Susan Harkins

We tend to view spreadsheet data as a whole, and that’s as it should be. Seldom does a single column of values mean much to us without some related data to define it. Together, seemingly useless values become information. In fact, that’s the definition of data and information. Information is an aggregate — a collection …

Multitasking is the name of the game anymore. Computers haven’t made things easier for us. Instead, they made it easier for us to accomplish more. For instance, you may find yourself trying to answer e-mail, schedule meetings, and log calls at the same time. If you’re using Outlook, you don’t have to close one task …

Running totals are used to update totals within a series in Microsoft Excel. For instance, you might use a running total to track an account balance, enrolling students, or even inventory. Usually, a simple expression that adds the previous total to the latest value does the trick. Susan Harkins shows you what to do when a business rule throws a monkey wrench into the works, requiring the use of conditional running totals.

A custom AutoFill series is a list of values you enter frequently. This list might consist of employee names, department names, and so on. The problem is that you enter them over and over. You can save time by creating an AutoFill series in Excel 2003 as follows: Enter the values and then select the …

Most of the Office applications let you insert shapes. One shapes is a line; however, laying a straight line can be tricky. Test it for yourself. In any application, display the Drawing toolbar by choosing Toolbars from the View menu and then selecting Drawing. Click the Line tool, click anywhere, drag a few inches and …

Outlook comes with two types of built-in command bar objects, the Menu Bar and toolbars. Only one Menu Bar is allowed, but you can customize both it and the built-in toolbars.

To address a new e-mail message, you may click the To button to display all your contacts. By default, Outlook displays the names in alphabetical order, by first name. If you have many contacts, you might prefer to see the list in last-name order. Fortunately, it isn’t that difficult to make the switch. To display …

I love it when I find a keyboard shortcut that eliminates menu choices. Office is full of them and I’m still discovering them. Just the other day I discovered a couple that have been available for eons, I just wasn’t aware of them. There are two shortcuts for applying line spacing. Typically, most of us …

When you have a lot of users changing data, it’s easy for things to go wrong. But if you keep an audit trail of data input changes, you’ll be able to determine which operators are consistently making mistakes (or not). You can also quickly fix problems before erroneous data wreaks havoc. This easy-to-implement solution will help you monitor who’s changing data and when.

Microsoft Access lets users print data while browsing records in Form View, but it prints all of the records in the underlying recordset, not just the current one. By adding a command button and the subprocedure presented here, you can give users an easy, one-click tool for printing only the current record.

Wildcards come in handy when you need to locate records with similar data or you’re trying to track down a specific record based on limited information. But if you don’t use the right wildcard characters the right way, you could wind up with the wrong data–a potentially app-corrupting nightmare. These tips will help you wield wildcards more effectively.

There’s no built-in way to generate a running total in your Access queries, but you can still get the job done if you set up your table correctly and build the right expression. Database expert Susan Sales Harkins explains the technique.