Creating a Table in Excel?

When Microsoft Office 2007 first came out, my first thought about creating a table within a spreadsheet was why? Why create something that is less than what you already have to work with? Spreadsheets do so much more than tables do. Tables were for Word, not Excel. However, there is more to a table than simple color changes. This isn't Word's table, this is much more powerful and helpful.

As an example, here is a simple spreadsheet.

I’ve added the formula in column F to multiply the Unit Price times the Units. Now, this is a really short spreadsheet, but imagine if it were many items, say at least a couple of hundred or more. You can easily copy the formula down, but tables make this much simpler and also do more for you.

Here is the spreadsheet once I selected it and clicked on Insert Table.

 

Obviously, color and design has been added with Tables, however, additional helps are in there as well. Now when I add my formula in, I add it in the top row and it automatically copies the formula down all the way for me. One extra step that has been removed. In addition, I now have Table Options that allow me to add a Total Row easily and I have functions built in that I just have to click on the arrow in the cell and decide what I want to see. For instance, in the example above, the Units column I have selected to know the Sum of that column. In the Unit Price Column, I elected to use MAX that tells me what the largest Unit Price is in the column. (Remember, although I can readily see this with only three items, this would be a huge time saver for large lists. In addition, of course, the last column is the final total cost.

Note the arrows in the headers of each column as well. Here automatic filtering has been turned on so with one click on the arrow, there are different sorting options available which can help isolate particular inventory items.

I admit, I thought originally tables were nothing more than pretty color on a spreadsheet and I have found that they are much more. I suggest that the next time you build a spreadsheet or work with one, try converting to a table and see all of the available options that it provides. Tables are powerful tools and will help you make the best of your spreadsheets.

Working with Microsoft Word - Changing Capital Letters

Are you one of those people who types everything in capital letters? Maybe you aren't that great at typing so that's all you can manage? Typing in capitals is considered shouting when viewed electronically. It is preferable to avoid sending emails that way if you can avoid it. Fortunately, there are some easy fixes for this. If you have Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010, a new tool will allow you to instantly change your uppercase words all to sentence case. 

First, type your email out in Word instead of using your email program. 

Then select (highlight) all of your text that you wish to change.

Select the Aa from the Home Ribbon in the Font group. It's a drop down arrow that gives you several choices such as changing to uppercase, lowercase, capitalize each word and toggle case. 

Select sentence case to change all caps and then each sentence will have the first word capitalized. 

Now you can highlight all of your text, copy and paste it into your email program and you don't risk offending anyone by shouting. It’s also much easier to read a paragraph of sentence case versus all capitals. Happy emailing!