These two excel tutorials explain how to format or customize the fonts and cell backgrounds in MS excel to add a professional look to your spreadsheets and make certain data stand out.

In the first excel tutorial video discover how to modify text and add colours to your spreadsheet. It answers the following questions:

How do I centre a title and merge it across several cells in excel?
How do I make a text in a cell display on two lines in excel?
How do I change text or font size and text color in excel?
How do I place currency symbols before numbers in excel and choose how many decimal places, if any, for displaying money amounts?
How do I re-apply a format in excel by copying from a current cell and pasting using the format painter?
How do I color cell backgrounds in excel?
How do I “float” the cell colour box in excel so I can experiment more easily?

This is the second excel tutorial video about format – on changing text colour and border styles. It also introduces print preview and conditional formatting. It answers the questions:

How do I change font colors in excel and should I?
How do I  “float”  the font colour box so I can experiment?
How do I undo my changes in excel?
How do I get the grid lines in excel to display over the top of a cell background color?
How do I make borders appear around excel cells?
How do I indicate that a cell is “redundant” or empty by design?
How do I make grid lines print, or not print, in excel?
How do I use auto conditional formatting in excel?
How do I make excel highlight a cell automatically? For example when a cell number is greater or lesser than a value.

Creating Basic Functions

In this excel tutorial you will learn about creating basic functions in Excel and using the Paste Function feature.

This excel tutorial video answers the questions:

How do I create a calculation function such as average, minimum, maximum and count.

How do I create formulas for functions manually in excel?

How do I create functions using paste functions in excel?

Basic Enter and Edit Data

This excel tutorial is the basics of entering data, editing data, changing column widths and Autofill.

This excel tutorial video answers the questions:

How do I add a title row or label for my spreadsheet?

How do I use keyboard commands for moving around a spreadsheet and editing cell data?

How do I adjust column widths?

How to and why should I constantly save in Excel?

Which key moves you across a row or down a column?

Create Basic Calculation Formulas

This excel tutorial  introduces add, subtract, multiply and divide calculations and explains the basic mathematical operators in Microsoft Excel and how to write the calculation formulas the smart way.

This Excel Tutorial Video Answers the Questions:

Which keyboard keys mean add, subtract, multiply and divide on the numerical keyboard and where do I find them on a laptop?

How do I easily add, subtract, multiply and divide on a row?

How do I use the auto “smart” features of Excel to create calculation formulas, rather than writing them in the top bar?

Where do I place the cursor and how do I confirm or enter where the result will appear while creating the formula?

How do I add up a column using autosum?

How do I use the auto “smart” features of Excel to copy a formula from one cell to repeat a calculation correctly for a different cell?

If you need templates for staff scheduling, to organize your employee rosters, a lot depends on how many employees you need to roster.

If you only have 5 -10 employees you can just about manage them on a normal spreadsheet, although the higher the number of employees, the more complicated this becomes.

Another difficulty is your spread of hours and shifts. In a normal 9-5 office, the staff roster is relatively easy to create. When shifts include casual employees and part time employees working evenings or nights and weekends, suddenly the head starts to spin.

Perhaps you also need to keep on top of holiday allocations and wage limitations. When your variables increase in your staff scheduling, and you dread and put off doing the roster, it might be time to invest in employee scheduling software.

After doing more research, I will try and sort out which employee scheduling software can be recommended. I don’t want to go into great detail in this post, I just wanted to refer a few sites for now that have free software or templates to try out.

Employee Scheduling Software – Free

The first site that really grabbed my attention is Kappix

Kappix DRoster Scheduling Software is free, if in a limited form. You can use  it to schedule up to 100 shifts, or continuously by deleting old shifts. To remove the limitation you need to buy DRoster Premium. You can download  DRoster Premium Employee Scheduling with no initial payment for a free trial of 45 uses.

DRoster can filter out staff according to their availability or capabilities. It’s flexible, with fixed shifts, free form shifts and overlapping shifts. You can customize templates to your needs. It supports multiple languages. It has reports, with the option to export them in a variety of formats.

I haven’t tried it, so I cannot offer an opinion on it, but clicking on the Kappix link takes you to their award page and you’ll immediately see why I was impressed.

Staff Scheduling Template

The other option I came across is a free template at BMS Central. BMS Central have other employee scheduling software on the site for sale.

But this simple employee work schedule template is a free download that lets you create and print weekly employee shift schedules and can be used to schedule up to 20 employees and 9 shifts.

NB. You need to have Microsoft® Excel 2007 to use this staff scheduling template.

Not Free Employee Scheduling Software

If you have a lot of employees and need to evaluate other employee scheduling software for staff scheduling, you can discover some of the paid solutions, with a breakdown of their features at Top Ten Reviews

Related articles by Zemanta

• 10 Things Employees Want Most (inc.com)
• The easiest online employee scheduling software, know when you work with When I Work (wheniwork.com)
• Appointment-Plus Online Scheduling Software Gets an ‘A+’ for Improving, Automating Test Scheduling Processes at Colleges, Universities This Fall (prweb.com)