Excel® 2007 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies®
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2006934843
ISBN-13: 978-0-470-03738-6
ISBN-10: 0-470-03738-5
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5
1B/QX/RS/QW/IN
Greg Harvey has authored tons of computer books, the most recent being Excel 2007 For Dummies, Windows Vista For Dummies Quick Reference, and Excel Workbook For Dummies. He started out training business users on how to use IBM personal computers and their attendant computer software in the rough-and-tumble days of DOS, WordStar, and Lotus 1-2-3 in the mid-80s of the last century. After working for a number of independent training firms, he went on to teaching semester-long courses in spreadsheet and database management software at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
His love of teaching has translated into an equal love of writing. For Dummies books are, of course, his all-time favorites to write because they enable him to write to his favorite audience, the beginner. They also enable him to use humor (a key element to success in the training room) and, most delightful of all, to express an opinion or two about the subject matter at hand.
To Kelly — a best friend, sorely missed . . . Semper Fidelis.
I am always so grateful to the many people who work so hard to bring my book projects into being, and this one is no exception. If anything, I am even more thankful for their talents, given the size and complexity of an All-in-One.
This time, special thanks are in order to Andy Cummings and Katie Feltman for giving me this opportunity to write and write and write about Excel in this great All-in-One format. Next, I want to express great thanks to my project editor, Beth Taylor, and, to my partner in crime, Christopher Aiken (I really appreciate all your encouragement on this one). Thanks also go to Gabrielle Sempf for the great technical edit, Adrienne Martinez for coordinating the book’s production, and everybody at Wiley Publishing.
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
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Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
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Layout and Graphics: Claudia Bell, Stephanie D. Jumper, Barbara Moore, Barry Offringa, Heather Ryan, Rashell Smith, Ronald Terry
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Anniversary Logo Design: Richard Pacifico
Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
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Title
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Conventions Used in This Book
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Book I : Excel Basics
Chapter 1: The Excel 2007 User Experience
Meet Excel’s Ribbon User Interface
Launching and Quitting Excel
Migrating to Excel 2007 from Earlier Versions
Chapter 2: Getting Help, Tips, and Updates
Browsing Excel 2007 Help
Using the Table of Contents
Searching Office Online for Help
Using Microsoft Update Service
Using the Microsoft Office Diagnostics
Chapter 3: Customizing Excel
Tailoring the Quick Access Toolbar to Your Tastes
Exercising Your Options
Add-In Mania
Book II : Worksheet Design
Chapter 1: Building Worksheets
Designer Spreadsheets
It Takes All Kinds (Of Cell Entries)
Data Entry 101
Saving the Data
Document Recovery to the Rescue
Chapter 2: Formatting Worksheets
Making Cell Selections
Adjusting Columns and Rows
Formatting Ranges as Tables with Table Styles
Formatting Cells from the Home Tab
Formatting the Cell Selection with the Mini Toolbar
Using the Format Cells Dialog Box
Hiring Out the Format Painter
Using Cell Styles
Conditional Formatting
Chapter 3: Editing and Proofing Worksheets
Opening a Workbook
Cell Editing 101
A Spreadsheet with a View
Copying and Moving Stuff Around
Find and Replace This Disgrace!
Spell Checking Heaven
Looking Up and Translating Stuff
Circling Invalid Data
Eliminating Errors with Text to Speech
Chapter 4: Managing Worksheets
Reorganizing the Worksheet
Reorganizing the Workbook
Working with Multiple Workbooks
Consolidating Worksheets
Chapter 5: Printing Worksheets
Selecting the Printer to Use
Previewing the Printout
Quick Printing the Worksheet
Printing the Worksheet from the Print Dialog Box
Working with the Page Setup Options
Headers and Footers
Solving Page Break Problems
Printing the Formulas in a Report
Book III : Formulas and Functions
Chapter 1: Building Basic Formulas
Formulas 101
Copying Formulas
Adding Array Formulas
Ranges Names in Formulas
Adding Linking Formulas
Controlling Formula Recalculation
Circular References
Chapter 2: Logical Functions and Error Trapping
Understanding Error Values
Using Logical Functions
Error-Trapping Formulas
Formula Auditing
Removing Errors from the Printout
Chapter 3: Date and Time Formulas
Understanding Dates and Times
Using Date Functions
Using Time Functions
Chapter 4: Financial Formulas
Financial Functions 101
Chapter 5: Math and Statistical Formulas
Math & Trig Functions
Statistical Functions
Chapter 6: Lookup, Information, and Text Formulas
Lookup and Reference
Information, Please . . .
Much Ado about Text
Book IV : Worksheet Collaboration and Review
Chapter 1: Protecting Workbooks and Worksheet Data
Password-Protecting the File
Protecting the Spreadsheet
Chapter 2: Linking Workbooks with Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks 101
Using the HYPERLINK Function
Chapter 3: Sending Workbooks Out for Review
Preparing a Workbook
Workbook Sharing 101
Workbooks on Review
Chapter 4: Sharing Worksheets and Worksheet Data
Office 2007 Data Sharing Basics
Using Smart Tags
Saving Workbooks in Other Usable File Formats
Publishing Workbooks to Shared Spaces
Book V : Charts and Graphics
Chapter 1: Charting Worksheet Data
Worksheet Charting 101
Selecting the Perfect Chart Type
Printing Charts
Chapter 2: Adding Graphic Objects
Graphic Objects 101
Importing Graphics
Drawing Graphics
Using Themes
Book VI : Data Management
Chapter 1: Building and Maintaining Data Lists
Data List Basics
Sorting Data
Subtotaling Data
Chapter 2: Filtering and Querying a Data List
Data List Filtering 101
Filtering Data
Using the Database Functions
External Data Query
Book VII : Data Analysis
Chapter 1: Performing What-If Scenarios
Using Data Tables
Exploring Different Scenarios
Hide and Goal Seeking
Using the Solver
Chapter 2: Generating Pivot Tables
Creating Pivot Tables
Formatting a Pivot Table
Sorting and Filtering the Pivot Table Data
Modifying the Pivot Table
Creating Pivot Charts
Book VIII : Excel and VBA
Chapter 1: Building and Running Macros
Macro Basics
Macro Security
Assigning Macros to the Quick Access Toolbar
Chapter 2: VBA Programming
Using the Visual Basic Editor
Creating Custom Excel Functions
Appendix: Using XML File Formats
The Excel 2007 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies brings together plain and simple information on using all aspects of the latest and greatest version of Microsoft Excel. It’s designed to be of help no matter how much or how little experience you have with the program. As the preeminent spreadsheet and data analysis software for the personal computer, Excel offers its users seemingly unlimited capabilities too often masked in technical jargon and obscured by explanations only a software engineer could love. On top of that, many of the publications that purport to give you the lowdown on using Excel are quite clear on how to use particular features without giving you a clue as to why you would go to all the trouble.
The truth is that understanding how to use the abundance of features offered by Excel is only half the battle, at best. The other half of the battle is to understand how these features can benefit you in your work, in other words, “what’s in it for you.” I have endeavored to cover both the “how to” and “so what” aspects in all my discussions of Excel features, being as clear as possible and using as little tech-speak as possible.
Fortunately, Excel is well worth the effort to get to know because it’s definitely one of the best data processing productivity tools that has ever come along. Its all new Ribbon user interface, Live Preview feature, and tons of ready-made galleries make this version of the program the easiest to use ever. In short, Excel 2007 is a blast to use when you know what you’re doing, and my great hope is that this “fun” aspect of using the program comes through on every page (or, at least, every other page).
As the name states, Excel 2007 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies is a reference (whether you keep it on your desk or use it to prop up your desk is your business). This means that although the chapters in each book are laid out in a logical order, each stands on its own, ready for you to dig into the information at any point.
As much as possible, I have endeavored to make the topics within each chapter stand on their own. When there’s just no way around relying on some information that’s discussed elsewhere, I include a cross-reference that gives you the chapter and verse (actually the book and chapter) for where you can find that related information if you’re of a mind to.
Use the full Table of Contents and Index to look up the topic of the hour and find out exactly where it is in this compilation of Excel information. You’ll find that although most topics are introduced in a conversational manner, I don’t waste much time cutting to the chase by laying down the main principles at work (usually in bulleted form) followed by the hard reality of how you do the deed (as numbered steps).
I’m only going to make one foolish assumption about you and that is that you have some need to use Microsoft Excel in your work or studies. If pushed, I further guess that you aren’t particularly interested in knowing Excel at an expert level but are terribly motivated to find out how to do the stuff you need to get done. If that’s the case, then this is definitely the book for you. Fortunately, even if you happen to be one of those newcomers who’s highly motivated to become the company’s resident spreadsheet guru, you’ve still come to the right place.
As far as your hardware and software go, I’m assuming that you already have Excel 2007 (usually as part of Microsoft Office 2007) installed on your computer, using a standard installation running under either Windows Vista or Windows XP. Although most of the figures in this book all show Excel 2007 happily running on Windows Vista, you will see the occasional figure showing Excel running on Windows XP in the rare cases (as when opening and saving files) where it does make a difference as to which operating system you’re using.
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So, please put this book down slowly and instead pick up a copy of Excel 2003 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies, published by Wiley Publishing.
Excel 2007 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies is actually eight smaller books rolled into one. That way, you can go after the stuff in the particular book that really interests you at the time, putting all the rest of the material aside until you need to have a look at it. Each book in the volume consists of two or more chapters consisting of all the basic information you should need in dealing with that particular component or aspect of Excel.
In case you’re the least bit curious, here’s the lowdown on each of the eight books and what you can expect to find there.
This book is for those of you who’ve never had a formal introduction to the program’s basic workings. Chapter 1 covers all the orientation material including how to deal with the program’s new Ribbon user interface. Of special interest may be the section on migrating to Excel 2007 from earlier versions of Excel: This section is intended to ease users who have some experience with earlier versions of Excel (97 through 2003) through the initial meeting and the first moments of getting used to Excel’s new way of doing business.
Chapter 2 is your place to go to find out how to get online help in Excel. Believe it or not, after you have the All-in-One basics down, some of the online help topics actually start making sense!
Chapter 3 is not to be missed, even by those of you who do not consider yourselves beginners by any stretch of the imagination. This chapter covers the many ways to customize Excel and make the program truly your own. It includes information on customizing the Quick Access toolbar as well as great information on how to use and procure add-in programs that can greatly extend Excel’s considerable features.
Book II focuses on the crucial issue of designing spreadsheets in Excel. Chapter 1 takes up the call on how to do basic design and covers all the many ways of doing data entry (a subject that’s been made all the more exciting with the addition of voice and handwriting input).
Chapter 2 covers how to make your spreadsheet look professional and read the way you want it through formatting. Excel offers you a wide choice of formatting techniques, from the very simple formatting as a table all the way to the now very sophisticated and super-easy conditional formatting.
Chapter 3 takes up the vital subject of how to edit an existing spreadsheet without disturbing its design or contents. Editing can be intimidating to the new spreadsheet user because most spreadsheets not only contain data entries that you don’t want to mess up but formulas that can go haywire if you make the wrong move.
Chapter 4 looks at the topic of managing the worksheets that contain the spreadsheet applications that you build in Excel. It opens the possibility of going beyond the two-dimensional worksheet with its innumerable columns and rows by organizing data three-dimensionally through the use of multiple worksheets (each Excel file already contains three blank worksheets to which you can add more). This chapter also shows you how to work with and organize multiple worksheets given the limited screen real estate afforded by your monitor and how to combine data from different files and sheets when needed.
Chapter 5 is all about printing your spreadsheets, a topic that ranks only second in importance to knowing how to get the data into a worksheet in the first place. As you expect, you find out not only how to get the raw data to spit out of your printer but also how to gussy it up and make it into a professional report of which anyone would be proud.
This book is all about calculations and building the formulas that do them. Chapter 1 covers formula basics from doing the simplest addition to building array formulas and using Excel’s built-in functions courtesy of the Function Wizard. It also covers how to use different types of cell references when making formula copies and how to link formulas that span different worksheets.
Chapter 2 takes up the subject of preventing formula errors from occurring, and, barring that, how to track them down and eliminate them from the spreadsheet. This chapter also includes information on circular references in formulas and how you can sometimes use them to your advantage.
Chapters 3 through 6 concentrate on how to use different types of built-in functions. Chapter 3 covers the use of date and time functions, not only so you know what day and time it is, but actually put this knowledge to good use in formulas that calculate elapsed time. Chapter 4 takes up the financial functions in Excel and shows you how you can use them to both reveal and determine the monetary health of your business. Chapter 5 is concerned with math and statistical functions (of which there are plenty). Chapter 6 introduces you to the powerful group of lookup, information, and text functions. Here, you find out how to build formulas that automate data entry by returning values from a lookup table, get the lowdown on any cell in the worksheet, and combine your favorite pieces of text.
Book IV looks at the ways you can share your spreadsheet data with others. Chapter 1 covers the important issue of security in your spreadsheets. Here, you find out how you can protect your data so that only those to whom you give permission can open or make changes to their contents.
Chapter 2 takes up the subject of building and using hyperlinks in your Excel spreadsheets (the same kind of links that you know and love on Web pages on the World Wide Web). This chapter covers how to create hyperlinks for moving from worksheet to worksheet within the same Excel file as well as for opening other documents on your hard disk, or logging onto the Internet and browsing to a favorite Web page.
Chapter 3 introduces Excel’s sophisticated features for sending out spreadsheets and having a team of people review and make comments on them. It also covers techniques for reviewing and reconciling the suggested changes.
Chapter 4 is concerned with sharing spreadsheet data with other programs that you use. It looks specifically at how you can share data with other Office 2007 programs such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. This chapter also discusses the role of Smart Tags in enabling you to automatically bring information into your spreadsheets from outside sources such as your Outlook Address Book and special Web sites on the Internet, how to save Excel files in a bunch of other easily-accessed file formats (PDF, XPS, and HTML), and how to publish them to shared spaces.
Book V focuses on the graphical aspects of Excel. Chapter 1 covers charting your spreadsheet data in some depth. Here, you find out not only how to create great looking charts but also how to select the right type of chart for the data that you’re representing graphically.
Chapter 2 introduces you to all the other kinds of graphics that you can have in your spreadsheets. These include graphic objects that you draw as well as graphic images that you import including clip art included in Microsoft Office as well as digital pictures and images imported and created with other hardware and software connected to your computer.
Book VI is concerned with the ins and outs of using Excel to maintain large amounts of data in what are known as databases or, more commonly, data lists. Chapter 1 gives you basic information on how to set up a data list and add your data to it. This chapter also gives you information on how to reorganize the data list through sorting and how to total its numerical data with the Subtotal feature.
Chapter 2 is all about how to filter the data and extract just the information you want out of it (a process officially known as querying the data). Here, you find out how to perform all sorts of filtering operations from the simplest, relying upon the AutoFilter feature, to the more complex that use custom filters and specialized database functions. Finally, you find out how to perform queries on external data sources such as those maintained with dedicated database management software for Windows such as Microsoft Access or dBASE as well as that run on other operating systems such as DB2 and Oracle.
Book VII looks at the subject of data analysis with Excel; essentially how to use the program’s computational abilities to project and predict possible future outcomes. Chapter 1 looks at the various ways to perform what-if scenarios in Excel. These include analyses with one- and two-input variable data tables, doing goal seeking, setting a series of different possible scenarios, and using the Solver add-in.
Chapter 2 is concerned with the topic of creating special data summaries called pivot table reports that enable you to analyze large amounts of data in an extremely compact and modifiable format. Here, you find out how to create and manipulate pivot tables as well as build pivot charts that depict the summary information graphically.
Book VIII introduces the subject of customizing Excel through the use of its programming language called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA for short). Chapter 1 introduces you to the use of the macro recorder to record tasks that you routinely perform in Excel for later automated playback. When you use the macro recorder to record the sequence of routine actions (using the program’s familiar menus, toolbars, and dialog boxes), Excel automatically records the sequence in the VBA programming language.
Chapter 2 introduces you to editing VBA code in Excel’s programming editor known as the Visual Basic Editor. Here, you find out how to use the Visual Basic Editor to edit macros that you’ve recorded that need slight modifications as well as how to write new macros from scratch. You also find out how to use the Visual Basic Editor to write custom functions that perform just the calculations you need in your Excel spreadsheets.
This book follows a number of different conventions modeled primarily after those used by Microsoft in its various online articles and help materials. These conventions deal primarily with Ribbon command sequences and shortcut or hot key sequences that you encounter.
Excel 2007 is a sophisticated program with a whole new and wonderful user interface, dubbed the Ribbon. In Chapter 1, I explain all about this new Ribbon interface and how to get comfortable with its new command structure. Throughout the book, you’ll find Ribbon command sequences using the shorthand developed by Microsoft whereby the name on the tab on the Ribbon and the command button you select are separated by vertical bars as in:
Home | Copy
This is shorthand for the Ribbon command that copies whatever cells or graphics are currently selected to the Windows Clipboard. It means that you click the Home tab on the Ribbon (if it’s not already displayed) and then click the Copy button (that sports the traditional side-by-side page icon).
Some of the Ribbon command sequences involve not only selecting a command button on a tab but then also selecting an item on a drop-down menu. In this case, the drop-down menu command follows the name of the tab and command button, all separated by vertical bars, as in:
Formulas | Calculation Options | Manual
This is shorthand for the Ribbon command sequence that turns on manual recalculation in Excel. It says that you click the Formulas tab (if it’s not already displayed) and then click the Calculation Options command button followed by the Manual drop-down menu option.
Although you use the mouse and keyboard shortcut keys to move your way in, out, and around the Excel worksheet, you do have to take some time to enter the data so that you can eventually mouse around with it. Therefore, this book occasionally encourages you to type something specific into a specific cell in the worksheet. Of course, you can always choose not to follow the instructions. When I tell you to enter a specific function, the part you should type generally appears in bold type. For example, =SUM(A2:B2) means that you should type exactly what you see: an equal sign, the word SUM, a left parenthesis, the text A2:B2 (complete with a colon between the letter-number combos), and a right parenthesis. You then, of course, have to press Enter to make the entry stick.
When Excel isn’t talking to you by popping up message boxes, it displays highly informative messages in the Status bar at the bottom of the screen. This book renders messages that you see on-screen like this:
Calculate
This is the message that tells you that Excel is in manual recalculation mode (after using the earlier Ribbon command sequence) and that one or more of the formulas in your worksheet are not up-to-date and are in sore need of recalculation.
Occasionally I give you a hot key combination that you can press in order to choose a command from the keyboard rather than clicking buttons on the Ribbon with the mouse. Hot key combinations are written like this: Alt+FS or Ctrl+S (both of these hot key combos save workbook changes).
command arrows
Finally, if you’re really observant, you may notice a discrepancy between the capitalization of the names of dialog box options (such as headings, option buttons, and check boxes) as they appear in the book and how they actually appear in Excel on your computer screen. I intentionally use the convention of capitalizing the initial letters of all the main words of a dialog box option to help you differentiate the name of the option from the rest of the text describing its use.
The following icons are strategically placed in the margins throughout all eight books in this volume. Their purpose is to get your attention, and each has its own way of doing that.
The question of where to go from here couldn’t be simpler — why, off to read the great Rich Tennant cartoons at the beginning of each of the eight books, of course. Then, go to Chapter 1 and find out what you’re dealing with. And, if you’re someone with some experience with earlier versions of Excel, I want you to head directly to the section, “Migrating to Excel 2007 from Earlier Versions” in Chapter 1, where you find out how to stay calm as you become familiar and, yes, comfortable with the new Ribbon user interface.
Which book you go to after that is a matter of personal interest and need. Just go for the gold and don’t forget to have some fun while you’re digging!