Advanced Excel Skills 4.1_ INTRODUCTION _Exceisa software appicition ofalmost unlimited depth and complexity. Theres 0 ‘way to count the numberof features ies, bt they must ran into the thousands. i ‘ot tens of thousands. Fortunately, most business analysts donot nce to bocome experts inallaspocs of Excl, but they often find that they need to develop expertise {na fw specialized domains within Excel Which domains are relevant depends on th jb they perform aswell as on tel ove of intrest in Excel and spreadsheet ‘modeling generally "The previous chapter presented the Eucel features we elev the great morty ‘of business analyte should now. Even tere our coverage was not exhaustive. For ‘uample, every analjt should know th basis of cel formating, but oly few wl eed to learn andrea al th various ways to customize formats ina workbook. Tinthis chapter, we pursue soveral specialized topics ia more depth. These are {atures of Excel that intermediate and advanced spreadsheet modelers to make their work more efficient, 10 make their spreadsheets easier 1 use, of torake them ‘more powerful. We suggest that novice modelers skip this chapter unt they have ‘developed at least a basi fansiliarity withthe sls covered in Chapter 3. More vanced wsers can skim this chapter, focusing on topics of particular inteest or relevance to ther work “The chapter covers the following topics: + Keyboard shortcuts + Controls + Cell comments + Naming cells and ranges + Advanced formulas snd functions + Recording macros and using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) 4.2_KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS. the Reytemal aleve ‘selecting commands oF tos with the mouse. In Word, fr example, sing ony the mouse to copy and paste portion of text requires highlighting te text selecng the Copy icon rom the Homo tab, clicking oa the new location fr the ext, and seleeting the Paste ion from the Home tab. Alternatively and posibly more quickly, we can replace the fist selection withthe keystroke combation Cnt + Cand te second ‘seoction with he keystroke combination Cat +V. These keystroke combinations ae ‘examples of keyboard sharteutsSinco Ctl + Cand Cell + Vcan be executed with (wo fingers ofthe lft hand, we can keep the right hand on the mouse and us both hands ‘alot simultancously (Most keyboardshorteutsare not case sense so upper and Tower cass give the same results) n7H cuerens move excess Excl shores many keyboard shortcuts with other Windows aplication. For example, we can wie Ci + Cand Crt» Vin Excel to copy and paste the contents of {ndvial cells or ranges of ells jus ss we copy txt in Word. Other shortcuts for ‘aia actions include cute Otic Button New culo Ottce Button» Open cies Ofce Button Save cule (tice Button Print cu +X Home Clipboard Cut cut F Homie Eating Find & Select Find cul +H Home Editing Find & Select» Replace cul Home) Edtingb*Find & Selet>Go To “These familiar shortcuts are oly a small mpl ofthe shortcuts available in [Excel Mot ofthese asthe speci he abalodFI-F12, Ct, Alor Shift Here isa further sample Format cells cuted Display Help FL Insert new worksheet shit + FIL ‘Mave cursor to cell AL Ct + Home Display the Find and Replace dialog box shin + FS ‘Switch tothe next nonadjacent seleson to the left Cis + Left Arrow In Figure 4.1 we ist for handy reference some ofthe most useful of these keyboard shortcuts, (An exhaustive int savniabl Under Help:searchon “keyboard shorts” and select the topic Exeel shortcut and function keys.) We recom ‘mend scanning this st fr shoctts hat may have been forgotten or pew ones for ‘operations that have become routine. Whenever we regularly encounter a tedious ‘and slow opeatog, it makes sens to search fora Keyboard shorcut to sve time, 3_ CONTROLS Excl controle allow the use 19 change the contents or behavior of spreadsheet without interacting directly with individual calls. Costas such as boxes an buttons tre familinr because they sppeat frequently in commonly sed windows inthe Exel ‘seinterface, Amongthe Excel Options, forexample,the window forFormulzoptions ‘scr button select Workbook Calculation mex (oaly one ofthe three available choices is allowed) and a check box (on oF oto Enable erative Calculation. ‘Controls can be inserted ito spreadsheet to sist users in choosing para- meter ips and tose the anna in performing senstity analysis Te controls tvilable are dxplyed by selecting Developer ContolsbInsei, asin Figure 42. (tthe Developer tab doce not appear, choose Oifice Button Excel Options Poplar and check the bos Show Developer Tab:in the Ribbon.) Fach con can be ‘ented by holding the cursor shove it For example the fourth con inthe tp 08 (adr Form Conteos) he Spin Button icon. “To lace a contra on aspreadsheet requires sequence of tps. Fis, click on the desired contol con ftom the toolbar. Using the cursor, which now appears as ‘ns, deagand drop the control tothe desire location athe spreadsheet. Indoingso, {se the cursor lose the sizeof the contol as well et oct. With the contralFeooederts sscomos 75 Fee aa area — fuse ns ca ST co sic eae co eis reo oo Weisner ee rece Tes ore a ar soma 5 Ty Bat Yay Fag a eA Tr See tars ar ——_[ cng oy mnogo 7 [er oy FT ——————| me es SSS aR ST a a i sf pha SAB To 2 Sots oes aS a arg a ra ar tas | tora " es be saaisownat ee neler eaar a Sa aaa ee eee re erent or ria ‘Sec ane cu — sin TTR rr aes ee ee se ay — Sco learn a eee es eet