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When working in Microsoft Excel 2007, it is almost certain that you will sometimes need to open more than one workbook at a time. Excel permits you to do this and to display and navigate between the various workbooks.

To open several Excel documents, click on the Office button and choose “Open. Naturally, you can only open several workbooks at once if they are in the same folder. To highlight a range of workbooks, click on the name of the first, hold down the Shift key on the keyboard and click on the name of the last.

To select individual files in an arbitrary manner, hold down the Control key, click on the first, second, third, and so forth. You can also drag a selection rectangle around a series of file names to highlight several files. When you do so, make sure you begin dragging in blank space rather than starting on an item. Having highlighted the files that you wish to open, click the Open button.

Excel opens each of the selected files in a fully maximised window. This means that you can only see one workbook at a time. To switch between documents you can use the Windows taskbar and choose a particular name. You can also click on the View tab of the Excel Ribbon where you will find the Switch Windows button. This lists all the windows you currently have open. You can simply choose the name of a workbook to activate it.

The Window group of the View tab also contains an option for tiling your Windows. Just click on the button marked Arrange All and choose Tiled. When you click OK, Excel arranges all the open documents into separate small windows so that you can see the contents of all files simultaneously. To activate a file, simply click on any part of its window.

To exit tiled mode, click on the maximise button of any of the open workbooks. This action maximises all the open workbook windows so when you switch windows, you will find that all of them have been maximised.

Regardless of which display mode is currently active, you can always use your keyboard to switch between the various workbooks that you have open in Excel at any given time. To do this, hold down the Control key and press Tab.

A particularly useful feature of Excel is the ability to switch windows when you are in the middle of creating a formula. This makes it easy to create formulas with external references. For example, if you are creating a formula containing the VLOOKUP function but the lookup table resides in a separate workbook, just make sure that both workbooks are open before you begin creating the formula. At the point where you need to specify the location of the lookup table, use any of the techniques discussed above to switch workbooks and drag across the cells containing the lookup table.

Posted under Software

Custom built PCs – what’s the point? One problem with store-bought, off-the-shelf computers is they are well-rounded, average machines built for general use. That may not seem like a problem, and for people just needing a small home office, it isn’t. But for people using their computers for very specific purposes, store-bought general use computers are often just not good enough.

When you buy a custom built computer, on the other hand, you can carefully pick out the best hardware and software for your specific purpose. You’ll end up with a computer better suited to your needs, and often cheaper than a store-bought PC. Here’s some examples of people with special hardware needs:

The Gamer. New video games constantly push the limits of what PCs can handle. Buying a store-bought PC fast enough to run the newest games basically means having to buy the most powerful and expensive one available. Consequently, lots of hard-core video gamers have custom-built computers designed to run games at optimal efficiency (and often at a cheaper price tag).

The priorities for a gaming PC are speed and graphics. With the advent of online gaming, the last thing you want is to fall behind your online competitors because yoru PC can’t keep up. With a computer that has been built specifically for this purpose, you have the ability to upgrade various parts (such as the graphics card) without having to purchase a new PC.

Fancy the idea of becoming the hottest new DJ or music producer? The possibilities are almost endless for what you can achieve on your own computer, but only if it is built to be capable of doing what you need it to. Obviously sound is a priority, with a top of the range sound card and fancy speakers, but you will also need a high specification processor, particluarly if you are mixing different tracks.

The Armchair Editor. If you plan to make movies on your PC, once again a custom-built computer gets you the most bang for your buck. Video editing and video game computers share a lot of hardware requirements, but with a different emphasis. If video gamers love speed, video editors love storage.

For a motherboard, inexpensive solutions usually have more built-in options directly on the motherboard, such as graphics and audio support. What this means is that it can be more difficult to upgrade in the future. Whilst they may be cheaper now, to keep pace with technological developments it is important that right from the outset you have the right motherboard. Generally you won’t have a choice of a motherboard in a standard system.

The situations whereby a custom built PC is not just a “nice to have” but a necessity are varied, and the above are just three of those.

Posted under Hardware

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

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