It occurred to me that you could build a quick multiplication table in Excel.

Simply build this grid, enter the formula at the intersection of 2*2, and then copy down and across.

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For giggles, I applied a conditional formatting just to be dazzled by the colors.

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Then I thought it would be cool if I applied a custom heat map based on how well the boy was able to fill in the table on his own.

Here’s what he looks like. The dark orange areas are problem areas. The light orange are areas that could use reinforcement.

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If I was a math teacher, I’d build one of these per student and use it to focus in on multiplication.  This would highlight the areas to focus on for each student.

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Of course, this is until some parent complains to the school board that the colors are causing irreparable harm to their child’s psyche due to the subliminal messages emanating from the heat map. So I’ll be dragged into court to prove that the shapes created on the heat map were only coincidently shaped like testicles.

Related posts:

1. Changing Font Size of Just the Formula Bar
2. Safely Move Formulas without Absolute Reference
3. Emailing from Excel Using the Hyperlink Function
4. Sorting Numbers and Text Together
5. Sort by Color in Excel 2003

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During my live training events, I have gotten into the habit of using a trick I learned from John (a Senior VP at Ernst &Young) a few months ago.

With this trick, I can increase the font of just the Formula bar. Like this:

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This technique has proven to be extremely useful in live training scenarios where students in the back of the room struggle to see the formulas that are thrown up on the screen.

Here, I can make the Font size huge so all the students can see.

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I know what you’re thinking: “Why isn’t the rest of the workbook huge too (i.e. column references, row references). Well the secret is if you increase the workbook font properties, then open an already existing workbook, only the formula bar actually takes on the new font properties.

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Try it yourself.

In Excel, open up the Excel options and go to the section called ‘When creating new workbooks’.

Then change the Font size to any size you’d like.

Now press the OK button and close out Excel.

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The next time you open Excel, everything will be BIG.

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However…….If you open an Excel document that was created and saved in normal size, only the formula bar is big.

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Now…. I personally wouldn’t use this trick in my everyday work. Constantly changing font sizes in my Excel workbooks seems silly.

However, when I put on my live training events, I use this trick all the time. It’s my way of giving back to the sight-challenged Excel analyst community.

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Apart from the accidental functionality I’ve found in this strange glitch in Workbook Font sizing, this behavior in Excel does feel a bit like a bug. One would think the formula bar would remain normal size (like the other interface components) when opening up an exisitng workbook. Instead, the Formula bar is the only interface component that takes on the new Workbook font properties.

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Bug or not, I’ve adopted this freakish behavior as my trick.

Related posts:

1. Formula Auditing Art
2. Outta My Way Formula Thingy!
3. Sorting Numbers and Text Together
4. Emailing from Excel Using the Hyperlink Function
5. Sort by Color in Excel 2003

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If you’re new to the HLOOKUP function, you can get the specifics at Debra’s post. But the gist is that HLOOKUP finds a single value from a row of data where the column label matches a given criterion.

For example, the table in C3 requires quarter-end numbers (March and June) for 2010. HLOOKUP uses the column labels to find the correct month columns and then locates the 2010 data by moving down the appropriate number of rows. In this case, 2010 data is in row 4, so the number 4 is used in the formulas.

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This is fine and dandy, but we all know that HLOOKUP is the less popular cousin of the cool VLOOKUP function (mainly because Excel data is typically vertically oriented). So in most situations, we would use some other formula to do this kind of thing.

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But like I said, I personally use the HLOOKUP when I’m building dashboard models where I need to separate the data layer and the analysis layer.

In a dashboarding model, you don’t want your data to become too tied into any one particular way of presenting that data. So you separate the data layer from the analysis layer. The analysis layer consists primarily of formulas that analyze and shape data from the data layer into formatted tables (commonly referred to as staging tables). These staging tables ultimately feed the reporting components in your presentation layer. In short, the analysis layer is where data is summarized and shaped to feed the reporting components.

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There are a couple of benefits to this setup. First, the entire reporting model can easily be refreshed by simply replacing the raw data with an updated dataset. The formulas in the analysis tab continue to work with the latest data. Second, any additional analysis can easily be created by using different combinations of formulas on the analysis tab. If you need data that doesn’t exist in the data sheet, you can easily append a column to the end of the raw dataset without disturbing the analysis or presentation sheets.

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HLOOKUPs are especially handy for shaping data in the analysis layer into structures appropriate for charting or other types of reporting. Take the simple example demonstrated here.

In this example, HLOOKUP formulas pull and reshape data without disturbing the raw data table. The data shown in the raw data table at the bottom of the figure is reoriented in a staging table at the top. When the raw data is changed or refreshed, the staging table captures the changes.

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In this example, HLOOKUP formulas pull and reshape data without disturbing the raw data table. The data shown in the raw data table at the bottom of the figure is reoriented in a staging table at the top. When the raw data is changed or refreshed, the staging table captures the changes.

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Well, I’ve done my good deed for the day. It’s time to go make myself a Bacon Egg and Cheese Sandwich.

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Oh and I might as well throw in a crass commercial plug for “Excel Reports and Dashboards“.

If you want to learn more about building effective Dashboard models, check it out.

Related posts:

1. Creating Subtotals on Many Columns
2. Sorting Numbers and Text Together
3. Testing for Null Cells
4. Sort by Color in Excel 2003
5. Getting Data from Previous Sheet

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We all know you can make the formulas in your worksheet “Absolute Reference”. This locks the formulas so you can move them around without changing the references. But you don’t always have the luxury of applying absolute references to all the formulas you need to move – maybe your formulas have mixed references or maybe absolute references don’t fit your model. In these cases, you can use a simple trick that allows you to safely move your formulas around without having to apply absolute references.

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In this example, I need to sort the formulas in column J so that the time periods are sorted by the sort key.  Note that these formulas are relative reference formulas.

If I apply the sort as is, the formula references will get all wacky, causing the formulas to become incorrect.

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To safely move the formulas, I perform a Find and Replace – replacing all equal (=) signs with the pound or hash (#).

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This essentially converts the formulas into hard-coded text strings which can be moved around.

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At this point, I can safely apply my sort.

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Once I’m done moving things around, I can perform another Find and Replace to find all pound or hash (#) signs and replace them with equal (=) signs.

Related posts:

1. Protect Worksheet Structure with Array Formulas
2. Emailing from Excel Using the Hyperlink Function
3. Sorting Numbers and Text Together
4. Sort by Color in Excel 2003
5. Why FIND when you can SEARCH

It’s true. Today, I’ll show you that the HYPERLINK function is not just for getting to your E-Harmony account.

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Excel’s HYPERLINK function has only two arguments: the URL you are trying to hit, and the friendly name. So to get to the E-Harmony site, you could use something like:

=HYPERLINK(“http://www.eharmony.com”, “Woman Shopping”)


This will create a hot link in your spreadsheet that, when clicked, will take you to the prescribed URL.

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Well, the neat thing is that the HYPERLINK function also works with ‘mailto:’ URL constructs. This means you can create a hot link that sends a basic email when clicked.

=HYPERLINK(“mailto:mike@someaddress.com?subject=Email To DataPig”, “Send Email”)

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If you want to send the email to multiple recipients, you can include other addresses separating each with a comma. Like this:

=HYPERLINK(“mailto:mike@someaddress.com, MrsPig@someaddress.com?subject=Email To DataPig”, “Send Email”)

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What’s that? You want to use CC and BCC lines? I got you covered. Simply add the cc and bcc parameters:

=HYPERLINK(“mailto:mike@someaddress.com, MrsPig@someaddress.com?cc=Thing1@someaddress&bcc=Thing2@someaddress&subject=Email To DataPig”, “Send Email”)

Notice that you will need to use the ampersand (&) to separate the parameters

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OK, let’s get fancier and add a body.

=HYPERLINK(“mailto:mike@someaddress.com, MrsPig@someaddress.com?cc=Thing1@someaddress&bcc=Thing2@someaddress&subject=Email To DataPig&body=I ate too much salmon.“, “Send Email”)

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If you need to add a multi-lined body (meaning the text of your body is on multiple lines), you can use the carriage return encoding (%0A).

=HYPERLINK(“mailto:mike@someaddress.com, MrsPig@someaddress.com?cc=Thing1@someaddress&bcc=Thing2@someaddress&subject=Email To DataPig&body=I ate too much salmon.%0ANow I have salmonella “, “Send Email”)

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With the finished HYPERLINK, this email is generated. As you can see, with one click, the user gets an email with the multiple TO recipients, CC and BCC recipients, a Subject and a multi-lined Body. Pretty snazzy!

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And as always, you can dynamically build your ‘mailto’ URL address in with formulas. It’s simply a matter of concatenating the appropriate cells to create the correct syntax for the URL.

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There you have it! Happy emailing!

Related posts:

1. Using the Switch Function in Excel
2. Sort by Color in Excel 2003
3. Sorting Numbers and Text Together
4. Flipping a Range Upside Down
5. Why FIND when you can SEARCH