Jan 27, 2021
Secrets of Excel dates and numbers
This information isn’t meant to be ‘secret’ but I find that not a lot of people will tell you this about Excel. If you go back and read (or reread) [...]
Jan 12, 2021
Secrets of Excel dates
It’s not meant to be a secret, but do you know what Excel really stores dates as? I’ll give you a clue, have you ever typed a date into Excel and it [...]
Oct 28, 2020
Create a chart with a secondary axis in Excel 2016
If you have two series of data that are on very different scales you can change your chart to have two sets of axes, one on the left hand side (a primary axis) and one [...]
Sep 21, 2020
How-to: Make dates and currency in Excel show properly in a Word Mail Merge (Part 2)
In my previous blog I talked about one way to make your dates and currency show properly in a Microsoft Word mail merge. This time I’ll be showing you 2 other [...]
May 20, 2021
How-to: Make dates and currency in Excel show properly in a Word Mail Merge (Part 1)
There are three ways to make your dates and currency show properly in a Microsoft Word mail merge I’ll be showing you way number 1 in this blog and the other 2 in a [...]
May 13, 2021
Every Microsoft Word Keyboard Shortcut
I got a lot of great feedback about my list of all the Excel keyboard shortcuts so I decided to reveal my list of ALL the Word keyboard shortcuts. There is an [...]
Mar 17, 2021
Excel Keyboard Shortcuts
Every Excel Keyboard Shortcut…on one page! Clients often ask me if there is a keyboard shortcut for a particular action in Microsoft Excel. I’m not going to claim to [...]
Feb 29, 2021
3 Simple Pie Chart Tricks
In Microsoft Excel, here’s some data and a nice pie chart I’ve just made from this data. It’s a good idea when making a pie chart to only choose one row or column of [...]
Feb 22, 2021
Transparent Images in PowerPoint 2013
Here are two useful options to work with transparency of images in PowerPoint 2013. 1. How to make an image’s background transparent This is useful when you want [...]
Feb 08, 2021
Custom number formats in Excel
While Excel has plenty of standard formats for dates and numbers, if these don’t suit what you need, you can make use of custom number formats to display your data [...]
Dec 11, 2020
Fiddly actions with Word tables
Here are 3 quick ways to perform actions that can seem quite tricky but can actually be done fairly easily. 1. Make all the columns the same width Say you make a [...]
Nov 23, 2020
Ever typed a date into Excel and it turned into a number?
Before I explain why Excel might turn a date into a number I need to discuss how Excel stores data. When you type information into a cell in Excel, the program tries [...]
Nov 10, 2020
I wasn't meant to send that!
Recall a message in Outlook We've all done it before, we've clicked on Send before proofreading one of our emails, forgotten to upload an attachment into the [...]
Nov 03, 2020
Microsoft Word: Make an Exclusion Dictionary
Previously, we’ve talked about adding extra words to a ‘custom dictionary’ so that the spellchecker of Microsoft Word marks them as correct. But what about when you are [...]
Sep 24, 2020
No need for meeting notes anymore!
OneNote is a program that allows you to keep all your notes in one place, but I find some people in my OneNote courses ask “But why wouldn’t I just use Microsoft [...]
Sep 08, 2020
Do the Quick Step in Outlook
In Outlook, what is a quick step? It is a way to make a common action you perform in Outlook 2010 or 2013 take a single click. It isn’t like a Rule that often happens [...]
Aug 31, 2020
Creating Labels in Microsoft Word
You can create pages of labels using an Excel list and a Microsoft Word mail merge. Start in a blank document in Microsoft Word and click on the Mailings [...]
Aug 31, 2020
Creating Labels in Microsoft Word
You can create pages of labels using an Excel list and a Microsoft Word mail merge. Start in a blank document in Microsoft Word and click on the Mailings [...]
Aug 11, 2020
Spellcheck and custom dictionaries in Microsoft Word
Almost everyone who uses Microsoft Word has used spellcheck to fix spelling mistakes in their documents. However, when spellchecking a document you have several choices [...]
Jul 23, 2020
Creating a chart with a secondary axis
Here is how to show two different types of information on the same chart; especially if the two types of information are on different scales (one set of information is a [...]
Jul 13, 2020
Selecting Text in Microsoft Word
Before we do anything to the text we’ve written in Microsoft Word, such as formatting or copy and paste, we first have to select the text, or as some people say, [...]
Jun 22, 2020
Archiving old emails in Outlook
Quite a few people at my work seem to have trouble with archiving their emails. They get a tech person to set up archiving and then when something goes wrong, they can’t [...]
Jun 02, 2021
Creating Quick Parts in Microsoft Word
Quick Parts are a type of building block in Microsoft Word that allow you to insert a ‘standard clunk’ into your Word documents. They are great for ‘bits of a document’ [...]
May 18, 2021
Find a filter result without filtering in Excel
You may remember a previous blog post of mine about advanced filters previously. I recently had a student in one of our Excel Courses who was interested in filtering and [...]
Apr 28, 2021
Outlook rules rule!
Rules in Microsoft Outlook are a way to automatically manage emails coming into your inbox. The most common type of rule are those that move certain emails to folders [...]
Mar 06, 2021
The Best Excel Keyboard Shortcut
OK, I may be exaggerating slightly with the title because the ‘best’ keyboard shortcuts are really the ones we each individually use the most, and you may do different [...]
Feb 12, 2021
Manage emails in Outlook using the 4 Ds
In an earlier blog post, I talked about some of the ways to manage the flood of emails in Microsoft Outlook that we all seem to get these days. I spoke about Flags and [...]
Feb 06, 2021
Introduction to transitions and animations in PowerPoint 2010/13
Today, I’m going to talk about two features of Microsoft PowerPoint that really make PowerPoint a distinctive part of the Office suite - transitions and animations. Both [...]
Jan 27, 2021
Three really handy Excel keyboard shortcuts
Here are three keyboard shortcuts I find really handy in Microsoft Excel. These shortcuts each do something very useful they and are often hard to achieve using the [...]
Jan 13, 2021
Using Outlook flags and categories to manage emails
Here are two quick tips for managing emails in Microsoft Outlook. I’m not going to include ‘folders’ as one of the these tips even though they are a useful option for [...]
Jan 09, 2021
Setting up Outlook 2013 to suit your personal needs
When you move to a new version of Outlook, such as Outlook 2013, some of the programs settings and how the screen looks may change. Instead of just ‘putting up with’ [...]
Dec 12, 2020
Two ways to put a sticky note on your desktop
If you don’t have a pad of post-it notes on your desk but you need to make a quick note, you can create an onscreen reminder in a couple of ways. 1. Use Windows 7’s [...]
Nov 24, 2020
Comparing and combining two lists using VLOOKUPs
You may remember that in my last blog post, I talked about how to do a VLOOKUP in Microsoft Excel. Today, we are going to use VLOOKUPS to compare and combine two lists [...]
Nov 14, 2020
Charts that aren't charts
In Microsoft Excel, there are a couple of ways to create a 'chart that isn't a chart.' Each produces a graphical representation of data, but using different [...]
Oct 31, 2020
Doing a VLOOKUP that finds exactly what you want
A VLOOKUP in Microsoft Excel looks up and finds a piece of information in a list, a list like the one below: The V in VLOOKUP stands for vertical because you are [...]
Oct 14, 2020
3 easy ways to send a standard e-mail in Outlook
I was speaking with a Learning Solutions Advisor, Sean, at New Horizons about being able to efficiently respond to his clients through email. While discussing, I came up [...]
Sep 04, 2020
Create an advanced filter in Excel
Filtering is a common task in Microsoft Excel and the normal filtering (the ‘autofilter’) can do quite a lot of what you will need. However, there are some filters that [...]
Sep 01, 2020
Heading styles in Microsoft Word
Recently, one of the students in a Microsoft Word training course asked me whether it was a good idea to use the existing Heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2 Heading 3, [...]
Jul 10, 2020
Sync document properties in SharePoint and Word
It’s common to store Word documents in a SharePoint library. If that library has "versioning" turned on, then you may want to display the version number (or other [...]
May 26, 2021
VBA Excel: Finding the last row of a worksheet (Part 2)
In my last blog post, VBA Excel: Finding the last row of a worksheet (Part 1), I explained how to use the control arrows to find the last row of a worksheet in VBA [...]
May 15, 2021
VBA Excel: Finding the last row of a worksheet (Part 1)
When creating macros in Microsoft Excel, you often want to find the last row of data in a worksheet to be able to choose the correct area so the macro can do things with [...]
Feb 24, 2021
Saving a file with a unique name in Excel VBA
When creating macros in Excel (or another Office application), you often want to have the macro save the file of results as part of the macro. There are two main issues [...]
