John Walkenbach's Favorite Excel 2010 Tips and Tricks

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INTRODUCTION

Excel is a very popular program. Millions of people throughout the world use it on a regular basis. But it’s a safe bet that the vast majority of users have yet to discover some of the amazing things this product can do. If I’ve done my job, you’ll find enough useful information in this book to help you use Excel on a new level. This is the third edition of this book, and I added many new tips and beefed up many of the old tips based on feedback from readers of the previous editions.

What You Should Know This book isn’t a beginner’s guide to Excel. Rather, it’s a book for those who already use Excel but realize that they have a lot more to learn. This book is filled with tips and tricks that I’ve learned over the years, and I’m certain that about 99 percent of all Excel users will find something new and useful in these pages. If you have absolutely no experience with Excel, this book might not be the best choice for you. To get the most out of this book, you should have some background in using Excel. Specifically, I assume that you know how to accomplish the following tasks with Excel: h Create workbooks, insert worksheets, save files, and perform other basic tasks. h Navigate through a workbook. h Use the Excel Ribbon and dialog boxes. h Use basic Windows features, such as file management and copy-and-paste techniques.

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Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 1 Tip 2 Tip 3 Tip 4 Tip 5 Tip 6 Tip 7 Tip 8 Tip 9 Tip 10 Tip 11 Tip 12 Tip 13 Tip 14 Tip 15 Tip 16 Tip 17 Tip 18 Tip 19 Tip 20 Tip 21 Tip 22 Tip 23 Tip 24 Tip 25 Tip 26 Tip 27 Tip 28

Understanding Excel Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Maximizing Ribbon Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Understanding Protected View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Selecting Cells Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Making “Special” Range Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Undoing, Redoing, and Repeating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Discovering Some Useful Shortcut Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Navigating Sheets in a Workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Resetting the Used Area of a Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Understanding Workbooks versus Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Customizing the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Accessing the Ribbon with Your Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Recovering Your Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Customizing the Default Workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Using Document Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Hiding User Interface Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Hiding Columns or Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Hiding Cell Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Taking Pictures of Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Performing Inexact Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Replacing Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Changing the Excel Color Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Limiting the Usable Area in a Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Using an Alternative to Cell Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Understanding the Excel Help System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Making a Worksheet “Very Hidden” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Working with the Backstage View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 29 Tip 30 Tip 31 Tip 32 Tip 33 Tip 34 Tip 35 Tip 36 Tip 37 Tip 38 Tip 39 Tip 40 Tip 41 Tip 42 Tip 43 Tip 44 Tip 45

Understanding the Types of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Moving the Cell Pointer after Entering Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Selecting a Range of Input Cells before Entering Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Using AutoComplete to Automate Data Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Removing Duplicate Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81 Keeping Titles in View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Automatically Filling a Range with a Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Working with Fractions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Resizing the Formula Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Proofing Your Data with Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Controlling Automatic Hyperlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Entering Credit Card Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Using the Excel Built-In Data Entry Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Customizing and Sharing AutoCorrect Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Restricting Cursor Movement to Input Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Controlling the Office Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Creating a Drop-Down List in a Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 46 Tip 47 Tip 48 Tip 49 Tip 50 Tip 51 Tip 52 Tip 53 Tip 54 Tip 55 Tip 56 Tip 57 Tip 58 Tip 59 Tip 60 Tip 61 Tip 62 Tip 63 Tip 64 Tip 65 Tip 66 Tip 67

Using the Mini Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Indenting Cell Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110 Quick Number Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Creating Custom Number Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Using Custom Number Formats to Scale Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Using Custom Date and Time Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Examining Some Useful Custom Number Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Updating Old Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Understanding Conditional Formatting Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Showing Text and a Value in a Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Merging Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Formatting Individual Characters in a Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Displaying Times That Exceed 24 Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Fixing Non-Numeric Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Adding a Frame to a Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Dealing with Gridlines, Borders, and Underlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Inserting a Watermark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Adding a Background Image to a Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Wrapping Text in a Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Seeing All Characters in a Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Entering Special Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Using Named Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 68 Tip 69 Tip 70 Tip 71 Tip 72 Tip 73 Tip 74 Tip 75 Tip 76 Tip 77 Tip 78 Tip 79 Tip 80 Tip 81 Tip 82 Tip 83 Tip 84 Tip 85 Tip 86 Tip 87 Tip 88 Tip 89 Tip 90 Tip 91 Tip 92 Tip 93 Tip 94

Using Formula AutoComplete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Knowing When to Use Absolute References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Knowing When to Use Mixed References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157 Changing the Type of a Cell Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Converting a Vertical Range to a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 AutoSum Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Using the Status Bar Selection Statistics Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Converting Formulas to Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Transforming Data without Using Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Transforming Data by Using Temporary Formulas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Deleting Values While Keeping Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Summing Across Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Dealing with Function Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173 Annotating a Formula without Using a Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175 Making an Exact Copy of a Range of Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Monitoring Formula Cells from Any Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Displaying and Printing Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Avoiding Error Displays in Formulas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Using Goal Seeking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Understanding the Secret about Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Using Named Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Using Functions in Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Creating a List of Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Using Dynamic Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Creating Worksheet-Level Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Working with Pre-1900 Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Working with Negative Time Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 95 Tip 96 Tip 97 Tip 98 Tip 99 Tip 100 Tip 101 Tip 102 Tip 103 Tip 104 Tip 105 Tip 106 Tip 107 Tip 108 Tip 109 Tip 110 Tip 111 Tip 112 Tip 113 Tip 114 Tip 115 Tip 116 Tip 117 Tip 118 Tip 119 Tip 120 Tip 121 Tip 122 Tip 123 Tip 124 Tip 125

Calculating Holidays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Calculating a Weighted Average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Calculating a Person’s Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Ranking Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Converting Inches to Feet and Inches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Using the DATEDIF Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Counting Characters in a Cell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Numbering Weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Using a Pivot Table Instead of Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Expressing a Number as an Ordinal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Extracting Words from a String. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Parsing Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Removing Titles from Names. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Generating a Series of Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Determining Specific Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Displaying a Calendar in a Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Various Methods of Rounding Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Rounding Time Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Using the New AGGREGATE Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Returning the Last Nonblank Cell in a Column or Row . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Using the COUNTIF Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Counting Cells That Meet Multiple Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Counting Nonduplicated Entries in a Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Calculating Single-Criterion Conditional Sums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Calculating Multiple-Criterion Conditional Sums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 Looking Up an Exact Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Performing a Two-Way Lookup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Performing a Two-Column Lookup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Performing a Lookup by Using an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Using the INDIRECT Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 Creating Megaformulas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 126 Tip 127 Tip 128 Tip 129 Tip 130 Tip 131 Tip 132

Converting Between Measurement Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 Converting Temperatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Solving Simultaneous Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Solving Recursive Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 Generating Random Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Calculating Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 Calculating a Remainder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 133 Tip 134 Tip 135 Tip 136 Tip 137 Tip 138 Tip 139 Tip 140 Tip 141 Tip 142 Tip 143 Tip 144 Tip 145 Tip 146 Tip 147 Tip 148 Tip 149 Tip 150 Tip 151 Tip 152 Tip 153 Tip 154 Tip 155 Tip 156 Tip 157

Creating a Text Chart Directly in a Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Selecting Elements in a Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Creating a Self-Expanding Chart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 Creating Combination Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Creating a Gantt Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Creating a Gauge Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 Using Pictures in Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 Plotting Mathematical Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Using High-Low Lines in a Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 Linking Chart Text to Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Creating a Chart Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 Saving a Chart as a Graphics File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Saving a Range as a Graphic Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 Making Charts the Same Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 Resetting All Chart Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314 Freezing a Chart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 Creating Picture Effects with a Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318 Creating Sparkline Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 Selecting Objects on a Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Making a Greeting Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 Enhancing Text Formatting in Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 Using Images as Line Chart Markers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 Changing the Shape of a Cell Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 Adding an Image to a Cell Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 Enhancing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 158 Tip 159 Tip 160 Tip 161 Tip 162 Tip 163 Tip 164 Tip 165 Tip 166 Tip 167 Tip 168 Tip 169 Tip 170 Tip 171 Tip 172 Tip 173

Using the Table Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Working with Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 Using Formulas with a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 Numbering Rows in a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Using Custom Views with Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 Putting Advanced Filter Results on a Different Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Comparing Two Ranges by Using Conditional Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . 350 Randomizing a List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 Filling the Gaps in a Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 Creating a List from a Summary Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 Finding Duplicates by Using Conditional Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360 Creating a Quick Frequency Tabulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362 Controlling References to Cells within a Pivot Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 Grouping Items by Date in a Pivot Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 Unlinking a Pivot Table from Its Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 Using Pivot Table Slicers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .371

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 174 Tip 175 Tip 176 Tip 177 Tip 178 Tip 179 Tip 180 Tip 181 Tip 182

Understanding the New Excel File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377 Importing a Text File into a Worksheet Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 Getting Data from a Web Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381 Displaying a Workbook’s Full Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 Using Document Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 Inspecting a Workbook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389 Finding the Missing No to All Button When Closing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 Getting a List of Filenames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392 Using Workspace Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 183 Tip 184 Tip 185 Tip 186 Tip 187 Tip 188 Tip 189 Tip 190 Tip 191 Tip 192 Tip 193 Tip 194

Controlling What Gets Printed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 Displaying Repeated Rows or Columns on a Printout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399 Printing Noncontiguous Ranges on a Single Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .400 Preventing Objects from Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 Page-Numbering Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .404 Adding and Removing Page Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406 Saving to a PDF File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 Making Your Printout Fit on One Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .408 Printing the Contents of a Cell in a Header or Footer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410 Copying Page Setup Settings Across Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412 Printing Cell Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413 Printing a Giant Banner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 195 Tip 196 Tip 197 Tip 198 Tip 199 Tip 200 Tip 201 Tip 202

Using the Excel Error-Checking Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 Identifying Formula Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 Dealing with Floating-Point Number Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424 Removing Excess Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426 Viewing Names Graphically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428 Locating Phantom Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429 Understanding Displayed versus Actual Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430 Tracing Cell Relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 203 Tip 204 Tip 205 Tip 206 Tip 207 Tip 208 Tip 209 Tip 210 Tip 211 Tip 212 Tip 213

Learning about Macros and VBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 Recording a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 Executing Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Understanding Functions Versus Subs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 Creating Simple Worksheet Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .444 Describing Function Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447 Making Excel Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 Understanding Custom Function Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 Executing a Ribbon Command with a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 Understanding Security Issues Related to Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 Using a Personal Macro Workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

Index Symbols and Numerics * (asterisk), 56, 120, 171 [ ] (brackets), 132, 341 {} (curly braces), 2, 212, 262 #DIV/0 error, 181, 419 $ (dollar sign), 155, 157, 159 ! (exclamation point), 171 # (hash), 115 #N/A error value, 256–257 - (negative sign), 73, 122 () (parentheses), 73, 73 % (percent sign), 73 + (plus sign), 73 ? (question mark), 56, 115 #REF! error, 429 ~ (tilde), 56 3-D surface chart, 296, 304–305 1904 date system, 201

A abbreviations, units of measure, 273 absolute cell reference basics, 155–156 copying range of formulas, 176 defined, 155 in mixed cell references, 157–158 named formulas, relationship to, 190 ActiveX control, preventing from printing, 403 actual compared to displayed values, 430 Add View dialog box, 347–348 Add Watch dialog box, 178 adding axis titles, 295, 307 backgrounds to images, 140 buttons to Ribbon, 440–441 columns to tables, 338–339 display options, 347–348

frames to range of cells, 135 macros to Quick Access toolbar, 440 to Quick Access toolbar, 30–32, 385–386 rows to tables, 338–339 speech commands to Ribbon, 91 Add-Ins dialog box, 281 addition (sum) across worksheets, 171–172 AutoSum, 162–163 conditional, 252–255 date comparison, 253 different ranges, 253 negative, 252 text comparison, 253 Advanced Filter feature, 349 age of person, calculating, 209–210 AGGREGATE function, 50, 241–243 Analysis ToolPak add-in, 273, 281 And criterion, 247–249, 254 annotating formulas, 175 approximate text, finding, 55 arguments, function Function Arguments dialog box, 173, 174 placeholders for, 174 searching for, 173 Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), 447–448 array converting ranges to, 316–317 lookup with, 262–263 selecting, 21 array formula, defined, 2, 212 array lookup, 262–263 artistic effects, image enhancement, 331 asterisk (*), 56, 120, 171 author contact information, 6 AutoComplete feature, 79, 79–80, 153–154 AutoCorrect dialog box, 98–99

457