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From the Not Just Numbers blog:

I want to cover something today that I use all of the time but seems to be understood in varying degrees by clients I work with.

I am talking about use of the dollar sign ($) in an Excel formula.

Relative cell references
When you copy and paste an Excel formula from one cell to another, the cell references change, relative to the new position:

EXAMPLE:

If we have the very simple formula “=A1″ in cell B1 it will change as follows when copied and pasted:

Pasted to B2, it becomes “=A2″

Pasted to C2, it becomes “=B2″

Pasted to A2, it returns an error!

In each case it is changing the reference to refer to the cell one to the left on the same row as the cell that the formula is in, i.e. the same relative position that A1 was to the original formula.

The reason an error is returned when it is pasted into column A, is because there areno columns to the left of column A.

This behaviour is very useful and is what allows a sum to be copied across or down the page and automatically refer to the new column or row that it finds itself in.

But in some situations, you want some or all of the references to remain fixed when they are copied elsewhere.

The dollar sign ($)
This is where the dollar sign is used.

EXAMPLE:

Take an example where you have a column of Sales values in Pounds Sterling in column A and a formula to convert these into US Dollars in column B. You could enter the actual exchange rate into the formula but it would be more sensible to refer to a cell where the exchange rate is held, so that it can be updated whenever it is needed.

The simple formula for cell B2, would be “=A2*E1″, however if you copy this down, then the formula in cell B3, would read “=A3*E2″ as both references would move down a row as described above.

This is where the dollar sign ($) is used. The dollar sign allows you to fix either the row, the column or both on any cell reference, by preceding the column or row with the dollar sign. In our example if we replace the formula in cell B2 with “=A2*$E$1″, then both the “E” and the “1″ will remain fixed when the formula is copied. i.e. in cell B3, the formula will read “=A3*$E$1″, still referring to the cell with the exchange rate in it.

In this example we have fixed both the row and the column, but in other situations, you may just want to fix one or the other, for example:

Above we have a spreadsheet calculating the times tables where we want to every cell in the white area to be the product of its row and column heading. This is easy using the dollar symbol. In cell B2, the formula without dollars would be “=A2*B1″, but for this formula to work when copied to each column, we need it to always look at column A for the first reference and to work for each row, we need to always look at row 1 for the second. Using the dollar sign to do this, it becomes “=$A2*B$1″. This can then be copied to every cell in the white area.

Quick Tip
You can speed up entering the dollar signs by using the function key F4 when editing the formula, if the cursor is on a cell reference in the formula, repeatedly hitting the F4 key, toggles between no dollar signs, both dollar signs, just the row and just the column.


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From the Not Just Numbers blog:

Before Christmas you may have seen my Excel Christmas Quiz which you can still download here (although the questions might no longer be appropriate for the season, the prize is still valuable until the end of January).

I thought it might be useful in this post to tell you how it was made.

This post will make more sense if you download the spreadsheet first.

The Quiz

The quiz element is pretty straight forward. There are 3 hidden columns alongside the spaces for the answers. One column contains the correct answers (column T), another column (column S) contains a nested IF statement as follows:

(for the first question – row 5)  =IF(R5=”",”",IF(R5=T5,”Ho Ho Ho”,”Grinch!”))

which returns a blank cell if no answer is entered, returns “Ho Ho Ho” if the answer entered is equal to the correct answer and “Grinch” if not. Cheesy I know, but it was Christmas.

The third column (column H) contains another IF statement:

(again for the same row) =IF(R5=T5,1,0)

which returns a 1 if the answer is correct or a zero if not.

This third column is summed for the score as follows:

=SUM($H$5:$H$14)&”/10″

This takes the sum of these 1s and 0s and adds the text “/10″ after it. See my post onmanipulating text in Excel for more detail on this.

The revealing of the Christmas picture


This was done using the background facility in Excel and a series of IF statements combined with offset formulae and conditional formatting.

I first set the background image to be the Christmas picture using Format -> Sheet -> Background. As this tiles the picture in the background and gives no facility to re-size I needed to use some trial and error to get the size I wanted and had to have the image in the top-left to ensure it stayed in the right place.

I then needed to choose a background colour for the rest of the sheet so that the picture was not repeated across the whole sheet – for this I simply formatted the cells with that fill colour (in my case green). It is easier to apply this for the whole sheet and then remove the colour from the cells that hide the picture.

I then created on a separate sheet (hidden) a grid of the same number of cells as the picture, containing random whole numbers between 0 and 9 in each of the cells, representing the 10 questions. This will be used to determine which cells are revealed for each question. I actually used the random number generator to create this grid using the following formula:

=ROUNDDOWN(RAND()*10,0)


RAND() returns a random number between 0 and 1, multiplying this by 10 therefore returns a random number between 0 and 10 (but not necessarily a whole number). The ROUNDDOWN formula rounds down to the number of decimal places specified in the second argument (in this case 0). The result of the whole formula, therefore, is a random whole number between 0 and 9.

Because the RAND formula recalculates on each calculation the spreadsheet does, I needed to fix these numbers as I wanted the cells revealed by a question to stay revealed, not be re-scattered across different cells every time an answer is entered. The simplest way to do this was to copy the grid of numbers and re-paste it over the top of itself using ‘paste as values’.

Going back to the main sheet I entered the following formula in the top-left cell of the picture (A1):

=IF(SUM($H$5:$H$14)=10,”",IF(OFFSET($H$5,Sheet4!A1,0)=1,”",1))


The objective of this formula is to return an empty cell if the corresponding question is correct and a 1 if not. I’ll explain shortly what we do with this result.


The first IF statement returns an empty cell if the sum of the scores is 10, so all cells are empty if all answers are right. If the total score does not equal 10, the second IF statement checks whether the score of the relevant question is correct (i.e. 1 in column H) and an empty cell if not. The offset function is used to determine which question to look at. $H$5 is the first score (with dollars to fix this reference) but the row number is offset by the number in the corresponding cell in our number grid (on Sheet4). The zero is the number of columns to offset. For example, if the number in the grid is zero, the offset formula will look at cell H5, i.e. the score of question 1, if it is 9 it will look at cell H14 (5+9) and return the score for question 10.

This formula is copied to all cells on the picture, leaving the dollars off the Sheet4 reference so that in cell A2, it looks at cell A2 on Sheet4, etc.

We now have empty cells corresponding to correct questions, which is right as we want an empty cell with no fill as the picture is revealed. For incorrect, or not yet completed, answers we have a 1 in the cell. We use conditional formatting to use this result to hide these cells.

First of all, set the font colour of these cells to the background colour of the rest of the sheet (green in this case). We now have a green “1″ in front of the picture for incorrect answers.

We use conditional formatting to choose a green background for these cells if they contain the number 1.

In Excel 2003, select Format -> Conditional Formatting, in Excel 2007/2010 you need to add a new rule. In either case select < Cell value is > < equal to > < 1 > for the three boxes and click the format button to choose the green fill.

Now the picture has a green background until correct answers are entered to gradually reveal the picture.

Revealing the prize


The final step is a much simpler version of revealing the picture, that is only dependent on the total score.

The background of the prize box is set to yellow using the normal cell format and the font colour to whatever you want it to be when it is revealed.

We then use conditional formatting again but enter the following for all of the cells in the prize area:

< Formula is > < =$R$16<>”10/10″ >

setting the format to a yellow font colour. This switches the font colour to yellow if the score in cell R16 does not equal 10/10, making the text invisible on the yellow background.

Protecting it all

Finally, we need to protect the sheet so that none of this information can be seen or edited.

Cells are formatted as “Locked” by default, so we need to select the cells that the user needs to be able to use (just the 10 answer boxes), select Format->Cells and on the Protection tab, un-tick the “Locked” box.

We then protect the sheet as follows:

Select Tools->Protection->Protect Sheet

Enter a password so that users cannot switch off the protection and un-tick all boxes in the list except the one that says “Select unlocked cells”. Once you have clicked OK, the user cannot even click in any of the cells apart from the 10 answer boxes.

There you have it! Your very own Excel Quiz.

A Merry Christmas to all of our clients.

Last year I created a Christmas Quiz in Excel just for fun (last year’s quiz),  but it proved very popular so I thought I should do it again this year.

This time though I thought it might be nice to add a little Christmas present if you get them all right. I won’t tell you what it is and spoil the surprise, but you will find it very useful if you need a spreadsheet. Even if you don’t, I hope you have a bit of fun with the quiz.

Maybe you could even do it without Google!

Download your copy of the Christmas Quiz

Good Luck and have a great Christmas break and a fantastic 2011!

From the Not Just Numbers blog:

I have been approached by a client to build a project planning spreadsheet, but given the client’s very general requirements, I have pointed him towards an off-the-shelf, on-line solution that will be a much more cost-effective solution for him. This got me to thinking about that choice.

My previous post on how to decide between a spreadsheet or a database made the assumption that you had already decided that you needed a custom solution, but how do you come to that conclusion.

I will take a similar approach to that previous post and list what I think are the key points to consider:

1. How unique is what I need?
Is your requirement something very specific to you or your business or is it quite generic, even if that is just in your industry? The more generic the requirement, the more likely an excellent solution already exists.

2. Do I have some very exacting requirements about how I want the need met?
In a similar vein to point 1, even if you have what appears to be a generic requirement, you may want it implemented in a particular way. We recently developed an on-line time-sheet system for a client because for their business had some very specific ways they wanted to keep time-sheets.

3. Is it possible, or practical, to change the process?
To get the best from an off-the-shelf product, it is better if you can adapt your processes to suit the way the software works. In many cases, this leads to an improvement in the process anyway – but sometimes the current process is key to the business, or a change would cause too much disruption. A bespoke solution can be tailored to the process.

4. How complex is my requirement?
This one really comes down to comparative cost and development time. For a simple requirement, a bespoke solution can often cost little more than an off-the shelf package and be implemented as quickly, but it can be tailored to your exact needs. The more complex the requirement, the more incentive there is to tap into (possibly) years of development that have already gone into an off-the-shelf package where the development costs are shared with the other users, than to pay to re-invent the wheel yourself.

5. What is my budget?
As ever, this is always going to be a factor. In most cases the off-the-shelf package will be the cheapest option, however do bear in mind any costs of tailoring your processes to fit (see point 3).

6. Ultimately, does the package I want exist?
If your answers to the other questions suggest that an off-the-shelf package would be best for you. This is only of any use if an off-the-shelf package exists. Alternatively, you may have just identified a business opportunity!

If you do feel that you need a bespoke solution (either spreadsheet or on-line database), then visit us at Spreadsheets by Email where we can provide you with a cost-effective, fixed price solution.

There are those who will tell you that every application should be a database and that spreadsheets should never be used, whereas others will look to address every problem with a spreadsheet. How do you decide what is best for your specific requirement?

As with most of these things, neither is right for every application. In this post I want to give you my thoughts about when I believe you should favour either – I would appreciate your views in the comment too, whether agreeing or opposing.

I thought the best way to address this would be as a series of questions about your specific requirement and some comments about how your answer might influence the decision.

I have assumed in the questions below that the decision has already been reached that a bespoke solution is required.

1. Does my application require access (and particularly editing) by multiple users at the same time?
Although there are ways to achieve this with a spreadsheet (for example using Sharepoint with Excel, or if you do not require the functionality of Excel, Google spreadsheets are great at this), a yes to this question should certainly push you down the database route. In most cases, if there is only one user then a spreadsheet is the most cost-effective option.

2. Will large amounts of data need to be held in the application?
If the data really does need to be held in the application, a yes would favour a database, however if the data is already held elsewhere (for example your accounting or ERP system), Excel is an excellent tool for reporting from the data.

3. What interaction (if any) does the application require with other applications?
As stated in point 2, Excel can be an excellent reporting tool from other applications where the data flow is one way (i.e. into Excel). If your application needs two-way communication with other applications, or if it needs to trigger real-time events, such as reminder emails, then a database would normally be more appropriate.

4. Who will use it?
Many users are comfortable with Excel and will find it easy to use, however it is much harder to make “idiot-proof”. If you really want to lock it down in such a way that it can’t be edited by the user at all, then a database may be more appropriate. With a reasonably competent Excel user, the ability to edit and enhance might be a positive for the spreadsheet solution.

5. Where are the users?
If everyone who might use the application is on the same network (and point 1 is not a major issue), then a spreadsheet held on the server might be what is needed. Alternatively, where the application performs a task (rather than holds data), multiple copies can be used – although this may need to be controlled. An on-line database can be great way to deal with multiple users who need to access the same data from anywhere as all they need is a web browser.

6. What is my budget?
In the real world, this one can’t be ignored. Assuming that either approach could address your requirements, it will almost certainly be cheaper to pay a third party to have a spreadsheet built – in many cases you can do it yourself.

I hope this helps. If you need any help in deciding, please feel free to drop me an email. At Spreadsheets by Email we can help you with both spreadsheet solutions and online databases.

One of the functions I use most often in Excel is the IF statement. This function is very powerful and to many can seem very complicated, whereas to others it is deceptively simple and its power can be underestimated.

The basic IF statement


The basic format of an IF statement is as follows:

=IF(if this is true,return this,otherwise return this)


Example:

=IF(A2>3,”Greater than three”,”Not greater than three”)

returns the text Greater than three if the number in cell A2 is greater than 3 and Not greater than three, if it is not.

The first argument can be any expression that can be true or false, usually using =,>,<,<=,>= or <>.

Other Examples:

=IF(A3=”X”,”Yes”,”No”)
=IF(SUM(A2:A10)>B2,”Over Budget”,”Within Budget”)
=IF(A2<0,0,A2)

Combining conditions


All of the above examples include only one condition, but it is possible to combine numerous conditions using the AND and OR functions.

Theses functions are formatted as follows:

=AND(Condition 1, Condition 2, Condition 3…..Condition n)
=OR(Condition 1, Condition 2, Condition 3…..Condition n)

The AND function returns TRUE if ALL of the individual conditions are true.

The OR function returns TRUE if ANY of the individual conditions are true.

They can be used in IF statements as follows:

=IF(AND(A2<=200,A2>=100),”In Range”,”Out if Range”)
=IF(OR(A2=”X”,B2=”X”,C2=”X”),”Contains X”,”Doesn’t Contain X”)

More complex decisions (Nested IF Statements)


If the decision required is more complicated, you can have IF statements within IF statements – this is called Nesting.

Example:

=IF(A2=0,”NIL”,IF(A2>0,”POSITIVE”,”NEGATIVE”))

If A2 is 0, this will return the word NIL, however if A is not 0 the third argument is another IF statement that will return the word POSITIVE if A2 is greater than zero, otherwise it will return NEGATIVE.

And that is the IF statement. Don’t forget you can still take the easy route and get your spreadsheet built for you at Spreadsheets by Email.

I find that many clients are quite comfortable working with financial figures in Excel, but don’t know how useful Excel can be when manipulating dates.

I thought that it might be useful to provide a short post on some of the most useful functions for handling dates in Excel.

One of the simplest functions is the TODAYfunction, which can be used on its own or within another formula to return today’s date. It has no arguments and is essentially a variable (Excel still requires empty brackets after it so that it has the same format as other functions)..

Examples:

=TODAY()          will display today’s date in the cell
=IF(A1<TODAY(),”Overdue”,”Not Yet Due”)      returns Overdue if the due date in cell A1 is earlier than today, otherwise it returns Not yet due


I covered YEAR, MONTH and DAY in an earlier post. These allow you to return the year, month or day respectively (as a number).

Examples:

Where cell A1 contains the date 5th October 2010,

=YEAR(A1)   returns 2010
=MONTH(A1)   returns 10
=DAY(A1)    returns 5

WEEKDAY allows you to identify the day of the week (as a number) of any date. It has two arguments, the first being the date you wish to use and the second (optional) argument being the number 1,2 or 3 depending on how you want to number your days.

1:  Sunday=1 through to Saturday=7
2:  Monday=1 through to Sunday=7
3:  Monday=0 through to Sunday=6

If this argument is not entered then it defaults to setting 1.

Examples:

Where cell A1 contains 5th October 2010 again (a Tuesday),

=WEEKDAY(A1)   returns 3
=WEEKDAY(A1,1)   returns 3
=WEEKDAY(A1,2)   returns 2
=WEEKDAY(A1,3)   returns 1

I hope this has made you feel a little more comfortable when working with dates in Excel.

Don’t forget if you want to take the even easier route, we can build your spreadsheet for you at Spreadsheets by Email.

I thought I would share with you an article I was kindly asked to write for Malcolm Gallagher’s Achiever Newsletter. It’s a nice summary of what I think are the top 5 most useful things to learn to get the most out of Excel. I’d also love to hear any you feel I have missed (please use the comments below).

Here is the article:

Top 5 Tips to make Excel Spreadsheets work for you

You probably already use Excel in your business to some extent, but very few businesses even scratch the surface of what it can do for them. I build spreadsheets for businesses throughout the world and below I will show you the top 5 things you should know to really start making Excel work for your business:

1. Learn Pivot Tables – The number one spot has to go to learning how to create a Pivot Table. A pivot table allows you to analyse any data you have, whether you have keyed it in or pulled it from a database such as your accounting software, in seconds. Master these and you will amaze yourself with how you can master your data. There is not enough space here to show you how to do this, but here is a FREE VIDEO that will take you through it step-by-step.

2. Find the Insert Function (fx) button – This little tip pushed pivot tables close for the number one spot because it allows you to use any function Excel has, without knowing it first. All you need to do is click the little fx button to the left of the formula bar and you can browse all of Excel’s formulae. It will tell you what the formula does, how to use it and then help you to fill in the arguments step-by-step. To see how it does this, just click on it, or see this blog post for more detail.

3. Use dropdowns for data entry – The information you get from a spreadsheet is only as good as the data you (or your employees) put in. It is very easy to use Excel’s Data Validation to create a drop-down list that only allows you to enter data from that list. I have created a blog post that covers how to do this in detail.

4. Learn the VLOOKUP formula – You can access this via the Insert Function (fx) facility discussed in point 2. VLOOKUP allows you to look up data from a list in a spreadsheet. For example, you could enter a product code and automatically show the description and price from a separate price list. Use the fx button for more detail or watch the FREE VIDEO on my blog.

5. Learn how to record a macro – a macro is a short program attached to a spreadsheet that carries out a particular task. The good news is that you do not need to be a programmer to create one – when you have a repetitive task you can simply ask Excel to record you carrying out the task and create a macro to do it automatically next time. You do this by selecting Tools > Macro > Record New Macro… Again, there is a short FREE VIDEO on my blog.

Hopefully these tips help you to tap into how Excel can help your business, just question whenever you are manually manipulating data whether it can be done in Excel – it almost certainly can.

For those of you who don’t have the time, or the inclination, to build the spreadsheet you need, why not let my team and I do it for you at Spreadsheets by Email?

I can’t take away all of the pain but I will do what I can to ensure that June has not been wasted. To this end, I am offering a 20% discount on almost all of Feechan Consulting’s services if paid for before the end of June.

That’s:

There’s still time to ensure that you remember June for something positive.