Aaron J Hudson
CIS100-3702
Dr. Avis O. Anderson
October 26, 2005
You’re a Junior Marketing Analyst for Microsoft! You’ve got one shot to
impress the big wigs with your presentation on projected sales for their latest
platform…Windows 2005! Your presentation is based on cost per unit and consumer
clientele. You’ve already made your decision to use a Power Point presentation and an
Excel spread sheet to show the numbers. You’re confident that you’re going to nail the
Power Point presentation, but you’re not to sure about the spreadsheet. What do you do?
How do you spice up your spreadsheet to have it demand the attention of your audience?
You follow a few of these snazzy tricks that may enhance the visual aesthetics of your
spreadsheet.
In Excel you are not limited to the plain white or shaded background for your
worksheets. Instead, you can use a graphic image for a background. The same idea of the
backgrounds you see on Web pages--the image used as the background is tiled or
repeated so that it fills the entire background of the worksheet. To use a graphic as a
worksheet background, you first choose Sheet from the Format menu and then choose
Background from the resulting submenu. Excel displays the Sheet Background dialog
box. (Click here to see a related figure.) Use the controls in the dialog box to find the
image you want to use as a background, and click OK. The result will show the image
you selected tiled throughout the entire background of your worksheet. To remove a
background, choose Sheet from the Format menu, and then choose Delete Background
from the submenu.
You already know that Excel allows you to add graphics to your worksheets. You
may not know, however, that you can assign macros to these graphics. With a macro
associated with a graphic, the macro is executed whenever someone clicks on the graphic.
In order to do this, you need to right-click on the graphic. Excel will display a Context
menu. Select the Assign Macro option from the Context menu. Excel will then display
the Assign Macro dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.) Select the macro you
want associated with the image and click OK. You can test this by clicking on the image.
The macro should run as desired.
Say you have a pie chart with a large number of sections and finding unique
colors for each section might be a problem. Or, maybe your printer doesn't print colors
exactly as they are on your screen. Need not worry…you can change the color of any
individual section of a pie chart, or any other type of chart for that matter. For pie charts,
Click on the "pie" so that it is surrounded by handles or little squares. Click again on the
individual section you want to change. Those little squares will now surround that
section. Right click that section for the Context Menu to be displayed. Select the
Format Data Point option. Excel displays the Format Data Point dialog box, with the
Patterns tab selected. (Click here to see a related figure.) Click again on the section you
want to change. The handles will now surround only that section. Right-click on the
section and Excel will display a Context menu. In the Area portion of the dialog box,
select the color you want to use for the chart section. Click on OK and Excel will update
your chart. You can use these same steps for any type of chart. You have to select the
appropriate bar, point, or what have you instead of pie chart in the first 2 steps.
Once you place an image in your workbook, you may want to crop it. Cropping
is when you cut off part of the image so it doesn't show in your workbook. In order to
do this, make sure the Picture toolbar is visible. You can right click on the image and
select Show Picture Toolbar if it is not. Click on the Crop tool on the Picture toolbar.
Then click on one of the image’s handles with the mouse pointer. Drag the handle
toward the center of the image, stopping when you have cropped the desired amount.
You can turn off cropping by clicking on the Crop tool.
So, you decided to use a couple of these ideas to enhance your spreadsheet for
the big boys in the boardroom. The presentation is a complete success. The Senior
Executives are impressed with your preparedness, research, and vision. They decide to
go ahead with your ideas and recommend you for a promotion. They submit their
proposal to the man himself…Bill Gates! He approves, of the proposal and your
promotion…all because you did a little something extra with your spreadsheet.
Congratulations!
Reference:
1) Wyatt, Allen. EXCEL TIPS March 2005.
http://exceltips.vitalnews.com/