7
The previous chapters have given you all the tools you need to create nicely formatted worksheets. That’s all well and good, but as you use those features to build intricate worksheets, you may quickly find yourself buried in an ava- lanche of data. If you want to see more than one part of your workbook at once, or if you want an overview of the entire worksheet, you must seize control of Excel’s viewing features.
These features include zooming, which lets you fit more information into your Excel window; panes, which let you see more than one part of a worksheet at once; and freezing, which lets you keep certain cells visible at all times (like column titles). This chapter teaches you how to use these tools, store a custom view, and even save a workspace (a configuration that lets you edit multiple files in one window).
No matter what your worksheets look like on a screen, sometimes the best way to re- view them is in print. The second half of this chapter tackles printing your worksheets.
You’ll learn Excel’s basic printing options and a few tricks that can help you preview page breaks and make sure large amounts of data get divided the way you want.
Controlling Your View
So far, most of the worksheets in this book have included only a small amount of data. But as you cram your worksheets with dozens of columns, and hundreds or even thousands of rows, editing becomes much trickier. The most challenging problems are keeping track of where you are in an ocean of information and making sure the data you want stays visible. Double that if you have multiple large worksheets in a single workbook.
Viewing and Printing Worksheets
ConTrolling
Your viEW The following sections introduce the basic tools you can use to view your data, along with a few tips for managing large worksheets.
Zooming
Excel’s zoom feature lets you control how much data you see in your worksheet.
When you reduce the zoom percentage—say, from 100 percent to 10 percent—Excel shrinks your worksheet, letting you see more cells at once, which also makes it harder to read the data. Very small zoom percentages are ideal for looking at the overall layout of a worksheet. When you increase the zoom percentage—say, from 100 percent to 200 percent—Excel magnifies your worksheet, letting you see more detail but fewer cells. Larger zoom percentages are good for editing.
NOTE Excel lets you zoom in to 400 percent and out all the way to 10 percent.
You can most easily adjust the zoom percent using the zoom slider in the bottom-right part of the Status bar. The slider also displays the current zoom percentage. But if you want to specify the exact zoom level by hand (say, 142 percent), you can choose View→Zoom→Zoom (or click the zoom percentage next to the zoom slider). A Zoom window appears (shown in Figure 7-1).
FiGuRE 7-1
Using the Zoom window, you can select a preset magnification or, in the Custom box, type in your own percentage. However, using the Zoom slider (on the right side of the status bar) is almost always faster than making frequent trips to the Zoom window.
The standard zoom setting is 100 percent, although other factors, like the size of the font you’re using and the size and resolution of your computer screen, help determine how many cells fit into Excel’s window. As a rule of thumb, every time you double the zoom, Excel cuts in half the number of rows you can see. Thus, if you can see 20 rows at 100 percent, you’ll see roughly 10 rows at 200 percent.
NOTE Changing the zoom affects how your data appears in the Excel window, but it doesn’t have any effect on how your data is printed or calculated.
ConTrolling Your viEW You can also zoom in on a specific range of cells. This is a handy trick if you’ve
zoomed out to get a bird’s-eye view of all your data and you want to swoop in on just a particular section, To try it out, first select some cells (Figure 7-2), and then choose View→Zoom→Zoom to Selection (Figure 7-3). (You can perform this same trick by highlighting some cells, opening the Zoom window, and then choosing “Fit selection.”) Make sure you select a large section of the worksheet—if you select a small group, you’ll end up with a truly jumbo-sized zoom.
FiGuRE 7-2 To magnify just a range of cells, select them as shown here, and then choose View→Zoom→Zoom to Selection to have Excel expand the range to fill the entire window, as shown in Figure 7-3.
FiGuRE 7-3 Here, Excel increased the selected cells’ zoom to 97 percent (from 57 percent in Figure 7-2).
ConTrolling Your viEW
TIP If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can zoom in and out using the wheel. Place your mouse pointer over the worksheet (anywhere will do), hold down the Ctrl key, and then roll the scroll wheel up (to zoom in) or down (to zoom out).
Viewing Distant Parts of a Spreadsheet at Once
Zooming is an excellent way to survey a large expanse of data or focus on just the important cells, but it won’t help if you want to simultaneously view cells that aren’t near each other. For example, if you want to focus on both row 1 and row 138 at the same time, zooming won’t help. Instead, try splitting your Excel window into multiple panes—separate frames that each provide a different view of the same worksheet.
You can split a worksheet into two or four panes, depending on how many different parts you want to see. When you split a worksheet, each pane contains an identical replica of the entire worksheet. When you make a change to the worksheet in one pane, Excel automatically applies the same change in the other panes. The beauty of panes is that you can look at different parts of the same worksheet simultaneously.
You can split a window horizontally or vertically (or both). To compare different rows in the same worksheet, use a horizontal split. To compare different columns in the same worksheet, use a vertical split. And if you want to be completely crazy and see four different parts of your worksheet at once, you can use a horizontal and a vertical split—but that’s usually too confusing to be much help.
Here’s how to split the Excel window:
1. Choose where you want to create the split by selecting a row or column.
To split the window into an upper and lower portion, select a row in the mid- dle of the worksheet (by clicking a row button in the left margin), as shown in Figure 7-4.
To split the window into a left and right portion, select a column in the middle of the worksheet (by clicking a column header above the worksheet).
Don’t worry about picking exactly the right row or column, because you’ll resize your split after you create it.
NOTE If for any reason you do want to split the window into four panes, don’t select anything. Just move to a cell that’s roughly in the middle of the worksheet grid.
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FiGuRE 7-4 Here, you selected row number 7. Excel will create the split just above this row.
2. Choose View→Window→Split.
Excel splits the window into two separately scrollable regions (or four, if you didn’t select anything in step 1).
3. If you want to resize the panes, drag the splitter bar to a new location.
In the case of a horizontal split, click the splitter bar and drag it up or down. For a vertical split, drag it to the left or right.
4. Within each pane, scroll to the cells you want to see.
For example, if you have a 100-row table that you split horizontally in order to compare the top five rows and the bottom five rows, scroll to the top of the upper pane, and then scroll to the bottom of the lower pane. (Again, the two panes are replicas of each other; Excel is just showing you different parts of the same worksheet.)
NOTE To remove a split, choose View→Window→Split again.
Using the scroll bars in panes can take some getting used to. When you split a worksheet, Excel changes the way you can scroll within it. For example, if you split a window into top and bottom halves, Excel gives you just one horizontal scroll bar (at the bottom of the screen), which controls both panes (Figure 7-5). Thus, when you scroll to the left or right, Excel moves both panes horizontally. On the other hand, Excel gives you separate vertical scroll bars for each pane, letting you independently move up and down within each pane.
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FiGuRE 7-5 Here, you can see the data in rows 1 through 6 and rows 709 through 715 at the same time. As you move from column to column, both panes move in sync, letting you see, for instance, the phone number information in both panes at once. (You can scroll up or down separately in each pane.)
TIP If you want the data in one pane—for example, column titles—to remain in place, you can freeze that pane. The next section tells you how.
The reverse is true with a vertical split; in this case, you get one vertical scroll bar and two horizontal bars, and Excel synchronizes both panes when you move up or down. With four panes, life gets a little more complicated. In this case, when you scroll left or right, the frame that’s just above or just below the current frame moves, too. When you scroll up or down, the frame that’s to the left or right moves with you. Try it out.
NOTE If you use Excel’s worksheet navigation tools—like the Go To and Find commands—all your panes move to the newly found spot. For example, if you use the Find command in one pane to move to a new cell, the other panes display the same cell.
Freezing Columns or Rows
Excel has another neat trick up its sleeve to help you manage large worksheets:
freezing. Freezing is a simpler way to make sure a specific set of rows or columns remains visible at all times. When you freeze data, it remains fixed in place in the Excel window, even as you move to another location in the worksheet in a different pane. For example, say you want to keep visible the first row in a worksheet because it contains your column titles. When you freeze that row, you can always tell what’s in each column beneath—even when you scroll down several screens’ worth of cells.
Similarly, if your first column holds identifying labels, you may want to freeze it so that, when you scroll off to the right, you don’t lose track of what you’re looking at.
ConTrolling Your viEW TIP Excel lets you print out worksheets with a particular row or column fixed in place. Page 209 tells you how.
You can freeze rows at the top of your worksheet, or columns at the left of your worksheet, but Excel does limit your freezing options in a few ways:
• You can freeze rows or columns only in groups. That means you can’t freeze columns A and C without freezing column B. (You can, of course, freeze just one row or column.)
• If a row or column isn’t visible and you freeze it, you can’t see it until you un- freeze it. For example, if you scroll down so that row 100 appears at the top of the worksheet grid, and then freeze the top 100 rows, you can’t see rows 1 to 99 anymore. This may be the effect you want, or it may be a major annoyance.
To freeze a row or set of rows at the top of your worksheet, just follow these steps:
1. Make sure the row or rows you want to freeze are visible and at the top of your worksheet.
For example, if you want to freeze rows 2 and 3 in place, make sure they’re visible at the top of your worksheet. Remember, Excel freezes rows starting at row 1. That means that if you scroll down so that row 1 isn’t visible, and you freeze row 2 and row 3 at the top of your worksheet, then Excel also freezes row 1—and keeps it hidden so you can’t scroll up to see it.
2. Move to the first row you want unfrozen, and then move left to column A.
At this point, you’re getting into position so that Excel knows where to create the freeze.
3. Select the seemingly redundant View→Window→Freeze Panes→Freeze Panes.
Excel splits the worksheet, but instead of displaying a gray bar (as it does when you create panes), it uses a solid black line to divide the frozen rows from the rest of the worksheet. As you scroll down the worksheet, the frozen rows re- main in place.
To unfreeze the rows, select View→Freeze Panes→Unfreeze Panes.
Freezing columns works the same way:
1. Make sure the column or columns you want to freeze are visible and at the left of your worksheet.
For example, if you want to freeze columns B and C in place, make sure they’re visible at the edge of your worksheet. Remember, columns are frozen starting at column A. That means that if you scroll over so that column A isn’t visible, and you freeze columns B and C on the left side of your worksheet, Excel also freezes column A—and keeps it hidden so you can’t scroll over to see it.
ConTrolling
Your viEW 2. Move to the first column you want unfrozen, and then move up to row 1.
At this point, you’re getting into position so that Excel knows where to create the freeze.
3. Select View→Window→Freeze Panes→Freeze Panes.
Excel splits the worksheet, but instead of displaying a gray bar (as it does when you create panes), it uses a solid black line to divide the frozen columns from the rest of the worksheet. As you scroll across the worksheet, the frozen columns remain in place.
To unfreeze the columns, select View→Window→Freeze Panes→Unfreeze Panes.
TIP If you want to freeze just the first row or the leftmost column, there’s no need to go through this whole process. Instead, use the handy View→Window→Freeze Panes→Freeze Top Row or View→Window→Freeze Panes→Freeze First Column.
You can also freeze columns and rows at the same time, which is useful when you have identifying information you need to keep visible both on the left and at the top of your worksheet. Figure 7-6 shows an example.
FiGuRE 7-6 Here, both column A and row 1 are frozen, and thus always remain visible.
The easiest way to create these frozen regions is to scroll to the top of the worksheet, make cell B2 the active cell by select- ing it, and then choose View→Window→Freeze Panes→Freeze Panes.
Excel then automatically freezes the rows above and the columns to the left in separate panes.
ConTrolling Your viEW
Hiding Data
In some cases, your problem isn’t that you need to keep data visible, but that you need to hide it. For example, say you have a column of numbers that you need only for a calculation but don’t want to see when you edit or print the sheet. Excel provides the perfect solution: hiding rows and columns. Hiding doesn’t delete information; it just temporarily tucks it out of view. You can restore hidden information any time you need it.
Technically, hiding a row or column is just a special type of resizing. When you instruct Excel to hide a column, it simply shrinks the column down to a width of 0.
Similarly, when you hide a row, Excel compresses the row height.
NOTE You can also hide an entire worksheet of data. See Chapter 4 for details.
You can hide data in a few ways:
• To hide a column, right-click the column header (the letter button on the top of the column), and then choose Hide. Or, put your cursor in any row in that column, and then select Home→Cells→Format→Hide & Unhide→Hide Columns.
• To hide a row, right-click the row header (the number button at the left of the row), and then choose Hide. Or, put your cursor in any column in that row, and then select Home→Cells→Format→Hide & Unhide→Hide Rows.
• To hide multiple rows or columns, select the ones you want to disappear before choosing Hide.
To unhide a column or row, select the range that includes the hidden cells. For ex- ample, if you hid column B, select columns A and C by dragging over the numeric row headers. Then right-click the selection and choose Unhide. Excel makes the missing columns or rows visible, and then highlights them so you can see which information you restored.
TIP To unhide all columns (or rows) in a worksheet, select the entire worksheet (by clicking the square in the top-left corner of the grid), and then select Home→Cells→Format→Hide & Unhide→Unhide Columns (or Unhide Rows).
Forgetting that you’ve hidden data is as easy as forgetting where you put your keys. While Excel doesn’t include a hand-clapper to help you locate your cells, it does offer a clue that some of your row numbers or column letters are missing, as shown in Figure 7-7.
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FiGuRE 7-7
This worksheet jumps directly from column A to column O, which tells you that columns B through N are hidden.
TIP Excel doesn’t let you hide individual cells. However, Excel gurus use workarounds. The first one is to format the cell so that the text’s white (because white lettering on a white background is invisible). Another solution is to format the cell with the custom number format ;;; (which doesn’t show anything for positive, negative, or text values; see page 146 for more on custom formatting). When you use either of these tricks, you can still see the cell content by moving to the cell and looking in the formula bar.
Saving View Settings
If you regularly tweak things in Excel like changing the zoom level, hiding or showing columns, and creating panes, you can easily spend more time adjusting your work- sheet than editing it. Fortunately, Excel lets you save your view settings with custom views. Custom views let you save a combination of view settings in a workbook.
You can store as many views as you want. When you want to use a particular view, simply select it from a list and Excel applies your settings.
Custom views are particularly useful when you frequently switch views for different tasks, like editing and printing. For example, if you like to edit with several panes open and all your data visible, but you like to print your data in one pane with some columns hidden, custom views let you quickly switch between the two layouts.
NOTE You can’t save a custom view for one worksheet, and then apply it to another.
Custom views can save the following settings:
• The location of the active cell. (In other words, your position in the worksheet.
For example, if you scroll to the bottom of a 65,000-row spreadsheet and save a custom view, Excel will take you back to that cell when you open the view.)
• The currently selected cell (or cells).