20th February 2002
Characters do what they need to do, despite what you want them to do. For example, when you put the at sign in an e-mail address, the message gets sent to the user account at the domain. You really can't use the symbol anywhere else in the string. Internet Explorer, Excel, and a few other programs may interpret the ampersand (SHIFT+7) in the Header / Footer differently. If you really want to see the single symbol, you'll need to double it. "Chris & Gretchen" will be translated as "Chris Gretchen" in IE's printed page. "Chris && Gretchen" would give me the desired result. Now that you've mastered the intricacies of the ampersand, let's flip back to Excel for a brief moment. When you tap ENTER, by default, the focus will drop down one row. Not finished with that cell? Press ALT when you tap ENTER next time. It'll force a line break in the same cell. ALT+ENTER in Word (and PowerPoint) will repeat the last few keystrokes. In Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Explorer, or your desktop, it will pull up the selected item's properties. Try it elsewhere, see what happens!