How to Create A Microsoft Excel Macro

What is a Macro?
Simply put, a Macro is a series of steps to accomplish a task which can be recorded and then reused in the future.
For example: Let's say you have many steps that you use to create a report each month for your boss. Each month you may have the same spreadsheet, but with the current month's figures. Each month you setup the same Sums, Formulas, Text Formatting, Pivot Table, and maybe more.
This could be very time consuming if you completed these steps individually each month.

However, with a Macro, you can record the steps you complete each month. Once recorded, you setup a Shortcut Key to repeat these steps whenever you wish. This, simply put, is a Macro.
Macros are not unique to Excel, but for this instruction, we will use Excel as the example.
Recording a Macro involves following these steps:
1) Plan the keystrokes needed to complete the tasks (in our example above, it is the monthly formulas, text formatting, etc needed to create our report)
2) Click Tools | Macros | Record New Macro
3) Assign a Name for the Macro
4) Assign a Shortcut Key for the Macro
5) Click OK
6) Perform the steps needed to create your report (the steps you complete each month, which includes formulas, text formatting, etc)
7) Click on the Stop button on the Macro Toolbar to stop recording and Save the Macro
Now that the Macro has been created, you may want to test the Macro to confirm it completes all of the necessary steps that you wanted recorded.
Once you have tested, you are now ready to use the Macro each month when you are ready to create your report. Macros can help you accomplish tasks quickly and efficiently through this automated recording process.
To run the Macro, open the Excel spreadsheet you wish, and simply type the Shortcut Key you setup when you created the Macro.  Depending on the number of steps in the Macro, you may see Excel performing these steps, but quicker than you would have been able to on your own.  Once the Macro has run, you will see the completed steps that were performed.

Microsoft Word Quick Keyboard Shortcut Formating Tips

Just switched over to Microsoft Word 2007 from a previous version, but feeling a little dis-oriented with the toolbar and ribbon layout?

Well if you need to crank out a document fast before getting adjusted to the new interface, here are eight quick keyboard formatting shortcut tips to get you going…until you can get time to locate Word 2007 toolbar and menu commands.

1 – Copy Formatting Using The Keyboard

Instead of using paste special from the menu, you can copy just the formating properties of text with the keyboard.

Select the text whose format you want to copy

Press CTRL+Shift+C to copy the format
Select the text whose format you want to change
Press CTRL+Shift+V to paste the format to the selected text

2 – Quickly Changing Font Sizes

Word gives you a great deal of control over the size of the font used in your documents. If you want to change font sizes quickly, just follow these steps:

Select the text whose font size you want to change.

To increase the size of the font, press SHIFT+Ctrl+>
To decrease the size of the font, press SHIFT+Ctrl+<

To open the Font dialog box, press CTRL+SHIFT+F

Note: How much the font size is increased or decreased will depend on several factors. At smaller point sizes (12 or under), the size is changed by a single point. Between 12 and 72 points, you will step through the point sizes available in the Font group of the Home tab on the ribbon (12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 36, 48, and 72). The font size is then changed by increments of ten points. You can use this method to reduce a point size to a single point or to as large as 1638 points.
3 – Changing Text Case

Ever had the need to quickly change the case of a single character or word?

Select the text you want to change
Press Shift+F3 to change the case of the selected text.
Continue pressing Shift+F3 to cycle through three different case scenarios: ALL CAPS, all lowercase, and All Title Case

Change text to either upper or lower case:

To change text to just upper case (capitals) CTRL+SHIFT+A
To change text to just lower case (small capitals) CTRL+SHIFT+K


4 – Set Line Spacing

Position cursor on the line you want to set spacing.

Change to single space line press CTRL+1
Double-space lines press CTRL+2
Set 1.5 line spacing press CTRL+5

5 – Exclude Spaces When Underlining Words

By default, Word will underline all words including spaces. To only underline words but not spaces press CTRL+SHIFT+W


6 – Display Formating Properties Of Text Or Area

If you had a document sent to you and need to display what format was used either for a specific text or area, press Shift+F1 then click the text whose formatting you want to review.

Word will open a sidebar and display all formating information (font, language, paragraph, indentation, margins, layout, etc) of the selected text or area.

7 – Display Word Count

Although not technically a formating shortcut, knowing the word count of your document may be needed in certain formating situations you may have.
To view the word count and other information press CTRL+SHFT+G

8 – View Last Four Places That Were Edited

If you ever have a need to look at the last four places you edited, press ALT+CTRL+Z to switch between the last four locations.

How To Change The Default Location For Saving Microsoft Word Documents

Over the weekend I had a second hard drive installed in My Computer. I am a heavy Microsoft Word 2003 user and I create lots of Word documents for my business. The documents size can vary and I want to change the default location for saving to a folder on the new hard drive. How can I permanently change the location in Word?

By default Microsoft Office versions for Word saves documents to your My Documents folder (C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents) on Windows XP and to the Documents folder on Windows Vista (C:\User\Owner|Documents).

To change the default location for saving documents in Office version XP (2002) and 2003, open Word and click on Tools \ Options…

While one would think changing the setting would be found in the Save tab, it is actually found in the File Locations tab (circled).

After clicking on the File Locations tab, highlight Documents under File types: (arrow in screen shot above) then click the modify button. In the Modify Location window, navigate to a folder or new hard drive location where you want Word to save all documents to, and click OK,

Click OK again to close the Options window.
If you set up Microsoft Word to create automatic backup document copies, Word will also create the backup copies to the new location.