 Using AutoFill to Just Select Workdays
Summary: AutoFill is a great time saving tool. Here is how to use AutoFill to just select workdays:
The AutoFill feature of Excel allows you to quickly fill cells with all sorts of information, based on the content of cells you select. For example, if you fill two adjacent cells with the words "Monday" and "Tuesday," and then select those cells, you can drag the AutoFill handle to fill other cells with other days of the week.
However let us us suppose that only want to fill cells with the workdays, Monday through Friday? To do this involves one small change to how you use the AutoFill handle. Instead of clicking and dragging it with the left mouse button, click and drag with the right mouse button.
As soon as you release the button, a Context menu will appear. Two of the options on the menu are "Fill Days" and "Fill Weekdays." If you choose Fill Days, then the range is filled with the names of the seven days of the week, the same as if you had used the left mouse button to do the AutoFill. The other option, Fill Weekdays, fills the range with the names of only the five days of the week, Monday through Friday.
 Changing the Default Font in Excel
Summary: If you do not like Calibra 11 as your default font when you open a new Excel workbook here is how you change it to your favorite font.
To change to a different default font involves the following steps:
- Display the Excel Options dialog box.
- In Excel 2007 click the Office button and then click Excel Options. In Excel 2010 and Excel 2013 display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.
- Click on Popular (Excel 2007) or General (Excel 2010, 2013 and Excel 2016) at the left side of the screen.
- Change the Use this Font drop-down list (Excel 2007 and Excel 2010) or the Use This As the Default Font drop-down list (Excel 2013 and 2016) to the font that want to use as your default.
- Click on the Font Size drop-down list to pick the size of font you want Excel to use.
- Click OK.
- Restart Excel.
Now every time you create a new workbook, Excel will use these settings as the default. The only times it won't is if you base a new workbook on a template or store a template named Book.xltx or Book.xltm in the XLStart folder. (In this second case, you've overridden how Excel formats a new workbook by whatever is set within the Book.xltx or Book.xltm template file.)
These steps won't change the font in any previously created workbooks; those stay as they were when you saved them.
Using the Shadow Style Tool
By using this tool you can add a drop shadow behind an object. This can help add more depth to your graphics, so that they will look like they are raised off the surface of the Excel worksheet.
- Start by selecting the object.
- The Format tab of the ribbon should be visible.
- In the Shape Styles group, click the Shape Effects tool.
- Excel displays a drop-down list from which you should select Shadow.
- The resulting options indicate the different types of drop shadows you can apply to the shape.
- You can also modify the shadow, once placed, by choosing Shadow Settings (Excel 2007) or Shadow Options (later versions of Excel).
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Deleting the Blank Pages at the End of a Document
Summary: Sometimes when you print a Word document you end up with one or two blank pages at the end. Here is how to get rid of those pages:
Why that happens is usually the fact that you have a bunch of empty paragraphs at the end of your document. Even though you can't see them on the screen (normally), they are there and take up extra space.
To delete the empty paragraphs do the following:
- Press Ctrl+End to go to the end of your document.
- Then press the Backspace key until you have deleted all the non-printing characters (such as empty paragraphs).
- When you are done the insertion point should be located next to the last character you want printed in your document.
To display the empty paragraphs that are at the end of your document do the following before you delete them:- Click the Show/Hide tool on the Home tab of the ribbon; it looks like a backwards P.
- When the tool is selected, you can see all the spaces, paragraphs, tabs, and other characters in your document. These are all the characters that normally don't show up on your screen.
This can be very helpful for figuring out why something doesn't look quite right in your document.
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