Excel Roundup 20140310

Do you ever use the Watch window, to keep an eye on the results in one cell, while changing the data in another part of the workbook?

I used it last week, while working in a client’s price list file, where there was a multiplier on one sheet, and the final price on another sheet. After flipping back and forth between the worksheets a few times, I finally remembered the Watch window, and it made the job much easier!

Coincidentally, Mike “ExcelIsFun” Girvin, recently posted a video tutorial that shows how to use this handy feature. Mike is the author of Ctrl+Shift+Enter: Mastering Excel Array Formulas, and posts lots of Excel videos on YouTube. And he likes to say Boom!

Contextures Posts

Here’s what I posted last week:

• You can drag pictures from Windows Explorer into Word, but not into Excel. So, if you want to drag and drop images, drag them into Word first, and from there into Excel.

• When working with pivot tables, you can click the Refresh All button, to update everything at once. If some updates are taking too long, you can stop one or more of them.

• Instead of playing online quizzes, like “Which Simpsons Character Are You?”, you can create your own fun (or serious) quiz, in Excel.

• Finally, for a humorous peek at what other people are saying about Excel, read this week’s collection of Excel tweets, on my Excel Theatre blog.

Other Excel Articles

Here are a few of the Excel articles that I read last week, that you might find useful:

• Mynda Treacy used Excel to design a Minecraft themed cake for her son’s birthday party. Read the comments too, to see what unusual things other people have done with Excel.

• Chandoo would like to know which Excel book you’ll read next. See his pick, and check the comments for lots more suggestions.

• Felienne Hermans, an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology based in the Netherlands, explains why spreadsheets stink, and 4 ways to improve them.

• Doug Jenkins, explains how he fixed a problem with UCase and LCase in VBA

• MF Wong shows how to create drop down lists with employee names sorted by the number of hours they’ve been assigned.

• The Office Watch blog warns that even if you’re only showing a few items in the Most Recently Used (MRU) list in Excel 2013, more are being stored in the registry.

Excel Resources

Here are some upcoming events, courses and new books, related to Excel.

• Registration is open for the Amsterdam Excel Summit. The one-day event runs on May 14, 2014, and features sessions by several Excel MVPs, such as Bill Jelen (Mr. Excel), Ken Puls and Charles Williams. All the sessions are in English, and the limit is 100 participants, so sign up now, if you’re interested.

• The Cleveland Modern Excel User Group meets the second Monday of every month, from 5:30 – 7:30 PM, so that would be tonight! Registration is free and you can get the details here. At the March meeting, Jeff Mlakar from the BI Team at Bennett Adelson is going to speak on Power BI.

What Did You Read?

If you read any other interesting Excel articles recently, that you’d like to share, please add a comment below, or send me an email.

Please include a brief description, and a link to the article.

__________________________________