Microsoft Office Tutorials

PivotTables can be one of the most useful of all tools found in Excel; yet their use leads to some concern with a good number of users. This can be due in part because there is apparently no clear procedures when creating PivotTables. If you’ve got let’s say 8 columns of information this will result in eight PivotTable ‘fields’, however there are only 4 ‘field areas’ – so just where can they all go?! The answer’s that even while there may be no sure policies for the assembly of PivotTables, there are actually 3 invaluable recommendations that can help immensely when putting together them.

The first suggestion should be to first of all isolate all of your actual ‘value fields’. Such fields will virtually always end up being placed into the value field region which is situated in the bottom right hand part of the values pane. It doesn’t make a difference precisely how many values there are since you can easily just load them on top of each other by means of clicking on and dragging into the precise region. The actual order that you stack these values will determine the actual order in which they appear from right to left in the actual PivotTable. The 1st value field will show up within column A with the next one down Three Ideas for making Building PivotTables Simple and easier list being in column B and so forth. In this way you can easlily take care of several of your columns of information in one go.

The second suggestion concerns the row fields. Just as with value fields, the order in which you place these determines the actual sequence wherein they appear within the PivotTable itself. A useful piece of advice is generally to assess the fields which are to be positioned in rows and establish how many individual areas of data relate to each one. For instance should you have 1 field for months and another for quarters, there is of course just be four quarters when compared to twelve months. If you consequently click on and drag the quarters into the row area first, then the months, you’ll produce a type of information hierarchy which can make filtering together with evaluation somewhat easier.

The 3rd guideline is in regard of the ‘Report filter’. Bringing columns into this field establishes a filter that resides outside of the actual PivotTable itself. This allows us to filter all the date within your PivotTable in a single action. What exactly will be advantageous about the Report filter is that as it’s located outside of the main table, you can easily bring multiple fields into this place that we may well otherwise struggle to choose a valid place for. Consequently, all the fields which you have remaining after laying out the basic PivotTable may be moved into the report field region, offering you improved filtering facility.

PivotTables are an incredibly usable method within Excel, but many are often put employing them simply because of the mass of data inside their worksheet. The hope is that this article may perhaps motivate more individuals to experiment with them and consequently include them into their every day office work .

It can be very useful to password protect spreadsheets to ensure that other people can’t accidentally (or even deliberately) over-write important data or formulas and functions. It actually is handy however to protect only certain cells inside a spreadsheet leaving the rest accessible. It could seem that this is something that may be difficult to achieve, but in point of fact it is so simple to do

Configuring the Spreadsheet for Encryption
Let us first have a look at exactly what goes on when a spreadsheet is password secured. By default, all cells in MS Excel are secured when password encryption is applied to the worksheet. The default setting in Microsoft excel is for all cells to be locked when we protect the spread sheet. What we need to do first is indicate any cells which we do not need to protect. We can accomplish this by clicking inside the cell, or cell range that is not to be encrypted, then clicking the right mouse key and selecting ‘Format’. Now select the tab labeled ‘Protection’ and you will observe that there are two tick-boxes, ‘Locked’ and ‘Hidden’. By default, the Locked box will have a tick within. This means that when password protection is applied to the spread sheet, the cell (or cells) will be locked. So all we have to do then is remove the tick by clicking within the box, then choose ‘OK’ to save the changes. The worksheet has now been set up for password protection.

How to Encrypt the SpreadsheetUsing a Password
Your next step is to select the ‘Review’ tab on the Ribbon then click the ‘Protect Sheet’ tool button. You’ll be presented with a small dialogue box which has a password field. Actions that are permissable when the worksheet is locked can be decided by checking the tick-boxes that are displayed directly below the password box. The default position permits the selection of locked and unlocked cells, but nothing else can be done when the spread sheet is password-protected. Now we type any chosen password into the box and simply click the ‘OK’ button. Next we are expected to re-enter the same password to double-check that it has been typed correctly. The worksheet will now be protected, but you will still be able to modify the cells that we choose to be unlocked To remove password protection, just click ‘Unprotect Sheet’ then key in your password.

How can you Unprotect the Spread Sheet if You’ve Forgotten Your Password
You could think initially that if you lose your password then there is no chance to get back in to the spreadsheet. In fact, it’s possible to get back into the spreadsheet, but it depends on what actions were granted when you typed our password. We observed that by default, Excel allowed for the selection of both unlocked and locked cells when we protected the spread sheet. With these two options ticked it’s actually easy to get back into your spreadsheet. The solution is to just copy the whole spreadsheet, then paste it into a new workbook. All of your data and formulas will be copied, however, the password protection is not. You can now save the workbook, delete the original then rename the new workbook appropriately. We now effectively have the original spread sheet but with no password protection. However, if we had un-ticked the boxes enabling the selection of cells before applying your password, you’ll not be able to select the spreadsheet and hence will not be able to copy it. To prevent anyone from copying and pasting we simply need to un-tick the first two options. But, just be careful that you don’t forget your password!

Customising Microsoft Excel 2010
When Microsoft Excel 2007 was first released, quite a few new users struggled to come to terms together with the new Ribbon style of navigation. A single aspect which baffled individuals the mist was basically tips on how to open and save documents. There appeared to be no method to carry out these basic acts as there was no longer a ‘File’ menu option. Unbeknown to quite a few, these possibilities have been now to all intents and purposes hidden way behind the so-called ‘Office Button’. The issue was that several people today thought that the Office Button as just the Microsoft logo and so didn’t even assume to click it! This concern has been addressed by Microsoft within the most up-to-date 2010 version of Excel, by replacing the button together with the familiar ‘File’ menu. Seems like Microsoft listened this time! In this post we shall look at the numerous options for customising Excel 2010 so that you can get the most beneficial out on the software.

The Quick Access Toolbar
The Quick Access Toolbar would be the small menu that is situated by default above the primary Ribbon menu. When the software is first loaded it only functions three buttons: Save, Undo and Redo. On the other hand, the array of tools is usually extremely simply be extended by clicking the smaller black drop-down arrow which is situated in the proper on the menu. Selecting this reveals a brief list of further tools which is usually added towards the toolbar by clicking alongside, which has the impact of ‘ticking’ the choice and adding it for the toolbar. Further tools may be added by clicking ‘More Commands’ in the bottom from the menu and picking from a large range of tool possibilities. Finally, the position of your Quick Access Toolbar itself is usually changed by clicking the menu and picking ‘Show Below the Ribbon’. My individual view is that this isn’t a particularly great position for it as it requires up added area. In its default position It shares the same space because the document name across the prime and represents a much more logical spot for it to become.

The Recent Documents & Folders List
The recent documents list was around in the 2007 version of Excel, but the current folders facility is new to Excel 2010. They both feature smaller grey ‘pins’ which when clicked have the impact of ‘pinning’ your documents and folders onto the brief list of recent files. This is a quite useful function and stops your most used documents from dropping off the bottom from the list. It doesn’t actually pin them to the exact same spot and you will find that they will move around the list, but at least they won’t be lost for superior as you open additional documents.

The Ribbon
Last but not least, the Ribbon itself can be customised by adding tool buttons which you use frequently. To do this, first click the File menu and select Possibilities. Now select ‘Customise Ribbon’ and then click ‘New Group’. It is necessary to create a new group to be able to added buttons for the Ribbon toolbar. Tool buttons can now be added to this custom group by choosing from the menu on the left and then clicking ‘Add’. Ultimately the custom group can be given a user-friendly name by clicking the ‘Rename’ button.

Summary
Once we’ve become familiar using the new Ribbon style of navigation in Excel 2010, most customers do seem to prefer the system. Coupled with the facility to simply customise the Ribbon to suit your private requirements, Excel 2010 would appear to be the ideal version yet offered by Microsoft.

Sorting tabs alphabetically has always been something of  a problem in Excel as there isn’t actually a facility for this in the software. However, it can be quite easily achieved with a simple VBA macro. The following script should work in all Excel version from 97 onwards:

Sub SortSheets()
Dim i As Integer, j As Integer
For i = 1 To Sheets.Count
For j = 1 To Sheets.Count – 1
If UCase$(Sheets(j).Name) > UCase$(Sheets(j + 1).Name) Then
Sheets(j).Move after:=Sheets(j + 1)
End If
Next j
Next i
End Sub

To use the script:

• First enable the Developer tab on the Ribbon. This can be done by clicking File then choosing Options. Select Customise Ribbon and then tick the box marked Developer.
• Next click the Developer tab and then click the Visual Basic tool button.
• Now click Insert on the VBA menu and choose Module.
• Next paste the VBA script into the Module window which will opened.
• Close the VBA window, then click Macros on the Developer tab.
• Finally, select the SortSheets macro the click the Run button. The worksheet tabs will now be arranged alphabetically.