It’s not unusual to have several work- sheets where you frequently show data in two different formats. The worksheet in Figure 1, for example, could be printed in landscape mode for a monthly report. Then if you hide all columns except A, E, I, M, Q, and R, you will have a quarterly report that looks best printed in portrait mode. Switching between the reports is time-consuming—you have to hide/ unhide columns and change the settings in the Page Setup dialog. This month, we’ll look at two different tools that will make it easier to switch back and forth between two different formats for a worksheet in Excel: the View Manager and the Grouping symbols. Setting up Custom Views A custom view will hold the settings for hidden columns, hidden rows, print set- tings, and filter settings. Once you’ve defined two or more views, you can quickly switch between the views to change from a monthly to a quarterly report. Start with all of the months visible. Go to File, Page Setup to define settings appropriate for a wide report. This might include landscape orientation, narrow left and right margins, a custom header indicating this is the monthly report, and so on. Go to the View menu and choose Custom Views. Initially, there won’t be any views defined in the Custom Views dialog. Click the Add button to display the Add View dialog. Give the view a name, such as “Monthly.” Leave the boxes checked to indicate that the Monthly view should remember the cur- rent print settings, hidden rows, hidden columns, and filter settings (see Figure 2). Click OK to create the first view. Back in the Excel worksheet, now set up the report in its quarterly format. Hide the monthly columns in B:D, F:H, J:L, and N:P. In the Page Setup dialog, choose a portrait report, centered hori- 54 STRATEGIC FINANCE I April 2009 TECHNOLOGY EXCEL Creating Custom Views in Excel By Bill Jelen [ ANNUAL CONFERENCE TOPIC ] Figure 1
2
Embed
Creating Custom Views in Excel - Strategic Financesfmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/sfarchive/2009/... · in the Page Setup dialog. ... EXCEL Creating Custom Views in Excel By Bill
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
It’s not unusual to have several work-
sheets where you frequently show data
in two different formats. The worksheet
in Figure 1, for example, could be printed
in landscape mode for a monthly report.
Then if you hide all columns except A, E,
I, M, Q, and R, you will have a quarterly
report that looks best printed in portrait
mode. Switching between the reports is
time-consuming—you have to hide/
unhide columns and change the settings
in the Page Setup dialog. This month,
we’ll look at two different tools that will
make it easier to switch back and forth
between two different formats for a
worksheet in Excel: the View Manager
and the Grouping symbols.
Setting up CustomViewsA custom view will hold the settings for
hidden columns, hidden rows, print set-
tings, and filter settings. Once you’ve
defined two or more views, you can
quickly switch between the views to
change from a monthly to a quarterly
report.
Start with all of the months visible.
Go to File, Page Setup to define settings
appropriate for a wide report. This might
include landscape orientation, narrow
left and right margins, a custom header
indicating this is the monthly report, and
so on.
Go to the View menu and choose
Custom Views. Initially, there won’t be
any views defined in the Custom Views
dialog. Click the Add button to display
the Add View dialog. Give the view a
name, such as “Monthly.” Leave the
boxes checked to indicate that the
Monthly view should remember the cur-
rent print settings, hidden rows, hidden
columns, and filter settings (see Figure
2). Click OK to create the first view.
Back in the Excel worksheet, now set
up the report in its quarterly format.
Hide the monthly columns in B:D, F:H,
J:L, and N:P. In the Page Setup dialog,
choose a portrait report, centered hori-
54 S T R AT E G IC F I N A N C E I A p r i l 2 0 0 9
TECHNOLOGY
EXCELCreating Custom Viewsin Excel
By Bill Jelen
[ ANNUAL CONFERENCE TOPIC ]
Figure 1
zontally. Edit the custom header to indi-
cate that this is the quarterly report.
Define the new view by selecting
View, Custom Views, Add. Give it a
name, such as “Quarterly,” and click OK.
You can now switch between views
by using View, Custom Views. Select
either Monthly or Quarterly from the list,
and Excel will automatically hide or
unhide the monthly columns as
appropriate.
If you are using Excel 2003 or earlier,
there’s a faster way to switch views.
Select Tools, Customize. In the Cus-
tomize dialog, go to the Commands tab.
From the Categories list, select View. In
the Commands list, “Custom Views…”
will be the sixth item shown. Drag the
Custom Views icon onto any toolbar,
then close the Customize dialog. You’ve
now placed a dropdown menu that lets
you choose between the available views,
as shown in Figure 3. Unfortunately,
Microsoft removed the Custom Views
dropdown from Excel 2007.
Setting up CustomGroupsAnother solution is to set up custom