Ask Geoff About Excel (or Google Sheets)

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Postby Geoff » Sun Nov 06, 2011 1:38 pm

Please feel free to contact me in this thread if you have any excel based questions.

I will help as much as possible. Probably not the most interesting thread, but very functional.
Last edited by Geoff on Fri Jun 01, 2018 6:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Fed Ups » Sun Nov 06, 2011 1:48 pm

Image
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Postby Geoff » Sun Nov 06, 2011 2:50 pm

Fed Ups wrote:Image


who's that?
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Postby cooly » Sun Nov 06, 2011 2:51 pm

glad youre back geoff
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Postby Geoff » Sun Nov 06, 2011 2:56 pm

cooly wrote:glad youre back geoff


hi cooly!

Do you use excel much?
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Postby thrasher » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:12 pm

this is probably like a 101-level question, but I've always wanted to know how to make one cell have extra width so that it takes up multiple columns. i'm probably not explaining that very well, which is why I haven't managed to figure it out as of yet.
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Postby The Dirty Turtle » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:16 pm

select the cells, right click the cells, format, merge cells

badaBOOM badaBING
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Postby The Dirty Turtle » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:17 pm

that was probably rude of me
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Postby Caracas » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:20 pm

Probably dumb question from me but how do you increase the amount of characters you can put in a cell as when i try to write more than about twenty words in it I keep ending up with ######################## across the whole god damn cell at which point excel squeezes another drop of life out of me and leaves me feeling stupid and alone.
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Postby Luke » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:21 pm

What's a good intro to using pivot tables?
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Postby thrasher » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:30 pm

The Dirty Turtle wrote:select the cells, right click the cells, format, merge cells

badaBOOM badaBING


awesome, thank you sir
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Postby cooly » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:32 pm

Geoff wrote:
cooly wrote:glad youre back geoff


hi cooly!

Do you use excel much?


no, not really. just word
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Postby Geoff » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:34 pm

excel rule number one NEVER merge cells.

Here's my set of instructions

Image
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Postby Geoff » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:38 pm

Caracas wrote:Probably dumb question from me but how do you increase the amount of characters you can put in a cell as when i try to write more than about twenty words in it I keep ending up with ######################## across the whole god damn cell at which point excel squeezes another drop of life out of me and leaves me feeling stupid and alone.


try either;

a) following my 'centre across selection tip above

b) increase the size of the column width

c) or use the "wrap text" or "shrink to fit" text control options that are also in the alignment tab in my screenshot.
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Postby sordid affair » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:40 pm

i'm seriously going to bookmark this thread
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Postby chimp_ » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:44 pm

really stoked about not having to care about excel
the spirit of this thread is the total death-wish. it frightens me. people are laughing about this, because they are idiots, just idiots.
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Postby cooly » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:46 pm

geoff do you know how to use latex? i could use threads about latex
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Postby Geoff » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:48 pm

cooly wrote:geoff do you know how to use latex? i could use threads about latex


what is latex, I have used that program before.
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Postby Caracas » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:49 pm

Thanks Geoff - your suggestion worked. Gonna try this out tomorrow at work with the stupid ass spreadsheet I have to sometimes use.

What a way to start the week!
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Postby cooly » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:50 pm

Geoff wrote:
cooly wrote:geoff do you know how to use latex? i could use threads about latex


what is latex, I have used that program before.


it's a document markup language that has these associated programs for word processing. it's really good at handling symbols and logic / math stuff, so you have to use it sometimes in philosophy
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Postby Geoff » Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:54 pm

cooly wrote:
Geoff wrote:
cooly wrote:geoff do you know how to use latex? i could use threads about latex


what is latex, I have used that program before.


it's a document markup language that has these associated programs for word processing. it's really good at handling symbols and logic / math stuff, so you have to use it sometimes in philosophy


interesting, sadly I don't have experience in it, but I can probably achieve what it does in excel (maybe :P)
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Postby Geoff » Sun Nov 06, 2011 4:25 pm

sordid affair wrote:i'm seriously going to bookmark this thread


hey SA, do you use a lot of excel?
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Postby wyatt » Sun Nov 06, 2011 5:46 pm

is there a good website for excel tutorials?
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Postby husbands » Sun Nov 06, 2011 6:07 pm

cooly wrote:geoff do you know how to use latex? i could use threads about latex


I use LaTeX a lot - right now I'm using it to typeset extensive form games

do you have any specific questions? I can give you a nice template for games - most mathematical symbols are easily found online

in fact, here's the thread I made about it: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35056
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Postby Geoff » Sun Nov 06, 2011 6:36 pm

wyatt wrote:is there a good website for excel tutorials?


Here's some I read on a regular basis;

Chandoo - Become 'Awesome' in Excel
• Probably my favourite
---------------------------------------------
http://chandoo.org/wp/
---------------------------------------------

Peltier Tech Blog
• Fantastic tips on Excel Charts
---------------------------------------------
http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/
---------------------------------------------

Contextures Blog
• One of the best excel websites, and a useful blog too.
---------------------------------------------
http://blog.contextures.com/
---------------------------------------------

Daily Dose of Excel
• A golden oldey, also for normally for the technically advanced.
---------------------------------------------
http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/
---------------------------------------------

Excel Hero
• Relatively new, but some useful posts (advanced users only)
---------------------------------------------
http://www.excelhero.com/blog/
---------------------------------------------

BaconBits
• Good for beginners
---------------------------------------------
http://datapigtechnologies.com/blog/
---------------------------------------------
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Postby Swelling Itching Brain » Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:40 pm

when I have say, 3 columns,
[A][B][C]
and I want to sort them alphabetically based on the values in column B
is there a way to do this other than rearranging them like
[B][A][C] then highlighting all and using the A->Z button?
I'd like to skip the rearranging part

also is there a way to have the cell entry field be multiple lines or have soft line breaks for more legibility? sometimes I'm doing complex stuff and it's easy to get lost

and finally is there a way to display 2 worksheets from the same file at once, I only seem to be able to tile separate .xls files
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Postby Ted Pikul » Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:45 pm

Black Cæsar wrote:when I have say, 3 columns,
[A][B][C]
and I want to sort them alphabetically based on the values in column B
is there a way to do this other than rearranging them like
[B][A][C] then highlighting all and using the A->Z button?
I'd like to skip the rearranging part


Oooh, I would like to know this too

Also, how do you sort only a selection of rows within in a column, rather than the whole column?
Last edited by Ted Pikul on Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Automatic » Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:46 pm

Black Cæsar wrote:when I have say, 3 columns,
[A][B][C]
and I want to sort them alphabetically based on the values in column B
is there a way to do this other than rearranging them like
[B][A][C] then highlighting all and using the A->Z button?
I'd like to skip the rearranging part

Highlight all of the data. Click on: "Data > Sort..." then select column B. If you've selected the header rows, ensure the "has headers" radio button is clicked.

also is there a way to have the cell entry field be multiple lines or have soft line breaks for more legibility? sometimes I'm doing complex stuff and it's easy to get lost

To have a line break inside of the cell, press Alt + Enter when entering text.

and finally is there a way to display 2 worksheets from the same file at once, I only seem to be able to tile separate .xls files

Don't think so. You can click on "Window > Split" to show two different parts of the same sheet though.
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Postby Automatic » Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:47 pm

Ted Pikul wrote:
Black Cæsar wrote:when I have say, 3 columns,
[A][B][C]
and I want to sort them alphabetically based on the values in column B
is there a way to do this other than rearranging them like
[B][A][C] then highlighting all and using the A->Z button?
I'd like to skip the rearranging part


Oooh, I would like to know this too

Also, how do you sort only a selection of rows within in a column, rather than the whole column?


Only select the rows of data you want to sort. Then Alt + D S and sort by the selected column.
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Postby husbands » Sun Nov 06, 2011 7:49 pm

I have some data in a column that is separated by |'s

how do I split that column into multiple columns according to the |'s

this is a great thread idea
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