• "Our @icse2012 paper on spreadsheet smells already has a citation before publication"

Spreadsheet smells? I've seen some stinky spreadsheets, but have never read a conference paper on spreadsheet smells. It sounded intriguing, so I followed the link to Felienne's paper – Detecting and Visualizing Inter-worksheet Smells in Spreadsheets.

Code Smells

The starting point for the paper is the code smell metaphor introduced in Martin Fowler's book, Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code. I don't have that book, so I visited Wikipedia, to see what it knew about code smells.

Fortunately, Wikipedia had a helpful summary of common code smells, and I've listed a few of them below. Can you see how these code smells relate to Excel, whether you're building worksheets, or creating Excel VBA code?

• Duplicated code: identical or very similar code exists in more than one location.
• Long method: a method, function, or procedure that has grown too large.
• Contrived complexity: forced usage of overly complicated design patterns where simpler design would suffice.
• Excessive use of literals: these should be coded as named constants, to improve readability and to avoid programming errors.

Hmmm…replace "code" with formulas, and you've probably seen (or created) workbooks that had those code smells. I've been guilty of creating some of those smells, and have seen workbooks start small, and slowly grow out of control.

Spreadsheet Smells

Among the most frequent spreadsheet smells that Felienne and her colleagues found were:

• Inappropriate Intimacy – a worksheet that is overly related to a second worksheet.
• Feature Envy – if there is a formula that is more interested in cells from another worksheet, it would be better to move the formula to that worksheet
• Shotgun Surgery – a formula F that is referred to by many different formulas in different worksheets…chances are high that many of the formulas that refer to F will have to be changed if F is changed.

Read More About It

If you'd like to learn more about spreadsheet code smells, take a look at the paper written by Felienne and her colleagues, to see how their research was done, and what their conclusions were.

I'll be reading it again this weekend, to see what else I can absorb from it. Have you read anything similar, or heard about code smells before?

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In the screen shot below, you can see the black arrow at the top of the Product field. Click in that spot, and all the Product item labels are selected.

Click in that spot again, and the Product heading is selected, instead of the item labels.

Pivot Table Field Setting Quick Tip

Instead of a single click on a heading cell, you can point to an outer field heading and double-click when the black arrow appears. In the screen shot below, the black arrow is on the Bran product heading cell.

Note: This trick won't work on an inner field, like Region, which has no other fields under it.

Double-click on the outer field heading, and the Field Settings dialog box opens. In there, you can change the layout and other settings, and add or remove subtotals.

Another way to open the Field Settings dialog box is to right-click on an item, and click Field Settings in the popup menu. This works for both inner and outer fields in the pivot table.

I find the double-click shortcut to be quicker and easier – as long as you remember to point somewhere that the black arrow appears.

Watch the Pivot Table Selection Video

To see the steps for selecting section of an Excel Pivot Table, you can watch this short video tutorial.

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But, if you filter the data, and rows are hidden, that data also disappears from the chart. You might like that feature, and not mind that the chart changes. In the example shown below, only the West region's data is visible on the sheet and in the chart.

However, there are some situations when you want the chart to show the data, even if the data is hidden. In the next example, columns A:C are hidden, so that they don't distract from the chart. Oops! Now there's nothing in the chart. That's not the effect that you were going for.

Change a Chart Setting to Show Hidden Data

If you want your chart to show all the data, even if some of the source data is hidden, you can change one of the chart settings. The Excel 2010 instructions are shown below, and you can click here for instructions to show hidden data in Excel 2003 charts.

To change the setting in Excel 2010:

• Click on the chart to select it, and on the Excel Ribbon, under Chart Tools, click the Design tab
• Click the Select Data command

• Click the Hidden and Empty Cells button

• Add a check mark to 'Show data in hidden rows and columns'

• Click OK, twice, to close the dialog boxes

Now, you can hide rows or columns, and the chart data will remain visible.

Watch the Show Hidden Data in Chart Video

To see the steps for changing the chart settings in Excel 2010, you can watch this short video tutorial.

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I've updated my sample file, so you can now add new parts, while entering data. It's almost working the way it should, but I'm stuck on one step, so if you have a solution, please let me know!

[Update: Problem solved with a workaround -- see below.]

Select a Part from the ComboBox Drop Down List

In the sample file, you can click the Add Parts Information button, to open the UserForm.

Then, select a Part ID from the combo box drop down list.

The Parts List

On another sheet in the workbook, there are two lists – Location, and Parts. These are dynamic named ranges, and will expand automatically, as new items are added to the lists.

Add a New Part to the List

In the latest version of the sample file, you can add new parts to the list, while you are entering data in the UserForm.

1. If the Part ID that you want is not in the list, type it into the Part ID combo box.
2. When you press the Tab key, to move to the next control, a Part Description text box will appear.
3. Enter the description, then fill in the rest of the data.
4. Click the Add This Part button

Select the New Part

After you click the Add This Part button, the new item is added to the Parts List, and the Parts list is sorted A-Z.

The new item now appears in the Part ID combo box drop down list.

SetFocus Problem

My goal was to have the Part Description activated, as soon as it was made visible. However, the VBA code wouldn't cooperate, so I've commented out this line:

Me.txtPartDesc.SetFocus

If you have a solution for getting that line to work, please share it in the comments, or send me an email. I'd appreciate it!

Update: Thanks to JeanMarc, Jon and Dave, the tab order is working now.You can see their suggestions in the comments below.

• Instead of being hidden, the Parts Description textbox moves to the far right, so it's not in the visible part of the form, then moves back when needed.
• To keep the tab key from stopping on the "off form" textbox, its position is checked. If it's at the far right, go to the next control.

Download the Sample File

To see the sample file, and check the Excel VBA code, you can download the file from my Contextures website. On the Sample Excel Files page, in the UserForm section, look for UF0017 - Parts Database with Updateable Comboboxes

The file is available in Excel 2007/2010 or Excel 2003 format, and zipped. It contains macros, so enable those if you want to test the UserForm.

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With a bit of programming in Excel, you can show a description in a combo box, but enter the matching code for the selected item into the cell. You've seen other versions of my data validation combo box code:

• Double-click on data validation cell to open combo box
• Click on data validation cell to open combo box
• Use named lists with data validation combo box

Keep reading, to see how the new combo box codes example works.

Select From a Combo Box

I've uploaded a new sample file on the Contextures website, which lets you select a month name, or weekday name, from an Excel combo box.

When you leave the combo box, the month number, or weekday code is automatically entered in the cell, instead of the full description.

The Named Ranges

In the data validation cells, lists are allowed, and they refer to the named ranges – DayList and MonthList – where the short codes are stored.

Another range is created for each list, to include the description column, and these names end with "Codes" – DayListCodes and MonthListCodes.

These "Codes" ranges are used to fill the combo box, which is formatted with 2 columns. The first column has a width of zero, so the codes aren't visible.

Download the Sample File

To test the combo box codes example, and see how it works, you can download the sample file from the Contextures website. In the Data Validation section look for DV0057 – Data Validation Combobox Codes. The file is in Excel 2007/2010 format, and contains macros.

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Here's how you can change the settings in a workbook, so the column and row headers look different.

[Note: If you're trying to fix column headers that appear as numbers, click here: Column Headings Show Numbers]

The Default Settings

When you create a new file in Excel, the row and column headers are displayed in your workbook Normal Style's font. The Normal Style's font is also used in the worksheet cells, unless you select a different format in some or all of the cells.

In my workbooks, the default font is Arial Narrow 11. In the screen shot below, you can see that the column and row headers are in that font, and so is the data in cells A1 and B1.

Change the Normal Style Settings

If you find the default font size too small, or if you'd prefer a different type of font, you can change the Normal Style settings.

To change the Normal font in Excel 2010:

1. On the Excel Ribbon, click the Home tab
2. In the Styles group, click Cell Styles, to open the Cell Styles palette.
3. Right-click on the Normal style, and click Modify
• 
4. Click the Format button, and select the font and font size you want for the Normal style.
• 
5. Click OK, twice, to close the dialog boxes.

Crazy Column Headers

It's too late for this year, but you could use this technique to fool your colleagues on April 1st next year. You know that guy who thinks he knows everything about Excel? See if he can figure this out.

Change the Normal font to a graphic font, such as Wingdings, and the row and column headers will turn into pictures, like the happy/sad faces shown below. Then, send the file to your co-worker, and ask him to check the numbers in the Sad Face column. Ha!

Remember to format the cells in a non-graphic font, such as Arial, after you change the Normal style, so the data is readable.

You'll find more Excel tips and solutions in the Excel Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of the Contextures website.

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Unprotect Sheets With a Macro

When making changes to client files, I use macros to quickly and easily protect or unprotect all the sheets in an Excel file, like the examples shown below.

• This macro protects all the worksheets in the active workbook, with no password.

Sub ProtectAllSheetsNoPwd()
Dim ws As Worksheet
On Error Resume Next

For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
  ws.Protect DrawingObjects:=True, _
    Contents:=True, Password:=""
Next ws

End Sub

• And this macro unprotects all the worksheets, with no password.

Sub UnProtectAllSheetsNoPwd()
Dim ws As Worksheet
On Error Resume Next

For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
  ws.Unprotect
Next ws

End Sub

The Protect Macro Fails

However, even a simple macro can run into problems, as I'm sure you've already discovered with your own macros. It worked yesterday, but the macro won't run correctly today, in the same file. And you're sure that nothing was changed in the file – so what's the problem?

That's what happened to me recently, while trying to unprotect a file, so I could make some changes. The macro ran, but the sheet's weren't unprotected.

I commented out the macro's error handling, to try and solve the problem, and this run-time error 1004 popped up:
Method 'Unprotect' of object '_Worksheet' failed.

Prevent the Macro Problem

After a bit of head scratching, I realized what the problem was – I had grouped some of the sheets, because they all needed a formatting change. Oops! Because the sheets were grouped, they couldn't be unprotected.

I added a line of code to the macro, to ungroup the sheets, if necessary, and the problem is solved. You could do something fancier, like identifying the active sheet, and selecting it, instead of the first sheet.

Sub ProtectAllSheetsNoPwd()
Dim ws As Worksheet
On Error Resume Next
Sheets(1).Select '<====== selects first sheet in workbook
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
  ws.Protect DrawingObjects:=True, _
    Contents:=True, Password:=""
Next ws

End Sub

The same line was added to the Unprotect macro.

Sub UnProtectAllSheetsNoPwd()
Dim ws As Worksheet
On Error Resume Next
Sheets(1).Select '<====== selects first sheet in workbook
For Each ws In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
  ws.Unprotect
Next ws

End Sub

Watch the Protect Macro Fails Video

To see the problem that occurs when you try to protect or unprotect group sheets, and the code change that fixes it, please watch this short Excel video tutorial.

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Calendar dates might not be as exciting, but unlike romantic dates, you can use data validation to help keep them under control in Excel.

Entering Period End Dates

Last week in the Daily Dose of Excel blog, Dick Kusleika was looking for a more efficient way to enter a Period Ending date in his time sheet. Every two weeks he sets up a new workbook, and has to add two weeks to the previous end date.

Sometimes it's easy to do that kind of math in your head, but if you're rolling into a new month, the calculation can be trickier. So, Dick changed the date cell to a formula, and just added 14 to that calculation every two weeks.

There were a few suggestions for solving the problem, but Dick wanted something simple and static -- the date cell couldn't change, if you opened the file on a different date.

Create a Dynamic List of Dates

My suggestion was to create a drop down list of Period End dates, and select the next date from that list. With some formulas in the background, the list of valid dates would update automatically. However, when you select one of those dates in the Period End cell, it's a static entry in that cell.

The first step is to create the list of dates, based on Dick's original Period End date – October 13, 2010.

• On Sheet2, put the starting date in cell C2: =DATE(2010,8,13)
• In cell C3, enter a formula to calculate the current date: =TODAY()
• In C6, enter this formula, to calculate the current pay period's week end:
  =C2+INT((C3-C2)/14)*14

• In C5, subtract 14 days, to calculate the previous period end date: =C6-14
• In C7, add 14 days, to calculate the next period end date: =C6+14  

Name the Date List

Next, you'll name the date list, so you can use it in a data validation drop down.

• Select cells C5:C7, and click in the Name Box, to the left of the Formula bar
• Type a one-word name for the list – DateList – and press the Enter key.

Create the Drop Down List of Dates

Back on the Time Sheet, you'll add a data validation drop down list in the date cell.

• On the Time Sheet, select the Period End date cell.
• On the Excel Ribbon, click the Data tab, and click Data Validation.
• From the Allow drop down, click on List
• In the Source box, type an equal sign and the list's name:  =DateList
• Click OK to close the data validation dialog box.

Test the Drop Down List of Dates

On the Time Sheet, the Period End date cell now has a drop down arrow.

• Click the arrow, to see the current list of dates, and click on a date to select it.

The selected date is entered in the cell, as a value, not a formula. Even when the list of dates changes, the selected date will not be affected.

More Examples

Please visit the Contextures website for more examples of Excel Data Validation for dates.

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• Select a cell in the pivot table that you want to change
• On the Ribbon, under PivotTable Tools, click the Options tab
• Click the upper part of the Change Data Source command

• When the Change PivotTable Data Source dialog box opens, press the F3 key on the keyboard, to open the Paste Name window.
• Click on the named range that you want to use, and click OK

• Click OK to close the Change PivotTable Data Source dialog box.

Change All the Pivot Tables in the Workbook

If you have several pivot tables in a workbook, and want to change all of them to a new data source, you can use a macro, instead of making the changes manually. I've added a new page on the Contextures website – Excel Pivot Table Data Source – with sample code to update all the pivot tables.

The macro adds a sheet to your active workbook, showing a list of the file's named ranges. Then, the macro prompts you to enter one of those names, as the new data source for all the pivot tables.

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That Preview option sounds promising, but instead of a picture of the file's contents, you usually see this message instead – Preview Not Available. And that's not much help.

If you want to see a preview picture for an Excel file, you have to change one of the file's Property settings – keep reading to learn how. Or watch the video at the end of this article.

Change the Excel File Settings

Every recent version of Excel has a different way of getting to its Property settings, but here are the basic steps for turning on the Preview Picture option:

1. Open the Property dialog box
2. Go to the Summary tab
3. Add a check mark to the Save Preview Picture option
4. Click OK to close the dialog box.

For details on getting to the Property settings in different versions of Excel, please go to the Excel Preview Picture page on the Contextures website.

Watch the Excel Preview Picture Video

This video shows how to change an Excel 2010 file's settings, so you can see its Preview picture. You'll also see tips for seeing the Excel preview pictures in Windows Explorer.

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