How would you train your boss to use Excel better? [Weekend Survey]
I am in Sydney and yesterday we had a meetup of Sydney Excel users. Around 15 people turned up for the event and we talked about various Excel related topics over few drinks. One of the questions that came up was,
I learn and use Excel in better ways. But my boss doesn’t how to open the workbook and use simple stuff like filters, slicers, sorting and selecting. So I end up sending screenshots or PDFs instead of powerful Excel files. What to do?
Although we discussed various possible solutions to the problem, I thought it would be a good topic for us discuss here.
So how would you train your boss to use Excel?
Please share your thoughts, experiments, experiences and suggestions in the comments. Let’s make our bosses awesome.
Use arrow keys to select small, unreachable chart series [quick tip]
Here is a fairly annoying problem.
Imagine a chart showing both sales & customer data. Sales numbers are large and customer numbers are small. So when you make a chart with both of these, selecting the smaller series (customers) becomes very difficult.
In such cases, you can use arrow keys – as shown above.
CP033: There is an Easter egg in this podcast!!!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS
In the 33rd session of Chandoo.org podcast, let’s turn the mic to our listeners and hear their tips. What is in this session? This session has 2 things. A surprise Easter egg (an Excel tip hidden in the podcast audio) Collection of Excel tips recorded & submitted by Chandoo.org readers Listen to this session Click here […]
Use apply names to create readable formulas [quick tip]
We all know that using named ranges is a good practice. So you went ahead and created names for every value in your complex workbook. But now, what about those formulas which still refer to cells by their addresses? Here is a quick tip to make your formulas readable by replacing cell addresses with the names in one go.
Use Apply Names feature.
CP031: Invisibility Tricks – How to make things disappear in Excel?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS
In the 31st session of Chandoo.org podcast, let’s disappear.
What is in this session?
Spreadsheets are complex things. They have outputs, calculation tabs, inputs, VBA code, from controls, charts, pivot tables and occasional picture of hello kitty. But when it comes to making a workbook production ready, you may want to hide away few things so it looks tidy.
That is our topic for this podcast session.
In this podcast, you will learn
- Quick announcements first anniversary of our podcast etc.
- Hiding cells, rows, columns & sheets
- Hiding chart data points
- On/off effect with form controls, conditional formatting
- Making objects, charts, pictures disappear
- Disabling grid-lines, formula bar & headings
- Hiding things in print
Replace formulas with values with a simple wiggle
Here is a very simple & fun way to replace formulas with values.
(Earlier, we talked about how to do this with keyboard)
Just wiggle.
Wiggle what?
You can move formula help box with your mouse!!! [quick tip]
One of the most useful features of Excel is formula help box. You know the little yellow box that appears as soon as you start typing a formula in a cell. I use this all the time to understand what the syntax of a particular function is, what parameters to pass etc.
Although I love it, sometimes it does get in the way when writing formulas. Because the help box sits on top of my data, often I find it hard to know which cell to link to.
Solution?!?
Simple. Use your mouse to move away the help box wherever you want.