"Microsoft Excel Tricks: Discover Even More Tips for You in Using Excel 2003."

1.) How to Ensure Proper Data Entry with Validation?

Data validation rules in Excel automatically check an entry made by a user against rules you have preset in the worksheet. This is helpful when you have formulas that depend on certain expected input from the user. These formulas can often return errors if the format of the entered data is wrong.

To set data validation rules, follow these steps:

• From the Data menu, click Validation.
• From the Data Validation dialog box displayed, click the Input Message tab.
• In the Input Message tab, insert the messages to display in the Title: and Input Message: boxes.
• Click OK.

This message will appear in a pop-up, note-style display. It can be used to provide users with information about what data you expect them to enter. You can also provide a message from the Error Alert tab if the data entered does not meet your rules.

2.) Link from Web Page to a Specific Worksheet Cell

Did you know that you can control which worksheet is displayed when you open a particular workbook in your Web browser. For example: http://www.msoffice-tutorial-training.com/test.xls#Sheet3!C2 will open your file called test.xls and then select cell C2 on Sheet3.

Using this kind of linking, you can specify exactly where you will enter the workbook. This can be helpful if you insert the link to a Web page that asks the user to enter data in a particular cell or area of a sheet. You can select the cell for them when they click the link.

3.) How to Express Yourself with Comments?

If you received a workbook and the formatting was a mess, and there were formulas everywhere. How do you feel if all those formatting and formulas are not properly explained?

It's time to get your users into the habit of documenting workbooks with comments. A cell with a comment is marked with a small red triangle in the upper-right corner. You can easily add a comment to a cell by clicking Insert menu, choose Comment.

Then enter the text descriptions into the cell. These descriptions are visible only if you hover the mouse over the cell.

Excel's Reviewing Toolbar facilitates working with the comments in a workbook. The options on this toolbar allow users to add and delete comments and move from one comment to another in a workbook.

4.) Few Clicks Clear Out All Excel Comments!

As handy as comments can be in annotating the information in a worksheet, you may sometimes want to delete them once they've served their purpose. The fastest way to handle this is:

• From the Edit menu, click Go To.
• Click the Special button and then select the Comments option.
• Click OK button.
• Go to the Edit menu again and point to Clear and to select Comments. Excel will delete all the comments and their text from the current worksheet.

5.) Several Users Work on the Same Workbook Together!

If you have several users who need to work from the same workbook at the same time, familiarize yourself with Excel's Shared Workbook feature. This feature can be a lifesaver when workbooks must be updated by multiple users.

You can set options that control when changes are updated and how to handle conflicting edits by different users. You can also choose to save updates when a user clicks Save, or you can specify a time interval for Excel to automatically save user updates.

To use this feature:

• From the Tools menu, click Share Workbook.
• From the Share Workbook dialog box displayed, in the Editing tab, check Allow changes by more than one user at the same time option.
• Click the Advanced tab and do the necessary settings.

You can decide how changes should be logged by the Track Changes feature, which integrates with workbook sharing. That way, you can see exactly what changes were made to cells, when sheets were added or deleted, how conflicting edits were resolved, etc. Users can also see the names of all the other users who have the workbook open for editing.

6.) Copying Styles from One Workbook to Another?

Formatting workbooks to your desired styles can really take time. So why should you waste time re-creating these styles in multiple workbooks? Just copy the style from one workbook to another:

• Open the source workbook and the destination workbook.
• Make sure that the destination workbook is active, go to the Format menu, and choose Style.
• From the Styles dialog box displayed, click the Merge button.
• From the Merge Styles dialog box displayed, select the source workbook from theMerge styles from: list box.
• Click OK twice.

I hope that those 6 Microsoft Excel tricks can really help you to discover more secrets behind the Excel 2003 program. Go to use it and put it in actions. If you wish to learn more Excel tips, click the links below:

Microsoft Excel Tricks: 6 Great Tips for You to Discover Some Excel 2003 Functionality

Excel 2003 Tips: Uncover 5 Tips to Improve Your Microsoft Excel Skills

Microsoft Excel Tips: 5 Secrets to Help You Work More Efficient on Excel 2003