Computer Info – April 21, 2004

 

This Week’s Meeting

            John Watkins will be hosting the meeting today.  His topic will be Spreadsheets – a First Look.  So let’s bring spreadsheet questions for him.

            The next meeting will be May 5th.

 

Excel Tips

Add a drop-down list to a cell

            Type the list of valid entries in a single column (this column can be hidden, if desired). Select the cell or cells that will display the list of entries, choose Data — Validation, and select the Settings tab. From the Allow drop-down list, select List. In the Source box, enter a range address or a reference to the items in your sheet. Make sure the In-cell dropdown box is selected. This technique does not require any macros.

 

Set the Current Date or Time

            You may be familiar with Excel’s NOW function, which plugs the current date and time into your spreadsheet. Just enter =NOW() into any cell, and Excel displays the date and time formatted according to the regional options you’ve set for Windows. If you just want to see the date, use the TODAY function, =TODAY(), instead.

            But if you want to use either of these functions as a type of “timestamp” you’ll find that they don’t do the job, because they’re automatically updated whenever your worksheet is calculated or re-opened. The cell that displays today’s date will display tomorrow’s date when you open the spreadsheet tomorrow.

            To insert a fixed date into a cell—a date that you don’t want to change—hold down Ctrl while you press the semicolon ( ;) key. To insert the current time (without a date), press Ctrl-Shift-Semicolon.

            These commands are useful if you like to document your work. For example, you might want to keep track of when you added new data to your worksheet.

 

Area That You Do Not Want To Print

            When it’s time to print your Excel worksheet, you may prefer that some information is left unprinted. For example, you may have some confidential information (such as employee salaries) in a column, or your sheet may have some intermediate calculations that the top brass aren’t interested in seeing.

            To avoid printing specific rows or columns, just hide them before printing. To hide rows, select them by clicking the row numbers (click and drag to select a block of rows; hold down Ctrl while clicking to select non-adjacent rows). Then right-click one of the highlighted border row numbers and click Hide. Use the same procedure to hide columns (but right-click a highlighted column letter to choose Hide).

            When you’re finished printing, you can quickly unhide all rows or columns by selecting the entire worksheet (click the blank gray box formed by the intersection of the row and column borders at the top left corner of your spreadsheet). Then right-click a row or column border and choose Unhide.

 

Shade Alternate Rows

            Looking for a way to simulate that nerdy green-banded computer paper on screen? Look no further. Excel’s Conditional Formatting feature has many uses, and here’s one that’s particularly handy. Conditional Formatting makes it simple to apply cell shading (green or otherwise) to every other row in a worksheet range. For a lengthy list, shading alternate rows can improve legibility.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Highlight the range of cells or rows or columns that you want to format.
  2. Choose Format, Conditional Formatting to display the Conditional Formatting dialog box.
  3. Select Formula Is from the first drop-down list box, and enter =MOD(ROW(),2)=0 in the second box.
  4. Click the Format button to bring up the Format Cells dialog box.
  5. Select the Patterns tab and specify a color for the shaded rows. You’ll probably want to choose a light color, so that the default black text will still be legible. Or, you can go all out and change the text color as well (do this in the Font tab of the Format Cells dialog box). For example, you might select a dark blue background, accompanied by a mellow yellow text color.
  6. Click OK twice to return to your worksheet.

            The best part is that the row shading is dynamic: The alternate row shading persists even if you insert or delete rows within the original range. By the way, if get tired of this new look and want to get things back to normal, just select the range, choose Format, Conditional Formatting, and click the Delete button in the Conditional Formatting dialog box.

 

Memory Cards

            What about the data on your memory cards when you go through airport security (or any security system)?  What will  happen to your information?

            It seems that every media card manufacturer states that they haven’t seen a problem when cards go through security.