People always ask, how to do you lock Excel? In fact you have to unlock Excel and then protect the sheet. The default setting for all cells is locked, so you need to unlock input cells.
Category Archives: Excel Blog
Another Useful Print Macro
And it is recorded
Not all recorded macros are re-usable. This print selection one is.
Page Breaks in Excel
Turn them off
When you set your print area or use the Page Break Preview View, Excel will show you the page breaks on the grid. If this annoys or distracts you, here is how to remove them.
It’s a one-line macro that turns off the page breaks in the current sheet.
Sub TurnOffPageBreaks() ActiveSheet.DisplayPageBreaks = False End Sub |
If you are new to macros then this blog post can take you through how to use them.
The above code can be copied and pasted into the code window.
If you want to turn page breaks off for all the sheets in the file use the code below.
Sub TurnOffAllPageBreaks() Dim ws For Each ws In Worksheets ws.DisplayPageBreaks = False Next ws End Sub |
I hope these code snippets are useful.
Excel Macros and Merged Cells
Merged cells are a problem
I don’t like merged cells. Here is one more reason.
One Minute to Excel #16 – Create a useful macro
Wow - a replacement for Merge cells in less than a minute
The Merge cells format has lots of issues. It can crash macros and stop you copying and pasting.
In less than a minute you can use a macro to solve the problem.
Putting Excel into Lock Down
Locking involves a format
There are a few lock downs in place around Australia at the moment, so let’s look at putting Excel into lock down.
One Minute to Excel #15 – Replace Colours
It can be done
Replacing colours manually can be a tedious task.
Did you know you can use Excel’s built-in Find & Replace to do the job for you?
Confirming Names are Unique in Excel
COUNTIFS to the rescue
If you have a list of first names and last names and you want to make sure the list has no duplicates you can use a formula to confirm the names are unique.
One Minute to Excel #14 – Flash Fill
Excel's Super Hero
Joining names; extracting codes or converting dates is usually done with formulas, but there is now a formula-free solution called Flash Fill.
Make Sure All Input Cells Have an Entry in Excel
COUNTIF to the rescue
When creating an input range you may need to validate input cells. That may mean ensuring all input cells have an entry. Here’s how.
Excel Formatted Table Headings
No duplicates allowed
The headings in a formatted table must be unique.
How Many Rows and Columns in a Range
Two functions to the recue
Excel has two functions to answer these questions.
Power Query Finding Text in Another Column
Return TRUE if text is in another column
If you need to find if text is in a column you can use the Text.PositionOf function to confirm it exists.
Filter Issue with Excel
Be careful with formatted tables
When you have a filter in place in Excel you typically only affect the visible cells when you edit multiple cells. There is a case when you are affecting all cells not just the visible ones.
Missing Chart Data in Excel
Another macro to the rescue
The default setting for charts in Excel is to hide the data on the chart if it is hidden on the sheet. I forgot that recently when I created a few charts using a workings area to hold the chart data. I later hid the workings with column grouping. Oops – when you hide the data in the charts go blank.
One Minute to Excel #13 – Create and Use a Check Box
Tick it to the next level
A check box is an easy interface to create and use.
See how to add one to a sheet and use it in a calculation.
Distinct Count Formula in Excel
New and old functions combined
It is now easier to create a distinct count formula in the subscription version of Excel. You can also use a criteria. A distinct count only counts each value once. Duplicate entries are ignored.
One Minute to Excel #12 – Hide Cell Entries
It is a special format
You can’t hide a cell, but you can stop the cell value from displaying on the sheet.
It involves a custom number format.
Australian Financial Year Quarter Formula
Another CHOOSE solution
The Australian Financial Year has its challenges. Working out the Quarter number based on a date has a few solutions. Here’s another one.
One Minute to Excel #11 – Add % to a Pivot Table
It is not intuitive
Often people perform calculations off to the right of Pivot Tables to calculate percentages.
In this short video I show you those calculations can be done inside the Pivot Table itself.
The solution is not intuitive, but it is easy.
This example builds upon the previous One Minute to Excel post.
Save and Close extra
Handling read only and new workbooks
In my previous post I created a macro from scratch that saved and closed the current file. The macro required that the file had been saved before and wasn’t read only. This post handles those two situations so you run the macro on any file and it will only work when required.
One Minute to Excel #10 – Create a Pivot Table
It is easy
Note sure why, but Pivot Tables are often seen a “hard” or “advanced”.
In the short video we see how easy they are.
Oops – I go over my one minute time limit by a few seconds because I format the Pivot Table as well.
Save and Close in Excel
Let's create a macro
I started using Excel in the late 80’s on a Mac. It had a Save and Close button. When I discovered VBA in Excel on the PC, the very first macro I ever made was save and close.
I thought this would be a good example to take you through creating a macro from scratch and sharing a technique to make it easy to use.
One Minute to Excel #9 – Drop down list in a cell
Three techniques
This short video covers different ways to insert a drop down list into a cell.
I go over my one minute time limit by a couple of seconds, but I do cover three techniques.
Financial Model Allocation Technique
Helper cells to the rescue
In a financial model you often have different types of allocations that start at different times. Creating a short formula to handle this flexibility can be a challenge. Here is one solution.
Excel’s Formatted Tables [Video]
Free webinar recording
Learn about Excel’s powerful Table feature that treats tables like little databases.
I ran this free live webinar in March 2021.
You can access the pdf manual and example file by clicking the button below the video.
One Minute to Excel #8 – Incrementing a Long List of Dates
It is easy when you know how
In this short video I cover how to increment dates in long ranges.
It uses a little know dialog.
Segmenting a Table with Power Query
Slicing and dicing a table
In my previous post I mentioned you should, as far as possible, keep data together in a single table rather than splitting it up between sheets. If you want to split it up for distribution purposes here is an easy way to do it.
One Minute to Excel #7 – Copy Date down a Long Range
Quick and easy technique
In this short video I cover how to insert dates in long ranges.
Its simple and quick.
Don’t split your data in Excel
If you have Power Query you can consolidate the data
I have received a few questions recently relating to working with data spread across multiple sheets. In general, if the data is in the same layout, keep it in one table.