Whichever way you choose to use this book, you probably will want to familiarize yourself with the contents first, so here's a brief synopsis of each chapter and what you'll find: -
- Chapter 1, Reducing Workbook and Worksheet Frustration
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Workbooks and worksheets are the primary interface to data in Excel, but sometimes this set of giant open grids doesn't do precisely what you want. These hacks enable you to manage how users interact with worksheets, help you find and highlight information, and teach you how to deal with debris and corruption. -
- Chapter 2, Hacking Excel's Built-in Features
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Excel includes many built-in features for analyzing and managing data. However, these features often have limitations. The hacks in this chapter enable you to extend and automate these features, moving beyond the limited tasks they were designed to perform originally. -
- Chapter 3, Naming Hacks
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Although cell references such as A2 and IV284:IN1237 are certainly useful, as spreadsheets become larger, it's often easier to reference information by name. These hacks show you not only how to name cells and ranges, but also how to create names that adapt to the data in your spreadsheet. -
- Chapter 4, Hacking PivotTables
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For many Excel users, PivotTables already seem like a complicated but magical hack. The hacks in this chapter show you how to get the most out of PivotTables, avoiding the problems that make them frustrating and showing you how to extend them. -
- Chapter 5, Charting Hacks
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Excel's built-in charting capabilities are very useful, but they don't always provide the best method for viewing spreadsheet data. These hacks teach you how to tweak and combine Excel's built-in charting capabilities so that you can create customized charts . -
- Chapter 6, Hacking Formulas and Functions
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Formulas and functions are at the heart of most spreadsheets, but sometimes the way Excel handles them just isn't quite what you want. These hacks cover subjects ranging from moving formulas around to dealing with datatype issues to improving recalculation time. -
- Chapter 7, Macro Hacks
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Macros (and VBA) are Excel's escape hatch, enabling you to build spreadsheets that go well beyond Excel's own capabilities or develop spreadsheets that look more like programs. These hacks help you make the most of macros, from managing them to using them to extend other features. -
- Chapter 8, Connecting Excel to the World
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Although most spreadsheets are self-contained, this chapter shows you how you can take advantage of web sites and services from Google and Amazon, as well as use XML, to get information into and out of your spreadsheets. |