Crack Excel Worksheet Password Protection

Here at the Troy Library, we love to use Microsoft Excel to create forms: for our timesheets, to schedule volunteers' work, to track collection area budgets, and to create electronic materials use reports, to name a few. Often, in order to make sure that formulas and data are not accidentally deleted, we password protect our electronic workbooks.

If you have ever password protected an Excel workbook, you recognize the caution warning: "If you lose or forget your password, it cannot be recovered. It is advisable to keep a list of passwords and their corresponding workbook and sheet names in a safe place."

If you do forget or lose your Excel password, however, all is not lost.

The staff at The Office Experts has created a macro that you can paste into the Excel workbook to help. The macro unprotects your workbook and assigns a new password. (It does not recover your original password.) You can find the macro here.

We have used this macro several times to open worksheets where the password has been lost. It works really well.

(Thanks to Technology Department staff member Jim Janas for this tip.)

Setting a Password to Open an Excel Workbook

One of the students in my Intermediate Excel class this week asked me how to set an Excel workbook so a password is required to open or modify it. This is fairly easy.

When you have finished creating your Excel workbook, click on the Office Button in the upper left hand corner, then click on Save As. On the Save As dialog box, click on the Tools button on the bottom left side of the screen. Then click on General Options.

On the General Options box, you can set a password to open or modify the workbook. It is critical that you remember your password. If you forget your password, Microsoft cannot retrieve it. You can also set a recommendation that the file be opened as Read Only.

Office 2007 Training from Scratch

Are you looking to learn Office 2007 from scratch? The Microsoft Office website has an excellent resource for learning Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. Geared to the true beginner, this training walks you through Office 2007 programs step-by-step.

Hyperlink to Another Document in Microsoft Excel 2007

One of the greatest features in the Microsoft Office Suite of products is the ability to reference and link to any other document or file on your computer or network. I will run through a quick tutorial on how to link to another document from within Microsoft Excel.

To start, open your document. Select the cell to which you would like to hyperlink.

Then, click on the Insert tab followed by the "Hyperlink" button. You will see the following screen.

If there was text in the cell that you selected to hyperlink, then it will appear in the "Text to display" box. Otherwise, you can specify what you would like the hyperlink to say by adding text to the "Text to display" box. (eg., Click here to see the file)

Next, select the file that you would like to be hyperlinked. This can be done by browsing through the mini-Explorer window beneath the "Text to display" box. Once you select the file to which you would like to link, click the "Ok" button.

You should now be presented with a new blue link in the original cell you selected. If you hover over the selected cell you can see to where the cell is now linked. To go to the location, hold the Ctrl key and click on the link.

That's it! You have successfully created a hyperlink to a document in an Excel document.

View Two Excel Workbooks in One Window

One of the students in my Beginning Excel class this week asked me how to look at two different Excel workbooks in the same window. It is fairly easy.

First, open one of the workbooks you want to view. Next, click on the Office Button in the upper left hand corner of the window and click on Open. Select the second workbook you want to view, and click on Open. Both workbooks are now open.

Under the View tab, in the Window group, click on Arrange All. You have the option to view the workbooks side by side (Tiled or Vertical), top and bottom (Horizontal) or one on top of the other (Cascade). Clicking in one workbook or the other allows you to edit that workbook.

Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 Released

Users of Microsoft Office 2007 should check their Windows Update to receive the new Service Pack 2 that was released on April 28.

The new service pack has a long list of improvements to the Microsoft Office suite of products. For the complete list, check out this link (Excel file).

Some of the highlights of this release are as follows:

• Speed improvements to Microsoft Outlook
• The "Save as PDF" option has been implemented throughout the entire Office suite
• Support has been added for the ODF format (Open Document Format)
• Various bugs have been fixed

If you can't wait to grab Service Pack 2, go to this link to pick up the download.

Using Excel to Write a Short Story

A while back, The Tech Desk staffer Mary Hojnacki wrote about using using Microsoft Excel to make a music video.

Now, here is one one blogger's attempt to write a short novel using the same software.

Excel: it's not just for spreadsheets anymore.

[via boingboing]

Best of Office Online: 2008

Microsoft has released a list showing their most popular Office Online resources for 2008. Categories include templates, clip art, training courses, and columns. This list includes resources for both Office 2003 and Office 2007.

Rock & Roll: Another Reason to Love Excel

According to wired.com, Phil Clandillon and Steve Milbourne, who work at a digital design boutique division of Sony/BMG in London, have put together what they call "the world's first music video in Excel format," for the rock group AC/DC. They decided on this unusual format because they wanted the video to penetrate most corporate firewalls. By including AC/DC's music in an Excel spreadsheet, the video is able to be emailed to anyone.

Download the video in its Excel format here. Make sure to save the file to your hard drive so that the wave sound file for the song "Rock N Roll Train" is downloaded as well. Note that the Excel version won't run on Macs, and you'll need to enable macros after opening the file.

What I Did Not Blog about While I Was at the MLA Conference

Yesterday, I returned from the MLA conference and caught up on my reading. Here are a few interesting posts about which I did not have a chance to blog earlier this week:

Microsoft has announced the spring 2009 release of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Microsoft Office 2007. Microsoft is promising that SP2, scheduled between February and April 2009, will speed up Outlook and improve the charting function in Excel. If so, it will make a very good product event better.

This sounds cools, but I admit, it has limited applications: Blogger Amit Agarawal, has created a way to translate a latitude and longitude value into a street address on Google Maps. All you need to know is the the latitude and longitude where you are. Hm.
[via lifehacker]

As cities and states experiment with different types of voting machines, comes this unsettling report from The Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy about security vulnerabilities that researchers have detected in the voting machines used by the New Jersey. According to the researchers, the machines can be completely compromised by replacing a single ROM chip — a task that they were able to complete in only seven minutes.
[via arstechnica.com]

I'm a news junkie, and Spreed:News sounds like a dream-come-true. According to lifehacker:

"Free speed-reading webapp Spreed:News lets you choose from a wide array of news sources and have their articles read to you in small clusters of words. Working from the principles that make for faster reading, you can scale the tool between 240 and 1500 words per minute, and set up an account to save your favorite sources — from Boing Boing to the New York Times and dozens more — for quick browsing."

I haven't had the time to try it, yet, but if you do, let me know what you think.

Chart Advisor - The Must-Have Plugin for Excel 2007

Have you ever had problems with creating charts in Excel 2007, because you didn't know which chart to use? Well, there is a way to simplify this process by using the Chart Advisor plugin by the Office Labs team.

What does Chart Advisor do? To quote one of the Program Manager's of the Microsoft Excel team, Scott Ruble: "The Chart Advisor intelligently suggests different chart types based on an analysis of your data in Excel 2007."

To install the plug-in, first you must download it here and then run the installer. The next time you boot up Excel you should see the new Chart Advisor icon located in the "Insert" tab. Simply click the icon to run the plug-in.

Since this is a plugin, you have to see it to fully grasp it. Take a look at the video below on how Chart Advisor works.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=3092cdf1-75ff-409e-9bdb-b4a818b39952" target="_new" title="Chart Advisor Overview">Video: Chart Advisor Overview</a>

Mouse-less Navigation in Office 2007

Keyboard shortcuts are one of my favorite things about Microsoft Office. I've always preferred using the keyboard shortcuts over the mouse; I don't have to take my hands off the keyboard that way, and my speed increases.

So, I was thrilled when I saw the great new keyboard shortcut layout in Office 2007. This feature overlays the keyboard shortcuts on top of your Office 2007 ribbon.

To activate the layout, hit the Alt key. The shortcut labels will be overlayed on the ribbon. Then, you can navigate simply by hitting the appropriate label on the keyboard. Navigation between the various tabs and functions becomes as easy as pressing the letters assigned!

click for a larger view

To de-activate the shorcut overlay, just hit the Alt key a second time.

This overlay will show up in all Microsoft 2007 Office products that have the ribbon interface.

Change the Color Scheme in Microsoft Office 2007

Feeling blue? How about silver?

Well, now you can change your color scheme in any Microsoft Office 2007 software to blue, silver, or black, using the Options command. (For this post, I will demonstrate in Word.)

First, click on the Office button in the top left corner, and then click on Word Options at the bottom of the pop-up menu.

Make sure you are under the Popular heading (on the left). Then look for Color Scheme. Click on the drop-down arrow next to the choices and select the color you want (blue, silver, and black).

Click on OK at the bottom of the menu. Your new color scheme will appear immediately.

(For more tips on Microsoft Word and other Office products, enter the program name into the dialog box at the top left of this blog page, and click on Search Blog. You'll see what other tips the Tech Desk has to offer.)

The Power of the Microsoft Office 2007 Clipboard

The clipboard in Microsoft Office 2007 is one of the most under-utilized functions in the entire suite of Office programs. Many of us use the basic copy and paste, but we neglect the other power features of this tool. Today I will cover some of these power features and their uses.

Copy Multiple Items Into Your Clipboard

Much to nearly everyone's surprise, the clipboard can hold more then one clip at a time! To see for yourself, open up your favorite Office 2007 program (Word and Excel work best) and click on the Show Office Clipboard Pane button in the Clipboard grouping. Now, begin copying text from anything you like. I copied some things from Firefox, a favorite browser among the Technology staff here at the Library. You'll notice a small pop-up in the bottom right corner of your screen:

You'll notice that the clipboard says "3 of 24:" I've copied information into 3 of my 24 clipboard available slots. Go back into the Office program you have open, and you'll be able to see the items in your clipboard (right).

You'll notice that each piece of information includes either a mini-thumbnail, for images, or the first few words, for text, in the clipboard. Now, click on an item in the clipboard and it will instantly be pasted into your file.

The Paste Special Command

The paste special command is one of my favorites in MS Office. Frequently when searching the internet I come across text that I want to copy that has multiple types of formatting. When I paste the text into a Word Document I get a jumble of various word formatting that looks terrible.

Here is where the paste special command can help. Click on the drop down arrow under Paste and choose Paste Special. Now choose your selection. In this this example, I would choose unformatted text. Voila! You have clean, unformatted text added to your document.

These are just a few of the main features of this helpful clipboard tool.

Get Back Your Classic Microsoft Office Dropdown Menus with the Toolbar Add-In

Do you miss the classic Office 97-2003 toolbar in Office 2007? Do you want the familiar dropdown menus back?

Well, you just might be in luck. Computer geek Shah Shailesh has released the classic Office toolbar as an add-in for Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Access. The installation is simple: download the add-in, extract the file and run it. You'll instantly see a new add-in tab added to the top of the Office 2007 ribbon. Click the add-in tab and you'll be presented with the classic Office 97-2003 dropdown menus.

While you are there, check out the other cool add-ins Shah Shailesh has available.

Remove the Annoying Mini Toolbar in Microsoft Office 2007

Bad mini toolbar!

Have you been typing in Microsoft Word 2007, only to see a miniature toolbar randomly pop up and obstruct your viewing and typing?

That mini toolbar is a new feature in Office 2007. Many people, including myself, find it to be quite a nuisance.

To get rid of that toolbar, and free yourself from its ghost-like appearances, click on the Office button in the top left of your Word screen, go to Word Options, and un-check the Show Mini Toolbar on Selection option located under the Popular tab. Then click Ok and you're set -- no more annoying mini toolbar!

And, if you later decide you miss the toolbar you can always bring it back by rechecking the box.

Note: The mini toolbar will show up in all Microsoft Office 2007 programs: Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, etc. You will have to disable it through the same method above in each program, under Options located at the bottom of the Microsoft Button menu.

Excel Tip: Auto-Fit Columns

Here's a quick tip for all you Excel fans.

One of the more tedious things to do in Excel is to correctly set the width of the columns to fit to the text that you are typing. For example:

We need to fit the columns to the text so that all of the text can be seen. To do this quickly, hover over the right edge of the column header until your mouse turns into a doublesided left-right arrow. Then double click to have the column Auto-Fit quickly to the text.

If you have multiple columns that need to be Auto-Fit, select all of the columns you need to Auto-Fit and then follow the same procedure by double clicking on any of the selected columns' dividers. Just like that, your columns are all auto-fitted!

(Note: this works in both Excel 2003 and Excel 2007.)