User Adoption
264 TopicsPLEASE VOTE!!! for Additional function for formatting cells. Adjust cell size to text length
Your vote counts!!! Adjust cell size to text length Additional function for formatting cells. https://excel.uservoice.com/forums/304921-excel-for-windows-desktop-application/suggestions/41191999-additional-function-for-formatting-cells Additional function for formatting cells. Adjust cell size to text length. At the moment there is in the menu of cell format, alignment, among other things the possibility to adjust the text size on the cell. In addition to this function, it would be very helpful if there was a box to click on where the cell would be adapted to the font size. If you like the idea, please click on the link and vote!1.1KViews18likes3CommentsExcel Community: Simplifying Spaces and Labels
Hi all, As you may have noticed already, we as the Excel Team have done a bit of "spring/summer cleaning" for the community. We have received feedback that the number of "spaces" was simply too many at nine, so we have pared things down. Now, there are three community spaces: Excel: this will be the primary place for posting content, as many of the old spaces have been migrated as labels will find a good home here BI and Data Analysis: this will be a good place for posting about tasks and questions that cut across Excel, Power BI, and other topics in this realm Resources and Community: this will increasingly become a place for folks to share sample files and templates with each other Q: What happened to the other spaces that used to exist? A: They have since been rolled up as "Labels", which you can find in the "More Resources" sidebar under "Labels" of any of the three spaces mentioned above. Look for these on the right side: Please let us know if you have any other questions. Thanks for reading!4.3KViews5likes25CommentsHow to Be an Excel Detective: Finding and Highlighting Formulas
Hi everyone, I recently wrote a blog post on some simple, yet powerful, techniques for anyone who works with Excel spreadsheets, especially those with complex data. I wanted to share a summary of it with this community, as it might be helpful to others who are looking to understand and protect their work. The post covers two main things: Quickly Revealing All Formulas: A simple keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + `) or the "Show Formulas" option can instantly reveal all formulas in a worksheet. This is a great way to quickly see how a spreadsheet is structured. Permanently Highlighting Formulas: The article shows how to use the "Find & Select" > "Formulas" feature to select all cells containing formulas and then permanently highlight them with a fill color. This visual cue can help prevent accidental edits and protect your data. Watch This in Action: For a step-by-step guide on how to use these techniques, you can watch the video on my https://www.youtube.com/@BIGurus. 馃敆 https://youtu.be/1x-1dbqlWXk You can also read the full article here: https://medium.com/@anandsharad/how-to-be-an-excel-detective-finding-and-highlighting-formulas-fe9d4fdbc1b1 I'd be happy to answer any questions you have or discuss other Excel tips and tricks in the comments!49Views2likes0CommentsWinFix Toolkit (All Windows 10 & 11 Repair Tools in One Excel)
After I published this small information tool (Excel (365 & 2016) with network information), several people contacted me and asked if I had a tool with Excel for general service tasks that, while available in Windows, are a bit scattered and confusing. So, I've prepared this small tool for Service Level 1, with most of the service options included. Hardware Repair Tools Repair Action Label Description Reset Windows Update Components UpdateReset Stops related services, renames cache folders, restarts services. Check System File Integrity (sfc /scannow) SFC Scans and repairs corrupted system files. Check Disk for Errors (chkdsk /f /r) CHKDSK Scans hard drive sectors and attempts repair. DISM Health Restore (dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth) DISM Repairs Windows image and component store. Network Reset (netsh int ip reset, netsh winsock reset) NetReset Resets TCP/IP and Winsock catalog. Flush DNS Cache (ipconfig /flushdns) DNSFlush Clears DNS resolver cache. Device Manager (open) DevMgr Opens Device Manager for hardware inspection. Software Repair Tools (examples) Repair Action Label Description Microsoft Office Quick Repair OfficeRepair Launches Office repair tool (Quick or Online). Reset Microsoft Store StoreReset Runs wsreset.exe to reset Store cache. Repair OneDrive OneDriveReset Resets OneDrive client (onedrive.exe /reset). Windows Defender Full Scan DefenderScan Triggers Windows Defender antivirus scan. Reset Windows Firewall FirewallReset Restores default firewall rules. Reset Windows Search Index SearchReset Rebuilds Windows search index. Clear Temp Files TempClean Deletes temporary files and folders. Reinstall UWP Apps (if broken) AppsReinstall Re-registers all built-in Store apps. I hope it might be helpful to some people. The tool has been tested, but it could still use some improvements, so I'd like to ask everyone who has looked at or used this tool for feedback. I would appreciate any constructive feedback or additional suggestions. Happy Excel-ing! *My tool are voluntary and without guarantee! NikolinoDE I know I don't know anything (Socrates)218Views2likes3CommentsWhat do you think of thunks?
OK, so the most likely response by far is going to be "I don't". However, I tried one of Omid Motamedisedeh's regular challenges and found it a suitable problem for exploring some of the lesser known byways of modern Excel. The challenge is to pick out locally maximum values from a rolling range. What I did was to write a function that used MAP to select one cell at a time, using DROP to remove the initial cells and TAKE to return a range of 5 cells with the active cell in the middle. The direct route to solving the stated problem would be to calculate the maximum value within each range immediately, but I was interested in the more general problem of "could I return the array of ranges in a form that would support further analysis?" As shown, the following formula ROLLINGRANGE位 = LAMBDA(values, n, LET( rows, SEQUENCE(ROWS(values)), MAP(rows, LAMBDA(k, LET( m, QUOTIENT(n, 2), rng, TAKE(DROP(values, k - m - 1), MIN(k + m, n)), rng ) ) ) ) ); gives and array of ranges error, but simply by enclosing the 'rng' variable within a further LAMBDA ... LET( m, QUOTIENT(n, 2), rng, TAKE(DROP(values, k - m - 1), MIN(k + m, n)), LAMBDA(rng) ) will cause Excel to return an array of functions, each one of which would return a range if evaluated. In the attached workbook, a number of formulae are based upon this array of functions = ROLLINGRANGE位(dataValues, 5) = MAP(ROLLINGRANGE位(dataValues, 5), LAMBDA(蠎, ROWS(蠎()))) = MAP(ROLLINGRANGE位(dataValues, 5), LAMBDA(蠎, ISREF(蠎()))) = MAP(ROLLINGRANGE位(dataValues, 5), LAMBDA(蠎, AVERAGE(蠎()))) = MAP(ROLLINGRANGE位(dataValues, 5), dataValues, LAMBDA(蠎,v, MAX(蠎()))) = LET( rollingMax, MAP(ROLLINGRANGE位(dataValues, 5), LAMBDA(蠎, MAX(蠎()))), FILTER(Data, rollingMax=dataValues) ) The first simply returns #CALC! errors on the worksheet which is the normal response to a Lambda function defined on the grid. The second formulas uses ROWS to show that the ranges are not all the same size, the third shows the returned objects to be range references and not simply arrays of numbers, the forth is a rolling average while the fifth is a rolling MAX. The final formula returns the solution to the problem, being a filtered list. The purpose of this post is to demonstrate that Excel, which started out as a 'simple' spreadsheet program, now contains a very different programming environment that shares a function library and uses the grid for input/output but, other than that, has very little in common with 'normal' spreadsheet practice! A related survey can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7285432559902068736/801Views2likes21CommentsDouble Thunking Works Wonders!
Given that most Excel users would not dream of employing one thunk, you might well ask why even consider nested thunks! The use case explored here is to return all the combinations by which one might choose m objects from n (not just a count of options =COMBIN(n, m), but the actual combinations) Knowing that sometimes allows one to deploy an exhaustive search of options to determine the best strategy for a task. Before considering the task further, one might ask 'what is a thunk; isn't it far too complicated to be useful?' All it is, is a LAMBDA function that evaluates a formula when used, the same as any other function. The formula could be an expensive calculation or, rather better, no more than a simple lookup of a term from a previously calculated array. The point is, that whilst 'arrays of arrays' are not currently supported in Excel, an array of functions is fine, after all, an unrun function is little more than a text string. Only when evaluated, does one recover an array. In the example challenge, each cell contains an list/array of binary numbers, which might itself run into the hundreds of terms. A '1' represents a selected object whilst a '0' is an omitted object. Rather like the counts of combinations obtained from Pascal's triangle, each cell is derived from the contents of the cell to the left and the cell above. This is SCAN on steroids, accumulating array results in two directions. Running down the sheet, the new combination contains those of the above cell, but all the objects are shifted left and an empty slot appears to the right. These values are appended to those from the left, in which the member objects are shifted left but the new object is added to the right. So the challenge is to build a 2D array, each member of which is itself an array. The contents of each cell is represented by a thunk; each row is therefore an array of thunks which, for REDUCE to treat it as a single entity, requires it to be securely tucked inside its own LAMBDA, to become a thunk containing thunks. Each pair of rows defined by REDUCE is itself SCANned left to right to evaluate the new row. By comparison the 2D SCAN required for the Levenshtein distance which measure the similarity of text strings was a pushover. I am not expecting a great amount of discussion to stem from this post but, if it encourages just a few to be a little more adventurous in the way they exploit Excel, its job will be done! p.s. The title of this discussion borrows from the Double Diamond advert for beer in the 1960s2.1KViews2likes29CommentsExcel File issues with add/delete rows only on desktop application, but no issue on Web version.
I have an excel file I have been working in for over 7 years now, and it has worked without issue until the past month when suddenly, it gives me issues adding and deleting rows which I do regularly in this file. What's strange is that the issue of adding/deleting rows in this one particular file is only an issue on the desktop application of Excel, but I have no issue adding/deleting rows on the Web version of Excel. I've done every troubleshooting suggestion that google offers and have contacted Microsoft Tech Support (case #7043097898), and still we cannot identify the issue. Excel is not telling me that by adding rows I'll be pushing information off the sheet. I've uninstalled Office Pro 2021 and reinstalled, and it did not fix the issue. I subscribed to Microsoft 365 to see if that would help, but it didn't. I removed all conditional formatting on the sheet, and that didn't help. I went to the last cell in the sheet that had data and cleared all data below and to the right, and that didn't help. I deactivated the one active add in, and that didn't help. When I open the file, I can typically add 1 - 20 rows, before it no longer allows me to add (or delete) rows any further. This issue carries through to each sheet in this one particular file. I can add/delete rows in my other excel files without issue on both the desktop application and web app, so it's just this one particular file. I know there was a recent update Microsoft had. Not sure if there was something in that update that caused this issue, but any help/guidance you can give is much appreciated.895Views2likes4CommentsComplex numbers in Excel
Did you know that Excel can handle complex mathematical operations with complex numbers? Complex numbers, expressed as "a + bi," where 'a' and 'b' are real numbers and 'i' is the imaginary unit, can be powerful tools in various scenarios. Think engineering, physics, signal processing, or even financial modelling. Excel offers native support for complex numbers, and you can perform basic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division just as easily as with real numbers. If you haven't explored this yet, give it a shot! It's as simple as entering a formula like =IMSUM(A1:B1) or =IMPRODUCT(A1:B1) One nifty feature is the ability to convert complex numbers from rectangular to polar form and vice versa. This can be a game-changer in certain calculations, especially when dealing with phase angles or magnitude-based analyses. For this you can make use of the =IMABS(A1) and =IMARGUMENT() functions. As complex numbers are considered to be text within Excel you will need special functions to perform arithmetic with them, such as IMSUM, IMSUB, IMPRODUCT, and IMDIV. Excel can help you plot complex numbers on the complex plane using the XY Scatter chart! you will need the IMREAL and IMAGINARY functions to extract the real and imaginary coefficients from the complex number to use them to plot the numbers. This feature can be invaluable when dealing with complex data sets or analysing the behaviour of complex functions. If you're interested in learning more about complex numbers, I made a video covering all functions that work with complex numbers in Excel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A2DIUibkmk Have you worked with complex numbers before in Excel? What specific use case did you have? Were there any obstacles you had to overcome?24KViews2likes3CommentsPower BI hierarchies missing when data model consumed in Excel
I posted this issue in the Power BI forums. https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/Power-BI-hierarchies-missing-when-data-model-consumed-in-Excel/idc-p/2352639#M76224 After internal review, the Power BI team said this is an Excel issue and directed me to post here. If a Power BI model contains a DirectQuery or Dual mode table, and that same model also contains attribute hierarchies, those hierarchies are not accessible when the model is consumed through Excel. Example: Model with single table in import mode containing a hierarchy in Power BI Desktop Published model viewed from Excel. Hierarchy works fine in import mode! Model with single table in DirectQuery mode containing a hierarchy Hierarchy missing in Excel 馃槥 As we have many Excel users on our Power BI enterprise model and also rely on several hierarchies, this prevents us from optimizing our model with any type of aggregation or hybrid table. We are stuck with import on every table and cannot pursue any advanced refresh or query optimization strategies.3.9KViews2likes8CommentsAs any one found cool icons to use on a Custom Ribbon?
Hello Excellers, I just finished making a neat custom ribbon for an application, and I am wondering if anyone has found a cool and neat place to grab some icons for the button faces specially if in color. My ribbon looks nice, and most importantly it works as intended, but I am kind of thinking it could be more colorful. So far I only used the built-in stuff. Thanks for any hints. GiGi111Views1like2Comments