John Walkenbach, arguably the foremost authority on Excel, has written 50+ books, including the bestselling Excel Bible, Excel Formulas, and Excel Power Programming with VBA, as well as more than 300 articles for publications such as PC World, InfoWorld, and Windows. He created the award-winning Power Utility Pak, and provides Excel information and insight at [...]

Introduction 1

What You Should Know 1

What You Should Have 1

Conventions in This Book 2

Formula listings 2

Key names 2

The Ribbon 2

Functions, procedures, and named ranges 3

Mouse conventions 3

What the icons mean 3

How This Book Is Organized 4

How to Use This Book 4

About the Power Utility Pak Offer 4

Part I: Workbooks and Files

Tip 1: Changing the Look of Excel 7

Tip 2: Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar 10

Tip 3: Customizing the Ribbon 14

Tip 4: Understanding Protected View 17

Tip 5: Understanding AutoRecover 20

Tip 6: Using a Workbook in a Browser 22

Tip 7: Saving to a Read-Only Format 24

Tip 8: Generating a List of Filenames 27

Tip 9: Generating a List of Sheet Names 29

Tip 10: Using Document Themes 32

Tip 11: Understanding Excel Compatibility Issues 37

Tip 12: Where to Change Printer Settings 39

Part II: Formatting

Tip 13: Working with Merged Cells 43

Tip 14: Indenting Cell Contents 48

Tip 15: Using Named Styles 50

Tip 16: Creating Custom Number Formats 54

Tip 17: Using Custom Number Formats to Scale Values 58

Tip 18: Creating a Bulleted List 60

Tip 19: Shading Alternate Rows Using Conditional Formatting 62

Tip 20: Formatting Individual Characters in a Cell 65

Tip 21: Using the Format Painter 66

Tip 22: Inserting a Watermark 68

Tip 23: Showing Text and a Value in a Cell 70

Tip 24: Avoiding Font Substitution for Small Point Sizes 72

Tip 25: Updating Old Fonts 75

Part III: Formulas

Tip 26: Resizing the Formula Bar 81

Tip 27: Monitoring Formula Cells from Any Location 83

Tip 28: Learning Some AutoSum Tricks 85

Tip 29: Knowing When to Use Absolute and Mixed References 87

Tip 30: Avoiding Error Displays in Formulas 90

Tip 31: Creating Worksheet-Level Names 92

Tip 32: Using Named Constants 94

Tip 33: Sending Personalized E-Mail from Excel 96

Tip 34: Looking Up an Exact Value 99

Tip 35: Performing a Two-Way Lookup 101

Tip 36: Performing a Two-Column Lookup 103

Tip 37: Calculating Holidays 105

Tip 38: Calculating a Person's Age 108

Tip 39: Working with Pre-1900 Dates 110

Tip 40: Displaying a Live Calendar in a Range 114

Tip 41: Returning the Last Nonblank Cell in a Column or Row 116

Tip 42: Various Methods of Rounding Numbers 118

Tip 43: Converting Between Measurement Systems 121

Tip 44: Counting Nonduplicated Entries in a Range 123

Tip 45: Using the AGGREGATE Function 125

Tip 46: Making an Exact Copy of a Range of Formulas 128

Tip 47: Using the Background Error-Checking Features 130

Tip 48: Using the Inquire Add-In 132

Tip 49: Hiding and Locking Your Formulas 135

Tip 50: Using the INDIRECT Function 138

Tip 51: Formula Editing in Dialog Boxes 141

Tip 52: Converting a Vertical Range to a Table 142

Part IV: Working with Data

Tip 53: Selecting Cells Efficiently 147

Tip 54: Automatically Filling a Range with a Series 151

Tip 55: Fixing Trailing Minus Signs 154

Tip 56: Restricting Cursor Movement to Input Cells 155

Tip 57: Transforming Data with and Without Using Formulas 157

Tip 58: Creating a Drop-Down List in a Cell 160

Tip 59: Comparing Two Ranges by Using Conditional Formatting 162

Tip 60: Finding Duplicates by Using Conditional Formatting 165

Tip 61: Working with Credit Card Numbers 168

Tip 62: Identifying Excess Spaces 170

Tip 63: Transposing a Range 173

Tip 64: Using Flash Fill to Extract Data 176

Tip 65: Using Flash Fill to Combine Data 179

Tip 66: Inserting Stock Information 181

Tip 67: Getting Data from a Web Page 184

Tip 68: Importing a Text File into a Worksheet Range 188

Tip 69: Using the Quick Analysis Feature 190

Tip 70: Filling the Gaps in a Report 192

Tip 71: Performing Inexact Searches 194

Tip 72: Proofing Your Data with Audio 196

Tip 73: Getting Data from a PDF File 198

Part V: Tables and Pivot Tables

Tip 74: Understanding Tables 205

Tip 75: Using Formulas with a Table 208

Tip 76: Numbering Table Rows Automatically 212

Tip 77: Identifying Data Appropriate for a Pivot Table 214

Tip 78: Using a Pivot Table Instead of Formulas 218

Tip 79: Controlling References to Cells Within a Pivot Table 222

Tip 80: Creating a Quick Frequency Tabulation 224

Tip 81: Grouping Items by Date in a Pivot Table 227

Tip 82: Creating Pivot Tables with Multiple Groupings 230

Tip 83: Using Pivot Table Slicers and Timelines 232

Part VI: Charts and Graphics

Tip 84: Understanding Recommended Charts 239

Tip 85: Customizing Charts 241

Tip 86: Making Charts the Same Size 243

Tip 87: Creating a Chart Template 245

Tip 88: Creating a Combination Chart 247

Tip 89: Handling Missing Data in a Chart 250

Tip 90: Using High-Low Lines in a Chart 252

Tip 91: Using Multi-Level Category Labels 253

Tip 92: Linking Chart Text to Cells 255

Tip 93: Freezing a Chart 257

Tip 94: Creating a Chart Directly in a Range 260

Tip 95: Creating Minimalistic Charts 264

Tip 96: Applying Chart Data Labels from a Range 268

Tip 97: Grouping Charts and Other Objects 270

Tip 98: Taking Pictures of Ranges 273

Tip 99: Changing the Look of Cell Comments 276

Tip 100: Enhancing Images 279

Tip 101: Saving Shapes, Charts, and Ranges as Images 281

Index 283