Insert Date in Excel Shortcut

Here's a quick way to insert the current date into whatever cell you have selected, without having it update automatically - just hold down your control button and hit a semi-colon:

Ctrl + ;

It will insert the current date into the cell (not updating automatically, just a regular old date).

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Opening a Database with Visible Menus (That Were Set to Invisible)

A short while ago I set up a database and decided to make the menus all hidden to prevent users from making any undesirable changes. Unfortunately, I felt pretty silly when the time came that I myself wanted to make changes and couldn't figure out how. Luckily, I found a solution.

If you want to see the menus in an Access database that have been made unavailable, you need to close the file and then open it up again while holding down the Esc button as you open it. Keep holding that button down until it opens, and you'll (quite thankfully) see your menus once more. Phew!

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Where Did My Macros and Forms Tools Go?

If you've upgraded to Word 2007, you might be frustrated when you first go through the new ribbon to try and find your macros and/or form controls. The fact is that these menu items have to be added on to the ribbon manually.

Click the Microsoft Office button, 'Word Options', and in the 'Top options for working with Word' section of the Word Options dialog box, click 'Personalize'. Select 'Show Developer tab in the Ribbon'.

Once you're done there, you'll see another tab show up on your ribbon called 'Developer'. It's there that you'll find the option to view your macros, record a new one, etc. You'll also see your form tools there - such as fill-in fields, drop-down menus, etc.

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View Formulas in Excel

If you've ever wanted to check over your formuals in an Excel spreadsheet, but found it annoying to have to click on each cell to view the formula, this trick might be just the thing you're looking for!

If you press:

Ctrl + ` (that's the control button, and the apostrophe on the same key as ~)

You will be able to see all of the formulas in your sheet, making it easy to troubleshoot. When you're done, you can press Ctrl + ` again to make everything go back to normal. And don't worry, it'll probably stretch out a bunch of your columns so you can see the entire formula, but everything goes back to how you had it before when you change it back.

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