Automatically Update Data in Excel

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Kara the Computer Tutor

Let’s say you update the data on one of your worksheets a lot. You can actually make that updated data appear on a second worksheet without having to type it twice! Here’s how on either a PC or Mac:

The First Steps

  1. Name your first worksheet and type the data in it if you haven’t already. To name a worksheet, double-click on its tab at the bottom of your screen and type the name you want. The press the Enter key on a PC or Return if you have a Mac.
  2. Click on the worksheet in the same workbook where you want another copy of the data to appear. Name that worksheet as well.
  3. Go back to the first worksheet, and write down the name of the first cell (perhaps in the upper left) you want to copy. A cell’s name is taken from the column’s letter at the top and the row number on the left. For instance, the upper leftmost cell is called A1.
Typing the Correct Formula
  1. Now go to your second worksheet. Click in the cell where you want the data to appear, say B2.
  2. Click in the Formula Bar at the top of your screen. The Formula Bar is the long white field at that has an fx to the left of it.
  3. Type an equals sign (=).
  4. Type the name of the first worksheet.
  5. Type an exclamation point (!) after it. If you want to copy cell A1 and your first worksheet is called Worksheet1, your formula would look like this so far: =Worksheet1!
  6. Next type the name of the original cell, the one you might have written down. If that cell was A1 you would now have: =Worksheet1!A1
  7. Hit the Enter key on a PC or Return if you have a Mac. The data from the original cell should appear.
Updating Data
  1. Now let’s test the updating part. Go back to your first worksheet, and type something different in that original cell.
  2. Click on the second worksheet and see if the other cell was updated with the new data too. If so you did it right!

Copying and Updating Multiple Cells

But say you have multiple cells that need updating. No worries. If the cells are next to each other, you can use the Fill Handle to copy your original formula to them. Then they’ll update too! Here’s how to do this:

  1. Make sure you’re on the second worksheet. Click on that single cell that has your data in it.
  2. You should see a teeny tiny square on the lower right-hand side of the cell. On a PC it’s black, and on a Mac it’s probably blue (just like the color of the cell outline). Move your mouse on top of that square but don’t click. You should see a small black cross.
  3. Now press and drag your mouse, either to the right or down, across the cells to copy the original formula. The data from the first worksheet should appear in them and update just like the first!

If these instructions helped you, I love little donations. They help me keep writing these tips. Also, I tutor remotely all over the world. If you’re interested click here for more information.


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How to Make and Use Templates in Outook 2010

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Kara the Computer Tutor

Do you tend to use some emails over and over again? Maybe all you want to change is the person’s name you’re sending it to. If so, you can make templates in Outlook. The way to create them is somewhat buried, though, so here’s how:

  1. Start a new email and type what you’d like to have on your template.
  2. While you’re still in the email window, click on the File tab in the upper left-hand corner of your screen.
  3. Click on Save As on the left-hand side of the box that pops up.
  4. In the next box, click on the dropdown arrow at the bottom of the box, next to the Save as Type field.
  5. Choose Outlook Template.
  6. Name your template and click on Save.

Now, the templates are stored in a weird place. Here’s how to access one when you’re ready to use it:

  1. Go to your Inbox and click on the Home tab.
  2. Click on New Items on the left-hand side of the ribbon. (It’s the second icon from the left.)
  3. Move your mouse arrow down to More Items, and click on Choose Form in the menu that pops up.
  4. In the top of the box that pops up, click on the dropdown arrow next to where it says Look In.
  5. Click on User Templates in File System.
  6. Double click on the template you want. It should open.

And don’t worry, there’s a trick to making it easier to find your templates:

  1. Go to your Inbox and click on the Home tab.
  2. Click on New Items on the left-hand side of the ribbon. (It’s the second icon from the left.)
  3. Move your mouse arrow down to More Items, and this time Right Click on Choose Form in the menu.
  4. Left click on Add to Quick Access Toolbar in the menu that pops up.
  5. The Choose Form icon should now appear on the small Quick Access Toolbar, located in the top left-hand corner of your screen. You can click on this icon anytime you’d like to open one of your templates.
I love little donations if this post helped you. They help me keep writing! Also, if you’d like to learn more about Outlook or the other Microsoft Outlook programs, I teach remotely all over the world. For more information click here. 

 

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How to Convert a Word Document to a PDF

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Kara the Computer Tutor

It’s pretty easy to convert a Word document to a PDF in both Word 2010 and Word 2007. Here’s how:

In Word 2010:

  1. Click on the File button in the top left-hand corner of your screen.
  2. Click on Save and Send in the menu that pops up.
  3. Double-click on Create PDF/XPS Document at the bottom of the next menu.
  4. Type a name for the file next to File name in the box that pops up.
  5. Click on Publish at the bottom of the box.

In Word 2007:

  1. Click on the round Office button in the upper left-hand corner of your screen.
  2. Move your arrow down to hover over Save As.
  3. Click on PDF or XPS on the right-hand side.
  4. In the box that pops up, make sure it says PDF next to Save as Type.
  5. Name your document.
  6. Click on Publish at the bottom of the box.

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Copying and Pasting in PowerPoint

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Kara the Computer Tutor

There are several ways to copy and paste in PowerPoint. This tutorial will show you how to use the shortcuts, the Paste Options button, and the Clipboard. I’ll also teach you some other tricks along the way.

You can either just follow along or get hands-on experience by downloading the PowerPoint presentation to your computer. Click on the button below to download it. Printing these instructions might be a good idea too. The print icon is at the bottom of this page below the tutorial.

Download

 

Copying the Text

  1. Open the Pasting Presentation if you downloaded it. Click on Slide 1 in the Slides Pane on the left if it isn’t already showing.
  2. Select the title text This is a tutorial. A quick way to do this is to hover your mouse anywhere on the text and triple click. Triple-clicking is how you can also easily select an entire paragraph, such as in Microsoft Word.

Next let’s copy the text. There are three ways to do this:

  1. Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and hit the C key.
  2. Click on the Copy button on the very left-hand side of the Home tab in the Clipboard group.
  3. Right click on the text, and then left click on Copy.
Copying the Title

Copying the Title

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pasting the Boring Way:

Let’s paste the text now using the conventional options:

  1. Click on Slide 2 in the Slides Pane.
  2. Click on Click to Add Title again.
  3. Choose one of these two ways to paste:
    • Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and hit “V”.
    • Click on the Paste button in the Clipboard group on the Home tab. It looks like a clipboard. (Click on the Clipboard itself, not the arrow below it.)

The text takes on the formatting of Slide 1. Also, you’ll probably see a little annoying Paste Options icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the text. Click outside of the text box to make it disappear for now. We’ll get rid of it permanently later.

The First Pasting Example

The First Pasting Example

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Paste Options

Let’s move on. Watch what happens now:

  1. Click on Slide 3 in the Slides Pane.
  2. Click anywhere in the box that says Click to add Title again to make that text disappear.
  3. Now click on the tiny arrow under the word Paste, again located on the very left-hand side of the Home tab to get to the Paste Options box.

The Paste Options Box

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Hover your mouse over the far left button in the box. See the formatted text previewed on the screen? The text converted to the format used on this slide.

5. Next hover your mouse over the far right button. This is the Keep Text Only button. It confuses me because, when you hover over it, the text also appears formatted for the current slide. That doesn’t seem “text only” to me! It just gives the same result as the far left button. Oh well.

6. However, this time we’ll see a different result. Hover your mouse over the Paintbrush icon and click. The text is now formatted based upon its original slide, the first one. Nice contrast of colors, huh? A little hard on the eyes.

7. Click on the tiny arrow below the Paste button again. Then click on the Picture button, which looks like a mountain. Clicking this button will paste the text into the slide in the form of an image.

8. You can’t edit the text when it’s in this form. I’m not sure how often you’d want to use this Picture button. But I guess it’s nice to know the option is there.

That’s it for now. I hope you found this tutorial interesting and that it helped you.

To learn more about PowerPoint or the other Microsoft Programs, I teach remotely all over the world. For more information please click here.

 


 

 

 

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How to Move Pictures in Microsoft Word

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Kara the Computer Tutor

How to Move Pictures in Word 2010

Frustrated that you can’t move that photo or image to where you want it? Here’s how to make it so you can drag your pictures all over the place. This tutorial’s first part tells how to move a single picture in a particular document. To change Word’s settings so you’ll always be able to move pictures around, click here.

First, of course, you need to insert the picture you want to move:

  1. Click on the Insert tab on the ribbon at the top of your screen.
  2. Click on Picture in the Illustrations group.
  3. Browse to your picture and insert it into the document.

Now let’s make it move:

  1. Click once on the picture to make sure it selected.
  2. Click on the Format tab under where it says Picture Tools above the ribbon. (This Format tab is called a “contextual tab” because it only shows up when an image is selected.)
  3. Click on the Wrapped Text button toward the right-hand side in the Arrange group. The button has a picture of a dog on it.
  4. You have many choices now to make the picture move around. However, my favorite is Behind Text. This is in case you want to type on top of the image. So go ahead and click Behind Text.
  5. Move your mouse into the middle of the picture until it turns into a four-pointed arrow. Then you should be able to drag the image all over the page!
Wrap the Picture Behind the Text

Wrap the Picture Behind the Text

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah ha!But what if you don’t want to go through that every time. Well then, you can change it permanently! Here’s how:

  1. Click on that File tab in the top left-hand corner of your screen.
  2. Click on Options near the bottom of the left-hand side in the box that pops up.
  3. Click on Advanced on the left-hand side of the next box.
  4. Scroll down to the Cut, copy, and paste section.
  5. In that section, on the left-hand side, you’ll see some text that says Insert/paste picture as. Across from it, on the right-hand side, is some text with a drop-down arrow beside it. Click on that arrow.
  6. Click on Behind text.
  7. Click OK to get out of the box.

You should now be able to move your pictures forevermore!

Permanently Move Pictures Around

Permanently Move Pictures Around

If you’re interested in learning more about Microsoft Word or the other Office programs, I teach remotely all over the world. For more information please click  here.

 

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How to Save a PowerPoint Presentation as a Slide Show you can Email

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Kara the Computer Tutor

Want to email your friends or coworkers a presentation that will start as the slideshow when they open it? No problem! Here is how to do it in PowerPoint 2010:

  1. Click on the File tab in the upper left-hand corner of your screen.
  2. Click on Save & Send near the bottom of the menu that pops up.
  3. Click on Change File Type in the middle of the box.
  4. In the middle of the box on the right, double-click on PowerPoint Show.
  5. In the box that pops up, name your presentation, navigate to where you want to save it, and click on Save.

Now you should be able to attach the presentation to an email and send it off!

How to Save PowerPoint Slide Show

Saving a PowerPoint Slide Show

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Finding Excel Formulas easily by using AutoComplete

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Kara the Computer Tutor

Did you know you can find the formula you’re looking for by typing only a few characters? I’ll use the spreadsheet below as an example that might help you follow along. Let’s find out which employee at a car dealership sold the most BMWs each month and the number they sold. Here’s a sample spreadsheet we can work with:

Sample Sales Spreadsheet

Sample Sales Spreadsheet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. You’d click in cell E4 and type an “=”.
  2. Then you’d type the letter “m”. A box would pop up listing all the formulas starting with that letter.
  3. You’d double-click on the word “MAX.”
  4. Next you’d select cells B4 through D4. You’d see a dotted line around them.
  5. Last, you’d hit the Enter key. The number 7 would appear.

I hope you were able to follow that! Maybe you’ll now be able to apply it with other formulas in your own spreadsheets.

If you’d like to learn more about Excel or the other Microsoft Office programs, I teach remotely all over the world. For more information please click here.

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Three Ways to do Addition Easily in Excel 2010 and 2007

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Kara the Computer Tutor

Adding a column or row of numbers couldn’t be easier in Excel. All you need to do is use the AutoSum feature. There are three ways to complete this very simple formula. To illustrate I’m going to use the following spreadsheet representing the number of BMWs sold by three employees at a dealership during a given year.

BMW Sales Spreadsheet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the first way:

  1. Type a column of numbers, such as B4 through B15 under the name Juanita.
  2. Click in cell B16.
  3. Click on the AutoSum button on Excel’s Home tab. It’s located near the right-hand side in the Editing group. Be sure to actually click on the ∑ rather than the black arrow next to it.
  4. Press the Enter key. You would see the total (85).
AutoSum button on the Home tab

AutoSum button on the Home tab

 

Here’s the second way:

  1. Type another column of numbers, such as the numbers in cells C4 through C15 shown above under Josephine.
  2. Click in cell C16.
  3. This time click on the other AutoSum button. It’s on the Formulas tab near the left-hand side in the Function Library group.
  4. Press the Enter key again.
AutoSum button on the Formulas tab

AutoSum button on the Formulas Tab

 

The third way:

You could use a keyboard shortcut instead. Type another column of numbers and click in cell D16. Then hold down the Alt key and press the “=” key. And of course, press Enter afterward.

Also, did you know you can look at your formula at any time? Just click on the cell, and look up in the Formula Bar. This is the long white bar located above the spreadsheet and below the Ribbon.

Formula Bar

The Formula Bar

If you get an inkling to see your formula in the actual cell again, press the F2 key on your keyboard. Then press Enter to go back to your total.

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Using Colors in Microsoft Office

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Kara the Computer Tutor

 Want to color your text in Word? Want to color cells in Excel? Want your PowerPoint slides to display vivid colors? Well, you’re not restricted to using only the pre-chosen squares Microsoft picked out for you. Rather, you can actually choose any color under the sun.

This blog post will explain the many ways to color text in Microsoft Word. However, these instructions also apply to the other Microsoft Office programs, including Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

 

The Easiest way to Color Text:

To begin with, find the Font Color button in Microsoft Word. It l looks like the letter “A” and is located in the Font group on the Home tab of the Ribbon. Click on the dropdown arrow to the right of it. This reveals the color picker.

The quickest way to change your text color is to click on either a Theme Color or Standard Color in the box that pops up. The Theme Colors are light and dark shades based on the default Office theme. (You can see other theme choices by clicking on the Themes button on the left-hand side of the Page Layout tab.)

By the way, clicking on “Automatic” will change the text back to its default black color.

On the other hand, the Standard Colors are highly saturated colors. These colors stay the same even when you choose a different theme.

Are the Standard Colors in the box too boring? There are other Standard Colors to choose from:

  1. Click on where it says “More Colors” at the bottom of the box.
  2. Click on one of the hexagons.
  3. Click OK. Now your text should be that color!

More Standard Colors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Custom Colors

Now here comes the fun part. Try this:

  1. Click on the dropdown arrow and then “More Colors” again.
  2. Choose a hexagon again.
  3. Click on the Custom tab at the top of the box. You should see a black arrow pointing to your color in a vertical bar.

In this box there are several ways to choose and adjust your color. To begin with, you can drag the black arrow up and down in the vertical box choose a lighter or darker shade.

You can also click anywhere in the box to choose a completely different color.

But there are also more specific ways to choose colors. Below the colorful box you’ll see the words “Color model”. Beside it are the letters “RGB”. These letters stand for red, green, and blue, and represent the color combinations used in televisions and computers.

Every color you can use in Microsoft Office is represented by red, green, and blue color values. Each value is a number ranging from 1 to 255. For instance, I chose a shade of red, and the number that showed up in the red box was 235, the green box 7, and the blue box 5. If you already know the specific values for the color you want, you can type them in the boxes yourself.

 

Custom Colors

Custom Colors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HSL

Next, click on the dropdown arrow next to where it says “Color model”. Click on HSL. The acronym in this instance stands for hue, saturation, and luminance. (The terms can vary depending on who’s using it.) Here’s what the terms mean that Microsoft uses.

  • Hue -a color of the rainbow. Click on the arrows to see the marker moves horizontally across the spectrum in the box.
  • Saturation – the intensity of the color. A color with low saturation looks washed out. Click on the arrows to watch the marker move up and down. Notice how vivid or pale the color gets.
  • Luminance  – how much light is being reflected from the color. At least that’s the textbook definition. To be honest, I don’t see much of a difference between Saturation and Luminance.

 There you have it! Again, these color choices apply to the other Microsoft programs as well.

 

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Why are Attachments Showing Up in the Body of an Email in Outlook 2010?

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Kara the Computer Tutor

Your attachments might be showing up as thumbnails in the body if you’re writing the emails in Rich Text instead of HTML. Here’s how to make your attachments show at the top instead:

  1. Click on the File tab in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
  2. Click on “Options” in the menu on the left.
  3. Click on “Mail” near the top left in the box that pops up.
  4. In the top section, under “Compose Messages”, see if it says “Rich Text” next to “Compose message in this format”.
  5. If so, click on the dropdown arrow and choose “HTML”.
  6. Click OK to get out of the box.

You can also check to see if individual emails you’re writing or replying to are in Rich Text. To do this:

  1. Open the email.
  2. Click on the Format Text tab on the ribbon at the top of your screen.
  3. Near the left-hand side, in the Format group, check to see if “Rich Text” is highlighted. If so, click on HTML instead.

See if your attachments now appear below the Subject line instead of the body of the email.

If you’d like to learn more about Outlook or the other Microsoft Office programs, I teach remotely all over the world. The cost is $15 for 15 minutes, with only a 15-minute minimum. For more information please click here.

 

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