Newsletter Archives

In this edition:
Underlining Emphasis
Update Excel Charts with Filtered Data
Printing Background Email Images

We hope you're ready for more great tips this month.

Underlining Emphasis

Go ahead, give it a try...

Filtered Excel Charts
You've got a lot of data in an Excel spreadsheet and have a great chart that clearly shows everything. Problem is, you don't want to chart all of the data. You only need select parts of the data for your chart.

What to do?

Well, the first step is to use Excel's AutoFilter feature. First, select the header row - usually the topmost row of your spreadsheet. Then, select Data / Filter / AutoFilter.

You'll now see down arrows next to each column heading.

Then, simply click on the arrow and select the data you want. If you need a range of the column's values instead of just one, select the Custom option in the dropdown and simply let Excel know the criteria for the dropdown.

What about that chart? There's no need to do anything rash like deleting it and starting all over again - it will automatically update itself based on the data displayed after you've selected your filters.

Printing Background Email Images
You've received an email and printed it but the cool background image that was shown when you viewed the email on your screen didn't print. Why?

If you're using Outlook Express, it uses your Internet Explorer settings for printing. So, if you really want to print that email with the background image you need to start up Internet Explorer and go to Tools / Internet Options.

Select the Advanced tab and then scroll down to the Printing section. You'll see an empty checkbox next to the option "Print background colors and images". Make sure that checkbox is checked.

Printing background images (from emails or web pages) naturally uses more of your ink than if you didn't print them. It defaults to not being selected to be kinder on our environment. Don't forget to uncheck the box after you've printed any emails / web pages you wanted with the background images.

That's it for this month. We hope you find these tips useful and if you did, please share them!