Microsoft Office

Part I
Getting Started with Excel
TIP
You also can access a mouse-oriented version of AutoComplete by right-clicking the cell and
selecting Pick From Drop-Down List from the shortcut menu. Excel then displays a drop-down
box that has all the entries in the current column, and you just click the one that you want.
Keep in mind that AutoComplete works only within a contiguous column of cells. If you have a blank row,
for example, AutoComplete identifies only the cell contents below the blank row.
If you find the AutoComplete feature distracting, you can turn it off by using the Advanced tab of the Excel
Options dialog box. Remove the check mark from the check box labeled Enable AutoComplete For Cell
Values.
Forcing text to appear on a new line within a cell
If you have lengthy text in a cell, you can force Excel to display it in multiple lines within the cell. Use
Alt+Enter to start a new line in a cell.
When you add a line break, Excel automatically changes the cell’s format to Wrap Text. But
unlike normal text wrap, your manual line break forces Excel to break the text at a specific
place within the text, which gives you more precise control over the appearance of the text than if you rely
on automatic text wrapping.
NOTE
TIP
To remove a manual line break, edit the cell and press Delete when the insertion point is
located at the end of the line that contains the manual line break. You won’t see any symbol to
indicate the position of the manual line break, but the text that follows it will move up when the line break is
deleted.
Using AutoCorrect for shorthand data entry
You can use Excel’s AutoCorrect feature to create shortcuts for commonly used words or phrases. For example,
if you work for a company named Consolidated Data Processing Corporation, you can create an
AutoCorrect entry for an abbreviation, such as cdp. Then, whenever you type cdp, Excel automatically
changes it to Consolidated Data Processing Corporation.
Excel includes quite a few built-in AutoCorrect terms (mostly common misspellings), and you can add your
own. To set up your custom AutoCorrect entries, access the Excel Options dialog box (choose Office ➪
Excel Options) and click the Proofing tab. Then click the AutoCorrect Options button to display the
AutoCorrect dialog box. In the dialog box, click the AutoCorrect tab, check the option labeled Replace Text
As You Type, and then enter your custom entries. (Figure 3.6 shows an example.) You can set up as many
custom entries as you like. Just be careful not to use an abbreviation that might appear normally in your
text.
44