Sunday, November 20, 2005

Entering Fractions in Excel
Enter 1/4 in any unformatted cell in a worksheet and Excel assumes we have entered a date. It displays what we keyed in the format 4-Jan and assumes the current year (2005). The actual value stored in the cell becomes 38,356, the number of days since 1-1-1900.

What if we wanted to enter the fraction 1/4 and not the date?

We can select the cell, then pre-format it to fraction by clicking Format > Cells > Number tab > Fraction > OK. Then we enter the 1/4 and it remains a fraction.

Yes, there is another way. In an unformatted cell, enter a zero followed by a space, then the 1/4. The zero-space overrides the default Date formatting and creates the Fraction formatting.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Another Excel Shortcut
In Word inserting a date is pretty straightforward; there is a menu option for it using Insert > Date. In Excel you can search all you want in the Insert menu without ever finding Date as an option. Sure, there are functions like =TODAY() to display the current date every time the worksheet opens. With =NOW() you are given date and time. To insert a fixed date or the time right now, like in a time stamp, you might think you have to just type it in.

Recall from a previous entry Ctrl+; results in the current date (system date) being inserted into the active cell. There is also an easier way to insert the system time; Shift+Ctrl+;
Free Web Based Word Processing and More
On the road and without your full office suite of products? Or perhaps you have acquired a great notebook but have not wanted to part with any more cash to get a full office suite. There is an alternative thanks to gOFFICE. This is an office suite available online. All you need is an Internet connection and a browser. The Word Processor and Desktop Plublishing pieces are up and running. Fonts and spellchecker and more. And since it uses HTML behind the scenes, you can display the source making it a simple HTML WYSIWYG editor as well.

You have to try this one out! The Spreadsheet and Presentation pieces are still in Beta. Free to try and free to use. There are additional features if you sign up for the pay for option. Try it at http://www.goffice.com/