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Summary: Many Excel users are keyboard shortcut fans. Here's how to use keyboard shortcuts to work with the Ribbon:
The ribbon in Excel was designed to be accessed via your mouse. You will note that none of the ribbon commands have the traditional underlined letter to indicate the Alt+keystrokes. In fact, the Excel 2010 and 2007 ribbons are very keyboard friendly. To work with the ribbon via the keyboard. press the Alt key to display the pop-up key tips. Each Ribbon control has a letter, or a series of letters that you can type to issue the command.
Each tab has a corresponding letter, known as a keytip. If you press a keytip, the screen will then display more keytips.For example, to use the keyboard to wrap text. press the Alt key followed by H for home and then W.
After you press the Alt key, you can also use the left and right arrow keys to scroll through the tabs. When you reach the correct tab press the Enter key to execute it. This approach is not as efficient as using keytips, but it is an easy, mouse free method to take a quick look at the available commands.
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Summary: A useful but often overlooked Excel feature is the ability to search for and replace cell formatting. Here is how to do this:
To change the formatting by using search and replace, follow these steps.
- Click on any cell and select Home | Editing | Find and Select |Replace (or pres Ctrl+H) to display the Find and Replace dialog box.
- In the Find and Replace dialog box, ensure that the Find What and Replace With fields are blank.
- Click the upper Format button (beside the Find What field) to display the Find Format dialog box. If these fields are not visible, click the Options button to expand the dialog box.
- You can use the Find Format dialog box to define the formatting you are looking for, but it is faster and easier to click on the arrow on the Format button, click Choose Format from Cell, and then click on a cell that already has the formatting you want.
- Click the lower Format button (the one beside the Replace With field) to display the Replace Format dialog box.
- You can use the Choose Format from Cell option and specify a cell that contains the replacement formatting, or you can use the tabs in the Find Format dialog box to specify the desired formatting.
- In the Find and Replace dialog box, click the Replace All button.
Summary: Excel 2002 introduced a neat feature called Text to Speech that enables you to have Excel read back a range of cells, or you can set it up so that that it reads back data as you enter it. This feature was continued in Excel 2010.
To make this happen in Excel 2010 you need to first add the Text to Speech icon to your Ribbon. Here's how to do this:
- Right click on the Ribbon and then select the Customize the Ribbon from the shortcut menu.
- In the list box on the right, select Review and click New Group.
- Click Rename and give the group a name, such as Speech.
- Click the drop-down list on the left and Choose Commands not in the Ribbon.
- Scroll down the list and you will find five items that begin with the word Speech. Select each one and then click Add.
- Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box.
Once you have completed this task, the Review tab displays a new group with five new icons.
Using the speech commands
To read a range of cells, select the range first and then click the Speak Cells button. You can specify the orientation (By Rows or Columns). To read the data as it is entered click the Speak on Enter button.
This is a love-hate feature. I use it when I am proofing data in one of my Excel workbooks.
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 Magnifying your View with Zoom Tools Summary: If you want your Word document to appear on the screen in a larger text size you can use the Zoom tools in Word. You can magnify your view of a document using the Zoom tools in Word. You can zoom in to see the document up close or zoom out to see a bird's eye view. The Zoom tool is based on percentages, with 100% being the normal document view, just as it appears when you print it. If your font size is small, you can zoom in to increase the font size of your text. Or, you can zoom out to see the entire page on your screen. The Status bar in the bottom right hand corner of the Word screen has a Zoom bar you can use to zoom in or out, or you can use the Zoom tools features that can be found on the View tab of the Ribbon. The Zoom percentage will always appear in the Status bar so you will know the current magnification setting. The Zoom Bar 
- To Zoom Out click on the "-" sign at the left hand end of the Zoom bar. Each time you click the magnification setting will change by 10%
- To Zoom In click on the "+" sign at the right hand end of the Zoom bar. Each time you click the magnification setting will change by 10%.
- You can also drag the Slider inside the Zoom bar to the right or left to quickly zoom in or out.
Using the View Tab on the Ribbon to Zoom - Click on the View tab in the Ribbon.
- Click the Zoom button.
- From the Zoom dialog box, click a new zoom option or use the spinner arrow to set a zoom percentage.
- Click OK to apply the new setting.
Back to top Viewing Multiple Documents Summary: There are times when it is useful to view two documents on your screen at the same time. Here is how to do this:
You can open and work with multiple documents in Word. You use the View tools to control how you view them.
- Open two or more documents in Word.
- Click the Switch Windows button and click the document you want to view.
- To view two documents at the same time, click the View Side by Side button.
 - A To make the document active for edits click on the document's title bar.
- To turn off side by side viewing, click the View Side by Side button located under the Window options on the shortened Ribbon.
- To view multiple documents tiled horizontally, instead of vertically, click on the Arrange button under the Windows option on the shortened Ribbon.
- Click the Close button to close a document at any time, or click the Maximize button to return the document to its full window again.
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Troubleshooting Multiple Recipients
Summary: By default, Outlook requires that you separate multiple e-mail addresses with semi-colons. You can get Outlook to accept commas, as well as semi-colons. Here is how to do this:
If you enter separate addresses in Outlook with another character, other than a semi-colon, Outlook treats the address as one address and displays an error message.
You can change your Outlook settings so you can use a comma, as well as a semi-colon to separate multiple addresses. Follow these steps to do this:
- In the Outlook program window or any item window, display the Backstage view in Outlook 2010.
- Click on Mail in the left pane of the Outlook Options dialog box.
- On the Mail page, scroll to the Send Message section.
- Select the Commas Can Be Used to Separate Multiple Message Recipients check box.
- Click on OK.
You can now use either commas or sem-colons to separate multiple e-mail addresses.
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