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Excel Hacks 100 Industrial Strength Tips and Tools

By David Hawley, Raina Hawley
March 2004
Pages: 304
Series: Hacks
ISBN 10: 0-596-00625-X | ISBN 13: 9780596006259
(Average of 3 Customer Reviews)

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Description

The 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 shows you new ways to make Excel do things--from data analysis to worksheet management to import/export--that you never thought possible. Excel Hacks increases productivity with Excel and gives you hours of "hacking" enjoyment along the way.
Full 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.

Featured customer reviews

Valuable for advanced users, March 18 2005

Rating:

Submitted by Willyboy [Respond | View]

I'm always looking to improve my Excel skills, and this book intrigued me because of the way it is organized.

The Hawleys have done a good job providing insights into common Excel tasks, especially list management and creative use of graphs. They wring some clever results from infrequently used Excel functions, such as OFFSET, and from conditional formatting. As other readers have pointed out in these reviews, the hack on dynamic ranges (hack 42, for example) may justify the price of the book.

This definitely isn't for the novice, though. The authors don't do much hand-holding, and if all you do is copy in their code and use it, you'll be missing out on the message: stretch, massage and manipulate these techniques, and others hidden within Excel, to expand Excel's usefulness and your own capabilities. You definitely need to be comfortable with the VBA editor - they give you the code, but with no explanations or analyses.

Incidentally, there are really only 99 hacks. Hack #10 and hack #25 are the same. But it's still well worth the money.

Willyboy

Excellent book - One working hack makes it worth the money, November 12 2004

Rating:

Submitted by graemeaustin [Respond | View]

I bought this book about a month ago as I was fed up with Excel's limitations - and I needed to know what would work on PCs and Macs. This book has saved me time (& hence money).

The 2 that have worked so far for me are Hack #42 (dynamic named ranges) and #32 (cell formatting).

I understand that the cell formatting one is probably buried somewhere in the so-called documentation from MS but I never found it. And dynamic named ranges have so many different uses, I can't begin to list them all - list management, more efficiently run macros using pre-determined ranges etc.

There's about another dozen hacks which are now at the back of my head and the next time I update more workbooks, they will come into play.

Beyond the Ordinary, September 05 2004
Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]

Let me say this. You are correct on two points:
1. I should have been more specific in my review. I was excited by some of the ideas that were presented in this book that I haven't seen in other Excel text and let it reflect in my overly positive review. How awful.
2. You are horrid as is your overly critical comments.

There are errors in the book that I've noted online. I still find HACKS an excellent source for Excel skills that do not appear in other text. For example: Summing on Specific Colors (HACK # 88). Using the Match Function in Dynamic Ranges to locate the last "text" and "number" entries (p. 100 & 101). Errors are present in this HACK (#42 p.101), but the idea will still add to my knowledge of Excel and help me with future projects. The book is worth the purchase price, but I will be more careful in my "review posting" knowing there are people out there like you. I can thank you for that.

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Beyond the Ordinary, June 01 2004
Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]

Hmm,

People (such as myself) will be using your review as a guide. This is a bad review.

It offers no specifics (oh yeah - you're impressed. By what?)

And you haven't fully read or tried out the book.

PUH-LEESE:

1) Don't review anything too early (and this sounded like it was -- "Hey, great novel! I've read the first few chapters, and this is a great book!")

2) Don't use words like "fantastic" unless you back them up (you didn't)

3) You went through 17 hacks (no specifics) Then how'd you do with variations on Hack#10? I found it worked the first time, and then failed in unexplained, complex ways, such as when any tweak was used. Anyone who's tried #10 more than once, I expect has run into problems.

I read this book on a train without my computer. Lots of potentially nifty ideas highlighted & noted. But the first one I tried started screwing up almost immediately. (Thank you, Microsft) Second one worked.

Nasty note, eh? Well, this looks like a book that required a lot of work to produce. And the reviews should respect that.

Be specific about what was useful to you. Don't make generalizations you don't back up. Do finish the book before you comment on it.

I don't mean to be horrid, but I've read too many half-baked/sloppy evaluations laid upon the world at large by people who don't distinguish between chatting with pals and putting something out for the world. This ain't just talking to your dog; it's public.

No reply requested. And don't take this too personally. It's a standard problem.

-squerb

Beyond the Ordinary, April 25 2004

Rating:

Submitted by Michael [Respond | View]

This book is fantastic! I just made it through 17 of the 100 industrial strength tips included in this book and I'm very impressed. This will be an enormous help in improving my Excel skills. I can't wait to get through the other 83.

Media reviews "A great source of information about how to make Excel work the way you want it to work...An essential resource for every serious Excel and Calc user. The authors have done a remarkable job of finding and bringing together this compendium of solutions. Exceptional value."
--Major Keary, Book News, 2005:1

"'Excel Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools' by David & Raina Hawley, shows readers how to do more, and how to do things better, with the market-leading spreadsheet...I consider myself an expert user, working with spreadsheets for over twenty years and teaching classes in Excel and 1-2-3, yet I was still able to learn a lot from this book."
--Bruce Kratofil, May 2004, Blogcritics.org
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/12/124822.php

"If you are an Excel power user (or know someone who is), this is the book for you."
--Thomas "Duffbert" Duff, Portland Domino/Notes User Group, May 2004

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