Tame your computer - keep your Options open

In her regular series for Cambridge Network members, software training expert Karen Roem offers handy tips to help you 'Tame your computer'. This week she warns users not to ignore Clippy in disguise (Microsoft Office)...

Do you remember Clippy - the animated paper clip - killed off by Microsoft in 2003?

OK, it might have been annoying, but it offered some great time-saving features that were not easy to ignore. Clippy, Rocky the Dog, Links the Cat, The Genius or whatever Office Assistant you had selected were replaced by tiny smart tags. But I frequently encounter delegates who are unaware of these subtle alternatives.

So here are my favourite three:

  1. Paste Options.
  2. Auto Fill Options.
  3. Insert Options

Next time paste doesn’t do what you want, or you fill cells with data that didn’t follow your expected pattern or you don’t like the format of inserted rows or columns, look out for “Clippy in disguise”. By all means ignore it if all’s fine, but click on the small Options button below the selection and check out the list of choices.

Have a look at the following tips for inspiration:

·         Easy way to convert formulas to values

·         Display the Auto Fill Options on the fly

·         Keep the column width when pasting

·         Format inserted rows or columns on the fly

·         How to quickly insert a comment in multiple cells

·         Stop AutoFill

·         Convince Excel you want to type July 2010

·         Quickly increase a list of numbers by one

·         Match destination formatting

·         How to quickly change columns to rows or rows to columns

·         Clippy gets clipped

 

Upcoming courses

Thu 25 April

Microsoft Excel Manage and summarise data

Mon 29 April

Microsoft Word Intermediate

Tue 30 April

Microsoft Excel Getting Started

Tue 30 April

Microsoft Excel Further Use

Wed 08 May

Microsoft Excel Introduction

Thu 09 May

Microsoft Excel Intermediate

Fri 10 May

Microsoft Word Advanced

15 April 2019

Karen Roem offers software training and support through her company Roem Ltd.  Contact her by email (Karen@roem.co.uk) or visit her website at  www.roem.co.uk

 



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