Microsoft Excel offers us a number of different ways of changing the width of columns and the height of rows. The width of columns is expressed as the number of characters the cell can hold. By default, Excel gives each column a width of just over eight characters. This means, for example, that if you're using a spreadsheet primarily for numerical data, you can enter eight digits in each column using the default width.

If you plan to modify the default width, it makes sense to do so before you start entering data into your worksheet. For example, if you know that you'll be entering fairly short pieces of data in each column, you might want to reduce the default width. To customise the default width, go to the Cells section of the Home Tab of the Excel Ribbon. Click the Format button and choose Default Width from the drop-down. In the window which appears, you will see Excel's standard column width of approximately 8 characters. Simply input a new entry and click OK.

As long as you haven't changed the width of a column using any other technique, you can change the default width at any time and any cells that have been left at the default width will automatically change to reflect the new setting.

The second method of changing column widths is to use Excel's AutoFit feature. This technique automatically adjusts the width of a column to ensure that the contents of the selected cells are completely visible. To AutoFit a range columns, highlight the cells that you want Excel to take into account or simply highlight the entire column. Next, position the cursor on the right hand edge of the column and, when the cursor changes to a double arrow, double-click.

You can also AutoFit data in a range of columns by selecting a range of data across several columns or highlight several entire columns and then choosing Format then AutoFit Column Width in the Cells group of the Home Tab of the Excel Ribbon.

When using the AutoFit feature, it's inevitable that you'll end up with columns that have different widths. If you would like a range of columns to have exactly the same width then simply select the range and choose Format then Column Widths and enter a global width.

Excel also allows you to adjust the width of columns interactively. To do this, position the cursor on the right hand edge of the column and, when the cursor changes to a double arrow, click, hold and drag. As you drag, you will see the width of the column displayed both in characters and in pixels. This same technique can be used either to adjust the width of a single column or a range of columns.

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Customising Column Widths in Excel 2007

When formatting text within an Excel worksheet, you have the choice of working at the cell level or at the text level. If you wish to work at the cell level you simply highlight one or more cells and choose your format settings. Any formatting that you choose will then apply to all text within the cell or cells.

For example, if you wish to change the font size of your data in Microsoft Excel, you can use the drop-down menu next to the font name and choose one of the preset sizes. You can also use the Grow Fond and Shrink Font buttons located on the right of the font size. These two buttons simply cycle through the same preset sizes available on the preset size drop-down. You can also use the up and down arrows on your keyboard to move through different sizes. Yet another option is to enter a specific size then press the enter key. When doing so, you are permitted to enter decimals, such as 10.5.

In a similar way, when you want to choose a font, you can highlight the current name and start to type the name of font you have in mind, for example Times new Roman. Once you have typed enough to let Excel know which font you mean, the font name will be displayed and you simply press the Enter key.

Colour can be similarly be applied in two ways in your worksheets either as a background to the cell or to the text inside the cell. Because background colour applies to the cell it cannot be applied at the text level. With the creation of Themes in Excel 2007, Microsoft have made it very easy to come up with colour combinations which look good together.

To work at the text level, you need to be in Edit mode. You can enter Edit mode in two ways: the first is to double-click on any cell; the second is to click once on the cell and then click anywhere in the formula bar. You can tell when you're in Edit mode by the presence of the Cancel and Enter buttons on the left of the formula bar.

When working in Edit mode, it becomes possible to highlight individual characters and change their attributes. For example, say a cell contains the text "Google"; you could highlight each letter individually and change it to the colour used in the Google logo.

The facility of having different formats within the same cell is very useful for headings. It is less useful for the rest of the data in your worksheets since it slows down data entry and makes editing difficult.

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Formatting In Microsoft Excel

Everybody knows Microsoft Word. It's on almost every PC in the world and fair few Macs as well. However, a lot of users have picked up bad habits, things that detract from the usefulness of the document being created. This article looks at the most common basic errors among Microsoft users.

* Pressing the Return key at the start of a document which needs to be printed on a letterhead is one of the most common such errors. The correct thing to do is to change the top margin setting. Otherwise, you get have superfluous characters at the start of your text. (In Word 2003, go to File and choose Page Setup. In Word 2007, click on the Page Layout tab of the ribbon then click on Custom Margins.

* The habit of putting two spaces after a period goes back to the days of typewriters and monospace (fixed-width) typefaces like Courier where having two spaces after a period made the end of each sentence easier to detect when reading. Since modern computer-generated typefaces are proportionally spaced, the extra space is superfluous and should not be used.

* The habit of pressing the Return key twice at the end of each paragraph is not a good idea because it creates a sea of extra white space on the printed page. Only one return should used to end the paragraph. Extra space can then be added using the paragraph spacing commands. To find these options, in Word 2003 or earlier, choose Paragraph from the format menu. In Word 2007, click on the Page Layout tab.

* If a casual user of Word has never had any training, you will often see him or her using the space bar to align columns of text. This sometimes looks as though it's working on screen but when the document is printed, the lack of alignment becomes very apparent. The only sure way of getting columns to align is to press the Tab key.

* Word, like most text handling software has default tab stops. So, a lot of users align their columns by pressing the tab key repeatedly if necessary to move to closest default tab. This leads to inconsistency in the number of tab characters between columns and should be avoided. It's much better to click on the Word ruler to set up your own tabs just where you need them.

* Another common mistake among Word users is to manually format text in long documents or perhaps to user the Format Painter. Manually formatting text is fine for single page or short documents but with long documents, it's best to use Word's style feature. That way, if you need to modify the appearance of the document, all you need to do is to modify the attributes of the styles.

* Then there's the question of who's in charge: Word or the user. You will often hear users complain that Word has a mind of its own: "It tries to do everything for you". Remember, almost any setting in Word that irritates you can be modified by going to Tools - Options in Word 2003 or earlier or choosing Word Options from the Office Button in Word 2007.

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Common Mistakes Made by Users of Microsoft Word