Excel 2010 Formulas E-Book

John Walkenbach

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Serie: Mr. Spreadsheet's Bookshelf
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Seitenzahl: 963

Beschreibung

Take your Excel formulas to the next level with this updated reference John Walkenbach's name is synonymous with excellence in computer books that decipher complex technical topics. Known as "Mr. Spreadsheet," Walkenbach provides you with clear explanations on all the methods you can use to maximize the power of Excel with formulas within the frameworks of all the new features of Excel 2010. You'll learn how to create financial formulas, maximize the power of array formulas, develop custom worksheet functions with VBA, debug formulas, and much more. This invaluable reference is fully updated for the new Microsoft Office release and provides comprehensive formulas coverage, delivering more than 800 pages of Excel tips, tricks, and techniques you won't find anywhere else. * Demonstrates how to use all the new features of Excel 2010 to maximize your formulas * Shows how to develop custom worksheet functions with VBA, debug formulas, create financial formulas, and more * Serves as an indispensable reference no matter your skill level * Includes a valuable CD-ROM with sample files, templates and worksheets from the book, plus John Walkenbach's award-winning Power Utility Pak Prepare to excel with Excel when you have John Walkenbach and Excel 2010 Formulas by your side! Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Leseprobe

Excel® 2010 Formulas

Table of Contents

Introduction

What You Need to Know

What You Need to Have

Conventions in This Book

Keyboard conventions

Mouse conventions

What the icons mean

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: Basic Information

Part II: Using Functions in Your Formulas

Part III: Financial Formulas

Part IV: Array Formulas

Part V: Miscellaneous Formula Techniques

Part VI: Developing Custom Worksheet Functions

Part VII: Appendixes

How to Use This Book

About the Companion CD-ROM

About the Power Utility Pak Offer

Reach Out

Part I: Basic Information

Chapter 1: Excel in a Nutshell

The History of Excel

It started with VisiCalc

Then came Lotus

Microsoft enters the picture

Excel versions

The Object Model Concept

The Workings of Workbooks

Worksheets

Chart sheets

Macro sheets and dialog sheets

The Excel User Interface

A new UI

The Ribbon

Backstage View

Shortcut menus and the Mini Toolbar

Customizing the UI

Smart Tags

Task pane

Drag and drop

Keyboard shortcuts

Customized on-screen display

Data entry

Object and cell selecting

The Excel Help System

Cell Formatting

Numeric formatting

Stylistic formatting

Tables

Worksheet Formulas and Functions

Objects on the Drawing Layer

Shapes

Illustrations

Linked picture objects

Controls

Charts

Sparkline graphics

Customizing Excel

Macros

Add-in programs

Internet Features

Analysis Tools

Database access

Outlines

Scenario management

Pivot tables

Auditing capabilities

Solver add-in

Protection Options

Protecting formulas from being overwritten

Protecting a workbook's structure

Password-protecting a workbook

Chapter 2: Basic Facts about Formulas

Entering and Editing Formulas

Formula elements

Entering a formula

Pasting names

Spaces and line breaks

Formula limits

Sample formulas

Editing formulas

Using Operators in Formulas

Reference operators

Sample formulas that use operators

Operator precedence

Nested parentheses

Calculating Formulas

Cell and Range References

Creating an absolute or a mixed reference

Referencing other sheets or workbooks

Making an Exact Copy of a Formula

Converting Formulas to Values

Hiding Formulas

Errors in Formulas

Dealing with Circular References

Goal Seeking

A goal seeking example

More about goal seeking

Chapter 3: Working with Names

What's in a Name?

A Name's Scope

Referencing names

Referencing names from another workbook

Conflicting names

The Name Manager

Creating names

Editing names

Deleting names

Shortcuts for Creating Cell and Range Names

The New Name dialog box

Creating names using the Name box

Creating names automatically

Naming entire rows and columns

Names created by Excel

Creating Multisheet Names

Working with Range and Cell Names

Creating a list of names

Using names in formulas

Using the intersection operators with names

Using the range operator with names

Referencing a single cell in a multicell named range

Applying names to existing formulas

Applying names automatically when creating a formula

Unapplying names

Names with errors

Viewing named ranges

Using names in charts

How Excel Maintains Cell and Range Names

Inserting a row or column

Deleting a row or column

Cutting and pasting

Potential Problems with Names

Name problems when copying sheets

Name problems when deleting sheets

The Secret to Understanding Names

Naming constants

Naming text constants

Using worksheet functions in named formulas

Using cell and range references in named formulas

Using named formulas with relative references

Advanced Techniques That Use Names

Using the INDIRECT function with a named range

Using the INDIRECT function to create a named range with a fixed address

Using arrays in named formulas

Creating a dynamic named formula

Part II: Using Functions in Your Formulas

Chapter 4: Introducing Worksheet Functions

What Is a Function?

Simplify your formulas

Perform otherwise impossible calculations

Speed up editing tasks

Provide decision-making capability

More about functions

Function Argument Types

Names as arguments

Full-column or full-row as arguments

Literal values as arguments

Expressions as arguments

Other functions as arguments

Arrays as arguments

Ways to Enter a Function into a Formula

Entering a function manually

Using the Function Library commands

Using the Insert Function dialog box

More tips for entering functions

Function Categories

Financial functions

Date and time functions

Math and trig functions

Statistical functions

Lookup and reference functions

Database functions

Text functions

Logical functions

Information functions

User-defined functions

Engineering functions

Cube functions

Compatibility functions

Other function categories

Chapter 5: Manipulating Text

A Few Words about Text

How many characters in a cell?

Numbers as text

Text Functions

Determining whether a cell contains text

Working with character codes

Determining whether two strings are identical

Joining two or more cells

Displaying formatted values as text

Displaying formatted currency values as text

Removing excess spaces and nonprinting characters

Counting characters in a string

Repeating a character or string

Creating a text histogram

Padding a number

Changing the case of text

Extracting characters from a string

Replacing text with other text

Finding and searching within a string

Searching and replacing within a string

Advanced Text Formulas

Counting specific characters in a cell

Counting the occurrences of a substring in a cell

Removing trailing minus signs

Expressing a number as an ordinal

Determining a column letter for a column number

Extracting a filename from a path specification

Extracting the first word of a string

Extracting the last word of a string

Extracting all but the first word of a string

Extracting first names, middle names, and last names

Removing titles from names

Counting the number of words in a cell

Chapter 6: Working with Dates and Times

How Excel Handles Dates and Times

Understanding date serial numbers

Entering dates

Understanding time serial numbers

Entering times

Formatting dates and times

Problems with dates

Date-Related Functions

Displaying the current date

Displaying any date

Generating a series of dates

Converting a non-date string to a date

Calculating the number of days between two dates

Calculating the number of work days between two dates

Offsetting a date using only work days

Calculating the number of years between two dates

Calculating a person's age

Determining the day of the year

Determining the day of the week

Determining the date of the most recent Sunday

Determining the first day of the week after a date

Determining the nth occurrence of a day of the week in a month

Counting the occurrences of a day of the week

Expressing a date as an ordinal number

Calculating dates of holidays

Determining the last day of a month

Determining whether a year is a leap year

Determining a date's quarter

Converting a year to roman numerals

Time-Related Functions

Displaying the current time

Displaying any time

Summing times that exceed 24 hours

Calculating the difference between two times

Converting from military time

Converting decimal hours, minutes, or seconds to a time

Adding hours, minutes, or seconds to a time

Converting between time zones

Rounding time values

Working with non–time-of-day values

Chapter 7: Counting and Summing Techniques

Counting and Summing Worksheet Cells

Counting or Summing Records in Databases and Pivot Tables

Basic Counting Formulas

Counting the total number of cells

Counting blank cells

Counting nonblank cells

Counting numeric cells

Counting nontext cells

Counting text cells

Counting logical values

Counting error values in a range

Advanced Counting Formulas

Counting cells with the COUNTIF function

Counting cells that meet multiple criteria

Counting the most frequently occurring entry

Counting the occurrences of specific text

Counting the number of unique values

Creating a frequency distribution

Summing Formulas

Summing all cells in a range

Computing a cumulative sum

Summing the “top n” values

Conditional Sums Using a Single Criterion

Summing only negative values

Summing values based on a different range

Summing values based on a text comparison

Summing values based on a date comparison

Conditional Sums Using Multiple Criteria

Using And criteria

Using Or criteria

Using And and Or criteria

Chapter 8: Using Lookup Functions

What Is a Lookup Formula?

Functions Relevant to Lookups

Basic Lookup Formulas

The VLOOKUP function

The HLOOKUP function

The LOOKUP function

Combining the MATCH and INDEX functions

Specialized Lookup Formulas

Looking up an exact value

Looking up a value to the left

Performing a case-sensitive lookup

Choosing among multiple lookup tables

Determining letter grades for test scores

Calculating a grade point average

Performing a two-way lookup

Performing a two-column lookup

Determining the address of a value within a range

Looking up a value by using the closest match

Looking up a value using linear interpolation

Chapter 9: Tables and Worksheet Databases

Tables and Terminology

A worksheet database example

A table example

Uses for worksheet databases and tables

Working with Tables

Creating a table

Changing the look of a table

Navigating and selecting in a table

Adding new rows or columns

Deleting rows or columns

Moving a table

Setting table style options

Removing duplicate rows from a table

Sorting and filtering a table

Working with the Total row

Using formulas within a table

Referencing data in a table

Converting a table to a worksheet database

Using Advanced Filtering

Setting up a criteria range

Applying an advanced filter

Clearing an advanced filter

Specifying Advanced Filter Criteria

Specifying a single criterion

Specifying multiple criteria

Specifying computed criteria

Using Database Functions

Inserting Subtotals

Chapter 10: Miscellaneous Calculations

Unit Conversions

Solving Right Triangles

Area, Surface, Circumference, and Volume Calculations

Calculating the area and perimeter of a square

Calculating the area and perimeter of a rectangle

Calculating the area and perimeter of a circle

Calculating the area of a trapezoid

Calculating the area of a triangle

Calculating the surface and volume of a sphere

Calculating the surface and volume of a cube

Calculating the surface and volume of a cone

Calculating the volume of a cylinder

Calculating the volume of a pyramid

Solving Simultaneous Equations

Rounding Numbers

Basic rounding formulas

Rounding to the nearest multiple

Rounding currency values

Working with fractional dollars

Using the INT and TRUNC functions

Rounding to an even or odd integer

Rounding to n significant digits

Part III: Financial Formulas

Chapter 11: Borrowing and Investing Formulas

Financial Concepts

Time value of money

Cash in and cash out

Matching time periods

Timing of the first payment

The Basic Excel Financial Functions

Calculating present value

Calculating future value

Calculating payments

Calculating rates

Calculating periods

Calculating the Interest and Principal Components

Using the IPMT and PPMT functions

Using the CUMIPMT and CUMPRINC functions

Converting Interest Rates

Methods of quoting interest rates

Conversion formulas

Limitations of Excel's Financial Functions

Deferred start to a series of regular payments

Valuing a series of variable payments

Bond Calculations

Pricing bonds

Calculating yield

Chapter 12: Discounting and Depreciation Formulas

Using the NPV Function

Definition of NPV

NPV function examples

Using the NPV function to calculate accumulated amounts

Using the IRR Function

Rate of return

Geometric growth rates

Checking results

Multiple Rates of IRR and the MIRR Function

Multiple IRRs

Separating flows

Using balances instead of flows

Irregular Cash Flows

Net present value

Internal rate of return

Using the FVSCHEDULE Function

Calculating an annual return

Depreciation Calculations

Chapter 13: Financial Schedules

Creating Financial Schedules

Creating Amortization Schedules

A simple amortization schedule

A dynamic amortization schedule

Using payment and interest tables

Credit card calculations

Summarizing Loan Options Using a Data Table

Creating a one-way data table

Creating a two-way data table

Financial Statements and Ratios

Basic financial statements

Ratio analysis

Creating Indices

Part IV: Array Formulas

Chapter 14: Introducing Arrays

Introducing Array Formulas

A multicell array formula

A single-cell array formula

Creating an array constant

Array constant elements

Understanding the Dimensions of an Array

One-dimensional horizontal arrays

One-dimensional vertical arrays

Two-dimensional arrays

Naming Array Constants

Working with Array Formulas

Entering an array formula

Selecting an array formula range

Editing an array formula

Expanding or contracting a multicell array formula

Using Multicell Array Formulas

Creating an array from values in a range

Creating an array constant from values in a range

Performing operations on an array

Using functions with an array

Transposing an array

Generating an array of consecutive integers

Using Single-Cell Array Formulas

Counting characters in a range

Summing the three smallest values in a range

Counting text cells in a range

Eliminating intermediate formulas

Using an array in lieu of a range reference

Chapter 15: Performing Magic with Array Formulas

Working with Single-Cell Array Formulas

Summing a range that contains errors

Counting the number of error values in a range

Summing the n largest values in a range

Computing an average that excludes zeros

Determining whether a particular value appears in a range

Counting the number of differences in two ranges

Returning the location of the maximum value in a range

Finding the row of a value's nth occurrence in a range

Returning the longest text in a range

Determining whether a range contains valid values

Summing the digits of an integer

Summing rounded values

Summing every nth value in a range

Removing nonnumeric characters from a string

Determining the closest value in a range

Returning the last value in a column

Returning the last value in a row

Ranking data with an array formula

Working with Multicell Array Formulas

Returning only positive values from a range

Returning nonblank cells from a range

Reversing the order of cells in a range

Sorting a range of values dynamically

Returning a list of unique items in a range

Displaying a calendar in a range

Part V: Miscellaneous Formula Techniques

Chapter 16: Intentional Circular References

What Are Circular References?

Correcting an accidental circular reference

Understanding indirect circular references

Intentional Circular References

How Excel Determines Calculation and Iteration Settings

Circular Reference Examples

Generating unique random integers

Solving a recursive equation

Solving simultaneous equations using a circular reference

Animating a chart using iteration

Potential Problems with Intentional Circular References

Chapter 17: Charting Techniques

Understanding the SERIES Formula

Using names in a SERIES formula

Unlinking a chart series from its data range

Creating Links to Cells

Adding a chart title link

Adding axis title links

Adding links to data labels

Adding text links

Adding a linked picture to a chart

Chart Examples

Charting progress toward a goal

Creating a gauge chart

Displaying conditional colors in a column chart

Creating a comparative histogram

Creating a Gantt chart

Creating a box plot

Plotting every nth data point

Plotting the last n data points

Selecting a series from a combo box

Plotting mathematical functions

Plotting a circle

Creating a clock chart

Creating awesome designs

Working with Trendlines

Linear trendlines

Working with nonlinear trendlines

Chapter 18: Pivot Tables

About Pivot Tables

A Pivot Table Example

Data Appropriate for a Pivot Table

Creating a Pivot Table

Specifying the Data

Specifying the location for the pivot table

Laying out the pivot table

Formatting the pivot table

Modifying the pivot table

More Pivot Table Examples

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Grouping Pivot Table Items

A manual grouping example

Viewing grouped data

Automatic grouping examples

Creating a Frequency Distribution

Creating a Calculated Field or Calculated Item

Creating a calculated field

Inserting a calculated item

Filtering Pivot Tables with Slicers

Referencing Cells within a Pivot Table

Another Pivot Table Example

Producing a Report with a Pivot Table

Chapter 19: Conditional Formatting and Data Validation

Conditional Formatting

Specifying conditional formatting

Conditional formats that use graphics

Working with conditional formats

Creating formula-based rules

Data Validation

Specifying validation criteria

Types of validation criteria you can apply

Creating a drop-down list

Using formulas for data validation rules

Creating a dependent list

Chapter 20: Creating Megaformulas

What Is a Megaformula?

Creating a Megaformula: A Simple Example

Megaformula Examples

Using a megaformula to remove middle names

Using a megaformula to return a string's last space character position

Using a megaformula to determine the validity of a credit card number

Generating random names

The Pros and Cons of Megaformulas

Chapter 21: Tools and Methods for Debugging Formulas

Formula Debugging?

Formula Problems and Solutions

Mismatched parentheses

Cells are filled with hash marks

Blank cells are not blank

Extra space characters

Formulas returning an error

Absolute/relative reference problems

Operator precedence problems

Formulas are not calculated

Actual versus displayed values

Floating-point number errors

Phantom link errors

Logical value errors

Circular reference errors

Excel's Auditing Tools

Identifying cells of a particular type

Viewing formulas

Tracing cell relationships

Tracing error values

Fixing circular reference errors

Using background error checking

Using Excel's Formula Evaluator

Part VI: Developing Custom Worksheet Functions

Chapter 22: Introducing VBA

About VBA

Displaying the Developer Tab

About Macro Security

Saving Workbooks That Contain Macros

Introducing the Visual Basic Editor

Activating the VB Editor

The VB Editor components

Using the Project window

Using code windows

Entering VBA code

Saving your project

Chapter 23: Function Procedure Basics

Why Create Custom Functions?

An Introductory VBA Function Example

About Function Procedures

Declaring a function

Choosing a name for your function

Using functions in formulas

Using function arguments

Using the Insert Function Dialog Box

Adding a function description

Specifying a function category

Adding argument descriptions

Testing and Debugging Your Functions

Using the VBA MsgBox statement

Using Debug.Print statements in your code

Calling the function from a Sub procedure

Setting a breakpoint in the function

Creating Add-Ins

Chapter 24: VBA Programming Concepts

An Introductory Example Function Procedure

Using Comments in Your Code

Using Variables, Data Types, and Constants

Defining data types

Declaring variables

Using constants

Using strings

Using dates

Using Assignment Expressions

Using Arrays

Declaring an array

Declaring multidimensional arrays

Using Built-In VBA Functions

Controlling Execution

The If-Then construct

The Select Case construct

Looping blocks of instructions

The On Error statement

Using Ranges

The For Each-Next construct

Referencing a range

Some useful properties of ranges

The Set keyword

The Intersect function

The Union function

The UsedRange property

Chapter 25: VBA Custom Function Examples

Simple Functions

Does a cell contain a formula?

Returning a cell's formula

Is the cell hidden?

Returning a worksheet name

Returning a workbook name

Returning the application's name

Returning Excel's version number

Returning cell formatting information

Determining a Cell's Data Type

A Multifunctional Function

Generating Random Numbers

Generating random numbers that don't change

Selecting a cell at random

Calculating Sales Commissions

A function for a simple commission structure

A function for a more complex commission structure

Text Manipulation Functions

Reversing a string

Scrambling text

Returning an acronym

Does the text match a pattern?

Does a cell contain a particular word

Does a cell contain text?

Extracting the nth Element from a String

Spelling out a number

Counting Functions

Counting pattern-matched cells

Counting sheets in a workbook

Counting words in a range

Counting colors

Date Functions

Calculating the next Monday

Calculating the next day of the week

Which week of the month?

Working with dates before 1900

Returning the Last Nonempty Cell in a Column or Row

The LASTINCOLUMN function

The LASTINROW function

Multisheet Functions

Returning the maximum value across all worksheets

The SHEETOFFSET function

Advanced Function Techniques

Returning an error value

Returning an array from a function

Returning an array of nonduplicated random integers

Randomizing a range

Using optional arguments

Using an indefinite number of arguments

Part VII: Appendixes

Appendix A: Excel Function Reference

Appendix B: Using Custom Number Formats

Automatic number formatting

Formatting numbers by using the Ribbon

Using shortcut keys to format numbers

Using the Format Cells dialog box to format numbers

Parts of a number format string

Custom number format codes

Scaling values

Hiding zeros

Displaying leading zeros

Displaying fractions

Displaying N/A for text

Displaying text in quotes

Repeating a cell entry

Displaying a negative sign on the right

Conditional number formatting

Coloring values

Formatting dates and times

Displaying text with numbers

Displaying a zero with dashes

Using special symbols

Suppressing certain types of entries

Filling a cell with a repeating character

Displaying leading dots

Appendix C: Additional Excel Resources

Support options

Microsoft Knowledge Base

Microsoft Excel home page

Microsoft Office home page

Accessing newsgroups by using a newsreader

Accessing newsgroups by using a Web browser

Searching newsgroups

The Spreadsheet Page

Daily Dose of Excel

Jon Peltier's Excel page

Pearson Software consulting

Contextures

David McRitchie's Excel pages

Pointy Haired Dilbert

Mr. Excel

Appendix D: What's on the CD-ROM?

eBook version of Excel 2010 Formulas

Examples files for Excel 2010 Formulas

Excel® 2010 Formulas

by John Walkenbach

Excel® 2010 Formulas

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wileycom

Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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About the Author

John Walkenbach is a leading authority on spreadsheet software, and principal of J-Walk and Associates Inc., a one-person consulting firm based in southern Arizona. John has received a Microsoft MVP award every year since 2000. He's the author of more than 50 spreadsheet books, and has written more than 300 articles and reviews for a variety of publications, including PC World, InfoWorld, PC Magazine, Windows, and PC/Computing. John also maintains a popular Web site (The Spreadsheet Page, http://spreadsheetpagecom), and is the developer of several Excel utilities, including the Power Utility Pak, an award-winning add-in for Excel. John graduated from the University of Missouri, and earned a Masters and PhD from the University of Montana.

Publisher's Acknowledgments

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Part I: Basic Information

Chapter 1

Excel in a Nutshell

Chapter 2

Basic Facts about Formulas

Chapter 3

Working with Names

Chapter 1: Excel in a Nutshell

In This Chapter

• A brief history of Excel

• What's new in Excel 2010

• The object model concept in Excel

• The workings of workbooks

• The user interface

• The two types of cell formatting

• Worksheet formulas and functions

• Objects on the worksheet's invisible drawing layer

• Macros, toolbars, and add-ins for Excel customization

• Internet features

• Analysis tools

• Protection options

Microsoft Excel has been referred to as “the best application ever written for Windows.” You may or may not agree with that statement, but you can't deny that Excel is one of the oldest Windows products and has undergone many reincarnations and face-lifts over the years. Cosmetically, the current version — Excel 2010 — barely even resembles the original version. However, many of Excel's key elements have remained intact over the years, with significant enhancements, of course.

This chapter presents a concise overview of the features available in the more recent versions of Excel, with specific emphasis on Excel 2010. It sets the stage for the subsequent chapters and provides an overview for those who may have let their Excel skills get rusty.

The History of Excel

You probably weren't expecting a history lesson when you bought this book, but you may find this information interesting. At the very least, this section provides fodder for the next office trivia match.

Spreadsheets comprise a huge business, but most of us tend to take this software for granted. In the pre-spreadsheet days, people relied on clumsy mainframes or calculators and spent hours doing what now takes minutes.

It started with VisiCalc

Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston conjured up VisiCalc, the world's first electronic spreadsheet, back in the late 1970s when personal computers were unheard of in the office environment. They wrote VisiCalc for the Apple II computer, an interesting machine that seems like a toy by today's standards. VisiCalc caught on quickly, and many forward-looking companies purchased the Apple II for the sole purpose of developing their budgets with VisiCalc. Consequently, VisiCalc is often credited for much of Apple II's initial success.

Then came Lotus

When the IBM PC arrived on the scene in 1982, thus legitimizing personal computers, VisiCorp wasted no time porting VisiCalc to this new hardware environment. Envious of VisiCalc's success, a small group of computer enthusiasts at a start-up company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, refined the spreadsheet concept. Headed by Mitch Kapor and Jonathan Sachs, the company designed a new product and launched the software industry's first full-fledged marketing blitz.

Released in January 1983, Lotus Development Corporation's 1-2-3 proved an instant success. Despite its $495 price tag (yes, people really paid that much for a single program), it quickly outsold VisiCalc and rocketed to the top of the sales charts, where it remained for many years.

Microsoft enters the picture

Most people don't realize that Microsoft's experience with spreadsheets extends back to the early 1980s. In 1982, Microsoft released its first spreadsheet — MultiPlan. Designed for computers running the CP/M operating system, the product was subsequently ported to several other platforms, including Apple II, Apple III, XENIX, and MS-DOS. MultiPlan essentially ignored existing software UI standards. Difficult to learn and use, it never earned much of a following in the United States. Not surprisingly, Lotus 1-2-3 pretty much left MultiPlan in the dust.

Excel partly evolved from MultiPlan, and first surfaced in 1985 on the Macintosh. Like all Mac applications, Excel was a graphics-based program (unlike the character-based MultiPlan). In November 1987, Microsoft released the first version of Excel for Windows (labeled Excel 2 to correspond with the Macintosh version). Excel didn't catch on right away, but as Windows gained popularity, so did Excel. Lotus eventually released a Windows version of Lotus 1-2-3, and Excel had additional competition from Quattro Pro — originally a DOS program developed by Borland International, then sold to Novell, and then sold again to Corel (its current owner).

Excel versions

Excel 2010 is actually Excel 14 in disguise. You may think that this name represents the 14th version of Excel. Think again. Microsoft may be a successful company, but its version-naming techniques can prove quite confusing. As you'll see, Excel 2010 actually represents the 11th Windows version of Excel. In the following sections, I briefly describe the major Windows versions of Excel.

Excel 2

The original version of Excel for Windows, Excel 2 first appeared in late 1987. It was labeled Version 2 to correspond to the Macintosh version (the original Excel). Because Windows wasn't in widespread use at the time, this version included a runtime version of Windows — a special version with just enough features to run Excel and nothing else. This version appears quite crude by today's standards, as shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1: The original Excel 2 for Windows. Excel has come a long way since its original version.(Photo courtesy of Microsoft Corporation)

Excel 3

At the end of 1990, Microsoft released Excel 3 for Windows. This version offered a significant improvement in both appearance and features. It included toolbars, drawing capabilities, worksheet outlining, add-in support, 3-D charts, workgroup editing, and lots more.

Excel 4

Excel 4 hit the streets in the spring of 1992. This version made quite an impact on the marketplace as Windows increased in popularity. It boasted lots of new features and usability enhancements that made it easier for beginners to get up to speed quickly.

Excel 5

In early 1994, Excel 5 appeared on the scene. This version introduced tons of new features, including multisheet workbooks and the new Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro language. Like its predecessor, Excel 5 took top honors in just about every spreadsheet comparison published in the trade magazines.

Excel 95

Excel 95 (also known as Excel 7) shipped in the summer of 1995. On the surface, it resembled Excel 5 (this version included only a few major new features). However, Excel 95 proved to be significant because it presented the first version to use more advanced 32-bit code. Excel 95 and Excel 5 use the same file format.

Excel 97

Excel 97 (also known as Excel 8) probably offered the most significant upgrade ever. The toolbars and menus took on a great new look, online help moved a dramatic step forward, and the number of rows available in a worksheet quadrupled. And if you're a macro developer, you may have noticed that Excel's programming environment (VBA) moved up several notches on the scale. Excel 97 also introduced a new file format.

Excel 2000

Excel 2000 (also known as Excel 9) was released in June of 1999. Excel 2000 offered several minor enhancements, but the most significant advancement was the ability to use HTML as an alternative file format. Excel 2000 still supported the standard binary file format, of course, which is compatible with Excel 97.

Excel 2002

Excel 2002 (also known as Excel 10 or Excel XP) was released in June of 2001 and is part of Microsoft Office XP. This version offered several new features, most of which are fairly minor and were designed to appeal to novice users. Perhaps the most significant new feature was the capability to save your work when Excel crashes and also recover corrupt workbook files that you may have abandoned long ago. Excel 2002 also added background formula error checking and a new formula-debugging tool.

Excel 2003

Excel 2003 (also known as Excel 11) was released in the fall of 2003. This version had very few new features. Perhaps the most significant new feature was the ability to import and export XML files and map the data to specific cells in a worksheet. It also introduced the concept of the List, a specially designated range of cells. Both of these features would prove to be precursors to future enhancements.

Excel 2007

Excel 2007 (also known as Excel 12) was released in early 2007. Its official name is Microsoft Office Excel 2007. This release represented the most significant change since Excel 97, including a change to Excel's default file format. The new format was XML based although a binary format is still available. Another major change was the Ribbon, a new type of UI that replaced the Excel menu and toolbar system. In addition to these two major changes, Microsoft enhanced the List concept introduced in Excel 2003 (a List is now known as a Table), improved the look of charts, significantly increased the number of rows and columns, and added some new worksheet functions.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) stores data in a structured text format. The new file formats are actually compressed folders that contain several different XML files. The default format's file extension is .xlsx. There's also a macro-enabled format with the extension .xlsm, a new binary format with the extension .xlsb, and all the legacy formats that you're used to.

Excel 2010

The current version, Excel 2010, was released in early 2010 and is also known as Excel 14. If you think you've spotted a typo in the previous sentence, you're wrong. Yes, even big companies can be superstitious; Microsoft skipped Version 13 of Office and went from Version 12 to Version 14.

Excel 2010 builds on the improvements introduced in Excel 2007, and it offers several new enhancements. See the sidebar, “What's new in Excel 2010?”

The Object Model Concept

If you've dealt with computers for any length of time, you've undoubtedly heard the term object-oriented programming. An object essentially represents a software element that a programmer can manipulate. When using Excel, you may find it useful to think in terms of objects, even if you have no intention of becoming a programmer. An object-oriented approach can often help you keep the various elements in perspective.

Excel objects include the following:

• Excel itself

• An Excel workbook

• A worksheet in a workbook

• A range in a worksheet

• A button on a worksheet

• A ListBox control on a UserForm (a custom dialog box)

• A chart sheet

• A chart on a chart sheet

• A chart series in a chart

New Feature

What's new in Excel 2010?

Here's a quick summary of what's new, relative to Excel 2007:

• 64-bit version: If your hardware supports it, you can install the 64-bit version, which lets you create much larger workbooks.

• Sparkline charts: Create small, in-cell charts to summarize a range of data graphically.

• Pivot table Slicers: A new way to filter and display data in pivot tables.

• Pivot table formatting options: You have more control over the appearance of pivot table reports.

• File tab: The File tab replaces the Office button, which is located to the left of the other tabs. Clicking it displays Backstage View, a screen that lets you perform various operations on your workbook. This view essentially replaces the traditional File and Print menus — plus quite a bit more.

• Draft mode for charts: If you use many highly formatted charts, you can choose to display them in draft mode for improved performance.

• Conditional formatting enhancements: Data bar conditional formatting can display in a solid color, and the bars provide a more accurate display.

• Function enhancements: Many of Excel's statistical functions have been improved in terms of numeric accuracy. The old versions of these functions are still available and have been relegated to a new function category called Compatibility.

• Image editing enhancements: You have much more control over the appearance of graphic images inserted into a workbook.

• Paste preview: When you copy a range, the Paste command displays various options (with preview).

• Ribbon customization: End users can customize the Ribbon by adding new tabs and groups.

• Equation editor: Create and display (noncalculating) mathematical equations.

• Faster processing: Microsoft made some improvements to the calculation engine, and files load a bit faster.

• New security features: Workbooks downloaded from the Internet or from e-mail attachments are opened in Protected View mode. Workbooks can be designated as “trusted,” and they don't need to reside in special trusted folders.

• UpdatedSolver: Excel 2010 includes a new version of the Solver add-in.

• Enhancements to VBA: Many operations that used to require old XLM macros can now be performed directly using VBA macro commands.

Notice the existence of an object hierarchy: The Excel object contains workbook objects, which contain worksheet objects, which contain range objects. This hierarchy is called Excel's object model. Other Microsoft Office products have their own object model. The object model concept proves to be vitally important when developing VBA macros. Even if you don't create macros, you may find it helpful to think in terms of objects.

The Workings of Workbooks

The core document of Excel is a workbook. Everything that you do in Excel takes place in a workbook.

Beginning with Excel 2007, workbook “files” are actually compressed folders. You may be familiar with compressed folders if you've ever used a file with a .zip extension. Inside the compressed folders are a number of files that hold all the information about your workbook, including charts, macros, formatting, and the data in its cells.

An Excel workbook can hold any number of sheets (limited only by memory). The four types of sheets are

• Worksheets

• Chart sheets

• MS Excel 4.0 macro sheets (obsolete, but still supported)

• MS Excel 5.0 dialog sheets (obsolete, but still supported)

You can open or create as many workbooks as you want (each in its own window), but only one workbook is the active workbook at any given time. Similarly, only one sheet in a workbook is the active sheet. To activate a different sheet, click its corresponding tab at the bottom of the window, or press Ctrl+PgUp (for the previous sheet) or Ctrl+PgDn (for the next sheet). To change a sheet's name, double-click its Sheet tab and type the new text for the name. Right-clicking a tab brings up a shortcut menu with some additional sheet-manipulation options.

You can also hide the window that contains a workbook by using the View⇒Window⇒Hide command. A hidden workbook window remains open but not visible. Use the View⇒Window⇒Unhide command to make the window visible again. A single workbook can display in multiple windows (choose View⇒Window⇒New Window). Each window can display a different sheet or a different area of the same sheet.

Worksheets

The most common type of sheet is a worksheet — which you normally think of when you think of a spreadsheet. Excel 2010 worksheets have 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows.

Versions prior to Excel 2007 support only 256 columns and 65,536 rows. If you open such a file, Excel 2010 enters compatibility mode to work with the smaller worksheet grid. In order to work with the larger grid, you must save the file in one of the Excel 2010 formats. Then close the workbook and reopen it.

How big is a worksheet?

It's interesting to stop and think about the actual size of a worksheet. Do the arithmetic (16,384 × 1,048,576), and you'll see that a worksheet has 17,179,869,184 cells. Remember that this is in just one worksheet. A single workbook can hold more than one worksheet.

If you're using a 1600 x 1200 video mode with the default row heights and column widths, you can see 24 columns and 49 rows (or 1,176 cells) at a time — which is about .0000068 percent of the entire worksheet. In other words, more than 14.6 million screens of information reside within a single worksheet.

If you entered a single digit into each cell at the relatively rapid clip of one cell per second, it would take you over 500 years, nonstop, to fill up a worksheet. To print the results of your efforts would require more than 36 million sheets of paper — a stack about 12,000 feet high (that's ten Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other).

Having access to more cells isn't the real value of using multiple worksheets in a workbook. Rather, multiple worksheets are valuable because they enable you to organize your work better. Back in the old days, when a spreadsheet file consisted of a single worksheet, developers wasted a lot of time trying to organize the worksheet to hold their information efficiently. Now, you can store information on any number of worksheets and still access it instantly.

You have complete control over the column widths and row heights, and you can even hide rows and columns (as well as entire worksheets). You can display the contents of a cell vertically (or at an angle) and even wrap around to occupy multiple lines. In addition, you can merge cells together to form a larger cell.

By default, every new workbook starts out with three worksheets. You can easily add a new sheet when necessary, so you really don't need to start with three sheets. You may want to change this default to a single sheet. To change this option, choose the File⇒Options command, click the General tab, and change the setting for the option labeled Include This Many Sheets.

Chart sheets

A chart sheet holds a single chart. Many users ignore chart sheets, preferring to use embedded charts, which are stored on the worksheet's drawing layer. Using chart sheets is optional, but they make it a bit easier to locate a particular chart, and they prove especially useful for presentations. I discuss embedded charts (or floating charts on a worksheet) later in this chapter.

Macro sheets and dialog sheets

This section discusses two obsolete Excel features that continue to be supported.

An Excel 4.0 macro sheet is a worksheet that has some different defaults. Its purpose is to hold XLM macros. XLM is the macro system used in Excel version 4.0 and earlier. This macro system was replaced by VBA in Excel 5.0 and is not discussed in this book.

An Excel 5.0 dialog sheet is a drawing grid that can hold text and controls. In Excel 5.0 and Excel 95, dialog sheets were used to make custom dialog boxes. UserForms were introduced in Excel 97 to replace these sheets.

The Excel User Interface

AUI is the means by which an end user communicates with a computer program. A UI includes elements such as menus, dialog boxes, toolbars, and keystroke combinations, as well as features such as drag and drop.

A new UI

Almost every Windows program you use employs the menu and toolbar approach. That is, at the top of the screen is a menu bar that contains virtually every command that's available in the application, and below that is one or more toolbars, which provide shortcuts to some of the more frequently used commands. With the release of Office 2007, the days of menus and toolbars are over.

The new UI for Excel consists of components like the Ribbon, Backstage View, the Mini Toolbar, and the Quick Access toolbar.

The Ribbon

The Ribbon is the primary UI component in Excel. It replaces the menu and most of the toolbars that were common in previous versions, and it is a very significant departure from the interfaces of most Windows-based applications.

One-stop shopping

Microsoft felt that the commands contained in the old menu and toolbar system were becoming so numerous that a new paradigm was necessary. One of the main goals for developing the Ribbon was to provide the user with a single place to look for a particular feature. Every commonly used command available in Excel would be contained in the Ribbon (or in a dialog box accessed via the Ribbon). Although Microsoft succeeded in putting most of the available commands on the Ribbon, it's still a pretty big place.

The Ribbon in Office 2007 received mixed reviews. Some people hated it, and others loved it. For some, the hatred was so severe that they sought Excel 2007 add-ins that restored the old menus. Others set up online petitions, asking Microsoft to restore the old menus for Office. Fact is, the Ribbon is here to stay. Once you get used to the Ribbon, it really is easier to use than the convoluted menu system that it replaced.

A few commands failed to make the cut and do not appear in the Ribbon. But they are still available if you know where to look for them. Right-click the Quick Access toolbar and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar. Excel displays a dialog box with a list of commands that you can add to your Quick Access toolbar. Some of these commands aren't available elsewhere in the UI. In Excel 2010, you can also add new commands to the Ribbon: Right-click the Ribbon and select Customize The Ribbon.

Tabs, groups, and tools

The Ribbon is a band of tools that stretches across the top of the Excel window. About the vertical size of three of the old-style toolbars, the Ribbon sports a number of tabs including Home, Insert, Page Layout, and others. On each tab are groups that contain related tools. On the Home tab, for example, you find the Clipboard group, the Font group, the Alignment group, and others.

Within the groups are the tools, which are similar to the tools that existed on the old-style toolbars with one major difference: their different sizes. Tools that you use most often are larger than less-frequently used tools. For example, nearly half of the Clipboard group is consumed by the large Paste tool; the Cut, Copy, and Format Painter tools are much smaller. Microsoft determined that the Paste tool is the most used tool and thus sized it accordingly.

The Ribbon and all its components resize dynamically as you resize the Excel window horizontally. Smaller Excel windows collapse the tools on compressed tabs and groups, and maximized Excel windows on large monitors show everything that's available. Even in a small window, all Ribbon commands remain available. You just may need to click a few extra times to access them.

Figure 1-2 shows three sizes of the Ribbon when the Home tab is displayed using an increasingly smaller horizontal window size.

Figure 1-2: The Ribbon sizes dynamically, depending on the horizontal size of Excel's window.

Navigation

Using the Ribbon is fairly easy with a mouse. You click a tab and then click a tool. If you prefer to use the keyboard, Microsoft has added a feature just for you. Pressing Alt displays tiny squares with shortcut letters in them that hover over their respective tab or tool. Each shortcut letter that you press either executes its command or drills down to another level of shortcut letters. Pressing Esc cancels the letters or moves up to the previous level.

For example, a keystroke sequence of Alt+HBB adds a double border to the bottom of the selection. The Alt key activates the shortcut letters, the H shortcut activates the Home tab, the B shortcut activates the Borders tool menu, and the second B shortcut executes the Bottom Double Border command. Note that it's not necessary to keep the Alt key depressed while you press the other keys.

Contextual tabs