Hi from Chiangmai!

I'm actually using Neooffice on Mac but hoping an answer here on the Excel forum (bigger so much quicker replies) will be transferable or identical.

I have created my first spreadsheet.
It is for a Jobs Book for a Manager I am helping. No calculations, just for creating some an introduction and some instructions at the top. I have figured how to make the intro with no grid, then make a grid in which I have pre-entered the first 70ish To-Dos.....a sort of backlog of jobs. Jobs will then be entered by hand in both languages.

It is Thailand, and I want to have alternate lines......the clear one (odd row say) ready to be written by hand in Thai, then a shaded one (even rows).

1. I did the shading by hand.
Could i have shaded alternate rows in an easier fashion?

2. Same, i entered the dates with a sort of miserable copy and paste. Is there a way I could have put the dates in the backlog, the first 70ish rows, but only one date for each pair of rows, ie the same date only on the Thai (unshaded) language rows.

3. I'll set Times New Roman in the box and the font size, but it will keep reverting to Arial.
I even set TNR as a default somewhere. Am I missing something? Annoying when it does it out of the blue.

Thanks in advance!
Cheeryble