Almost everyone these days use spreadsheet in their daily life, whether it is at work or at home or at school. However, many are also just using it for its basic function, without knowing or exploring other functions and features that are available in spreadsheets, like Microsoft Excel. Some are too afraid to ask others as they may look stupid for not knowing. Others may want to read up on the additional functions and features, but the amount of books available and the thickness of these books tend to scare them away. What I will do in this series of tips on "Effective use of spreadsheets" I will explain useful features in Microsoft Excel, which would make working with spreadsheets easier, whether you use spreadsheets for serious applications in the office or to catalogue your DVD collection or to keep your favourite recipes.
One feature that I have found to be very useful, especially if you have a large number of spreadsheets to work on or refer to frequently, is Indexing Your Spreadsheets by using the HYPERLINK Function. When you have 10 or 50 or 100 spreadsheet in your workbook, you may find locating a particular spreadsheet by scrolling through the sheet tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet as being very difficult and time consuming. The best way to locate find fast and accurately is to create your Spreadsheet Number 1 as an INDEX SPREADSHEET for the whole Workbook. Try this out.
1) Open a New Spreadsheet File 2) On Row 1 Column A (location A1) type in Customer or Recipe A 3) Right click on A1 and scroll down to HYPERLINK and click on it 4) Select Place in this document on the left hand side 5) Select Sheet 2 from the list Cell Reference 6) Press OK You have now referenced Cell A1 in Sheet 1 to Cell A1 in Sheet 2 You should now see Customer A in Cell A1 Sheet 1 with a Hyperlink underline to it. When you place your cursor over A1 in Sheet 1 and click there, it will take you straight to Sheet 2 7) Now do the same on Cell A1 in Sheet 2 but now reference to Sheet 1 to take you back to Sheet 1 (the Index) Repeat Steps 1 to 7 for a few more spreadsheets, say about 5 or 6 more, for Customer B or Recipe B onwards and then see the results. Great isn't it. Now you have just created a link through an Index Spreadsheet and a link to go back to the Index in every Spreadsheet.
Have fun trying it out and using it EFFECTIVELY in your daily work.
The author, Raja Idris Kamarudin has been using spreadsheets daily since the 80s, starting with Multiplan then on to Lotus 123 then finally Microsoft Excel and Corel WordPerfect Quattro Pro. His company Multibizlink designs and develops all sorts of application software using spreadsheets. You can view the products at http://www.multibizlink.com and you can email him at rajaidris@yahoo.com