If you're not happy with the default layout of the chart you have chosen, Excel allows you to edit it. First, click on the design tab at the top of the ribbon, under the "chart tools" heading, (this is obtainable by selecting your graph). This will give you a range of options, including changing the chart type, the colour, and which information it displays on its X and Y axis.

In our example, select is layout 5. Excel 2007 will change your graph so that it now shows a main title, a title for the Y axis and a table of all the information used in the graph underneath the X axis.

In order to change the main title and the Y axis’ title all you need to do is to double click on the title itself and retype it.

Link building is the process of trying to manipulate the inbound links that are directly aiming towards a site. It is an essential part of an SEO campaign but a lot of SEO people do not use or have the essential tools to do the job properly and thoroughly. Even so, the people with the right tools still don’t use them to their full potential and are making life difficult for themselves.

If you want to learn more about building your own spreadsheet then take our Excel Training course ( we also offer advanced excel training), also if you want to learn more about Search Engine Optimisation, then try our SEO Training course in Brighton, Sussex.

I have created an Excel document and a Word document to help you with your link building campaign. The Excel document includes different worksheets with different lists in to enter your data as you go along. For data entry, Excel will always be a useful tool to use as it allows you to switch from cell to cell while entering data with ease.

Normally, link building is an on-going practice and from time to time it can get boring and repetitive, but if you keep it all organised then you will find it a lot easier. Also, if you need to get someone else to do the link building for you, with these resources, you can easily pass on what you have done and they can just pick up where you left off.

You can download the resources at the bottom of this page, but here’s a breakdown of what is in them and what you should be considering when starting your link building campaign -

Once you're happy with the chart type, you can also change the style so that the colours and fonts fit with the image you want to portray.

Again - select your chart and look at the "design" section of the ribbon. You will find the chart styles section on the right hand side of the ribbon. For more options, click on the “More” arrow as indicated below:

In our example, select layout 42 at the bottom of the list. Excel will then automatically apply this to your chart, like this:

With Microsoft Office 2013 set for release very soon (and after our look at the new mobile excel apps), we thought we'd take a look at some of the new features to be added to its Access software.

The database powerhouse has undergone an overhaul and not just aesthetically. More app-focused, easily shareable and with a revised back-end, Access 2013 is set to build and develop upon the now three year old incumbent, Access 2010.

If you'd like to learn how to use Access from scratch, come on our Beginner's Access Training Course or if you have some experience but would like to brush up on your skills, try our 1 day Advanced Access Workshop.

So what exactly is different about Access 2013 compared to previous versions? And will these differences make the user experience better or worse?

App-Based

The biggest new feature to be brought in with Access 2013 is the focus on a more app-based system.

What with the introduction of  Windows 8 and Sharepoint's development into a realistic competitor to Google Drive and Dropbox, it's unsurprising that Access 2013 has such a focus.

In Access 2013 you'll be able to create an app (which can effectively be anything, but we'll assume an Access file!), upload it to Sharepoint and then allow access to anyone you like.

No extra login details are required; just those of  the business'/users' Sharepoint account.

If Windows 8 proves to be as popular and widely adopted as Windows 7, it could be huge for apps and responsive web design, taking the formats from mobile to a mainstream desktop market.

The booming mobile industry (dominated by iOS and Android) has seen apps go mainstream in the last few years. It has also prompted a radical change in web design with a desire for responsive design that adapts to browser size.

However, the number of websites with responsive design is still minuscule, and apps are still mostly for personal use on mobile devices. True synchronicity between desktop and mobile, (and between work and home) is still a long way off.

Windows 8 could be the catalyst to take app development and responsive design from mobile to desktop.

Stay ahead of the curve with our range of mobile development courses. We run Android App courses for native app developers as well as our highly popular mobile web week workshopwhich includes a day on responsive web design.

Windows 8 Apps

Sorry developers, it looks like you're going to have to learn to make apps for Windows 8 on top of Android and iOS.

Taking Apple's latest OSX update a step further, Microsoft have unveiled an operating system to work on all devices, desktop and mobile, by focusing on apps. They're a bit late to the party, with Apple have had an App store on desktop for a long time. But despite Apple's break into the market, Windows is still by far the global operating system of choice, particularly in workplaces.

Like Apple's App Store and Google Play, Microsoft is launching its own closed app marketplace and this is expected to become the norm for downloading software as it's often seen as 'safer' than downloading straight off the web, and easier than going into a shop and buying a disk.

Excel's Auto Sum feature is a handy time-saving feature that prevents you having to type out lists of commonly used values like sequences of numbers, days of the week or months. Auto Sum is covered in our Excel Beginners Training Course.

Written Instructions

Let's demonstrate this with months. Type "January" in to a cell in your spreadsheet. Highlight the cell and you'll see that there's a little black arrow in the bottom right hand corner. Carefully click on this arrow with the mouse (a bit fiddly!) and hold the button. Now drag the box downwards a few cells and release, and Excel will fill in the subsequent months for you. Clever eh! Even better, it will also recognise abbreviations, such as Jan, Feb, Mar etc...

When you have finished dragging you will also see an Auto Fill options box appear.

If you click on this a drop down menu will appear showing you a list of further options. Whatever you press in this drop down menu will affect the series of numbers that you have created. If you would rather not have Excel type out all of the months and want all of the cells to say January, use the “copy cells” option

Is it possible to increase search visibility without building links?

At BrightonSEO in April Semantic Search was a popular topic that featured in many talks and I also had the pleasure of taking part in a Semantic Search Roundtable discussion, sponsored by Intelligent Positioning.

My inspiration for this post was Andrew Isidoro's post 'I Am an Entity: Hacking the Knowledge Graph' and companion talk at BrightonSEO. Read his post and then watch the talk below:

It is also worth reading Krystian Szastok's follow up post 'I Became an Entity: How I'm on the Knowledge Graph' which gives further evidence of becoming an entity with some additional tips.

Andrew and Krystian's posts are both excellent reads, but they focus on individuals and the knowledge graph.

I also want to focus on businesses.

How can businesses get themselves into the knowledge graph, and also take advantage of the other features of semantic search?

First, a bit of theory about why this is so important.