Synopses & Reviews
First, the good news: Microsoft Excel is a very powerful and popular spreadsheet program that has been around for quite some time. And this newest version, which ships with Office 97, is very robust and contains some great new features, including a 32,000 character limit per cell, support for the new IntelliMouse (which provides for better spreadsheet navigation), and reliable pivot tables.Now the bad news: Excel is annoying. Often, the reason is that Excel is so feature-rich that it's hard to know how to access or use particular features efficiently. Since an Excel 97 worksheet supports 65,536 rows, how do you easily navigate from cell A1 to cell E6990, for instance? And how can you take advantage of Excel's powerful features when they're buried so deep in the Excel interface that you don't even know they're there?Excel 97 Annoyances steps the reader through all of these and many other annoyances, showing how to eliminate them so the user can accomplish tasks easily and efficiently with Excel in order to get some real work done. Some of the topics covered in the book are:
- Construction of a perfect toolbar that reflects the way you work, and not the way Microsoft markets its software
- Techniques for taking full advantage of Excel's auditing features to prevent the ultimate annoyance: an incorrect spreadsheet
- How to effectively use Excel's Internet features
- How to use Excel's data validation features to insure users enter valid data into your spreadsheets
This book also introduces users to Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), illustrates how to use the VBA/Excel Editor, and shows how to use VBA to fight off many annoyances, by modifying Excel to work the way you want it to.
Excel 97 Annoyances is aimed at users who prefer to use Excel 97 in the most effective way possible. Spending a small amount of time following the tips in this book to eliminate annoyances will save countless hours when working with Excel.
Synopsis
This book is aimed at users who prefer to use Excel in the most effective way possible. Spending a small amount of time following the tips offered by the authors will save countless amounts of time later when working with Excel. Learn how to shape Excel 97 in a way that will not only make it most effective, but will allow you to experience a sense of enjoyment as you analyze data with ease.
Synopsis
Aimed at users who prefer to use Excel in the most effective way possible, this title shows how to shape Excel 97 in a way that will not only make it most effective but will allow readers to experience a sense of enjoyment as they analyze data with ease.
About the Author
Lee Hudspeth is a co-founder of PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. (Hermosa Beach, CA), a Microsoft Solution Provider. His background is in operations research, financial analysis, and marketing analysis (formerly with Unocal Corp.). He has coauthored several books on Office, including The Underground Guide to Microsoft Office, OLE, and VBA and The Underground Guide to Excel 5.0 for Windows. He is co-editor-in-chief of the monthly newsletter Woody's Underground Office. He's a Microsoft MVP (Most Valued Professional), coauthor of the Microsoft course on application development using WordBasic, and a certified Microsoft trainer in Visual Basic and WordBasic. Along with other PRIME Consulting staff, Lee has developed innumerable lines of VB, VBA, and WordBasic code for the firm's numerous Office add-ins (PRIME for Excel and PRIME for Word), going way back to Word 2.0. Lee also writes and delivers Office usage and development custom courses to hordes of interested parties the world over.
T.J. Lee, a co-founder of PRIME Consulting Group, has a background as a certified public accountant and has done computer and management consulting for years. He has coauthored several books on Office, including The Underground Guide to Microsoft Excel 5 and The Underground Guide to Microsoft Office, OLE and VBA. T.J. is co-editor-in-chief of the monthly newsletter Woody's Underground Office and a certified Microsoft trainer. He has written countless courseware packages and manuals, coauthored the Microsoft Education Services course on Developing Applications in Word, and taught and lectured for thousands of developers and end users.
Woody Leonhard's books include Windows 3.1 Programming for Mere Mortals, The Underground Guide to Word for Windows, The Hacker's Guide to Word for Windows, The Mother of All PC Books, The Mother of All Windows 95 Books, and several others. He was series editor for Addison-Wesley's Underground Guides (11 books) and A-W's Hacker's Guides (4 books). Along with T.J. Lee and Lee Hudspeth he's editor-in-chief of PC Computing's Undocumented Office, a monthly hardcopy newsletter. He's a contributing editor at PC Computing (circulation 1,000,000+), and productivity editor for Office Computing (circulation 400,000), a new monthly magazine from the editors of PC Computing. He also publishes a free weekly electronic news bulletin on Microsoft Office called WOW (Woody's Office Watch), available by sending email to [email protected]. Woody's software company makes WOPR (Woody's Office POWER Pack), the number-one enhancement to Microsoft Office. A self-described "grizzled computer hack, frustrated novelist and Office victim," by day he's a Tibetan human rights activist and co-founder of the Tibetan Children's Fund. Woody lives on top of a mountain in Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Required Reading
Annoying, Isn't It?
Custom Settings for Everyman
Now That We're Here, Where Are We?
A Selection of Cool Stuff
2. Excel as Workhorse
New Specs
Mouse Wheelies
Dancing Row and Column Indicators
Undo, Undo, Finally, a Multiple Undo!
Command Bars
Office Art
3. Tales of the Toolbar and Other Aides-de-Camp
Customizing the Standard Toolbar
Customizing the Formatting Toolbar
Talking to a Paper Clip
Office Goes Brrrrrring, Whoossssssh, and Ding Dong
4. How Excel Works
Working with the Workbook
Working with Data
Working with Names, Formulas, and Functions
5. Using VBA to Customize Excel
Jump Start
The VBA/Excel Editor
Writing VBA Programs
Controlling Excel
Hooking in to Excel
6. Excel Strategies
The Virus Threat
The Audit Trail
Self-Monitoring Error Traps
Auditing Tools
Formulas vs. Results
Go To Special
Excel's Internet Connection
Presentation Strategies
Maps! Data Meets Geography
Charts-Numbers as Pictures
Hard Copy!
7. Excel in the Office
Launching Excel
Excel Templates in the Office
Protection in the Office
Annotations, Comments, and Review
Managing Lists
Data Analysis with Pivot Tables
8. Where and How to Get Help
The Horse's Mouth
Magazines
Newsletters
WOW
Other Places of Interest
Index