 Understanding Regions in Excel
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Summary: Regions are important in Excel. This tip will help you understand how Excel uses regions .
Much of the work that you do in Excel is done using a specific area of the worksheet. These areas are called Regions. For example, when you sort data, Excel first selects a region that it will sort. A region is defined as the area surrounding an active cell that is bounded by blank columns and rows. Regions are often called a list or a table.
To see what Excel considers to be the region surrounding a cell, simply select the cell and press Shift+Ctrl+* (that's the asterisk.) The region is then highlighted.
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Filtering for Unique Items
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Summary: There are times when you want to copy a list of unique items to another column. This involves using filters in Excel.
Here are the steps to filter a data set for unique items.
- Select the data to be filtered.
- Go to the Data tab.
- Click on Advanced in the Sort and Filter group.
- Select Copy to another location.
- Select Unique Records.
- In the Copy To box enter the cell location where you want Excel to place the Unique Records.
- Click on OK.
You will now have a list of the unique items in the original data set.
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Watching a Formula Update on Another Sheet
Summary: The Watch Window in the Formula tab lets you watch a cell update as you make changes that affect it. This is highly useful when you have formulas that span multiple sheets and you need to watch a cell on one sheet while you make changes to another sheet. Here is how to do this:
- Select the Formula tab.
- In the Formula Auditing group select Watch Window.
- Click Add Watch to open the Add Watch dialog box.
- Select the cell on the worksheet that you want to watch update and click Add.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add additional cells to monitor.
If you leave the Watch window open and make changes to cells that will affect the watched cells you will see the changes in the Watch Window.
Click on the Watch Window icon again to minimize the Watch window area.
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Showing or Hiding ScreenTips
Summary: When you hold your mouse over a command or tool, a ScreenTip is displayed. The tip can be just the name of the command or tool, or it may be enhanced with a short description. You can hide the tips or change whether they are enhanced or not.Here is how to do this:
- Click on the File tab.
- Select Options.
- Click on the General Option.
- Open the Screen Tips Style drop-down list, and select the option you want
- Click on OK.
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Lines and Arrows in PowerPoint
Summary: Most presentations will include lines and arrows. It is easy to add a simple line and then format it to suit your particular needs. Here is how to do this:
To Draw a Line
- Click on the Home tab or the Insert tab.
- Click on the Shapes button in the Drawing group.
- Select a Line or Arrow shape from the available list.
- Click and drag the mouse pointer to add the line to your slide.
- Release the mouse button to draw the line.
Adding a Quick Style to a Line
- Click on the line that you want to add the Quick Style to.
- Click on the Home tab.
- Click on the Quick Style button from the Drawing Group.
- Highlight the style that you want to use.
- Click on the Style.
Adding Arrows to Lines
- Click on the line that you want to add the arrow to.
- Click on the Format tab.
- Click on the Shape Outline button from the Shape Styles Group.
- Click on the Arrows button.
- Click on the Arrows type that you want.
- Click on Close.
Modifying a Line
- Click on the line that you want to add the arrow to.
- Click on the Format tab.
- Click on the Shape Outline button from the Shape Styles Group.
- To change the thickness of line click on Weight.
- Choose the thickness you want to apply to the line.
- To change the style of the line click on Dashes.
- Choose the style of the line you want to apply to your line.
- Click on Close.
Formatting a Line
- Click on the line that you want to format.
- Click on the Format tab.
- Click on the Format Shape Dialog Box launcher from the Shape Styles Group.
- Adjust the various settings to change the formatting.
- Click on Close.
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