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

The AutoRecover feature

Both the Windows and macOS versions of Excel offer an AutoRecover feature that automatically creates backup copies of your workbooks while you work. Excel for Windows offers customization and additional functionality not offered in Excel for macOS, so I’ll discuss both versions separately.

Excel for Windows AutoRecover

In Excel for Windows, you can specify the interval you wish Excel to use for creating backup copies of your work. The default value is every 10 minutes, but in my experience, this means backups get made in between 20 to 25 minutes. I don’t know about you, but I can complete a lot in Excel tasks in that amount of time, so I like to shorten the interval:

  1. Choose File | Options | Save.
  2. Make sure that the Save AutoRecover information checkbox is turned on.
  3. Change the Save AutoRecover information setting from every 10 minutes to every 2 minutes instead, as shown in Figure 2.3:

Figure 2.3...