Carol Bratt

One really cool way to make your headings stand out from the rest of your text is to offset them to the left of the body text margin. This is called a hanging heading. With a hanging heading, a reader can quickly scan the left margin of your ... document and see how it is organized. One way to create a hanging heading is to indent the heading line by a negative number, which moves the heading text into the margin. Follow the steps below to learn how: Click on the line containing the heading Choose Format | Paragraph. Indents and Spacing Tab. Under Indentation, enter a negative number in the Left ... (view more)

The traditional, rectangular box is what many Word users are familiar with when you mention a text box. Let's face it, we're all familiar and comfortable with the traditional text box...but let's take a walk on the wild side and do something ... different! Follow the steps below: First make sure that your Drawing toolbar is visible. If it is not, simply right-click on one of your toolbars and click on the word Drawing. You will now see the Drawing toolbar on your screen at the bottom. Click the AutoShape button on the Drawing toolbar to create an AutoShape. Select a shape. I like the folded ... (view more)

Sometimes bulleted lists are difficult to read. When bullet items have more than two lines of text (which frequently happens when writing instructions), it would be nice to have bullets that are have more space between them. I find that as I age my ... ability to read items that are close together is lacking. One way is to enter a bullet item, press enter (to go to the next bullet item), then press enter again, enter the text for the bullet item, and then return to the extra bullet and pressing Backspace to remove it. That seems like quite a few key strokes don't you think? A better solution ... (view more)

I'm sure that you have probably noticed at the end of your presentation that PowerPoint displays a black screen with the words "End of slide show, click to exit" at the top. Not everyone is enamored of the black screen. Follow the steps below to rid ... yourself of the black screen at the end of your presentation: PowerPoint 2002 and 2003: Choose Tools | Options. Choose the View tab. Uncheck the box for the option End with black slide. PowerPoint 2007: Click on the Office button. Choose the PowerPoint Options button (at the bottom of the window). Choose Advanced from the left side of the next ... (view more)

Adding a footer to a slide gives users the option to keep presentation information organized and immediately accessible by appearing at the top or bottom of each slide. Information such as slide numbers, the time and date, your company logo, the ... presentation title or file name, or the presenter's name and address can be added quickly and easily. Follow the steps below to learn how to add a footer to a slide: On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Header & Footer. In the Header and Footer dialog box, on the Slide tab, select the Footer check box and then type the text that you would ... (view more)

File level protection is the most controlling type of protection that is available. Passwords can be used to restrict access to the file. There are two types of password options which are listed below: Password to open. This type of password ... restricts who is able to open a file. Password to Modify. This type of password restricts who is able to make changes to a file. If a password is used to protect a file, remember to write it down in a secure location. If a password used to open a file is lost, the file can never be re-opened. In my next article I will show you how to set file level ... (view more)

Many times it is necessary to protect worksheet information that is used and shared with others. Private information should be protected from unauthorized access. An expense report worksheet with complex formulas should be protected so that someone ... cannot unintentionally destroy the design of the report. Excel proves several ways to control and restrict the use of workbooks, worksheets and the data they contain. Protection can be established in a variety of ways depending on the extent of control that is needed. Below you will bee the levels of protection that are available to you: File Saves ... (view more)

Let's get back on track with our series on linked data in Excel! Source data that is referenced within the same workbook is updated automatically. However, when source data is stored in a separate workbook file, you can decide when the update should ... occur. By default, you will be prompted to update the data when the file is opened. Data can be updated as the file is being opened or after the file is in use. To update linked data when opening a file, follow the steps below: Open the workbook that contains the external cell reference(s). You will see a Message box asking whether to update ... (view more)

The Paste Special command can be used to create a link between cells. The source cell values must be copied to the Windows Clipboard. The link is created when the values are pasted to the target destination cells using the Paste Special Command. To ... create a link by USING the Paste Special command, follow the steps below: Open the desired workbooks, if necessary. Select the source cell(s) to be copied. Click on the Copy button on the Standard toolbar. Or right-click on the cells and then choose copy from the shortcut menu. Choose Edit | Copy. Press CTRL + C as an alternative. Select the ... (view more)

Data that is stored in one section of a worksheet is often needed in other sections of the same worksheet, other worksheets within the same workbook, or even different workbooks. Excel makes it easy for you to create dynamic or active links between ... cells, whether they are in the same or different workbooks. Linking data eliminates the need to repeat information in several files. Links are often used to automate worksheets that share similar values. For example, several worksheets might use an interest rate figure that is constantly changing. Instead of updating the interest rate in each ... (view more)