Hi Fellow Excel Addict,

It's great to hear from some of my newsletter readers that this newsletter is making a positive difference for them. Are you one of them? I'd like to hear from you.

If you'd like to keep my tips and tutorials close to your computer for easy reference I've got a suggestion for you. About two weeks after my tips appear in this newsletter, I post them to my website on my Quick Tips, Mini-Tutorials, and Non-Excel Tips pages. There you will find each individual tip formatted for easy printing. Just print them off, stack them up by your computer for easy reference, and watch your productivity soar.

Remember, if YOU are benefiting from this newsletter, others could too. So share this newsletter with all your Excel user friends and collegues.

Enjoy this weeks tips and I'll see you again next week.

To Your Success!
Francis Hayes (The Excel Addict)

Right click on the cell where you put a comment, select Insert Comment and type your comment. When you're done, click outside the comment. You'll see a small red triangle in the top-right corner of the cell containing the comment. Now whenever a user hovers the mouse over that cell, the comment will pop up

Coming Soon: I've got a lot of other cool tips related to Comments that I will share with you in future newsletters. So make sure you know how to use comments. They are a really neat feature of Excel.

Help Is At Your Fingertips
Few people even think of using Excel's built in Help if they have a question. It's a sure sign of the lack of training most Excel users are given at their place of work.

I write this newsletter every week to share with you shortcuts and techniques that I have learned that have made working in Excel faster, easier, and more enjoyable for me. I hope they are doing the same for you.

There's another great source of information right at your fingertips in Excel's Help system. Just click Help or press F1 to access it. Use the Search feature within the Help system when you have a question. Just type a question like 'How do I ...?'

Most users try this once or twice and then, because it is unfamiliar, they don't use it any more. Take a little time to explore and get comfortable with it and soon you'll discover that many of the answers you are looking for are in there.

Then send me an email explaining what it is. I will personally review every entry and select the one that I think could get "the biggest bang for the buck" with a solution from The Excel Addict. One lucky person will get a custom solution to their Excel problem just for being a loyal reader of my newsletter. The best part about this is, it won't cost you a BUCK and you'll get the BANG absolutely FREE. This could possibly save you hundreds of hours every year.

Submit your suggestions to BigBang@TheExcelAddict.com

If you subscribed to this newsletter prior to this current month, you can still get your name in for the draw each month by helping me share this newsletter.

All you have to do each month is click here to recommend my newsletter and website to a friend. For each person that you refer, your name will go into the draw. The more Excel friends you refer, the more chances you have of winning a t-shirt. But please, recommend it only to people you know and who are Microsoft Excel users.

To create an Input Message...

1. Select the cells that the Input Message will apply to.
2. From the menu select Data, Validation, and then click the Input Message tab.
3. make sure the 'Show input message when cell is selected' option is checked.
4. (Optional) Type a title for your message.
5. Enter your message. Press ENTER to start a new line in your message (max. 255 characters)
6. Click OK.

NOTE: We will cover other great uses for Data validation in future Excel tips. Stay tuned.

How To Find and Replace Wildcard Characters (* ?)
If you use Excel a lot, one day you are going to need to do a Find and Replace on text that includes a wildcard character. If you've already come across this situation in the past, you probably remember that it wasn't a simple, straight-forward task. You may have even given up in frustration and did the Find and Replace manually.

The problem is, Excel (and many other programs) use these characters as wildcards to aid in searching. On the rare occasion that you find yourself in this situation, simply precede the wildcard character with a tilde (~). So for example, if you need to replace all asterisks you would use ~* (tilde + asterisk) in your search.

TESTIMONIALS: Please drop me a line at kudos@TheExcelAddict.com and let me know how my Tips, Tricks, Shortcuts, and Techniques have helped you.

COOL STUFF: Do YOU know of some "out-of-the-ordinary" really cool thing that YOU can do in Excel? Share it with me and I may publish it in a new section coming to my website called "Cool Stuff You Can Do With Excel". Send your suggestions to coolstuff@TheExcelAddict.com

OTHER COMMENTS: If you have any other comments or suggestions, please don't hesitate to let me know at francis@TheExcelAddict.com

There are tens of millions of other Microsoft Excel users all over the world. The vast majority of them have a very limited knowledge of Excel's capabilities. My goal is to share this information with everyone I possibly can and help them to benefit from Excel's amazing capabilities.

Please help me spread the word about my newsletter. If you know other Excel users, please tell them about "Spreadsheet Tips From An Excel Addict". I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

VERY IMPORTANT: Please refer only people you know personally, who use Microsoft Excel and would benefit from this newsletter.

Example: Rename Sales Report.xls to _Sales Report.xls

Note: You can also use this tip for naming folders.