This article is written by Myles Arnott from Excel Audit
I briefly covered Excel’s Go To Special function in the Managing Spreadsheet Risk series of articles and both Chandoo and I felt that it deserved a post all of its own.
What is Go To Special?
Go To Special is a tool within Microsoft Excel that enables you to quickly select cells of a specified type within your Excel worksheet. Once you get to grips with this function and what it can be used for you will wonder how you ever lived without it.
Where do I find Go To Special?
Shortcut: F5 or CTRL + G and then click on Special…
2003: Edit > Go To
2007 & 2010:Home > Find & Select > Go To Special on the Ribbon
(Note: a cut down selection of the most useful options in Go To Special can be selected directly under Find & Select on the Ribbon in 2007 & 2010.)
Lets look at Go To Special in action
Firstly download this workbook. This is more or less the same workbook that we used in the Managing Spreadsheet Risk series, modified slightly to allow us to cover all elements of the Go To Special function. (Note that it therefore includes a lot of errors)
Here are the options on the Go To Special dialogue box:
Lets run through each of the Go to special options.
Comments
Action: Selects all cells with comments
Benefit: A quick way of finding all cells with comments, particularly useful if you want to clear all comments from your worksheet
Constants
Action: Selects all cells containing constants
Options:
Numbers: Selects all cells with constants that are numbers
Text: Selects all cells with constants that are text
Logicals: Selects all cells with constants that are logicals (TRUE or FALSE)
Benefit: The number constants in your spreadsheet should all be inputs. Highlighting all constants is a great way of checking the structure of your spreadsheet. I normally format inputs with a white background and blue font.
A great tool for auditing – select all constants and change the fill colour. This instantly gives you visibility of your model inputs and flags any inconsistencies.
Formulas
Action: Selects all cells containing formulas
Options:
Numbers:Selects all cells with formulas that return numbers
Text: Selects all cells with formulas that return text
Logicals: Selects all cells with formulas that return logicals (TRUE or FALSE)
Benefit: Highlighting all of the formulas within your spreadsheet is a great way of checking the structure and consistency of your spreadsheet.
Blanks
Action: Selects all blank cells
Benefit: A quick way to select all blank cells. This is useful if you want to quickly format all blank cells or as a way of identifying cells that look blank but actually contain a constant or formula (i.e. with white on white formatting).
(Related: Fill Blank Cells )
Current region
Action: Selects the current region
Comment: I would recommend using the shortcut CTRL + * instead
Current array
Action: Selects the entire array if the active cell is within an array
Comment: I have never used this option but would be very interested to hear if anyone has.
Objects
Action: Selects all objects (shapes, images, charts etc)
Benefit: A simple way to select all objects. This could be useful if you wanted to quickly delete all objects in the worksheet.
Row differences
Action:
Single row: Selects the cells that are different from the active cell within the selected row
Multiple rows: The comparison is made for each row independently. The cell used for comparison for each row is the cell in the same column as the active cell.
Benefit: This is a very useful auditing tool for highlighting inconsistent formulas in a row.
It also offers a quick and easy way to spot differences across multiple rows.
(Note: You can change the active cell within a selected row by pressing enter)
Column differences
Action:
Single column: Selects the cells that are different from the active cell within the selected column
Multiple columns: The comparison is made for each column independently. The cell used for comparison for each column is the cell in the same row as the active cell.
Benefit: This is a very useful auditing tool for highlighting inconsistent formulas in a column. It also offers a quick and easy way to spot differences across multiple columns.
Precedents
Action: Selects the cells that feed into the selected cell(s)
Options:
Direct only: First level precedent only
All levels: All levels of cell precedents
Benefit: Provides an alternative to Trace Precedents in the formula auditing bar. Personally I prefer using this tool to select and then colour-fill the precedent cells as it allows you to select the precedents for a range of cells rather than just one. I also find that the arrows in Trace Precedents can get a little messy.
Dependents
Action: Selects the cells that the selected cell(s) feed into
Options:
Direct only: First level dependents only
All levels: All levels of cell dependents
Benefit: As above this provides an alternative to Trace Dependents in the formula auditing bar.
Last cell
Action: Selects the last used cell within your worksheet (containing data or formatting)
Benefit: A quick way to locate your last cell. This is a very effective way of identifying the range of cells used of the worksheet.
If your simple spreadsheet suddenly becomes very large in MB terms this can be due to Excel incorrectly thinking that you are using a lot more of the cells than you actually are . A good indicator of this is that the right hand scroll bar slider becomes very small. Using Go To Special Last cell lets you quickly identify the last cell Excel thinks you are using.
Visible cells only
Action: Selects cells that are not hidden (& therefore are visible)
Benefit: Useful if you only want to change the non-hidden cells and leave the hidden cells unchanged
Conditional formats
Action: Selects all of the cells with conditional formatting applied
Options:
All: Selects all cells with conditional formatting applied
Same: Selects all cells that have the same conditional formatting as is applied to the active cell
Benefit: An easy way to quickly identify all of the cells with conditional formatting applied to them. A useful tool for understanding the formatting applied to a spreadsheet.
You need to be aware that, depending on the conditional formatting set, you may not be able to highlight the cells using a fill colour as the conditional formatting may override it.
Comment: The manage rules option within the conditional formatting menu also enables you to identify cells with conditional formatting applied.
Data validation
Action: Selects all of the cells with data validation applied
Options:
All: Selects all cells with data validation applied
Same: Selects all cells that have the same data validation as is applied to the active cell
Benefit: An easy way to quickly identify all of the cells with data validation applied to them. This is particularly useful from an auditing perspective or if you want to clear the validations in these cells.
Some considerations for Go To Special
- Go To Special only selects cells in the current worksheet rather than the whole workbook.
- Go To Special searches within the selected range, if you want to select the entire worksheet ensure that only one cell is selected
Putting this in to practice
In order to give you some examples of how to use the Go To Special tools covered above I have put together a list of actions for you to run over the attached spreadsheet. Have a play and see what you discover:
(note that the action “Select cell A1” is simply to clear the current range selected. Failing to do this will restrict the new search to the currently selected range)
1) Look for cells containing data validation and conditional formatting
Select cell A1, Go To Special, Data validation (All)
Select cell A1, Go To Special, Conditional formatting (All)
2) Check the structure of the spreadsheet
Select cell A1, Go To Special, Constants ,text, fill the selection in brown
Select cell A1, Go To Special, Constants ,numbers, fill the selection in blue
Select cell A1, Go To Special, Constants ,errors, fill the selection in purple
Select cell A1, Go To Special, Formulas (leave all options ticked), fill the selection in green
Select cell A1, Go To Special, Formulas, errors, fill the selection in red
(Note: any cells with conditional formatting will not be changed by the fill colours above)
I have recorded the above steps into a macro to give you a useful audit macro that could be adapted for future use. Click on the button on the Info tab to run the macro.
See these pages for information on macros.
3) Check the range C9:S9 for any inconsistent formulas
Select the range C9:S9, Go To Special, Row differences, fill the selection in yellow
4) Review the precedents for the formulas in row 25
Select the range C25:S25, Go To Special, Trace Precedents, Direct only
5) See if there are any charts in the spreadsheet
Select cell A1, Go To Special, Objects
6) Find the last cell
Select cell A1, Go To Special, Last cell
Added by Chandoo:
Do you use Go to Special?
I use go to special (both dialog box and keyboard shortcuts) all the time. It is a really easy way to navigate a complex workbook and quickly select what you want. My favorite uses of Go to special are, selecting blank cells, finding data validations, locking formula cells, formatting input cells (constants). To find conditional formatting I usually go to home > conditional formatting > manage rules and see all the formatting rules in current worksheet. For formula auditing I rely on audit toolbar & manual inspection of the workbook.
What about you? Have you used Go to Special? What are your favorite features? Please share using comments.
Thanks to Myles
Many thanks to Myles for compiling all the tips & sharing this with us. If you have enjoyed this article, please say thanks to Myles. You can also reach him at Excel Audit or his linkedin profile.
28 Responses to “FIFA Worldcup 2018 Excel Tracker – FREE Download”
Good work as always - I liked the way you did the "menu" on the left hand side (although the buttons aren't lined up between tabs if I'm being ultra picky)
Have you previously written about the method of extracting the Wikipedia page into Power Query? It's not something I recall seeing before.
ps other geeky observsations:
- the bracket columns are too narrow for the date & match number - and will need to be wider still when the team names get populated
- match 51 should be Moscow (Luzhniki) for consistency
- it's not possible to be 23 hours ahead of GMT - the International Dateline gets in the way! I think the maximum is 14. There are also a couple of countries who work to a quarter hour to make it really complicated!
- There's a typo in the how-to - "compated" instead of compared
Thanks for the lovely feedback. I have fixed almost all of them.
1) button alignment: this is tricky as row heights can change between sheets.
2) Column width is fixed now so bracket view looks better
3) Updated the stadium name
4) Did not bother with the 23 hours ahead thingie. This is more of a novelty feature 😛
5) Fixed the type
6) Fixed an issue with live score table. This should work as long as the points table is maintained in wikipedia page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_FIFA_World_Cup
7) I have not discussed the technique of reading all tables on webpage to one big table. Watch out for a blog post on this soon.
Button alignment is one for the ultra-OCD sufferers 😉 There are ways, but only for those with too much time on their hands.
Aah, Excel. The perfect tool for people like us. Everything (cells) is in same shape and size by default and aligned perfectly. 😀
Is there actually a way to copy row heights (in the same way you copy column widths?)
By the way Chandoo, great post. I'm forwarding to my department. I actually use another query from the same page to automatically fill in the team names for the knock-out stages (I made one for round of 16 which I then duplicated and edited for quarter-finals etc.) This is incredible, I was always wondering how to do these type of queries from the web, and now I know 🙂
Hello!
This is quite amazing and incredibly cool to use 🙂
Testing the constraints of this sheets a few errors popped I noticed:
- Vlookup Group E-H refers to column J instead of E (eg. Brazil gets the same points as Russia because the formula looks up Russia twice)
- Power query only has 29 lines, the overview of has 32 but the 3 countries from group A are lost as the overview is refreshed - causing N/A in the group stage colums
@Jake.. thank you. I am sorry for the errors. I could not test the live points table until the games began. I see my folly now. I have fixed both issues and uploaded a new file. As the points table relies on a wikipedia page, if someone decides to change the layout or rename a column it can seriously harm this template. I took some precautions in the Power Query layer to adjust column names dynamically etc, but it is not foolproof.
Try downloading the newer version and let me know if you see something funny.
No worries!
Was able to fix the vlookup myself but the power query had me bit stumped 🙂 And wanted to give you a heads-up to everyone can enjoy it!
Thanks for the awesome sheet!
Hi,
Thanks for sharing this world cup tracker. Certainly makes it more interesting when the data is current. As a newbie, it also helps to have a couple of mistakes to find whether unintentional or not.
Thanks again
Hi,
Your v-lookups in the "Group Stage" tab for groups E, F, G, and H (all the ones under column O) are pointing to the wrong country. They all point to column J, so whatever happens to the countries in column J will also be reflected for the countries in the groups in column O for that same row.
Just thought I'd call that out. Thanks for the great work on this!
@Christian... Thanks for trying this and letting me know about lookups. I have fixed the issue now. Please download latest version for that and few more fixes.
Refresh All did not work correctly. Team names vanished though points were updated.
@Sheeloo... Can you please try with latest version (download again using above links). I tested up to latest Iran's stunning win over Morocco and it works.
Dear Chandoo
Thanks a lot for this worksheet.
However, while refreshing the data, I am getting error message as "Initialisation of Data Source failed".
May I know what version of Excel you are using? Do you have internet connectivity? If you are familiar with Power Query, try tracing the steps in the query editor. And oh, first start with the latest version of file (link above).
@Etienne - yes. Copy row, paste formats will do it, although obviously that will bring the formats of every cell in the row as well as the height.
Latest version seems to be working well.
One request: the Groups & Points tables on the Group Stage sheet have the team names pre-entered. This means they don't get sorted according to the results.
On my copy, I've changed them to a lookup, so they appear in the same order as the points table. It would be good if you can do the same if/when you release a new update!
Here's what I did. It's not the most elegant, but it works, and I didn't have much time to spend on it!
Using helper values of 1,2,3,4 in columns I and N for each group, the formula for the first team name in group A (cell J4) is:
=INDEX(points[Team],MATCH(OFFSET(J4,-(I4),0),points[Group],0)+(I4-1))
This can be copied & pasted to the other team name cells.
Cheers!
Good suggestion. I have made changes to the points table to remove lookups and just show teams in the order they appear in the detailed table. This way, You will see top two teams on first two rows. We could highlight them as well (figured this would make it look like a bowl of M&Ms, so didn't bother) or highlight *YOUR* team.
I consider my Excel skills as above average but far from guru and I love how your little projects like this get me to look at data in a new way. I would like to expand on the data in the points table through the use of some calculations but I am a little challenged by the data coming across as text. The Pts column is easy to deal with, but I'm having problems with the GD. The negative goal differential looks like it may be noted with an en dash instead of a minus sign, but if I search for an en dash in the data Excel doesn't find any. I would like to include conversion to a minus sign in my little macro so I can get everything to numbers but so far I am not having any luck. Any thoughts? Thanks for your help.
Thanks for such kind words 🙂
I suggest adding an extra step in Power Query to convert points, GD & other columns to numbers. You can replace em dash in PQ. I did not do it as this will add another layer of dependency and should the wikipedia page change, one more reason for the query to fail.
As always, an awesome spreadsheet from Chandoo. I love the Power Query score update without macros. The country watch-out is a unique feature as well!
For those who like a predictor template with flag lookup and a ribbon UI, here is our spreadsheet:
https://www.spreadsheet1.com/fifa-world-cup-2018-russia-free-prediction-templates-for-excel.html
Here is our World Cup 2022 template with LAMBDA functions:
https://www.spreadsheet1.com/fifa-world-cup-2022-qatar-free-prediction-templates-for-excel.html
[…] Interesting World Cup Tracker here at chandoo.org : https://chandoo.org/wp/fifa-worldcup-2018-tracker/ […]
Great template!
I came across another one with image vlookups for country flags
https://eexcel.co.uk/downloads (World_Cup_2018_Sweepstake.xlsx)
This is a great Template.
I am running Excel 2010 with the PowerQuery add-in running.
The scores will not update, so I followed the error and the second operation (Fitlered rows) says that the table is empty.
After a few minutes on Wikipedia, I realise that my PowerQuery skills are not good enough to work out what the issue is.
Any suggestions?
I would like to fix it myself is possible.
Thanks,
Sean.
@Sean... Can you try the latest version mate? I think it should work.
Where can I see the results for a specific match?
Thanks!
@Juan... You can now. I have included a results tab that shows match scores. This too is a live table. Just refresh data to get new results. Please download latest version file from links above to use this feature.
PS: There is another version coming soon with all goals too. I just have to spend some more time polishing the Json to table Power Query thingie.