European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group (Excel Horror Stories)

Scary Excel Horror Stories here.

Excel VBA: Create Masked Password Dialog

Want to make a masked password dialog for your workbook?

Check this tip from Microsoft.

How to Round Numbers in Excel

Chandoo posted a thorough article on tips to rounding numbers using Excel.

Outlook: Week Numbers Lost and Setting Disabled for Good (Unable to Change)

 

I'm a big fan of week numbers. I've always had the week number visible as it's how things often are scheduled.

The pics at the right demonstrate how Outlook shows the week numbers when they are set visible.

However, a while ago the week numbers mystically went missing. Instead of the week number the month view showed date range (pic at the right) - which is useless for me, at least.

I jumped to Outlook'sOptions -> Calendar, as I know that's where the checkbox is. For my surprise the setting "Show week numbers in the month view and in the Date Navigator" was unchecked and the the setting was completely disabled - I couldn't change it.

As an end user, I didn't have much options to dig into this (from server rule-perspective for example) but with some help and try-error method found out that removing and adding my account again solved the issue. The setting is now checked (week numbers visible) but the box is disabled - i.e. can't be modified.

Why were the week numbers lost? I'm not sure, but I think the updates I installed a few days earlier - or some corporate server rules - are to blame.

Have you experienced the same issue, and/or any idea on the root-cause?

Also, I'm curious on what is the reasoning to completely disable the user to change a purely visual setting as the week number? :) Shouldn't at least have anything to do with security.

Improving Excel 2010 Performance

Since Excel 2007 we've had the "Big Grid" available - meaning over 1000 times the amount of cells than in older Excel versions.

This brings challenges in keeping the performance good while amount of data and formulas increase.

Read Microsoft's article Excel 2010 Performance: Improving Calculation Performance to get a better understanding of the calculation logic and how to improve you workbooks performance.

Office Next: The New Office Web Apps

The new Office Web Apps http://

Get Help With Excel From an Expert

Need help fixing or updating your Excel workbook - or perhaps a completely new tool for your business? Call or email an Excel expert at hello@excelstudio.fi or +358 45 854 3003 Visit the website at http://excelstudio.fi (site currently only in Finnish)

Excel Shortcut: Open VBA Editor's Immediate Window

Ah the number of time's you've hoped that the VBA Editor's Immediate window could be attached to Excel's own window. That's not going to happen soon I think, so here's a tip how to quickly open and activate the Immediate window with some shortcut keys:

Alt + F11 Ctrl + G

Alt + F11 opens VBA Editor and Ctrl + G activates the Immediate window. Convenient way to help your spreadsheet editing especially with short single-line macros.

VBA: Break All External Links in a Workbook

Here's a tip how to break all external links from a workbook:



Sub BreakAllLinks()


    Dim arrStrLinks As Variant
    
    ' Read workbook links to an array.
    arrStrLinks = ActiveWorkbook.LinkSources(Type:=xlLinkTypeExcelLinks)
    
    ' Loop through whole array -> all links.
    For i = 1 To UBound(arrStrLinks)
        ActiveWorkbook.BreakLink _
        Name:=arrStrLinks(i), _
        Type:=xlLinkTypeExcelLinks
    Next i


End Sub


This is actually a slightly modified version of the one you can find from Excel's help with keyword BreakLinks.

Excel Shortcut: Add Date or Time to Cell

To quickly add current date to active cell press CTRL + SEMICOLON (i.e. CTRL + ; )

To add current time press CTRL + COLON (i.e. CTRL + : )

VBA: Remove All Shapes From Sheet

To remove all shapes from a sheet, use the below snippet:

Sub RemoveShapes()


    Dim s As Shape


    For Each s In ActiveSheet.Shapes
        s.Delete
    Next s


End Sub

Excel: Count Unique (Number) Values

To count the unique number values in a range, say for example column A, you can use a combination of SUM, IF and FREQUENCY formulas.

Example:
=SUM(IF(FREQUENCY(A:A;A:A)>0;1))


Check the help for more details on FREQUENCY formula.

Excel: How to Repair a Corrupted Workbook (Excel 2002, Excel 2003)

Read Microsoft's tips how to repair a corrupted workbook. For Excel 2002 and Excel 2003.

Excel: How to Repair a Corrupted Workbook (Excel 2007, Excel 2010)

Read Microsoft's tips how to repair a corrupted workbook. For Excel 2007 and Excel 2010.

Contextures: When Good Excel Macros Go Bad

"It worked yesterday..." Ever recall using this sentence when working with your Excel and macros? Even worse, saying this to your boss when he's looking your cool Excel dashboard you just sent him.

Check the post When Good Excel Macros Go Bad from Debra Dalgleish @ Contextures for one similar journey - and how she fixed it!

Excel Shortcut: Open Save As.. Dialog

To open the Save As... dialog press F12

Import data from Microsoft SQL Server into Microsoft Excel

Here's a tip from Microsoft how to import data from SQL Server into Excel, check this links

Skype: Multiple Skype Accounts on Same Computer

Many of us use Skype have more than one Skype accounts. The common situation is that we have one for private use and one for work.

With Skype we can use multiple accounts at the same computer - though it's not an obvious thing how. Here's the tip for Windows:

Start a new instance of Skype:
Start -> Run, type "C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe" /secondary" and click OK.

Log in with your other account to the new Skype instance and you're done!

VBA: Deleting Rows Programmatically

When you need to delete rows in your spreadsheet programmatically, start from the last row and head towards the first one. This can be accomplished by using Step -1 in the For loop, see example below:


For lRow = lLastRow To lFirstRow Step -1
    ActiveSheet.Rows(lRow).Delete
Next lRow


If we would loop starting from the first row, our lRow counter would be pointing incorrectly at the moment when a first row gets deleted.

Excel Shortcut: Select Entire Worksheet / Select All Data

If worksheet contains data, Ctrl + A selects the current region. To select entire worksheet press Ctrl + A a second time.

Excel Shortcut: Select Entire Row

To select the entire row in Excel, select cell in that row and press Shift + Space

Excel Shortcut: Select Entire Column

To select the entire column in Excel, select cell in that column and press Ctrl + Space

Excel Shortcut: Open VBA Editor

To quickly open VBA Editor window press Alt + F11

Excel Shortcut: Insert Comment or Edit Existing

To insert a new comment or to edit an existing one, select the cell and press Shift + F2

Quickly Copy Outlook Appointment's Tracking Status to Any Other Program

Scheduled an appointment in Outlook and want to quickly get the attendees' tracking status to say - Meeting Minutes or notes?

In Outlook 2010 this is easy:

• Open the appointment in Outlook
• In the Meeting ribbon click the small arrow under Tracking button
• Click "Copy Status to Clipboard"
• Open Word/Excel/other and paste - you're done!

How to copy Outlook appointment tracking status

The format is pure text with tab separated values so you can paste it to almost any program.

Limit the number of times a file can be opened

Excellent tip on Excel Blog: VBA tip: Limit the number of times a file can be opened

Article author Bob Umlas (Excel MVP) shows a convenient usage of SaveSetting and GetSetting methods, take a look!