Great software tips that can change your life

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Tips by LEVEL Basic Intermediate Expert

Categories Browser Excel Outlook Powerpoint Windows Word

Popular Topics Excel conditional formatting Excel dashboards Keyboard shortcuts Macros Short tips

What is Basic Level?

• These are tips that are quick and easy to learn and that you should definitely know.

What is Intermediate Level?

• These are tips that will require a bit more time and attention to learn.

What is Expert Level?

• There are tons of expert tips! If you are like me, we only scratch the surface of these tools. Here I’m posting tips that are relatively easy to learn (at the expert level) and can add a lot to your productivity very quickly.

I don’t describe every little detail. I leave it to you to follow up and figure out the easy stuff. Feel free to ask or comment.

Archives (newest first)

• Google, MS Office: Short tip: work in the cloud with Google Cloud Connect
• Browser: HTML code shorthand for tables
• Google Docs: Short tip: don’t reinvent the wheel – use templates
• Google Docs: dashboard experiment with spreadsheet in the cloud (Google Drive)
• Google Docs: experimenting with Speedometers in a GD spreadsheet
• Excel: easy correlation plots using pictures as background
• Excel: Short tip: Draw, Resize and Align Objects With Cell Borders
• Excel: having fun with X-Y plots and shapes
• Excel: a very simple dashboard to create impressive reports
• Excel: more gauges and speedometers – EASY
• Excel: industrial dashboard with semicircular gauges
• Excel: another speedometer or semicircular gauge
• Excel: Short tip: link the text in a shape to the contents of a cell
• Excel: coming soon – the medical dashboard
• Excel: quick and easy 10 alarm industrial dashboard
• Excel, Powerpoint: common pitfalls when building dashboards
• Excel: a dashboard mash up to show WIND DIRECTION
• Excel: Short tip: FORMULA to combine text and numbers in the same cell
• Excel: Short tip: mash up tables in a dashboard without worrying about columns and rows
• Excel: Short Tip: please don’t put FILTERS everywhere!
• Excel: take CONDITIONAL FORMATTING to next level – advanced tips for mere mortals (part 2)
• Excel: take CONDITIONAL FORMATTING to next level – advanced tips for mere mortals (part 1)
• Excel: how to find the sneaky blank cells fast!
• Excel: create a dashboard in a complex workbook in NO TIME! (part 2)
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• Excel: getting excited with dashboards and camera snapshots!
• Excel: how come very few people know how to group (OUTLINE) in Excel?
• Excel: Short tip: maximize your sheet work area
• Excel: Short Tip: AutoFit row height
• Excel: combining totally different charts in the same view
• Excel: live data from web connections are so easy in excel ! (part 2)
• Excel: live data from web connections are so easy in excel ! (part 1)
• Excel: spice your data table with easy and quick conditional formatting – 3
• Excel: forget about OFFSET and uses “TABLES”
• Excel: learn how to use VLOOKUP and jump ahead of the competition
• Outlook: Search folders 101
• Word: Short Tip: keyboard shortcut to remove all hyperlinks at once without deleting anything else.
• Excel: Macros: Short Tip: very short macro to delete all hyperlinks in a sheet
• Excel: Short Tip: delete all pictures in a sheet FAST, without VBA !
• Excel: Short Tip: dynamic charts made easy!
• Excel: use a doughnut plot to make a “speedometer” (or any other meter)
• Excel: create a dashboard in a complex workbook in NO TIME!
• Outlook: setting keyboard shortcuts for categories
• Excel: why aren’t you using CONDITIONAL FORMATTING? (part 2 – the Rule Manager)
• Outlook: keyboard shortcut to turn an email into an appointment or meeting invite
• Word, Powerpoint, Outlook: keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste line and paragraph formatting
• Excel: keyboard shortcut to move from sheet to sheet or go to a named range
• MS Office: keyboard shortcut to Save File As…
• Excel: browse any data table using forms in a flash – no extra work needed!
• Excel: keyboard shortcut to enter a value in several cells at the same time
• MS Office: hide the ribbon to gain screen space
• Excel: quickly display the formulas instead of the results
• Excel: Macros: the Record Macro button on the Status Bar
• Excel: why aren’t you using CONDITIONAL FORMATTING? (part 1)
• MS Office: Macros: recording macros and seeing code in real time
• Excel: display the sheet, filename and path in a cell using a formula
• MS Office: repeat the last action that you’ve just taken
• MS Office: add the Format Painter button to the QAT
• Browser: fastest way of refreshing the current web page
• Excel: how to display the ribbon with the Macro buttons
• Excel: enter the current date or time in a flash!
• Excel: a simple chronometer
• MS Office: inspect your files before you share!
• Excel: change the boring rectangular comment shape to something else
• MS Office: don’t start from scratch, use MS Office template galleries
• Excel: control cursor behavior when pressing Enter.
• MS Office: customize the Quick Access Toolbar
• Outlook : create a “Recent” search folder in your Favorites
• Powerpoint : working with layers (Part 2)
• Powerpoint : working with layers (Part 1)
• Powerpoint : who says PPT can’t do layers?
• Outlook : Collapse All Groups and Expand the Query Builder
• Powerpoint, Word : paste special as PNG, GIF, or JPG and not bitmap or WMF
• Browser : refresh
• Excel: how to create a dynamic pull down list (part 2)
• Excel: how to create a dynamic pull down list (part 1)
• MS Office : open, close, exit with shortcut keys
• Word : change the Paste Special default to “Text Only”
• Word : Insert a line above a Word table at the top of the page
• Excel : how to locate all merged cells on a worksheet
• Windows : keyboard shortcuts for copy, paste, cut, and undo
• Outlook: keyboard shortcut to start a new email
• Windows : jump from window to window and TAB to TAB with a keyboard shortcut
• Internet Explorer (and Google Chrome) : keyboard shortcut to open a link in a new tab
• Excel : filter your table based on a cell’s contents, font color or fill color
• Outlook, Word (and also Powerpoint) : easily move table rows, bullets and paragraphs up and down
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