asap utilities / excel blog » General

Happy Holidays

Bastien — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:58:23 +0000

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!
Lots of love and happiness for you, your co-workers, family and friends.

And if you don't celebrate Christmas, have a great weekend!

User question: How to send this sheet to an e-mail in Excel 2010?

Bastien — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:30:53 +0000

"Hi Bastien,

I am a great admirer of you ASAP-utilities. Great work.

I have a little problem with Excel 2010, that I am hoping that you might have a solution to.
We have just switched over to the excel-2010 from excel-2003. In the 2003 there was a button to send this sheet to an e-mail.
I can’t do that in the 2010, and I have asked many “experts” and they are all saying that it’s not possible in the 2010.

Do you know a way to solve this or get my button back??"

Yes, don't worry, you can still do this in Excel 2010.

Microsoft hasn't removed it but just made it difficult to find (for no apparent reason)

Ron de Bruin, an expert on Excel, has written an excellent article on how to bring it back:
http://www.rondebruin.nl/mail/folder3/mailenvelope.htm

In Excel 2002-2010 you have a option in the User Interface to mail a selection or worksheet in the body of the mail.
Excel 2002-2003 : You find this button next to the save icon in the Standard toolbar or use File>Send to>mail recipient.
Excel 2007-2010 : Microsoft hide it (It is not in the Office button>Send menu or in BackStage View)
But you can add this option to the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar)

Office Button/File > Excel Options
Customize (or Quick Access Toolbar in Excel 2010)
Choose "Commands Not in the Ribbon" in the "Choose Commands from" list
Select the command "Send to Mail Recipient"
Add
OK

User question: How to enter the same value on multiple sheets (or in multiple cells at once)

Bastien — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:04:42 +0000

Today we received the following email:

Let me start by saying how wonderful I think your program is. It saves me a lot of time.
I just created 100 sheets and named them from a list using ASAP -great!
I then inserted the name of each sheet into a cell within the sheet using ASAP -fantastic!

Here's my problem:
In sheet one, I'd like to enter a formula in A2 and be able to copy it to A2 in the other 99 sheets. Can ASAP help me with this?
I'd also like to be able to do this with a value in A3.

Well, this can already be done with just Excel.

If you want to enter the same formula on all 100 sheets, just select all the sheets and then enter the formula in A2... However, instead of pressing Enter at the end, press Control+Enter at the end. That way the formula will be entered in all selected cells, also the same cell-address on the other selected sheets.
You can also use this Ctrl+Enter to enter the same value in all selected cells on the same sheet.

In case you're curious, the user used the following two tools to quickly create all the sheets:
Insert multiple sheets (uses the cell values as sheet names)...
Insert sheet(s) name in selected cell(s)

Happy New Year!

Bastien — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 12:55:49 +0000

I wish you all a wonderful new year with lots of health, happiness and prosperity!
May the New Year be a good year to you and yours.

And we'd like to thank you for your suggestions, enthusiasm and encouragement throughout the past 12 years.

We've planned several new exiting and improved tools for ASAP Utilities in 2011.
The following page shows the improvements that were made to ASAP Utilities the past year:
http://www.asap-utilities.com/compare-versions.php?first=40604&second=40508

How to: Check the spelling on multiple or all sheets

Bastien — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:30:58 +0000

Last week I received the following question:
How we can spell check on all sheets. Can you add this in next version/update?

Well, you can already do this in Excel.
Just select all or multiple sheets and then when you start the Spelling (F7) the spelling check will take place on the selected sheets.

Macro: Keep only ASCII characters 32-127

Bastien — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:11:20 +0000

Last week I received the following question:
I get sent Excel files from various vendors. I have to convert these to SAS datasets that get moved to a UNIX system. The SAS datasets can only contain ASCII 32-127. So I need to remove these from the Excel file.

You can use the "Text » Advanced character remove or replace..." utility to remove these characters. However it can be a bit time consuming to select these specific characters in the utility (although it will remember your settings so the next time will be quicker).
If you need to do this often then a custom macro might be easier to use.

You can use the following macro to remove every character except for ASCII character 32-127:

Sub sbRemoveASCII_Outside32_127_B()
      ' Remove all ASCII characters that are not in the range of 32 till 127
      ' from the selected cells
      Dim i                                            As Long
      Dim j                                            As Long
      Dim rngCel                                       As Range
      Dim sValue                                       As String
      Dim lTotal                                       As Long

      On Error GoTo ErrHandler
      Application.EnableCancelKey = xlErrorHandler
      Application.ScreenUpdating = False
      Application.DisplayAlerts = False
      lTotal = Selection.Cells.Count
      For Each rngCel In Selection
            Application.StatusBar = "Removing ASCI characters <32 and > 127 in " & _
                                    lTotal & " cells... " & Format(j / lTotal, "0%")
            sValue = rngCel.Value
            If Len(sValue) > 0 Then
                  For i = 1 To 255
                        If i < 32 Or i > 127 Then
                              sValue = Replace(sValue, Chr(i), "")
                        End If
                  Next i
            End If
            rngCel.Value = sValue
            j = j + 1
      Next rngCel
      Application.StatusBar = False
      Application.ScreenUpdating = True
      Application.DisplayAlerts = True
      Exit Sub

ErrHandler:
MsgBox "Sorry, something unexpected when wrong." & vbNewLine & _
"Error " & Err.Number & ": " & Err.Description, vbCritical
End Sub

Note: the macro loops through each cell. A general find/replace might be faster but gives problems with ASCII characters 1 and 2 because with those characters everything gets removed.

List of keyboard shortcuts for Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007

Bastien — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:26:39 +0000

A bit off-topic but because working with shortcuts is often so much faster.
I believe that shortcuts are are preferred when it comes to speed/productivity and reducing the chances on RSI.

Microsoft: List of keyboard shortcuts for Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290938

Just in case you weren't aware, we have a list of the shortcuts in Excel listed too:
http://www.asap-utilities.com/excel-tips-shortcuts.php

PS.
If you know the shortcuts for the tools you use the most, you are not slowed down by searching for the option in the new Office 2007 ribbon the first period after you have upgraded to the new interface.

Prepare a document before sending it to others

Bastien — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:30:46 +0000

When you send your Excel workbook to other people, sometimes you want to protect or hide certain parts.
For example the formulas you used or temporary data in hidden columns.
You can do this by using Excel's worksheet protection, however you should know that this protection is easily broken and not very secure.
A better method to use might be to create a new version of your workbook in which you replace all the formulas with their calculated results and in which all the hidden data is removed.

The following macro will automatically replace all formulas with their calculated results and removes the hidden columns and rows on the selected worksheets:

Sub RemoveFormulasAndHiddenCells()
' usage:
' 1. select the sheets
' 2. run this macro

Dim ws                                                As Worksheet
Dim shSelection                                       As Sheets
Dim i                                                 As Long
Dim lMax                                              As Long

Set shSelection = ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets

If MsgBox("Do you want to replace all formulas with their calculated results " _
           & " on the selected " & shSelection.Count & " worksheets and then remove " _
           & "all hidden rows and columns?" & vbNewLine & "It recommended to save a " _
           & "copy of your original workbook first with a different name.", _
           vbQuestion + vbYesNo) = vbNo Then Exit Sub
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
For Each ws In ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets
  If ws.Type = xlWorksheet Then
   ws.Activate
   ' change formulas to their calculated results
   ws.UsedRange.Copy
   ws.UsedRange.PasteSpecial xlPasteValues
   Application.CutCopyMode = False
   ' remove hidden rows:
   lMax = ws.UsedRange.Cells(ws.UsedRange.Cells.Count).Row
   For i = lMax To 1 Step -1
    If Cells(i, 1).EntireRow.Hidden = True Then Rows(i).Delete
   Next i
   ' remove hidden columns:
   lMax = ws.UsedRange.Cells(ws.UsedRange.Cells.Count).Column
   For i = lMax To 1 Step -1
    If Cells(1, i).EntireColumn.Hidden = True Then Columns(i).Delete
   Next i
   ' select the upperleft cell on the worksheet
   Cells(1).Select
  End If
Next ws
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
shSelection.Select
End Sub

Weird looping through cells in a range object

Bastien — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:12:13 +0000

Below is something that I experienced a while ago and was beyond my logic.
Setting a range and looping through all cells in it didn't work initially as expected.

Sub WeirdCelLooping()
Dim rngCel As Range
Dim rngSelection As Range

Range("A1:G10").Select

      ' Doesn't work correctly:
      For Each rngCel In Selection.Columns(1)
            ' both rngCel and the selection have now the same address
            Debug.Print rngCel.Address & " as part of " & Selection.Columns(1).Address
      Next

      ' Doesn't work correctly:
      Set rngSelection = Selection.Columns(1)
      For Each rngCel In rngSelection
            ' both rngCel and the selection now still have the same address
            Debug.Print rngCel.Address & " as part of " & Selection.Columns(1).Address
      Next

      ' Does work correctly:
      Set rngSelection = Range(Selection.Columns(1).Address)
      For Each rngCel In rngSelection
            ' finally we can loop through each cell in the range
            Debug.Print rngCel.Address & " as part of " & Selection.Columns(1).Address
      Next
End Sub

Update October 24:
As stated in the comments below (thank!); the best practice to loop through a range is to explicitly add the .Cells at the end for the range:
Selection.Columns(1).Cells
rngSelection.Cells

Unhide all columns and rows

Bastien — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:04:14 +0000

A short macro that will unhide all columns and rows in order to make all data visible again.
Might be useful in some cases.

Sub UnhideAllColumnsRows()
' unhide all columns and rows on the current worksheet
Cells.EntireColumn.Hidden = False
Cells.EntireRow.Hidden = False
End Sub

If you want more control on which rows and/or columns to unhide, you can also use this tool from within ASAP Utilities.