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Word and Excel

If you own Microsoft Office you know that this fantastic production package comes with a number of useful software applications which are geared toward meeting your home or business needs. The most commonly purchased version of Microsoft Office comes equipped with Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. While most people are very familiar with Word, Outlook and PowerPoint few people are aware of the powers of Excel. The prevailing attitude of the day seems to be that as long as Word is present, who cares about anything else. This is an unfortunate circumstance because Excel offers a number of invaluable features that everyone can make use of at home, in the office, or in the classroom. What Word is to text documents, Excel is to numbers, tables and charts.

A useful feature in Word is the Table menu which allows users to insert a table anywhere in a document and to modify that table by adding any number of formatting features. While it is sometimes necessary to add tables to text documents, there are a number of drawbacks. When tables are created in Word, they cannot be modified in a manner that maintains the documents original integrity. For example if you create a table that has 30 numbered items in alphabetical order, and you realize you are missing an entire row that has to be squeezed in, between Numlock and Pound, you will have to take a number of steps to correct the problem.

The first thing you will need to do is insert a row in the place where you would like the missing information to appear. Next you will add the data. After you do this, another step is required to rectify the numbers. The new row will not have a number. The best way to deal with the out of sync numbers is to cut them out from the place where the mistake occurred. Next you re-paste them starting from the new row. On the last row of the table, the new total number can be added, which in this example would be 31. If that seemed like a cumbersome and potentially dangerous method for modifying a table, it is because it is. With large data, the need to add a row could become much too problematic and confusing to be worth the risk of losing important information or confounding the information present. What should users do to avoid this? Use Excel. It is ideal for work with tables.

The best thing about Excel is that it has a certain amount of intelligence. It will do for you things that you wish for when constructing tables and chart. In the example given above, adding a row to a table created in Word, will result in renumbering. In Excel, the program will renumber the table for you when you add or delete a row. How is that for service! In addition to this, if you have created a column to list numerically each row, rather than having to input 1..2..3.. and so on you can have Excel fill in the column for you. In put the three beginning numbers of your list usually it will be something like 1..2..3. Next click on the cell with the last number you recorded. A small square will appear. Click and drag that square down and it will begin recording numbers sequentially.

Another benefit of Excel is that formulas can be written into the cells in order to engage in basic accounting operations. Excel is ideal for creating budgets, purchase orders and expenditure sheets. Totals are much easier to determine and modifications to the information in the chart will result in automatic adjustments.

In light of all that Excel can do for the home and business user, it seems odd that many people are reluctant to gain familiarity with the software. While more and more of those who work in the business sector are starting to use Excel, many others are not. Perhaps what is holding the rest of us back is a simple case of laziness. I know I have oft been reluctant to open Excel just because I was already working in Word. If you can identify with this, here is a simple piece of advice: Don't let Word prevent you from using Excel. It may look a bit intimidating at first blush but it will save you endless amounts of time once you master working in a spread sheet environment.

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