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Microsoft Excel Tip: Quickly Updating Values
Many people use Microsoft Excel to keep track of important information, such as price sheets or cost tables. This data is then used to help calculate proposals, or to figure out how much should be charged to customers. It is not uncommon to need to update information in these tables on a periodic basis. For instance, your company may decide that it will increase all prices in the company by ten percent this year.
If you have rather large pricing tables, you may not know the best way to update the prices by the ten percent. Obviously, you could make a secondary table, and then base the information in that table on a formula, such as =B3 * 1.1 . This is actually more work than is necessary, however. Excel provides a much quicker way to update values in a table by a uniform amount. Simply follow these steps:
Select an empty cell, somewhere outside the range used by your pricing table.
Enter the value 1.1 in the empty cell.
With the cell selected, press Ctrl+C to copy its contents to the Clipboard.
Select the entire pricing table. You should not select any headers or non-numeric information in the table.
The Paste Special dialog box.
Choose the Paste Special option from the Edit menu. Excel displays the Paste Special dialog box.
In the Operation area of the dialog box, make sure you select the Multiply option.
Click on OK.
Select the cell where you entered the value in step 2.
Press the Delete key.
If you are using Excel 2007, then the steps are slightly different:
Select an empty cell, somewhere outside the range used by your pricing table.
Enter the value 1.1 in the empty cell.
With the cell selected, press Ctrl+C to copy its contents to the Clipboard.
Select the entire pricing table. You should not select any headers or non-numeric information in the table.
With the Home tab of the ribbon displayed, click the down-arrow at the bottom of the Paste option (left side of the ribbon). Excel displays a drop-down list of pasting options.
The Paste Special dialog box, 2007-style.
Choose the Paste Special option from the drop-down list. Excel displays the Paste Special dialog box.
In the Operation area of the dialog box, make sure you select the Multiply option.
Click on OK.
Select the cell where you entered the value in step 2.
Press the Delete key.
That's it! All the values in your pricing table now show a ten percent increase from their previous values.
Copyright � 2009 by Sharon Parq Associates, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Thousands of free Microsoft Excel tips can be found online at excel.tips.net
Microsoft Word Tip: Inserting the Total Number of Pages in Your Document
It is not unusual to put a page number in your headers or footers, if you choose to use headers and footers with your document. You can also, however, insert a field that indicates the total number of pages in a document. This can be used in a header or footer, or directly within the text of your document. To insert the total number of pages in your document, follow these steps if you are using a version of Word prior to Word 2007:
Position the insertion point where you want the total number of pages to appear.
The Field dialog box.
Choose Field from the Insert menu. You will see the Field dialog box.
In the Categories list, choose Document Information.
In the Fields Names list, choose NumPages.
Click on OK.
The process of inserting a field is a bit different in Word 2007. Follow these steps:
Position the insertion point where you want the total number of pages to appear.
Make sure the Insert tab of the ribbon is selected.
In the Text group, click Quick Parts. You�ll see a drop-down menu.
The Field dialog box, 2007-style.
Choose Field. Word displays the Field dialog box.
In the Categories drop-down list, choose Document Information.
In the Field Names list choose NumPages.
Click on OK to close the dialog box and insert your field.
Copyright � 2009 by Sharon Parq Associates, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Thousands of free Microsoft Word tips can be found online at word.tips.net .
