Ok, Coffee can be one of them, but may be after the 3rd mug of the day, you will ask the question, “so, what are the productivity secrets of Excel 2007?”.
That, my friend, is the reason why you should put aside the mug and read this post carefully. The post is pure filtered decoction of tips you must sip.
if you like this post (or for that matter if you like coffee) please add it to your delicious bookmarks or stumble it or tweet it.
Thanks, You are beautiful.
Turn on the Clipboard pane, Copy paste like there is no tomorrow
We all swear by ctrl+c, ctrl+v. A large part of my MBA case studies were submitted intime thanks only to the awesome clipboard. But do you know that you can turn on the clipboard feature in Excel 2007 in a full panel view and use it to speed up the copy paste activity.
Hold Down ALT to see what keyboard shortcuts are available, press key and you will see more
All you have to do is hold the ALT key down. And I can bet that you will learn a fun and simple keyboard shortcut for something that you use everyday. What more, in Excel 2007 you can use most of the Excel 2003 (and earlier) keyboard shortcuts.
Lock a feature to Boost up your performance, for eg. lock format painter and paste formats everywhere
When you need to perform certain action several times, like for eg. if you want to paste the same formatting over 40 different cells, you can lock the format painter by double clicking on it. See the screencast to understand how it works.
(When you can inserting shapes etc, you can use “lock drawing mode” option from right click menu)
Make your charts and tables go everywhere, copy them as pictures
When you copy a chart / table of cells as picture, they take less space and look lot better when pasted.
Add Invisible / Hidden features to your Quick Access Toolbar
You can add hidden features of excel 2007 like camera tool etc. to the quick access toolbar (the tools that you usually see next to office button). Just click on the office button > Excel options > Customize and select “commands not in the ribbon”. These are the features that are not usually shown on ribbon (some of them are shown when you lets say select a chart or table or something like that).
Move the Quick Access Toolbar down to save mouse travel time
I think that title says it all. See the image.
Always save the files in Excel 2003-97 compatible mode
Very useful if your colleagues / clients are still using old versions. Just go to Office button > Excel Options > Save and change the file type to Excel 2003-97.
Click on the corner of a group of Ribbon Icons to launch its UI
This is not applicable for all groups. But for some groups of icons you see a little squarish icon on the bottom right corner. Just hit it to launch a friendly office 2003ish looking dialog to make changes to the settings etc.
Add chart related options to Quick Access Toolbar to save time
If you make a lot of charts, then it pays to add the chart related options like “adding error bars”, “adding axis” etc. to the quick access toolbar. Then you can press ALT+number to activate this feature and work with it without even moving your mouse.
Create a named range quickly by typing the name in the corner of formula bar
You can quickly create a named range by selecting a bunch of cells and typing the name in the formula bar’s left hand corner where usually cell address’ is displayed.
See the screencast.
BONUS: Enable Developer Ribbon Toolbar in Excel 2007
If you in to mochas and trying to explore macros, then this one is for you. Enable the Developer toolbar from Excel options > Popular and you can play with all those form controls and macros.
More Tips and Tricks on using Microsoft Excel
Did you enjoy the post? Do you want more ? Well, it is not coffee, so you can consume as much as you want. Start with these and see where your mouse takes you.
Excel Productivity – Advanced Tips & Tricks
Excel can be Exciting – 15 hacks you don’t know
100 Excel Tips, Tricks and Resources
Sign up today and recieve an E-book with 95 Excel & Charting Tips
14 Responses to “How to Add your Macros to QAT or Excel toolbars?”
We have only just got excel 2007 so this is helping me navigate my way through the differences cheers.
For Macro's i always add a Command Button, rename it something obvious, change the colour of it and finally add the following to its View Code section.
Application.Run "MAcro1"
This way anyone opening the file knows what to do if i ever win the lottery and dont make it in 🙂
Hi,
Good article. But I have this problem.
1) Customized QAT with a macro. Macro name = MacroX
2) Runs OK from original location (e.g. C:\TestLoaction1\TestFile.xls)
3) Copy past file to new location (e.g. C:\TestLoaction2\TestFile.xls)
Menu button now fails:
Cannot run the macro "C:\TestLoaction1\TestFile.xls'!MacroX' The macro may not be available in this workbook...
Of course the code is there, and macros are enabled.
Could get it to work after deleting and recreating macro custom buttons. So have to re-assign macro to QAT button every time I move the file?
If I put a form button on he worksheet and assign the macro to that, it's location independent.
Any ideas?
Thanks
@Ron
What you have said is correct
Macros within a worksheet are stored within the worksheet and hence follow it.
Macros referenced by a button in the QAT or elsewhere are locaed in a file and if that file is moved the linkages don't follow.
The easiest way around this is to store all your macros in a location that doesn't move and is in fact reloaded everytime that Excel starts and that is called the Personal.xlsx/b file.
These are refered to several time at Chandoo.org or have a read of
http://www.rondebruin.nl/personal.htm
or
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/deploy-your-excel-macros-from-a-central-file-HA001087296.aspx
In Excel 2003 and prior versions, a button added to the Toolbar maintained a DYNAMIC link to the file (e.g. Personal.xlsb) holding the assigned macro, such that if the file was relocated for any reason (by using Excel's native Save As command rather than just moving it via Windows Explorer), the link between the button and the file was updated.
I expected the same to occur with Excel 2007+, but alas, Microsoft in their infinite wisdom have removed another feature useful to advanced users (just as they did by removing the ability to design your own buttons)!!
So having just done some reorganisation of my files, I now have to remove and recreate every friggin macro button on my QAT (I have lots) - what a pain in the proverbial!!
Hi Hui,
Thanks for the help, that's really useful.
1) The macros I'm adding are for one specific Excel application, so I really wanted the macros to follow the file
2) I didn't want to have to pass other files around too and have users installing those - either Personal.xlsx/b or as an Add-In.
3) I realise now that the QAT additions will appear for other Excel workbooks in which I don't want the macros available.
So, it looks like I need to keep it local, by using a button on the worksheet. Unless you can suggest any way of adding to menus just for a specific workbook.
Thanks again for your help. Great site, so I'll be signing up for the emails.
Ron
I know I'm a little late jumping on this post, but wondering if anyone knows how to add a UDF to the QAT? I've saved my UDF in my personal workbook, but it does not show up in my list when I choose Macros when customizing my QAT. Suggestions? Thanks!!
@Cheryl: UDFs cannot be accessed like Macros. You can use them from other macros or from worksheet cells as formulas...
@David: If you save your macros file and then install it as an add-in then it will be always available for you.
The instructions work great when you are creating a new file, and it is still open. I find that I can't access macros after I've saved a file as an xlam and closed it. When I reopen the xlam, either by browsing to it, or by having it set to open as an addin using Excel Options, the macros are no longer available in the macros list when I go to edit the QAT. Any way around that?
[...] Add this macro as a button to Quick Access Toolbar [...]
I need to create a button that will run a macro. Once you click the button it needs to open up a browser asking you to select a report/file. Once you select the file, it will run the macro on the selected file and then save it as a new report with a name and the current date. I created the macro to sort/modify the report but I do not know how to do what I mentioned above. I hope this makes sense.
I'm having trouble adding a macro to the QAT. I've done everything up to step 5 but my macro isn't showing up. What am I doing wrong?
[...] Add Macros to Quick Access Toolbar (works in Excel 2003 & above) [...]
Hi,
Thank you for the explanation. Very useful for a recent switcher from office 2003 to office 2010.
My follow-up question is: in Excel (or ppt) 2010, can you customize the macro button that you put in the QAT?
In office 2003, once you chose the custom button for your Macro, you could then edit pixel by pixel the said button.
For instance, I've created 2 Macros in PPT that are converting all my slides to either English or French language, so I'd like one button to show EN and the other FR... that would be more meaningful that any of the possible "custom" office 2010 buttons
I read all the post and one important aspect to the QAT was never mentioned. That is, you have a macro driven worksheet that you want to share with other. You have customized the QAT with two icons to run the macros (VBA programs in reality). However, when the others receive the workbook, the icons are no where to be found. It's my understanding those "customized buttons" have been saved to an outside file, Excel.qat. QUESTION: Could one simply attach that file to your email, along with the worksheet, and tell the recipients to copy that file to correct location on their computer - C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office|\
Would the customize macro buttons then appear in the worksheet and, more importantly, work? Thanks for your thoughtfulness and thanks for well written instructions Chandoo!
MortW