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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781615473625 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Holy Macro! Books |
| Publication date: | 04/01/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 224 |
| File size: | 18 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Double-Click the Fill Handle to Copy a Formula
You have thousands of rows of data. You've added a new formula in the top row of your data set, something like =PROPER(A2&" "&B2), as shown below. You now need to copy the formula down to all of the rows of your data set.
Many people will grab the Fill Handle and start to drag down. But as you drag down, Excel starts going faster and faster. Starting in Excel 2010, there is a 200-microsecond pause at the last row of data. 200 microseconds is long enough for you to notice the pause but not long enough for you to react and let go of the mouse button. Before you know it, you've dragged the Fill Handle way too far.
The solution is to double-click the Fill Handle! Go to exactly the same spot where you start to drag the Fill Handle. The mouse pointer changes to a black plus sign. Double-click.
Excel looks at the surrounding data, finds the last row with data today, and copies the formula down to the last row of the data set.
In the past, empty cells in the column to the left would cause the "double-click the Fill Handle" trick to stop working just before the empty cell. But as you can see below, names like Madonna, Cher, or Pele will not cause problems. Provided that there is at least a diagonal path (for example, via B76-A77-B78), Excel will find the true bottom of the data set.
In my live Power Excel seminars, this trick always elicits a gasp from half the people in the room. It is my number-one time-saving trick.
Alternatives to Double-Clicking the Fill Handle
This trick is an awesome trick if all you've done to this point is drag the Fill Handle to the bottom of the data set. But there are even faster ways to solve this problem:
• Use Tables. If you select one cell in A1:B112 and press Ctrl+T, Excel formats the range as a table. Once you have a table, simply enter the formula in C2. When you press Enter, it is copied to the bottom.
• Use a complex but effective keyboard shortcut. This shortcut requires the adjacent column to have no empty cells. While it seems complicated to explain, the people who tell me about this shortcut can do the entire thing in the blink of an eye.
Here are the steps:
1. From your newly entered formula in C2, press the Left Arrow key to move to cell B2.
2. Press Ctrl+Down Arrow to move to the last row with data — in this case, B112.
3. Press the Right Arrow key to return to the bottom of the mostly empty column C.
4. From cell C112, press Ctrl+Shift+Up Arrow. This selects all of the blank cells next to your data, plus the formula in C2.
5. Press Ctrl+D to fill the formula in C2 to all of the blanks in the selection. Ctrl+D is fill Down.
Note: Ctrl+R fills right, which might be useful in other situations.
As an alternative, you can get the same results by pressing Ctrl+C before step 1 and replacing step 5 with pressing Ctrl+V.
Thanks to the following people who suggested this tip: D. Carmichael, Shelley Fishel, Dawn Gilbert, @Knutsford_admi, Francis Logan, Michael Ortenberg, Jon Paterson, Mike Sullivan and Greg LambertLane suggested Ctrl+D. Bill Hazlett, author of Excel for the Math Classroom, pointed out Ctrl+R.
CHAPTER 2
Break Apart Data
You have just seen how to join data, but people often ask about the opposite problem: how to parse data that is all in a single column. Say you wanted to sort the data in the figure below by zip code:
Select the data in A2:A99 and choose Data, Text to Columns. Because some city names, such as Sioux Falls, are two words, you cannot break the data at each occurrence of a space. Instead, you need to use a comma to get the city in column A and the state and zip code in column B, so choose Delimited in step 1 of the wizard and click Next.
In step 2 of the wizard, deselect Tab and select Comma. The preview at the bottom of the dialog shows what your data will look like. Click Next.
Caution: For the rest of the day after you use Text to Columns, Excel will remember the choices you've chosen in step 2 of the Convert Text to Columns Wizard. If you copy data from Notepad and paste to Excel, it will be split at the comma. This is often maddening because most days, the data is not parsed at the comma, but for the rest of today, it will be. To fix it, close and re-open Excel.
Step 3 of the wizard asks you to declare each column as General, Text, or Date. It is fine to leave the columns set as General.
After you've split the state and zip code to column B, select B2:B99 and again choose Data, Text to Columns. This time, since each state is two characters, you can use Fixed Width in step 1 of the wizard. To preserve leading zeros in the zip code, select the second column and choose Text as the data type in step 3 of the wizard.
Tip: A lot of data will work well with Fixed Width, even it doesn't look like it lines up. In the next figure, the first three rows are in Calibri font and don't appear to be lined up. But if you change the font to Courier New, as in rows 4:7, you can see that the columns are perfectly lined up.
Sometimes, you will find a data set where someone used Alt+Enter to put data on a new line within a cell. You can break out each line to a new column by typing Ctrl+j in the Other box in step 2 of the wizard, as shown below. Why Ctrl+j? I am not sure. There is an IBM user manual from the 1980s that lists Ctrl+j as the shortcut for a linefeed. None of the other shortcuts on that page work in the dialog box, so I have no idea why this one works.
There are three special situations that Text to Columns handles easily:
• Dates in YYYYMMDD format can be changed to real dates. In step 3 of the wizard, click the column heading in the dialog, choose Date, then choose YMD from the dropdown.
• If you have negative numbers where the minus sign shows up after the number, go to step 3 of the wizard, click the Advanced Button, and choose Trailing Minus for Negative Numbers.
• Data copied from a book table of contents will often have dot leaders that extend from the text to the page number as shown below. In step 2 of the wizard, choose Other, type a period, and then select the checkbox for Treat Consecutive Delimiters as One.
CHAPTER 3
Filter by Selection
The filter dropdowns have been in Excel for decades, but there is a much faster way to filter. Normally, you select a cell in your data, choose Data, Filter, open the dropdown menu on a column heading, uncheck Select All, and scroll through a long list of values, trying to find the desired item.
Microsoft Access invented a concept called Filter by Selection. It is simple: find a cell that contains the value you want and click Filter by Selection. The filter dropdowns are turned on, and the data is filtered to the selected value. Nothing could be simpler.
Guess what? The Filter by Selection trick is also built into Excel, but it is hidden and mislabeled.
Here is how you can add this feature to your Quick Access Toolbar: Right-click anywhere on the Ribbon and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar.
There are two large listboxes in the dialog. Above the left listbox, open the dropdown and change from Popular Commands to Commands Not In The Ribbon.
In the left listbox, scroll to the command AutoFilter and choose it. That's right: The icon that does Filter by Selection is mislabeled AutoFilter.
In the center of the dialog, click the Add>> button. The AutoFilter icon moves to the right listbox, as shown below. Click OK to close the dialog.
Here is how to use the command: Say that you want to see all West region sales of widgets. First, choose any cell in column B that contains West. Click the AutoFilter icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.
Excel turns on the filter dropdowns and automatically chooses only West from column B.
Next, choose any cell in column E that contains Widget. Click the AutoFilter icon again.
You could continue this process. For example, you could choose a Utilities cell in the Sector column and click AutoFilter.
Caution: It would be cool if you could multi-select cells before clicking the AutoFilter icon, but this does not work. If you need to see sales of widgets and gadgets, you could use Filter by Selection to get widgets, but then you have to use the Filter dropdown to add gadgets. Also. Filter by Selection does not work if you are in a Ctrl+T table.
How can it be that this cool feature has been in Excel since Excel 2003, but Microsoft does not document it? It was never really an official feature. The story is that one of the developers added the feature for internal use. Back in Excel 2003, there was already a Filter icon on the Standard toolbar, so no one would bother to add the apparently redundant AutoFilter icon.
Of course, this feature was added to Excel 2007's right-click menu — but three clicks deep: Right-click a value, choose Filter, then choose Filter by Selected Cell's Value.
Bonus Tip: Total the Visible Rows
After you've applied a filter, say that you want to see the total of the visible cells.
Select the blank cell below each of your numeric columns. Click the AutoSum button.
Instead of inserting SUM formulas, Excel inserts =SUBTOTAL(9, ...) formulas. The formula below shows the total of only the visible cells.
Insert a few blank rows above your data. Cut the formulas from below the data and paste to row 1 with the label Total Visible.
Now, as you change the filters, even if the data fills up more than one full screen, you will see the totals at the top of your worksheet.
Thanks to Sam Radakovitz on the Excel team for Filter by Selection – not for suggesting Filter by Selection, but for formalizing Filter by Selection!
CHAPTER 4
The Fill Handle Does Know 1, 2, 3 ...
Why does the Excel Fill Handle pretend it does not know how to count 1, 2, 3?
The Fill Handle is great for filling months, weekdays, quarters, and dates. Why doesn't it know that 2 comes after 1?
In case you've never used the Fill Handle, try this: Type a month name in a cell. Select that cell. In the lower-right corner of the cell is a square dot. Click the dot and drag right or drag down. The tooltip increments to show the last month in the range.
Note: If it is not working, select File, Options, Advanced. The third checkbox toggles the Fill Handle.
When you let go of the mouse button, the months will fill in. An icon appears, giving you additional options.
The Fill Handle works great with months or weekdays.
The Fill Handle also works with quarters in many formats.
To do both quarters and years, you have to type a number, then Q, then any punctuation (period, space, apostrophe, dash) before the year.
But when you type 1 and grab the Fill Handle, Excel gives you 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,.... Many people say to enter the 1 and the 2, select them both, then drag the Fill Handle. But there is a faster way.
The secret trick is to hold down Ctrl! If you hold down Ctrl while dragging, Excel fills in 1, 2, 3,.....
Note: Andrew Spain of Spain Enterprise in Huntsville, Alabama taught me a cool variation on this trick. If you start dragging without Ctrl, you can press Ctrl during the drag. A + icon appears at the bottom of the drag rectangle to indicate that you are going to fill instead of copy.
How were we supposed to figure out that Ctrl makes the Fill Handle count instead of copy? I have no idea. I picked up the tip from row 6 at the IMA Meonske seminar in Kent, Ohio. It turns out that Ctrl seems to make the Fill Handle behave in the opposite way: If you Ctrl+drag a date, Excel copies instead of fills.
I've heard another trick: Type 1 in A1. Select A1 and the blank B1. Drag. Excel fills instead of copies.
Right-Click the Fill Handle for More Options
If you right-click and drag the Fill Handle, a menu appears with more options, likeWeekdays, Months, and Years. This menu is great for dates.
What if your payroll happens on the 15th and on the last day of the month? Put in both dates. Select them both. Right-click and drag the Fill Handle. When you finish dragging, choose Fill Months.
Another oddity: The Fill Handle works even if you mix the data types in the selection. Say that you had an unusual pattern like the one shown below:
Drag the Fill Handle, and you create a series of four-cell ranges that follow that pattern, shown below.
Teach the Fill Handle a New List
The Fill Handle is a really handy tool. What if you could use it on all sorts of lists? You can teach Excel a new list, provided that you have anywhere from 2 to 240 items. Here is the easy way:
1. Type the list in a column in Excel.
2. Select the list.
3. Select File, Options, Advanced. Scroll almost to the bottom and click Edit Custom Lists.
In the Custom Lists dialog, click Import.
Excel will now understand your list as well as it understands Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
Type any item from the list It does not have to be the first item.
Grab the Fill Handle and drag. Excel fills from your list.
I use this trick for lists that should be in Excel, such as a list of the U.S. states and a list of the letters of the alphabet.
Bonus Tip: Fill Jan, Feb, ..., Dec, Total
A person in one of my seminars wanted to have Jan fill into 13 values: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec, Total.
While you can edit any custom list that you create, you cannot edit the first four lists in the Custom Lists dialog.
However, if you use the preceding tip to add a new custom list with the 13 values, that list wins. If two custom lists have the value Jan, the lowest one in the dialog box is the one that is used.
Bonus Tip: Fill 1 to 100,000 in a Flash
What if you have so many items that you can't drag the Fill Handle? Follow these steps:
1. Type the number 1 in a cell.
2. Select that cell.
3. On the Home tab, toward the right, in the Editing group, open the Fill dropdown and choose Series.
4. Select Columns.
5. Enter a Stop Value of 100000.
6. Click OK.
What if you have to fill 100,000 cells of bagel flavors?
1. Type the first bagel flavor in A1.
2. Select A1.
3. Type A100000 in the Name box and press Shift+Enter to select from the current cell to A100000.
4. Home, Fill, Series ... and click AutoFill in the Type box. Click OK to fill from the custom list.
Thanks to the person in row 6 at the Meonske Conference in Kent, Ohio, for suggesting this feature.
CHAPTER 5
Fast Worksheet Copy
Yes, you can right-click any sheet tab and choose Move or Copy to make a copy of a worksheet. But that is the very slow way to copy a worksheet.
The fast way: Hold down the Ctrl key and drag the worksheet tab to the right.
The downside of this trick is that the new sheet is called January (2) instead of February – but that is the case with the Move or Copy method as well. In either case, double-click the sheet name and type a new name.
Ctrl+drag February to the right to create a sheet for March. Rename February (2) to March.
Select January. Shift+select March to select all worksheets. Hold down Ctrl and drag January to the right to create three more worksheets. Rename the three new sheets.
Select January. Shift+select June. Ctrl+drag January to the right, and you've added the final six worksheets for the year. Rename those sheets.
Using this technique, you can quickly come up with 12 copies of the original worksheet.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "MrExcel Live - The 54 Greatest Excel Tips of All Time"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Tickling Keys, Inc..
Excerpted by permission of Holy Macro! Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Dedication,
About the Author,
About the Contributors,
Foreword,
Introduction,
Part 1: The Top 54 Tips,
#1 Double-Click the Fill Handle to Copy a Formula,
#2 Break Apart Data,
#3 Filter by Selection,
#4 The Fill Handle Does Know 1, 2, 3 ...,
#5 Fast Worksheet Copy,
#6 Use Default Settings for All Future Workbooks,
#7 Recover Unsaved Workbooks,
#8 Create Perfect One-Click Charts,
#9 Paste New Data on a Chart,
#10 New in Excel 2016: Create Waterfall Charts and More,
#11 Add Meaning to Reports Using Data Visualizations,
#12 Sort East, Central, and West Using a Custom List,
#13 Sort Left to Right,
#14 Sort Subtotals,
#15 Sort and Filter by Color or Icon,
#16 Consolidate Quarterly Worksheets,
#17 Create a Year-over-Year Report in a Pivot Table,
#18 Find the True Top Five in a Pivot Table,
#19 Specify Defaults for All Future Pivot Tables,
#20 Replicate a Pivot Report for Each Rep,
#21 Use a Pivot Table to Compare Lists,
#22 Build Dashboards with Sparklines and Slicers,
#23 See Why GETPIVOTDATA Might Not Be Entirely Evil,
#24 Eliminate VLOOKUP with the Data Model,
#25 Compare Budget Versus Actual via Power Pivot,
#26 Use F4 for Absolute Reference or Repeating Commands,
#27 See All Formulas at Once,
#28 Discover New Functions by Using fx,
#29 Calculate Nonstandard Work Weeks,
#30 Turn Data Sideways with a Formula,
#31 Handle Multiple Conditions in IF,
#32 Troubleshoot VLOOKUP,
#33 Replace Nested IFs with a Lookup Table,
#34 Suppress Errors with IFERROR,
#35 Handle Plural Conditions with SUMIFS,
#36 Cure Triskaidekaphobia with a Killer Formula,
#37 Extract Unique Values with a CSE Formula,
#38 Use A2:INDEX() as a Non-Volatile OFFSET,
#39 Subscribe to Office 365 for Monthly Features,
#40 Speed Up VLOOKUP,
#41 Protect All Formula Cells,
#42 Back into an Answer by Using Goal Seek,
#43 Do 60 What-If Analyses with a Data Table,
#44 Find Optimal Solutions with Solver,
#45 Improve Your Macro Recording,
#46 Clean Data with Power Query,
#47 Render Excel Data on an iPad Dashboard Using Power BI,
#48 Build a Pivot Table on a Map Using 3D Maps,
#49 Perform Sentiment Analysis in Excel,
#50 Fill in a Flash,
#51 Format as a Façade,
#52 Word for Excellers,
#53 Avoid Whiplash with Speak Cells,
#54 More Excel Tips,
Part 2: 54 Keyboard Shortcuts,
Part 3 - Excel Stories,