Carol Bratt

When you make a small mistake in entering data in a cell using MS Excel, you can easily retype, but if you make a larger error, such as clearing cells by mistake, you need to use the Undo feature. Undo brings back the information that you thought ... was gone. Excel keeps a record of changes you make to your worksheet, and you can choose to undo the last one -- or as many as you want -- in reverse order. Then if you change your mind and want to do the changes again, you can simply use Redo. Undo only works on changes that you've made during the current session, so you can't undo procedures if you ... (view more)

After your document is finally finished and formatted just the way you wanted, you often have to send it to another person who is collaborating with you on the document. When it comes back to you, sometimes it doesn't have the same formatting as ... when you last saved it. If a document comes to you single spaced with no line spacing between the paragraphs, rather than clicking at the end of each paragraph and pressing [Enter], you can add line spacing to the entire document in two easy steps: Press Ctrl+A. Press Ctrl+0 (zero). MS Word adds a 12-point line space before each paragraph, which is ... (view more)

A vCard presents contact information as an electronic business card that can be sent via e-mail. vCards are based on an open standard, allowing any application that supports vCards to share contact information. In addition to sending a vCard as an ... attachment, you can also include it with your message signature. When you receive a message with a vCard attached, a paper clip icon appears in the preview pane to indicate the attachment. Use one of the following methods to add the data in the vCard as a contact entry: From the preview pane, select the paper clip icon and click the filename that ... (view more)

You can create a budget in MS Excel and track your expenses. To make your budget more readable, you must format it, or change its appearance. To do this, you can click buttons on the Formatting toolbar. If you've used Word or PowerPoint, several of ... these buttons are already familiar to you. You can: Widen columns so that all the text appears. Add dollar signs to help the reader know you are talking about money, and add commas to make it easy to read numbers over 1,000. Make some headings stand out by making them bold or italic, and separate numbers from the total by underlining. The ... (view more)

When you have a picture selected, you can use buttons on the Picture toolbar to change it from color to black and white and adjust the contrast and brightness. Click the Image Control button and choose Grayscale, Black ... (view more)

There are plenty of tools you can rely on to perform sophisticated or complex calculations, but MS Word offers a command that can be handy when you just need to sum a few numbers without opening another software application. The command is Tools | ... Calculate, and although it doesn't appear on any toolbars, it's very easy to add. Choose Tools | Customize (or double-click an empty spot on any tool bar) to open the Customize dialog box. Click the Commands tab and choose All Commands from the Categories list box. Click in the Commands list box and scroll down to select ToolsCalculate Drag the ... (view more)

Have you noticed wavy red or green underlines under certain words in a document? That's the sign that MS Word's automatic spelling checker (red) and grammar checker (green) are at work. MS Word has flagged these items as possible mistakes, allowing ... you to see at a glance where possible errors are. Office has an extensive dictionary against which it checks all the words in your document. Whenever it finds a word that is not in its dictionary, it flags the word with a red wavy underline. Proofreading a document is time-consuming, and it's easy to miss finding mistakes in your own writing. ... (view more)

Rather than just pasting raw numbers into a table, you can embed a worksheet into a document. Embedding retains the formulas that ride behind your numbers and all the functionality of Excel. You can create an Excel worksheet from scratch, or, if the ... worksheet already exists, you can insert it using the Paste Special command. Although an embedded worksheet behaves as a picture in the document, when you double-click to modify it, Excel opens within MS Word, allowing you to use Excel's formulas to calculate results. One drawback to embedding an Excel worksheet is that it increases the file size ... (view more)

After you've spent time creating a workbook, you'll want to print a copy on paper. Although many files are only viewed electronically, paper copies are still used for several reasons: To be able to examine the file away from the computer To keep a ... copy as a permanent record To send it in the mail or by fax As soon as you click the Print button, you might see these items on your screen: A dialog box opens explaining what is being printed. To stop the printing process, click Cancel. A printer icon appears on the right side of the taskbar, near the clock. A single copy of the worksheet you see ... (view more)

The Office Assistant provides help when you need to know how to do something in Excel. This help is available at the click of a button and in every dialog box. You can ask a question, or you can look through the table of contents or index for ... relevant topics. Sometimes the Office Assistant suggests ways to help before you even ask for it. You can get help four ways: Click the Office Assistant, if it's available. Click the Help button on the toolbar or in the dialog box. Choose an item from the Help menu. Press the F1 key. When you're looking for an answer, you don't have to ask someone else ... (view more)