Tech tips: 3 ways to make life easier in Excel.

Here are three tips that will enable you to reset Excel 2010’s default formatting. Set them once, and never again.

1. Setting Formatting Options for Workbooks, Part 1

Excel does not offer many options that allow you to set formatting defaults for your workbooks. However, you can work around this by modifying the formatting in a blank workbook, then saving it as the default template.

Excel 2007:

1. Open Excel to a blank workbook.
2. Format the blank file with all options desired. For example, set margins, cell color formats, or set up a header or footer. Make sure to remove any values you entered in cells to test formatting unless you want them to appear in every blank workbook.
3. Once your changes are made, click the Office button and choose Save As.
4. From the “Files of type” drop-down list, select “Excel Template (*.xltx)” and change the file name to “Book.”
5. Set the “Save in” location to the XLSTART folder. This folder is typically located in a path similar to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\XLSTART.
6. Click Save.
7. Close and re-open Excel. The blank workbook should contain the formatting you previously set.

Excel 2010:

1. Open Excel to a blank workbook.
2. Format the blank file with all options desired. For example, set margins, cell color formats, or set up a header or footer. Make sure to remove any values you entered in cells to test formatting unless you want them to appear in every blank workbook.
3. Once your changes are made, click on the File tab and choose Save As.
4. From the “Files of type” drop-down list, select “Excel Template (*.xltx)” and change the file name to “Book.”
5. Set the “Save in” location to the XLSTART folder. This folder is typically located in a path similar to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\XLSTART.
6. Click Save.
7. Close and re-open Excel. The blank workbook should contain the formatting you previously set.

Watch a video on this tip for Excel 2007.

2. Changing the Default Font for New Workbooks

We all have our quirks; that’s what makes us unique. One of these things can be the font you choose as your default. To change the default font used in new workbooks in Excel, follow these steps:

Excel 2007:

1. Click the Office button in the top left corner.
2. Select Excel options in the bottom-right of the menu that appears.
3. In the Excel options dialog box, under Popular options, scroll down to the section called “When creating new workbooks.”
4. Here you have the ability to set the default font and font size.
5. Click OK.

After you restart Excel, any new workbook you create will be set for the new font properties you chose. Note that existing workbooks will not be affected.

Excel 2010:

1. Click on the File tab.
2. Select Options at the bottom left.
3. Under General options there is a section for “When creating new workbooks.”
4. Here you can select the option to change the font and font size for all new workbooks.
5. Click OK.

After you restart Excel, any new workbook you create will be set for the new font properties you chose. Note that existing workbooks will not be affected.

1. Setting Formatting Options for Workbooks, Part 2

Why does Excel always open up with three blank worksheets? If you’ve found yourself continually deleting those extra two, stop already. Excel offers a way for you to specify the defaults for new workbooks, which includes number of worksheets. Follow the steps below:

Excel 2007:

1. Click the Office Button and choose Excel Options.
2. In the Popular group, navigate to the section titled “When creating new workbooks.”
3. You can change the number of sheets created in a new workbook by changing the “Include this many sheets” option.
4. Click OK after making your selections.

Excel will use your options from now on when creating a new workbook, saving you time when setting up each new file.

Excel 2010:

1. Click on the File tab and choose Excel Options.
2. In the General group, navigate to the section titled “When creating new workbooks.”
3. You can change the number of sheets created in a new workbook by changing the “Include this many sheets” option.
4. Click OK after making your selections.

Excel will use your options from now on when creating a new workbook, saving you time when setting up each new file.

For more on these and to find other tips, visit our tech tip library. Have any Excel or general Office tips to share? Post them in the comments section.

Tips are compiled and written by PC Helps staff.

 Myth:  Migrating to Office 2007 is like every other software upgrade or switchover.
Reality: The application looks radically different and is a complete overhaul of the user interface. There are no menus and no toolbars. Many information workers won’t even be able to open files without training and assistance. In past upgrades, an information worker’s knowledge of how to get to the features in the previous version was 95 percent effective in the new version. For Office 2007, it is zero percent effective.    

 Myth: Information workers will benefit from Windows 7 without training and support
Reality: A learning curve is guaranteed when information workers, or even an internal help desk staff, are faced with tools, applications or operating systems that look differently. A lack of proper training and support will prolong the adoption period. Maximizing the productivity increase — and resultant ROI — from the new tools in Windows 7 requires training in the theory and support in the practice of using the new tool. Read more myths and realities of an Office 2007 and Windows 7 migration and eight service levels needed to prove migration ROI http://www.pchelps.com/html/o2007mythsrealitiesroi.asp

Windows 7 is upon us. New operating system, new Office suite. Let the games begin.

According to a leading industry source, about 50 percent of enterprise-sized IT infrastructures are running mixed Microsoft Office end-user environments. That’s a whole lot of wasted investment.

Then there are companies who waited for that whole Vista debacle to blow over. They kept XP and Office 2003, with the aim of upgrading when Windows 7 was released.

Windows 7 is upon us. New operating system, new Office suite. Let the games begin.

We have compiled a list of the most common Office 2007 user questions and issues, and it was recently published by IT World. You can read it here. Take notes, and happy migrating.

PC Helps also recently published a white paper on the subject, titled “The Myths and Realities of an Office 2007 and Windows 7 Migration.” Download it for free http://www.pchelps.com/html/o2007mythsrealitiesroi.asp

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Eighty-four percent said their switchovers “went off without meaningful hiccups.”

For the survey, which was conducted at the end of last year, more than 550 early adopters were asked about their upgrade processes. Of them, 84 percent said their switchovers “went off without meaningful hiccups.” (Of the users surveyed, 46 percent upgraded from Vista and 32 percent from XP.)

This is significant, writes Technologizer founder Harry McCracken, considering the fact that when XP was rolled out, a PC World study found that more than half of those who upgraded reported installation difficulties.

And then there’s the issue of the actual product and its usability. Windows 7 fares OK there as well. According to the survey, 79 percent of those who upgraded from Vista reported that they are “extremely satisfied” with 7; 61 percent of XP users feel the same.

It’s not all good news, however. Users are having problems with two main issues in Windows 7: missing drivers and application incompatibility – both of which were expected.

Although this is a very early gauge, and, in the words of the survey author, “not a representative, projectable, normalized sampling of all Windows 7 users,” it still gives you some sense of what to expect.

After all, you will face a migration eventually. The more information you have, the better.

Below is an excerpt from an earlier PC Helps Online post, which offers tips from a user’s standpoint, and from IHD’s:

For the Windows 7 User:

What changes will potentially throw off users?

1. With the elimination of the Quick Launch toolbar, users will have to pin items to the Start Menu or the taskbar.
2. The taskbar will include icons only (no text), which may confuse some users.
3. Not being able to turn off taskbar windows previews may confuse or even irritate.
4. Some auxiliary apps such as Windows Movie Maker and Windows Mail are removed or replaced.
5. People who used the Vista Sidebar and gadgets in it may miss it.

What new features will increase users’ productivity?

1. With Federated Search, Windows Explorer can be used to simultaneously search different types of resources such as local drives, network drives and SharePoint sites.
2. Easier use of projectors with the Windows Mobility Center.
3. A significantly improved backup utility allows greater flexibility and granularity in a user-friendly interface.
4. Taskbar changes and Aero Peek make working with and switching among multiple windows easier and more efficient.
5. The addition of Windows key combinations to launch frequently used applications and to control the placement of windows.
6. Jump Lists offer quicker access to frequently used program features and content (files, URLs).

For the Help Desk:

What will break when 7 is rolled out (compatibility issues, legacy system issues, security issues, etc)?

1. Mostly what you would expect to break in an OS migration.
2. Some compatibility issues with older hardware and software have been found, but fewer than with migration to Windows Vista. Legacy items that touch on security or network connectivity lead the list as expected.
3. Sleep mode in laptops has been a problem in betas and release candidates.

What capabilities will be helpful to the IHD/system admins?

1. Loads faster! Loads faster! Loads faster!
2. The Problem Steps Recorder can automatically create a history of a problem complete with screen shots.
3. The Action Center combines functions of several interfaces related to security, troubleshooting and recovery.
4. Built-in management of biometric devices.
5. The utility for creating System Repair Disks is simplified and improved.
6. The second generation of PowerShell makes automating administrative tasks easier and more powerful.
7. Easily running applications with Elevated Rights without restarting them.
8. Ability to burn .ISO images to disk.
9. Installation from USB memory devices.

Download a free Windows 7 Migration Kit.

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When half your knowledge workers are using one version and the rest another, that’s a whole lot of lost functionality — and wasted time.

The recession and Office 2007’s immense learning curve are partly to blame, but, ultimately, it’s you, the IT leader, who must take responsibility for diminished return on investment. There’s still time to finish your migration; here are six reasons why you should:

1. ROI: You purchased X number of licenses and only have migrated half. You do the math: You purchased the upgrade for a reason — to take advantage of new and easier to find productivity features.

2. The dreaded Office 2007 learning curve: As evident in the hundreds of expletive-laced Tweets about Office 2007, the new user interface is a downright shock to many knowledge workers. Where’s the file menu? How do you save a document? What is this Ribbon? If you finish your migration, you will not have to face these questions again when you decide to upgrade to the next version (which also has a Ribbon interface).

3. New features: As stated in Reason No. 1, you purchased the upgrade for a reason — to increase worker productivity from the new and improved features (for example, Excel 2007 includes new formulas such as IFERROR, and more columns and rows).

4. The Ribbon is here to stay: Despite the existence of third-party add-ins that make 2007 look and act like 2003, installing them is counterproductive. The beta version of Office 2010 includes the Ribbon interface, and I suspect future versions will too. Embrace it.

5. Document compatibility: When you save 2007 documents in earlier formats, they lose some functionality. When half your knowledge workers are using one version and the rest another, that’s a whole lot of lost functionality — and wasted time.

6. User frustration: See Reasons 2-5.

Time to finish what you started.♦

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Myth No. 1: You can make Office 2007 look and act like Office 2003.

“Two words: no menus. Two more: no toolbars.”

Scads of third-party applications have cropped up that promise to make Office 2007 look and act like 2003. Some are effective; most miss the point. Holding on to the old interface will only serve to diminish your Office 2007 migration return on investment.

Myth No. 2: Migration support needs disappear completely after a few weeks.

No, no, no. Microsoft designed the new interface to make it easier for users to find features that were available in older versions, but were buried in an elaborate menu structure. It’s working, too. Months into a rollout, your employees will be finding tools they never knew existed – and they will need help learning how to use them. To expect IT generalists to know how to use long-hidden features is downright unreasonable.

Myth No. 3: Migrating to Office 2007 is like every other migration.

Two words: no menus. Two more: no toolbars.

Many users will not even be able to open files without training and help. Office 2007 is a complete overhaul of the user interface. In previous upgrades, knowledge of how to get to features in the previous version got users where they wanted to go 95 percent of the time. With 2007, it’s zero percent.

Myth No. 4: Handling a migration without outside help will give my staff a chance to shine.

Don’t turn your IT staff into scapegoats. The scale of end-user need when Office 2007 hits a desktop guarantees your IT department will be overwhelmed.

Myth No. 5: I have smart employees. They’ll have no problem figuring out how to use Office 2007 on their own.

An employee does not call the general help desk when he can get the answer from a colleague who sits near him. If none of his colleagues know how to use Office 2007, and he calls a generalist at the help desk, how much expertise will he find there?

FIND MORE INFO IN: Office 2007 Migration Checklist + Tools | Migration Case Study | PC Helps eTraining |Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

Most Common Support Calls

Many corporate workers have been using Windows XP for some time now, so a learning curve with Windows 7 is inevitable. Below are some factors that will affect your employees’ productivity with the new operating system:

• Elimination of the Quick Launch toolbar and the Vista sidebar (if applicable)
• A new taskbar with icons only
• Changes to auxiliary apps like Windows Movie Maker and Windows Mail
• New features like Federated Search, Windows Mobility Center, Aero Peek, Jump Lists

Best Practice – Provide consolidated training on these features before deployment or make sure Windows 7 experts are standing by and are readily available the day of deployment. Downtime is costly.

As for Office 2007, its radically different interface will result in an even steeper learning curve. The design is such a departure that your employees will hit snags just trying to figure out how to perform basic tasks like saving and formatting. Here are some issues that may cause problems:

• Inability to customize the Ribbon and Office bar
• Finding infrequently used features
• Confusion resulting from the new version’s contextual menus and mini-toolbars
• Macros being disabled
• New file formats and “compatibility” mode
• Understanding the new multiple template types

Best Practice –With Office 2007, the hard part will be getting end-users back to the point where they can complete the tasks they have done for years without issue. The bulk of that work needs to be done prior to deployment or within the first few weeks after installation. Provide pre-migration training, plus on-demand, expert support during and after launch. Without such measures, your in-house IT staff will likely be bombarded with calls, which will take them away from more critical migration issues.

Call Volume

The magnitude of support needs when Windows 7 and Office 2007 hit a desktop environment almost guarantees that internal IT staff will be overwhelmed. Besides the increased call volume, once the callers connect to IT, it is unlikely they will get the assistance they need; most help desk generalists do not have the knowledge, experience or training to solve the range of Windows 7 and Office 2007 questions. An inundated help desk means longer hold times, more call backs, a higher call abandonment rate, increased downtime and decreased service levels.

Here’s a snapshot of migration call volume: It will remain linear throughout the migration, with peaks cresting most noticeably during the initial installations. During months 1-3, our clients have experienced a 50 percent spike in “how-to” support calls. You can expect the same.

The number of calls will begin to decrease at about month 4, and will continue to lessen through month 6, when the volume drops to 30 percent. After six months, levels will return to those experienced pre-deployment.

Best Practice – Don’t bother hiring extra full-time IT staff for a migration; training new hires up to the expertise level needed in such a short amount of time is near-impossible. Instead, bring in a migration partner that employs Microsoft-certified consultants, offers 24×7 support on more than 160 applications, and charges you according to actual use.

Training and Support

In past upgrades, an information worker’s knowledge of how to get to the features in the previous version was 95 percent effective in the new version. For Windows 7 and Office 2007, it is zero percent effective. In our experience, we’ve found that providing training and support during the critical times in a migration can mean the difference between a smooth switchover and a hellish one.

Best Practice — Provide intensive training during the initial phases of the migration, and continue to offer instruction during and after. This is a key element in measuring ROI. Everyone learns at a different pace, so having a multitude of training options is best, i.e., self-service, on-demand, web-based, individual and customized. Being able to identify and deliver targeted training needs, solution-based metrics and measureable productivity gains can justify several portions of a Windows 7 and Office 2007 investment.

Download your free copy of the Windows 7 and Office 2007 Migration Readiness Kit.

FIND MORE INFO IN: Office 2007 Migration Checklist + Tools | Migration Case Study (.pdf) | PC Helps eTraining | Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

After more than an hour of trial and error, she couldn’t find the feature she used in previous versions, so she devised a workaround with the space bar to nudge and align.

She asked two of her fellow teachers for help. They couldn’t figure it out either, and they too were using the spacebar fix.

Her opinion of Office 2007 after this experience?

“It sucks. I hate it.”

Teacher A spent more than an hour coming up with her Band-aid workaround. But her solution isn’t a solution at all: She now spends more time on each presentation nudging and aligning.

If she would have called her school district help desk, a consultant would have solved her problem in less than half the time. She could have passed along the information to her colleagues, saving them each an hour. She may have even learned how to use tools that are new to the version.

When asked why she didn’t call the help desk, she said she didn’t think the question was important enough. Besides, she added, she didn’t have time to waste on the phone.

Her opinion of Office 2007 after this experience? “It sucks. I hate it.”

This is typical in workplaces. Even at companies where quality desktop application support is offered, employees hesitate to utilize the service.

One reason is to avoid embarrassment. Many workers have learned their computer skills informally on the job, so they are reluctant to call the help desk for what they perceive is a “stupid” question.

Another reason, and chief among them, is an assumed time investment. Most people have had a frustrating help desk experience or two, where they were placed on hold, forced to listen to tinny, instrumental versions of Cat Stevens hits, only to be “helped” — eventually — by someone who is familiar with everything but proficient in nothing.

So instead, they tap the office software “expert” for help, pulling her away from her job and wasting twice the company effort. Or they fruitlessly scan Microsoft Help files and search the web.

The result is a whopping waste of investment in software. The point of an upgrade is to give users new, usually improved and expanded capabilities. If employees do not have access to training and support, they will naturally come to the conclusion that Office 2007 sucks. That sucks for your bottom line. (Jen Darr)

MORE INFO IN: Office 2007 migration checklist | contact PC Helps

Software migrations will no doubt cause disruptions in at least three areas over several months. But if you approach it with a thought-out plan, you can lessen the sting.

Where’s the File Menu?

The first and most obvious impact will be on your employees. Features they have used for years are suddenly, um, somewhere else. The interface changes in Office 2007 are substantial enough that without training and support before and throughout a migration, even the savviest users will be lost.

“How will an overall decrease in productivity affect your company’s numbers? In a word, nightmarishly.”

Callers are in Queue

Immediately after deployment, employees will bombard the internal help desk with support questions, on top of their regular requests for forgotten passwords and more mailbox size. It’s hard to keep up a balancing act like that, even more so when employees make it over the initial learning hump and begin finding features that are new to the version. That’s 2.0.

The Bottom Line

How will an overall decrease in productivity affect your company’s numbers? In a word, nightmarishly. If John Q. Embeeay is churning out a dozen reports a day using Access and Excel 2003, how long will it take him to get back up to that level using 2007?

Whether it is learning how to use the new ribbon interface or adjusting to file formats, employees and help desks will face a learning curve of some capacity. Productivity, the backbone of a company, will suffer without a migration partner and plan in place. (Jen Darr)

FIND MORE INFO IN: Office 2007 Migration Checklist + Tools | Migration Case Study | PC Helps eTraining |Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

Over the past 11 months, the piece has received a smattering of comments, many of which are tinged with vitriol. Office 2007 doesn’t just suck, according to CIO’s readers; it’s reviled, despised, detested, loathed.

Taking a stand by sticking with an earlier version of Office is hardly a political move.

Here’s a sampling of the comments:

“I’m a longtime Office user (since its inception). Office 2007 is an abomination and shows just how out of touch those developers are with real world use and workflow.”

“Thought my suckage meter was just already broken or something, it being beyond the warranty period, but as the 10 or so days went by from having installed this step backwards in software development, and having not latched onto what I had assumed was some kind of groundbreaking innovation in GUI, I started to suspect that Microsoft’s product itself had gone beyond the limits of my suckage meter and broken it… and everyone here has affirmed that.”

(That previous commenter called Office 2007 an “emotional disappointment” and offered an SAT-style analogy: “MS Office is to ‘misunderstood’ what Charles Manson was to ‘goofy.’”)

The readers are angry with Microsoft, and used the comments section to vent. They took umbrage with what they perceived was my defense of the Ribbon. And I’m OK with that.

Here’s my take (you can retract your claws for a moment): There are plenty of things wrong with Microsoft’s Office 2007 product. We could create an entire social community focused on sharing what we think is unintuitive about its software. (They may already exist.) However, a large portion of businesses uses Microsoft, and many people learned basic computing skills on Microsoft software. (Personally, I dropped out of a FORTRAN class in college because I didn’t see its practicality. I opted to study Spanish too, instead of the languages I really wanted to learn — Icelandic and Swahili.)

So they are stuck, for now at least. I think Office 2007 was a much-needed slap on the back of the head for IT leaders. Complacency is not an option anymore, not in this economy.

If they have migrated or are about to migrate to Office 2007, they cannot treat it like any other upgrade. Employees will need assistance in order to keep productivity at pre-migration levels.

Taking a stand by sticking with an earlier version is hardly a political move. It’s like not paying your AT&T bill because you think their 3G sucks. Nothing will change — except your service, which will be shut off.

Likewise, taking the martyr approach (We can do it alone! We’ll face the learning curve together!) will get companies nowhere.

If you really despise Microsoft, take a actual stand and find an alternative.

Just be sure to call us when you need software support.

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