Difference between MS Excel and Kingsoft spreadsheet shortcuts

Kingsoft Office is very much similar to MS Office and highly compatible. On the surface one will observe very few differences between them. Though there are some key differences between two suites, our key focus lies on understanding how much the shortcuts of the two differ. Today we'll see the differences in the shortcuts of MS Excel and Kingsoft Spreadsheet. 

Most of the important shortcuts of MS Excel, that we've discussed in our previous articles, can be used in Kingsoft Spreadsheet as well. However, there are some dissimilarities as given below:

1. Formatting keys don't work in Kingsoft

The formatting keys (Ctrl + Shift + ~/$/3/%/! ), used for changing the given number in different formats like date, currency, percentage etc. doesn't work in Kingsoft spreadsheet. Only CTRL + 1 shortcut can be used to open the dialogue box showing different formats. The user will have to select the appropriate format to get the desired result. 

2. No shortcut for Hiding/Unhiding rows and columns

There are no dedicated shortcuts for hiding and unhiding rows or columns in Kingsoft Spreadsheet. This action can be performed by going through the 'Rows & Columns' tab given under Home tab or by selecting a row/column and choosing 'Hide' option after right click. 

3. ALT based shortcuts work in little different manner

The ALT based shortcuts in Kingsoft spreadsheet need little explanation as they work in slightly different way from that in MS Excel. Let's understand how 

a) A normal Kingsoft spreadsheet looks like this

b) Now when we press ALT on keyboard, a menu emerges which has been highlighted in the red colour. This is similar to appearance of the numbers on the tabs when ALT is pressed in Excel. 

c) The user can either press an alphabet key or use arrow keys to open a particular section. For example, upon pressing I, following options appear in front of the user.

Use the arrow keys to select the appropriate option and perform the intended action. 

Excel v/s Kingsoft Spreadsheet: Major differences in features

Kingsoft Office is very similar to MS Excel in many ways. In the previous article we had seen how only a small part of the whole set of shortcut keys in Excel is missing in Kingsoft. The user interface of both the applications is very similar. In addition, the availability of many common tools, functions and file saving extensions in Kingsoft make it an good alternative to Excel. That explains its success in many of the small to mid level organisations.

However, there are some major differences between Excel and Kingsoft spreadsheet & you should be well aware of the latter's limitations. 

Note - The points discussed here pertain to the free office version of Kingsoft spreadsheet only. 

1. Formatting and colour scheme

The formatting and colour scheme in Kingsoft aren't good at all. A screenshot given below gives you a better idea. 

2. Charts

The charts layout isn't as refined as that of Excel. In fact it gives you the feeling of Excel 2003 version. The screenshot shows the comparison between Excel and Kingsoft. 

3. Autocomplete feature

Autocomplete feature doesn't works for the functions in the Kingsoft spreadsheet. As you can see in the screenshot given below, a user needs to type the whole function name in Kingsoft unlike Excel which gives the options. 

4. Customization

 The customization of quick access toolbar, one of the prominent additions to Excel in 2007, is absent in Kingsoft. 

5. Trace Precedent and Data Table

Kingsoft doesn't offer the 'trace precedents in cells' and 'data table' feature. Both these features are very prominent for the people dealing with advanced level of Excel.

6. Pivot Capability

Kingsoft doesn't provides 'Pivot capability' to its users.

7. Functions library

In spite having a lot of common functions, Kingsoft's library of fucntions, as a whole, pales in comparison to Excel.

Kingsoft Office suite

In the last few years many new sophisticated & improved Office suites have emerged and that has given the users other alternatives of Excel and Numbers. Undoubtedly the most successful so far has been Kingsoft Office

Kingsoft Office is an office suite developed by Chinese software developer Kingsoft. Like Word, PowerPoint and Excel in MS Office, Kingsoft includes three applications in its offering: Kingsoft Writer, Kingsoft Presentation and Kingsoft Spreadsheet. The current version is KSOffice 2013.

Kingsoft has seen much more success in its smartphone offering where it has more than 100 million registered users. But in this article our focus is on understanding some important features of desktop application of Kingsoft Spreadsheet. 

Features of Kingsoft Spreadsheet

1. High compatibility with Excel 
The biggest plus with it is that Kingsoft is highly compatible with Microsoft Excel. The compatibility thing includes similarity in layout, shortcuts, availability of common tools and file saving extensions. 

2. Various templates for the users
Kingsoft has various templates to offer to its users with themes ranging from business, education, office and resume etc. 

3. Built-in PDF converter
Kingsoft has a built-in PDF converter sub-software which can convert Spreadsheets slides into PDF format for free.

4. Multiple tabs in spreadsheets
Taking a leaf out of the latest web browsers, Kingsoft has introduced multiple tab interface in the spreadsheets. So a user needn't worry about switching between a lot of windows. 

5. Creation of group hyperlinks
Another very interesting feature of Kingsoft is that it allows users to create group hyperlinks. Through it a user can convert large amounts of text into hyperlinks to the internet, Email or other sections within the same document.

6. Summarize feature
In the end comes the summarize feature. If a cell contains a lot of content then Kingsoft automatically summarizes the information for the user and display it.

Shortcut differences between MS Excel and Mac Numbers

A previous article on Mac keyboard has already made the users aware about how different it is from a normal desktop windows keyboard. In this article we go one step further and see how much the shortcuts of Numbers (the spreadsheet application of Mac) differ from that of Excel. 

For the sake of simplicity in understanding, we can divide the shortcuts of Numbers in 2 groups

1. The shortcuts which are same as their windows counterpart, with only difference being the equivalent modifier key. 

2. The shortcuts in which the key combination is different from that of Excel

In the first set of shortcuts the user needs to remember only the equivalent modifier key if he/she is well-versed with the Excel shortcuts. So a shortcut like 'Ctrl + A' in Excel becomes 'Cmd + A' in Numbers as the command key is the equivalent key of control in Mac. 
Few more examples are - 

Command + F = Ctrl + F
Command + Page Down = Ctrl + Page Down

We are interested in the second set of shortcuts as here lies a greater difference. A person moving to Numbers from Excel need to learn them as there are more differences than just substitution of an equivalent key. There are a lot of such shortcuts but we will be keeping our focus solely on the shortcuts (in fact, the actions performed by them) that we have already discussed in Excel. 

One important thing to note here is that Mac doesn't have shortcuts for a no. of actions that we do frequently on Excel. So here we will be discussing only 5 such shortcuts in Mac which are very much different from Excel. 

Action	Excel Shortcut	Numbers Shortcut
Switching between applications	ALT + Tab	Cmd + Tab
Closing Excel application	ALT + F4	Cmd + W
Addition of row/column	CTRL+ Shift + ‘Plus’	Option + arrow
Switching between spreadsheets	CTRL + Tab	Function + cmd + up/down arrow

Addition of row/column

This action needs a bit of description. Unlike Excel, where you can only insert a row/column just above the row or to the left of the column you are on, Numbers allows you to insert a row/ column in any direction. For example, pressing Option + down arrow will lead to insertion of a new row just below the selected row. That gives you a lot more flexibility in Numbers as compared to Excel. 

Numbers – The Spreadsheet Application of Apple Mac

MS Excel isn't the only spreadsheet application around, though its popularity makes it far more recognizable than others. Nevertheless, there are other equally effective spreadsheet applications around. The most popular amongst them is Numbers, the spreadsheet application of Apple's OS Mac.

Like Microsoft, Apple has its own office suite for its OS Mac - iWork. Just like MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint, it consists of word processing software (Pages), presentation software (Keynote) and spreadsheet software (Numbers). We will be getting some basic idea about Numbers today. 

First of all, let's see how this spreadsheet application of Mac looks like.

Now let's go through some unique features of Numbers and see how similar/different it is from MS Excel. 

1. Version

The first version of Numbers, 1.0, was launched in 2007 and the latest version is 3.0. 

2. Templates

Instead of using tables, Numbers provides the users with a blank canvas. It gives you freedom in choosing fonts as well as style cell borders. There are as many as 30 templates to choose from. A screenshot given below gives an idea regarding that

3. Functions

Features like formulas, functions, charts and smartArt etc. which make Excel so productive are present in Numbers. However, the functions library of Numbers isn't as rich as MS Excel. 

4. Chart Quality

At the same time, though, the quality of charts prepared on Numbers is a notch higher than its Windows counterpart. 

5. Application

But the main difference between them lies in their application. MS Excel is more business oriented and needs more refined approach. Numbers, on the other hand, caters more to casual or home users who have less complicated tasks to do on it. 

The next article will be dealing with the keyboard shortcuts in Numbers. 

Difference between Windows and Mac keyboard

Most of the people in one part of the world are habitual of working on Windows OS due to its wide presence in homes and offices outside USA. Apple’s Macintosh (Mac) is another popular OS, but limited knowledge about it, especially in Asia, dissuades many from adopting this OS. In this new series of articles our attempt will be imparting some basic knowledge about Mac and how its Office suite differs from that of Microsoft. 

The very first step in this direction is to understand how the keyboard of Mac differs from that of windows. Let's see how a Mac keyboard looks like. 

Windows keys and their Macintosh equivalents

Windows Keys	Mac Keys
Control (CTRL)	Command (CMD)
ALT	Option (OPT)
Delete	DEL
Backspace	Delete
Enter	Return

Mac Keys and their symbols

Key symbols	Mac Keys
⌘	Command (CMD)
⌃	Option (OPT)
⌥	DEL

Now let’s have a look at some brief information about the Macintosh keys mentioned above

1. Command - This key is the substitution of the ‘control’ key on windows keyboard. Like its windows counterpart, command is used in popular shortcuts. In some keyboards this key is labeled ‘cmd’ with a Bowen knot symbol. Earlier Apple logo was used as a symbol.

E.g. Command + A (shortcut for ‘Select All’)

2. Option -  This key is the substitution of the ‘ALT’ key on the windows keyboard. The combination of Option along with some other key (option + 8 key will insert the bullet character) is used to perform any action.

E.g. Option + 8 (Shortcut for ‘Inserting Bullet character)

3. Delete - There is no ‘Backspace’ key in the Mac keyboard. Instead you will find the key ‘Delete’. It is used to delete the typed characters.

4. DEL -  It is the substitute of ‘Delete’ key in the windows keyboard and functions in the similar way. 

5. Return - 'Enter’ in the Windows keyboard is replaced by Return in the Mac keyboard. The function though remains the same.

Function Keys in Mac keyboard

Unlike Windows, which has 12 function keys (F1 to F12) on any type of keyboard, a Mac keyboard can either has 12 or 19 function keys depending upon the inclusion of the num pad. It's imperative to give a brief knowledge about the function keys here. 

Function Keys	Use
F1 and F2	Controlling brightness
F3	Mission control
F4	Launchpad
F7-F9	For music
F10-F12	Volume control
F5/F6/F13-F19	Unassigned or blank keys

Some important points regarding these function keys are as follows

1. Mission Control gives an overview of all the running applications by showing them separately on screen. 

2. Launchpad lets you see, organize and easily open your apps. 

3. The blank keys can be assigned a particular function by the users.           

Grid Lines and Guides in MS PowerPoint

Gridlines and Guides is an important feature in PowerPoint which is often neglected. This is because it doesn't have a direct use in presentation making. Instead it aids in making presentations cleaner and more precise. Before moving forward, it is imperative to understand the difference between the two. 

Gridlines helps you in 
a) Ascertaining center of slide
b) Precise positioning shapes and objects 

By default, gridlines are spaced 0.083 inches apart. Guides, on the other hand, basically help you in drawing shapes and then precisely positioning it. They also help in adjusting the relative positions of the objects. Another important distinction between the gridlines and guides is that the gridlines are fixed positions (depending on your settings) while guides are movable lines. You can also create multiple guides by using Ctrl key with mouse/keypad (just like you replicate objects). 

Both gridlines and guides aren't visible during presentations.

Use of Gridlines 

In the picture to the left is an arrangement of the different objects. The same objects are shown individually in the right hand side. You can clearly see how neatly the objects have been positioned with respect to one another. This precise positioning can be attained through the gridlines. 

The picture below shows how the gridlines guide you in placing the object on the slide in the precise manner easily. 

Use of Guides

In the following example the aim is to draw a boomerang. The shape of boomerang requires symmetry on both sides. This can be achieved through the use of drawling guides. 

In the picture to the left you can see how the guides have helped in drawing the boomerang swiftly and easily. To the left is the finished boomerang. 

Shape Combine feature in MS PowerPoint 2010

Sometimes the emphasis in any presentation is more on the visual side rather than text side. The presenter makes use of arrows, lines, square & rectangle shaped boxes as well as many other shapes to drive his point home in simple yet powerful way.

In this article we will be focusing on the feature of Combine Shapes which was introduced in 2010 version. It is a very powerful feature which allows us to make many complex customized shapes using different combinations of individual shapes. For the sake of understanding the basics, we will be making use of 2 rectangles to show how it works.

So we have 2 rectangles as shown below and we wish to combine them to create a shape as per our need. 

Since we are not trying to make any specific shape, let’s just rotate one of the rectangles and place it on the other. 

Now select both of them and click on combine shapes in Quick Access Toolbar. 4 different options are shown to us – shape union, shape combine, shape intersect and shape subtract.

When we go for shape union, we get to see the following result

Shape combine will yield a shape as follows

Following is the result of Shape intersect

Lastly, shape subtract will leave us with the shape given below

With the proper understanding of the 4 ways of combining and some imagination, one can create wonderful customized shapes to suit one’s presentation requirements. Of course, you need to practice a lot to achieve the desired results. But proficiency here can really do wonders for your presentation. 

Freehand Shapes in MS PowerPoint

One big reason behind the enduring popularity of MS PowerPoint is that it allows a lot of customization on the part of the user. This customization gives the users a lot of flexibility and creative space which helps them in adding value to their presentations. 

Since MS PowerPoint 2007, the users have got a great pool of shapes at their disposal which can be used for various purposes. The most striking feature though is the ability to make freehand shapes. It provides an additional flexibility to the users.

Freehand shape, as its name implies, is a feature through which you can make desirable changes in a particular shape so as to create a new one. Even with limited creativity you can gain expertise in it through a lot of practice. Here we will be using a small example to show how it works.

1. Go to Insert a shape and choose any shape from the options given. 

2. We chose a shape like the following 

3. Now first convert the shape into freeform so that you can introduce changes in it. 

4. Next click on the Edit Points. Now you are ready to modify the shape as per your wish. 

5. You can see various points on the edges of shape. These points can be dragged in different directions, along various curves to give a desired change to the shape. For instance, the two points in the left upper corner are dragged towards the mid point in this freeform shape as shown below

6. This is what you get upon performing the above action. 

7. Now if you similarly drag the points present in other three corners, you'll end up with a shape like following. 

This was just a small example. The freehand shapes utility can actually do wonders. All you need is imagination and a thorough practice. 

Grouping Utility in MS PowerPoint

When we work with objects like shapes and pictures in a presentation, sometimes there is a need to combine them. The purpose might be moving them to some other slide or creating a new object using the existing ones. The grouping utility of MS PowerPoint helps us in performing this function. Let’s see how it is done. 

There is a small world map in a slide, as shown above. Now we wish to increase the size of the map in a way that neither the dimensions of the countries nor their positioning with respect to each other change. This is a tough task considering that the world map itself is composed of individual maps of the countries as shown below. 

      

     So we have an assortment of many small objects here. The best way to move forward will be combining them and form a single object. This way we will be able to move all the objects in a single go.  The first thing to do is to select all the objects and then press CTRL + G. 

      

     This command groups all the selected objects. The another way of doing it is right clicking and choosing Group option as show below

     We can now increase the size of the map using Shift + mouse/keypad. The resultant image is as follows - 

     The objects can be ungrouped in the similar way once you have moved the combined object. Just right click and select Ungroup.

     

     There is an interesting thing about this feature. One might need to perform the same grouping and ungrouping action a number of times during preparing a presentation. Keeping that in mind, MS PowerPoint saves the grouping and ungrouping exercise. So you can repeat the action by right clicking any object that was the part of the grouping and selecting Regroup as show below.

        

      

  

    

Shortcuts to be used during Presentation mode

Shortcut Keys	Description
F5	For beginning the slideshow
Shift+F5	Starts slideshow from the slide you are on i.e. the current slide
Slide Number + Enter	Takes you to the specific slide you wanted to go to
S	Stop/Restart the presentation through this key
Ctrl + P/E	Displays pen cursor/Erase drawing for the purpose of highlighting
B	Changes the background into Black colour
W	Changes the background into White colour
E	Erases all the highlighting done in the slide

Apart from the general shortcuts which come handy in all three Microsoft Office applications, and the ones we discussed in our previous articles, there are few specific ones which can be used during delivering presentations. These shortcuts allow for swift navigation and editing even during a running presentation. 

1. F5 - Hitting this key will start the slideshow. It doesn't matter if you are on first, last or any other slide in between. Just press F5 and the presentation would begin from the very first slide. 

2. Shift + F5 - This shortcut will start the slideshow from the slide you are on.This allows you to introduce any change in the current slide and then resume the presentation from that same slide. 

3. Slide Number & Enter - It allows you to go to any specific slide in between a running presentation. Please note that the slide number and Enter keys are not be used concurrently but subsequently. First input the number and then hit enter. All you need to do is remember the slide number you want to jump to. 

4. S - This key is used to stop or restart a presentation in an 'Automatic' mode. This key won't work in manual mode. 

5. Ctrl + P/E - A pen cursor is a handy tool used for highlighting specific points in a running presentation. It can be introduced by pressing Ctrl and P. The highlighted part can be brought to the original form by erasing all the changes done by the pen cursor. The eraser is introduced through Ctrl and E. 

6. B/W - The background of a particular slide can be converted into black or white colour as per the need by pressing these keys during a presentation. 

7. E - You can easily remove all the highlighting that you have done in the current slide by simply pressing E.

Note - CTRL + E and E, both are used for erasing purpose with a slight difference. The former is used for selective erasing of the highlighted portions, while the use of latter is in complete erasing.