March
2006
Tidbits
- Sort by month and day names, not alpha (MS Excel)
- Custom bullets (MS Word)
- Firefox Help
- Adieu
Sort by month and day names, not alpha
Admittedly, I am not a smart Excel user. I know what I know because I needed to accomplish a certain task and taught myself how to do it. Well, here's the latest bit of knowledge I have gathered. (Power Excel users might find this one a no-brainer, but it was a bit tricky for me.)
I had a column of day names and I wanted to sort them chronologically, but when I went to sort I could only sort alphabetically. After some poking around, I found how to do it:
- Select any cell in the column of day name data.
- Select DATA > SORT from the menu bar.
- Click on the OPTIONS button at the bottom of the Sort window.
- On the First Key Sort Order drop down list, select the custom sorting option that fits your needs.
- Click OK and OK again.
This works for month names, too. Pretty simple!
Custom bullets (MS Word)
Sometimes I get tired of using the same old black circle bullets that are the default option for lists in Word. Today, for example, is the first day of Spring. Wouldn't it be nice to create a happy spring bullet to use in all of your documents to welcome days of sunshine and fresh air? Here's how:
- Create your list and highlight it.
- Select FORMAT > BULLETS AND NUMBERING from the menu bar.
- Click on the CUSTOMIZE button.
- Click on the PICTURE button.
- Search for a picture to use by entering a keyword in the Search Text box or Import a picture using the Import button at the bottom of the window.
- Click on the image you want to use for your bullets and click OK.
- Click OK again.
Now your selected picture will be converted into buttons to pep up your document. I chose a sun:
Part of the trick is to select a picture that will be easy to recognize when it is resized down to bullet size. Play around and see what you can come up with. Happy Spring!
Firefox help
Most of the OWLS staff are using Mozilla Firefox for our Internet browser, and, as we stated in Browser Recommendations last July, you are welcome to try it on your staff computers if you so choose. If you have downloaded Firefox and have been using it, you might find some of the tips and tricks they include on the Firefox Help section of their web site rather interesting. My favorites are the Mouse Shortcuts. Take a look and see if you find anything useful.
Adieu
Farewell until next time from the library system where all the computers are fast, all the books are worth reading, and all the librarians are above average!
This issue of Tidbits was written by Beth Carpenter, Web Services Manager for the Outagamie Waupaca Library System. Please send any comments or questions about this issue to Beth.
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