For the sake of this post, we will plot two different quantities of data into a combination chart expressed with bars and a line graph and also show you a lesser-known trick allowing you to graph the data logarithmically, which can sometimes yield surprising insight.

Reasons for using combination charts:

A combination chart could be used for variety of reasons, for example:

• When you have more data to plot and want to differentiate one quantity from the other
• When the values from one series is too large or small compared to the other data

So let’s see how can we create a combination chart and make it more meaningful and professional.

Our Data:

We have created a set of sample data that we will be using throughout this post.  It is evident that sales volume is far more than the number of visitors in this table:

First Step – Creating the bar chart

Starting with Sales we will create a simple bar chart to plot the data. To insert a Bar Chart go to Insert > Bar Chart while the range B2:C16 is already selected. (Or the range already selected press Alt>N>C>Enter to insert the chart. A basic and standard formatted bar chart will be displayed as a result.

Second Step – Adding No. of Visitors

Now that we want to create a combination chart, we will be adding another series to this chart – No. of visitors.

For that: Right Click chart>Select Data>Add New Series and now insert the Series Name and select the range D3:D16.

When pressed Ok, the chart will be updated. We have a new series added to the chart but we can’t see it practically on the cart – the values are too small to be visible on chart.

What we need to do is to plot it on secondary Y-Axis to get a scale that is appropriate to display the variable. Since the series is not easily visible on chart, we will be selecting it from Format menu, select available features that can be formatted and finally select Series “Visitors” and press Format Selection to format it.

Once selected we need to plot it on secondary axis.

With this data plotted on secondary axis, select the series (that is now easily visible and change the chart type to line:

Improving the appearance of the chart:

For the modified chart, we have:

• Removed the data series “Month” that was plotted to have more space in between bars.
• Muted the color tone of horizontal grid lines, so that we can focus on data rather then grid lines.
• Muted the overall tone of the chart – used light colors instead of shocking red.
• Markers in green turned to round and gray in the new chart.
• Added a title to the chart.

That was it – we now have our new combination chart!

Yet another option to plot the data – using LN() to plot log values:

What we considered in the preceding lines was a data from a business report, if we have been using “scientific data” and our audience has that mathematics background, we can plot the log values instead of actual values for sales volume and No. of visitors using the function LN():

We can see that though we have not used any secondary axis, the values are visible and we can see a trend in them as well – but this should be done keeping in view the understandability of the target audience.

This is all for this post, please downloads the sample file for practice.

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Then you might like Silk. Silk is a data publishing platform that lets you convert a spreadsheet into a live interactive site. Silk takes each row on your spreadsheet and converts it into a standalone Web page (we call it a datacard). Then Silk allows you to build maps, charts, tables, and image galleries using the spreadsheet information stored in each datacard.

For example, here I’ve used Silk to turn a spreadsheet with headphone information into a site with interactive tables and graphs.

ExcelZoom.com was kind enough to allow us to explain Silk in this guest post and provide a quick user guide. I’ll show you how to prepare your spreadsheet for import into Silk, import options and then how to build visualizations.

Preparing your sheet for import into Silk

Silk will convert every row in your spreadsheet into a Webpage (datacard). You need to select one of the columns on your spreadsheet for the titles of your datacards. The information in the other columns will also show up on each datacard page in a table we call the factsheet. For import Silk requires a “flat” spreadsheet – no nested cells and no merged cells. You need to put a title in the first row of every column you are using – no blank rows. (See this tutorial on preparing your spreadsheet for Silk for more information.)

Importing your sheet into Silk

Now sign up for Silk. All that you need is an email and to pick a password. Next you’ll need to name your Silk. Then you can elect to take a quick tutorial or jump right into the import. To do the import:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EajJ7mvYJWo

• Find the ‘Add a new collection’ menu at the bottom of your screen.
• Click on the ‘Upload Spreadsheet’ box.
• Drag the Excel file you wish to upload into the drop box.
• Or use the ‘Paste spreadsheet’ option to copy and paste the columns from your spreadsheet into the importer box.

After you click ‘Import’, you will get a preview of how your datacards will appear in Silk.

1. Browse through the datacards by clicking the arrows.
2. Select which column you want to use as the title for each datacard.
3. Specify the “Collection” these datacards will go into. Collections hold together related datacards on a Silk. It’s best to change the collection name to something descriptive. We used ‘Headphones’ in this example.
4. Start the import.

If the preview looks good, click the blue “Import” button to convert your spreadsheet into a Silk site.

• When your import is completed, Silk will automatically analyze your data and place you into the “Explore” tab (this is where you can build visualization and explore the data). Silk will suggest a visualization.
• You can accept the visualization suggestion or pick a different one from the visualization ribbon. Silk offers 14 different types including maps, charts, tables, lists and galleries.
• You can change the contents of your visualizations by adding or removing tags (tag = column) or adding inline filters. (Further editing options can be found by clicking the ‘More Options’ button.)
• To publish the visualization to your Silk’s home page, click the green ‘Publish this visualization’ button.
• To further edit your homepage, click click the ‘+’ anywhere on the page. Then you can choose from the menu to add more visualizations as well as blocks of text, images, YouTube videos and other media.
• Or you can click the ‘Explore’ tab again create more visualizations from inside Explore.

For more detailed information, see our spreadsheet tutorial, we now created our Silk. The spreadsheet in this example was filled with information about headphones, and was used to create headphones.silk.co. You can now share the Silk so anyone can compare and visualize the data. You can let the Silk stay public, but you can also make it private if you wish. Better yet, you can allow anyone to edit the Silk, turning your Silk into a community project.

That’s it! If you like to learn more about Silk, you can participate in our webinar series, which will start on July 22nd, 12-1 pm EDT / 9-10am PDT. If you want examples of cool Silks, check out our home page, and don’t hesitate to send us an email if you have any questions. Attach your spreadsheet if you’re having trouble. We’d love to help anyone create a nice Silk. Thanks for reading!

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Why Format Numbers as File Sizes

If you wanted to have a spreadsheet that lists out file sizes like 10 MB, you may enter 10 MB in a cell. If you ever wanted to do anything with that information, such as add up file sizes, or anything else, the letters “MB” in that cell would make it difficult to do. On the other hand, if you only had a number in the cell that was formatted to display the appropriate file size abbreviation after the number you would be able to perform any calculations you wanted with that data.

For purposes of this example, I am going to assume that all the numbers we are working with are in bytes and we want to display them in KB, MB, or GB as appropriate.

Also, for reference here is a guide to convert bytes to KB, MB or GB.

• 1,000 bytes = 1 kilobyte
• 1,000,000 bytes = 1 megabyte
• 1,000,000,000 bytes = 1 gigabyte

Click on a cell that contains the file size in bytes. Then from the Home Tab, Number Group, select More Number Formats from the drop down menu.

Next, you will be on the Format Cells window. From here you can select “Custom” from the left hand side under Category, and enter the following custom format in the box that says “Type”.

Once you have entered the format, click OK.

This formatting will display the bytes in a more readable format by adding the appropriate KB, MB, or GB ending to the number.

**UPDATE** Thanks to Dennis in the comments, who pointed out that this is the American format. Other countries format numbers with different decimal and thousands separators than us here in America. If you use a comma (,) instead of a period (.) as the decimal marker you can simply replace the period with a comma in between the zeros in the code above. So 0.00 would become 0,00 in your case.

For example, if you entered 1000 in a cell, this custom format will display 1.00 KB. 1000000 would display 1.00 MB, etc.

You can use the same concept for other data sizes, but I chose some of the more common formats for purposes of this example. If you are unsure what conversion to use for your example, you can always do a Google search for the conversion you are looking for. For example a search for "1 terabyte in bytes", would tell you it is equivalent to 1000000000000 bytes. Using the dropdowns on the search results page you can jump between formats as well.

Here are some more helpful hints for other formatting tricks in Excel.

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Click through to see our top 10 Excel tips.

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What does the Excel Too Many Different Cell Formats error mean?

The reason why you get the too many different cell formats error is because an Excel file can only have approximately 4,000 different combinations of cell formats.  At first this might seem like a lot, but think about all the unique formatting characteristics that can be applied to a cell.

• Fonts: including the font, font size, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, superscript, subscript, color, etc.
• Borders: including which side of the cell has a border (top, left, right, or bottom), border color, border thickness (or weight), etc.
• Fills: including fill color, and patterns.
• Number formatting: such as General, Number, Currency, Accounting, Date, Time, Percentage, Fraction, Scientific, Text, Special, or Custom.  Not to mention the number of decimal places shown.
• Alignment: Top, bottom, left, right, centered, centered across selection, indented, orientation degrees, wrapped text, shrink to fit, merged cells, text direction, etc.

Any unique combination of the above cell formats counts towards the 4,000 limit that will end up showing the too many different cell formats error. However, if several cells share exactly the same formatting, it only counts as one towards the 4,000 limit.

For example, assuming that all other formats are the same, a 3×3 group of cells “boxed” with a border going around it would have nine different cell formats, considering that no cell in the group would share the same side border formatting (see below).

Too Many Different Cell Formats Fix

To fix the too many different cell formats in excel, simplify the formats of the cells in your file, by using some of the suggestions below:

• Clear all spreadsheet formatting
• Use a standardized font
• Clear cell fill colors
• Clear all other cell formatting such as any borders or lines
• Use consistent number formats where possible

To stop the Too many different cell formats issue in Excel

To stop the too many different cell formats in excel happening in the first place try to stick to some formatting guidelines – some of the suggestions below:

• Use only one or two standard fonts.  For example, if you want your headings to be bold, and the data to be in a regular style, do so consistently.
• Use consistent borders in your worksheets.  Maybe just box in headings and your data points to make it easier for your files users to read.
• Clear out unnecessary fill colors and patterns.
• Make sure your numbers are consistently presented (i.e. percentages are shown as such with the same number of decimal points, dollars are shown in the currency, or accounting format, etc.).
• If all else fails, reset all cell formatting to fix the too many different cell formats error message

Also, consider clearing the formats of blank cells.  To do this, click Find & Select in the Editing Group on the Home tab, then Go To Special. Select Blanks from the list and then click OK.

This will highlight all cells that do not contain data.  Next, click Clear in the Editing Group on the Home tab, then Clear Formats.  This will clear all the blank cells of any formatting that have been applied to them.  Be careful however, as this could have unintended consequences if you’ve filled the cells in a row or column to act as a “border” between sections in your worksheet, or if you’ve used the Center Across Selection formatting.

After done simplifying your cell formats across your entire file, save, close, and then re-open before adding any new cell formats.

Another tool you can use to help with cell formatting is this add-on, which works for Excel 2003, Excel 2007, Excel 2010, and Excel 2013. Alternatively accounting and audit teams find add-ins such as this extremely useful for standardizing their accounting format in excel.

Have you struggled with the Excel too many different cell formats pop-up? What have you done to fix this formatting nightmare? Hopefully this quick guide has helped explain what too many cell formats means in excel and ways for you to avoid running into this issue in the future.

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It’s possible that your company’s colors are not included in the standard colors found in Excel.  If you’d like to use them in your workbook, you’ll need to change the standard colors.

In order to do this, select Tools | Options | Colors tab (in pre-2007 versions of Excel), or Microsoft Office Button | Excel Options | Save | Colors (in Excel 2007). 

Next, click on the color you wish to change, and click Modify.  You can choose from one of the colors on the Standard tab, or you can click the Custom tab if you know the RGB or HSL format of the color you wish to use. 

Repeat these steps as often as necessary, then when you return to Excel, you can change the fill, font, and chart colors in your workbook to your new custom colors.

The post Changing the Default Color Palette in Excel appeared first on Excel Zoom.

The menu below is a screenshot of the Paste Special menu from Excel 2007, which, except for the “All using Source theme” option, is the same menu as is found in earlier versions of Excel.

By pasting using the default options as shown in the image, Paste Special will paste the same way that the regular Paste option will in Excel.  To get more bang for your buck, let’s explore the various options that Paste Special offers.  Note that the following “Paste” options are assuming that you are selecting “None” from the Operation section (discussed below), and that Skip blanks and Transpose are not checked.

• Formulas: Assuming that the cells you copied contained formulas, you can use this option to paste only the formulas in your destination cells.  This is useful, because it retains the formatting of the destination cells, including comments, which might be different from the source cells.  Be careful with this, as any cells referenced in your formulas will change unless they are absolute or mixed references.
• Values: This option will only paste the values (numeric or text) as displayed in the source cell.  It doesn’t matter if the source cell has a formula in it, Excel will convert the data and only paste the values as displayed in the source cell.  This is useful if you wish to paste data from one worksheet that contains formulas into another that does not.
• Formats: This option is the opposite of the previous two options.  Where the previous options pasted data (formulas or values), this option only pastes formats, and is similar in use as the Format Painter  option found in Excel.  This is useful if you have a range of cells with data that are formatted in a particular way that you would like to copy to another location.  If the data is not necessary to paste, then this option will strip out the unnecessary data.
• Comments: If you have a cell with a comment that you would like to have in another cell, this option allows you to paste only the comment, without pasting any of the formats or data from the source cell.  This option saves you the time of re-typing the comment, while preserving the data and formats in the destination cell.
• Validation: When creating Data Validation rules in your cells, you might want to apply the rules to other cells after they have been created.  You can do that with this option without copying any source data or formats, and preserving the destination data and formats.
• All using Source theme: This option is new in Excel 2007.  It pastes all the information from the source cell (numbers, formulas, text, formats, comments, etc.) and applies the source worksheets theme’s colors, fonts and graphics to the destination.
• All except borders: This option will paste any numbers, formulas, text, comments and formats except for borders from the source cell and paste them in the destination cell.
• Column widths: To present a uniform appearance across your spreadsheet, the column widths option will allow you to copy one column’s width and apply it to whatever columns you select.  If your spreadsheet had one really narrow column of data, next to a very wide column, which was next to a regular sized column, you could copy the regular sized column, select the narrow and wide columns and paste the column width so that all three columns are of equal width.
• Formulas and number formats: This option will paste only the formula from the source cell and the number formats applied to that cell.  It won’t paste the other formats (border, fill color, font, etc.), just the number formatting, such as percentage, currency, accounting, scientific, etc.
• Values and number formats: This option will paste the same information as the Formulas and number formats option above, except it won’t paste the formulas from the source cell, it will only paste the values.  This is similar to the Values option discussed above with the addition of the number formatting.

The Operation section allows you to perform a mathematical operation with the data you have copied.

For illustration purposes, I’m going to assume that the source cell to be copied contains the number 4, and the destination cell contains the number 10.  Below I’ll discuss the results of each Operation option.  Also, assume that the “All” option is selected from the “Paste” section with Skip blanks and Transpose left unchecked.

• None:  As discussed previously, this operation will perform no arithmetic, and therefore the resulting number in the destination cell will be 4.
• Add:  By selecting 4 from the source cell and pasting it into the destination, which contains 10, Excel will add 10+4 to return 14.
• Subtract:  Again, Excel will subtract 10-4 to return 6.
• Multiply: Excel will take the product of 10 and 4 to return 40.
• Divide: Excel divides 10/4 to return 2.5.

Finally, you’ll notice three more options on the menu: Skip blanks, Transpose and Paste Link.

• Skip blanks: This option does just as it says.  Say you have a set of data in cells A1:A5, where A1 = 100, A2 = 200, A3 = blank, A4 = blank, and A5 = 500.  Now you have another list of numbers in B1:B5, where B1 = 600, B2 = 700, B3 = 800, B4 = 900, and B5 = 1,000.  If you copy the cells A1:A5, then select cell B1, go to the Paste Special menu, check the Skip blanks box and click OK, the values you should see in B1:B5 are as follows: B1 = 100, B2 = 200, B3 = 800, B4 = 900, and B5 = 500.  This is because the Skip blanks option tells Excel to only paste what is in the source cells where there is data to paste.  If the cells are blank, Excel will skip over them and not paste anything, which is why cells B3 and B4 had the values of 800 and 900 respectively instead of being blank.
• Transpose: Take the same original list from cells B1:B5, going sequentially from 600 through 1,000.  Copy cells B1:B5, then select cell C1.  Go to the Paste Special menu, check Transpose and click OK.  The values in cells C1:G1 should be the same sequential values (600 through 1,000) from B1:B5.  Essentially, all this option does is take a copied list of numbers from a column and pastes them across a row, or copies a list of numbers from a row and pastes them down a column.
• Paste Link: This option can save a lot of time if you’re working with multiple worksheets or multiple files.  If you want your destination cell to link to the source cell you can use this option.  Assume you have a value in cell A1 that you want cell C1 to link to.  You can copy cell A1, select cell C1, go to the Paste Special menu and choose Paste Link.  In cell C1, you should see the formula =$A$1.  If you select multiple cells to paste, the formula will be a relative reference, and not an absolute reference (i.e. it won’t have the dollar signs $).

As you can see there are many applications for the Paste Special feature, which can save you a lot of time if you only need to copy a limited amount of information from your source cells.

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Using the quarterly sales example above, assume that you’ve taken the time to set up your spreadsheet with placeholder columns for the remainder of the year. When printing the information, you don’t want to just delete the columns, only having to recreate them in the future, and you also don’t want to have to manually hide/unhide them either.

You can use a macro to toggle between hiding and unhiding these empty columns fairly easily. The first bit of code will determine if the total in row 8 for columns B through M is 0. If it is, it will hide the column, otherwise it will make sure the column is not hidden. The second bit of code will select columns B through M and make sure they all are not hidden, so that you can toggle between hiding the unused columns, and showing all the columns.

To use this in your own spreadsheet, you may need to change a few things. 1) Change the Range reference (i.e. “B8:M8”) to whatever range you want evaluated. 2) Change “Columns” in Rng = Selection.Columns.Count to “Rows” if the range you are evaluating is a range of rows not columns. 3) If the criteria is something other than “0”, change the “0” in If ActiveCell = 0 to whatever that criteria happens to be. And finally 4) the two lines that say ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Select simply moves the selected cell down 0 cells and to the right one cell. If you’re evaluating down a range of rows, change the 0 to a 1 and the 1 to a 0 so that it moves the selected cell down 1 cell and to the right 0 cells. (Note you can move up a cell by inserting a -1 as the first number and to the left by inserting a -1 as the second number).

Need help? Use our nifty guide to help figure out how to install and use your macros.

Hide Unused Columns:

Unhide all Columns:

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Select the area where you want to highlight alternating rows.

Go to the Format menu and select Conditional Formatting.

For Condition 1, select “Formula Is”, and type in “=MOD(ROW(),2)=0” if you want to highlight every even row, or type “=MOD(ROW(),2)=1” if you want to highlight every odd row.

Click on the Format button, and choose the format you want your highlighted rows to have (i.e. font, color, background, patterns, etc.).

Click OK, and you should have every other row highlighted.

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