Book Image

Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures

By : David Ringstrom
Book Image

Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures

By: David Ringstrom

Overview of this book

David Ringstrom coined the phrase “Either you work Excel, or it works you!” after observing how many users carry out tasks inefficiently. In this book, you’ll learn how to get more done with less effort. This book will enable you to create resilient spreadsheets that are easy for others to use as well, while incorporating spreadsheet disaster preparedness techniques. The time-saving techniques covered in the book include creating custom shortcuts and icons to streamline repetitive tasks, as well as automating them with features such as Tables and Custom Views. You’ll see how Conditional Formatting enables you to apply colors, Cell icons, and other formatting on-demand as your data changes. You’ll be empowered to protect the integrity of spreadsheets and increase usability by implementing internal controls, and understand how to solve problems with What-If Analysis features. In addition, you’ll master new features and functions such as XLOOKUP, Dynamic Array functions, LET and LAMBDA, and Power Query, while learning how to leverage shortcuts and nuances in Excel. By the end of this book, you’ll have a broader awareness of how to avoid pitfalls in Excel. You’ll be empowered to work more effectively in Excel, having gained a deeper understanding of the frustrating oddities that can arise daily in Excel.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Improving Accessibility
6
Part 2:Spreadsheet Interactivity and Automation
12
Part 3: Data Analysis

Disaster Recovery and File-Related Prompts

In this chapter, I’ll show you various ways that you can minimize or, hopefully, mitigate spreadsheet disasters. The only saving grace I’ve observed when losing a spreadsheet is that the work goes faster the second time around—cold comfort indeed. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to bolster your defenses against spreadsheet crashes no matter whether you’re saving your files locally to your computer or online to the cloud. In addition, repeatedly clicking through prompts can take a toll on your workday and your wrists. In this chapter, I’ll discuss how several prompts that serve as speed bumps can work when you are opening spreadsheets.

In this chapter, you’ll learn about the following topics:

  • Undo and Redo
  • The AutoRecover feature
  • AutoSave with OneDrive
  • OneDrive version history
  • The Always create backup setting
  • Warning prompts when opening workbooks

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