Non breaking spaces in MS Word

Perhaps you've heard of non breaking spaces, perhaps not, but you certainly should know how to use them.

On occasion you may want to override the way MS Word wraps text at the end of a line.  For example, you may want a person's name and surname to always appear on the same line or perhaps the date and year are separating and you'd prefer they didn't.

Looking at this example the name (which I've highlighted to make it easier to spot) has wrapped onto two lines.

In order to force MS Word to keep the name and surname together, I've replaced a normal space between the name and surname with a non breaking space.  Easily done.  Simple replace the existing space with CTRL SHIFT SPACEBAR

Whilst this is not something you're likely to use on a very frequent basis, it's a great little trick to know.

Formula Auditing in Excel

When you're viewing a formula, you would typically read the formula bar to determine which cells the formula uses, and this is where the distinct blue arrows of Formula Auditing make your life a lot easier.  

First, select a cell that contains a formula, then switch to the Formulas tab on the ribbon.   In the Formula Auditing group, click the Trace Precedents button.

Trace Precedents will send a blue arrow to all of the cells which are used in the creation of the formula that is currently selected.

If the cell that is selected does not contain a formula the Trace Precedents error alert will appear.

If you'd like to find out if a cell is required elsewhere on the spreadsheet, click the Trace Dependents button.  If the cell is used by any other calculation, a blue arrow will direct you to that value.

At any stage you can use the Remove Arrows button to clear the arrows on your screen.

This really is any easy way to figure out how your spreadsheets are inter linked, I certainly use it often when faced with assisting someone else with their Excel files - it helps me get to grips with their spreadsheets in half the time.

Using Quick Calculations

The status bar appears at the bottom of the Excel window and you are most likely familiar with finding settings like your zoom control here.  Naturally, there is far more use to the status bar than just zooming, and one of those things is activating the quick calculations.

These quick calculations are useful when you want to spot check values but don't necessarily need the resulting value to be placed as an independent value on the spreadsheet.

Right click onto the status bar.  This will display all the content that you could have displayed if you wish.  There is a section that is specifically for the quick calculations - typically Sum is already selected.  You may select any calculation types you like.

When you next select a range of cells containing values, the status bar will display the quick calculations that you have requested.