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To make it easier, here are some handy keyboard shortcuts you can share with users:

CTRL — Shift & Outline border to the selected cells.

CTRL Shift # — Change Date format with day, month and year.

CTRL Shift @ — Change Time format with hour and minute, AM or PM.

CTRL Shift : – For the current time.

CTRL ; — For current date.

CTRL 9 — Hide selected rows.

CTRL 0 — Hide selected columns.

CTRL ` — Display Formulas/Alternate in the worksheet.

CTRL+K — To insert Hyperlink.

CTRL+H — Opens up the Find and Replace dialog box.

CTRL+R — Uses the Fill Right command to copy the contents and format of the leftmost cell of a selected range into the cells to the right.

CTRL+7 — Hides or displays the standard toolbar.

ALT+F1 — This creates a chart out of the data in the current range (selected cells). This is the most well-known feature of Excel, and now you know a new way to use it!

ALT+SHIFT+F1 — Inserts a new worksheet into a workbook.

F6 — Switches between the worksheet, Ribbon, task pane, and Zoom controls. This is probably the most useful shortcut of all. This cool shortcut is also the most beloved to all the anti-mouse users out there.

SHIFT+F6 – The reverse of the F6 shortcut.

CTRL+F6 – Switches to the next workbook window when multiple workbook windows are open.

CTRL+SHIFT+$ – Applies the currency format to the selected cells.

CTRL+`– Alternates between showing the value of a cell and the formula in the worksheet. Great for complex worksheets.

CTRL+D – Fill down command on the selected cells. Fill down copies the content and format of the topmost cell into the cells below.

CTRL+R – Fill right command on the selected cells. Fill right copies the content and format of the leftmost cell to the cells to the right.

Many states have passed or are passing legislation to ban the practice, but that’s not stopping compulsive texters.

But work pressures have way of making people take foolish risks. And many are. In a 2007 survey, tech research company IDC noted that 70% of the owners smartphones (BlackBerrys, iPhones and the like) admit to using them in the cars on a regular basis. Since the large majority of commuters ride alone, few of them are presumably sitting in the passenger seat. Add to commuters the large number of salespeople, service workers, and delivery drivers who are tethered more and more by software to the home office. And the growth of such devices has exploded since them, so presumably it’s getting worse.

There are no very good statistics on accidents caused by inattentive text messages and email readers. But a recent Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study found drivers just talking on a cell phone are 1.3 times more likely as non-distracted drivers to get in an accident or near-accident, while those dialing a cell phone are 2.8 times more accident probe. Worst, according to the study, is texting:  “Text messaging made the risk of crash or near-crash event 23.2 times as high as non-distracted driving.”

Why do people do it? For many, the need to be on top of what’s going on in the office has become a must. The expectation is that calls will be answered, emails turned around on the spot. Add the tempting applications for weather reports, driving directions, and sports scores that can tempt the bored, lost or anxious commuter.

But don’t worry. If you get in an accident thanks to smartphone distraction (and survive), there’s an iPhone app (iWreck) to help you collect accident data for the insurance company.

Yes, there are tools for erasing (”Scrubbing,” “degaussing”) hard disks so that no-one can read the old contents and the disks can be reused.

But let’s face it. Older hard disks are pretty puny compared with today’s low cost one terabyte (1,000GB) drives. Old drives are just not useful, and the cost in IT man-hours for setting up and running the scrubbing software can be pretty high.

A more basic and cost-effective solution: Throw the drives into an over-sized shredding machine. (Check out this video to see an example.)

Hard disk shredding is performed by a number of services around the country. The cost is pretty good: one company, for example, quotes $7 per drive, with $4 per drive if you send over 100. You can ship the drives yourself, or, if you need tight security, you can arrange for a secure door-to-door delivery.   Some companies will even bring the hungry monster to your site.

Here’s where to start looking.

Another reason to take employee computer monitoring seriously: Lawyers say IT pros could be on the hook for employees’ online behavior.

Based on several state laws and court decisions, employers could have a duty to monitor Web use and tell police about employees who access child pornography, according to employment attorney Gina M. Smith.

So far, seven states have laws on the books requiring companies to report those crimes: Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota. Failure to do so can result in jail time for IT pros.

Also, in 2005, a company was sued for negligence by the mother of a child pornography victim.

The plaintiff’s husband was arrested after posting inappropriate pictures of his step-daughter online. Apparently, the company monitored his Internet access and saw child pornography sites listed, but never did anything about it. The woman claimed the conduct would have stopped much earlier if the company had stepped in.

A New Jersey court decided in her favor, ruling that a company on notice that a law is being broken with its equipment has a duty to investigate and inform police (Cite: Doe v. XYC Corp.).

To avoid liability, Smith recommends companies:

1. Designate one person to be a point of contact with police if necessary
2. Tell all IT staffers about the legal risks and outline a formal report procedure, and
3. Let all employees know what they should do if they find someone committing a crime on compant-owned devices.

If your organization is looking to get some of the government money for infrastructure or IT projects, or if you’re just plain interested in where and how funds are being spent, there’s a Web site for you.

It’s it.usaspending.gov.

Check it out to discover where infrastructure and IT project money is going, and how you might be able to benefit from it.

You can track spending by department (Health and Human Services, for instance, or Department of Defense) and see how good each department is at staying within project deadlines and budgets.

It might also help you understand how government accounting on these projects works, which could come in handy in you work on any of them.

Some won’t think so, but now that MS has dropped the price 50% per user of Exchange Online services and cut by 33% the price of its Business Productivity Online Services suite of online productivity applications, we’ll have the chance to find out.

The drop for Exchange Online brings Microsoft a lot closer to what  Google wants for Google Apps Premier Edition (GAPE) suite. Microsoft’s also giving customers five times the amount of room for their mail by boosting mailbox sizes from 5GB to 25GB.

While they’ve gotten closer to Google’s price post, Microsoft’s still a costlier option. Microsoft’s per year cost per user for Exchange Online is now $60; Google charges $50 per user per year for GAPE, which also gets you other productivity applications.

Microsoft also slashed the list price on its whole Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS) suite, from $15 per user per month to $10. Minimum purchase: 5 seats.

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