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A Ruler in Excel A few workarounds for the fact that Excel does not have a built-in ruler. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Accessing Old Excel Data If you have some legacy data stored in very old spreadsheet files, you may be wondering how to get that data into an Excel worksheet. Here’s some ideas that can help you track down a solution. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Additional Ways of Displaying a Hidden First Column A few ways to show a hidden first column in a worksheet. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Always Open at 100% Zoom Do you get frustrated when you open colleagues’ workbooks because you always need to reset their zoom factor? Here’s a couple of things you can try in order to make those workbooks more usable and eliminate the frustration. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Annoying Excel Cuts and Copies Working around how Excel uses the clipboard. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Appearance of Excel on the Taskbar Do you want Excel to use a task button, on the Windows Task Bar, for each of your open worksheets? Then just make this simple change to get the appearance you want. Microsoft Excel versions: 2000 2002 2003 2007
Automatic Recalculation Not Happening Excel 97, under certain circumstances, has a problem recalculating worksheets reliably. This tip tells you how to patch that issue using a link to Microsoft's Knowledge Base. Microsoft Excel versions: 97
Backing Up Your AutoCorrect Entries If you've invested a great deal of time in putting together your own set of AutoCorrect entries, you know that they are a valuable asset that you need to protect. This tip explains how you can do just that by backing up the entries in a safe manner. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Backing Up Your Customized Toolbars After customizing your Excel toolbars, it is a good idea to make a backup of the file that contains the information. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Big File Memory Blues Excel places limits on how much memory your workbooks can use. Despite these limits, it is possible to create a workbook that you later cannot open. Here’s the lowdown on why this occurs and what you can do about it. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Canceling a Command Need to cancel a command you’ve already started? It is as easy as pressing a single keystroke. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Canceling a Menu Want to cancel whatever menu command you started to use in Excel? The normal method is by pressing Esc, but this is not the only way to turn your attention to a different task. This tip explains three or four different ways you can stop dead in your tracks. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Cannot Shut Down Excel Sometimes Excel can generate error messages that are downright confusing. This tip discusses one particular error message that stops the Excel program from quitting. Microsoft Excel versions: 2000 2002 2003
Changing Error Checking Rules While doing background error checking on your worksheets, Excel follows a number of well-defined rules. Here’s how to control which rules are applied when checking your worksheets. Microsoft Excel versions: 2002 2003
Changing Excel's Starting Date How to change the arbitrary date used to set the beginning point for serial numbers in Excel. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Changing Excel’s Starting Date When storing the serial numbers for dates, Excel can start its calculations from either of two starting points. This tip explains why there are two starting points, and how you can configure Excel to use each of them. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Changing Horizontal Orientation Excel’s default horizontal orientation is left-to-right. In some countries, however, the societal orientation is right-to-left. Excel, by changing one setting, can be configured for right-to-left societies. Microsoft Excel versions: 2002 2003
Changing Toolbar Location Toolbars don’t need to be tethered to the top of your program window. Although they are right at home there, you may want them some place else on your desktop. This tip explains how to “undock” toolbars and move them wherever your fancy strikes. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Changing Your Company Name The installation process for Office and Excel allows you to specify a company name. If your company name later changes, you may be faced with the task of figuring out how to change it in the program. It is not as easy as it might at first appear, as described in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Changing Your Name Part of the installation process for Excel is to personalize the program by providing your name. If you later need to change the name associated with the program, you can use the Options dialog box, as described here. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Clearing Large Clipboard Entries When you store information in the Clipboard, it remains there, ready to be pasted anywhere you may need it. That information takes up memory, but you can remove the Clipboard item and regain the memory it occupied by using the techniques in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Controlling Display of Page Breaks Page breaks in a worksheet are helpful, as they allow you to format your data for printout. It can be helpful to see, on-screen, where those page breaks are placed. This tip explains how to make the breaks visible. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Counting Precedents and Dependents Understanding and using precedents and dependents in Excel. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Counting the Times a Worksheet is Used Do you need to know how many times a worksheet has been used? Excel doesn’t track that information, but you can develop some ways to track it on your own. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Dealing with Circular References Circular references are created when a formula includes a reference to the cell in which the formula is located. This tip provides a helpful example of a circular reference and explains how you can tell when such inconsistencies are affecting your data. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Dealing With the Euro How to add the Euro symbol to your Excel worksheets. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Defining a Name How to name a cell or range of cells. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Deleting Names How to delete named ranges in Excel. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Determining Your Serial Number The serial number assigned to your copy of Excel is valuable. It allows you to get support and is necessary for some upgrading needs. This tip explains how to find the number if you’ve forgotten it. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Determining Your Version of Excel If you inherit a computer system from someone else or if you are just starting out with Excel, it may not be entirely clear to you which version of the program you are using. You can easily find out by following the steps outlined in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Disabling the F1 Key The function keys are used for a variety of purposes in Excel. If you want to disable any of the function keys (so they don’t actually perform their original purpose), there are only a few options open to you. This tip explains some steps you can take to disable the F1 key, but the same techniques can be applied to any other function key, as well. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Disabling the Windows Start Menu Key The Start Menu key is the one on your keyboard that has the Windows logo on it. You cannot disable the key from within a macro, but this tip provides a resource where you can find out how to do it by editing the Registry. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Disappearing Toolbar Buttons for Macros One of the important configuration files for Excel is known as the XLB file. You should periodically make backups of this file, in order to protect the customizations you’ve performed on Excel’s toolbars. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Displaying Toolbars Toolbars allow you to access common tasks quickly and easily. Excel provides a wide variety of toolbars, and you can even create your own. This tip explains how to make Excel’s various toolbars visible on the screen. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Dividing Values Need to divide all the values in a range by a given value? Using the Paste Special feature in Excel you can perform this task very easily. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Drop-Down List Font Sizes Apply an AutoFilter, and drop-down lists appear next to the top of each filtered column. Choose a drop-down list, and you see different filters you can apply to the column. If you want to increase the font size used in the drop-down lists, you’re out of luck—Excel doesn’t allow any changes. You can, however, get around the problem by adjusting the zoom factor used to display your information. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Easily Deploying Customizations When you create a whole set of customizations for Excel, you may want to share them with others in your office or workgroup. This tip provides some guidance on how you can best do that. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Editing Custom Dictionaries Excel provides spell-checking capabilities on the text you enter in a worksheet. It utilizes the same dictionaries and custom dictionaries used by other Office programs. If you need to edit the custom dictionary, how you do it depends greatly on the version of Excel you are using. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Embedding Fonts in Excel While Excel doesn't have the capability to embed fonts, this Excel tip includes a workaround for the situation. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Embedding Your Phone Number in a Workbook Using the custom properties in Excel, you can easily add your phone number to a workbook. This allows people to know how to contact you if they should ever have problems with the workbook. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Excel Won't Display Different Windows in the Taskbar If you want individual Taskbar buttons for each open Excel workbook but cannot seem to get those buttons, the culprit could be two individual settings. This tip explains how to correctly change those settings, in both Excel and Windows. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Exporting from Excel to AutoCAD If your office uses AutoCAD, you may wonder how you can get information stored in Excel into your AutoCAD drawings. There are known limitations to placing Excel worksheets into AutoCAD drawings, as discussed in this tip. Here you’ll also find some suggestions on ways to work around the limitations. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Fill Color Doesn't Display If you apply a fill color to a range of cells and notice that the color doesn’t show up on the screen, it could be because of a setting in the Accessibility Options of Windows. This tip explains the potential cause and shows you how to change it. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Finding Commands in Excel 2007 Excel 2007 introduced a radically new user interface that does away with the traditional program menus. If you knew where some commands were in Excel, this can make finding them in Excel 2007 a challenge. Here’s a tip on a handy workbook you can use to make finding commands much easier in the new interface. Microsoft Excel versions: 2007
Fixing "Can't Find Files" Errors Some Excel users may notice that the program doesn’t start right away. Instead, they may get errors indicating that certain files cannot be found. This tip discusses what those errors mean and how to get rid of them. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Floating Information in a Frozen Row You can freeze information in rows or columns using one of the built-in features of Excel. As you move up or down in the worksheet, the information in the first rows can remain visible. If you want something in a row to always remain visible as you move left and right, the proposition becomes a bit trickier. This tip explains a couple of ways you can approach the problem. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Forcing a Page Break To force Excel to place a page break where needed, follow these easy steps. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Forcing Stubborn Recalculation Is Excel not recalculating your worksheet as you expect? There are two ways you can force a recalculation, and knowing when to use each method can help you get the results you need. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Generating Random Testing Data Testing is an intrinsic part of developing any software or any worksheet that will be used by others. If you need to create data to use in your testing, the information (and macros) in this tip will be useful. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Getting Audible Feedback Assuming you have a sound card and speakers on your computer (and who doesn’t these days), you can configure Excel to make sounds as a form of feedback. This is a simple change you can make in the Options dialog box, and it may enhance your use of the program. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Getting Context-Sensitive Help Need help on a particular topic, dialog box, or command? You can use Excel’s powerful help system to get just the information you need. Just press Shift+F1 and you can get help on any specific item you want. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Getting Rid of the Startup Spreadsheet Tired of closing a new spreadsheet every time Excel is opened? Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Grabbing a User's Name from Excel One of the settings you can make in Excel is to specify a user’s name. This name is accessible through macros, and can therefore be used within your worksheets. This tip examines the simplest method of accessing the user’s name. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
History of Excel If you need to know the history of Excel, there are a number of different resources available to you. This tip provides some guidance on places you can find some good, reliable information on the Web. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Ignoring Other Applications If Excel is giving you problems when working with other applications, you may want to configure Excel so that it doesn’t share information with other programs. Using the Ignore Other Applications check box as described in this tip does the trick. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Inserting a Row or Column Excel makes it very easy to insert a column or row in a worksheet. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Inserting Cells Using the insert menu to add cells to an Excel table. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Inserting Different Dashes When entering text into a worksheet, you may want to use some of the different dashes available in Windows. This tip explains the difference between those dashes and provides a couple of ways you can insert the dashes wherever you want. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Library Not Registered Error What to do when Excel returns a "object library not registered" error message. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Limiting Precision There may be times you need to limit the amount of precision Excel uses in its calculations. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Losing Data in a Shared Workbook Shared workbooks are, unfortunately, prone to data corruption or loss. This tip examines one such data loss problem and proposes various solutions for the problem. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Maintaining Accuracy of Significant Digits If you work in the sciences or mathematics, you know that significant digits are important. This tip answers questions about whether you can force Excel to maintain the same number of significant digits that you enter into a cell. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Maintaining the Active Cell Move from one worksheet to another, and Excel selects whatever cell was last used in the worksheet you are selecting. If you don’t want this behavior (you want to have the same cell selected on the new worksheet as on the old), then you can apply the techniques in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Missing Equal Sign Tool Excel used to provide, prior to Excel 2002, an equal-sign tool near the Formula bar. If you miss this tool, you may want to add a similar tool back to your toolbar using the information in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Moving and Selecting Sheets With the Keyboard Need to navigate through your worksheets, but you don’t’ want to take your hands off of the keyboard? Using the shortcuts provided in this tip, you can do just that. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Multiple Rows of Worksheet Tabs If you’ve got a lot of worksheets in your workbook, you may want to display their tabs in to rows at the bottom of the Excel window. There is no way to do this, but you might like one of the other helpful suggestions in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Nifty Zooming If you are using a mouse that has a center wheel, you can use the wheel to zoom in and out of your work. This tip shows how easy it is to make the necessary configuration change in Excel. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Opening Non-Excel Files Using Excel to open non-Excel files. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Precision and Number Display How Excel handles precision and what it displays may be two different things. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Precision in Excel The best way to understand why Excel provides the answers it does is to examine how it handles precision. This tip provides a high-level overview of precision, with a definite Excel flavor. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Quickly Changing Windows Word proves several keyboard shortcuts that allow you to cycle through the open workbook windows on your screen. There is no similar “cycling” method for those using a mouse, unless you implement the macro discussed in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Quickly Switching Between Spreadsheet Windows Using the keyboard to switch between Excel spreadsheets. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Refusing Online Help Excel 2003 includes the default capability of checking Microsoft’s Web sites for helpful information you may need. This tip explains how to turn that capability off, so that online resources are not checked. Microsoft Excel versions: 2003
Reversing Dimensions The maximum dimensions for a worksheet is hard-coded into Excel. This tip explains why this is and, perhaps, one way you can “fudge” the dimensions. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Rounding Religious Wars How to round values half way between two boundaries is apparently a topic of contention in some sectors of the statistical world. This tip discusses the brouhaha and looks at different takes on the issues involved. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Rounding Religious Wars, Take Two How to round values half way between two boundaries is apparently a topic of contention in some sectors of the statistical world. This tip is the second part of a continuing discussion on this issue. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Running Out of Memory Do you get an error when you try to insert just one more chart in your workbook? It could be because of an obscure resource-related problem in Excel, or it could just be that you are running out of resources. This tip explains how to track down what the problem may be. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Saving Changes in Personal.xls When you exit Excel and you’ve made changes to a workbook, the program asks if you want to save those changes. It can be frustrating if the request happens all the time relative to the Personal.xls workbook, particularly if you don’t make any changes to it. This tip explains what is really happening when this prompt to save keeps coming up. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Seeing Excel's Program Window When you change the display resolution of your screen, it can cause some problems with a few programs. Excel is no exception; you might open the program to find it “off screen” in some way. This tip explains how you can again gain control of the improperly sized program. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Selecting an Entire Worksheet There are several easy ways to select an entire worksheet in Excel. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Selecting Noncontiguous Ranges with the Keyboard Selecting noncontiguous ranges is easy with the keyboard, if you know the secret. This tip describes how to use the Go To dialog box to select a whole range of different cells. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Selecting Tabs in Dialog Boxes A Windows tip to assist with Excel tab access. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Setting the Calculation Default When you open a workbook, you normally expect Excel to automatically calculate the formulas it may contain. If you aren’t seeing automatic calculation by default, then the information in this tip will be helpful. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Setting Your Default Directory How to set a new default directory for your Excel file. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Shortcut for Viewing Formulas Excel normally displays the results of your formulas, but you can also force it to display the formulas themselves. This tip describes a handy shortcut that allows you to toggle between formulas and their results. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Slow Excel Response Times Many people use Excel on a notebook computer, so they can do work at the office and elsewhere. In some situations, Excel may run very slowly when not connected to the office network. This tip helps troubeshoot the problem and make Excel work as quickly as it can. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Slowing Down Mouse Selection Trying to select a range of cells using the mouse? If such selections involve scrolling the screen, sometimes the scrolling can occur just way too fast. Here’s a couple ways to select just the cells you want. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Speeding Up Large Worksheets If your worksheet gets large enough, you may notice a severe slowdown when it is recalculated. This tip provides some guidance on how you can perhaps speed up those operations by changing some formulas to static values. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Starting in Safe Mode By using a command-line switch, Excel can be started in safe mode. This means that the problem is loaded with bare-bones functionality. Knowing how to start in this mode can be very helpful when you are trying to troubleshoot any errant behavior by the program. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Task Pane Doesn't Appear Properly Excel 2002 and 2003 include a Task pane that provides quick access to common tasks. The Task pane is normally visible when you first start Excel. If it isn’t, here’s the reason why and what you can do about it. Microsoft Excel versions: 2002 2003
Taskbar Setting isn't Sticky Understanding how Excel sets the taskbars upon opening. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Tasks for Each Workbook Excel allows you to specify whether each open workbook should have its own task on the Taskbar or not. This tip explains how to make this configuration change. Microsoft Excel versions: 2000 2002 2003
Thoughts and Ideas on Significant Digits in Excel Ruminations and reflections about significant digits in Excel. Includes examples of how significant digits can affect the outcome of various functions and formulas. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Turning Off Dynamic Menus If you are using a version of Excel that uses menus (pre-Excel 2007), then you may want to adjust the way that the program displays those menus. This tip explains how you can turn off the dynamic menu feature in Excel. Microsoft Excel versions: 2000 2002 2003 2007
Turning Off Error Checking A little green triangle in the corner of a cell means that Excel thinks there is an error with the cell contents. If those triangles bother you, here’s how to turn them off. Microsoft Excel versions: 2002 2003 2007
Understanding Lists Data that is organized in nature and contiguous in format is often called a list in Excel. Lists are possibly the most often used type of data in a worksheet. This tip provides some guidelines you’ll want to keep in mind in order to use data lists effectively. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Understanding R1C1 References Excel supports two types of cell referencing. This tip examines both types and explains how you can switch between them. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Understanding Relative and Absolute Addressing At the heart of any formula in Excel is the ability to reference other cells. Excel supports two types of address: relative and absolute. This tip explains the differences between the two, as well as how you can use the addressing in your own formulas. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Using the Same Range Name on Different Worksheets Defined names are normally available throughout a workbook, regardless of the worksheet on which they are defined. If you know the trick (found in this tip), Excel allows you to use the same defined name on multiple worksheets. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Viewing More Than Two Places in a Worksheet Did you know that you can view more than two places at once in a worksheet? You do this by opening new windows, as described in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Viewing Workbook Statistics Excel tracks a large number of statistics about workbooks. The quick way to view them is through the Properties dialog box, as discussed in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Viewing Your Work Full-Screen Want to use the maximum space possible for displaying information on screen? You’ll want to learn how to use the full-screen display mode of Excel, then. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003 2007
Weird Actions for Arrow Keys and Enter Do your arrow and Enter keys not work as you expect them to? Does using the keys result in selecting a cell someplace else in the workbook. This tip explains the possible causes for this condition and provides some guidance as to how you might correct it. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Where Is that Name? You can graphically view where named ranges occur in your worksheets if you simply set the Zoom factor to 39% or less. This tip explains this little-known feature of Excel. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Working With Multiple Workbooks Excel allows multiple workbooks to be open at the same time. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Working with Record Numbers If you treat the data in a worksheet as a small database, you may want the first cell of each row to contain a record number. There are a couple of ways you can create these record numbers, as described in this tip. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
Zooming With the Keyboard Zooming in and out on a workbook allows you to magnify or reduce what you see on the screen, without affecting the printout. This tip provides a couple of handy macros that allow you to quickly zoom in and out using a keyboard shortcut. Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
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