How to Change the Plot Area Background Color in Spreadsheets 2013?

In Spreadsheets 2013, you can insert chart in spreadsheet to show data in a graph, in which data is represented by symbols, like bars, lines, or slices.

A chart is composed of these parts:

Chart Area
Legend
Plot Area
Category Axis
Value Axis
Value Axis Major Gridlines
Data Series

You can change the settings of each part of the chart. In this guide, we will show you the steps to change plot area background color.

Change plot area background color

Step 1 Select the plot area of the chart. If you are not sure which part of the chart is called plot area, see the following screenshot:

Figure 1 Plot Area

Note: Be careful not to select the horizontal grid lines running through the plot area rather than the background itself.

Step 2 Double click on the Plot Area to bring up the Plot Area Properties dialog. Here you can change the border color and style, and area background color of the plot. Choose a new color for plot area and press OK.

Figure 2 Plot Area Properties

Beside the above method, you can also highlight the chart, and go to Chart Tools tab. In the list box under Chart Tools, choose Plot Area, and then click on Format Chart to open Plot Area Properties (see Figure 2) directly. See following:

Figure 3 Format Plot Area in Chart Tools tab

How to use Paragraph Layout feature in Writer 2013

From 2012 version, Writer offers a Paragraph Layout feature, which can help you easily adjust paragraph indent and spacing. This feature is available in both Free and Professional edition of Writer. Follow steps in this guide to use Paragraph Layout in Writer 2013.

Enable Paragraph Layout

By default, the paragraph layout icon  is shown on the left of the paragraph where cursor is placed. You can click on it to select the current paragraph you are editing. If you can not see this icon, go to Home tab and click on Show/Hide Paragraph Layout icon to enble it. See following screenshot.

Adjust paragraph indent and spacing

Click on the paragraph layout icon  to select current paragraph. You will see the paragraph background color turns grey. Then you can use the mouse to drag the arrow on each side to adjust spacing and indent. 

Adjust First Line Indent:

Adjust Before Spacing:

Adjust After Spacing:

Adjust Left Indent:

Adjust Right Indent:

Adjust line spacing and other settings

When paragraph layout icon is on, the Paragraph Layout tab will be activated. You can see this tab on the program toolbar. For line spacing and other settings of the selected paragraph, you can go to the Paragraph Layout tab to apply them. For example, you can set Tight or Loose line spacing, text alignment, and styles to the paragraph. After applying all desired styles, simply press the close button on the top right to exit Paragraph Layout.

Reset paragraph format

When you want to clear the format you have set to the paragraph, click on the arrow of Paragraph Layout icon and select Reset Paragraph Format. And all the formatting will be cleared. You can also hide Paragraph Layout icon by clicking on Hide Paragraph Layout Icon. 

How to Set Tab Stops to adjust document layout in Writer 2013

In Office 2013, you can use tab stops to adjust text layout. Follow this article to set tab stops, or clear them in Writer 2013.

Set tab stops by using the ruler

Step 1 Select the text that you want to adjust layout. Or you can first set tab stop position and type the text later.

Step 2 Go to the horizontal ruler that runs along the top of the document, and click to insert left tab stops.

Figure 1 Insert Left Tab Stop

If can not see the horizontal ruler in Writer, you can go to View tab and check ruler option.

Figure 2 Enable Horizontal Ruler

Step 3 Place cursor in text where you want to insert tab stop and press Tab key in your keyboard. You will find the text is aligned according to the tab stop position.

Adjust tab stop alignment

There are four types of alignment for Tabs. You can change the alignment by double click on tab stops you've inserted to ruler and change it in the pop-up dialog. See following:

Figure 3 Set Tab Stop Alignment and Leader

Decimal: Decimal tab stop aligns numbers around a decimal point. The decimal point in number of digits will be in the same position.
Left: Sets the left start position of text and the text will run to the right.
Center: sets the middle position of the text.Text centers on this tab stop position.
Right: Sets the right end of text.

Notes:

1. You can delete a tab stop by dragging it (up or down) off the ruler. When you release the mouse button, the tab stop disappears.
2. You can also drag existing tab stops left or right along the ruler to a different position.
3. When multiple paragraphs are selected, only the tabs from the first paragraph show on the ruler.

Add leader between tab stops

You can add dotted leader between tab stops or other formatting marks, which can be selected in the Tab stop dialog (see Figure 3). Select the leader format you'd like to use and press OK to finish.

Clear Tab stops from text

Select the line of text that you want to clear tab stop. Double click on the tab stop you want to clear and the Tab dialog box will pop up (see Figure 3). In this Tab dialog, press Clear All to remove tab stops.

Also learn:
How to use paragraph layout tool in Writer 2013
How to use indent in Writer 2013

How to Create Indents in Writer 2013

Want to change the distance between a paragraph and page margins but in vain? Want to get text to line up with the line above but it just never comes close to? If you have met with similar problems, you are in the right place.

In Kingsoft Writer 2013, you can use tab stops, paragraph layout, and indent marker on ruler to adjust the indent. In this guide, we will show you how to use indent marker on ruler to adjust the distance between paragraph and page margins, and line up text.

There are three types of indented paragraph:

Left (right) indent: increase or decrease the left and right indentation of the whole paragraph.
First line indent: the first line of the paragraph is indented in order to differentiate from the previous paragraph.
Hanging indent: all but the first line of the paragraph is indented

 

 

Create left or right indent

Step 1 Enable horizontal ruler in Writer. Go to View > Ruler to enable ruler.

Step 2 You will see indent markers on the horizontal ruler.

If you want to change the indent of multiple paragraphs, highlight the paragraphs first and then place cursor on Left Indent or Right Indent marker and drag it to a new place.

Figure 1 Left indent in writer 2013

Figure 2 Right indent in writer 2013

Note: When you drag Left Indent marker, First Line marker moves together with it. An easier way to change left indent is by clicking on Decrease Indent or Increase Indent  under Home tab.

Create first line indent

To create first line indent, the steps are similar with creating left and right indent.

Highlight the paragraph(s) you want to change first line indent, then click on First Line Indent maker and drag it to a new place.

Figure 3 First Line Indent in writer 2013

Create hanging indent

In a hanging indent, the second and subsequent lines of a paragraph are indented.

Highlight paragraph(s) and click on Hanging Indent marker, then drag it to a new location on the ruler.

Also learn:
How to use paragraph layout tool
How to use tab stops to adjust document layout

How to Convert Text to a Table or a Table to Text in Writer 2013

In Kingsoft Writer 2013, text can be converted to a table and vice versa. Follow this guide to do the conversion.

Convert text to a table

Step 1 Separate the text with characters like commas, space, tabs and etc. Use separator characters to indicate where you want to divide the text into columns. Use paragraph marks to indicate where a new row starts.

In the following example, we separate text with commas. You can see clearly where a new column will begin after the text is converted to table.

Step 2 Select the text and go to Insert > Table > Convert Text to Table.

In the pop-up dialog, select Commas under Separate text at, and the Table size is automatically calculated with the right number of columns and rows. If you don't see the right number of columns, you may be missing a separator character in one or more lines of text.

Press OK. You will get the following table:

Convert a table to text

Step 1 Select the table you want to convert to text.

Step 2 Go to Insert > Table > Convert Table to Text. In the pop-up dialog, choose separator characters you'd like to use from the list, or define your own separator by entering it into the text area of Other. This separator is used to divide text into columns.

If there is nested table within the selected table, which means another table is embedded to the selected table, choose the option of Convert nested tables in the above dialog to convert it to text. Press OK.

Rows are separated with paragraph marks by default.

How to Connect Text Box, Link Text Box in Writer 2013

You can link text boxes together so that text can flow from the first text box to the next one. Connected text boxes can span multiple pages. This is quite useful when composing newspaper, magazine and similar stuff.

Use connected boxes to:

• Continue a piece of content in another text box
• Create columns of different widths
• Move text from the first text box into another one

Create Text Box Link

Step 1 If needed, create a new text box.

Step 2 Click in the text box you’d like to set as the first text box.

Step 3 Click Create Text Box Link from the toolbar under Drawing Tools tab.

Step 4 The mouse pointer changes to a pitcher. Click in the text box you want as the next. 

This text box is now linked to the first box and text in the overflow now appears in the next box.

To connect more text boxes, repeat steps 3 and 4.

To check which text box is linked to the current one, you can click on the border of the text box to select it, and click Next Text Box option in Drawing Tools tab. See following:

Break text box link

To disconnect two linked text boxes, select the text box with links to another one, and click Break Forward Link in the toolbar under Drawing Tools tab.

4 Simple Ways to Insert Current Date and Time in Spreadsheet

Kingsoft Spreadsheets has always been one of my favorite tools. I was an early adopter and it has always been the most reliable tool for me, and there are plenty of hidden features inside Kingsoft Spreadsheets you may be amazed to discover.

Here today I summarize 4 ways to insert date in spreadsheet. I'll explain them in details as following.

1. Use shortcut to insert date and time

Although you could enter the date and time directly in the cell, that’s not the quickest way I think. Here I’ll introduce the shortcut to do that:

“Ctrl”+”;” for current date

“Ctrl”+”’” for current time

If you would like to insert current date and time at the same time, you can check the formula way below.

2. Use formula to insert date and time

Note: Using the formula way you can real-time update the date. Only thing you need to do is using F9 to refresh it.

That means, if you plan to edit your document on a regular basis (to update the task statuses, for example), this is not going to be an issue using the formula way. However, in other ways unless you make any edits to the document, you are not going to see the current date and time.

Formula “=today()”

Formula ”=now()”



3. Enter other types of date

Use Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells, choose Custom and enter the format you want in the Type, for example m"."d"."yyyy;@, then you can enter 3.25.2013 in the cell.



4. Set the date format

Like you did as front, you can set the date format in the Date option by opening the Format Cells.

Thanks for "install" Microsoft Office

We use Kingsoft Office, a free alternative to the Microsoft Office suite. During the years we've used it, we've only had a few instances (in the accounting dept, usually) when we've had to buy the 'real' Office mostly due
to complex macros that had to run.

Whenever anybody insists that he need the Microsoft Office, we ask him to justify the expense and it usually turns out to be something along the lines of 'Well, I like it better'. The request is denied and after a few weeks the user realizes that Kingsoft Office is just as good for typing their shopping list.

Well, we have one user who kept insisting that ONLY the latest and greatest Microsoft Office would do, because he was a 'power user' and needed all of the advance features.

I delayed (frankly, I got tied up in something else and honestly forgot his request) until he eventually stopped me in the corridor one day and.... thanked me for installing MS Office for him while he was on vacation!
I was confused, so went to look at his computer. Nope, still had just Kingsoft Office on it. He'd finally opened it for the first time and, power user as he is, never even noticed that it wasn't the Microsoft product. He thought he'd won the game and that we'd given in and bought him Word and Excel.

I just shook my head, told him 'You're welcome' and left it at that. Another satisfied and valued power user.

How to Extract All Email Addresses in a Word Document in One Second

One day, your boss gives you a document and asks you to extract all the email addresses in it. The fact is, unfortunately, there are hundreds of email addresses mixed up in the text! So how can you complete this job? Will you check all the addresses one by one? Of course not. Let me tell you a quite simple and fast way to do it in one second. Take Kingsoft Writer 2013 as an example:

Step1. Press the shortcut Ctrl+F to bring up the "Find and Replace"panel.



Step 2. Type “[A-z,0-9]{1,}\@[A-z,0-9,\.]{1,}” in Find what (without double quotes). Then check “Highlight all items found in”, and click "More" to check “Use wildcards”.



Step 3. Click “Find all” and you will pick out all email addresses at one time. See the following:



In this way, the work that may take you three days can be done in a second, improving your work efficiency and saving your time and effort.

Some Handy Keyboard Shortcuts for Kingsoft Writer

Kingsoft Writer 2013 provides a large number of shortcuts to help you execute orders quickly and conveniently. This page will introduce the most frequently used shortcuts in Writer.

CTRL+B：Bold；

CTRL+U：Underline；

CTRL+]：Enlarge font 

CTRL+[：Reduce font  

CTRL+S：Save  

CTRL+W：Exit

CTRL+P：Print   

CTRL+K：Insert hyperlink   

CTRL+L：Align left

CTRL+R：Align right 

CTRL+J:  Align justify

CTRL+E:  Align center  

CTRL+E：Centered

CTRL+Z:  Undo

CTRL+O:  Open

CTRL+N:  New

CTRL+A:  All Selected

CTRL+F:  Find

CTRL+H:  Replace

CTRL+G:  Go To

CTRL+I:  Italic

CTRL+Enter: Insert Page Break

Shift+ Enter: Insert Line Break

CTRL+Shift+G: Word Count

F12: Save As

Kingsoft Office Free 2013 VS Open Office 4.0

When it comes to office suites, you might think of Microsoft Office. However, if you'd like to use free office software, there are many alternative office suites to consider, such as Kingsoft Office and OpenOffice. We have listed the common features as well as differences between Kingsoft Office and OpenOffice in the following table.

Download the latest Kingsoft Ofice Free 2013

Also view:
Kingsoft Office Professional 2013 vs Microsoft Office Professional 2013
Kingsoft Office Free vs Kingsoft Office Professional

	Kingsoft Office Free 2013	OpenOffice 4.0
Price	Freeware	Freeware
Size	45.4MB	136MB
Language	English, Deutsch, 日本語, 简体中文, 繁體	Various Languages
Supported OS
Windows 8	√	√
Windows 7	√	√
Windows Vista	√	√
Windows XP	√	√
Software Included
Word Processor	√	√
Spreadsheet Builder	√	√
Presentation Creator	√	√
Base		√
Math		√
Draw		√
General Features
Multi-tabbed interface	√
Switch interfaces	√
Word Processor Features
Paragraph Adjustment Tool	√
Table Adjustment Tool	√
Spell Check	√	√
Format Conversion	√	√
PDF Converter	√	√
Tables	√	√
Headers & Footers	√	√
AutoCorrect		√
Templates	√	√
Mail Merge	√	√
Insert Comments	√	√
Password File Protection	√	√
Track Changes	√	√
Macros		√
Watermark	√
Grammar Check		√
Thesaurus		√
Themes	√	√
Read-Only Function	√	√
Line Numbering	√	√
Insert Bookmark	√	√
Word Count	√	√
Page Number	√	√
Envelope		√
Outline View	√
Spreadsheet Builder Features
Formula Editor	√	√
Format Convertion	√	√
Spell Check	√	√
Charts	√	√
Insert Comments	√	√
Functions	√	√
Password File Protection	√	√
Macros		√
Templates	√	√
Tables	√	√
Read-Only Function	√	√
Track Changes	√	√
Presentation Creator Features	√	√
Slide Templates	√	√
Formatting	√	√
Illustrations	√	√
Animations	√	√
Previewing	√	√
Spell Check	√	√
Charts	√	√
Slide Themes	√	√
Slide Styles	√	√
Tables	√	√
Read-Only Function	√	√
Supported File Formats	√	√
DOC	√	√
DOCX	√
DOCM	√
DOTX	√
DOTM	√
XLS	√	√
XLSX	√
XLSM	√
PPT	√	√
PDF	√	√
TXT	√	√
HTM	√	√
RTF	√	√
DOT	√	√
Help & Support
FAQs	√	√
User Forums	√	√
Tutorials	√	√
In Program Help		√
Phone	√	√
Online User Manual	√
Email	√

Back-To-School: 3 Must Have Free Software For Your Laptop

You've already spent at least a few hundred dollars on a laptop for your high school- or college-bound students. Do you really need to spend hundreds more on an office suite, anti-virus software, and backup utilities?

No, no, and no. Let's take a look at the best free software for laptop-toting students.

Kingsoft Office Suite Free 2013

Kingsoft Office 2013 includes three applications, Writer, Spreadsheets and Presentation. The newest version of Kingsoft Office’s industry leading productivity suite ups the ante with a variety of new student-friendly features, ranging from robust paragraph adjustment tool to better copy and paste options in Writer. For users who need a new office suite to go along with a new computer for school, it should definitely be on your list. Along with an updated interface, Kingsoft Office also added the ability to change your interface to different color scheme, so that power users can tweak it to their liking. Other enhancements include better Microsoft Office compatibility, PDF converter, multi-tab interface and tons of free templates to download.

Avast Free Antivirus

Effective security software doesn't have to mean expensive security software. Avast Free Antivirus is among a handful of products offering comprehensive protection from both viruses and spyware. It even supports remote control, meaning a more tech-savvy friend or relative can connect to the PC to help troubleshoot problems.  There are also coupon codes available for Avast if you have a need to upgrade to their paid versions.
Again, there are other security freebies worth considering, most notably AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, but Avast routinely scores top marks from both CNET editors and everyday users. It's the single most popular download on CNET's Download.com.

BatteryBar

How much paper-writing time do you really have left before your laptop's battery runs dry? Windows historically does a poor job reporting a system's charge status, meaning you might suddenly find yourself staring at a blank screen even though Windows said you had 20 minutes left.
Enter BatteryBar, a free, easy, and so-smart-it-should-be-built-in power gauge that's compatible with XP, Vista and Windows 7.
The program adds a full-time, at-a-glance gauge to the right side of the taskbar, which by itself is handy. Mouse over the gauge, however, and you get a wealth of additional information, including total battery capacity, charge/discharge rate, AC status, and even a lifetime estimate based on historical charge/discharge data.

Microsoft Office Professional 2013 vs. Kingsoft Office Professional 2013

We have received a lot of requests from our users and resellers since the 2013 version published, that they would like us to provide a list of feature comparison between Microsoft Office Professional 2013 and Kingsoft Office Professional 2013. So we invite a renown third-party review website, Toptenreviews, to review the two office programs. The following is the report.
You're more than welcomed to comment below and give us feedbacks or tell us your thoughts

Download and try Kingsoft Office Pro 2013 here: http://www.ksosoft.com/product/office-pro
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	Microsoft Office	Kingsoft Office
Price	$399.99	$69.95
Size	512MB	61.4MB
1 license	1 pc	3 pcs
Supported Operating Systems
Windows 8	√	√
Windows 7	√	√
Windows Vista		√
Windows XP		√
Software Included
Word Processor	√	√
Spreadsheet Builder	√	√
Presentation Creator	√	√
Database Manager	√
Email Client	√
Publishing Platform	√
Word Processor Features
Spell Check	√	√
Format Conversion	√	√
PDF Reader & Converter	√	√
Tables	√	√
Headers & Footers	√	√
Autocorrect	√	√
Templates	√	√
Mail Merge	√	√
Insert Comments	√	√
Password File Protection	√	√
Track Changes	√	√
Macros	√	√
3D Charts	√
Grammar Check	√
Thesaurus	√
Address Book Integration	√
Themes	√	√
Read-Only Function	√	√
Translation	√
Spreadsheet Builder Features
Formula Editor	√	√
Format Conversion	√	√
Spell Check	√	√
Charts	√	√
Insert Comments	√	√
Functions	√	√
Password File Protection	√	√
Macros	√	√
Templates	√	√
Tables	√	√
Read-Only Function	√	√
Track Changes	√	√
Translation	√
Presentation Creator Features
Slide Templates	√	√
Formatting	√	√
Illustrations	√	√
Animations	√	√
Previewing	√	√
Spell Check	√	√
Charts	√	√
Slide Themes	√	√
Slide Styles	√	√
Tables	√	√
Read-Only Function	√	√
Supported File Formats
DOC	√	√
DOCX	√	√
XLS	√	√
XLSX	√	√
PPT	√	√
PDF	√	√
PPTX	√
TXT	√	√
HTM	√	√
RTF	√	√
DOT	√	√
DOTX	√	√
Help & Support
FAQs	√	√
User Forums	√	√
Tutorials	√	√
In Program Help	√
Online Contact Form	√
Live Chat	√
Phone	√	√
Online User Manual		√
Email		√

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Kingsoft Office productivity software includes a few new features and a simplified interface allowing you the ability to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations in no time. And with its fresh redesign, you'll feel like you are using brand new software minus the learning curve. KingSoft Office Professional is sufficient office software if you are only looking for the basics.