I freely admit a secret foible: I love Excel. Curtis Frye (author of an Excel Pocket Guide I have found essential) has produced another gem for the Excel user: Excel Annoyances, How to Fix the Most ANNOYING Things About Your Favorite Spreadsheet. Frye claims that the "the river of Excel annoyances runs deep and treacherous," and after years of battling its currents, I agree. This book has what you need to stay on course.
The book is organized into chapters based on what you need to do with Excel: enter data, format, write formulas, manipulate your data, chart, print and exchange data, and write or use macros. A special section details the annoyances specific to Excel 2003, and an extensive index supplements the table of contents. The book is aimed at all levels of user, from the very fresh newbie (how to use the series and fill tools, for example) to the sophisticated user (taming VBA code).
Each annoyance is succinctly presented in a vignette, followed by the solution (with lots of illustrations not shown in my review):
The Annoyance: I filtered a data list..., but when I try to copy the filtered rows and paste them into another worksheet, Excel pastes the hidden rows as well. I can tell I've selected more than the visible cells because as I select the cells, the Name box tells me I've selected an area that's 74 rows by 5 columns. How do I copy and paste just the visible rows in my data list?
The Fix: To copy just the visible cells to the clipboard, you need to add the Select Visible Cells button to your toolbar. To add this button, choose Tools —> Customize, select the Commands Tab, Select Edit from the Categories list, scroll down in the righthand Commands list until you find the Select Visible Cells button, and drag the button to any toolbar. Then, to copy and paste just the visible cells, follow these steps:
- Filter the data list and highlight the visible cells.
- Click the Select Visible Cells toolbar button.
- Select Edit —> Copy.
- Choose Edit —> Paste.
I love the way Frye goes the extra step, helping the user make the program more useful. Even when I have already solved the particular annoyance he cites, his solutions are elegant.
Article comments
1 - Sisyphus
This looks great! Thank you! I'm referring to the reference to the Photoshop and Excel 2003 conflict! I have to check this out ASAP as it is driving me bonkers. Another annoyance: no integrated way to share workbooks over the web (yes, there are third party tools like BadBlue and Soft Writer that seem to fill the niche... but nothing from Microsoft?).
2 - Curt Frye
Hi Sisyphus,
I didn't know about BadBlue; if I had, I certainly would have mentioned it. I believe SharePoint is Microsoft's solution for collaborative web sharing, though you can let your co-workers access shared files over a LAN by setting the appropriate folder permissions.
Thanks for the lead!
Curt
3 - DrPat
Thank you for feedback on the review, Curt! And let me say again how USEFUL your book is to any level of Excel user.
4 - sohbet
But I'm a law professor. Why doesn't isthatlegal.org count?
5 - Justin
the annoyance/fix on this page saved me a lot of time. book must be great
6 - Dustin
Thanks for the tip on selecting only visible cells. I was having a nightmare trying to format my monthly reports... hidden cells containing confidential information can be a bit of a problem! I don't know what Microsoft was thinking.