Comments on: Useful toolbar buttons you don't see every day in Excel 2003, Part 1

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:08:49 +0000

Charley uses the Camera tool extensively, and files error reports extensively. That's one feature that has plagued Excel 2007.

By: Bob Phillips

Bob Phillips — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:36:19 +0000

Hi Jon,

I agree, and that is what I have reverted back to. In this case I wanted a simple jump from a illustrative chart to a more informative detail page, so I thought the camera would be good as I could assign a macro to the shape. I was wrong, it was bad! I do note that Charley Kyd uses them extensivley in his Dashboard Kit!

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:58:02 +0000

Bob -

The Camera should be used only when it's the only way to get what you want. If you can you should use links within another worksheet range to show a table, or a second copy of a chart.

By: Bob Phillips

Bob Phillips — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:50:16 +0000

Jon, The camera can be incredibly slow though. I created a spreadsheet over the weekend which has a dropdown to select a category, and then it dynamically builds a list of items for that category and some Cube formulae based upon the date header and the item code.

I added a couple of simple column/line combo charts, and then snapped them to put on my dashboard. Without the snapshots, the category refresh was instantaneous, with them it was a noticeable number of seconds. With the number of items in the region of 0-20, the culprit was clearly the camera snapshot.

By: sam

sam — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:09:11 +0000

Jon
Yes..Till I "discovered" it I searched every where under Table Options…

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:54:59 +0000

Sam -

You mean, to turn off GetPivotData.

By: sam

sam — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:58:49 +0000

Oops forgot the "Generate GetPivot Data" in Data to toggle the GetPivotData Function

By: sam

sam — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:35:57 +0000

Some more less known useful buttons
1) In Data : Filter by Selected Cells Value
2) In Edit : Select Visible Cells, Select Current Area
3) In File : Toggle Read Only
4) In View : Zoom In/Zoom Out
5) In Drawing : Select Multiple Objects

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:57:42 +0000

Another useful button that people may not be aware of is the Camera Tool, which copies a dynamic picture of a worksheet range (including shapes and charts on that range), that you can paste elsewhere to give you a view of how that range is changing.

Also, you need no code to give Clear Print Area an icon. Add it to a toolbar, right click on it (you're still in Customize), choose Default Style for icon only or Image and Text. Then right click > Change Button Image to select from about 40 canned icons, or Edit Button Image to roll your own. Or to reuse an existing icon, right click on the other icon > Copy Button Image, then right click on this one > Paste Button Image.