Tips

This page will carry some simple technical tips on some Microsoft Office Tools and some other software I have been using

December 2001

Share a workbook:

Many times when we want to do data collection, we find it painful to send e-mail to all the persons involved and ask for data and then enter the data in Excel sheet. I encountered this situation many times. Recently I found this Share a Workbook method much easier. It is possible to share a Workbook and enable more than one person to edit the file simultaneously.

To share a workbook:

Open the Excel Workbook.
Select Tools -> Share Workbook Option.
In Editing Tab - Select Option -> Allow more than one person to allow editing option.
Save the file in a Write Permission enabled share in Network.

This way I was able to resolve problem. But A shared workbook has lot of limitations. You can create Pivot Tables and cannot do lot more operations you can normally do in a workbook. But nevertheless this tip helped me do 'data-collection' in a simple manner.

Use Yahoo Companion:

I use internet both at home and work. Lot of times I find a site at work which I want to browse at home. Instead of sending the link by e-mail to my personal account, I have been using Yahoo Companion for last two years and I found it quite useful. Yahoo Companion when downloaded creates a tool bar. Using this I store my bookmarks. Whenever I launch my Internet explorer, yahoo companion logs onto my Yahoo Account and fetches all my bookmarks. To invoke a bookmark I select bookmark from Yahoo Companion menu that appears along with browser. This simple method saves me lot of time in looking up a bookmark immediately than search for the same link again and again. 

April 2000

Internet Explorer

Exporting and importing Favorites:For a long time I have been struggling to find a good way of archiving and arranging my favorite links. I found this optin in IE5.0 is good way of doing it. I used Export option in IE5.0 to export Favorites into a HTM file. I set this file as the default file when I launch Internet Explorer. Now the links I need are all visible and available in one single page. Isn't it good?

This option will also enable you to transfer cookies, favorites from one machine to another very easily.

Favorite Links: Don't you want your most frequently visited links to be available on the top? Did you know the favorites you add to your Links folder in Favorites can be made to appear as tool bar in your browser. I have done this and found it very easy fool. While adding a link to favorites select the default Links Folder. Now this will be available to you on the Links toolbar which gives the facility of single-click launch.

History Folder: In your internet explorer Press CTRL + H to have History folder appear on the left. Using this you can visit pages track the pages you have visited in last few days and select the link directly without having to recollect the same. I found this very useful.

March 2000

Microsoft Word

Repeat Heading of Table in each page: Did you know you can repeat heading across in Microsoft Word. Select the Heading Row and Select Table->Heading Option to set the row as heading. When the document is printed the heading will repeat across in each page.

Microsoft Excel

Did you know pressing ALT and = sign is the fastest way to insert autosum formula in Excel.

Internet Explorer:

Fastest Way to Go Back : Did you know you can use Backspace to go 'Back' from current page? It is the fastest way to do this.

History of Visits: Internet explorer keeps track of your visits and if you want to know what sites/pages you visited in last few days/weeks click on History Button (or Click CTRL+H) in Internet Explorer. Sites visited each day will be displayed