1. column
  2. TECHNOLOGY Q&A

Find Comments In A Spreadsheet

BY STANLEY ZAROWIN

Please note: This item is from our archives and was published in 2004. It is provided for historical reference. The content may be out of date and links may no longer function.

Related

No Results

TOPICS

    Uncategorized Article

Q. I usually add many comments to cells in my spreadsheets. It’s an effective way to document what’s going on in a complex file. I run into problems, however, when I try to find some specific comment because there are so many. Is there some facility that makes finding them more effective?

A. It’s not well-known, but the Find tool can handle the job quite well. All you have to do is dig a little deeper than Find’s opening screen. To launch Find , press Ctrl+F, which displays the Find and Replace dialog box. You may have to click on the Options button to evoke more of the searching options. Then, in the Find what box, enter the words you’re searching for and click on the arrow next to Look in until the Comments choice appears and click on Find Next .

Once you locate the target cell or cells, you must close the dialog box before you can display the comment.

  SHORTCUTS

Browser navigation: Although you can surf Web pages with your mouse by clicking on the Forward and Back buttons, you also can give your mouse a rest and accomplish the same actions on the keyboard. To move back, hold down the Alt key and press the left arrow key; to go forward, press the right arrow key.

Excel: Once you’ve worked hard to create a formula in Excel, wouldn’t it be nice if you could save it in a convenient workbook? Unfortunately, Excel lacks that ability. But you can copy formulas into a text file and then store the file on your desktop for instant reference.

Internet Explorer: Instead of using your mouse to move your cursor to the address bar to enter a URL, press Alt+D.

Advertisement

Windows: To quickly minimize several open files, click on the Show Desktop on the desktop toolbar or press the Windows key+D. Likewise, the fastest and easiest way to get to your desktop is to click on the Desktop icon, which looks like this:

If the icon is not in your taskbar, you can put it there by right-clicking on an empty space in the taskbar and then clicking on Toolbars and placing a check next to Quick Launch .

Word: To return immediately to the place in your text where you ended up during your last editing session, press Shift+F5 after you open the document.

 

STANLEY ZAROWIN, a former JofA senior editor, is now a contributing editor to the magazine. His e-mail address is zarowin@mindspring.com .

Do you have technology questions for this column? Or, after reading an answer, do you have a better solution? Send them to contributing editor Stanley Zarowin via e-mail at zarowin@mindspring.com or regular mail at the Journal of Accountancy, 201 Plaza Three, Harborside Financial Center, Jersey City, NJ 07311-3881.

Because of the volume of mail, we regret we cannot individually answer submitted questions. However, if a reader’s question has broad interest, we will answer it in a forthcoming Technology Q&A column.

On occasion you may find you cannot implement a function I describe in this column. More often than not it’s because not all functions work in every operating system or application. I try to test everything in the 2000 and XP editions of Windows and Office. It’s virtually impossible to test them in all editions and it’s equally difficult to find out which editions are incompatible with a function. I apologize for the inconvenience.