Entering the current date into a cell in Microsoft Excel

Within Excel there is a method of entering a formula that will automatically enter the current date. The formula is as follows :

=Today()

It should be noted that there is one final step to show only the date as the above will return the current date AND a time that will show as zeros. In order to only show the date in the cell. Highlight the column select format and then choose 'Date'.

As soon as this final step is complete you will be left with the current date.

How to show negative or minus numbers in different colours in MicrosoftExcel 2007

There may be instances where you would like to show a value in Microsoft Exel in a different colour when it becomes a negative or minus number. Obviously, you can do this manually by changing the font colour but the instructions below provide a method of instructing Excel 2007 to do it dynamically.

For this example i will turn the value red when it becomes a negative.

1. Highlight a cell with a value that is, or is likely to become a negative.
2. On the 'Home' tab under 'Styles' select 'Conditional Formatting'.
3. New rule.
4. Under 'Select a Rule Type' choose 'Format only cells that contain'.
5.Under 'Edit the rule description' choose 'Cell Value' - 'Less than' - 0.
6. Hit the format button below.
7. This will take you onto the font tab. Select the 'Color' drop down menu and select 'red' (or another colour of your choosing) .
8. Click OK and then Click OK again on the 'New Formatting Rule' window to take you back to your spreadsheet.

You will now see that if you change the value to a minus or negative number it will appear in red !.

Count number of occurences of word in Excel range

The example below counts the number of times the word "Computing" appears in Column B of an Excel spreadsheet.
=COUNTIF(B3:B32,"Computing")