Office XP Tips: High-Impact Spreadsheets, Less Typing
Want to highlight data in a spreadsheet? Use AutoShapes.Jim Welp
Office XP includes a great graphical tool set called AutoShapes that lets you click-and-drag your way to some clever drawings. I find AutoShapes most useful in Excel, though they are available in Word and PowerPoint as well. It's easy for an important detail in a complex spreadsheet to get buried. By highlighting it with a cartoon arrow, a starburst, or a thought balloon, you can draw attention to the detail in a dramatic way.
To check out the available AutoShapes, open Excel, right-click a toolbar, and choose Drawing from the pop-up menu. When the Drawing toolbar appears, click AutoShapes to open the AutoShapes menu. There, you can browse the options available, including some terrific shapes, arrows, and banners.
To experiment, select one of the AutoShapes, click inside your spreadsheet, drag, and let go to create the drawing. For example, say you want to draw an arrow to point to an important sales tally. On the Drawing toolbar, choose AutoShapes, Block Arrows, and choose the left arrow from the top row in the pop-up menu. Now, click inside your worksheet and drag down and to the right to create the arrow. Cool, eh? Click anywhere inside the arrow and drag to reposition it. If you're not happy with the arrow's shape, click the yellow diamond and drag to reshape it. Want to rotate it? Click on the green circle and drag. To banish an AutoShape from your worksheet, click to select it, then press the Delete key.
If you have a message you really want to drive home, try using one of the Callout AutoShapes, which let you include text. Select AutoShapes, Callouts and choose one of the shapes from the pop-up menu. Click and drag to create the shape. When you let go, Excel presents a text cursor. Just type your message--something like "Who knew that idiot could sell so many widgets?!"--and click outside the shape. That's all there is to it. Now you have no excuse if your worksheet's main message goes unnoticed!
News Alert: How Secret Is Your Data?
If you use Excel's security features to hide sensitive worksheet data, you might be surprised by how easy it is for others to expose your confidential info. According to news reports, some Excel users are becoming increasingly concerned that the program's "hide" and "password" features can be easily foiled by simply copying and pasting. If you're concerned the security of confidential data in your workbooks, check out the article "Exposing Excel's Dirty Little Secret."
Readers Send AutoText Tips
In a recent column about AutoText, I created a sample AutoText entry called "office." Reader Mike Ecker, of Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, writes, "I would advise against using an actual word such as 'office'--especially such a common word--as a shorthand for something else. I would use a non-word--perhaps 'offc.'" This is good advice, as you might otherwise unwittingly enter your AutoText entry when you didn't mean to. Thanks for writing, Mike.
Several readers wrote to say that they prefer to use AutoCorrect for commonly used brief text entries instead of AutoText. When you use AutoCorrect instead of AutoText, there's no need to press Enter or F3 because Word makes the correction automatically. For instance, to automatically insert your e-mail address in a Word document every time you type abc, choose Tools, AutoCorrect Options to open the AutoCorrect dialog box. Type abc in the Replace text box, type your e-mail address in the With text box, and click OK. Now, whenever you type abc Word automatically replaces that text with your e-mail address. The downside of this method is that you aren't warned as you are with AutoText.
Office XP Tips subscriber Bruce Spaman, of Middletown, Connecticut, wrote in with a great suggestion that expands on my tip to include your name and address as an AutoText entry for closing business letters. Bruce scanned his signature and included the scanned image file in his AutoText entry. When he writes a letter, his AutoText closing includes not only his address information, but also his signature as well. Great idea, Bruce!
Readers Write About Spam
Judging by the sheer volume of reader e-mail, I've discovered the most popular topic yet in this newsletter: spam. Dozens of you wrote about this controversial and, to some, delicious topic. The general consensus is that the name of the food-product Spam stands for "spiced ham" and that junk e-mail is named after it because the two are equally palatable. Thanks to all who wrote. Here is a sampling of the delightful messages I received.
David Marchand of Montreal suggests that junk e-mail is called spam after a famous Monty Python song. In the song, the word spam is repeated endlessly. Likewise, e-mail spam is endlessly repetitive.
Frank Dauenhauer of Rochester, New York, suggests that the word has nothing to do with Monty Python at all. He writes, "The acronym SPAM stands for Sales Promotional/Advertising Mail. I saw this definition on the Web over five years ago."
And finally, Ann Welp of Huntingburg, Indiana, sends this charming trip down memory lane. (Thanks, Mom!): "It was right after WWII. My mother's friends were all talking about this wonderful new product called Spam. They said it was amazingly cheap and simply delicious. So she went to the corner grocery and came home with a small blue and white can with the letters S-P-A-M in bright red letters. She showed us how to insert a metal tab from the top of the can into the key's slit and wind it around the rectangular can to remove the lid. Out popped this gelatin-encased hunk of pink meat that smelled exactly like ham. Then, following the recipe on the side of the can, she decorated the pink meat with two slices of pineapple, four whole cloves, and two candied cherries, and baked it for 12 minutes. When it came from the oven it was so pretty! My father ate his steak medium rare, but the rest of us had wonderful Spam sandwiches with lettuce on soft fluffy slices of Wonder Bread smeared with Miracle Whip. When we asked my father why he wasn't having a Spam sandwich, he said the strangest thing. He said he didn't like parts."
And, no doubt, Grandpa wouldn't like junk e-mail either.