Category: Cloud Software

Software that operates, at least partially, online

Double Underline

Google Sheets – Create a double underline bottom border

Posted on | by Prolific Oaktree | 2 Comments on Google Sheets – Create a double underline bottom border

Lots of spreadsheet users can’t imagine life without their double underline feature. There has been much gnashing of teeth for those making the switch to Google Sheets when they find that their faithful double underline function is not there. This is one of the few ways in which Sheets is inferior to Excel. What is one to do? Before you abandon ship, you should realize that there are a few decent work arounds for the issues. None of them are perfect, but you should be able to get the effect that you are looking for.

Update – As of late February 2017, a double underline is available in Google sheets without needing to use any workarounds.

Double Underline
Double underline option

The remainder of this article is preserved just in case you want to know how hard we had it way back when!

Bottom border and underline

The first option is to use a single bottom border on a cell and then use the underline font style. As you can see, this does creates two lines, but the top line is only as wide as the characters in the cell. Therefore, it won’t really look like a true double underline.

underline font
Single underline with an underline font format
Watch the video

Underscores and strikethrough

The next option is to type use insert a line of underscores (to the right of the zero hold down shift) in a cell and then apply the strikethrough font style. This will create a double line. The disadvantage of this technique though is that it will be a fixed width. Therefore, if the width of the cell changes, this “underline” will not be the right size anymore.

dash strikethrough
Underscores with the strikethrough
dash strikethrough align right
Underscores after column width changes

Two single bottom borders

The next option is to use the single bottom border on two rows and then shrink the row height to make it look like a double underline. In my opinion, this is most likely going to be your best bet.

two single borders
Two bottom borders
two single borders
Two bottom borders with a shortened row
chrome new tab

Google Sheets – Split view and new window

Posted on | by Prolific Oaktree | 6 Comments on Google Sheets – Split view and new window

If you are working on a large table of data in Google Sheets, often it is helpful to be able to see and edit more than one area of the spreadsheet at a time. This is not available from the menus in Sheets and is one of the few ways in which Excel is superior to Sheets. There is the option to Freeze rows or columns, but the frozen section of the spreadsheet will not independently move and therefore the Freeze option is limited to applications such as freezing headers at the top or side of a spreadsheet. Further, if you headers are half way down the spreadsheet, the Freeze option will not do you any good.

The solution

If you are working on a mobile device you may be out of luck, but if you are accessing Sheets through a browser, there is a great work around that will allow you to see the same spreadsheet in two or more different windows. You can even spread these views over multiple monitors which you cannot do in Excel without some pretty nasty workarounds.

Watch the video

If you are using the Chrome browser, do the following:

First, be sure to have your spreadsheet open in your browser. Then, open a new browser tab by pressing “t” while holding down the control button (ctl+t) or clicking the shape to the right of your open tab.

chrome new tab

Once you have a new tab open, the first thing you do is open the same spreadsheet again in this new window. Now, you have the spreadsheet open in two places. You can edit it in either window. Click and hold your left mouse button on the middle of the new tab, where the title of the page is, and pull the tab away from the browse. In browsers other than chrome, you may have have to open another browser window. This creates a new window with a separate instance of Chrome (or other browser) but keeps the spreadsheet inside of it.

If you want more windows, just repeat the same process. To rearrange the windows, you can use the Windows key. Hold the Windows key down and press the left arrow to have the window fill up the left half of the screen and the right arrow for the right half. You also can resize the windows the more traditional way with your mouse. If you have multiple monitors, you can spread these windows across them.

Using multiple tabs in other browsers

 ff new tab

ie new tab

Update: Thanks to ADTC in the comments below for this tip. If you’re using Chrome, you can just right-click on the tab that you’re using and choose duplicate.
insert drawing

How to draw a straight line in Google Sheets

Posted on | by Prolific Oaktree | 4 Comments on How to draw a straight line in Google Sheets

If you are using Google Sheets, you may be having some trouble finding how to insert a line. Once you have figured out how to insert it, getting it to be straight can be frustrating. Follow these easy steps to get it done.

Go to Insert, then Drawing.

insert drawing

From here, choose Line.

line

Now, here’s where the real trick comes in.  If you want to draw a line, go ahead.  But, if you want to draw a straight line, hold down the shift key while you draw!  There it is, a straight line.

straight line
line

How to draw a straight line in Google Slides

Posted on | by Prolific Oaktree | 3 Comments on How to draw a straight line in Google Slides

If you are using Google Slides, you may be having some trouble finding how to insert a line. Once you have figured out how to insert it, getting it to be also straight can be frustrating. Follow these easy steps to get it done.

Go to menu bar and select line.

line
Line option on the main menu
Watch the video

Now, here’s where the real trick comes in. If you want to draw a line, go ahead. But, if you want to draw a straight line, hold down the shift key while you draw! There it is, a straight line.

line
A very straight line!

text box row label

Google Sheets – Rotate text in cell

Posted on | by Prolific Oaktree

5 Ways to alter the orientation of the text in a cell


Spoiler altert – all of them are workarounds!

As of late February, 2017, the ability to rotate text is native to Google Sheets. The option is the slanted A on the main menu to the right of text wrapping.

Use a text box then rotate it

text box row label

Text boxes are inserted using the drawing menu with Insert-> Drawing -> Text Box.  As can be seen in the picture, they do not reside in a cell, but rather they sit on top of them.  This is why the text box will not affect your row height.  Once the text box is created, it can be rotated as much as you would like.  After rotating it, you can then move the text box to wherever you would like it.

Video explanation

Skinny column with wrapped text

skinny column

You can also achieve vertical text by typing the text in the cell normally.  Then, you shrink the width of the column to a little more than one character wide.  Next, you apply word wrap by selection Text Wrapping (on the menu bar) then Wrap.  One disadvantage of this method (and all of the remaining methods) is that it alters the height of the row in which it is placed.  Also, the technique requires that the column is skinny and therefore it will limit the way in which other content can be viewed if it is in the same column.  Depending on how you are using the vertical text, this may or may not be a problem.

 Array formula

Just put the text that you want into this crazy formula.  Remember to type it in both places.

=ARRAYFORMULA(CONCATENATE((MID( "Text to become vertical"; ROW(INDIRECT("YY1:YY"&LEN( "Text to become vertical" ))); 1)&CHAR(10))))

How does it work?  Who cares!  Just use this method if you find it easier.

Regular Expression

 Similar to the array formula, just a crazy formula into which you can insert your text.

=REGEXREPLACE( "Text", "(.)", "$1"&CHAR(10) )

I would say that you should use this formula as opposed to the Array formula simply because it is shorter and you only need to type the text once.

Control Enter

control enter

If you hold down the control key then press enter after a character, you will get a new line within that cell.  Therefore, to enter vertical text, just type control enter after every letter.  In my humble opinion, this is probably the cleanest solution until there is a true option is Sheets to rotate text in a cell.  It does not require the column to be a certain width nor do you need a long formula.

Follow image below for the live Google doc with this data

docs share icon