- Robert F. Ryan, MBA, CPA is an independent business consultant, educator, writer and finance leader in a Fortune 50 multinational company. He has a passion for simplicity, quality, efficiency and a unique ability to explain things to people so they understand quickly and thoroughly. He's worked with spreadsheets extensively for almost thirty years including VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel.
Author Archives: Bob Ryan
Free Workbook to Record Actuals and Budget, and Compare Actuals vs Budget
In honor of Spreadsheet Day, 2011, I’ve prepared a workbook where a person with minimal knowledge of Excel can enter amounts they actually earned and spent, enter a budget for a month, and have Excel automatically show them a comparison … Continue reading
Posted in Excel PivotTables
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Check out the 2011 Challenge: 30 Excel Functions in 30 Days at Contextures.com
Want to quickly learn more about Excel from one of the best? If so, please be sure to check out the 2011 Challenge: 30 Excel Functions in 30 Days being presented by Debra Dalgleish. Debra is the author of Contextures.com, … Continue reading
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Copying (Not) With Filters On
Excel’s filters offer an extremely powerful way to analyze information, but I avoid copying when filters are activated. I’ll explain why in this article, and show you another, safer technique to use. Click this link to open an Excel 2007 … Continue reading
Posted in Excel Filters
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How to Avoid Disaster When Sorting
Sorting is another powerful feature of Excel, but if we’re not careful, we can create a problem from which only Undo can rescue us, and if we can’t Undo, we’re sunk. Let me explain. Click this link to open an … Continue reading
Posted in Excel Sorting
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Using Default Worksheets
I ended last week’s blog introducing the concept of a default worksheet that we could insert at any time in any workbook to help make copying page formats even faster and easier. In today’s blog, we’ll actually save a default … Continue reading
Posted in Default Worksheet, Excel Copy Formats
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Copying Formats, Part 5: Page Layouts
Excel certainly has lots of options for formatting a page to be printed, but do we have to apply each of those features every time we print, especially if we want to print out a page in a way that’s … Continue reading
Copying Formats, Part 4: Charts – PivotCharts
In last week’s blog, we demonstrated copying chart formats between regular charts. But, what about copying chart formats between PivotCharts? And, what about copying chart formats between regular charts and PivotCharts? These two questions are the subject of this week’s … Continue reading
Copying Formats, Part 3: Charts – Regular Charts
Have you ever had a situation where you needed to change the format of a bunch of charts? Turns out Excel makes that an easy task by allowing us to copy only a chart’s format and apply it to other … Continue reading
Copying Formats, Part 2: Cells & Columns Using the Format Painter
Similar to last week’s blog, we’re going to make the format of particular cells or columns identical to another cell or column, and, again, we’ll use a spreadsheet showing how to analyze refinancing options to demonstrate this feature. (This file … Continue reading
Posted in Excel Copy Formats
Tagged Copy Formats, Format Painter, Learn Excel, Paste Special, Simple
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Copying Formats, Part 1: Cells & Columns Using Paste Special
Have you ever had a situation where you wanted to make the format of particular cells or columns identical to another cell or column? I encounter this situation somewhat frequently, and when I do, I use Excel’s format copying feature. … Continue reading
