Welcome to another Microsoft Excel Tip. In this tip we will explain to you how you can set Excel to give you a notification of any task which needs carrying out, a number of days in advance of the deadline date.

There are a couple of ways in which you can do this and these will both be explained over the course of two tips in order for you to choose which way you think is best. The first option is to use Conditional Formatting.

Steps to follow:

1. Select the range of cells with dates to be compared C2:C6
2. Go to Format and select Conditional Formatting
3. From the dropdown list change Value is to Formula is
4. Enter =AND(C2-TODAY()>=0,C2-TODAY()<=30)
5. Click Format button
6. Select formatting options (Bold used below) and click OK
7. Click on Add button
8. From the dropdown list change Value is to Formula is
9. Enter =AND(C2-TODAY()<0)
10. Click Format button
11. Select formatting options (Italic, Strikethrough used below) and click OK
12. Click OK

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Have you been wondering how you can compare 2 ranges of data simultaneously in Microsoft Excel? Well in this tip, I will explain how you can do this using one of two solutions – first is by entering formula and the second is by using conditional formatting with the same formula.

The first method involves entering a simple formula in another identically sized and shaped range. You need to ensure that you select the range comparing to larger table.

Click on cell E1. In the Formula Bar type: =A1=Sheet1!A1 Ensure you do not have $ signs in reference links.

Now copy this formula to the right and then down for as many columns and rows you need to compare.

It will display TRUE for identical/duplicate cells and FALSE for new or changed cells.

The second method is about applying conditional formatting to one of tables. But in this case you will have to have both tables on one sheet.

Select the range A6:C10 stating from cell A6. This ensures that A1 is the active cell in the selection.

With this range selected, go to Home>Conditional Formatting>New Rule>Use a formula to determine which cells to format. Then type the formula =NOT(A1=A6) Click the Format button and choose the format to mark differences with.

I have used bold text.

Now simply click OK button.

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Have you ever wanted to be able to input Excel data into a PowerPoint presentation or a Word Document but never known how to?

Well this latest Microsoft Excel tip will show you how to do exactly this.

First of all, copy the data which you want to paste into either PowerPoint or Word and then open up Word or PowerPoint.

In Word 2007 the paste button is located beneath the Office button in the top left hand corner of the page. Click the small arrow beneath the paste button which will open up the paste menu and then select ‘Paste Special’

In the menu, select the ‘Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Spreadsheet Object. If the button on the left just says Paste, then the data is inserted and when you click the object, it becomes editable as though you are working in Excel.

If you select Paste link, then any updates you make to the spreadsheet will appear in the object which has been put into the Document/Presentation.

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This tip may be useful for people who handle payroll spreadsheets within businesses as it allows the user to input times that when added together exceed 24 hours.

In a normal situation, Excel will ignore any data which exceeds 24 hours so therefore you need to set the cells up not to ignore the data after the initial 24 hours. Here is how you do it:

Right click in the cell which you use to total up the number of hours and select Format Cells.

In the Format Cells dialog box, select the Number tab and edit the Custom Settings by inserting brackets around the H representing hours so it looks like [h]: mm.

Then click Ok and you will see that the formatting you have just done means that Excel now shows you the total data exceeding 24 hours

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Have you ever found yourself with an Excel database which has duplicate data and you have had to go through the entire database cell by cell to try and get rid of the duplicated data. Well here is an Excel Tip to help you out in the future to remove this duplicate data quickly and easily.

Follow these steps to remove your duplicate data:

Click on any cell in the database and then go to the ribbon at the top and select the Data tab.

Select the remove duplicates options which will in turn select the entire database and bring up the Remove Duplicates dialog box.

You will also see in this dialog box that all of the column headings are selected. From here you have two choices to choose from. You can either:

Remove only the records that match another record exactly in the database or Remove records which have duplicate data in only one or more columns.

To remove the records which match another exactly, leave all the column headings selected and then click ok.

If you just want to remove the records that have duplicate data in one or more columns, remove the check marks from the columns which you don’t want to include in your comparison and then click ok.

Remember: if something goes wrong, use Ctrl+Z on the keyboard to undo your actions.

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So you are currently using Excel to store a list of information but now that list has gotten too big to keep on scrolling through and has become a time consuming chore? You should import your data into Microsoft Access which offers you powerful database tools to handle all the information.

To start importing your data, follow these steps.

Step 1: Open Access and create a blank database. Once you have done this, Access automatically brings up a table. You can close this table as it isn’t needed.

Step 2: Click the External Data tab at the top of the page and then select Excel in the Import category which will in turn bring up the Get External Data – Excel Spreadsheet wizard to help you input the data.

Step 3: Browse for the worksheet which contains the information that you would like to put in the Access database and then select the button labeled Import the source data into a new table in the current database. Click on OK to continue.

Step 4: If you have different worksheets in the same document, select which worksheet it is that you want to import and then click Next to continue.

Step 5: Next, if the spreadsheet you’re using has column heading in its first row, click the box, if not names will be generated and you’ll be able to change them later on. Then you click on Next again.

Step 6: The next screen gives you the option to leave any column that you don’t want to import out. In order to do this, you start by clicking on the first column in the preview area. If you don’t want to import that column into the table, put a check mark in the box next to Do not import field and move on to the next column. To change the name of a field, use the Field Name box to change it and then just select which type of data is in the column itself.

Step 7: Next you have to choose a Primary Key if you want one.

Step 8: Input a name for the table in the box under Import to Table and then click Finish.

Step 9: You’ll now be asked whether you want to save the import steps or not. If you are importing more than one worksheet with the same layout then you can choose this option to save you time importing future worksheets. Click close and your new table will be shown in your database.

Whilst using Microsoft Excel, do you save all your Excel worksheets to a specific folder and are tired of searching for that folder each time you want to save a worksheet? Well in this tip, I will tell you how to set Excel up so that it saves to your designated folder each time.

First of all, click on the Microsoft Office button in the top left hand corner of the page and then scroll to the bottom to Excel Options.

You then select the Save tab at the side and look for the Default File Location box. In that box you put the folder which you want to save your Excel worksheets to which you can just copy and paste from the folder itself.

Then just click Save and you’re done.

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In Microsoft Word, when you make a spelling mistake in your text, Word automatically shows you that you have made a mistake by underlining the affected words with a red line.

I was asked this week to see if there was a way to get Microsoft Excel to act like Microsoft Word in the way that it recognizes spelling mistakes automatically and highlights them to bring them to your attention. After looking into this I found that unfortunately there isn’t a way to get Excel to recognize and highlight any mistakes you make whilst filling in the spreadsheet. However to correct any mistakes that you have made in Word, you can either press the F7 key on your keyboard or right click over the mistake and Word will offer you suggestions for the correct spelling.

To turn on/off this feature, follow these steps:

Click the Microsoft Office Button in the top left corner, and then click Word Options and select Proofing.

If you want to just turn the checker on for the document you are working on, do the following:

Under Exceptions for, click Name of currently open file and select or clear the Hide spelling errors in this document only and Hide grammar errors in this document only check boxes.

If you want to turn the checker on/off for all documents you create from now, do the following:

Under Exceptions for, click All New Documents and select or clear the Hide spelling errors in this document only and Hide grammar errors in this document only check boxes.

The only tool that comes close to doing this job in Excel is the Auto-correct option which can identify and correct common mistakes and typos such as replacing teh with the.

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While entering data in Excel worksheet you may find yourself using the keyboard a lot. If you take your hands off the keyboard to use the mouse, it will slow you down. An alternative is to use keyboard shortcuts instead of a mouse. Below are my 10 most favoured key shortcuts in Excel 2007! To use them, simply press two keys shown in the brackets < > simultaneously.

<Ctrl> + <A> – Selects an entire worksheet

<Ctrl> + <C> – Copies the selected cells

<Ctrl> + <V> – Pastes the selected cells

<Ctrl> + <X> – Cuts the selected cells

<Ctrl> + <Z> – Undoes the previous command, if possible

<Ctrl> + <Y> (or <F4>) – Repeats the last command or action, if possible.

<Ctrl> + <S> – Saves the current work

<F2> – Enables editing within a cell

<F11> – Creates a chart from the selected data.

<Alt> + <=> Inserts the AutoSum function.

If you are working on a very important worksheet, use <Ctrl> + <S> regularly to prevent your data from being lost accidentally.

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If you find that gridlines in your Excel worksheets are distracting, make them invisible!

To turn off the gridlines in Excel 2007, follow these steps:

1. From the Ribbon, click the View tab.
2. In the Show/Hide section, clear the Gridlines check box.

Now your gridlines are hidden.

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