11

Anyone who has used a Form Control Label likely knows its limitations: you can't increase the font-size, -color, or style.  Below, you can see that these formatting items have been "grayed out" in the Font group on the Excel Ribbon.

To be sure, the Label control has received a lot of flack for these deficiencies.  A look through some Excel forums shows suggestions to use a TextBox shape or an ActiveX Label instead of the hapless Label control.It's a tragedy since the other form controls are lightweight and easy to use. Some forum posters even said Labels are best used to cover cells you don't want the user to click. So sad.   

But things are looking up.  I've since discovered you can take a boring Label Control from this...

...to this!

How?

As it turns out, Labels take on the text-font and -size features of a referenced cell.  So, to make my label look this this, I simply linked it to a pre-formatted cell, like G2, below.

In fact, this is the same mechanism to link a Textbox shape to a cell.  The difference here is that a Textbox can take an unformatted cell and apply new formatting on the front-end, when it's displayed to the user.  Above, we see that the cell must first be formatted, then linked.  In fact, whatever formatting exists in the cell when you first make the link, the label will maintain this format until a new link is created.  For example, if I were to change G2 to a black color and a smaller font, the label would not show these new changes (however, it would change its text if I changed the value in G2 to something else).  So to change the Label's formatting -- even when it's linked to the same cell -- you'll need to click the label, click the formula bar, and retype the cell link.  

Admittedly, everyone else might have already figured this one out.  However, I'm still very excited.  Don't get me wrong, Textbox Shapes are great, but having too many could become expensive on your spreadsheet, especially if you are constantly updating the screen (how many redraws can your computer handle before things start to slow?).  Labels, as Form Controls, inherently carry less bloat and overhead.  They're perfect for dynamic dashboards.  

Author: Unknown Labels: Excel Tricks, Formulas, No VBA, Pivot Tables

3

So I've created a spreadsheet program that will import a selected bitmap and use Excel as a canvas to display it.  Each cell is a pixel.  Here's a picture of president Obama in 8-bit glory:

And here's my current March Madness bracket in stunning 24-bit:

You can download the file below, and instructions are included on the Instructions tab.  Don't worry, it's not hard to use.  If you can use MSPAINT, you'll be making your very own Excel art in no time!

For now, the code is locked, but I might make it available later after I'm sure it's error free. Speaking of which, there are a few problems you may (but hopefully won't) run into:

1.  The picture shows up discolored and slanted.  While I'm fairly certain that I've fixed this issue, I admit that I am by no means perfect.  When bitmaps are saved, they are "padded" in the file to make their height evenly divisible by four.  The program should compensate for this padding, but if it doesn't -- again, I'm fairly certain this issue is resolved -- just resize the bitmap it to the nearest number evenly divisible by four.  (That number is at most three digits away.)

2.  Too many Different Cell Formats error.  Sometimes you'll get this annoying popup.  If that happens, try zooming in on the canvas screen first and then reuploading your file.  If that doesn't work, either crop the original image or resize to a smaller one.  Or, if you are uploading a 24-bit bitmap, consider resaving as an 8-bit and then reuploading.

If you find other issues, please, let me know.  It would be great help.

Also, this is best used with Excel 2007 and above.  It will work in 2003, but remember that 2003 has a column size limitation, which may cause in an error for files that are too large.  If you are concerned, smaller is better: resize or choose to save in the 8-bit format.  When you are done, remember to save as in the Excel 2007 file type (check to see if you are in compatibility mode) so that you get all the columns required to display your most productive spreadsheet, ever.

I'm releasing this now because I've been sitting on it for way, way too long.  I was hoping I'd come up with some real, professional use for it, but I haven't thought of anything yet.  For a moment, I was trying to apply a Hough Transform to the bitmaps to see if I could take images and turn them into cool free form shape, but this proved too taxing for Excel.  I also made an attempt at Eigenfaces which ended ridiculously.  So if anyone out there has some good ideas, please email me and we'll work together.

Lastly, if you like what you see and choose to host a spreadsheet made with this program (or screen capture of one) on your blog or website, I'd be so grateful if you mentioned this blog!  Have fun.

File
Bitmap to Excel.xlsm

Author: Unknown Labels: Advanced Excel, Bitmaps

3

We've all had some experience with Excel's automatic numbering.  For example, if you have a simple list and you would like to add consecutive numbers to a column next to your data, you'd simply select the cells containing your first two numbers and then drag accordingly.  Take a look at the sheet below to see an example.

But real-world lists aren't always so simple.  And for certain data, a simple consecutive list just won't do.  Sometimes we receive spreadsheets that have some type of intrinsic grouping but no unique group identifier. The challenge is that we would really like to apply Pivot Tables to this data, but we can't do anything until there exists some type of group identifier.

Problem #1: Items grouped without collation
Take a look at the datasheet below from my nonexistent accounting information system.

Because I'm smart(ish), I know that a new group begins every third row of data.  The first three rows of data (Excel rows 2,3, and 4) represent store 1, the next three store 2, and so forth.  I would like to add an additional group_id column such that each grouping is numbered consecutively.  Something like this:

How?  I use this formula, 

=INT((ROW()-2)/3) + 1

then fill downward.  This works by applying integer division in the amount of each item in a group to the current row. So, for row 3, we have 

=INT((ROW()-2)/3) -> =INT((3-2)/3) - > =INT(1/3) -> = INT(0.33) = 0.  

(If it's been a while since your last algebra class, just think of it as dividing and then "rounding down" the result.)

I add one ("+ 1") at the end of the formula so that my grouping doesn't start at zero.  That's optional.

Notice though, that I subtract 2 because my data starts on row 2.  If I had started on row 1, I would likewise subtract 1; for row 3, subtract 3.  Here's a cheat sheet:

For Items Grouped Without Collation

=INT((ROW()-First row of data on spreadsheet) / # Items per Group)[+1] optional  

Problem #2: Items grouped with collation


In the following spreadsheet, we've culled information from many different spreadsheets maintained by many different people.

The problem is that each spreadsheet administrator used a different naming convention for the same account (see the highlighted accounts).  And take a look at the final Retained Earnings and note that it is labeled "  RE."  Those extra spaces can creep into the spreadsheet and easily go unnoticed.  What a nightmare.

But wait, our list has some semblance of order: accounts can be grouped every sixth row. We just need to group each item, one through five, until the end of the list.  Like so,

How?  With this formula,

=MOD(ROW() - 2,5) + 1

This should look familiar to the one above.  But instead of using integer division, we're now using modulo division; that is, we're interested in the remainder.  Take row 3

=MOD(ROW()-2, 5)+1 ->  =MOD(3-2, 5)+1  - >  =MOD(1, 5)+1  -> = 1+1 =2.

Here's the cheat sheet:

For Items Grouped With Collation

=MOD((ROW()-First row of data on spreadsheet,# Items per Group)[+1] optional  

Final Thoughts

1.  Once you've created your new group_id column, it's a good idea to select your new work, copy, and then paste as values.  If the groupings aren't going to change later, there's no reason to keep it as a formula.  Remember, fewer formulas means better Excel performance -- especially if you plan to use a Pivot Table later.

2.  If you're not into the numbering scheme, create a lookup table that maps the numbers to a proper name.  Create another column at the front of your data and use a lookup method, like Index, to map the correct names.  Then do a copy/paste values.

3. If you have a list scheme you use quite often, you can actually save it as a custom fill series and then use it later.

Remember:

For Items Grouped Without Collation

=INT((ROW()-First row of data on spreadsheet) / # Items per Group)[+1] optional  

For Items Grouped With Collation

=MOD((ROW()-First row of data on spreadsheet,# Items per Group)[+1] optional  

Author: Unknown Labels: Data analysis, Pivot Tables

5

Have you had a list of names but found your cell width too small to show every name?  Take a look at this:

I had my nonexistent secretary print out this fake itinerary for me.  Nothing lines up neatly.  Look how some of my events overlap the cell boundary between columns B and C.  My 2012 End-of-world Steering Committee meeting on February 1st, 2013 goes long and is then cut-off by the date!

To fix this, you could have Excel automatically size Column B, but that's a bit unpredictable to have on a dashboard (what if other content is sized off the screen?).  We'll just have to accept that we can't show everything, but we can make it look neater.  We'll employ some type of text truncation method similar to what Microsoft uses to display the names of files in Windows Explorer: if the text to be displayed is greater than a certain character length, simply truncate and add a "...".

The "Original Recipe" Method

First thing we'll need to do is figure out how many characters we'll want to display before truncation.  There's really no way to do this without trial and error. But, to make life easier, we can use =LEN("Your Text Here") to return the length of your text; or, we can use something like  =LEFT(B3, 4) to return the first four characters of text in cell B3.  Keep trying until you find a good character length.  

Hopefully, you got a good handle on using LEN and LEFT above because we'll be using them from here on out.  Also, I'm going to use 25 characters as my desired character length before truncation.  Below I use  LEFT to pull the first 25 characters from each event name.

Now we'll need to know which names to add the "..." to.  Following ExcelHero's discussion on using IFs, we'll avoid using one here; not to worry, we don't really need it.

As it turns out, LEFT can take a zero value character length -- it just returns nothing.  So to have Excel automatically return what we want, we'll do this:

=LEFT("…",LEN(B3)>25)

Take a look at that second argument on the right.  It takes the length of our event name and tests if it's greater than our cutoff length of 25.  If it's less than 25, Excel will return a zero and display nothing.  If it's greater than the cutoff, Excel will return a 1 and display the first character in our text.  But there's something I found out while writing this tutorial, I expected Excel to only return one period ("."), but instead it returns all three ("...") even if you only put a 1 in on the right.  I'm guessing that the ellipses are treated as one character; however, I'm dubious that this works in every case on every computer, so to have your formula return three characters or zero, you'll simply change it to:

=LEFT("…",(LEN(B3)>25) * 3)

Now you'll need to concatenate both strings together using the concatenation operator, &.

Finally, as you can see in cell, H7, there is a space between the event name and the ellipses.  This is because the last character before the cutoff was a space.  To fix this, surround the first string formula with the TRIM function; this will automatically delete any leading or ending spaces.  

Putting it all Together

To finish, we'll combine all our steps into one formula, like so:

=TRIM(LEFT(B3,25)) & LEFT("…",LEN(B3)>25)

To get:

...mmmmmmuch better!

Download my example: Spillover Design Example.xlsx

Author: Unknown Labels: Excel Tricks, No VBA, Strings

0

In the last post, A Dynamic Dashboard for Project Durations and Costs in Excel, we talked about using VLOOKUP as means to map references to their costs.  At the end of the post, I admitted that I didn't really like the solution.  Specifically, I didn't like how the user had to type in each reference manually and then go back and ensure their numbers were correct (for example, if execution is nine months long, the user would need to ensure they type the number 2, nine times).  In this post, we'll talk about how to automate this process.  When we're finished, you'll only need to type the number 9 into a box and the rest will update automatically.  

The Advanced Method

Step 1: Use the REPT formula

The REPT() formula (short for "Repeat") allows you to repeat a character a certain amount of times.  For example, if A1 has the formula =REPT("A", 6), then A1 will display the value "AAAAAA."  Now think about how that might be useful here.  We could simply input the number "6" for IT Services in the Execution phase and Excel will generate a reference string "222222."

Consider below:

In this case, =REPT(C$11$, C3) is telling Excel to repeat the value 1 (our reference to planning) a total of two times.  In other words,  =REPT(C$11$, C3) -> =REPT("1", 2) -> 11. (Remember, "11" is two 1's, not eleven.)

Step 2: Create the reference string

Now concatenate each string reference (using the concatenation operator "&") to form the entire reference string.

  

Step 3: Read from the reference string using the MID formula into your References Table

The MID formula allows you to take a string and read its characters starting from a specific position to a certain character length.  For example, =MID("Jordan",2,2) returns "or" since the first 2 tells Excel pull from the second character in "Jordan" and the second two tells Excel the amount of characters to return.  For our purposes, we'll only need to return one month at a time.  And since our reference table incidentally uses numbers for months, we'll reuse those numbers to tell the MID formula our desired character position.  When you supply a character position greater than the character length of the given text string, MID simply returns nothing.  

Above, we tell Excel to take the corresponding reference string for IT Services and use Month 1 to pull from position one in the reference string. Fill in the information going across, then down.  

Consider what we've done so far.  Now when you change the information in your Months in Step table, the reference strings change, which makes updates to the Reference Table automatically!

  

Step 4: Convert references to numbers in your Values Table

We have a small problem. Our Reference Table may be displaying the correct information, but it's actually displaying the information as text and not a number (this is because we used String formulas above, which work on and return text).  If we try to add the the numbers for the IT Services row in our Reference Table above, the result will actually be zero since, despite appearances, no numbers actually exist in the row.  Luckily, the fix is simple.  We'll use the VALUE() formula to convert the strings back to numbers.       

Step 5: Ditch VLOOKUP.  We don't need it.

VLOOKUP is best used to look up strings, not numeric values.  I've updated the look up table below.  Take note that each phase is actually intrinsically encoded: Planning is already in row 1; Execution in row 2; and Maturity in row 3.

In this case, we need only use the INDEX() formula.  The INDEX formula allows us to pull from a specific row and/or column in specified range.  For example, we could take the last column above and use the numbers in our Reference Table to identify the desired row.  Take a look below:

The Values Table uses 1 in the References Table to pull from the first row of our lookup. 

Step 6: Use IFERROR for months with zero values

Another small problem.  The INDEX formula above is reading in blank values and returning errors!  You'll need to tell Excel to return $0 for those months.  To do so, you'll use the IFERROR formula.  IFERROR works by attempting to execute a given formula; if the formula returns an error, IFERROR will direct Excel to return another value instead of an error.

Take a look: 

Step 7: Sum the Values Table, then graph

Summary
Hopefully that wasn't too bad.  I wanted to show how many different formulas can interact to create an automated dashboard.  Of course, you could tighten some formulas up.  For example, instead of using VALUES, you could simply use the "--".  And, you could even do away with the IFERROR by retooling your lookup table.  I'll leave that up to you.  


Something to try...
Use the reference table and conditional formatting to create a gannt chart!




We're still missing some desired functionality.  Wouldn't it be neat to be able to set the date when each project begins?  We'll talking about that in Part 3.  Don't miss the riveting, final conclusion!


Download the example file: Dynamic Duration Example.xlsx

Author: Unknown Labels: Dashboards, Dynamic Charts, No VBA, Project Management