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Welcome to the inaugural column of the modestly titled Change Your Life with Excel, a series of time saving tips, tricks and secrets which will take you into the exciting world of Microsoft’s spreadsheet application. For more information, please contact +61 2 9080 4050, [email protected] , or visit: http://bit.ly/iired
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E-TIPS
Finance, Valuation, Risk & Modelling
your one-partner solution for building skills and knowledge
Change your life with Excel. Customise that Toolbar
elcome to the inaugural column of the modestly
titled Change Your Life with Excel, a series of
time saving tips, tricks and secrets which will take you
into the exciting world of Microsoft’s spreadsheet
application.
Most of us will have come across Excel in our working
lives, some to a much greater extent than others.
However the fact remains that the vast majority of users
will only scratch the surface of Excel’s capabilities (for
example, did you know that Excel is a great conversation
starter at parties and continued use can make you more
attractive)?
As a self confessed Excel addict who has witnessed the
horrors of seeing users take 10 or 15 minutes to
complete a 5 second task, I offer this series of columns
as a soupçon (thank you Excel translator) of
enlightenment to the wondrous world that is Microsoft
Excel.
Note that this column will focus on Excel 2003 since
around 75% of us still use this version. Only very basic
knowledge is presumed.
So without further flourish, let’s jump straight in with a
time saving tip and a useful secret i.e. a feature that
Excel keeps in an obscure place.
The Toolbar
Firstly, did you know that you can add or remove whole
Toolbars?
Customise that Toolbar The Toolbar is the name given to the row(s) of small
icons running across the top of your Excel screen.
• Select View from the Menubar (at the very top of the
screen)
• Select Toolbars from the menu which appears
View Toolbars
You will see that there are many more toolbars available,
categorised into common themes. For example if you find
that Excel’s Drawing tools are useful, then select the
Drawing option from the menu, which is then added to
the Toolbars already displayed.
W
By Leigh Drake Director Arc Business Processes www.arcbusiness.com.au
E-TIPS
Finance, Valuation, Risk & Modelling
your one-partner solution for building skills and knowledge
Once added, Toolbars can be moved around the screen
and “docked” to the top, bottom, left or right edges of
your screen.
• Grab the left end of the Toolbar as illustrated below (a
black crosshair appears)
• Slide it around the screen until you are happy with its
location
Moving a Toolbar
Secondly, rather than selecting a whole Toolbar to add,
you can just add further icons to your existing Toolbars
and place them where you want within that Toolbar.
• Right click anywhere within the Toolbar
• Select Customize… at the foot of the menu
• Choose the Commands tab on the dialogue box which
appears
•
Excel groups all Toolbar icons into common functions
listed in the left hand window of the dialogue box.
Selecting from one of these groups reveals a new set of
icons in the right hand window.
Suppose you want to add an icon to your Toolbar which
will insert rows into your spreadsheet when you click on
it.
• Select the Insert group in the left hand window
• If necessary, scroll down the right hand window until
the icon for the feature you require is displayed. In this
case the Rows icon (if you’re not sure which icon
represents the feature required, select a likely icon and
click on the Description button at the bottom left of the
dialogue box. This provides brief detail on what that
icon does)
Selecting an feature icon
• Click on the Insert Rows icon (just called Rows as in
the above illustration) and drag it up to the Toolbar you
want it displayed in and position it next to whichever
existing icons you require (a vertical black bar appears
to confirm where the icon will be placed)
Placing an icon in the Toolbar
The Customize dialogue box
E-TIPS
Finance, Valuation, Risk & Modelling
your one-partner solution for building skills and knowledge
The Insert Rows icon is now inserted into your Toolbar.
The newly placed icon
Now you can just select any cell in your spreadsheet,
click the Insert Rows icon and a row will be inserted
above the selected cell.
You can add or remove as many icons as you wish using
this method (to remove an icon, simply activate the
Customize dialogue box again then click and drag the
icon away from the Toolbar).
The customised Toolbars will remain in place on your
screen and apply to all Excel files until you decide to re-
customise.
Secret – List Unique Items
Have you ever had a list of information which contains
duplicates which you want to remove? For example you
may have a list of people’s first names, last names and
telephone numbers. Where they have multiple telephone
numbers, their names appear multiple times. You want a
list which includes their first names and last names only
once. Well Excel can do this in less time than it took to
read this paragraph.
Look at the list below.
It contains duplicate first names and duplicate last names
(the musical theme of these names is purely coincidental
and in no way reflects the author’s tastes. Do not try
calling these numbers - they won’t answer).
• Select the entire list (a good shortcut is to select any
cell within the list and press both the ctrl key and * key)
• Select Data from the Menubar at the very top of the
screen
• Select Filter
• Select Advanced Filter…
The Advanced Filter Dialogue box appears.
The Advanced Filter dialogue box
• Select Copy to another location
• In the List range box select only the range in the
worksheet which covers the First Name and Last
Name. To do this, select the List range box and then
highlight the range on the worksheet (in this example
A1:B15)
• In the Copy to box select a cell in the same worksheet
where you want to copy the resulting list to. Again,
select the Copy to box and then select any cell in the
worksheet (note that the resulting list can only be
copied within the same worksheet as the original list)
• Tick the Unique records only box. Very important!
List containing duplicate names
E-TIPS
Finance, Valuation, Risk & Modelling
your one-partner solution for building skills and knowledge
The completed Advanced Filter dialogue box
• Click OK
The filtered list with unique names only
The final filtered list includes names only once, but it still
allows first names or last names to be duplicated where
necessary.
Well there you have it – only 2 small croutons from the
vast Excel soup and already we’re making our lives
easier. If this leaves any of you hungry to learn more,
until the next column I highly recommend a visit to
www.mrexcel.com where you can download a daily 2
minute videocast of Excel tips. Heaven!
Until next time, I wish you happy Excelling.