Hi Fellow Excel Addict,

Summer is officially over and we are now into fall. In the past seven days, here in Newfoundland, we've had some crazy weather. A week ago the temperature was 30C (86F). A few days later it went down to 6C (43F). And now we're back to our normal seasonal temperature of 15C (59F).

I hope you had a great week. I know a lot of my subscribers in the US had to deal with Hurricane Isabel. Now I know not to complain about a little cold weather or rain.

Wow, a lot of new subscribers signed up this week. If you referred some of them 'Thank You'

Have you checked out my website lately? I've updated it with all my past tips -- formatted and ready for printing. Just a few of these key tips can save you a lot of time and frustration working with your spreadsheets. Check it out.

To Your Success!
Francis Hayes (The Excel Addict)

By default, Excel uses C:\My Documents as the default file location. Just try it. Click File, Open and see which folder comes up.

If you'd prefer to save you files in a different location, for example maybe you always open and save your files on a network, you can easily change this location. Select Tools, Options and click on the General tab. In the 'Default file location' field, type in your desired folder, including the file path (i.e. F:\Accounting\2003 Files\).

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.

1. Type January in the first cell.
2. Move the mouse pointer over the bottom right corner of that cell. The pointer will change to a black plus sign (+).
3. Hold down your left mouse button and drag down (or left). You will see a small box pop up showing which month you have filled to.
4. When you get to December, release the mouse button and all the months will be filled in for you.

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.

When you type an internet address in the Address Bar in Internet Explorer, you can save yourself some time if you use the CTRL+ENTER shortcut.

This key combination saves you the trouble of having to type in the 'http://www.' and the '.com' part of the address.

For example, to go to my website you just type theexceladdict into the Address bar and then press CTRL+ENTER. Internet Explorer will kindly fill in the missing parts of the web address for you and transport you to the website.

After using this shortcut for a while it will become so routine you won't even have to think about it.

I love this shortcut! It makes surfing the web much easier.

NOTE: This shortcut works only for 'dot com' internet addresses.