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

Exploring the Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar debuted in Excel 2007 and has been a mainstay of Excel’s Ribbon up until the upcoming visual refresh that Microsoft is slowly rolling out to Microsoft 365 users as of this writing. As shown in Figure 3.1, the Undo and Redo commands have traditionally appeared on the Quick Access Toolbar:

Figure 3.1 – The traditional location of Undo and Redo

As you can see in Figure 3.2, the Undo and Redo buttons are moving to the Home tab of Excel’s Ribbon as part of the update to Excel’s user interface. Oddly, in these new Excel builds, the Quick Access Toolbar is automatically hidden if you haven’t customized it previously. These changes will occur unbidden by you once Microsoft pushes the update out to your computer:

Figure 3.2 – Undo and Redo appear on the Home tab and the Quick Access Toolbar is hidden

Tip

If you’re not sure which version...