Terrific Tips: Excel Tricks

From Dawn, one of CFLC’s trainers, come these two great Excel tips. Thanks, Dawn!

1. Watch your cursor! In any given cell, the Excel cursor can have several shapes and do different things depending on the shape. When one or more cells are selected, the cursor can be:

The “fat plus” (Excel’s normal selecting cursor) – mid-cell – ready to accept data from you;

The “skinny plus” (Excel’s “AutoFill” cursor) – in the lower right-hand corner – ready to be dragged vertically or horizontally to create a series;

The arrow – on the borderline of the cell – ready to drag the contents of the cell to another and replace whatever’s in there.

2. Amaze your non-Excel-using friends and co-workers by adding astonishingly large numbers in your head (not!). It will simply seem like magic if they don’t know where you’re looking for the answer.

Enter a column of numbers, select all the cells, and look at the bottom border of the program (just above the taskbar). If you do not see “Sum = X” there near where it shows “NUM” as your data format, then right click on that bottom border. You should see a dropdown menu offering choices of Average, Count, Count Nums, Max, Min, and Sum. Click on Sum and the “Sum = X” choice should show on the border. Voilà! A veritable Rain Man has been created!

To learn both the basics and more tips and techniques for using Excel, come to either of the upcoming Excel 1 workshops – the first at CFLC on Friday, July 15, and the second at Volusia on Wednesday, August 3.

SUBJECTS: TERRIFIC TIPS; WORKSHOP WEALTH

Blog Business: A Demo

Sitting in a classroom demo-ing the blog site...

And now, next day, editing same.

First, to point you to an interesting article from Reuters about the influential role blogs are expected to play in the upcoming Supreme Court nomination process. Check out Blogs seen as powerful new tool in U.S. court fight.

Second, to serve as a reminder that if you want to learn more about what blogs are and how to effectively read them or write them, the Library Blogs & Newsfeeds class will be held again August 16 in Volusia and September 14 at CFLC, both 9 a.m to noon.

SUBJECTS: BLOG BUSINESS; WORKSHOP WEALTH

Reference Riches: Florida Electronic Library Additions

An announcement from the State Library of Florida:

The State Library and Archives of Florida and Thomson Gale are pleased to announce the availability of the following Gale Virtual Reference Library Ebook titles as an enhancement to the current database collection that the Florida Electronic Library licenses for Florida residents:

Macmillan: Biology, 1st Edition, 4V

Gale: Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine, 2nd Edition, 4V

Gale: Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer, 1st Edition, 2V

Gale: Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, 1st Edition, 2V

Gale: Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, 2nd Edition, 5V

Gale: Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, 2nd Edition, 3V

Gale: Gale Encyclopedia of Small Business, 2nd Edition, 2V

St. James: Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, 1st Edition, 5V

Gale: Beacham's Guide to the Endangered Species of North America, 1st Edition, 6V

Gale: World of Earth Science, 1st Edition, 2V

More detailed information on each of these titles, as well as technical information for providing access, can be found at http://access.gale.com/florida/gvrl.

In addition, Thomson Gale is pleased to offer special pricing to members of the Florida Regional Library networks when purchasing Thomson Gale Ebooks from the Gale Virtual Reference Library for their individual collections.

When you call for a quote, be sure to tell your Thomson Gale sales representative if you are a member of one of the following networks in order to receive this special discount:

* Florida Library Information Network (FLIN)

* Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC)

* Southeast Florida Library Information Network (SEFLIN)

* Southwest Florida Library Network (SWFLN)

* Central Florida Library Cooperative (CFLC)

* Northeast Florida Library Information Network (NEFLIN)

Thomson Gale Ebook titles are available to all Florida Electronic Library users at any time either inside a library or by remote access. Since the Virtual Reference library operates on the database model rather than a circulation model, Ebooks are not checked out, but are available at all times. When the Florida Electronic Library migrates to PowerSearch, patrons will be able to search these titles simultaneously with other Thomson Gale databases.

For more information, please contact Mark Flynn, State Library and Archives of Florida, via e-mail at mflynn (at) dos.state.fl.us or via telephone at (850) 245-6626.

An announcement from CFLC: For an extensive guided hands-on exploration of the Florida Electronic Library, come to the pair of upcoming workshops, Florida Electronic Library Overview and Florida Electronic Library Databases at Volusia on Tuesday, August 30.

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES; REFERENCE RICHES; WORKSHOP WEALTH