Technology Q&A

Technology Q&A

Make Excel speak faster…Expand weekend boxes in Outlook calendar…Customize keyboard shortcuts for Word…Enter several sets of numbers in one Excel cell…Out, out, green triangles…Shortcuts.

BY STANLEY ZAROWIN

Key to Instructions
To help readers follow the instructions in this article, we used two different typefaces:

Boldface type is used to identify the names of icons, agendas and URLs.

Sans serif type shows commands and instructions users should type into the computer and the names of files.

MAKE EXCEL SPEAK FASTER
Q. A couple of years ago you described how to program Excel to read aloud the numbers in worksheets (JofA, Dec.03, page 89). That tip has saved me many hours of work. Can you help me get Excel’s voice to speak faster so I can save even more time?

A. Sure, but before I do, let me repeat how to evoke Excel’s voice for those who missed the column. You must have computer speakers and Excel 2002 or later.

Click on Tools, Speech and Show Text to Speech Toolbar, bringing up this toolbar:

Notice there are five icons; each controls a different read-back function. Pass your cursor over each icon and an explanation of what it does will appear. Starting at the left, the first (see screenshot top right) orders Excel to read the numbers in the cell—hesitating a second or so between cells. If the cell contains a formula, it will not read the formula, just the resultant number, unless you press Ctrl+` (grave accent).

The second icon halts the process. The third and fourth control whether the automatic reading moves across a row or down a column. To program a cell to speak only after you press Enter, click on the fifth and final icon (see screenshot below).

Caveat: Excel provides incomplete clues about turning off its voice. If you click on the far right icon (Speak On Enter), you’ll see it: Each click on it toggles the speaking function on or off. But the only alert you get that it’s on or off is Excel’s spoken message, so listen carefully. The text doesn’t change: The text continues to read Speak On Enter.

Now I’ll describe how to change the speech speed. Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Speech and then on the Text To Speech tab, as shown below.

Adjust the slider under Voice speed toward Fast and then click on OK.

EXPAND WEEKEND BOXES IN OUTLOOK CALENDAR
Q. My Outlook calendar has Saturdays and Sundays sharing a single box that’s too small to list several activities. Is there a way to give each its own box?

A. To go from this…

…to this…

…right-click in any free area of the calendar and click on Customized Current View and Other Settings to get this screen:

Remove the green check next to Compress weekend days and click on OK. That will do it.

CUSTOMIZE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS FOR WORD
Q. Call me old-fashioned, but I hate the mouse. I’d much rather use keyboard combinations to activate commands. However, some of the Word commands I frequently use don’t have key combinations. Any ideas?

A. You can create your own or even change the existing default combinations.

Here are the steps: Click on Tools, Customize and Keyboard, evoking this menu:

Then, select a category (under Categories) and an available command (under Commands) for which you want to create a keystroke shortcut (or the shortcut you would like to change if it already has one).

For example, if you want a shortcut to command Word to jump to the next comment in a document, find that action in the Commands list and highlight it. It also is more fully identified under Description. If the Current keys box is empty, that task has no assigned keys. You can assign keys to it by pressing the keys of your choice; they will appear under Press new shortcut key. Then click on Assign and Close.

If you’re not happy with one of them, just change it.

ENTER SEVERAL SETS OF NUMBERS IN ONE EXCEL CELL
Q. Is there a way to put several sets of numbers—such as codes—into one Excel cell with each set on its own separate line?

A. You mean like this?

The trick is to press Alt+Enter each time you want the line in the cell to break.

OUT, OUT, GREEN TRIANGLES
Q. Some cells in my spreadsheets contain little green triangles in the upper left-hand corner (see screenshot at right), and I can’t get rid of them, though sometimes—through no apparent effort on my part—they just disappear. Is my software infected with the dreaded green triangle virus?

A. No, it’s not a virus. Those green triangles are Excel’s way of telling you it believes the cells contain an error. Of course, sometimes Excel is wrong, but such error-flagging is a handy fail-safe function.

Why it happens: Excel 2002 and 2003 constantly work in the background scanning for possible errors. You can turn off the feature by clicking on Tools, Options and the Error Checking tab and unchecking the Enable background error checking. Then click on OK.

SHORTCUTS

Excel: Press Ctrl+1 to engage the format menu in Excel.

Excel: To quickly select a full table of contiguous cells, place your cursor anywhere in the cells and press Ctrl+Shift+8. To select a range of data, put the cursor in the first cell and press Ctrl+Shift+8. Why it happens: Excel defines a range of data as being a series of adjacent cells that contain data.

Windows: To rename multiple files in Explorer in a single action, highlight all the files you wish to rename and right click on any one of them. Select Rename from the menu that appears and all the files will be given the same name as the one you selected with a number in brackets differentiating them.

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 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.