numbers and you want to show totals, you don't need to start Windows' built-in Calculator to total them. MS Word can calculate totals and averages and do other simple calculations. If the numbers change, you'll need to update ... the calculations, though. Place the insertion point in a blank cell below or to the right of the numbers you want to total. To do so: Click the AutoSum (looks like a sideways letter M) button on the Tables and Borders toolbar to calculate totals automatically. Choose Table | Formula to make other types of calculations instead. This reveals the ... (view more)

You can sort a table in either ascending or descending order. You don't have to select the table before you sort -- the entire table is automatically reordered when you use either of these methods. Click a toolbar button: Place the insertion point I ... n the column you want to sort. Click the Sort Ascending or Sort Descending button on the Tables and Borders toolbar to sort the data in ascending (A-Z, 0-9) or descending (Z-A, 9-0) order. Use the Sort dialog box: To sort more than one column, such as when you want to alphabetize by last name and then by first name, follow the steps below: Choose ... (view more)

Even though most of you know how to format text in a Word document, MS Word allows you to handle text in tables in two neat ways. First, within the cell of a table, you can specify not only whether you want text left aligned, centered, right ... aligned, or justified. You can also have text centered vertically within the cell or rest on the bottom edge of the cell. You can even rotate the text in a cell to vertical, like a title on the spine of a book! You will want to use the alignment feature often with your tables. For example, when the content of one cell is short and the adjacent cell is ... (view more)

Tables are often used to convey sets of numbers, whether times, dates, dollars, or quantities. Even with Table AutoFormat in MS Word, displaying numbers properly is not always easy. For example, you have to be sure to align a column of numbers on ... their decimal points. You may want to sort items in ascending (A-Z, 0-9) or descending order (A-A, 9-0). Also, if you have numbers totaled, you want to be sure to display the correct total, even if you change the figures. Numbers often give the heart of the message in a concise, exact way. Using tables to display figures is a good idea, because the ... (view more)

Just imagine how much trouble you would go to in order to add all the font, color, borders, and shading formatting to a complex table. MS Word has made this process a lot easier for you by grouping together a number of attractive formats that you ... can add all at one time. To do this, you can use the Table AutoFormat feature. To avail yourself of the Table AutoFormat feature, follow the steps below: With the insertion point anywhere in the table, choose Table | Table AutoFormat. Scroll through the list and click a pre-designed format to preview its effect. Select or clear the check boxes to use ... (view more)

To use one of the fill effects options, choose Format | Background, click the drop-down list, and then click Fill Effects. When the dialog box appears, you can choose between four possible background types. To apply a gradient background, follow the ... steps below: Click the Gradient tab. The Fill Effects dialog box now includes the options that are available for applying a gradient background. You can now select one of the options that are described after step 2. After you have chosen a fill option for your presentation, click OK to return to the Background dialog box. From there, you can: ... (view more)

To select a solid background color in your presentation, follow these steps: Choose Format | Background to open the Background dialog box. Click the Background fill drop-down list to continue. Select one of the visible colors (colors associated with ... the presentation's color scheme), or click More Colors to pick a color from the standard palette or to create your own custom shade. After you have selected a color, you can click Preview to see what it will look like when applied to your slides. Click OK and Apply to apply to one slide, or click Apply to All to use throughout the presentation. As ... (view more)

One way to alter the look of your visual aids in an MS PowerPoint 2000 presentation is to change the color scheme. The color scheme determines what colors are assigned to eight specific slide characteristics (such as fonts, backgrounds and bullets). ... Each template, even the blank presentation, comes with a set of color schemes -- the default that materializes as soon as you apply it plus several others. These predefined schemes have been specially selected to include colors that not only look good together, but that also supply a sense of balance. Still, you can choose to modify the existing ... (view more)

You don't have to wait until you've finished entering the contents of your slide show to add color; you can incorporate a template on your first slide. To begin a new presentation with a design template, use one of the following methods: From the ... opening dialog box, choose Design Template and click OK. Choose File | New, and then click the Design Templates tab in the New Presentation dialog box. When the dialog box appears, follow these steps: Click the template's name to select it or to preview its appearance. Click OK to apply the selected template. As soon as you complete step 1, the New ... (view more)

Brighten it up! You can adjust the color and spacing of your data markers to organize and codify your Excel charts. This explanation will show you how easily you can make the data easy on the eyes, too. When an Excel Chart Wizard charts a single ... data series in a bar or column chart, all data markers have the same default color. This can be hard to read, especially if there are a lot of points in the series. You could click on each data marker individually and change its color, or you could have Excel change them all for you. Follow these steps: Select the chart, then click on the data series ... (view more)