O’Reilly Releases Excel Guide

April 8th, 2004 at 3:00 PM - News by Mike Washlesky

OiReilly & Associates has published a new book titled; "Excel Hacks" . The book, written by David and Raina Hawley, is a guide for maximizing a users potential using the ever popular app Microsoft Excel. The book provides tips and "back-door" hacks. According to OiReilly & Associates:

The structure of the classic Greek tragedy is fairly inflexible. The rigidity of this structure might seem antithetical to creative expression and yet it has given rise to some of the most moving verses in the history of human drama.

In the same fashion, Microsoft Excel, with its stark, bare-bones grid of cells provides a fertile medium for the eloquent presentation of data and analyses. Far more than just a number-crunching application, Excelis streamlined, familiar interface casually conceals its considerable capabilities. If youive thought that getting creative with Excel means the underhanded tweaking of numbers, think again. "Excel Hacks" by David and Raina Hawley will take your spreadsheets to a whole new level, squeezing out every ounce of meaning possible.

The little known "backdoor" adjustments in the book include everything from reducing workbook and worksheet frustration to hacking built-in features such as pivot tables, charts, formulas and functions. "Excel Hacks" shows how to:

Design charts that go far beyond the basic chart types and behavior provided by Excel

Specify dynamic ranges that expand and contract to match your data and that you can use to create flexible formulas and charts

Write macros to automatically and repetitively perform tasks in an efficient and predictable way

and more...

You can find more information about "Excel Hacks" at the OiReilly & Associates Web site. The book is available for US$24.95.