Extracting the First Word in a String
Summary: There are times when you want to extract text from a cell. Here is how to extract the first word in a string:
To extract the first word in a string, a formula must locate the position of the first space character and then use this information as an argument for the LEFT function. Assuming the text is in cell A1, the following formula does that:
=LEFT(A1,FIND(" ",A1)-1)
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This formula returns all the text before the first space in cell A1. However, the formula will return an error if the text in A1 contains no space characters, because it is a single word. Use the new IFERROR function to display the entire cell contents, if an error occurs. Here's the formula:
=IFERROR(LEFT(A1,FIND(" ",A1)-1),A1) |
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Calculating a Remainder
Summary: When you divide two numbers, if the result isn't a whole number you end up with a remainder. Sometimes you need to know what that remainder is. Here is how to do this:
The solution is to use the MOD function which returns the remainder when you divide two numbers. For example, if you have 187 manuals to be divided among five offices, you would use this formula:
=INT(187/5)
The answer is 37
Now if you want to calculate how many books will be left over, you would use this formula:
=MOD(187,5)
The answer will be 2
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Summary: There are times when you need to update a column of figures by the same amount. Here is the quick way to do this:
Let assume that you have a budget worksheet and you want to increase the selling price of a list of products by 5%.
- In an empty cell enter the value 1.05
- Press Ctrl + C to copy the value in the above cell
- Select the range to be updated
- Select the Home tab on the ribbon
- Click on the Paste icon
- Click on Paste Special
- In the Paste Special dialog box select Multiply
- Click OK
All of the values in the selected range will now be increased by 5%. Note there will be no formulas in the cells.
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Deleting Page Borders
Summary: There are times when you would like to delete the borders around a page. Here is how to do this:
Sometimes when you have added a border around a paragraph in your document, you may later want to remove the border. Here are the steps to do this: - Click inside the paragraph from which you want the border removed.
- Click on the Home tab of the ribbon.
- Click on the down-arrow at the right side of the Borders tool in the Paragraph group.
- Word displays a series of options.
In the options box click on No Border. Word then removes the border from the paragraph.
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