Accurate data bars in Excel 2007

With little effort you can display a small comparison chart right in your sheet—similar to the REPT() technique in Add a quick comparison chart to a worksheet. Data bars are an extension of the conditional formatting feature (and new to Access 2007).

First, I’ll show you how to use conditional formatting to display data bars. Then, I’ll show you how to adjust the settings to adjust the size of the bars, without changing the actual values the bars represent. The following sheet displays a small set of values in column B. To display data bars for these values, complete the following steps:

1. Select the values, B2..B9.
2. On the Home tab, click the Conditional Formatting dropdown in the Styles group and choose Data Bars.
3. Select an option from the galley.

The result, a series of comparison bars, one for each value, looks good. Each bar reasonably represents the relationship it shares with the others. For example, the highest value, in B2, consumes the entire cell. The lowest value, in B3, is about 20% of the value in cell B2 and consumes about one-fifth of the cell.

That relationship is subjective. You can change the bars and thereby change the story the bars tell. Let’s change the rules a bit. (I’m working with the same data so you can compare the changes side by side, but you can work with the same set of values.)

After applying the data bars, choose Manage Rules from the Conditional Formatting dropdown. In the resulting dialog box, click Edit Rule. The default rule is Format All Cells Based On Their Values and that’s the rule we want to change. In the Edit Rule Description section, the Minimum and Maximum values are set to Automatic. Change the Minimum Type setting to Number and Excel will set the Value to 0. Click OK twice.

Not much has changed for the higher values. However, the bar for the lowest value has completely disappeared. In addition, the bars for the lower numbers are smaller. That’s because we changed the ratio between the set of values by decreasing the lower value to 0. Changing the minimum value without changing the maximum value isn’t a balanced approach. (I didn’t expect the bar for the lowest value to completely disappear.)

Now, let’s try one more rule change. This time, select Number from the Type dropdowns for both the Minimum and Maximum values. In the Minimum Value control, enter 0; enter 1000 for the Maximum value.

This time, all the bars seem to adjust just a bit, but the most dramatic change is in the bar for the highest value. As you can see, it no longer consumes the entire cell. That’s because the bars represent the values from 1 through 1000 and not just the highest and lowest values in the data set. The differences are subtle, but sometimes, you need that kind of precision.

A list of the 10 most useful Word shortcuts

When you go looking for a shortcut — one you can’t quite remember or one you know must surely be out there somewhere — you’ve got plenty of resources: Help files, Google hits, and even comprehensive lists like those you’ll find in the TechRepublic downloads library. Comprehensive is great, but sometimes selective is more practical.

If you were stuck on a deserted island, which 10 Word shortcuts would you like to have with you? Here are mine.

Keystroke	Function	Notes
Shift + F3	Toggles through capitalization options.	This one isn’t perfect — for instance, it insists on capitalizing articles and prepositions in Title Case mode — but it’s still a big timesaver.
Ctrl + Shift + N	Applies the Normal style.	If you work with documents that are riddled with obscure and specialized styles (typically other people’s), it’s handy to turn them into Normal paragraphs on the fly.
Ctrl + Shift + C	Copies the formatting of selected text.	Once you’ve copied the format, you can press Ctrl + Shift + V to paste the formatting onto a new selection. Yeah, I know — Format Painter does this, too. But Format Painter forgets the formatting as soon as you’re finished with it. This shortcut remembers what you copied until you close out of Word.
Alt + F9	Toggles the display of field codes on and off.	Unless you work with field shading turned on — and I don’t know many users who do — you can’t necessarily tell what’s literal text and what’s being generated by an underlying field code. A quick peek using this shortcut can prevent the headache of inexplicable changes and unwanted editing consequences.
F4	Repeats your most recent action.	This might be the all-time best shortcut (except for Undo, which I’m not including in this list because for me, at least, it’s like breathing and requires no conscious thought). The F4 shortcut will repeat nearly all the actions you take on document text: typing: formatting, deleting.It will also let you repeat the action of adding or removing table rows, but it isn’t well implemented with tables overall. For instance, changing table properties is not replicable via this shortcut.
Ctrl + H	Opens the Find And Replace dialog box with the Replace tab selected.	Replace functionality is my constant companion, so this one is essential for me. Ctrl + F opens to the Find tab if you just want to locate something in a document (or make sure something isn’t in there).
Ctrl + drag text or an object	Creates a copy of the text or object.	Apologies to the keyboard purists, but this useful trick does require mouse action. It’s handy when you need to copy an object and control where that copy ends up. For example, a picture or other object that has certain positioning attributes may land in some unpredictable location if you use the standard copy and paste functions. This shortcut lets you drag it exactly where you want it.Just make sure you drop the text or object before you release the Ctrl key or Word will move the original instead of copying it.BONUS: If you hold down Shift along with Ctrl as you drag, Word will keep the copy aligned with the original.
Ctrl + Q	Removes paragraph formatting that isn’t part of the style assigned to a selected paragraph.	When you want to strip out manually applied formats and return to only those characteristics defined by a paragraph style, this is the quickest way to get there. Ctrl + Spacebar works the same way for character formatting.
Ctrl + 0 (zero)	Applies or removes 12 points of space above the current paragraph.	This sounds a little lame, but you can improve readability of selected text in about two seconds using this trick. For instance, table text is often jammed up against top borders. Select the table and hit Ctrl + 0 and you’ll get an instant improvement.
Alt + drag the mouse vertically	Make a vertical text selection.	Another keyboard/mouse hybrid, this one is obscure but useful. Some users have trouble making it work, but the problem is usually sequence. Just make sure you press Alt before you press the mouse button and drag. Then, release Alt before you release the mouse button.

FCC Fridays

We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol’ Federal Communications Commission’s site. Since we couldn’t possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we’ve gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don’t need). Enjoy!

Phones
Read – Huawei G6620
Read – Huawei M860
Read – Sharp 843SH
Read – Motorola W418g
Read – Iridium 9555
Read – ZTE S265
Read – ZTE C70
Read – Samsung E2152L
Read – Samsung SGH-T249
Read – Samsung B6520L
Read – Samsung SHW-M130K
Read – Samsung SCH-R900
Read – LG C320
Read – LG C320i
Read – LG GW370
Read – LG A165
Read – LG A310
Read – LG P500
Read – Fujitsu F-10B
Read – Kyocera / Sanyo SCP-6780
Read – Kyocera / Sanyo SCP-8600

Peripherals
Read – Huawei E173
Read – ZTE AC3781
Read – HTC BH-M400
Read – Samsung HM3600
Read – Samsung HM1100
Read – Samsung HM6400
Read – Motorola HX520
Read – Sony Ericsson VH410

FCC Fridays originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 4 launch day in Canada: the experience

Our own Myriam Joire was in the thick of things for Canada’s iPhone 4 launch today out in lovely Vancouver, and as you might expect, hysteria was reaching… well, iPhone 4 levels. Lines formed early and stayed strong through much of the day, and generally, camaraderie seemed high — always a good thing when you’re standing a foot away from the same handful of people in summer heat for hours on end. As you might expect, the wait for subsidized phones was longer than for the considerably pricier unlocked ones. Weren’t able to make it yourself? Aren’t Canadian? Want to pretend for a few sweet moments that you are? Follow the break for our video!

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iPhone 4 launch day in Canada: the experience originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rover Puck WiMAX hotspot gets FCC’d, traction on ice subject of fierce debate

The pool of choices for WiMAX hotspots continues to expand, and thanks to the FCC, we now know of another up-and-comer. The Rover Puck — trademarked by Clearwire and previously unheard of — joins the ranks Sprint’s Overdrive and its various rebrandings by providing pocketable 4G WiFi service. Unlike its predecessors, however, we finally have a new, more aerodynamic form factor. There isn’t much to the glean from the user manual at this point, and the oft-referenced Rover website still isn’t live — a WHOIS lookup reveals it was last updated via GoDaddy on July 2008 with no other details disclosed. So, until we get some word from the official news pipelines, a plethora of external / internal photos and user manual screenshots are only a mouseclick away.

Rover Puck WiMAX hotspot gets FCC’d, traction on ice subject of fierce debate originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVO 4G’s Froyo firmware was available for download, manual install (update)

Like we said, you don’t have to wait until August 3rd to get your Android 2.2 Froyo update for the EVO 4G. You can grab the update file right now from HTC’s servers (via source link). All you gotta do then is move the file to the root directory of your SD card, boot the phone into recovery mode (hold the “up” button while the phone is turning on), and select apply update from the associated .zip file — you might also have to rename the file “update.zip” and expect a few other variations in the instructions, user depending. Too much thought process for Friday evening? Feel free to take a crack at it tomorrow, or simply wait for Sprint to give your phone the head’s up next week.

Update: HTC just shot us a message to clarify that this is not the final ROM version and that the company is strongly recommending not to install this. Additionally, a request has been put in to remove the file from the server, so if you still want to try at your own risk, better download now while it’s still available.

Update 2: … and now it’s gone. We’re sure crafty internet users can still find the file lingering elsewhere, but you won’t be getting it from HTC’s servers this weekend. You know the old saying, ye who snoozes, something something, tough luck.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

EVO 4G’s Froyo firmware was available for download, manual install (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Sage: AT&T’s next Android phone?

We tend to go into full-on conjecture mode when we see an interesting FCC filing, but our instincts haven’t let us down in the past, so allow us to throw something out on the table. A new Motorola just hit the feds with 7.2Mbps HSDPA and 2Mbps HSUPA on the 850 and 1900MHz bands, quadband EDGE, WiFi, Bluetooth, AGPS, and a digital compass. In other words, this is definitely an Android set, and it could definitely work on AT&T. The Backflip’s already looking plenty long in the tooth, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see Moto fire its second Google-powered volley on AT&T before too long — it’s certainly been doing its duties on Verizon (and to a lesser extent, T-Mobile) after all. Any thoughts on what wild form factor this one might be?

Motorola Sage: AT&T’s next Android phone? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 6:15 ET!

After an ever-so-brief hiatus, we’re back in business today — and as always, we’ve got a lot to discuss, possibly in a heated tone. Fortunately, the hosts are thousands of miles apart, so we can’t injure one another. Follow the break for all the action! (Note: we’re recording hot on the heels of the Engadget Classic podcast, so you might catch the tail end of it if you join the livestream early.)

The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 6:15 ET! originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlueAnt Q2 Bluetooth headset enables noise-free calls during Usain Bolt’s sprints

It’s not guaranteed to make you any smarter, but having such an intelligent little bird upside your ear may at least give you a minor boost in confidence. A full 1.5 years after the original Q1 made its debut, BlueAnt is introducing its Q2 Smart Bluetooth Headset. Aside from being able to cancel out noise while traveling at up to 22mph (read: Usain Bolt’s average walking speed), the Q2 also touts a fully integrated text-to-speech feature that belts out news, weather, sports and the latest gossip from Microsoft’s Bing 411. And if you just so happen to use a smartphone with Android 2.0 or newer, it’ll actually read your text messages and emails aloud without you having to fish your handset out of your britches. It’s available now at AT&T stores for $129, and just in case you’re wondering, you can freak mall walkers out for five solid hours without needing a recharge. Not that we’d encourage such behavior.

[Original image courtesy of Ryan Pierse/Getty Images]

Continue reading BlueAnt Q2 Bluetooth headset enables noise-free calls during Usain Bolt’s sprints

BlueAnt Q2 Bluetooth headset enables noise-free calls during Usain Bolt’s sprints originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NTT DoCoMo announces ‘Xi’ brand for LTE, somehow pronounced ‘crossy’

You’re probably thinking “chi” or “zee,” right? Nope: NTT DoCoMo has laid down the law in its press release touting the LTE service it’ll be launching later this year, and it turns out that “Xi” — in this case, anyway — is pronounced “crossy.” Of course, ultimately, they can call it whatever they like — it’s the service itself that matters, and to that end, we can expect downlink speeds up to a positively blistering 75Mbps, rolling out first in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya in December followed by “other major cities and then additional areas of the nation.” DoCoMo’s accounting for handoffs, too, so you won’t be dropped (theoretically) when you move between Xi and FOMA areas. 75Mbps seems a bit optimistic for a first-phase LTE launch, but hey, we’re pulling for ‘em. Pricing and hardware will be announced later; in the meantime, you can follow the break for the full press release.

Continue reading NTT DoCoMo announces ‘Xi’ brand for LTE, somehow pronounced ‘crossy’

NTT DoCoMo announces ‘Xi’ brand for LTE, somehow pronounced ‘crossy’ originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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