Sorting data in Excel

Sometimes the data in your worksheet doesn't appear in the order you want it to. You can reorder the data by sorting it.

To sort data in a worksheet, select it using your mouse, or click inside the data area and press Control + Shift + * to select all the cells in the current block. In Excel 2003, choose Data, Sort and then choose the column which contains the data to sort from the Sort by: dropdown list. To sort on more than one column choose the second column from the dialog's Then by: dropdown list. For example to produce a 'phonebook' type of sort, first Sort by the column containing the last name and Then by: the column containing the first name. If you do this, two people with the same last name will be grouped together but appear in alphabetical order by first name.

You can also sort in order of a custom list. So, for example, if you wanted all the people who live in Victoria to appear at the top of a list then those who live in NSW, etc.. create a custom list with the state names (or abbreviations) in the order you want to use for sorting. Then choose the State column in your data list as the Sort by: column and click Options. From the First key sort order dropdown list choose the custom list containing the state details and click Ok, and Ok again. The list will be sorted in order of the entries in your custom list and any entries which don't match an item in the list will appear at the end, in alphabetical order.

Kiosk Presentations

You're not always going to be there when a presentation shows. Some PowerPoint presetations are shown on computers where not one is in attendance or you might want to send an autorunning slideshow to mum to show off your latest pix.

These work if they're set up as Kiosk presentations. You need to set the presentation so the slides more forward after a period of time and not by mouse click. Do this on the PowerPoint 2007 Animation tab. Then choose the Slide Show tab and click Set Up Show. Choose Browsed at Kiosk and make sure the Advance slides option is set to Use Timings if present. The the show will run automatically without needing attention.

There you have it, hands free PowerPoint slide shows.