Comments on: Worst Excel Practices

By: Charlie Hall

Charlie Hall — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:53:00 +0000

@Roger

I found your comments about range names confusing. I certainly agree that range names can be overused, but I do not understand what you mean by range names for input variables reducing transparancy and increasing maintenance.

Personally I find that range names for cells off the sheet (such as input variables), or on large sheets but outside of the local area, are very useful and reduces maintenance. When revewing a formula that uses cells on another sheet, I find it difficult to remember which cell it is referring to by just looking at the address (maybe it is my age). Whereas with a range name, the name is useful in helping me recall what the cell is especially if i have looked at it once - at least it reduces the amount of switching between sheets to try to figure out what the formula is attempting to do - which for me reduces, not increases maintenance effort.

By: Jan Karel Pieterse

Jan Karel Pieterse — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:46:00 +0000

Let me add another: Not using styles to format your cells.
In my experience, as soon as you start using styles religiously, you start thinking about your spreadsheet design too.

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:56:00 +0000

Re “Center Across Selection” on the ribbon. I filed this as a bug/suggestion early in the Office 12 beta, and was told “Good idea. We’ll consider it for Office 14.”

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:56:00 +0000

The problem with the “;;;” number format is it makes cells invisible which may obscure the trail of logic and throw off the user. I prefer to format some cells with a medium to light gray font, so you know they’re less important but can still track them visually if necessary.

By: Roger Crawley

Roger Crawley — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:37:00 +0000

I disagree with number 2. I regularly have to interact with a very complex file that contains over 2800 names where there are almost no cell references in the formulae. This file is an auditing nightmare and I have to refer to a name database for every argument of a formula in order to understand what it is doing and then propose and/or make changes to it.

Named ranges are invaluable for writing robust VBA code but for more simple spreadsheet applications should be used very sparingly. I think the worst way to use them is to hold input values for a spreadhseet, this makes for models with very poor transparency for users and very cumbersome maintenance.

Of course this all personal opinion!

By: dcardno

dcardno — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 05:52:00 +0000

Using the number format of ";;;" may seem smart but it introduces all kinds of potential sleeping errors in spreadsheets that are almost impossible to track.
I don't intend to be confrontational, but please describe one. Just about the only one I can see is unintentional deletion - and usually the effects will be apparent fairly quickly - unless I just don't have enough imagination!

Workbooks should always be built with inputs, calcs and outputs.
That strikes me as being awfully pedantic - and I wonder whether the extra effort to create (and maintain) a separate output sheet (or several) is really that much better than dealing with a "hidden" result; I suspect it comes down to personal preference. I agree completely on "merged cells" - and the bonehead at Microsoft who made 'merged cells' the default icon rather than 'centre across selection' deserves special recognition (and don't get me started about placing it on the Ribbon where it is virtually impossible for a normal user to avoid)...

I agree with Sam on 'shared workbooks' - an absolute recipe for bloat and file corruption.

By: sam

sam — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:21:00 +0000

Couple more donts

a) Share workbook
b) Sum(A:A)

By: Jamie Collins

Jamie Collins — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:51:00 +0000

For me the worst are:

1. Using Excel workbooks as a DBMS and/or a trusted source of data.
2. Using an Excel workbook as a software development platform without using source control.
3. Allowing an Excel workbook to become an enterprise-level mission-critical application.

By: Bill D

Bill D — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:22:00 +0000

I use hidden rows/columns a lot in order to efficiently use the GETPIVOTDATA function. I group columns/rows as it makes it more apparent (at least to regular Excel users) that there are some things not being displayed.

I use, but dislike, white on white text. If used, it's generally to indicate error conditions. Can be used directly or through conditional formatting.

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:32:00 +0000

YES to Stephanie absolutely and dcardno that's really bad practice!

Strictly speaking ";;;" hides numbers both positive and negative, zeros, trues and falses and even text. Using the number format of ";;;" may seem smart but it introduces all kinds of potential sleeping errors in spreadsheets that are almost impossible to track. I am not a fan of hidden rows or columns either, and I agree that they can get in the way. Workbooks should always be built with inputs, calcs and outputs. If you don't want to see something put it on an input or calcs sheet. Your data table can be calculated on another sheet and an output sheet can be prepared for presentation-quality output.

Ps I have just thought of another pet hate that should be number 2 or 3 on my list. MERGED CELLS !
There is no excuse. If you really must then you can use "Center across selection" but no Merged cells please.