Posts Tagged ‘excel’

Repairing A Damaged Or Corrupt Excel File

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

We’ve all been there: you’ll be working on a file in Excel but something will go wrong and it will become damaged or corrupt. You might think there’s nothing you can do, but there are several options when it comes to attempting to repair the data. They split into three categories. When you reopen the file, Excel will first try to repair the file itself. The second step is to try and extract all the formulae, leaving you with raw data. Then there are some manual options to try.

Firstly, there are some simple options to try that are likely to work on most files. The first thing to do is to just reopen the file, then if it still doesn’t work, restart the computer before trying again with Excel. Another tactic is to open the file using Open Office before saving it as another name. Then try Excel again. You can also scan the file for viruses to make sure there’s nothing else wrong with it and then open Excel in safe mode before trying the file.

Once you have exhausted the above options, you can still try some other things. First, you should try and copy the file to another hard disk so you’ll have a backup copy, which is always useful. Then try and open the file in Excel. If it opens, use the Revert to Saved Document command, which will hopefully bring up the last saved version of the file. If you then save this in SYLK format and then HTML format, this should hopefully repair your data.

If, however, Excel won’t open your file then your next step is to try some alternative manual options. Opening the file in either MS Word or WordPad can help. Do this by changing the .xls in the file name to .doc so it will open in Word. This should then let you recover your data by opening the file in Excel viewer. You can also use a macro to extract the data if the file’s corrupted. You should at least be able to cover the data, if not the formulae.

If none of the above options work or you are unsure about trying to repair a corrupt file by yourself, then there is also third party software available for purchase that should be able to help you with it. Failing that, there are computing companies that specialize in recovery services and repairing damaged files, so this could be a good option to use if you are out of other choices and really need to get access to your file. Making a backup copy can help prevent it happening again.

Further Reading : Excel Training

Shortcuts For Microsoft Excel

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

In the fast paced world in which we live, we are bombarded with an interminable amount of data and numbers, and those in the business world know this only too well. As many who work with data for a living are aware, one of the most popular methods by which to gather these figures into readable tables and spreadsheets is Microsoft Excel 2010. This program makes it easier than ever to compose graphic organizers so that others may make sense of otherwise mind boggling information. Because there are a great number of features provided by Excel 2010, there are almost as many shortcuts that allow the user to save time.

The creation of spreadsheets is one of Excel’s strongest points, and the keyboard shortcuts available are time savers that simplify the use of the program. When moving between multiple spreadsheets, holding down Ctrl + Page up will take you to the previous worksheet in the file. Pressing Ctrl + Page down, as you probably have figured out, will send you to the next worksheet in the file. When you are working on one particular worksheet, Ctrl + F9 minimizes the sheet you are on. Ctrl + F10 will maximize it. Pressing Ctrl + P will cause the backstage view to appear and allow you to print the document.

Placing information into cells is also quick and painless with shortcuts. For example, Ctrl + Shift + a semicolon will insert the current time into a cell. Ctrl + the semicolon only will insert the current date. If there are no gaps between a column of numeric cells, pressing Alt + = will place a formula in the cell to add up all of the values. By pressing Ctrl + K, a hyperlink can be placed into the selected cell.

The ribbon is one of Microsoft Excel 2010’s most important features. To display the Excel Help task pane, simply strike F1. The ribbon itself is either hidden or brought up using Ctrl + F1. By using a slightly different key combination, Alt + F1, you can create an embedded chart that consists of data in the current range. Inserting a new worksheet may be accomplished simply by pressing Alt + Shift + F1.

As you can see, the Ctrl, Alt, and Shift keys comprise a large portion of the aforementioned shortcuts. This is quite similar to past versions of Microsoft Excel. Of course, there are many other shortcuts that may be performed on Excel 2010, but these are some of the most used and will get you started in getting used to how they help you navigate Microsoft Excel 2010.

Find Out More : Excel Courses

Learn About Microsoft Excel Training Courses

Friday, February 25th, 2011

If you’re unfamiliar with Microsoft Excel, then it can often seem somewhat daunting. There are, however, a number of courses available to teach you how to use it and get to grips with it so you’ll be much more confident in the future. Our guide looks at some of the typical training modules you’ll cover. You can firstly expect an introduction to the specific version of Excel you’re using. You can sometimes books courses that look at a certain version, such as 1997, 2003 or 2010.

You’ll also more than likely take part in a module that explores how to get started on Excel. This will teach you about all the associated terminology, such as cells, rows and columns. It will also look at the different, basic features of the worksheets that make up the majority of the Excel program. You will probably be taught how to enter data into the worksheet and then be given a chance to practice for yourself so you can see in more detail how it all works.

As Excel relies quite heavily on equations and calculations, you will more than likely undertake a module here, too. This will include looking at simple things such as how the ‘autosum’ feature works and how you can use relevant formulae by formatting your data correctly. There are intermediate and advanced courses available for people who already have a basic knowledge of Excel and its equations, but there are also lots of beginners’ courses for those who are just starting out and need to learn the basics.

It’s also likely that you’ll have a module that focuses on how to create charts from the data you enter into the worksheets. This will generally come after the module on equations and formulas as you often can’t create charts without having the answers from your inputted formulae. You’ll also look at the different templates available for use in Excel and learn how to audit the document so it will be easier for you to highlight and fix any mistakes you make during data entry.

Another module will more than likely cover the different ways you can work with Excel and how you can achieve multiple goals using only one document. This will introduce you to the concept of working with multiple workbooks, which can each include information on a different aspect of your project. The module will also look at working with large worksheets and how you can manipulate them. You’ll more than likely do more modules than this, but these are some of the most common.

Continue : Microsoft Courses

Key Concepts In Excel VBA Programming

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

The best selling spreadsheet application in the world is Microsoft’s Excel program. It is an extremely powerful program and data management tool that can be used in conjunction with VBA, or Microsoft’s Visual Basic Application program. VBA makes Excel a very effective tool for anyone that normally uses Excel by itself. Excel VBA programming can be easy to use if you just learn the basics.

Visual Basic Application is a programming language that can work with a variety of programs on your computer. It works with Microsoft’s Word and Access software, for example. It allows the user to do many different tasks and export data to other Microsoft programs.

Many people believe that the prospect of having to learn a computer programming language seems hard and impossible. This is not true if you have the right tools. It is actually quick to learn if you just use a tutorial program that you can get online or even read a book with instructions. Going step by step is normally the best option.

The internet also has video downloads that make it easy put onto your computer so that learning is even easier. Most of the videos that you can find will have a great trainer that will lead you all of the the way through the entire process of learning the programming language. You can learn just the basics or you can move onto the harder videos and become an expert.

Most instructional programs cost money. It is usually a small amount in comparison to the wealth of information that you learn. If you are not sure about a program then it is a great idea to read some customer reviews and find out their experience and how well they learned from a particular program.

Learning Excel VBA programming is as easy as going online. Once you learn you will discover the great benefits that it can bring.

You can find out more about Excel VBA training courses, visit Macresource Computer Training, an independent computer training company offering Excel VBA Classes in London and throughout the UK.

Automate Excel Processes With Microsoft Excel VBA Macros

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

Excel VBA programming is a kind of programming language that lets you work in the excel sheet better as compared to ordinary spreadsheet software. As this particular software is designed by the Microsoft team so it enables you to work faster on the spreadsheet.

Before getting into the depth of VBA language lets understand the meaning of excel programming. Any sort of programming language makes your work in computer much faster and easier and more over it makes the function more automatic. So if you are working in the excel sheet this type of programming language gets your input and performs the output automatically.

Now let’s get more insight into the meaning of VBA. Well VBA stands for visual basic application. This particular software helps you to perform all type of tasks in the excel sheet in a much faster way. Some of the functions which you can do by the help of VBA language are designing of dialog boxes and automation of task. Also, you can create new worksheet functions and many more. Thus VBA language gives you the freedom of working efficiently in the spreadsheet.

If you are an amateur, then too, VBA language will guide to work well on the excel sheet. If you are worried about using the VBA programming language and how to install it then you don’t have to think much about it. Various websites are there to help you.

Excel VBA programming language has surely widened up the boundaries of the excel sheet. This particular programming language is so advanced that you don’t need to sit before the computer to carry on your work. With this software the excel software can work by its own. Also this makes the function much more constant and easy.

With the help of VBA programming language you can perform task like creating various kinds of charts and graphs from a data. You may even design various invoices. Also with the help of Excel VBA programming language you are able to identify various data which are scientific. Many companies use this software to create financial budget and also it helps to forecast the future trends.

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How To Add A Formulas To A Worksheet Using Excel VBA

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Programmatic data entry is a fairly frequent requirement in Excel VBA and entering values in cells is often not dissimilar to the manual entering of data. If you want to enter a given piece of data into a cell, you simply use a statement like the following.

rngHeader.value = “Variance”

In this example, “rngHeader” would be the name of a variable containing a reference to a worksheet cell. But what happens when we want to enter a formula into a cell? Well, in one sense, we could say that the process is no different to entering an ordinary value into a cell. Thus, for example, if we wanted to create a formula that totalled a series of cells in column “A” of the worksheet, we could just use a statement along the following lines.

rngTotal.value = “=SUM(A2:A96)”

Nothing wrong with that! However, in most scenarios, formulas need to be entered into several adjacent cells and using cell addressing which includes column letters becomes impractical. We need to be able to work with numbers so that we can get the maximum benefit from such techniques as looping and the use of the Offset method of the range object. The solution is not to use the Value property of the Range object when writing formulas to a worksheet but, instead, to use FormulaR1C1.

During manual data entry, if you create a formula containing cell references in Excel and then copy it to other cells, Excel updates the cell references to reflect the new location of the formula. It replaces the original references with references which are in the same relative positions as the original ones. It is able to do this because it stores references relatively. (You can force Excel to display formulas in the way that Excel actually stores them by choosing Excel Options from the office button, clicking on the formulas category then activating the option “R1C1 reference style”.)

Returning to our programmatic example, if we use the FormulaR1C1 property instead of the Value property and assuming that the cell containing the formula is A97, our statement would look like this.

rngTotal.FormulaR1C1 = “=SUM(R[-96]C:R[-1]C)”

The number between the square brackets specifies the row and column numbers of the cells being referenced relative to the cell containing the formula. Thus “R[-96]C” refers to a cell which is 96 rows above the cell which contains the formula but in the same column (since there is no qualifier after the “C” part of the reference).

You can find out more about Excel VBA training courses, visit Macresource Computer Training, a UK IT training company offering Excel VBA training courses at their central London training centre.

Setting Label Control Properties On Microsoft Excel UserForms

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

If you are planning to attend a basic Excel VBA training course, be sure to check whether it contains coverage of UserForms. This simple facility allows you to create pop-up forms which can be used for outputting and inputting some information required by you Excel application in a very user-friendly way. User forms can contain a variety of controls with which the user can interact.

The control which is used most frequently is also one of the most basic: the Label control. This allows you to display text anywhere on the form and, typically, each input control has a Label control next to it which clarifies its purpose. The caption property of the Label control determines the text which it displays. Thus, if we were creating a form which allowed users to enter expense claims, we might have Label controls with captions like “Name:”, “Department:”, “Amount”, and so forth.

Giving each of your controls a descriptive name, rather than leaving default names such as “Label1″, is good practice. Although you can set the properties of your controls at design time using the Properties Window, you can also manipulate controls programmatically.

To add to the clarity of your code, it is also useful if each control has a name which relates to its function. It is also useful to have the name of each control start with a short prefix denoting its type. This prefix should apply to all objects in your project, including variable names. The statement “strName = frmExpenses.txtName.Value” makes much more sense to someone reading the code than “Variable1.UserForm1.TextBox3.Value”.

A typical reason for referring to Label controls in your code is to communicate dynamically with the user. This is done by setting the Caption or Visible property of Label controls programmatically. Thus, let’s say you had a series of radio buttons allowing the user to specify the type of expense they were claiming for, your final button might be “Other”. If the user chooses “Other”, you might then want a Label control bearing the caption “Please Specify”, and which was hidden at design time, to suddenly become visible. This can be achieved simply by using a VBA statement like “frmExpenses.lblSpecify.Visible = True”.

You can find out more about Excel VBA training courses, visit Macresource Computer Training, an independent computer training company offering Excel VBA Classes at their central London training centre.

There Is More To Microsoft Excel’s Paste Special Command Than Meets The Eye

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Whenever you use the Copy and Paste commands in Microsoft Excel, it is not just the cell data that is copied; the formatting, style and number formats are also copied. The Paste Special command allows you to be selective about what you are pasting. The Paste Special command can be used to import elements from other programs into Excel using Windows Object Linking and Embedding. When doing so, the option “Paste Link” can be used to create a link to the original data rather than pasting in a copy of it.

If you are copying and pasting data purely within an Excel spreadsheet, the Paste Special command offers a set of options which are unique to the Excel environment. Interestingly enough, the Paste Special command is only available if the Excel data is copied rather than cut. Note also that it is often useful to paste over the original data, using the options in the Paste Special dialog to transform the original data in some way. Let’s now look at the key options which are available when using the Paste Special command.

If you select the option “All”, Excel will paste all the data on the clipboard in much the same way as it would do if the ordinary Paste command had been used.

Choosing the “Formulas” radio button causes Excel to ignore any cell formatting and paste only the data contained in the cells being copied. (The term “formulas” is used in a broad sense here and does not imply that Excel will only copy cells that contain formulas.)

I personally find the “Values” option particularly useful: it can be used to “freeze” dynamic data. Like the “Formulas” option, “Values” causes Excel to paste only data and ignore formatting. The key distinction is that if the copied cell contains a formula, Excel will paste the calculated result of the formula rather than the formula itself.

The “Formats” option is a bit like using the Format Painter tool. It pastes the formatting from the copied cells but does not paste any data.

The “Comments” options copies only comments that were in the source range, ignoring all other data.

Similarly, the “Validation” option will copy only cells that have had validation rules applied to them.

This hopefully gives you an idea of how the Paste Special command works. Let’s just mention one final option: “Transpose”. This option reverses the orientation of the original data, so that rows become columns and vice versa.

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How To Learn MS Excel’s VBA

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

The aim in using excel is problem solving and developing solutions to problems. This could be about data capture or reducing manual tasks on documents. Using VBA can really help with this and is the true power behind excel. You can create your own programs in excel. With a little practice you will eventually be writing or using your own code to automate tasks.

1) Inbuilt Macro recorder – the best way to start your introduction to excel VBA is to start using the macro recorder for repetitive tasks. This could be as simple as adding your company information or calculating a column of data. The recorder is suited to simpler tasks. Any tasks that require looping or when the layout of the data on the worksheet changes, then the recorder will fall on its face. There are a number of problems with the macro recorder for advanced coding, but it helps at the start to get an idea of the syntax that is used and how things are done.

2) Books – Get an idiots guide or introductory book on the subject to help you with the recorder and how to use the VBA editor. There are books that will explain how to tidy up macro recorded code and how to make it faster. Programs developed with the macro recorder can be much slower.

3) Take a course – If your employer can pay, then you should go on a course which will quuickly increase your learning curve. Make sure you pick one that is suitable for you and level of skill with excel. Try to learn the basics from books and from the VBA editor so that you get more out of your course.

4) Online – there are plenty of blogs and forums offering help on various parts of the application. You will also find ebooks that cover many areas and some can be very specialised.

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