Carol Bratt

You can type formulas in a cell to do all sorts of calculations. Formulas always begin with an equal sign (=). Then, to calculate the result, they combine numbers, cell references, and these arithmetic operators: + to add - to subtract * to multiply ... / to divide % to take a percent ^ to raise to a power (or exponent) ( ) to change the order of calculation Excel calculates formulas from left to right, following a set order of operations. Enclosing part of a formula in parentheses changes the order in which the items are calculated. Look at this example: =(48 – 12)*2/9 +1 This formula equals 9 ...<a href="/news/1334/enter-formulas-cell-ms-excel" class="more-link">view more

The Paste Special command can also be used to link an Excel worksheet. In contract to embedding, linking sets up a link between the worksheet cells in the document and the original Excel worksheet source. The MS Word document holds an image of the ... Excel worksheet and a shortcut to it but not an actual copy of the worksheet. Because of the link, any changes in the original are automatically reflected in the MS Word document. The advantage to linking the worksheet is that if the source worksheet in Excel changes, the values are automatically updated in the Word document. If you make a change in ... (view more)

You don't have to have two separate pages, one from MS Word and one from Excel, to display text and numbers in your document. This is because Word and Excel are built to work together, so that you can seamlessly bring your data from Excel into Word. ... Using Excel to generate your numeric data opens the door to more sophisticated calculations and numeric formatting. You can use all the features of Excel for making calculations, rather than being limited to the few formulas available on Word's Table | Formula command. Copying between Excel and Word uses the same techniques you know already: Open ... (view more)

Another method for linking Excel places the worksheet cells in a Word table. To do this, you insert the Excel selection as HTML (the universal text format used on the Web). Linking Excel data as a table offers two advantages: You format it using the ... familiar techniques you use with any Word table. Of course, you wouldn't want to change the numbers (although you could). Changes you make in the table do not affect the Excel workbook though. The information is lined so that it automatically reflects any changes made in the original Excel worksheet. Links are automatically updated when you open ... (view more)

You can type today's date quickly by using MS Word's AutoComplete. Word's nifty feature that anticipates what you're trying to do and types it for you. You can also insert the date and time from the menu bar. If you can't remember the date, it's not ... a problem. The computer keeps track and inserts the correct date for you. The way you insert the date depends on whether you plan to print this document once or use it regularly. Need to put a time stamp on a document? There's no need to look at your watch and type it by hand. For a One-Time Use Follow these steps to type today's date in a ... (view more)

When your spreadsheet has labels in the top row or left column to describe the data in the cells, you can freeze those rows and columns so that they always appear on screen even when you scroll down or to the right. Open MS Excel and in the first ... row type your headings (i.e. Category, Title, Author, Quantity, Costs, etc.) In the left-most column, type other data labels (i.e. Fiction, Non-Fiction, Sci-Fi., etc.) When you use the Window | Freeze Panes command, everything above the current row or to the left of the current column is frozen in place. This way, it's always visible to you, even ... (view more)

Word includes a Most Recently Used (MRU) Files List that displays the documents you have previously opened. The default number of files displayed is four but you can increase it to a maximum of nine files. There may be plenty of reasons why you may ... want to clear your MRU list. For example: If a document file is no longer available, but still appears on the list of recently used files, you may want to clear your MRU. To clear the MRU File List, you have to disable the recently used files list and then re-enable it. To do so: Within MS Word, click Options from the Tools menu. From the General ... (view more)

When you begin a new workbook, the "active cell" is located at the top-left corner of the worksheet (in Cell A1). To create your worksheet or make changes to it, you must move around in it. Getting around in a worksheet quickly is the mark of an ... experienced Excel user. You want to learn the quickest way to get from place to place so you can use your time more efficiently. Keyboard Shortcuts for Moving Around in a Worksheet You can move around in the worksheet by pressing the arrow keys and other direction keys on the keyboard. When you use the keyboard to move around in the ... (view more)

If your computer has a sound card and a microphone, you can record voice comments to your documents in MS Word. Voice comments are recordings that are attached to your document, and are are added as sound object inside comment balloons. Follow the ... easy steps below to add voice comments to your documents: Open the Reviewing toolbar if it isn't already open. To open the toolbar, right-click in a blank area of the visible toolbars and select the Reviewing toolbar. Click the Insert Voice button. If the Insert Voice button is not visible on the Reviewing toolbar, click Toolbar Options on the ... (view more)

Cells in an Excel worksheet can contain five kinds of entries; each one is handled a little differently. For example: Text is any word or combination of letters and numbers. Text is automatically left-aligned in the cell. The text too long for the ... cell overlaps any blank cells to the right. Numbers, such as 2,340 or 82%, form the basis for all your calculations. They're automatically right-aligned in the cell to keep the columns of numbers lined up. Dates and times are curious types of numbers. Although they may contain words, such as January and PM, Excel knows what you mean and changes them ... (view more)