Excel Hacks: Tips & Tools for Streamlining Your Spreadsheets, 2/e

Description

Millions of users create and share Excel spreadsheets every day, but few go deeply enough to learn the techniques that will make their work much easier. There are many ways to take advantage of Excel's advanced capabilities without spending hours on advanced study. Excel Hacks provides more than 130 hacks -- clever tools, tips and techniques -- that will leapfrog your work beyond the ordinary.

Now expanded to include Excel 2007, this resourceful, roll-up-your-sleeves guide gives you little known "backdoor" tricks for several Excel versions using different platforms and external applications. Think of this book as a toolbox. When a need arises or a problem occurs, you can simply use the right tool for the job. Hacks are grouped into chapters so you can find what you need quickly, including ways to:

• Reduce workbook and worksheet frustration -- manage how users interact with worksheets, find and highlight information, and deal with debris and corruption.
• Analyze and manage data -- extend and automate these features, moving beyond the limited tasks they were designed to perform.
• Hack names -- learn not only how to name cells and ranges, but also how to create names that adapt to the data in your spreadsheet.
• Get the most out of PivotTables -- avoid the problems that make them frustrating and learn how to extend them.
• Create customized charts -- tweak and combine Excel's built-in charting capabilities.
• Hack formulas and functions -- subjects range from moving formulas around to dealing with datatype issues to improving recalculation time.
• Make the most of macros -- including ways to manage them and use them to extend other features.
• Connect Excel to the world -- use XML and take advantage of web sites and services from Google and Amazon to get information into and out of your spreadsheets.

You can either browse through the book or read it from cover to cover, studying the procedures and scripts to learn more about Excel. However you use it, Excel Hacks will help you increase productivity and give you hours of "hacking" enjoyment along the way.

Table of Contents

Credits   
Preface   
Chapter 1. Reducing Workbook and Worksheet Frustration  

       1. Create a Personal View of Your Workbooks   

       2. Enter Data into Multiple Worksheets Simultaneously   

       3. Prevent Users from Performing Certain Actions   

       4. Prevent Seemingly Unnecessary Prompts   

       5. Hide Worksheets So That They Cannot Be Unhidden   

       6. Customize the Templates Dialog and Default Workbook   

       7. Create an Index of Sheets in Your Workbook   

       8. Limit the Scrolling Range of Your Worksheet   

       9. Lock and Protect Cells Containing Formulas   

       10. Find Duplicate Data Using Conditional Formatting   

       11. Find Data That Appears Two or More Times Using Conditional Formatting   

       12. Tie Custom Toolbars to a Particular Workbook   

       13. Outsmart Excel's Relative Reference Handler   

       14. Remove Phantom Workbook Links   

       15. Reduce Workbook Bloat   

       16. Extract Data from a Corrupt Workbook   
Chapter 2. Hacking Excel's Built-in Features  

       17. Validate Data Based on a List on Another Worksheet   

       18. Control Conditional Formatting with Checkboxes   

       19. Identify Formulas with Conditional Formatting   

       20. Count or Sum Cells That Meet Conditional Formatting Criteria   

       21. Highlight Every Other Row or Column   

       22. Create 3-D Effects in Tables or Cells   

       23. Turn Conditional Formatting and Data Validation On and Off with a Checkbox   

       24. Support Multiple Lists in a ComboBox   

       25. Create Validation Lists That Change Based on a Selection from Another List   

       26. Use Replace... to Remove Unwanted Characters   

       27. Convert Text Numbers to Real Numbers   

       28. Extract the Numeric Portion of a Cell Entry   

       29. Customize Cell Comments   

       30. Sort by More Than Three Columns   

       31. Random Sorting   

       32. Manipulate Data with the Advanced Filter   

       33. Create Custom Number Formats   

       34. Add More Levels of Undo to Excel for Windows   

       35. Create Custom Lists   

       36. Boldface Excel Subtotals   

       37. Convert Excel Formulas and Functions to Values   

       38. Automatically Add Data to a Validation List   

       39. Hack Excel's Date and Time Features   

       40. Enable Grouping and Outlining on a Protected Worksheet   

       41. Prevent Blanks/Missing Fields in a Table   

       42. Provide Decreasing Data Validation Lists   

       43. Add a Custom List to the Fill Handle   
Chapter 3. Naming Hacks  

       44. Address Data by Name   

       45. Use the Same Name for Ranges on Different Worksheets   

       46. Create Custom Functions Using Names   

       47. Create Ranges That Expand and Contract   

       48. Nest Dynamic Ranges for Maximum Flexibility   

       49. Identify Named Ranges on a Worksheet   
Chapter 4. Hacking PivotTables  

       50. PivotTables: A Hack in Themselves   

       51. Share PivotTables but Not Their Data   

       52. Automate PivotTable Creation   

       53. Move PivotTable Grand Totals   

       54. Efficiently Pivot Another Workbook's Data   
Chapter 5. Charting Hacks  

       55. Explode a Single Slice from a Pie Chart   

       56. Create Two Sets of Slices in One Pie Chart   

       57. Create Charts That Adjust to Data   

       58. Interact with Your Charts Using Custom Controls   

       59. Four Quick Ways to Update Your Charts   

       60. Hack Together a Simple Thermometer Chart   

       61. Create a Column Chart with Variable Widths and Heights   

       62. Create a Speedometer Chart   

       63. Link Chart Text Elements to a Cell   

       64. Hack Chart Data So That Empty or FALSE Formula Cells Are Not Plotted   

       65. Add a Directional Arrow to the End of a Line Series   

       66. Place an Arrow on the End of a Horizontal (X) Axis   

       67. Correct Narrow Columns When Using Dates   

       68. Position Axis Labels   

       69. Tornado Chart   

       70. Gauge Chart   

       71. Conditional Highlighting Axis Labels   

       72. Create Totals on a Stacked Column Chart   
Chapter 6. Hacking Formulas and Functions  

       73. Add Descriptive Text to Your Formulas   

       74. Move Relative Formulas Without Changing References   

       75. Compare Two Excel Ranges   

       76. Fill All Blank Cells in a List   

       77. Make Your Formulas Increment by Rows When You Copy Across Columns   

       78. Convert Dates to Excel Formatted Dates   

       79. Sum or Count Cells While Avoiding Error Values   

       80. Reduce the Impact of Volatile Functions on Recalculation   

       81. Count Only One Instance of Each Entry in a List   

       82. Sum Every Second, Third, or Nth Row or Cell   

       83. Find the Nth Occurrence of a Value   

       84. Make the Excel Subtotal Function Dynamic   

       85. Add Date Extensions   

       86. Convert Numbers with the Negative Sign on the Right to Excel Numbers   

       87. Display Negative Time Values   

       88. Use the VLOOKUP Function Across Multiple Tables   

       89. Show Total Time As Days, Hours, and Minutes   

       90. Determine the Number of Specified Days in Any Month   

       91. Construct Mega-Formulas   

       92. Hack Mega-Formulas that Reference Other Workbooks   

       93. Hack One of Excel's Database Functions to Take the Place of Many Functions   

       94. Extract Specified Words from a Text String   

       95. Count Words in a Cell or Range of Cells   

       96. Return a Worksheet Name to a Cell   

       97. Sum Cells with Multiple Criteria   

       98. Count Cells with Multiple Criteria   

       99. Calculate a Sliding Tax Scale   

       100. Add/Subtract Months from a Date   

       101. Find the Last Day of Any Given Month   

       102. Calculate a Person's Age   

       103. Return the Weekday of a Date   

       104. Evaluate a Text Equation   

       105. Lookup from Within a Cell   
Chapter 7. Macro Hacks  

       106. Speed Up Code While Halting Screen Flicker   

       107. Run a Macro at a Set Time   

       108. Use CodeNames to Reference Sheets in Excel Workbooks   

       109. Connect Buttons to Macros Easily   

       110. Create a Workbook Splash Screen   

       111. Display a "Please Wait" Message   

       112. Have a Cell Ticked or Unticked upon Selection   

       113. Count or Sum Cells That Have a Specified Fill Color   

       114. Add the Microsoft Excel Calendar Control to Any Excel Workbook   

       115. Password-Protect and Unprotect All Excel Worksheets in One Fell Swoop   

       116. Retrieve a Workbook's Name and Path   

       117. Get Around Excel's Three-Criteria Limit for Conditional Formatting   

       118. Run Procedures on Protected Worksheets   

       119. Distribute Macros   

       120. Delete Rows Based on a Condition   

       121. Track and Report Changes in Excel   

       122. Automatically Add Date/Time to a Cell upon Entry   

       123. Create a List of Workbook Hyperlinks   

       124. Advanced Find   

       125. Find a Number Between Two Numbers   

       126. Convert Formula References from Relative to Absolute   

       127. Name a Workbook with the Text in a Cell   

       128. Hide and Restore Toolbars in Excel   

       129. Sort Worksheets   

       130. Password-Protect a Worksheet from Viewing   

       131. Change Text to Upper- or Proper Case   

       132. Force Text to Upper- or Proper Case   

       133. Prevent Case Sensitivity in VBA Code   

       134. Display AutoFilter Criteria   
Chapter 8. Cross-Application Hacks  

       135. Import Data from Access 2007 into Excel 2007   

       136. Retrieve Data from Closed Workbooks   

       137. Automate Word from Excel   

       138. Automate Outlook from Excel   
Index