ADD PIZZAZ TO ARROWS AND POINTERS IN EXCEL SPREADSHEETS
When I do a presentation that includes spreadsheets, I usually use arrows to illustrate the relationship between numbers, and while it works OK, it lacks pizazz. Is there some way I can add more impact to my spreadsheets?

There are lots of things you can do—such as adding color, size and shape. Let’s look at the options. If you’re using Excel 2007, click on Insert and then on Shapes, which produces this menu:

Once you click on a shape, the Home Ribbon switches to Format and, depending on which shape you select, that menu automatically adjusts to the special options for your selection (see screenshot below).

Not only do you have many choices, but each shape is easily adjustable, for example, by grabbing its edge with your cursor and reshaping it, say, from…

In Excel 2003, however, you have fewer options and the customization steps are not as convenient. Begin by clicking on View, Toolbars, Drawing and then go to the bottom of the screen and either click on the simple arrow in the toolbar or click on AutoShapes, and then Lines if you want still more choices…

…or Block Arrows if you want an arrow that you can make a bit fancier…

and click on your selection. Now move your cursor to where you want it to appear in the worksheet and click. If you choose Block Arrows, you can customize some of the choices by clicking and dragging, for example:

Now, to gussy it up further, go to the toolbar on the top of the screen and click on Format, AutoShape and this screen will appear:

Make sure the Colors and Lines tab is selected, and now you can customize both the arrow line and arrowhead. You also can choose whether and how much you want the arrow image to be transparent so the data below can show through.

CUSTOMIZE EXCEL’S CURSOR DIRECTION AFTER ENTERING DATA
When I was using Excel 2003, I could easily adjust which direction the cursor would move—either to the right or down—after I entered data in a cell. But Office 2007 doesn’t seem to give me a choice. Is there a way to adjust that default?

There is, and it’s tucked under the Ribbon. And I don’t know whether you realize it, but as you’ll shortly see, you have more choices than moving it to the right or down. To access the default adjustment, click on the Microsoft Office Button and then on Excel Options at the bottom of the screen and on Advanced, which produces this screen:

In Office 2003, access the adjustment by clicking on Tools, Options, Edit, generating this screen:

UPDATE ON ERASING THE SHORTCUT ICON ARROWS
In the January 2008 issue (page 80), I told how to eliminate those annoying little arrows in Windows XP’s shortcut icons by running Microsoft’s free Tweak UI tool. At that time there were no free tools to do the job for Vista. Well, there is now—FxVisor (also called Vista Shortcut Manager) from Frameworkx. Go to www.frameworkx.com and click on “downloads.” In addition to just removing the arrow, FxVisor gives you these options: big arrow, small arrow, magnifying glass or nothing.

A BETTER WAY
In the January issue (page 82), I suggested an automatic way to open a group of Excel worksheets in just a few steps—a technique that is especially handy when you need to regularly reopen that group in the future. Several readers suggested a much ­better way to perform that task, applying Excel’s Save Workspace function

To use Save Workspace in Excel 2003, first open the files you want in the group and then click on File, Save Workspace (see screenshot below) and give it a name (it will automatically be given a .xlw extension).

If you wish, you can customize the setup before you save the file so that selected worksheets within each file will open, or you can even customize it further by having several sections of worksheets all open and arranged on one screen. To do that, click on Window, New Window and Arrange, which brings up this screen:

You can arrange the worksheet layout in a way that lets you easily access just the data you need, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Excel 2007 also has the Save Workspace function and, as expected, it’s accessed differently. Open the target files and then go to the Ribbon and click on View to access both New Windows (so you can display more than one worksheet) and Arrange All (to customize the display). The Save Workspace icon is farther to the right.

Since there is no limit to the number of Save Workspace files you can store, you may want to establish one for each client or business category.

SHORTCUTS

Enlarge screen view: Hold down Ctrl key and turn wheel on mouse—away from you to enlarge the screen view and toward you to shrink it.

Word: To toggle from variations of letter capitalization to lowercase, highlight the target words and press Shift+F3. The words will toggle between all lowercase, all uppercase or just the first letter of each word uppercase.

Stanley Zarowin is a contributing editor to the JofA. His e-mail address is stanley.joatech@gmail.com.

©2008 AICPA