Friday, January 14, 2005

Top Ten Excel Annoyances

Curt Frye lists the top ten annoyances as gathered from a small survey he conducted. He then presents the answers. Curt is the author of a book Excel Annoyances.

I have listed the first 3 here for you. Follow the link for the rest

1 Format part of a cell's contents
2 Add a carriage return to a cell's contents
3 Insert or delete a single cell
4 Delete a formula and keep the result
5 Add text to a displayed numerical value
6 Display partial hours as a decimal number
7 Prevent copied formulas from changing cell references
8 Create a named range from multiple sheets
9 Copy charts as pictures
10 Speed up recalculations


Format Part of a Cell's Contents
This one is so easy, you'll kick yourself when I tell you. To format part of a cell's contents, click on the cell to display its contents in the Formula Bar just above the worksheet and below Excel's toolbar. Select the characters you want to format in the Formula Bar, and use the buttons on the Formatting toolbar to change the characters' appearance. This solution might seem basic, but you'd be surprised how many folks think it's impossible to edit part of a cell's contents. The program sure doesn't make it obvious.

Add a Carriage Return to a Cell's Contents
You can add a line break inside a cell by pressing Alt-Enter. Yep, that's all there is to it.

Insert or Delete a Single Cell
Have you ever typed in a data list, only to discover that you left a value out of the middle? Sure, you could just cut and paste the data below the item you missed and type it into the blank cell, but here's a quick way to add a new cell in the middle of list without cutting and pasting.


Posted by: Jethro | 1:44 AM |