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

Restoring legacy features

The term legacy feature is an epithet Microsoft uses for features that they consider have outlived their useful life. Microsoft rarely removes a feature outright from the software. Typically, deprecated commands get buried in the Commands Not in the Ribbon list, much like storing things in a basement or cellar. Let’s see how to bring back a couple of features that you might have thought were long gone.

Nuance

Microsoft did remove the Workspace feature in Excel 2013 and later. Workspaces were a collection of two or more workbooks and their onscreen layout. You still saved each workbook individually, but you could open the collection of workbooks in one fell swoop by opening the workspace file, which had a .XLW extension. You can still open workspace files in Excel, but you cannot create new workspaces. The workspace feature was a cousin of the Binder feature, which last appeared in Office 2000, and would allow you to create collections of Office...