Creating Random text in MS Word

Have you ever found yourself wanting to test a new format or design in a MS Word document but feel too nervous to use your real files "just in case".

I frequently need to test things out, but don't want the hassle of typing out a few paragraphs of text, of course I could search online for something to copy...but then I just end up getting distracted.

Fortunately, somebody who works at Microsoft has clearly had this problem too, and has given us an amazingly simple solution.  Type

=Rand()

into your MS Word document and you'll instantly get about half a page of text ready for you to use!

Now you have no more excuses to practice all the tips & tricks I'll be providing!  Go on... spread the word by clicking one (or all) of the sharing buttons below.

Removing all hyperlinks in a Word document

Nowadays we get so much information from other sources, but when we paste that data into Word documents, it often pastes with the hyperlink included.  You know... all blue and clickable as displayed in the picture below.

You probably know how to remove the hyperlinks by right clicking over them, but that can become tedious when you have quite a few spread throughout a long document.

An easy way to remove all hyperlinks is to press “Ctrl+A” which will select everything in the entire document, then press "Ctrl+Shift+F9"

This will remove all of the hyperlinks whilst still keep the original format of the text.

Let me know if there are any other topics you'd like to see featured in this Tips and Tricks blog and feel free to share this with others you think may find it useful.

Using Sparklines

A sparkline is a very small line or bar chart, but, unlike typical charts which are designed to show as much information as possible and are separate to the data (in some cases even on a different sheet) sparklines fit into a single cell allowing them to appear immediately alongside the data for greater impact.

• Click on the Insert tab on the ribbon and choose one of the sparkline styles.
• Highlight the cells containing the data for the sparkline and specify where you would like sparkline to appear.
• Click OK

Once the sparkline is in place, you will have an additional tab on the ribbon called Sparkline Tools, with all the formatting options available.

Are there any other Excel tips and tricks that you'd like to see next?  Let me know by leaving a comment and don't forget to share this post with others by using the buttons below.

How to add public holidays to your Outlook calendar

Many of us use the Outlook calendar to keep track of meetings and events, as well as birthdays and anniversaries of family and friends.  Rather less known is that you are able to add public holidays into your calendar in a few quick clicks.

Click the File tab and then choose Options from the menu list.

On the Outlook Options dialog box, click Calendar in the menu list on the left.  In the Calendar options section, click Add Holidays.

The Add Holidays to Calendar dialog box displays. Select the check boxes for the countries and/or religions whose holidays you want to add to your calendar. Click OK.

Click OK again to exit the Outlook Options window.  All the holidays for the countries and /or religions you have selected will now be entered into the calendar.

That's it.  Quick and easy.  Now go book your holiday!

Quickly reverse formatting in MS Word

I often come across people who say they "hate MS Word" as "it never does what I want".  And to be fair, their documents are misbehaving, but often this is caused by formatting errors.  And I'm not referring to using Bold or Italics in the wrong places.  MS Word has all sorts of format settings, (many of which can be a bit obscure if you don't know where or what to look for) which relate to paragraph spacing, or indents, or line breaks.

As you work on and edit a document you may be deleting text, or removing visible formats (colour, bold, italics etc.) but you may be leaving a footprint trail of non-visible formats.  Some of which will drive you insane when you can't figure out why that line of text won't move down, or why your automatic numbering won't indent.

  

To ensure that you have made a clean break from any formatting that may be present, use the Clear Formatting button on the Home tab

Do you face any challenges with your MS Word documents?  Leave a comment and let me know... you might be inspiration for the next installment of MissusMcK's tips