After having all kinds of problems on the blog last week, I’ve installed a new theme. Everything looks different, including the header image. It’s a photo that I took on a vacation, and the blues and greens match the Contextures logo.
Excel Sing Along
It was a busy and stressful week, with all kinds of computer fun – plugin updates that killed my blog, a touchpad that refused to turn off, Outlook contacts all disappearing into the iCloud, lots of laptop restarts, and much, much more. Good times!
So, instead of something serious and educational, let’s have an Excel sing-along!
Dependent Combo Box in Excel
You can add a drop down list in a worksheet cell, so people can select from a list of valid entries. The font in that list is pretty small though, even if the worksheet is at 100% zoom. And good luck trying to read it, if you go to a lower zoom setting! My eyes aren’t that good, so I use a pop-up combo box, in some workbooks, to make the list easier to use.
How to Plan a Pivot Table in Excel
Setting up a pivot table is a bit like news reporting – you can give a quick summary of the Who, What, When, Where and How (Much) of your data. After you’ve been using pivot tables for a while, it’s easy to create a new report, and drop the fields into the right locations. But, if you’re just starting out, it’s not clear what to put where. I’ve put together a short guide on how to plan a pivot table.
Thanks to Anne Walsh for suggesting today’s topic! Anne has led Excel classes for many years, and she knows that people struggle to get their pivot tables set up correctly. Anne recently published Your Excel Survival Kit, which is jam-packed with useful Excel tips, from her extensive experience.
Good Old Days of Spreadsheets
A couple of things happened this week that reminded me of the good old days of spreadsheets. There are some good memories, but I really don’t want to go back to those days. How about you?
Pivot Table Show Details Sheets
When you double-click on a pivot table value cell, Excel creates a new sheet, with a list of all the records that make up that total value. The double-click runs Excel’s Show Details command – it’s a helpful troubleshooting feature, but can add clutter to a workbook, because of all the sheets that it creates.
To help you keep things tidy, I created a sample file with macros that label the Show Details sheets when you create them. Then, when the workbook closes, another macro will check for those sheets, and asks if you’d like to delete them. I updated the workbook this week, so take a look, if it’s something you need.
Quick Ways to Unpivot Excel Data
Before you can build a flexible pivot table, you might need to rearrange the data. For example, if the data has a separate column for each month’s sales, that won’t work well in a pivot table. You need to “unpivot” your data first. Here’s what that means, and 2 quick ways to unpivot Excel data.
Excel Problems, Fixes and Webinars
Did you get hit by the disappearing Excel add-in affliction recently? After a long couple of weeks, that frustrating Excel problem is finally solved. After spending countless hours on that issue (details below), I was happy to get back to more productive work, updating my website and sample files. I hope the rest of the summer goes smoothly!
How to Show Excel Table Name on the Sheet
If you have an Excel workbook with lots of tables and pivot tables, it can be hard to remember what they’re named, or what source data they’re using. To help you keep track of them, AlexJ shared the User Defined Function (UDF) that he uses in his files. With this code in your file, just add a formula, click on a cell, and show the pivot table name or Excel table name on the sheet.
The code is shown below, and there is also a link for downloading a sample file with the code installed in it.
Continue reading “How to Show Excel Table Name on the Sheet”
Hide Sheets Based on Tab Color
Last month, I showed you my code that hides worksheets, based on the text in their names. Someone asked we could hide sheets based on tab color instead, so that’s how today’s example works.
Just select a sheet type from the drop down list, and any sheets with matching tab color are visible. All other sheets are hidden, except the Menu. Then, select “(All)” to see all the sheets again. Watch the video, and get the details, below.