How to Pin an Email to the Top of Your Inbox in Outlook

How to Pin an Email to the Top of Your Inbox in Outlook

Outlook
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] Pinning the E-Mail Message Do you have important emails you need to be able to quickly access from your Inbox in Outlook? How to pin an email to the top of my Inbox, you ask? Here is how I effectively "Pin" an e-mail message to the top of my Inbox. There are a few ways to accomplish this. The first two approaches try to make due with the version of Outlook you may have. The last option presented is for a built-in feature. Option 1: Use the Task Pane First, I keep the Task Pane in view. Next, when I want to Pin an e-mail message, I set the Follow Up flag to No Date. That way, those messages are at the top of my Tasks list always.…
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How to Create a Burn Down Chart in Excel (Excel Burndown Chart)

How to Create a Burn Down Chart in Excel (Excel Burndown Chart)

300 level, Excel
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] What’s an Excel Burndown Chart For? In agile or iterative development methodologies such as Scrum an Excel burndown chart is an excellent way to illustrate the progress (or lack of) towards completing all of the tasks or backlog items that are in scope for the current iteration or sprint. Excel can be an effective tool to track these iterations, or sprints, as well as report on the progress using a burndown chart in Excel.We’ll break the task of creating an Excel burndown chart into four main groups. Set up the sprint’s information.Set up the work backlog.Set up the burn down table.Create the chart. Setting up the Sprint Information for Your Excel Burndown Chart The key thing the Burn Down chart will show is a plot of the amount of…
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How to pick a random value from a range of cells in Excel

How to pick a random value from a range of cells in Excel

200 level, Excel
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] How to pick a random number from a range of cells Here's how to pick a random number from a range of cells in Excel. And actually, it doesn't need to be a number. If you have a range that contains data (names, numbers, dates, whatever) and you need to randomly select a value from that range, you can use the pwrRANDFROMRANGE function. It's as easy as selecting the range. See below. Example Let's say you have data contained in a range of cells between A1 and D200. Let's say this range contains a set of names and you want to randomly select one. You would use the following formula in Excel. =pwrRANDFROMRANGE(A1:D200) If your data is contained in a single column. No problem. pwrRANDFROMRANGE works just as well with…
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How to X out a cell in Excel – a visual How-to

How to X out a cell in Excel – a visual How-to

100 level, Excel
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] X out a cell in Excel There are a couple ways to cross out a cell in Excel. My favorite way is shown first, but a more manual option is also shown right after the first. Both methods are outlined below. Method 1 (my favorite way to cross out a cell): Add a Small Tool - Make Excel Better Easily cross out cells with a click You can add a tool into Excel that will make it super easy to cross out cells. Or if a cell is crossed out, uncross it out. You can use the tool to set the line color, set the thickness of the line, and choose between a solid line or a dotted line for the "X". Or, you can right-click the highlighted…
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How to fix a VLOOKUP error in Excel

How to fix a VLOOKUP error in Excel

200 level, Excel
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] VLOOKUP error in Excel Ever have this happen? You write your VLOOKUP formula and have one of the following values returned: #VALUE! #NAME? #N/A #REF! Other UNEXPECTED result! Below you’ll find some common pitfalls that cause each of the errors above. VLOOKUP function syntax First, here’s a recap of the usage syntax for the VLOOKUP function in Excel. I’ll be referring to the parts in the explanations below. VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, column_index_number, [range_lookup]) For more detail on the arguments, see the function's documentation page. VLOOKUP errors in Excel #VALUE! error causes in VLOOKUP column_index_number is less than 1 In an effort to retrieve a value that is to the left of the lookup column, you may be tempted to put in a value less than one. However, VLOOKUP only finds…
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How to drag and drop columns in Excel

How to drag and drop columns in Excel

100 level, Excel
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] This is a quick little tip that makes it really easy to move columns of data around in Excel. It's basically a drag and drop operation - basically. In the example below, we'll just move the data in column C over to column B. When done, the column headings will be in order: First Column; Second Column; Third Column. [caption id="attachment_3350" align="alignnone" width="588"] Sample worksheet[/caption] First, select the entire column. To select a column, click the column heading (one of the letters or double-letters). Don't select a cell and try and highlight everything - just click the column heading. In this example, click the "C" so that we can move column C. [caption id="attachment_3351" align="alignnone" width="586"] Select the column to move[/caption] Next, hover your cursor over one of…
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How to create a boxshot using Word

How to create a boxshot using Word

Word
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] You don't need to buy a graphics package or download an app to create a nice looking box shot. You can create a box shot like the one pictured below using only Microsoft Word. Step-by-step instructions on how I created the images below are below. Now you can see how to create a boxshot using Word. Boxshot Examples This method would work to create any number of boxes, jewel cases, or even book covers. The examples below show two wire frame versions of a box and of a jewel case. Below that is the more final version. [caption id="attachment_3258" align="aligncenter" width="421"] Sample boxshots created using Word.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3234" align="aligncenter" width="175"] Sample wire frame boxshot created using Microsoft Word.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_3235" align="aligncenter" width="158"] Sample jewel case wire frame created…
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How to Hide Gridlines in Excel

How to Hide Gridlines in Excel

100 level, Excel
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] I've got this question several times. How do you hide the gridlines in Excel? It's a really quick task as you can see below. For each of Excel 2013, Excel 2010, and Excel 2007 you can click the View tab in the Ribbon. In the Show group, uncheck the Gridlines checkbox. Now you know how to hide gridlines in Excel. To show gridlines in Excel, just check the Gridlines box. There you go.
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How to Bulk Import to SharePoint from Excel with a Choice Field

How to Bulk Import to SharePoint from Excel with a Choice Field

400 level, Excel, SharePoint, SharePoint Designer, Workflow
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] Scenario: Import to SharePoint from Excel Do you have a large SharePoint list with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of items? And, are some of the columns in your list choice fields based on lookup values from other SharePoint lists? If you have data from an Excel file that you need to import to SharePoint from Excel, you’ll quickly find that a straightforward copy and paste operation won’t cut it. However, with a bit of prep work you can absolutely do a bulk import of your data without having to write code, or buy a special add-in. Setting up for the Import You will need to do a bit of prep work before you can do the actual import. But this setup work is trivial compared to trying…
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Editing Text in a SharePoint List View or Data View

Editing Text in a SharePoint List View or Data View

InfoPath, SharePoint, SharePoint Designer, Workflow
[wp_ad_camp_1] [wp_ad_camp_4] Having Your Cake and Eating It Too SharePoint text fields (Multi line) have some limitations. In SharePoint, you can enable your text fields (of type Multiple Lines of Text) to keep a running revision history of all the changes in that field. This is great when you need to see the history of comments provided, for example. There are some limitations, however, that come along with that when viewing and editing text in a SharePoint list view. First, you cannot directly view the most recently text entered. You instead see a link to View items which just opens up the associated form for the item where you could see the text field and its history (not really that helpful). If you need to be able to show the most…
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