Comments on: Oh Noes! The dreaded #REF error!

Oh Noes! The dreaded #REF error!

lampshade — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:13:46 -0800

In the world of conversation killers, talking about Excel to the average person ranks up there with the best. At the same time, there is always a chance that you wish you could have that conversation at work when it gets down to the wire. Even as a pro, you might need that brush up on Array Functions, calculation tricks, VBA examples or some examples from one of the well known authors on Excel. There is also no shortage of people who dedicate their working lives to this arcane program and are more than willing to assist others for free by posting solved issues on their websites. People like David McRitchie, OzGrid, Rob Bovey, Ron de Bruin, John Walkenbach, Dick Kusleika, Joseph Rubin and Chip Pearson.

Or if you just want to be a Debbie Downer at the next party, just take page from any of the following, memorize it. and recite it when faced with that nudge you don't want to talk to: Excel Support, Jon Peltier, Colo's Junk Room, Scriptorium, Andrew's Excel Tips, Andy Pope, Anthony's VBA Page, Rodney Powell, Array Formulas, Erlandsen Data Consulting, Excel-it, ExcelUser, JKP's Excel Page, John Lacher, McGimpsey, Bill Jelen, Stephen Bullen, Tushar Mehta, VBusers.com, The Excel Nexus, The Excel Logic Page, and Anthoney Does Excel. It's a fast and easy way to ward off lounge lizards.

By: gwint

gwint — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:17:53 -0800

Yes, yes, but can I play Break Out? Oh, yes I can.

By: Ryvar

Ryvar — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:18:32 -0800

Sadly, thank you for this.

By: lampshade

lampshade — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:22:31 -0800

Sadly, thank you for this. Sadly, you are welcome. The crazy part is I am the nudge that people try to get away from, but in this case, they can't.

By: caddis

caddis — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:22:42 -0800

Oh Noes is right; this brings back the nightmares of my previous life as a spreadsheet jockey. "What rate of return would we need to get that project approved sir? No, problem, let me just play with a few of the assumptions in the model." We also got to do some cool things like program a heat balance into a spreadsheet, complete with steam tables etc. Good geeky fun it was.

By: drhydro

drhydro — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:26:33 -0800

Or, an excellent set of linkies to allow one to excel at an accelerated pace.... ooh, breakout!

By: robocop is bleeding

robocop is bleeding — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:27:17 -0800

Awesome. I've been converting 20 years worth of by-hand accounting to Excel and this stuff will save me a lot of googling.

By: thatwhichfalls

thatwhichfalls — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:33:18 -0800

Just to add a link - free financial spreadsheets from Matt H. Evans. Peltier has a macro I've used a lot to switch x and y axes on an xy scatter chart here - it's awesome.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:37:29 -0800

Excel: the site that looks like someone already made a chart on it. /Word and Quicken user

By: stirfry

stirfry — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:37:58 -0800

Does Excel have a "more inside" option?

By: stirfry

stirfry — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:39:56 -0800

Apologies for the snark. I'm a Debbie Downer .

By: nowonmai

nowonmai — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:48:17 -0800

Which one of these pages will tell me how, when building a formula, to use the numerical value in the cell I click on and not a reference to the cell?

By: lampshade

lampshade — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:52:32 -0800

If anyone wants, I have an HTML file with jus the links. May be a little easier than hitting all the add bookmark a billion times. Just email me. Address in profile.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:57:00 -0800

It's a fast and easy way to ward off lounge lizards. So this, then, is probably something John Lurie should be aware of. BTW, lampshade, I'd also say that taking up so much blue with those line breaks isn't very considerate of other FPPers here. Just something to keep in mind for the future, perhaps...

By: lampshade

lampshade — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:07:53 -0800

On second thought about the bookmarks. Actually, better than email, just click here and save the page. And for all the Line Debbie Downers, email matt. It is two freaking lines.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:13:03 -0800

And should you feel like using an open source alternative, the OpenOffice Calc Tips blog is full of delightful reading.

By: ericb

ericb — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:15:35 -0800

Do I need own Excel^® to understand this? ; )

By: cortex

cortex — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:35:51 -0800

[Cleaned up post spacing a little. lampshade, next time throw the second paragraph inside, neh?]

By: spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints

spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:38:32 -0800

I personally use Excel to tell me when I need to buy eggs and milk.

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:40:26 -0800

Do I need own Excel® to understand this? ; ) Why ericb, no you don't need Excel. If you have a google account, you can use this... http://spreadsheets.google.com

By: lampshade

lampshade — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:48:38 -0800

[Cleaned up post spacing a little. lampshade, next time throw the second paragraph inside, neh?] No prob. And that is all that needs to be said. Tanx!

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:53:40 -0800

lampshade, thanks for the links. I'm sure they'll be useful during a future moment of Excel confusion.

By: faux ami

faux ami — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 16:26:08 -0800

These links look great. Hey, has anyone here worked on Access - what do you think of it?

By: thrakintosh

thrakintosh — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 16:39:49 -0800

These links look great. Hey, has anyone here worked on Access - what do you think of it? I have. It was madness. Then I found this. A career followed.

By: neuron

neuron — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:26:41 -0800

Excel is for sissies. I use Visicalc.

By: bruce

bruce — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:40:24 -0800

talking to me about excel will earn you a good look at my back and tail.

By: grouse

grouse — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:41:33 -0800

I reimplemented sequence alignment, a commonly-used computational biology algorithm in Excel (self-link). It makes a fun teaching tool. Excel's really just a functional programming language at heart.

By: X4ster

X4ster — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:57:42 -0800

Is there a name for us Excel geeks? Excelites? Excelons? thrakintosh, Yes, Filemaker is the cure for Access madness.

By: lampshade

lampshade — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:00:42 -0800

Excel's really just a functional programming language at heart. That is what alof people miss about the app - that is basically a development tool. If used like (as mentioned earlier) like Visicalc, it really shines. Trying to make like Access or FMP for database and the shortcomings really show. OTOH, trying to do a data scrub with Access or FMP is a nightmare. The right tool for the job rule applies

By: lampshade

lampshade — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:01:56 -0800

Is there a name for us Excel geeks? Excelites? Excelons? I put down "Excel Freak" on freelance job apps. Never had an HR person dispute it.

By: Oyéah

Oyéah — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:10:02 -0800

Excel is where I drew the line. I realized that I would not ever want a job, where I had to use this. Most people who use it casually, can't make a usable phone and email list. Excel is not for me, No no Excel is not for me. Wheeeee. I can't I won't I can't I won't Excel is not for me, Wheee.

By: paduasoy

paduasoy — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 18:34:33 -0800

Thanks for this, lampshade, unfortunately I too find it fascinating.

By: X4ster

X4ster — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 19:20:01 -0800

OK Excleperts, I just posted a question to AskMifi. I need some advice on how to build a searchable data table or database to locate records within fields from a magazine contents list. First problem is converting seventy year old printed docs to text. Second step is integrating text to data table. Anybody have any good ideas?

By: imperium

imperium — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 03:42:44 -0800

32 comments, but 75 people favourited it. Some of them is like me. We hates it, but we knows how useful tips for it may be coming when the deadline she approacheth.

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 03:49:10 -0800

Can't get overlords to spring for all the shit I need in order to build a proper intranet, so I was forced to use a shared google spreadsheet... it's a bit sticky but it works, even with eight users editing it.

By: anthill

anthill — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 08:43:51 -0800

No MrExcel? Their forums always seem to help me...

By: evening

evening — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 09:56:25 -0800

Oooh, I'm always looking for new Excel outlets for work. Thank you I used to fear Excel, but then I was forced to use it and the more I used it the easier it got, and now I really like working in it. My favorite is comparing and synching up two different files...all sorts of fun tricks to get that done. Yes, I'm pathetic.

By: mightshould

mightshould — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 05:59:54 -0800

OK, I added this to favorites. Have nothing useful to add other than thanks - I'm very certain that I'll need this info sometime....I'm into simple excel work, nothing too unusual or exotic. It's a good tool for calculations, (course, I like to use it to write letters in sometimes too because of the control it gives for layout when you've both text and numbers - easier than InDesign.)

By: EndsOfInvention

EndsOfInvention — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:10:58 -0800

Sadly, thank you for this. What he said. *sigh*

By: EndsOfInvention

EndsOfInvention — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 15:14:23 -0800

Ironically I won't be able to actually use these sites for work since the internet filter blocks MeFi (but not MeTa, bizarrely, so I can still get my flameout/deletion-bitching fill). I guess I could email myself the links or something.

By: lampshade

lampshade — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:36:52 -0800

EOI, email yourself this link. I put all the sites there for convenience. You can also save as an html file. There is notthing else at the site. I just have it around for stuff like this. www.etameeffoc.com/excel/excel.html

By: EndsOfInvention

EndsOfInvention — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:05:22 -0800

Oh sweet, thanks lampshade.

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:01:51 -0800

=AWESOME(post,63944)