How to Get Percentages in Excel

1. Open a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
2. Input a number in one cell, which corresponds to an amount. Input another number in another cell corresponding to the total.
3. Select a blank cell where to calculate the percentage between the two. The percentage formula is equal to the amount divided by the total. The total is usually greater than the amount.
4. Type '=Cell1/Cell2' without the quotation marks in the blank cell, where cell1 corresponds to the location of the first cell and cell2 corresponds to the location of the second cell. Press 'Enter' to get the fractional value. For example, if you placed an amount in cell A1 and the total in cell A2 and you selected cell A3 to calculate the percentage, then A3 should contain the formula: =A1/A2
5. Select the cell you want to format as a percentage to convert the fraction into a percentage. To format a row, click on the row number on the leftmost side of the worksheet to select the entire row. To format a column, click the column letter on the upper side of the worksheet to select the entire column. To format the entire worksheet, select the rectangular box on the upper left side corner between the first row (Row 1) and the first column (column A.) To format nonadjacent cells, click the first cell then press the 'CTRL' key. Continue holding the 'CTRL' key while clicking on other cells you want to format as percentage.
6. Right-click anywhere on the cell you want to format and click 'Format Cells...' to open the Format toolbox.
7. Go to the 'Number' tab and under 'Category' choose 'Percentage.'
8. Choose the decimal places on the 'Decimal places' drop down. The default is set to 2, which means that the percentage will have up to two decimal places like 0.25%.
9. Click 'OK' to close.

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How to Create Excel Templates

1.
Open an existing Excel spreadsheet that has all or most of the features you wish to use. Save it as a workbook with a different name, so that you don't accidentally lose any vital information.
2.
Delete any information that you do not want, such as names and numbers. Leave formulas that you will want to continue to use with the template.
3.
Create a new worksheet if you do not have an existing spreadsheet that contains the formatting you require. Format the cells, such as adding borders, choosing font options and entering formulas.
4.
Save the document by going to the 'File' menu and choosing 'Save As' in Excel 2003 or by clicking the Office button in Excel 2007 and clicking 'Save As.' In the 'Save As Type' dropdown, choose 'Template' and name your new template in the 'File Name' box. The location will default to your template folder. Click 'Save.'
5.
Use the Excel template you created by clicking 'New' in the 'File' menu in Excel 2003 or by clicking the 'Office' button and clicking 'New' in Excel 2007. Choose 'Templates On My Computer' and find the name of the template you created. Click to select it and then click 'OK.'

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How to Make Text Over Images With Microsoft Excel

Clip Art and Pictures
1. Add a clip art image or picture to your spreadsheet. Go to 'Insert' and choose 'Picture.' Select 'Clip Art,' 'From File' or 'From Scanner or Camera.' Select your image to insert it into the spreadsheet. Place the image in your desired location.Note that if you want to set transparency options on images from your computer, scanner or camera, they must be bitmap images. These images have a .bmp extension.
2. Right-click the image and select 'Show Picture Toolbar.' If the toolbar is already shown, you'll only see an option to 'Hide Picture Toolbar.'
3. Click the 'Set Transparent Color' button on the picture toolbar.
4. Click the color on your image you wish to make transparent. Only the text behind the color you choose will be transparent.
5. If transparency settings aren't available or you need more than one color to be transparent, add a transparent text box over your image. Select 'Text Box' from the Drawing toolbar. Go to 'View' and select 'Drawing' to view the toolbar. Draw a text box over your image. Type in your desired text.Right-click the text box and select 'Format AutoShape.' Select 'Colors and Lines.' Set the 'Transparency' to 100 percent. Press 'OK.' Your text will be visible over the image, but the text box itself will not be seen.
Drawing Images
6. Draw an image on your spreadsheet. Drawn images are created using tools from the 'Drawing' toolbar. Go to 'View' and select 'Drawing' to view drawing tools.
7. Right-click the image and choose 'Format AutoShape.'
8. Select the 'Color and Lines' tab. Locate the 'Transparency' slider. Slide the transparency bar to at least 50 percent. You can also type the transparency in the box beside the slider. Press 'OK' to set the transparency. If you need the object to be lighter or darker, repeat the process.

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Timeline Excel Tutorial

1. Open your Excel worksheet.
2. Click the “Insert” tab on the command ribbon.
3. Click the “SmartArt” button in the Illustrations group. A dialogue window opens prompting you to choose a SmartArt graphic.
4. Click “Process” on the left pane to open the Process gallery, which includes timelines.
5. Click a graphic, such as “Basic Timeline.” A larger, detailed view of the graphic and a description appear in the right pane of the dialogue window.
6. Click “OK.” The selected graphic appears on the worksheet. The “SmartArt Tools” ribbon displays the “Design” and “Format” tabs.
7. Click the “[Text]” area. Type in the bracketed text areas.
8. Customize the graphic by clicking the command buttons in the “Design” and “Format” tabs. The “Design” tab contains “Layouts” and “SmartArt Styles.” The “Format” tab contains “Shape Styles” and “WordArt Styles.”
9. Save this file.

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How to Set Up a Budget on Excel

Set Up Income and Expense Columns
1. Open the Excel application to a blank spreadsheet.
2. Click cell 'A1' and enter a title for your budget. Type something like 'Monthly Budget' and maybe a 'Last Updated on...' reference to help you quickly see when you last made changes.
3. Click into cell 'A3' and enter 'Item.'
4. Click into cell 'B3' and enter 'Income.'
5. Click into cell 'C3' and enter 'Expenses.'
Add Budget Line Items and Dollar Amounts
6. Click into cell 'A4.' Start listing your income and expenses, one in each row down the page. Start with your income first. You can double-click the vertical line between Column A and Column B headings at the top of the screen to expand Column A to the width of your characters and avoid cutting off information.
7. Decide how you want to work with the budget before you enter any numbers. Will it be weekly or monthly? Make sure all the numbers you enter are from the same time period. All weekly income/expenses, or all monthly income/expenses. Don't mix and match or your budget will not be correct.
8. Type income amounts into the B column and expense amounts into the C column.
9. Select the columns with numbers and use the 'Decimal .0 -> .00' button on the toolbar to adjust the format if it's not displaying two decimal places. You can also click the '$' button to format the numbers as money if you want to see the '$' in every cell.
Total Income and Expenses and Compare
10. Click in a cell in Column B that is a few rows below your last budget line item.
11. Enter the formula '=SUM(' and then click and drag from the 'B4' cell down to the last cell in Column B that has a budget item listed.
12. Type a closing parenthesis ') and press 'Enter/Return' to complete the calculation. This will show you your total income for the time period you decided on (weekly or monthly).
13. Click into the cell in Column C next to your income total and repeat the formula to total all the rows in Column C. These are your total expenses.
14. Move over to the next cell in Column D and enter the '=' sign. Click the total income cell once. Type a '-' sign, then click the total expenses cell once and press 'Enter/Return.' This shows how much income you have left after expenses. If it's a negative number, Excel automatically formats it red.
15. Review your budget line items if the ending figure is not to your liking, and see where you can make changes in your income or expenses to adjust that figure.

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How to Edit an MS Excel Drop Down Menu

1. Launch Excel.
2. Select the cell with a drop down menu in it.
3. Click on the Data tab of the Ribbon Interface, and select Data Validation. A dialog box will appear. In Excel 2003, you get to this dialog box by clicking on the 'Data' menu item at the top of the application window and selecting Validation.
4. Look at the 'Source' field. If it has values separated by commas, the only references this menu uses are those values. Change the value. If it begins with an '=' and refers to a word like this: '=List_Menu1,' it's referring to the named range of List_Menu1 somewhere else in Excel. Write down the name of the named range.
5. Click 'OK' to save your changes. If the drop down menu had nothing but comma separated values, you are done.
6. Click on the drop down menu immediately to the left of the Formula Bar and enter the named range you wrote down before. This will cause Excel to jump to that named range and select it for you.
7. Change the values in that named range to suit your purposes. The menu will now reflect those changed values.

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How to Create a Drop

1. Click the 'Office' button, and then click 'New.' Click the 'Create' button on the dialog box to accept the default values for a new Excel workbook.
2. Click the 'Office' button again, and then click the 'Options' button. Click the 'Show developer tab' check box to display the tab containing the drop-down calendar control.
3. Click the 'Developer' tab, and then click the 'Insert' button of the 'Controls' panel. Excel will display a list of controls you can insert in your workbook. None of the displayed controls is a drop-down calendar, but Excel enables access to more controls than those shown.
4. Click the icon in the lower-right corner of the control gallery that appears, to run the 'More controls' command. Excel will display a dialog box that lists additional controls you can enter in your workbook.
5. Click the item labeled 'Microsoft date and time picker,' and then click 'OK' to insert the calendar in your worksheet.
6. Right-click the calendar, and then click 'Properties' to display a window allowing you to process the date that a user picks with the calendar control.
7. Type the reference for a spreadsheet cell in the row labeled 'Linked cell.' For example, type 'G4' to indicate cell G4 of the current worksheet. The calendar control will insert the date the user picks in this cell.
8. Click the 'Design mode' button of the 'Controls' panel to exit design mode and enter user-input mode.
9. Click the down arrow of the calendar control, and then click any date in the drop-down calendar that appears. The cell whose reference you entered in Step 7 will fill with the date you chose.

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How to Get the Ruler to Show Up in MS Excel

1. Open 'Microsoft Excel.'
2. Select the 'View' tab.
3. Click 'Page Layout,' located in the 'Workbook Views' section.
4. Change your measurement options by clicking the 'Microsoft Office' button. Select 'Excel Options' and choose 'Advanced.'
5. Click the units to use from the 'Ruler Units' box located under 'Display.'

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How to Make a Normal Distribution Curve in Excel 2007

1. Open a new worksheet in Excel.
2. Fill in your x-values in column 1, starting at cell A1. For example, if you want your x-values to be from -10 to 10, write '-10' in cell A1, '-9.5' in cell A2, and '-9' in cell A3, all without quotes. Continue down the column until you have entered all of your values through to cell A41.
3. Enter '=NORMDIST(A1,0,1,0)' without quotes into cell B2. This formula is for the standard normal distribution, with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. You can enter any mean or standard deviation into this formula. For example, if you want a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 2, enter '=NORMDIST(A1,10,2,0)' without quotes .
4. Highlight the two columns by left clicking on cell A1 and dragging your cursor down to cell B41.
5. Choose 'Insert | Scatter| Scatter with Smooth Lines and Markers.'

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How to Display Fractions in Excel

1. Start the Microsoft Excel program.
2. Open the document you wish to add the fractions to by clicking 'Open' on the toolbar. Select 'Open' from the drop-down list. Select the file from the list.
3. Select the box, or cell, where you want to display the fraction. If you want to display fractions in multiple cells, highlight all of the cells.
4. Right-click on the cell and select the 'Format Cells' option. Another alternative is to click on 'Format' in the toolbar at the top and then select 'Cells' from the drop-down menu.
5. Pick the 'Numbers' tab. A list of categories is displayed. Select 'Fraction' from the category list.
6. Select the type of fraction you want to display. Click 'OK' to format the cell and close the display.
7. Type the fraction into the cell. For example, type '1/2' without any spaces. Excel automatically reduces fractions; if you enter 4/8, it changes to 1/2.
8. Input a whole number and a fraction in the same cell by typing the whole number, a space and then the fraction.

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How to Convert Excel to Access

1. Edit the Excel file. Eliminate any rows or columns that you don't want to import. If you only want some of the data in your Access database, create a new named range that contains only the cells you want to include.
2. Create the new Access database. Click on File, get external data, import. Change the file type to excel (xls) and then select the spreadsheet to import. You will have to do one table within the spreadsheet at a time. If import errors occur, you may need to make corrections to the spreadsheet, then do the import process again.
3. Access will add a primary key by default. Primary keys are helpful if you will be linking tables. If you already have an idea of what tables to link, you can define the field that will be the primary key during the import. For example, if two tables both contain a household inventory and you want these tables to be combined on a form, you can select the name of the inventory item as the primary key.
4. Import spreadsheets manually by selecting the entire spreadsheet in Excel, if you prefer. Click the top-left corner to highlight the whole worksheet. Click ctrl-c to copy the columns. Create a new table in Access, then click the top left corner, and click ctrl-v to paste. Your Excel tables will be pasted into the Access database.
5. Create forms for entering data and reports to generate reports by using the wizards for forms and reports.

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How to Make Column Titles in Excel 2007 Appear at the Top of Each New Page

1. Open the Excel 2007 file that contains your worksheet. Select the worksheet that you want to print from the list of worksheets at the bottom of the Excel window.
2. Click the 'Page Layout' tab at the top of the screen. Locate the 'Page Setup' area of the ribbon and click the 'Print Titles' button.
3. Select the 'Sheet' tab in the window that appears. Find the entry that reads 'Rows to repeat at top' and click the small box to the right. The 'Page Setup' window will minimize.
4. Select the row that contains the titles you want to repeat. This is normally the first row, but can be any row you desire. If you choose a row that is not on the first page, the column titles will not appear on any page before the one you selected. Click the small box in the minimized 'Page Setup' window to bring the window back up. You'll see your select row next to the 'Rows to repeat' entry.
5. Select 'OK' to close the window and complete the process, or you can click 'Print Preview' to get an idea of how the pages will look.

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How to AutoFit Column Width in Excel

1. Open Microsoft Excel using the 'Start' menu or a shortcut. Open the document with which you want to work.
2. Click the column you want to modify. To select more than one column, press and hold the 'Ctrl' key while clicking on each column.
3. Click the 'Format' drop-down menu in the 'Cells' group of the 'Home' tab. Select the 'AutoFit Column Width' option in the 'Cell Size' section.

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How to Use Excel for a Questionnaire

1. Click the 'Developer' tab, and then click the 'Insert' command on the 'Controls' panel. A gallery of controls for your questionnaire will appear.
2. Click the 'Text box' button, whose icon looks like a rectangle with text. Drag on the current spreadsheet to grow the text box.
3. Right-click the text box, then click 'Properties.' Excel will display a window showing modifiable attributes of the text box control. Type'J5' in the 'LinkedCell' rows of the 'Properties' window. Excel will use this cell reference to insert questionnaire data entered into the text box control.
4. Use the instructions from the Step 2 and Step 3 to create another text box below the first one. However, type 'K5' for the 'LinkedCell' reference this time.
5. Use the instructions from Step 1 through Step 4 to insert a check box control below the second text box. This control looks like a small square. Type 'L5' for the LinkedCell reference.
6. Type the following labels in the cells to the left of your three controls: 'First name,' 'Last name,' and a sample yes or no question, such as 'Check here if you think insects should be given equal rights.'
7. Click in cell 'J4,' and then type the following column labels. Press the 'Tab' key in place of the commas:'First name,' 'Last name,' 'Question.'
8. Run the questionnaire by clicking the 'Design mode' button of the 'Controls' tab. Type your name in the text boxes, and click the check box control. Notice that Excel automatically populates the columns you typed in the previous step with your answers.

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How to Convert Excel 2007 to Excel 97

1. Open the workbook in Excel 2007.
2. Click the 'Office' button.
3. Choose 'Save As'.
4. Click on 'Excel 97-2003 Workbook' from the list of 'Save As' options. Excel will save the file in Excel 97 format. The file can now be opened in Excel 97.

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