Allen Wyatt's ExcelTips

Excel Applies Scientific Notation to Imported Data

2009-11-07T01:04:00-08:00

Using Excel to import data from another source (such as a database) is a great approach to analyze that data. What do you do, however, when the data you import is misinterpreted by Excel? Here's a way to handle that problem.

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Creating a Photo Catalog from a Folder of Photos

2009-11-07T01:03:00-08:00

Excel is great for collecting all sorts of information. You might even use it to create a catalog of your photos. Working with hundreds or thousands of photos can be a challenge, though. Here's how you can work with all those photo files.

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Elapsed Days as Years, Months and Days

2009-11-07T01:02:00-08:00

Need to know how many days there are between two dates? It's easy to figure out—unless you need the figure in years, months, and days. Here's why.

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Continuing Macro Lines

2009-11-07T01:01:00-08:00

Sometimes a macro command line can get very, very long. This can make it hard to understand when you look at it a month or so from now. It is better to break your command lines up into individual lines that are easier to understand and document.

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Help Wanted: Checking for the Existence of a File

2009-11-07T01:00:00-08:00

I have a column of invoice numbers in a worksheet. I have a directory on the network where staff save a PDF of the actual invoice and name it using the invoice number. Each invoice number in the worksheet should have a correspondingly named PDF in the directory on the network. I would like some way, within Excel, to check and verify that a PDF really does exist for each invoice number. Is there a way to do this?

-John Keegan

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Help Wanted: Too Many Rows or Columns in a PivotTable

2009-11-07T01:00:00-08:00

When attempting to refresh a PivotTable, I receive this error: 'Excel cannot make this change because there are too many row or column items.' The message tells me to drag at least one row or column field off the PivotTable and to try again. Problem is, I have done many refreshes on my PivotTable in this workbook no problem over the past six months, and I haven't changed the size of the PivotTable. This error just started showing up with no apparent cause. Any ideas?

-Robin Juliano

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Entered Values are Divided by 100

2009-10-31T01:04:00-08:00

Enter a value into a cell and "poof!" it is automatically divided by 100. What's going on, and how can you fix it so that Excel actually enters what you type into the cell?

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Filtering Columns

2009-10-31T01:03:00-08:00

The filtering tools provided in Excel make it easy to filter a data list so that only certain rows are displayed. What if you want to filter your information so that only certain columns are displayed, however? Excel doesn't provide a direct way to do this, but there are several workarounds you can adapt to your needs.

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Turning Off Capital Corrections

2009-10-31T01:02:00-08:00

Tired of having Excel second-guess you when you type a word that starts with two capital letters? You can turn off this AutoCorrect feature by following the steps in this tip.

]]> Read this ExcelTip: Turning Off Capital Corrections
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Determining the Length of a String

2009-10-31T01:01:00-08:00

Macros are great a working with strings, and one of the most commonly used string functions is Len. This tip explains how to use this function to determine how many characters a string contains.

]]> Read this ExcelTip: Determining the Length of a String
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