In this short blog, i will explain trace precedents feature of microsoft excel 2010.

let me explain what is the purpose of this. it tells what other cells affect the value of currently selected cell.

lets explain it through images.

write any two numbers in the cells, and take there sum in another cell. Select the Sum cell and go to the formulas tab, click Trace Precedents (highlighted in the picture) and it will make a line from formula cell to the dependent cells.

In this blog, i will explain how to digitally sign your excel sheets.

by this feature, sheets get locked, and further editing is not allowed.

lets take a drive.

Open Microsoft excel 2010 and and go to the Insert tab on the ribbon control (in case you don’t know what ribbon is, ribbon is the name given to the area right below the tool bar where different icons are displayed, it would be hard to digest this if you have been working on office 2003, but believe me, you just have to explore it once, and it will be much easier to play it around).

Click on Signature Line and click Microsoft office signature line

Click OK at the following notification, the other option would take you to the microsoft digital id’s site (more on it in the next blog).

After clicking OK, following box will appear, fill in the necessary information.

Click OK, and following signature will occur. However, the process is not complete, its not digitally signed.

Now lets digitally sign it, right click on this signature

Click on Sign, following box will appear, just click on OK, we will describe the other option in one of our next blogs about signature services from office market place. It will then ask you to save the workbook.

After saving it, you need to digitally sign it, either type your name or select any image file that depicts your signature.

i am typing it in.

Click Sign, and following acknowledgement is received.

Click Okay. File is digitally signed. Now you cannot edit it. If you want to edit it, there would be a notification coming at the top Edit Anyway.

Click it.

However, doing this, will loose the signature, and it needs to be signed again.

In this blog, i will explain the feature of Name manager in excel 2010.

Its like giving friendly names to cell or cells (when formula is applied) for easy referencing in other formulas.

So lets do it.

Go to the Formulas tab and locate Name Manager Icon, see below image

Enter any value in one of the cells and then click Name Manager. Following image will appear

Click on New, give a name, check the values in the scope, it includes, the whole workbook and all sheet names, so decide yourself what should be the scope your Name. Click OK.

After clicking OK, following image will appear. This dialog box maintains all the names currently used. It is a sort of admin panel from where you can insert/delete/edit them.

Okay, lets test this feature now. go to any cell and write =nadeem it will show 6 over there

try out something like =nadeem + nadeem it will show 12.

So this is it. Its very simple and very handy feature. Can easily be used in other formulas. Try experimenting it further and you will find it great.