Do you ever find yourself scrolling through an endless number of worksheet tabs, while you’re working in a large Excel file? It’s happened to me, more times than I can count, while working in my own files, or client workbooks. Here’s a quick tip that might help you save some time!
Category: Excel tips
Spreadsheets in the News 2023-06-29
It’s almost the end of June, and there’s a long weekend coming up! To celebrate, let’s take a look at some of the spreadsheet news from the past month. Here are 3 stories that caught my eye, and let me know if there was other noteworthy news that I missed!
EVE Online
Do you play EVE Online? It’s a role-playing game, where things can get so complicated that people use Excel to keep track of their activities.
Now that will be much easier to do, because Microsoft and CCP Games just released a free add-in to integrate Excel with EVE Online.
It’s the first and only game to have Excel data integration!
Read the details on the game’s official website, and get the free Excel add-in.
Create Spreadsheets with Google Bard
Google announced improvements to its AI chatbot, Bard, and now you can export tables to Google Sheets.
For example, I could enter this prompt:
- Please make a table to compare the populations of all Canadian provinces and territories
When Bard finishes the table:
- Check the table, to see if it looks okay – if not, try rewording your prompt
- Next, click the Export to Sheets button.
- Then, at the bottom left of the Bard window, click the Open Sheets link, to see your new spreadsheet.
Unfortunately, Bard isn’t available in Canada yet, so I’ll have to make my spreadsheets the old-fashioned way!
Life in a Spreadsheet
Some days, it can feel like you’re living in a spreadsheet! But have you ever considered graphing your life in a spreadsheet?
Emmett Shear, a co-founder of Twitch, is turning 40 soon, and tweeted the spreadsheet version of his life so far. He also posted a link where you can download your own copy of the spreadsheet, so that’s what I did!
Here’s a small section of Emmett’s life graph.
I was going to deduct points for the merged cells in the Month heading row, but then I noticed the merged cells in column A. It has two features that aren’t available in Excel:
- When selected, the merged cell range appears in the name box
- The merged cell gets vertical and horizontal scroll bars if the entire cell isn’t visible
I try to avoid merged cells, but if people insist on using them, these features seem helpful!
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Spreadsheets in the News 2023-06-29
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Excel Find and Replace with Wildcard
With the Find and Replace feature in Excel, you can look for specific characters, and replace them with different characters, or replace them with nothing. You can also use wildcard characters in the Find What box, to make the find feature more flexible. The short video below shows you the steps.
Happy Excel Day 45000
Where does the time go? Only 556 days ago, we were celebrating Excel Day 44444, and suddenly it’s Excel Day 45000! And we’re still cleaning up from yesterday’s Pi Day Party! Who says numbers are boring?
Turn Off Grey Watermark Page 1 on Excel Worksheet
Since the beginning of (Excel) time, people have asked questions about the big grey “Page 1” that sometimes appears on a worksheet. How did it get there? Is it a watermark? How do I get rid of it? Will it show up on printed copies? My short video, below, answers those questions for you!
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Relax and Enjoy Games in Excel
It’s almost the holidays, so relax and enjoy some time away from work. Instead of struggling with budgets and forecasts, you can play games in Excel! And do you remember the games that were hidden in old versions of Excel?
Happy Spreadsheet Day 2022
It’s finally here – the best day of the fall holiday season – Spreadsheet Day! You don’t need to buy any gifts, or cook a big meal, or find a trendy costume. Just open up your favourite spreadsheet, sit back, and enjoy the day!
Excel Sample Data for Football Season
The NFL preseason games for 2022 started last week. That reminded me of football-related questions that I had, way back in January 2010. Do the biggest players have the highest jersey numbers? Does the heaviest team win? As usual, I turned to Excel for the answers! Continue reading “Excel Sample Data for Football Season”
Fun With Microsoft Excel: Streaming Radio
Pro Tip – Don’t sign up for TikTok! It’s a giant carnival, filled with hypnotic music, shiny objects, travelling medicine shows, and fortune tellers. You stop in for 5 minutes, and stagger out hours later, dazed and confused. Sure, there’s helpful info on TikTok too, but you’ll probably get sidetracked while you look for it!
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Warning for Hidden Rows and Columns in Excel
You can hide rows and columns in Excel, and it’s usually easy to unhide those rows or columns later. But, if you run into problems, these quick tips might help you show those rows and columns again.
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