Computer Hacks
Computer Hacks
Mail Merge
What Is Mail Merge

There are two types of mail merge. 

Mail Merge emails & Mail Merge documents. 

Mail merging is where you take a document and make multiple personalised versions of it from an information document (spreadsheet).

Often this is used by companies to increase their email response. 

However, this has multiple options as a teaching tool. 
Email Mail Merge

The ability to send personalised emails is a great resource to have in a teaching environment. 

It allows you to send individualised information directly to the students. 

For example, assessment scores or coursework feedback. 

The video to the right explains how you can do this for free.
Document Mail Merge

Mail merge lets you create a batch of documents that are personalised for each recipient. For example, a form letter might be personalised to address each recipient by name. 

A data source, like a list, spreadsheet, or database, is associated with the document. Placeholders--called merge fields--tell Word wherein the document to include information from the data source.

You work on the primary document in Word, inserting merge fields for the personalised content you want to include. 

When the mail merge is complete, the merge document will generate a personalised version of itself for each name in the data source.

VLook up - Excel
What is Vlookup

VLOOKUP stands for 'Vertical Lookup'. It is a function that makes Excel search for a certain value in a column (the so called 'table array'), in order to return a value from a different column in the same row.

How to guide
The video to the right offers a how-to guide on how to create a Vlookup document. 

The document may be different. However, the process is the same with any documents you want to find data within. 

Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard Shortcuts

Try using these handy keyboard shortcuts to save yourself some time, which should work in most Windows programs. 

Hold down the keys at the same time to achieve the desired effect!
Conditional Formatting 
What is Conditional Formatting 

Conditional Formatting (CF) is a tool that allows you to apply formats to a cell or range of cells, and have that formatting change depending on the value of the cell or the value of a formula. 

For example, you can have a cell appear bold only when the value of the cell is greater than 100.
How to Conditional format


The first thing you will need to do is create a spreadsheet with your classes information and the events you want to compare.

I usually export my register and then format it from this point.

The video on the right will explain how I created the athletics database.

How I use Conditional Formatting within my lessons


 have been using conditional formatting in my athletic lessons for a number of years now. 

I started off with very basic, formatting, making the colours change if a student was higher than the national average. 

As my learning progressed so did my formatting. 

I know use it in the following ways: 

  1. Gold, Silver, Brozen compared to English school athletics scores for various years. 
  2. Blue if the student breaks the school record for the various year groups. 
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