277 Excel Mysteries Solved

Transcription

1 277 Excel Mysteries Solved Bill Jelen Holy Macro! Books Judy Ave NW, Uniontown OH 44685

2 Learn Excel from Mr Excel 2005 by Bill Jelen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information or storage retrieval system without written permission from the publisher. All terms known in this book known to be Trademarks have been appropriately capitalized. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are not affiliated with Holy Macro! Books Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and accurate as possible, but not warranty or fitness is implied. The information is provided on an as is basis. The authors and the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising from the information contained in this book. Printed in India First Printing: September 2005 Author: Bill Jelen Editors: Linda DeLonais and Paragon Prepress Editorial Team Production: Lisa Davis Cover Design: Shannon Mattiza, 6Ft4 Productions Cover Photo: Dallas Wallace, Paramount Photo Interior Design: Paragon Prepress, Inc. Published by: Holy Macro! Books, Judy Ave, Uniontown OH Distributed by Independent Publishers Group ISBN Library of Congress Control Number:

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS About the Author... xiii Acknowledgments...xv Dedication... xvii Foreword... xix PART 1: THE EXCEL ENVIRONMENT Show Full Menus All the Time... 3 Show Full Toolbars All the Time... 6 Add a Close Button to the Standard Toolbar... 8 Close All Open Workbooks Double the Value of the Recently Used File List Remember Workbooks to Open Using a Workspace Automatically Move the Cell Pointer in a Direction After Entering a Number How to See Headings as You Scroll Around a Report How to See Headings and Row Labels as You Scroll Around a Report How to Print Titles at the Top of Each Page Print a Letter at the Top of Page 1 and Repeat Headings at the Top of Each Subsequent Page How to Print Page Numbers at the Bottom of Each Page How to Make a Wide Report Fit to One Page Wide by Many Pages Tall Arrange Windows to See Two or More Open Workbooks Why Is There a :2 After My Workbook Name in the Title Bar? Have Excel Always Open Certain Workbook(s) Set up Excel Icons to Open a Specific File on Startup Use a Macro to Further Customize Startup Control Settings for Every New Workbook and Worksheet Open a Copy of a Workbook Open a Saved File Whose Name You Cannot Recall v

4 vi of xii LEARN EXCEL FROM MR EXCEL Suppress the Update Links Message Send Excel File as an Attachment Save Excel Data as a Text File Use a Laser Printer to Have Excel Calculate Faster Use Excel as a Word Processor Spellcheck a Region Use Hyperlinks to Create an Opening Menu for Your Workbook Get Quick Access to Paste Special Use Shift Key to Reverse Popular Toolbar Icons Create a Menu or a Toolbar of Your Favorite Icons Restore Your Menus After Customizing Quickly Copy a Formula to All Rows of Data Quickly Turn a Range on Its Side Stop Excel from AutoCorrecting Certain Words Use AutoCorrect to Enable a Shortcut Why Won t the Track Changes Feature Work in Excel? Copy Cells from One Worksheet to Many Worksheets Have Excel Talk to You Enter Special Symbols Find Text Entries PART 2: CALCULATING WITH EXCEL Copy a Formula That Contains Relative References Copy a Formula While Keeping One Reference Fixed Create a Multiplication Table Calculate a Sales Commission Simplify Entry of Dollar Signs in Formulas Learn R1C1 Referencing to Understand Formula Copying Create Easier-to-Understand Formulas with Named Ranges Use Named Constants to Store Numbers Build a Formula Using Labels Instead of Cell Addresses Use Natural Language Formulas to Refer to the Current Row Assign a Formula to a Name Total Without Using a Formula Count, Average, etc. Without Using a Formula Add Two Columns Without Using Formulas How to Calculate Sales over Quota How to Join Two Text Columns How to Sort on One Segment of an Account ID How to Isolate the Center Portion of an Account ID How to Isolate Everything Before a Dash in a Column by Using Functions

5 Table of Contents vii of xii How to Use Functions to Isolate Everything After a Dash in a Column How to Use Functions to Isolate Everything After the Second Dash in a Column How to Separate a Part Number into Three Columns Avoid #REF! Errors When Deleting Columns Create Random Numbers Create Random Numbers to Sequence a Class of Students Play Dice Games with Excel Play Bunco with Excel Play Craps with Excel Create Random Letters Convert Numbers to Text Calculate a Loan Payment Calculate Many Scenarios for Loan Payments Get Help on Any Function While Entering a Formula Discover New Functions Using the ƒx Button Three Methods of Entering Formulas Use AutoSum to Quickly Enter a Total Formula AutoSum Doesn t Always Predict My Data Correctly Use AutoSum Button to Enter Averages, Min, Max, and Count The Count Option of the AutoSum Doesn t Appear to Work Automatically Number a List of Employees Rank Scores Sorting with a Formula Rank a List Without Ties Add Comments to a Formula Calculate a Moving Average Calculate a Trendline Forecast Build a Model to Predict Sales Based on Multiple Regression Use F9 in Formula Bar to Test a Formula Quick Calculator When Entering a Formula, You Get the Formula Instead of the Result Calculate a Percentage of Total Calculate a Running Percentage of Total Use ^ Sign for Exponent Raise a Number to a Fraction to Find the Square or Third Root Calculate a Growth Rate Find the Area of a Circle Figure out Lottery Probability Help Your Kids with Their Math

6 viii of xii LEARN EXCEL FROM MR EXCEL Measure the Accuracy of a Sales Forecast Round Prices to Next Highest $ Why Is This Price Showing $ Cents? You Change a Cell in Excel but the Formulas Do Not Calculate Use Parentheses to Control Order of Calculations Before Deleting a Cell, Find out if Other Cells Rely on It Navigate to Each Precedent Formula Auditing How Is This Cell Calculated? Total Minutes That Exceed an Hour Convert Text to Minutes and Seconds Convert Text to Hours, Minutes, and Seconds Convert Times From H:MM to M:SS Display Dates as Months Group Dates by Month Calculate Last Day of Month Create a Timesheet That Can Total over 24 Hours Find Which Customers Are in an Existing List Use VLOOKUP to Find Which Customers Are in an Existing List Match Customers Using VLOOKUP Watch for Duplicates When Using VLOOKUP Count Records That Match a Criteria Build a Table That Will Count by Criteria Build a Summary Table to Place Employees in Age Bands Total Revenue from Rows that Match a Criterion Use Conditional Sum Wizard to Help with SUMIF Create a CSE Formula to Build a Super Formula Learn to Use Boolean Logic Facts to Simplify Logic Replace IF Function with Boolean Logic Test for Two Conditions in a Sum Can the Results of a Formula Be Used in COUNTIF? Back into an Answer Using Goal Seek Protect Cells with Formulas PART 3: WRANGLING DATA How to Set up Your Data for Easy Sorting and Subtotals How to Fit a Multiline Heading into One Cell How to Sort Data How to Specify More Than Three Columns in a Sort How to Sort a Report into a Custom Sequence Quickly Filter a List to Certain Records

7 Table of Contents ix of xii Find the Unique Values in a Column Copy Matching Records to a New Worksheet Add Subtotals to a Dataset Use Group & Outline Buttons to Collapse Subtotaled Data Copy Just Totals from Subtotaled Data Enter a Grand Total of Data Manually Subtotaled Why Do Subtotals Come out as Counts? Subtotal Many Columns at Once My Manager Wants Subtotals Above the Data Add Other Text Data to the Automatic Subtotal Lines Be Wary General Protection Faults Create Subtotals by Product Within Region My Manager Wants the Subtotal Lines in Bold Pink Tahoma Font My Manager Wants a Blank Line After Every Subtotal Subtotal One Column and Subaverage Another Column How to Do 40 Different What-if Analyses Quickly Remove Blanks from a Range Remove Blanks from a Range While Keeping the Original Sequence Increase a Range by Two Percent Use Find and Replace to Find an Asterisk Use a Custom Header of Profit & Loss Use Consolidation to Combine Two Lists Find Total Sales by Customer by Combining Duplicates Create a Summary of Four Lists Number Each Record for a Customer, Starting at One for a New Customer Add a Group Number to Each Set of Records with a Unique Customer Number Deal with Data Where Each Record Takes Five Physical Rows Add a Customer Number to Each Detail Record Use a Pivot Table to Summarize Detailed Data Your Manager Wants Your Report Changed Move or Change Part of a Pivot Table See Detail Behind One Number in a Pivot Table Update Data Behind a Pivot Table Replace Blanks in a Pivot Table with Zeroes Add or Remove Fields from an Existing Pivot Table Summarize Pivot Table Data by Three Measures Make Pivot Tables Be Taller than Wide

8 x of xii LEARN EXCEL FROM MR EXCEL Manually Resequence the Order of Data in a Pivot Table Present a Pivot Table in High-to-Low Order by Revenue Limit a Pivot Report to Show Just the Top 12 Customers Quickly Produce Reports for Each Region Create an Ad-Hoc Reporting Tool Create a Unique List of Customers with a Pivot Table Create a Pivot Table with Fewer Clicks Create a Report Showing Count, Min, Max, Average, etc Use Multiple Data Fields as a Column Field Compare Four Ways to Show Two Data Fields in a Pivot Table Group Daily Dates up by Month in a Pivot Table Group by Week in a Pivot Table Produce an Order Lead-time Report Use AutoFormat with Pivot Tables Specify a Number Format for a PivotTable Field Suppress Totals in a Pivot Table Eliminate Blanks in the Outline Format of a Pivot Table Use a Pivot Table to Compare Two Lists Calculated Fields in a Pivot Table Add a Calculated Item to Group Items in a Pivot Table Quickly Create Charts for Any Region Use Query to Get a Unique Set of Records Import a Table from a Web Page into Excel Have Web Data Update Automatically When You Open Workbook Have Web Data Update Automatically Every Two Minutes The Spaces in This Web Data Won t Go Away Use a Built-in Data Entry Form Transform Black and White Spreadsheets into Color Your Manager Is Obsessed with Formatting and Cannot Make up Her Mind PART 4: MAKING THINGS LOOK GOOD Create a Chart with One Click Change a Chart from a Chart Sheet to an Embedded Chart Customize Anything on a Chart with Right-click How to Minimize Overlap of Pie Chart Labels Add New Data to a Chart Add a Trendline to a Chart Display Profitability in a Profit Waterfall Chart For Each Cell in Column A, Have Three Rows in Column B Copy Formatting to a New Range

9 Table of Contents xi of xii Copy Without Changing Borders Leave Helpful Notes with Cell Comments Change Appearance of Cell Comments Force Certain Comments to be Always Visible to Provide a Help System to Users of Your Spreadsheet Control Name That Appears in Comments Change Shape of Comment to a Star Add a Pop-up Picture of an Item in a Cell Add a Pop-up Picture to Multiple Cells Change the Background of the Worksheet Add a Printable Background to Your Spreadsheet Remove Hyperlinks Automatically Inserted by Excel Change Width of All Columns in One Command Control Page Numbering in a Multisheet Workbook Use White Color for Fonts to Hide Data Hide and Unhide Data Temporarily See a Hidden Column Without Unhiding Build Complex Reports Where Columns in Section 1 Don t Line up with Section Paste a Live Picture of a Cell Monitor Far-off Cells in Excel 2002 and Later Versions Add a Page Break at Each Change in Customer Use Horizontal Page Breaks Even When You Use Fit to N Pages Wide Hide Error Cells When Printing Organize Your Worksheet Tabs with Color Copy Cell Formatting, Including Column Widths Why Does Excel Mark All My TRUE Cells with an Indicator? Debug from a Printed Spreadsheet Copied Formula Has Strange Borders Double Underline a Grand Total Use the Border Tab in the Format Cells Dialog Fit a Slightly Too-Large Value in a Cell Show Results as Fractions Color All Sales Green for a Day if Total Sales > $ Color Sales for a Day That Exceeds $ Turn off Wrap Text in Pasted Data Delete All Pictures in Pasted Data Draw an Arrow to Visually Illustrate That Two Cells Are Connected Add an AutoShape to Your Worksheet Draw Perfect Circles

10 xii of xii LEARN EXCEL FROM MR EXCEL Draw Perfect Squares Draw More Than the Four Basic Shapes Change an Existing AutoShape Add Text to an AutoShape Use the Toolbar to Change Three Colors of an AutoShape Rotate an AutoShape Alter the Key Inflection Point in an AutoShape Add a Shadow to an AutoShape Add a 3-D Effect to an AutoShape Add Connectors to Join Shapes Join Two AutoShapes Change Properties of Only One AutoShape in a Group When Two AutoShapes Overlap, Control Which Is on Top Make Any Logo into an AutoShape Use the Scribble Tool Place Cell Contents in an AutoShape Draw Business Diagrams with Excel Draw Org Charts with Excel Add WordArt to a Chart or Worksheet Use MapPoint to Plot Data on a Map Add a Dropdown to a Cell Store Lists for Dropdowns on a Hidden Sheet Add a ToolTip to a Cell to Guide the Person Using the Workbook Configure Validation to Ease up Use Validation to Create Dependent Lists Afterword Index

11 SHOW FULL MENUS ALL THE TIME Problem: You are trying to learn Excel. Microsoft only shows you the most common menu choices under each menu. Fig. 1 shows a menu from one computer on my desk. Part I Fig. 1 Fig. 2 is a screenshot from another computer on my desk. Fig. 2 3

12 4 of 853 LEARN EXCEL FROM MR EXCEL A screenshot of the data menu of the third computer on my desk is seen here in Fig. 3. Fig. 3 This is maddening. How can you learn that there is a Sort option under the Data menu if Excel will not show you all of the options? Furthermore, Microsoft customizes the menu on the basis of items you use regularly. First, this is insane; you cannot learn to regularly use something if you don t know it is there. Second, when you go to a new computer, one of the options that you think should be there may not show up. It is very difficult to learn Excel when the menus are not consistent across computers. Strategy: Turn off Adaptive Menus. This will show you the complete menu every time that you access that menu. Follow these steps: 1) Go to the Tools menu, as shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 4 2) If the Customize option is not shown, select the double-down arrow at the bottom of the list in order to expand the menu. 3) Select Customize from the Tools menu, as shown in Fig. 5.

13 Part 1: The Excel Environment 5 of 853 Fig. 5 4) As you will see in Fig. 6, there are three tabs across the top of the Customize dialog. Choose the Options tab and then choose the box for Always Show Full Menus. Part I Fig. 6 Additional Details: If you are in the process of learning Excel, it also helps to choose the Show Standard and Formatting Toolbars on Two Rows option. This will enable you to see all of the icons on the important Standard and Formatting toolbars. In Excel 2000, this setting appears as Standard and Formatting Toolbars Share One Row. In that version, you will want to uncheck the option. Gotcha: Changing this setting in Excel will also affect Word and other Office products. There is no way to have Excel show full menus while Word shows the abbreviated menus. Summary: While learning Excel, use the Tools Customize feature to show the complete list of commands on each menu. Commands Discussed: Tools Customize

14 6 of 853 LEARN EXCEL FROM MR EXCEL SHOW FULL TOOLBARS ALL THE TIME Problem: You are trying to learn Excel. By default, Microsoft only shows you the most common menu choices from Excel s two most important toolbars: Standard and Formatting. The Standard toolbar has icons for a New Workbook, Saving, Printing, Print Preview, Spell Check, Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, and Redo. These are all fairly important items. The Formatting toolbar has icons for Font, Font Size, Bold, Italic, Underline, Left Align, Center, Right Align, Number, Bullets, Indent, Outdent, Borders, Cell Color, and Font Color. These are also all fairly important items. The complete Standard toolbar can be seen here in Fig. 7. Note that my toolbar has some extra icons from various add-ins that I use. Fig. 7 Although this is the complete toolbar, most default installations will only show a subset of the icons on the toolbar. An example of the abbreviated toolbar follows in Fig. 8. Fig. 8 In order to use any of the other icons on the Standard toolbar, you have to choose the double-right arrow on the toolbar, as shown in Fig. 9. Fig. 9

15 Part 1: The Excel Environment 7 of 853 The complete Formatting toolbar follows in Fig. 10. Fig. 10 Most users with a default installation will only see a portion of these icons and will have to use the double-right arrow on the toolbar to see all of the icons. Microsoft does this in order to show you more rows of data in the spreadsheet. This may have been a problem in the days of VGA monitors. However, with today s high screen resolutions, you can afford to have the toolbars displayed on two rows and to see all of the available options at a glance. Strategy: Display the toolbars on two rows. From the Tools menu, select Customize. On the Options tab, select the option for Show Standard and Formatting toolbars on two rows, as shown in Fig. 11. Part I Fig. 11 Gotcha: In Excel 2000 and earlier, this option was called Display Standard and Formatting Toolbars on One Row. Summary: While learning Excel, use the Tools Customize feature to show the complete version of Standard and Formatting toolbars. Commands Discussed: Tools Customize

16 8 of 853 LEARN EXCEL FROM MR EXCEL ADD A CLOSE BUTTON TO THE STANDARD TOOLBAR Problem: Your efficiency with Excel would increase if you had a oneclick option for closing workbooks. Strategy: Customize the Standard toolbar to include a Close option near the Save option. Follow these steps. 1) From the menu, select View Toolbars Customize. The Customize option is the final choice in the list of toolbars. This will display the Customize dialog box. While the Customize box is displayed, the toolbars are in a special state. You can take any toolbar button and drag it to a new location, to a new toolbar, or even drag it off the toolbar to delete it. Also, there are hundreds of new icons that you can add to your toolbars. 2) From the Customize dialog box, choose the Commands tab, as shown in Fig ) Choose a Category in the left listbox. From the right listbox, you can scroll through dozens of buttons in that category. Fig. 12