K2E Canada Office Tips December 2018


Excel Tips

Repeating Cell Contents

Summary: Have you ever wanted to repeat a value multiple times in a single cell? Here is an easy way to accomplish this task:

The Excel function that does this is the =REPT worksheet function:
 
The syntax is as follows:
 
=REPT(12345,5)
 
This formula repeats the text "12345" five times and expands the column to accommodate the new number.

Incrementing Months in Dates

There are times when I would like to increment the month, so that (for instance) August becomes September in the dates. This can easily be done using the =EDATE function. The syntax is as follows:

Let’s assume you have August 31st, 2018 in A1. In A2 you enter the following formula:

=EDATE(A1,1)

The formula works great at incrementing the month. You need to understand how the function works when the result of incrementing the month results in an invalid date. For instance, if the original date is 8/31/2018 and you use the formula, it returns 9/30/2018, the last valid day in September.

Controlling Page Breaks

There are two types of page breaks that can appear in an Excel worksheet: manual or automatic. You insert page breaks manually by using the Breaks tool on the Page Layout tab of the ribbon. Automatic page breaks are those that are calculated by Excel based on various settings, such as page size, margins, cell size, and the like.

Excel allows you to control whether page breaks are displayed on-screen (as dashed lines) by following these steps:
  1. Display the Excel Options dialog box under the File tab of the ribbon.
  2. Click the Advanced option at the left of the dialog box.
  3. Scroll through the available options until you find the Display Options for this Worksheet section.
  4. Using the drop-down list at the top of the section, indicate which worksheet you want to affect.
  5. Set the Show Page Breaks check box as desired. If selected, then Excel displays page breaks on-screen for the designated worksheet.
  6. Click OK.

Word Tip

Adding Drop Shadows to Paragraphs

Summary: Word allows you to quickly and easily add borders to your paragraphs. You can take this one step further by adding drop shadows to your text. A drop shadow is a type of border that is wider on two sides than it is on the other two. The result, especially when printed, is that the bordered paragraph looks like it is raised above the rest of the document.

To add drop shadows to paragraphs, follow these steps:
  1. Position the insertion point in the paragraph to which you want the drop shadow added.
  2. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  3. Click the down-arrow at the right side of the Borders and Shading tool (in the Paragraph group). Word displays a series of options.
  4. Click the Borders and Shading option. Word displays the Borders tab of the Borders and Shading dialog box.
  5. Select the Shadow option from the Setting area at the left side of the dialog box.
  6. Select line Style, Color, and Width using the controls provided in the dialog box.
  7. Click on OK to close the dialog box.
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