Navigate through your selected range by changing the active cell (Excel 2003/2007/2010)

You may already know about a few handy shortcut keys that take you to the beginning and end of your worksheet’s data. Pressing [Ctrl][Home] takes you to cell A1 and pressing [Ctrl][End] takes you to the end of your worksheet’s data. However, what if you select a large range spanning more than one screen, and you’d like to navigate through it? It may not necessarily include the beginning or end of your data, so the shortcut keys we mentioned earlier aren’t efficient.

Navigate through your selected range by changing the active cell (Excel 2003/2007)

You may already know about a few handy shortcut keys that take you to the beginning and end of your worksheet’s data. Pressing [Ctrl][Home] takes you to cell A1 and pressing [Ctrl][End] takes you to the end of your worksheet’s data. However, what if you select a large range spanning more than one screen, and you’d like to navigate through it? It may not necessarily include the beginning or end of your data, so the shortcut keys we mentioned earlier aren’t efficient.

Keeping those old messages (Microsoft Entourage)

If you're like most of us, you probably read a message and then go on to the next, forgetting to delete it. Or, perhaps you want to save the message for later. Either way, you end up with bloated mail folders that make it hard to find individual emails and can lead to the database or the application becoming corrupted. Fortunately, Entourage makes it easy to backup your mail. Just drag the folder containing the mail you want to archive onto the desktop. When you do, Entourage archives the messages in an MBOX-format file. (Entourage only archives individual folders, so you'll need to drag out subfolders separately.) Then, should you need to access any of the messages, you can either use Word to open the file and do a search, or import the folder by dragging it back into Entourage.

Always working on the go? Stay one step ahead of laptop thieves while traveling

With more and more Windows power users working on laptops from airport lounges, hotel rooms, and coffee shops, it′s essential to keep this portable and valuable piece of equipment safe from thieves. Check out these tips for securing your system while you′re on the road.

Four ways to quickly access the Go To dialog box (Word 2003/2007)

The Go To dialog box allows you to immediately move to any page, section, line, bookmark, comment, footnote, endnote, field, table, graphic, equation, object, or heading in your document. You can use any of the following four methods to access this dialog box:

Keep your numbers′ leading zeros in Excel (2003/2007)

If you need to enter the Zip code 02364 in your Excel spreadsheet, you′ll probably throw your hands up when Excel automatically changes the value to 2364. Your Zip code must have five digits, but by default Excel doesn′t display leading zeros.

Retouch unwanted spots from your photos quickly with Photoshop′s Blur tool (CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

Have you ever had to do a quick photo retouch, such as removing dust or a blemish? If so, we have a great technique for you. The next time you have an image with a mark you′d like to remove, select the Blur tool from the Tools panel. In the tool Options bar, set the tool′s Strength to about 35% and then change the Mode pop-up menu to Lighten. Now, paint the unwanted spot until it′s gone.

Prevent date-related queries from missing important records

You may think that querying the records between two dates is a simple process. But if you forget to consider both the date and time values, you may not get the results you want. And because such data omissions usually don′t cause software errors, they may never get fixed. Nobody will ever know what caused, say, someone′s medical records or banking transactions to go missing.

Remove unwanted whitespace from your result text document with XSLT

When transforming XML data into a text document, often unwanted whitespace nodes (e.g., extra line breaks) appear in the output. You can control this by using the <xsl:strip-space> element.

Move a table row without all the fuss (Word 2003/2007)

If you′ve been inserting a new row, then cutting and pasting every time you need to move a table row to another location, you′ve been taking the long way. Here′s our shortcut:

Transform multiple layers simultaneously (CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

If you have pixels on different layers that you want to transform at the same scale or percentage, it′s easy to do so! First you need to select all the layers that you wish to transform. To do this, press [shift] and select multiple contiguous layers, or press c ([Ctrl] in Windows) and select multiple non-contiguous layers. Then press [command]T ([Ctrl]T in Windows) to activate the Free Transform tool. Transform your image, and when you′re satisfied with the results press [return] ([Enter] in Windows) to commit the transformation.

Troubleshoot an XP Pro system from another Windows computer

As a Windows power user, you′re likely called quite often to assist less skilled users in troubleshooting their systems. And, if you need to connect from one Windows XP Professional system to another running the same OS, you know you can easily accomplish this task with the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) feature. But, what happens when you need to access an XP Professional system from one that isn't running the XP Professional operating system? Luckily, all you need to do is install the Remote Desktop Connection program on your 98, 2000, or XP Home system using your XP Professional installation CD-ROM. To do so:

Use ASP.NET's Visible property to do more than just hide the content (ASP.NET)

If you've explored ASP.NET's server controls, you've probably run across the built-in Visible property. At first, you may wonder how it's different from the CSS visibility setting. After all, both settings effectively make the relevant page element visible or invisible. The difference is in the rendering.

Disable hyperlinks as you type (Excel 2003/2007)

When you′re storing email addresses or web addresses in a spreadsheet, Excel often changes them to hyperlinks as you type. This way, you can follow the link or open your email just by clicking the hyperlink. But when you don′t want to open an Internet browser, it′s frustrating when you′re constantly clicking on the links unintentionally. Fortunately, you can disable this option and ensure that Excel leaves your URLs and email addresses as text.

Change your ruler measurements with ease (CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

Have you ever opened a new document and started working on a project and then realized that your ruler was set to inches rather than pixels or vice versa? To change the measurements quickly, hold down the [control] key and click (right-click in Windows) directly on one of your rulers. Upon doing so, a pop-up menu displays with a list of measurements for you to choose from. If you′re in a huge rush, just double-click on a ruler and the Preferences dialog box for Units & Rulers displays. Then, you can select the desired measurement from the Rulers pop-up menu.

Easily find records changed since midnight (Oracle RDBMS 9i+)

If you need to find all records in a table that have a timestamp column with today′s date, you might think you′d have to do some sort of subtraction with dates. Actually, all you need to do is truncate today′s date.