Software Tips & Tricks Tips for Excel Users

By Laura Noble

Page Break Preview Page Break Preview displays the location of page breaks. This view is helpful as it is a quick method to check if certain columns do not fit on a page width. Blue lines separate each page. Clicking and left-dragging these blue lines can adjust location of page breaks.

Method One:
Select from the View menu, Page Break Preview.

To close Page Break Preview, select from the View menu, Normal.

"####" in Excel: Aka Long Numbers in Excel

When Excel calculates values, often the results appear as a series of "####"'s as shown in sample below.

The series of pound signs (#) indicate the column width is too narrow to fit the value. This can be corrected by decreasing the font size, decreasing the decimal places, or widening the column.

Entering Fractions In Excel

To enter a fraction in Excel you must enter a zero followed by a space then the fraction. Omitting the zero and space will result in Excel entering a date.

1. In the sample below 3/4 was entered into cell A2 and resulted in a date.
   
   
2. In cell B2, 0 3/4 (zero, space, 3,/,4 - without commas) was entered and a fraction, 3/4, (.75) was the result
   

When entering a compound fraction, enter the whole number followed by a space and then the fraction.

In the sample below, the space was omitted from the entry in cell A4.

Laura Noble is the owner of Noble Software Solutions. Laura can be contacted at 519-680-2689 or by e-mail at lnoble@noblesoftwaresolutions.com. www.noblesoftwaresolutions.com

Published in Networking Today, September 2002.