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There are seven pandas hidden in this workbook [Easter Eggs]

Excel Challenges - 54 comments

It is Easter time again. This year, we drove to my brother’s house in Hyderabad (700 km away from my home) to spend a weekend doing absolutely nothing (we will eat copious amount of food, share family memories, laugh and laze). It is Chandoo.org tradition to share few puzzles during Easter time, a la an Excel themed virtual Easter egg hunt. This year, I have prepared an amazing challenge for you.

seven-pandas-2016-easter-egg

There are 7 pandas hidden in this workbookOne in each sheet.

How to find them pandas?

  • In each sheet, you will find the word “panda” or image of “panda” mentioned in a cell / object / chart.
  • You need to locate that using either clues, techniques or good old hunting.

I had a lot of fun preparing the workbook. I hope you will enjoy this hunt.

Want more eggs? Check out previous Easter egg hunts

Go thru previous year hunts. Be warned though, they are highly addictive.

2015, 20142013, 2012, 2011, 20102009

Chandoo

Hello Awesome...

My name is Chandoo. Thanks for dropping by. My mission is to make you awesome in Excel & your work. I live in Wellington, New Zealand. When I am not F9ing my formulas, I cycle, cook or play lego with my kids. Know more about me.

I hope you enjoyed this article. Visit Excel for Beginner or Advanced Excel pages to learn more or join my online video class to master Excel.

Thank you and see you around.

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Written by Chandoo
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Home: Chandoo.org Main Page
? Doubt: Ask an Excel Question

54 Responses to “There are seven pandas hidden in this workbook [Easter Eggs]”

  1. Khalid NGO says:

    Hi Chandoo,
    This is awesome *****

    Found 6, just one remaining, and I think it should be in sheet2, as I found 1 in each sheet but didn't found anything in sheet2 (till yet, I am keep looking).

    Very cleaver and amazing work, enjoyed a lot...
    Thanks Chandoo for this beautiful work.

    Wish you have great time at Hyderabad.

    Regards,

    Khalid

  2. Ranjith says:

    There is one on first sheet, if you press F5 (goto), the word PANDA can be seen there.

  3. Khalid NGO says:

    Oh I found the last one, (custom format hmm)

    Truly Amazing and the beauty of this forum.

    You are an Artist Chandoo.

  4. Ranjith says:

    Hi Chandoo,

    Wow, you really have magical skills. I am in office and this sheet ate up an hour of my time....didn't expect that.

    I could find 5 of the 7 pandas. Didn't know one could hide so much data in innocent looking excel sheets.

    Thanks!
    -Ranjith

  5. prashant says:

    yeah! found all 7 panda, time to go to china.

  6. Wookiee says:

    This was very fun and challenging, thanks for posting! I found all of them (well, Sheet1 was tricky, it seems you're supposed to find the cell and type it in yourself?). Wasn't sure if it was cool to post the answers here or not, though. Guess I'll post SPOILER ALERTS so you can skip the rest of the message if you don't want to see what I came up with.

    SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
    My answers appear below.

    Sheet1: type PANDA in cell PAN3489
    Sheet2: cell AB201
    Sheet3: cell J8 (Picture1)
    Sheet4: cell H9
    Sheet5: expand Chart1
    Sheet6: formula = "=MID(ADDRESS(9,2^3*23*59,4),1,3)&BIN2HEX(11011010)"
    Sheet7: named range (A1:I18)

    • Rachel says:

      Wookie - I would love to get a walkthrough of HOW you figured out sheet 1 and a bit of a formula walkthrough for Sheet 6.

      Basically, I don't know how I could have found that particular cell input message on Sheet 1.

      And I have no clue about the BIN2HEX part of the formula...before your hint I was able to get the output to read AN9DA. The change to MID and the addition of that ',1' changed it to PANDA...

      • Stef says:

        Hi Rachel,

        To get to the cell in sheet 1 you can press: ctrl G. Then special and then data validation: all. This is also the way to find panda in sheet 7 😉

    • Mike V. says:

      I agree, this was a fun way to test your ability to navigate through the functionality of Excel! And since you already posted the SPOILER ALERT warning, I should be safe posting a reply to your comment with some solutions of my own... 🙂

      I found all the same solutions you did with a few minor changes:
      Sheet1: If you notice, cell PAN3489 has Custom formatting. You don't have to type "PANDA", just the number 1.
      Sheet6: The MID function works as you described, but you can also simply change the RIGHT function to the LEFT function without having to add in the start and end positions for MID.
      Sheet7: Yes, the range name for these cells is called PANDA, but you don't see the actual word in the sheet unless you change the Zoom setting to 39% or less (hence the clue "Z" 39%).

      Thanks again for a great post, Chandoo!!

    • giz a job in reading berks says:

      I must admit sheet 7 defeated me, but I have some corrections

      Sheet 1 - you type =LEFT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN(),2),3)&DEC2HEX(ROW())
      in PAN3489 to get "PANDA1". As it is the first panda. I think panda1 is appropriate, but maybe
      =LEFT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN(),2),3)&LEFT(DEC2HEX(ROW()),2)
      is better, because it leaves you with "PANDA"
      Sheet 6 - I corrected to
      =LEFT(ADDRESS(9,2^3*23*59,4),3)&BIN2HEX(11011010)
      Picky I know, but who uses mid when a right or a left will do?

      • Wookiee says:

        I know; that was weird. I did try using a LEFT formula, but I kept getting the $ prefix from the cell address. So I tried a couple of variations using MID and it gave me the result I needed. This is actually the first time I've ever tried using a MID formula starting at the first character, but I wasn't trying to spend a lot of time on it, so I went with what worked.

    • SunnyKow says:

      Sheet1: Type 1 in PAN3489
      Sheet6: =LEFT(ADDRESS(9,2^3*23*59,4),3)&BIN2HEX(11011010)

    • Geoff says:

      Slight change...

      For sheet 1 goto PAN3489 and type in 1. The word PANDA appears.

  7. Clare says:

    Love it!
    Sheet 6 was my favorite. How many people still know what binary, hex and octal are? :o)

  8. Rob says:

    -----Spoilers---------

    Alternate Solutions

    1) Type "1" (not the quotes) in PAN3489 and Excel will turn "1" into "PANDA"

    6) The formula Wookie lists also works with LEFT in place of MID

    Lot of fun. Solve time ~20 mins.

    • Navdeep says:

      @ Rob
      How this 1 turns to PANDA .. means How this is done by excel any formula or something in VBA

      Also how to reach cell PAN3489 .. there are no clues given on sheet 1

      • Kah Hoe says:

        You reach PAN3489 by pressing Ctrl + End to bring you to the last used cell in Sheet 1

      • Rob says:

        @ Navdeep I found PAN3489 by going to "Formulas" and then "Name Manager" and saw there was a field called "Clue1" listed in the Name Manger that references 3489. Finding PAN as the column index was just a bit of a lucky guess through trial and error. Then a note in cell PAN3489 when you navigate there says to try "typing something." I tried scrolling through the Format Cells menu to see if the text typed in the cell needed to be formatted a certain way, and noticed that "1= Panda" was listed in the custom text menu and tried it. A bit brute force, but I think the desired text entry.

  9. Ted says:

    Clever!
    The Data Validation one took me a bit. Had to resort to brute force.
    Thanks for the fun!

  10. Nevill says:

    Awesome! Found 7 pandas in 20 minutes)))

    Sheets 1 and 6 were the best!

    Thanks!

  11. Dylan says:

    Sheet 1: The answer is not type in Panda. Type 1. There's a special formatting that replaces 1 with Panda.

    Sheet 6: Just replace right with left, don't worry about changing the numbers.

    Sheet 7: I found the named range, but don't know what the Z 39% means. Thoughts?

  12. Nevill says:

    WOW! I've just found the secret eighth PANDA!
    Truly awesome!!!
    Am I the first one who figured that out, guys?

    Btw, thanks for the puzzle!

  13. Mark says:

    Found them all - very inventive. Had to think outside the "box". Great fun!

  14. Navdeep says:

    It was truly a artists work
    chandoo you are grate
    all sheets are deigned different from each other

    @Wookiee: you have a good for others by posting the answers, Thank you too

  15. achyutanam says:

    it is fun and great invent

  16. Sachin N Harale says:

    Guys I Got 8 PANDA in the workbook... 🙂
    [Look Chandoo has against played great trick by reserving one more ester egg, but we are also fan of none other than Chandoo, who can get hold of hidden 8th (untold) ester egg]

    Here is the full list:
    1) Sheet1: Type 1 in Cell PAN3489
    2) Sheet2: Goto Cell AB201
    3) Sheet3: Check the picture located above cell J8
    4) Sheet4: Goto Cell H8
    5) Sheet5: Cells, viz., A4, A10, A16, A21, A29 have all alphabets of PANDA
    6) Sheet5: Resize the chart to see PANDA
    7) Sheet6: Correct the formula as LEFT(ADDRESS(9,2^3*23*59,4),3)&BIN2HEX(11011010)
    8) Sheet7: Range A1:I18 is named as PANDA

    • Viney Mehta says:

      1) Sheet1: Type 1 in Cell PAN3489
      2) Sheet2: Goto Cell AB201
      3) Sheet3: Check the picture in the cell J8
      4) Sheet4: Goto Cell H9
      5) Sheet5: Resize the chart to see PANDA
      6) Sheet6: Correct the formula as LEFT(ADDRESS(9,2^3*23*59,4),3)&BIN2HEX(11011010)
      7) Sheet7: Range A1:I18 is named as PANDA

    • Kah Hoe says:

      Actually, for sheet7, if you set the zoom to 39% or less, you will see the word PANDA. Yet another PANDA! 🙂

  17. RAM says:

    Hi,
    i want to know how to manage bill wise manage vendor invoice and payment in excel please suggest.

    Thanks,
    Ram

  18. Tasneem says:

    Hi Chandoo!

    You rock with these amazing skills!

    Sheet 1: ??
    Sheet 2: ??
    Sheet 3: Cell J8
    Sheet 4: Cell H9
    Sheet 5: A4, A10, A16, A21, A29
    Sheet 6: B2
    Sheet 7: ???

  19. Wajahat Bashir says:

    Sheet1 F5
    Sheet2 AB201
    Sheet3 Picture1
    Sheet4 H9
    Sheet5 Chart
    Sheet7 Zoom to 30%

  20. Leon-K says:

    I love this time of year and look forward to Chandoo's egg hunts. Whilst I got all the pandas, I do not understand how sheet 7 works; Where is the source data and why does it only work when zoomed out to 39% or more?

    • Hui... says:

      @Leon-K
      When you change the zoom level to be less than 40% Excel shows the Ranges which have Names applied to them

      • Leon-K says:

        Ha ha, that's fantastic. Thanks Hui. @Chandoo, thanks for yet another method to decrypt worksheets in order to re-build or explain them better to clients.

  21. Bryan says:

    These were fantastic and kept me intrigued until I could finish them. (Had to look here for help with Sheet1!) Definitely learning a lot about some new formulas. Awesome, Chandoo!

  22. Bryan says:

    Ok, just saw the notes on the Zoom 39% on Sheet 7. Can someone explain what's happening here and why PANDA shows up at that level?

  23. Rajesh Kumar SIngh says:

    Wow, great exercise.
    Tried and solved 5 out of seven and other two solved incorrectly (1 & 6).
    Thanks 🙂

  24. Gauri says:

    Hi Chandoo,
    Gr8 ...had fun in searching it. I got 5 out of 7.
    You are brilliant.

  25. Raja Aurongzeb says:

    Found all except in sheet6 as not able to understand formula.

    thanks
    Raja Aurongzeb

  26. Sachin Gupta says:

    Hi,

    I am not able to find 1st Panda, which is on Sheet1. Rest all I have found.

  27. Hiren says:

    Wonderful Chandooji... you are brilliant.

  28. Prashanthi says:

    Wow.. Awesome set of puzzles Chandoo!!

    Am now trying to figure out how sheet 7 was prepared.. 39% Zoom setting logic.. Can someone help me with a hint?

    Thanks!

    • Prashanthi says:

      Looks like this is an XL feature.. Zooming out the worksheets below 40% level, by default displays all named ranges (more than 2 cells)! Had not come across this till date..

  29. MF says:

    Great works! Was having FUN in finding the pandas. Thanks.

    btw, I used one basic function (Find, CTRL+F) to find 2 pandas. Simply Find "Panda" within "Workbook"... To my surprise, seems no one mentioned that in the process.

    On other other hand, Selection and Visibility Pane is a handy tool to see if there is "extra" shapes for locating pandas hidden in chart/picture.

  30. Shungu says:

    Had fun doing this, Found 5 and the rest I saw clues on here 🙂

  31. Monisha says:

    I really enjoyed when finding the pandas.And also I am so surprised.Very Nice thought and Excellent.

  32. pmsocho says:

    This was fun! Thanks!

  33. Kawser Ahmed says:

    Nice and fun post. Thanks, Chandoo!

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