Product Description

If you think that getting creative with Excel means the underhanded tweaking of numbers, think again. Excel Hacks shows even the most experienced users how to do things with Excel they might never have thought of doing--and lets them have a little fun while they're at it. Microsoft Excel is not just the dominant spreadsheet in the world; it's also one of the most popular applications ever created. Its success lies not only in its power and flexibility, but also in its streamlined, familiar interface that casually conceals its considerable capabilities. You don't need to know everything that Excel can do in order to use it effectively, but if you're like the millions of Excel power users looking to improve productivity, then Excel Hacks will show you a wide variety of Excel tasks you can put to use, most of which are off the beaten path. With this book, Excel power users can bring a hacker's creative approach to both common and uncommon Excel topics--"hackers" in this sense being those who like to tinker with technology to improve it. The "100 Industrial Strength Tips and Tools" in Excel Hacks include little known "backdoor" adjustments for everything from reducing workbook and worksheet frustration to hacking built-in features such as pivot tables, charts, formulas and functions, and even the macro language. This resourceful roll-up-your-sleeves guide is for intermediate to advanced Excel users eager to explore new ways to make Excel do things--from data analysis to worksheet management to import/export--that you never thought possible. Excel Hacks will help you increase productivity with Excel and give you hours of "hacking" enjoyment along the way.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114232 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.com Review
The spreadsheet is the software tool that turns everyone into a hacker by making it possible to play with numbers easily. Excel Hacks, therefore, makes a lot of sense. This small, fact-dense book explains how to get maximum utility from Microsoft's popular calculation application. It shows how to use all the stuff you know is in there but have never bothered to figure out (dynamic cell ranges, PivotTables, macros), and how to carry out particularly hasslesome calculations (notably those involving dates). The coverage is all the more succinct because the authors didn't feel obligated (thankfully) to include the ponderous basics of Excel--the details of formatting and simple calculation that fill up pages and pages of more typical Excel guides.

The Hawleys' treatment of PivotTables is typical of their approach to Excel. The authors explain this powerful statistical analysis feature with a series of four recipes (called "hacks") that go from straight documentation of the feature (how to create an unadorned PivotTable) to more complicated tricks involving Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) as it applies to PivotTables. They provide some background information along the way, but the main focus of the hacks is procedural: Follow along with the text and you'll see your spreadsheets do new tricks. You'll also understand what's going on, so you'll be better able to modify the procedures to suit your own requirements. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to use the most powerful and least-understood features of Microsoft Excel (versions 2000 and later) for Windows and Mac OS. Sections address data lookups, statistical calculations, charting, macros, and general tricks for enhanced efficiency.

About the Author
Raina Hawley of Perth, Australia is a professional Microsoft Excel consultant whose company, OzGrid Business Applications, offers services in all aspects of Excel, and VBA for Excel. The company?s web site at www.ozgrid.com provides online and email Excel training, a directory of useful Excel add-ins, a user forum, and lots of tips and tricks. Raina is also a lecturing team member at West Australian Institute of Management (WAIM) with specific expertise in Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Internet and email.

David & Raina Hawley of Perth, Australia are professional Microsoft Excel consultants whose company, OzGrid Business Applications, offers services in all aspects of Excel, and VBA for Excel. The company's web site at www.ozgrid.com provides online and ema

Customer Reviews

A Series of Useful Tips and Tools for Microsoft Excel
"Excel Hacks" is a useful and easy-to-follow book. Excel is used for a wide array of tasks in today's corporate and educational environments. While Excel is used widely, its full range of utility is, based on my own experience, not utilized by a large percentage of Excel users.

This book covers versions of Excel preceding Excel 2007, and Excel 2007 offers an expanded range of formatting tools and options that diminish the need for some of the hacks in the publication. That being said, this book is a worthwhile investment for all Excel users.

For those readers who use VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) with Excel, there are a number of hacks in this book that lend themselves to quick and useful extensions into code.

great supplement
Although there is some overlap between hacks, overall this is a great addition to an excel reference library

Ultimate satisfaction
This actual book is better than advertised! Surpassed my expectations. Used several tips in the first day and left my co-workers speechless! THANKS!!!!