Follow these instructions to create a doodling program in Visual Basic Express 2010.

This is a VB 2010 Express Edition program that lets you to doodle onto the screen. The program starts with a small window that you can draw on by dragging with the mouse. A line is drawn between the point you click on the drawing area and the point where you lift your mouse cursor from the drawing area. If you don’t like what you’ve drawn, click the Clear button and start over.

To create this application, start a new Visual Basic 2010 application – you can download the program from here (http://bit.ly/vbexpressdownload) – and choose Windows Forms Application, type the name Doodler and click Ok. Enlarge the form on the screen to around half again its existing size.

Drag two buttons long the bottom edge of the form. Click one button and Shift + click on the second one and choose Format > Make Same Size > Both and then Format > Align > Tops to align the buttons and size them. Click the PictureBox control and drag a large PictureBox inside the form. The PictureBox should be almost the full width of the form and it should sit just above the buttons.

Right click the PictureBox, select Properties and set the BackColor to a light or white color. Double click the form to open the code window for the form. Type this code in the General > Declarations section.

Dim xStart, yStart, xEnd, yEnd As Integer
Dim DrawBitmap As Bitmap
Dim DrawGraphics As Graphics
Dim myPen As New Pen(Color.BlueViolet, 3)

Add this code to the Form_Load event. It creates a new drawing in the PictureBox control which is where the line drawing will take place:

drawbitmap = New Bitmap(PictureBox1.Width, PictureBox1.Height)
drawgraphics = Graphics.FromImage(drawbitmap)
PictureBox1.Image = DrawBitmap

The code that does the actual drawing is this MyLine subroutine which you can type now. You can call this code anytime you need to draw a line. This program records the starting point when you click the mouse button and the ending point when you let it go. This routine draws the actual line between the two points. Regardless of whether the mouse is moved in a curve or a straight line – the routine always draws a straight line.

Private Sub drawMyLine()
PictureBox1.Image = DrawBitmap
DrawGraphics.SmoothingMode = Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.HighQuality
DrawGraphics.DrawLine(myPen, xStart, yStart, xEnd, yEnd)
End Sub

The color and size of the line are set up using the Pen object in the General Declarations area. Here you can change the line color and width by replacing the statement with something like this:

Dim myPen As New Pen(Color.Red, 5)

Add this code to the PictureBox1_MouseDown event.

When added to the MouseDown event this code calculates the value of the mouse pointer’s X and Y coordinates. It uses the Control.MousePosition property to return the absolute screen position for the mouse pointer. From this, the code subtracts the distance in from the left or the top of the screen of the form, the distance between the PictureBox and the form and the number of pixels of space consumed by the edge of the form and the title bar (4 and 31 pixels respectively).

xStart = Control.MousePosition.X - (Me.Left + PictureBox1.Left + 4)
yStart = Control.MousePosition.Y - (Me.Top + PictureBox1.Top + 31)
' to do continuous drawing, enable this line
' drawMyLine()

Type this next code into the PictureBox_MouseUp event handler. As with the MouseDown event this code retrieves the end X and Y coordinates for the end position of the mouse when you have dragged it and you let it go. These coordinates are calculated relative to the PictureBox. This event handler also takes care of drawing the line as it includes a call to the drawMyLine subroutine.

xEnd = Control.MousePosition.X - (Me.Left + PictureBox1.Left + 4)
yEnd = Control.MousePosition.Y - (Me.Top + PictureBox1.Top + 31)
drawMyLine()

The remaining code for the form is for the buttons. In the Button2_Click event type this:

End

In the Button1_Click event type this code which resets the PictureBox so you can create a new image. This is a repeat of the code from the Form1_Load event:

DrawBitmap = New Bitmap(PictureBox1.Width, PictureBox1.Height)
DrawGraphics = Graphics.FromImage(DrawBitmap)
PictureBox1.Image = DrawBitmap

Once you have created the code, name the buttons Clear and Exit, name the form Doodler and test the application to check that it works. Test the Exit button to make sure that it exits the application. To draw, hold your mouse over the white picture area on the screen and click and drag to draw a line. Every time you click and drag, a new line will be added to the image. To clear the image and start again click the Clear button.

In the next installment I’ll add some extra functionality to the project including a save feature, I’ll improve the continuous drawing and add a tool for selecting a color and line width.

If you’re like me, you have a litany of Excel printing horror stories to tell. It seems that when things go wrong when printing an Excel worksheet they never go wrong by halves – it is usually a spectacular disaster.

Hit the big red switch

Well your printer probably doesn’t have a big red switch but it will have an OFF button. When the printer starts coughing up pages of unwanted garbage – hit the off switch, cancel the print job and then start hunting for the problem.

To help you, I’ve put together my best tips and troubleshooting techniques for printing right in Excel – every time.

Understand what prints

When you click the Print button to print an Excel worksheet, Excel prints everything that’s on that worksheet. Sometimes there are cells filled that you may not realize are filled and the result is you will print pages you don’t mean to print.

Use Print Preview

Your first and best tool is the Print Preview option in Excel – it shows you how many pages will print and if you’re expecting one page and it’s preparing for 50 you know something is very wrong. In Excel 2010 things are easier than ever before and the print preview appears whenever you choose File > Print.

Selecting what to print

One common problem in Excel is having a filled cell well out of view. You might have mistakenly moved to a faraway cell and typed something – even something as innocuous as a space is all it takes and that worksheet cell contains data. So, when you click the Print button, Excel will print everything up to and including the cell containing that space. To you it looks like reams of empty paper – to Excel it all makes perfect sense.

When this happens to you there are two choices – find and delete the problem cell or use a workaround. The workaround involves selecting the area to print before printing it. To do this, select the area to print and choose File > Print – don’t click the Print icon if you have one. In Excel 2007 choose Office button > Print > Print Preview. When the Print dialog appears, click the Selection option and only the selected area will print.

Inconvenient page breaks

Sometimes, when Excel divides up a large worksheet over a series of pages it doesn’t put the page break in the most sensible place. You can preview page breaks before you print and make adjustments to them by selecting the View > Page Break Preview (View tab > Page Break Preview in Excel 2007 and 2010). When you do this, you’ll see dashed lines on the screen showing the page breaks.

To change a page break you can add your own but this must be done inside a current page so that you’re effectively making the page smaller. You can’t make a page longer or wider using this technique.

To add a manual page break, click and select the column or row which should trigger the page break and choose Insert > Page Break (in Excel 2007 and  2010, choose Page Layout tab > Page Breaks > Insert Page Break). You can also drag on the dashed lines to move them around the screen and reorganize your page layout.

Missing column headings

When a worksheet prints over multiple pages – all pages from page 2 onwards will be missing row or column headings or both. The data on the pages will be hard to understand unless you tape the pages together.

A better solution is to print column and row headings on every page and, to do this, choose Page Layout > Print Titles to open the Page Setup dialog at the Sheet tab. Click in the Rows To Repeat At Top box and type the row letters in the format $1:$1 to print the first row or $1:$2 to print the first two rows on each page. In the Columns To Repeat At Left box, type $A:$A to print the first column as row headings or $A:$B to print the first two columns.

Shrink to fit

When a worksheet is only a little too big to print on a single sheet of paper, you can shrink it to fit. Choose File > Print and choose an option from the Scaling list which probably currently shows as No Scaling.

Choose Fit Sheet on One Page to scale the sheet down so it all prints on one sheet of paper. Other options include Fit all Columns on One Page and Fit All Rows on One Page which scale the worksheet to fit either one page wide or one page lengthwise. Choose Custom Scaling Options if none of these settings is exactly what you need.

Print multiple sheets on a page

If you’ve tried to print part of one sheet and part of another on a single sheet of paper you know this is a futile exercise – Excel can’t do it because every sheet prints on new page even if it contains only a few cells of data.

There is a workaround that involves using the Camera tool to take a snapshot of the worksheet areas you want to print and place these on a single worksheet for printing.

To add the Camera tool to the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar), choose Options > Quick Access Toolbar and from the dropdown list choose Commands Not in the Ribbon, locate the Camera and click Add to add it to the QAT.

Now select the first area to print, and take a picture of it by clicking the Camera icon. Move to a new worksheet and click where the snapshot image should appear. Immediately you click on the spreadsheet a snapshot of what you captured will be inserted.

Now go back and take a snapshot of the other worksheet and add it to your new sheet. You can do this as many times as you need to. Then print the worksheet and all the ‘snapshots’ will print on the one page. Snapshots are live views so if the data in the original sheet changes then the snapshot will change too.

Print a chart

To print just a chart and not all the worksheet detail around it, click the chart to select it. Now choose File > Print to locate all the options you have for sizing and printing your chart. When you click the Print button, only the chart will print.

- using multiple axes in Excel

- adding pictures to charts

- resize chart bars

- add data to charts

-deal with missing data

Creating a basic chart in Excel is simple but when your data requires just a little bit extra attention to look its best, you’ll need to delve into the depths of the Excel charting tools. Here I’ll show you five ways of taming unruly data in Microsoft Excel.

Using Multiple Axes

When you have a mix of data to use such as very large values and some very small ones like percentages you’ll find that the percentages disappear when they are plotted against the larger data values.

You can solve the problem by adding a second axis for the smaller values. To do this, click on the chart and then choose Chart Tools > Layout tab and from the selector in the top left of the Ribbon select the chart series that you cannot see clearly on the chart. Then click the Format Selection icon which is directly below this.

When the dialog appears click Series Options and click Secondary Axis to plot this series on a new axis which has a different scale applied to it.

Now, with the series still selected, select Chart Tools > Design tab and choose Change Chart Type. Because you have only part of the chart selected whatever option you choose now will be applied to only the selected data series. Choose a contrasting chart type for this series to draw attention to the fact that it is plotted against a different axis. A good combination where you are using a column chart for the large values is to use a Line Chart for the very small values.

To finish, from the Chart Tools > Layout tab select Axes and name your primary and secondary vertical axes to indicate what is being displayed on those axes. Formatting the axis titles so they match the colour of the series plotted on them will help the reader understand your chart.

Pictures in Charts

Make your charts illustrate what their contents are all about by adding a picture to the chart. To do this click the chart to select it and, from the Chart Tools > Format tab click the dropdown list in the top left corner and choose Plot Area to place the image behind the chart or choose Chart Area to fill the entire chart box with the image.

Choose either Format Selection which is immediately under the dropdown list. Select Fill and then click Picture or Texture Fill. Select File to open an image on your disk or choose Clip Art to use a clipart image. When you insert the image it will appear behind the chart. To make the picture partially transparent, adjust the transparency slider. If you place your image on the Chart Area you may want to select and set the Plot Area Fill to No Fill or make it partially transparent so you can see the image more clearly.

Re-size Chart Bars

By default, Bar and Column charts are created with the bars and columns a preset width. If you would prefer the gaps to be smaller and the bars wider, you can do so. First choose Chart Tools > Layout tab and select one of your chart series from the list. Then choose the Format Selection option immediately under this and select Series Options from the Format Data Series dialog. Adjust the Gap Width slider to make the space between bars or columns wider or narrower – if you make the gap narrower, the bars become wider and vice versa.

Overlap data in charts

If you have plotted multiple series on your chart, you can overlap the bars or columns by dragging the Series Overlap slider towards Overlapped. This overlaps the bars or columns so they will be wider still as well as being overlapped.

Add New Data to a chart

In Excel 2003 and earlier versions you could add data to a chart by selecting the data and dragging and dropping it onto the chart. This behaviour was discontinued in Excel 2007 and 2010 making it more difficult than previously to add data to a chart.

One method of adding data to a chart in Excel 2007 and 2010 is to select the new data including the column heading if you previously included column headings in your chart data selection and click the Copy button on the Home tab of the ribbon. Now click on a data series in the chart and press Ctrl + V to paste the data into the chart.

The other method of adding data is to click the chart to select it and choose Chart Tools > Design tab > Select Data. In this dialog you will see the data that is already plotted in your chart. The series names appear in the panel on the left and the category or horizontal axis data appears in the right hand panel.

To add data, click the Add button and click on the series name to add – this is the cell or cells which contain the heading that should appear in the legend for this series. Then click in the Series Value box and select the data to include in the chart (but don’t include the headings you just selected). When you do this the chart will automatically expand to show the data that you have just added to it so you can check the results. Click Ok twice to finish.

Control Missing Data

When your data is incomplete such as where some of it is missing you may find your chart looks strange because of the way Excel plots missing data. You can change the way that missing data is handled by clicking on the chart to select it and choose Chart Tools > Design tab > Select Data and click the Hidden and Empty Cells button.

A dialog appears with three options for plotting the empty cells: Gaps, Zero and Connect data points with line. Select the option that is best for your data and click Ok twice. All the data that is missing from your charted range will be dealt according to the option you selected.

1          Calculating workdays

To calculate the number of days between two dates and taking into account holidays use the =NETWORKDAYS function. Start by placing the dates for the holidays in a range of cells across a row or down a column. Select this range and name it holidays using Formulas > Define Name.

This function will calculate the number of workdays between two dates placed in cell A1 and A2, taking into account the days you’ve described as being holidays:

=NETWORKDAYS(A1,A2,Holidays)

If the NETWORKDAYS function returns an error make sure that you have the Analysis Toolpak installed by choosing File > Options > Add-ins > Excel Add-ins > Go.

Make sure the checkbox for the Add-in is selected:

2          Calculating Averages

The AVERAGE function can be used to calculate the average of a series of numbers. The syntax is =AVERAGE(StartCell:EndCell), where StartCell is the first cell in the range and EndCell is the last cell.

Be aware that when you make an AVERAGE calculation, blank (empty cells) are ignored. So, for example, the average of four cells, three of which contain the number four and one of which is blank, is four.

If you place a zero in the empty cell then the Average is 3. If you intend blank cells to represent the value zero you should place a zero in all empty cells before making the calculation.

3          Date functions

Two of Excel’s functions =NOW() and =TODAY() allow you to insert the current date and time or just the current date into a cell. If you do this and see a number of around 39,000 this is the number of days since the 1^st of January 1900 and is how dates are calculated. Simply format this number as a date using the Format > Cell > Number Format options.

4          Referring to a cell

One difficulty which stumps even seasoned Excel users is how to refer to the contents of one cell in the current cell. For example, if cell A2 should contain the same contents as cell C2 simply type =C2 in cell A2. Linking cells like this ensures that when the value in C2 changes, the value in cell A2 will change to match it. You can achieve a similar result across worksheets by prefixing the cell reference with the worksheet name. For example, this formula refers to the contents of cell C2 on Sheet1: =Sheet1!C2.

5          Multiply and Add

Often when you are making calculations you need to multiply the contents of one column by the values in a second column and then add the results. You might do this, for example, if you have a list of product numbers in stock and you need to multiply these by the cost price and sum it to obtain an inventory value. To do this use the SUMPRODUCT function, the syntax of which is =SUMPRODUCT(FirstRange,SecondRange). For example, =SUMPRODUCT(A2:A25,B2:B25) will multiply each of the cells in the range in column A by the corresponding cell in the range in column B and then total the result.

6          Making choices

The IF function lets you make a choice in your worksheet. For example, if cell A2 contains a value of Y or N depending on whether a discount is applicable, you can use the value in that cell to calculate the discount in another cell. If the discount is 10% this formula will calculate the discount on a price in cell A3:

=IF(A2 =”Y”,0.1*A3, 0)

The formula checks cell A2 to see if a discount is to be allowed and, if so, the discount is calculated using the total price in cell A3. If not, the discount is set to 0.

7          Finding Roots

Excel has a special function SQRT for finding the square root of a number. So, for example, the square root of 25 can be calculated using =SQRT(25). There is, however, no corresponding function for calculating the cube or any other root of a number. You can, however, calculate this using a simple formula if you know that the square root of 25 can be written mathematically as =25^(1/2). By extension, the cube root can be calculated by typing =25^(1/3).

Create a hyperlink

To create a hyperlink in a Word document, type the text that you want to anchor the hyperlink to and then choose Insert > Hyperlink. In Word 2007 and 2010 this is in the Links group on the Insert tab.

The text to display should appear in the box, click the Screen Tip button and type a screen tip.

To link to an Excel file, select Existing File or Web page and browse to find the file to link to. Once you’ve selected the file to link to, click Target frame and indicate whether you want to open the document in a new window or not. Click Ok and then Ok again. It is also possible to link to an existing file such as a different Word document, or a web page, a place in this document, a new document, or an email address.

Hyperlink options

To test a link, Ctrl + Click on it. This behavior can be changed to a single click by changing your Word Options. Click the Office Button or choose File and then Options. In the Advanced area look for the Editing options and you can disable the option “Use Ctrl + Click to Follow Hyperlink” and only a single click will be required. This applies to version of Word only and won’t change any settings on the document recipient’s computer.

Also in the Options > Proofing area you will find the AutoCorrect options which control how text is converted automatically to hyperlinks. If you enable Internet and Network Paths with Hyperlinks then things that look like URLs or email addresses will be automatically formatted as hyperlinks. If this is disabled, they won’t – but you can always do this manually if desired.

Images as hyperlinks

In Word you can not only use text as a hyperlink anchor but you can also use an image or a graphic. To do this, inset the image, then with it selected, choose Insert Hyperlink. You won’t have any text displayed in the dialog in this case because you are linking to an object so the Text to Display area will read <<selection in document>> instead. You could use this to link an image of a worksheet to the actual worksheet or a small image of a website to the actual site.

Hyperlinks are saved with a document and are also included as live links in PDF files when you save a document as a PDF file from Word.

Create a hyperlink within a document

To link to a place in the current document first create a bookmark where you want the link to take you to by using Insert > Bookmark, type a name for the bookmark and click Add. Now go to where the link should be type and select the anchor text, right click and choose Hyperlink.

Step 2

Choose Place in This Document in the Link to: area. In the list of places locate the Bookmarks collection and select the bookmark to link to. This creates a link within the document so, when you Ctrl + click on the hyperlink, you’ll be taken to that bookmarked position.

Step 3

To change how hyperlinks look, from the Styles group on the Home tab, select the Style Task Pane flyout. Locate the Hyperlink entry and, from the down-pointing arrow to its right, click Modify. Change the style options and click Ok. You can also change the look of Followed Hyperlinks.

Since the early days of Microsoft Office, there has always been a tool for finding and using clip art in your documents, worksheets and presentations. While the clip art that comes with the Microsoft Office suite may not be to your taste, there are other ways that you can use the clip organizer to speed up your work. In this column, I’ll show you some techniques for working with your clip organizer in Office 2007 and 2010.

Finding the Clip Organizer

In Office 2010, the direct link from inside Office applications to the Clip Organizer has been removed. In previous versions when you choose Insert > Clip Art you find an Organize Clips option at the foot of the task pane. This no longer appears in any Office 2010 application.

Instead, to access the Clip Organizer you’ll choose Start > Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office 2010 Tools and then click the Microsoft Clip Organizer option. This opens the Microsoft Clip Organizer. Here you will find clips that you have downloaded as well as links to Office and web clip art collections.

Find and download free Microsoft clip art

You can add additional images to your clip art collection from the web. To do this visit http://office.microsoft.com/images and type a description of the image to search for in the search bar and click to find matching images.

If you click Download, the image will download as an image file and will not be automatically added to your clip art collection. You must then add the image to your clip art organizer. To do this, from in the Clip Organizer, choose File > Add Clips to Organizer > On My Own and then brows to where the image is stored – typically your Downloads folder. Select the image and double click it. It will appear in the Organizer.

Click it and click the down pointing arrow and choose Preview/Properties. Here you can edit its keywords and move images to other collections if desired.

Add a signature or logo as Clip Art

One handy way to use your clipart collection is to add images such as a scanned version of your signature or your company logo or any other image which you use often in your work. When you do this, you can easily add the image to a document using the Insert > Clip Art option and you don’t have to search for it on disk.

To add the scanned image to the Clip Organizer, choose File > Add Clips to Organizer > On My Own. Browse to find the clip to add to the organizer. Select it and click Add To to select a collection to add the clipart to or create a new one.

Click Add to add the image to the selected collection. Click on the collection and click the dropdown list opposite the clip and choose Edit Keywords. Add keywords to help identify the image and remove any which are not relevant.

Add a clip art image to a Word document

Once the image is in your clipart collection, in any Office application choose Insert > Clip Art, type a keyword to search for and click Go. When the image is returned as a match click it to insert it into your document.

Here, I’ll show you how to get started customizing the Ribbon and show you what you can do in customizing it. I’ll use Word for the examples but you can do this in Excel, PowerPoint, or the other Office 2010 applications.

Get started

The customization options are accessible from the new Backstage view so choose File > Options > Customize Ribbon. Here are the tools for customizing the Ribbon. They include the option to rename any of the Microsoft built in Ribbon Tabs or Group and to add your own Tabs to the Ribbon.

You can also add new groups to any Tabs – yours or those which were built-in and rearrange items in existing Tabs if you don’t like how they’re arranged.

Add a new Tab

To add a new Tab to the ribbon, click the New Tab button then right click the New Tab, choose Rename and type a name for it. Right click the New Group that has been created automatically for you, click Rename and type a name for this – you can only put items on a tab if they are located in a group. Select an icon to use for the group and click Ok.

To add commands to your new group, select a command in the panel on the right and, with your new group selected, click Add. Continue to add commands to your new group as desired. You can also add additional groups by selecting your new Tab, click New Group, rename it and then add commands to it too.

Share your customizations

In addition you can import and export the customizations that you’ve made to the Ribbon. This lets you share your customizations with others – this will be useful at work if you have tools, macros or templates that you use all the time. You could add these to the Ribbon to have easier access to them and use the exported customization file to easily make everyone’s copy of Word, for example, look the same.

To export your customization to share with others or as a backup, click Import/Export > Export All Customizations and export the customizations as an .exportedUI format file. This can be imported into another copy of this application on another computer.

Accessing Commands not in the Ribbon

Another application for creating your own Tabs and groups is to get access to commands that are not currently in the Ribbon.

Click the dropdown list in the left hand panel in the Customize Ribbon dialog and select the ‘Commands not in the Ribbon’ option. You will see there is also a Macros option here – both options give you access to tools not otherwise on the Ribbon.

Renaming tabs and Groups

To rename an existing Ribbon Tab, click on the Tab name in the right hand panel, select Rename and type a new name for it. You can also rename groups by clicking the group name and select Rename.

Reordering the Ribbon

To reorganize the Ribbon you can move Tabs and groups around. To do this, click the tab to move and click the Move Up or Move Down button to the right of the rightmost panel to change its position.

When you’re done customizing the Ribbon, click Ok to view your changes.

Reset the Ribbon

To reset the Ribbon – effectively undoing your changes – so it looks how it did when you installed the program, from the Customize Ribbon area of the Backstage view, select the Reset dropdown list.

Now select to reset just the selected Tab or to reset all customizations. You can also right click a Tab and choose Delete to remove it.

Creating a form in a Word document is one half of a data collection process. Once the form is completed, you will need to extract the data so you can do something with it. Here I will show you how to use the legacy form controls to create a form in Word and how to get the data into an Excel file.

Get the Developer tab

To get started, you’ll need to create a form in a new Word file. I’m using Word 2010 but the process is the same in any version of Word. In earlier versions the forms tools can be found by choosing View > Toolbars > Forms. In Word 2007/2010 the form tools are on the Developer tab – in Word 2007 choose Office Button > Word Options > Show Developer tab in the Ribbon.

Create a form

My form includes fields for the name, email address, check boxes for the operating system, a combo box for the application they’re having problems with, and a small box for comments. This is the kind of form that could be used for a computer support desk for example, but your form can gather any kind of data.

The form is created using Content Controls from the Developer tab in Word 2007/2010. You need to use the Legacy Forms controls as the newer ones don’t work for this process. Each textbox is created using a Text Form Field and the combo box is created using a Drop-Down Form Field. The checkboxes are created using a Check Box Form Field.

Add all the objects you need to the document and right click each control in turn to access the Properties for that control. For example, for the Drop-Down Form Field Options box you’ll need to add items for the list.

Protect the form

Once you’ve done this, protect the form by choosing Restrict Editing (Protect Document), enable the ‘Allow only this type of editing in the document’ checkbox and choose Filling in Forms from the list. Click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection.

Save the form template

Save the file as a template by choosing File > Save As. From the Save As Type dropdown list, select Word Template (*.dotx) and then give the template a name. From the Favorite Links at the top left of the dialog, select Templates, to locate your Word templates folder. Once you’ve saved the file you can close it.

Use the new form

To complete the form choose File > New > My Templates and then select and open the template.

Complete the form and then choose File (Office Button) > Options > Advanced and from the Save category of options, select ‘Save Form Data as Delimited Text File’ and click Ok. When you save the file it will save as a plain text file containing the data only.

Import form data into Excel

To import the data into Excel start by opening Excel and choose Data > From Text and locate the text file containing the saved data. Select Delimited, click Next, select Comma and deselect Tab and anything else that is selected, click Next and then Finish. Select the cell for the data (A1) and click Ok.

To add data from another file you will repeat the previous step but, to do so you must leave a blank row between the data that you previously entered and this new row. If you are positioned in the row immediately below the data the Data > From Text option will be greyed out.

Once you’ve finished importing all the data, you can delete the blank rows that you had to leave. Insert a new first row into the worksheet and add the column headings for your data. Save the file and you can now analyse the data or open it later on to add more data to it.

Helen Bradley introduces the skills you need to create your own cover pages for Word 2007 and 2010.

In Word 2007 Microsoft introduced a number of dynamic elements such as Cover Pages, Headers and Footers. You can use the Cover Page tool, for example, to select from a preset list of attractively formatted document cover pages. Once you’ve entered the data in that cover page, if you change your mind and want to use a different cover page, you can easily do so. Not only is the previous one removed automatically but any content you have entered into that cover page will be automatically repurposed into the new one. This month we’ll show you how to create your own custom cover pages in Word 2007 and 2010 that behave like Word’s own built-in cover pages.

To create your own cover page in Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 start by creating two new blank documents. Choose File > New > Blank Document and click Create. Select the first blank document and choose Insert > Cover Page and select a cover page that has the text elements on it that you want to include on your cover page. You won’t be looking at any of the images – just the text elements.

Switch to the second blank document and here you can create the basic design that you want to use. For our cover page, we chose a shape by selecting Insert > Shapes > Block Arrows and then drew it on the screen. The shape was formatted by selecting it and using options available on the Drawing Tools > Format tab. Opposite the shape we placed a long narrow image and then selected each object in turn and selected Drawing Tools (or Picture Tools) > Format tab > Send Backward > Send Behind Text to place it behind the page text.

If one element should be in front of the other, in our case the arrow should be in front of the image, select it and choose Drawing Tools (or Picture Tools) > Format tab > Bring Forward to bring it in front of the other object but still placing it behind the text on the page.

Follow these steps to add the content placeholders to your cover page and to save it as a new built-in cover page.

Step 1

Switch to the document that contains Word’s own cover page. Locate an element such as the Title, Subtitle or Abstract and click on it. Locate the small grey marker above it, click that, right click and choose Copy.

Step 2

Return to your cover page, click where you want the element to go, right click and choose Paste. Repeat this process to add all the content placeholders you need for your cover page. To alter the format of an item, click the grey panel above it and format it using the options on the Home tab.

Step 3

When you’re done, press Control + A to select all the elements on your cover page. Choose Insert > Cover Page > Save Selection to Cover Page Gallery. Type a name for the cover page, from the Gallery dropdown list, select Cover Pages. Set the Category to Built-in, leave the other options untouched and click Ok.

Save a copy of your design as a regular Word document too in case you need to alter it in future.

To use your new cover page, simply select it as you would any cover page in Word. If you enter text into the cover page and later select a different cover page the text will be repurposed for that cover page automatically and vice versa. Copying the content placeholders from an existing Word cover page as we have done ensures the data is bound correctly so your cover page works the same as Word’s own designs.

I’ve been trawling the iPad store to find cool apps for designers who want to draw, paint, sketch and generally do stuff on their iPads. I’ve also read a lot and seen way too many reviewers who think it is ok to pay  $9.99 for an app with one brush, no layers and no eraser. Seriously you have to wonder why people write that stupidity much less develop a following for doing so.

All these apps I’ve paid for and I use. In fact, I use them regularly – that’s why they are on this list, and I recommend them because they work, they are good value and I think you’ll love them too. They all have strengths and weaknesses, let’s face it you won’t get Photoshop or Illustrator for $4.99 but what you will get are some cool apps for doing great stuff on your iPad.

Here is my list, not in any real order just 7 killer apps for Designers, artists and anyone who wants to be creative on their iPad.

OmniSketch $0.99

This, hands down is my favorite app. It has 48 brushes – you get 24 and can buy 24 more. I has NO layers which is a downside and, while you can set the background color you can’t find white easily so you can’t set it to blue then go back to white easily. I know the developer realizes this is a problem so I’m hoping we’ll get a fix soon. I use this for drawing and for painting Seurat style images. I love its geometric and procedural brushes. It is a wonderful app and for 99cents it really rocks – it is way more deserving of attention than its current rating would suggest.

ArtStudio $2.99

This is a painting program but with so much more. I use it a lot to assemble images because it has layers and blend modes. It also has sophisticated selection tools so it is so much more than a painting program, in fact I treat it as a lightweight Photoshop wannabe app because it really has some very advanced tools for working with photos and for creating digital art. It is totally smart so it’s a must have app in my book.

InkPad $7.99

This is a vector drawing application and it is great even though it is at the pricier end of the scale. The benefit of vectors is that, although they are harder to create they can be sized very large indeed without being pixelated. This app has moveable toolbars, some sophisticated drawing tools and layers. If you’re a lover of illustrator then think of this as a cutdown version of Illustrator for the iPad. It is fun and full of tools you will love.

Sketch Club $1.99

Don’t let the funky icon of this app put you off it is a super cool app and one of my go to apps. It has layers and a huge array of blend modes. You can merge layers too so it’s as good for drawing as it is for photo manipulation and art. It has some procedural paint brushes as well as a cool text brush. It’s an app that I’m sure you will keep coming back to and it’s extremely good value.

Paintbook 0.99 cents

Warning! this is a fantastic app but you will have to spend a little time learning how to use it. There is some good program help and some great videos – do yourself a favor and watch them! If you don’t – you won’t know a fraction of what this great app can do and you’ll be missing out on so much. I love it’s layers and the ability to add an image as either a layer or as a shape on a layer. This app is one of the most powerful you will own – just spend a little time learning how to use it and you’ll be glad you did.

Sketchbook Pro $4.99

Do yourself a favor and shell out for the pro version of this app to get the extra layers – the lite version is good but this one is a must  have. The app is from Autodesk and it’s great. East to use and very powerful. It has heaps of brushes from brushes that paint to ones that smudge and ones that paint halftones and splats and flowers. You can customize the toolbar so it shows the tools you use most often – I totally love this app and come back to it time and time again.

ArtRage $6.99

From the folks who made the PC app this is ArtRage for the iPad. It paints and it paints with everything from water color style to thick acrylics you slap around with a palette knife. It has layers too and blend modes and you can even have a reference image which gets pinned to the screen so you can see it to paint from it or you can place it over the canvas so it’s always there. You can use it to paint an original work of art or paint a photo using the smudge brush to turn photo pixels into paint – it is way too much fun and, for the price a “must have” app.