Tip of the week # 569
15 April 2019

Don't ignore Clippy in disguise (Microsoft Office) ^*

Do any of you remember Clippy - the animated paper clip - killed off by Microsoft in 2003? OK, it might have been annoying, but it offered some great time-saving features that were not easy to ignore. Clippy, Rocky the Dog, Links the Cat, The Genius or whatever Office Assistant you had selected were replaced by tiny smart tags. But I frequently encounter delegates who are unaware of these subtle alternatives.

So here are my favourite three:

1. Paste Options.
2. Auto Fill Options.
3. Insert options

Next time paste doesn't do what you want, or you fill cells with data that didn't follow your expected pattern or you don't like the format of inserted rows or columns, look out for "Clippy in disguise". By all means ignore it if all's fine, but click on the small Options button below the selection and check out the list of choices.

Have a look at the following tips for inspiration:

Easy way to convert formulas to values : tip_533.php
Display the Auto Fill Options on the fly : tip_467.php
Keep the column width when pasting : tip_465.php
Format inserted rows or columns on the fly : tip_448.php
How to quickly insert a comment in multiple cells : tip_392.php
Stop AutoFill : tip_370.php
Convince Excel you want to type July 2010 : tip_313.php
Quickly increase a list of numbers by one : tip_258.php
match destination formatting : tip_215.html
How to quickly change columns to rows or rows to columns : tip_35.html
Clippy gets clipped : tip_17.html

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^* Unless stated otherwise, these tips were written for Microsoft Office 2010.