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I don’t have it with me right now, but I think that John Walkenbach does in his book MS Excel Power Programming with VBA. I can check tomorrow.

Check your alignment and format. When I examined it the numbers in the Round Cells the numbers run vertically, not horizontally. Select cells, Format, Alignment and change the angle, Click OK and OK, then repeat again to bring the text into proper alignment.

Check your alignment and format. When I examined it the numbers in the Round Cells the numbers run vertically, not horizontally. Select cells, Format, Alignment and change the angle, Click OK and OK, then repeat again to bring the text into proper alignment.

On the toolbar for the diagram, there should be a dropdown called “Layout” – click on it and in the drop down there will be “Autoformat” – click on it. That will take it out. of auto mode. (BTW, that is the first thing I do when working with diagrams).

This will also allow you to change to format of an individual text box.

On the toolbar for the diagram, there should be a dropdown called “Layout” – click on it and in the drop down there will be “Autoformat” – click on it. That will take it out. of auto mode. (BTW, that is the first thing I do when working with diagrams).

This will also allow you to change to format of an individual text box.

I have been teaching myself Excel VBA and came across this suggestion about forcing the programmer to declare variables in Walkenbach’s book (I think). Anyway, I followed that guideline by changing the options. The first week I was frustrated because it seemed like I was stopped at every line! What I soon discovered is that I had developed some bad habits. Now I no longer look at this Option Explicit line as an intrusion but as a tremendous aid in writing code.

I have been teaching myself Excel VBA and came across this suggestion about forcing the programmer to declare variables in Walkenbach’s book (I think). Anyway, I followed that guideline by changing the options. The first week I was frustrated because it seemed like I was stopped at every line! What I soon discovered is that I had developed some bad habits. Now I no longer look at this Option Explicit line as an intrusion but as a tremendous aid in writing code.

This has been a good thread for me, and I am further investigating all of these. Raymond Butler has a paper titled Is This Spreadsheet a Tax Evader?. On pages 3-4 he gives additional issues/questions related to complexity.

How many external references?
How many unique formulas? (not replicated in a worksheet)
How many original formulas? (copied within a worksheet)

What are the recalculation settings?
How many macros? (obviously a question is: how complex are the macros?)
Any hidden rows/columns?
What kind of protection to prevent inadvertent errors?
Is consolidation used?
Any named ranges? How many?
Any named formulas?

Any inappropriate techniques used? (i.e. business planning tools [Goal seek, Solver, etc.] that are inappropriate for financial accounting)

He also identifies some cells as “high risk” – those that appear arithmetically and logically correct but may contain errors.

Then on page 5 he gives other information that can be useful in determining its complexity and ease of use:

# of worksheets in each workbook?
# of formulas…
# of constants…
# of links to other files…

How many times is the spreadsheet used (copied) – which multiplies the possibilities of complexity (beyond the individual).

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Just a few further thoughts, nothing original – but definitely thought-provoking, for me at least.

Aaron Blood has set up a simple criteria to determine spreadsheet level of skill. Have a look, you might find it helpful, at least as a starter.

http://www.xl-logic.com/user_scale.html%5B/url%5D

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that include the number of worksheets in a work book, number of cells in a worksheet, use of pivot tables, formulas, conditional formatting, linkages

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Given this, I would set up a spreadsheet to give numerical value based on the numbers, and then weight each approrpiate category based on the skill formula above … LOL

Thanks, Hans. Frustrating to deal with, but certainly well worth knowing the work around – at least I don’t have to require precision beyond 10 decimals.

Thanks, again.

Yes, I check with our Finance people today. Whoever sets up the database in Peoplesoft can program it to automatically output to Excel files.

Although I have not done this, I know that our Finance people routinely get output from PeopleSoft directly into Excel. So I would recommend contacting those who provide the data and determine how they can provide Excel (or even CSV) files for your work.

I found that disconcerting as well. Bascially the easiest way is to keep the Task Pane Toolbar (“Styles and Formatting”) showing on the right. As you make changes to a style, then on the style name, there is a drop down list that gives the option “Update to Match Selection” – not as convenient, but works well when you get used to it.

I am a senior (media) analyst with a major wireless provider. I use Excel 90% of the time and MS Access the rest of the time. When I started three years ago I had NO experience with Excel. But I did learn a little Fortran IV on an IBM 360 – probably before some of this list were born. LOL

As for education, I have a BS in Math (in the days before handheld calculators, and I didn’t know how to use a slide rule!), MA in National Security Affairs, MDiv in Theology, and STM in Exegetical Theology.

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