Tools

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Tools' topic. Click the article's title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

Adding and Using a Combo Box
Combo boxes can be a great way of getting user input in a worksheet. Here's how to add a combo box to your worksheet and put it to use.

Adding Buttons to Your Worksheet
You can easily add a button to your worksheet that will allow you to run various macros. This tip shows how easy it is.

AutoFilling from a Custom List
AutoFill can be a real timesaver if you often work with set lists of data. You can define your own custom lists and then use them over and over again, as described here.

Comparing Lists for Duplicates
Do you have two similar data lists that you need to compare to see if there are duplicates in the lists? This can be a daunting task, but you can add some formulas to your data that make the task easier. This tip describes a quick way to make short work of duplicates.

Comparing Workbooks
Do you need to compare two workbooks to each other? While you can use specialized third-party software to do the comparisons, a simple formula or two might be all that you really need.

Creating Dependent Drop-Lists
Drop-down lists are handy in an Excel worksheet, and you they can be even more handy if a selection in one drop-down lists controls the options presented in another drop-down list. This tip explains how you can use data validation to create these special dependent lists.

Deleting a View
After a time, you may not need a worksheet view that you previously saved. This tip explains how to get rid of those unwanted views in quick order.

Embedding an Excel Chart in a Word Document
As components of the Microsoft Office suite, one would expect Excel and Word to work together. One of the most common tasks between the two is to embed a chart in a document. It is relatively easy to do, using the editing techniques you already know about.

Evaluating Formulas
Need a bit of help in figuring out how Excel is evaluating a particular formula? It's easy to figure out if you use the Evaluate Formula tool.

Goal Seeking
Using Excel to return values for future goals.

Hiding Outline Symbols
Outlining a worksheet can be helpful as you try to manage the data that the worksheet contains. However, the outline symbols may detract from the appearance of your data. You can easily hide the outline symbols by making a quick change to your Excel options.

Importing Custom Lists
Custom lists are handy ways to enter recurring data in a worksheet. Here's how you can import your own custom lists from a range of cells.

Inserting a Sound File in Your Worksheet
Excel allows you to insert all types of objects in your worksheets, including audio files. This tip explains how to insert an existing audio file in a worksheet, and then how to use that audio file at a later time.

Inserting a Voice Annotation in Your Worksheet
Adding audio notes to a workbook is easy to do in Windows. This tip explains how you can record an audio file for saving with a worksheet, and then play the file again at a later time.

Making Revisions
Revision tracking in Excel is very handy for keeping track of the last changes made to a workbook. This tip explains how the revisions are shown and how you can make variations on the actual tracking process.

Resolving Revisions
When you are done working on a workbook, you'll probably want to resolve the changes that you've been tracking. This tip explains how to check each revision and accept it or reject it.

Searching a Workbook by Default
When you display the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box, you'll notice that any search, by default, will be on the current worksheet. If you want Excel to default to searching the entire workbook, you may be out of luck.

Searching a Workbook by Default, Take Two
How to create a macro that will display the correct Find and Replace box to set searching parameters.

Speaking the Contents of Cells
Excel 2003 includes speech synthesis abilities that can "speak" your data to you as you enter it. This tip describes how to turn this feature on and off.

Turning Off Speech Capabilities
The speech capabilities added to Excel 2003 can be pretty cool—for some people. If you have the capabilities turned on, but your neighbor wants them turned off, then you'll need to inform him or her of how easy it is to toggle this feature.

Turning Off Track Changes without Unsharing
The Track Changes tool in Excel can be helpful, but it can also be aggravating because it doesn't allow you to use it on a shared workbook. This tip examines the precise interaction between Track Changes and workbook sharing.

Understanding Outlining
Outlining, a feature built into Excel, can be a great way to help organize large amounts of data. This tip provides an overview to the feature, focusing on different ways you can create your outline.

Understanding Views
Excel allows you to save different views of your data. This tip explains what views are and how you can create your own views.

Undoing Smart Tag Exclusions
Smart Tags are a handy way to get more information related to some words or letters in a worksheet, such as financial or stock symbols. You can exclude some combinations of letters from being recognized by the Smart Tags feature, but it is not so easy to later turn off the exclusion. This tip explains how you can make Smart Tags once again pay attention to something you previously excluded.

Using Check Boxes
One of the form controls you can add to a worksheet is a check box. This tip explains how to add and configure this handy control.

Using Data Forms
Lots of people prefer to enter information directly into Excel, but there is another way that may be helpful: Using data forms. This tip introduces data forms, explains how to display them, and shows how easy it is to use them for editing your data.

Using List Box Controls
One of the form controls you can place in a worksheet is a list box. Once you know how to populate a list box and use it, this control can make a great addition that simplifies data entry.

Using Revision Tracking
Excel allows you to track the revisions you make to a workbook. This tip explains what revision tracking is and how you enable it for a particular workbook.

Using Stored Views
Stored views do you very little good if you can't figure out how to use them again. This tip explains just how easy it is to recall a view that you previously stored.

Watching Cell Values
Want to know what is happening in certain cells in your worksheet? Using the Watch Window is a great way to keep an eye on specific targets.

 

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