Microsoft Excel, like any other Office product offers it's users simple and intuitive ways to format your data. Many of these formatting options are great for using once or twice, but what if you find yourself needing the same format dozens of times, or need a format that doesn't exist? The following Excel formatting tricks will help you work more efficiently. … [Read more...]
3D Sum Formula Reference
On occasion, it is useful to keep track of similar data in separate worksheets. Data such as monthly, quarterly, or annual financial information isn't always best to show in one spreadsheet. However, there may be times when you want to see a total of the data on each worksheet. The 3D Sum Formula will let you easily add up data across the worksheets without having a long … [Read more...]
Add Values Between Two Dates
If you are keeping records in an Excel spreadsheet that contains a column for dates and another column for some figure that can be added up, such as sales, you can easily use a formula to add values between two dates. The formula uses the equation, which basically adds up a range of cells based on a certain set (or sets) of criteria. In this case we will use two dates as the … [Read more...]
Generate Random Character String
You may find yourself faced with a need to generate random character strings for various reasons. Recently I needed to help a company set up email accounts for all of their employees on a new server. I was given the email address usernames but needed to create the passwords for each account. I didn't want to be lazy and assign everyone the same password, or even an easily … [Read more...]
Protect a Worksheet Except for Individual Cells
If you have ever used Excel to gather information from people in a pre-defined form setup, you know it can be frustrating when the responses contain added rows, columns, comments out of sight, etc. The purpose of taking the time to set up a form is so that you can get your data in a consistent format/layout. It's actually pretty easy to protect your worksheet from people who … [Read more...]