Praxis

Volume 10   Issue 1 February 2006

Experimenting with Excel - Enhancing Images and Other Tricks

A picture cropped to an effective and visually pleasing size must be worth a million words!  Cropping a picture on Excel is easy, simply:

• Chose the picture you wish to crop, clicking on it once.

• Click the Crop button from the Picture toolbar.

• Using the mouse, drag any of the "handles" (small white squares) toward the center of the picture.

Now you have just the part of the picture you want!

To add some zest to your Excel, try making an existing AutoShape look 3D. 

• Select the AutoShape option.

• Click the 3D button from the Drawing toolbar.

• Choose which 3D style you want.

• Your AutoShape will be in 3D!

Your Excel will now be extraordinary!

Put and end to wasting your time--and frustrating yourself!  Sick of entering a mixed number or a fraction and having it automatically formatted as a date?  Arm yourself with this knowledge!

Entering fractions and mixed numbers into Excel cells:

• Enter the first number.

• Hit Spacebar.

• Enter the fraction.

• For entering a simple fraction:

• Enter the number 0.

• Then enter fraction into the cell.

• Without the 0, Excel will assume you are entering a date.

• To view the decimal form of the fraction, click on the cell and look on the Formula bar.  Here the fraction is displayed as a decimal for you!