Option Buttons

In the old Clint Eastwood movie, Magnum Force, Harry Callahan used the line, “A man’s got to know his limitations”.  That may be so, but it is always good to have Options.  For this last post of 2010, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at Option Buttons.

Option Buttons can be very useful in creating Quizzes or Polls in Excel, and are not too difficult to create.  There are a number of steps, but I guarantee that it will be well worth it if you hang in there and give them a try!  Here is how you do it:

1.  Make sure the Developer tab is visible on your toolbar

2.  Under the Developer tab, choose Insert / Option Button (Form Control)

3.  Draw the Option Button box on your worksheet and repeat for however many buttons you wish to have for choices

4.  Now, (this is Important), to make the buttons work together, return to your Insert dropdown and choose Group Box (Form Control)

5.  Then draw your Group Box all the way around your Option Buttons

Stick with me now, we’re almost there!

6.  Right-Click one of the Option Buttons, choose Format Control from the dropdown and select a Cell Link that you want your Option Buttons to populate

7.  Now is where the Fun really begins.  Create a Formula that is based on the value that is shown in the Cell Link

8.  For example, let’s say you have linked three Option Buttons to cell $E$5 and you wanted Option 2 to return a “Correct” response and the others to return “Incorrect”, here is what you do:

In cell E6, type =IF(E5=0,"", IF(E5=3, "Correct!", "Incorrect"))

Now when the user chooses Option 2 of the three possible, they are rewarded with the “Correct” feedback.  Option Buttons, give them a try; “It is always good to have options…”.

Happy New Year All!

            

A Little Excel Magic

Some shortcuts and tips can often appear Magical!  Here are a few of my current favorites:

Select Noncontiguous Cells

If you want to select noncontiguous cells in a worksheet, just hold down the CTRL key and click on the cells you wish to select.  Presto!

Enter Strings Starting with Zero

Sometimes, as in the case with zip codes, you want to enter strings of numbers that start with zero.  To do this, simply type an apostrophe first.  Alacazam!

Rearrange Rows and Columns

So, you have your data are in rows and you want them in columns (or vice versa)?  Highlight the cells that have your data, right-click, copy, and choose Paste Special. Then check the "Transpose" box. Voila!

A Room with a View

Feeling a bit cramped when viewing your spreadsheet?  You can hide columns or rows you don't need to be visible by right-clicking and selecting “Hide”.  Any functions tied to data in the hidden areas will still operate fine.  Open Sesame!

Instant Chart

Impress your friends and family by making an instant chart.  Simply select your data and click F11.  Magic!

I hope you have a Magical (and safe) Holiday Season!

Concatenation Revisited

This is one of my favorite time savers. I teach Excel, and I have had classes as large as 200 students. Since I believe strongly in frequent communication, I keep in touch with individual students and the group as a whole. Having a spreadsheet of student names (or company employees perhaps) is great to stay organized, but what if you want to use your data for sending emails? This is where Concatenation Shines!

Consider that you have a list of students with the First Names in Column A and Last Names in Column B. The good news is that you can easily combine them into an Email-Friendly column of names in a “Last Name, First Name” format is easy. The secret to Concatenation is using Ampersands and cell references combined with quoted text or punctuation. Here’s how to do it:

Assuming your table starts in cell A1, put the following formula in C1 (be sure to note that there is a space after the comma in quotation marks):

=B1&", "&A1

This simple formula combines the contents of B1 (last name)with a comma, space, and contents of A1 (first name). Select C1, place your cursor over the “handle” in the lower-right corner of the cell, and give a quick double-click. This will populate your Column C Email List down as far as you have data in Columns A and B.

Then it is a simple matter of copying the contents of Column C, and pasting into Outlook. Bamm! You have just saved a Ton of Time!

Using the RAND Function

A very interesting and at times very useful function in Excel is the RAND function. This function returns a Random Number that is greater than or equal to 0 and less than 1. Each time your worksheet recalculates, (by reopening or forced recalculation by pressing F9), the RAND function returns a new random number. While some hard core statisticians have voiced concerns about the true Randomness of the RAND function, it suffices for nearly all but the most demanding statistical applications.

The syntax for the Rand function is simply:

RAND( )

If you want to create a random number between two numbers, (where a is the smallest number and b is the largest number), you can use the following:

=RAND()*(b-a)+a

If you want only Whole Numbers you can use:

RANDBETWEEN ()

For example, =RANDBETWEEN(1,200) will produce a random whole number between 1 and 200.

So how can you use this nifty little function? It can be used in myriad ways; for example, it can be used in conjunction with other functions to create a Password Generator. There are countless statistical applications, but you can also use it for entertaining applications. For example, one Excel Enthusiast used it create a Tetris-style game in Excel.

I have used the RAND function in conjunction with other functions and graphics to create a Slot Machine in Excel (send me a request at excelenthusiast@gmail.com if you would like a copy of the Slot Machine spreadsheet).

The RAND function. Great for use in statistical applications, as well as some RANDom FUN!

Choosy Moms Use “Choose”

Having a Choice is (as Martha Stewart would say) “a good thing”. Nested IF functions can be very useful, but they have limitations (the maximum nested functions is 7) and they are cumbersome.

Happily, there is an alternative choice to using these awkward IF functions: The CHOOSE function to the rescue! The Choose function is straightforward and simple to use, plus it can be combined with other Excel features to make it even more powerful! The function returns a value from a list based on a given position (Index Number).

Here is the uncomplicated syntax:

Choose( Index_Number, Value1, Value2, ... Value_n )

Some examples are as follows:

=Choose(3, “Apples”, “Pears”, “Plums”, “Cherries”) returns Plums

It also works with ranges:

=Sum(Choose(2, A1:A20, B1:B20, C1:C20) returns the Sum of B1:B20

You can, of course, link it to the value in a cell, which makes it more flexible. For example, you could link it to A1 which contains the Index_Number.

If A1 contains the number 4, then =Choose(A1, “Apples”, “Pears”, “Plums”, “Cherries”) would return Cherries.

The Choose function can handle up to 29 options, which makes it a great choice in many real-life situations. Give it a try and find out why Choosy Moms Use “Choose”.