4. Formatting Silver Dollar Worksheet

We continued working on the Silver Dollar Stock Club worksheet. We learned about Fixed Dollar Signs as an effect of the ACCOUNTING FORMAT, the Floating Dollar Signs of the Currency Format, the use of the COMMA FORMAT for our other cells, and how to increase or decrease the number of displayed Decimal Places.

We used CONDITIONAL FORMATTING to have Excel flag us when percentage values dropped to less than zero, by showing the cell data with red fill as a warning. We stretched Column A's width, and used Best Fit for Columns B, C, and D.

We performed a number of additional operations:

• Changing Column Widths to a specific fit
• Changing Row Height
• Running a Spell Check
• Displaying the Formula Version of a worksheet should we need to audit it for problems
• Importing External Data using a Web Query
• Referencing the Query in our Analytic worksheet so that each Query Refresh brings in the latest values
• Renaming Sheet Tabs

We used the Internet to Get External Data with an MS Stock Query to find out the real current values of our stocks. Then we linked the latest prices from the query to our Investment Analysis page, so that every Internet Query lookup updates our Stock Analysis sheet in Real Time. We renamed the sheet tabs, 'Portfolio Summary' and 'Real-time Stock Quotes.'

Since there are no real agreed upon standards for setting up a good worksheet. You must rely on your own sense of what works best in each separate case. That actually gives you lots of room for creatively attacking a project!! Study the techniques used in other worksheets!!

These operations should convince you of the awesome power of Excel to analyze information in an extraordinarily useful way!! You can see how sophisticated your use of Excel can be. You can create different sorts of Financial information and documentation. You've already started to master this tool and to be able to create Financial Worksheets where the only limitation is your imagination!!!

Materials Covered: MS Excel 2007 - Project 2:
Formulas, Functions, Formatting and Web Queries, pp EX 81-144