Excel Tutorials

The 3-D cells we made were cool, but what else can we do with cells? We all use the handy dandy post it notes. They are a life saver to quickly remind us of important points that we might forget with all the chaos that goes on at work. Well you can actually use this same principle within Excel spreadsheets by using this electronic equivalent of the “post it note.” You can do this by inserting a comment. In this short lesson, you’ll learn how to insert a cell comment and customize it.

1. We’ll use the following spreadsheet for our example – this spreadsheet contains salespersons and profit information for a beverage distribution company. We want to insert a comment within the Mary Roberts row to indicate that she continues to be the top seller for past couple of months. First, select cell B9 and go to Insert>Comment and a box with your name will appear where you will type in your brief reminder.

2. Now, go ahead and enter your comment (remember to keep it brief and concise). In this example, I wrote that “Mary Roberts continues to be the top seller.” Once you’re done, click out of the cell. Whenever you want to view the comment, just gently place the cursor over the tiny red triangle within the cell where you inserted the comment, and the comment box will appear.

3. Now if you want to change the look (font type, color, etc) of the comment, select the cell where you placed the comment and right click, and go down to “Edit Comment” and select this option. Now you can play with the look of the words; in this example, I selected the whole comment and made the font blue in italics and bold – remember you can change the font colors and styles by using the format menu or the top formatting buttons.

4. Now every time you click on the comment it will appear as you customized it. Well done! You learned how to insert the electronic equivalent of the sticky note in a excel spreadsheet.

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Working with spreadsheets and formulas can become dull, but there are some fun ways that you can easily energize a spreadsheet like for example creating a 3-D effect on a specific cell. In this lesson, I’ll show how to do this in three easy steps. The 3-D effect on the specific cells looks as if the cell is elevated.

1. We’ll use the following spreadsheet with profit and salespeople data, but I’ll show you the 3-D effect on an empty cell within the spreadsheet. First, select cell D5, then go to Format>Cells. When the “Format Cells” box appears, click on the “border” tab. In here, select the thickest line style bar (make sure the color is black or automatic). Now click the right-hand border and then the bottom border.

2. Next, ensure that the thickest line style is still selected, and change the color of the line to white by selecting white from the color option. Now go ahead and click on the left-hand border and top border. Finally, click on the “Patterns” tab to change the fill in color of the cell, and select the gray color. Then click OK to exit out of the “Format Cells” box.

3. The final product should look like the below screen shot. As you can see the formatted cell looks elevated as in a 3D look. Great! Now you have a quick and easy way to spice up individual dull cells.

Posted in Cells | Comments (1)