Create Interactive Excel Forms Using Option Button Controls

This is the third in my series of video lessons that show you how to add Form Controls to an Excel worksheet. Option Buttons, inside a Group Box, are a great way to make your forms “interactive” – to give your end-user multiple options. For example, a choice of shipping methods for their order. Or, to see how different “down payment” options effect their mortgage payments.

The key to understanding how Excel Form Controls operate is to see how the value in the “cell link” changes when you choose an option. The cell link for an Option Button translates a “text expression” into a numeric value. For example, “Surface” translates to “1” for a shipping option.

In this Excel Training Video, I introduce the =CHOOSE() Function. It is rare that I find a client who has ever used this function. Once you see how useful it is, you will start to use it instead of struggling through multiple =IF() Functions. It is really a great “hidden gem” of an Excel Function!

Click on this link to go to my Archive of Excel Video Lessons on Forms. 

You can also find additional groups of related videos by selecting a “Category” from the drop-down menu on the right side bar of any page on my website.

Learn how to “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!”

Create User Friendly Excel Forms Using Spin Button Controls

An Excel Form is great way to distribute an Excel worksheet to your customers or field representatives. Most of the time, you do not want them to type values into a cell. You want to make this Form as “user friendly” as possible! You want to add “Spin Buttons” to your form, so that the user can simply click to change cell values up or down in the increments that you want to display.

A perfect example: A Mortgage Loan Scenario where – by clicking the Spin Buttons – your client can see what their monthly payment will be. This is my second lesson covering Excel’s Form Control Tools. Watch as I demonstrate how to “work around” the Form Controls limits of Maximum Amount for a Spin Button (30,000) and also how to increment interest rates by 1/4 of a Percent.

From personal observation, I know that many people start to create an Excel Form and then just give up in frustration. I did too – in the beginning! Watch me demonstrate how to avoid the traps of the “got’cha” steps in this short Excel Training Video.

Check out the great tips that I offer on my DVD, “The 50 Best Tips for Excel 2007.” Click here to start shopping.

Learn how you can “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!”

Use an Excel Data Table to See Effect on Multiple Formulas

Excel Data Tables are part of the “What-if” Analysis group of tools and commands. In this lesson, I demonstrate how to use a one-input Data Table to show how substituting a series of inputs effects three separate formulas. This is a powerful – and easy – way to get answers to a series of “What-if” questions.

Data Table

2-Input Data Table

Two-Input Data Table

I know that as I learned how to construct Data Tables, it was a lot easier for me to “see” how to set them up rather than to “read about” how they are set up. You can put your series of substitute values in either the “Column running down” or the “row going across” in the data table. To include the three formulas in the Data Table, I simply included “Links” to the formulas in the original assumptions table.

Learn More About “What-if Analysis Tools in Excel

I have identified “What-if” Analysis as one of my “Nine Essential Skills for Excel.” You can learn more about my 4 hour video tutorial package by clicking on either of these links:

 

List of My Most Popular Posts and Pages

Summer – in the Northern Hemisphere – is now behind us. I went back to survey the videos and pages on my website that had the most views during the Summer of 2010. 

Here is a listing of my “Top 10 Video Posts” and my “Top 5 Pages.” Click on the Links for each title to go directly to the Video Lesson or Page.

The “Top 10 Video Posts” on The Company Rocks Website:

  1. Simplify Data Lookups in Excel
  2. Make Excel Come Alive with Visualization Tools
  3. Build an Accounts Receivable Aging Report
  4. Summarize Multiple Excel Worksheets – Consolidate Data by Position
  5. How to Merge Multiple Excel Workbooks into a Master Budget
  6. Use Pivot Tables to Summarize by Year, Quarter and Month
  7. Perform Break Even Analysis with Excel’s Goal Seek Tool
  8. 2 Reasons to Format Cells Before You Enter Data in Excel
  9. Hide and Show Details in Excel Pivot Tables
  10. Use Vlookup Function to Prepare a Payroll Statement

The “Top 5 Pages” Viewed on The Company Rocks Website:

  1. The Excel Home Page
  2. Index to Excel Video Lesson Topics
  3. List of “The 50 Best Tips for Excel 2007”
  4. Excel Training Videos by Category
  5. The 50 Best Tips for PowerPoint 2007

The Danny Rocks Tips and Timesavers Podcast

During the Summer of 2010, I started my own video podcast at the iTunes Store. These podcasts are free of charge. The video resolution is optimized for viewing on an iPad, iPod or other portable media device.

The DannyRocksExcels Channel on YouTube

Over the past two years I have posted 104 video lessons on my “DannyRocksExcels” Channel on YouTube.

The DannyRocksPowerPoint Channel on YouTube

I maintain a separate channel on YouTube – “DannyRocksPowerPoint”– to post my PowerPoint Tips and Narrated PowerPoint Presentations. I invite you to vist my channel to view, download and share these videos with your friends and colleagues. Click here to go to my YouTube Channel.

“The 50 Best Tips for …” series of DVDs

I offer five DVDs for sale on this website. Click here to start your shopping cart. I guarantee your satisfaction. If you are not 100% satisfied with my DVDs, I will refund your purchase with no questions asked!

You can learn how to “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!”

Here is a listing of the DVDs that I offer for sale. Click on the link for each title to go to the list of the tips that I offer on each DVD:

How to Share Excel Data with Word Documents

Microsoft Excel is tightly integrated with MS Word. There are several ways to share data that you create in Excel with a Word Document. In this lesson I demonstrate how to copy part of an Excel worksheet and then paste it into a Word document. Here are the techniques that I cover in this short Excel Video Lesson:

  • Paste as a Word Table
  • Paste as a Picture
  • Paste Special as a different type of Picture
  • Paste a Link between the Excel and Word documents – to update the latest sales figures

This is the first in a series of videos where I demonstrate how easy it is to share information between the different programs in the Microsoft Office Suite.

You can see a list of “The 50 Best Tips for Word 2007” by following this link.

You can view and download this video – for free – at the iTunes Store. I invite you to subscribe to my podcast, “Danny Rocks Tips and Timesavers.”

Learn how to “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!”

How to Use an Excel Data Table for “What-if” Analysis

Excel has many tools that give you answers to “What-if” questions. An Excel Data Table allows you to feed a series of “substitute values” into two arguments in a formula. For example, with a Data Table you can:

  • See a table of monthly payments on a loan by substituting both the “Interest Rate” and the “Amount Borrowed” simultaneously.
  • See a table of “Net Payments” by changing both the “Sales Price” and the “Quantity” simultaneously.
  • See the amount that you “tip” a service professional by changing both the “Tip Percentage” and the “Food Total” simultaneously.

As you will see in this Excel Video Lesson, the trick is to understand which series of values are the “Row Inputs” and which series of substitute values are the “Column Inputs.”

Trust me on this: It is easier to “see” how to set up a Data Table than it is to “write a description” of a Data Table. So, I invite you to “see for yourself” how easy it is to set up an Excel Data Table and get answers to two simultaneous “What-if” questions!

Click here to see a Listing of “The 50 Best Tips for Excel 2007.”

Learn how to “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!”

View My Excel Training Videos on YouTube

DannyRocksExcels on YouTube

YouTube

Two years ago, in August 2010, I started uploading my Excel video training lessons to my YouTube Channel – DannyRocksExcels. Now there are 93 Excel videos available. I was originally reluctant to post my video content on YouTube because I selfishly wanted to restrict my videos to my own website. After a conversation with a colleague, I changed my mind and began to upload all of my Excel videos to YouTube.
Why?
  • YouTube attracts a much more diverse audience than I could ever hope to attract on this website.
  • YouTube makes it easy to download and share my videos with others.
  • YouTube has a great analytics program – Insight – that allows me to gain valuable information about my audience.
  • YouTube is now showing several of my most popular videos as ads automatically (via Google AdSense)
  • I have good interaction with my viewers on YouTube – comments, requests for new videos, etc.

When I look at the numbers on YouTube I am amazed!

Here is a summary:

  • My Excel Videos have been viewed almost 200,000 times over the past two years.
  • One Video (Introduction to Pivot Tables) has been viewed over 20,000 times!
  • My DannyRocksExcels Channel on YouTube now has over 500 subscribers.

I invite you to view, download or subscribe to my YouTube Channel for Excel Training videos by following this link.

Thank you!

Danny Rocks

P.S. Learn how to “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!”

Excel Training Videos by Category

Here is a listing, by category – with hyperlinks – to the free Excel Training Videos that I offer on The Company Rocks website. Simply click on the hyperlink for each Category to go directly to the Archive of Excel videos in that category. 

Note: Some of my Excel Videos are listed in multiple categories.

Excel Tip List

Excel Tips

The companion page to this one is, “Index of Excel Video Training Lessons.” In the Index you will see the title of each Excel Video Tutorial listed beneath the category.

If you like the free videos that I offer, I guarantee that you will enjoy my DVD – “The 50 Best Tips for Excel 2007” – now on sale here on my website.

Learn how you can “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!”

Learn how to quickly “Create Pivot Tables and Charts.”

Excel Training Video Lessons – by Category:

“The 50 Best Tips for Excel 2007” DVD is now on sale!

Perform Break Even Analysis with Excel’s Goal Seek Tool

As a small business owner or investor, you ask many“what-if?” questions. In preparing to present your business plan to an investor you want to know your “break even” point. Fortunately, Excel has a great tool – Goal Seek – that can save you time by creating multiple scenarios to help you determine your goal – to break even!

You can watch this Excel Video Lesson here – online – or you can download it to watch later, at your convenience. I invite you to subscribe to my podcast, Danny Rocks Tips and Timesavers” at the iTunes store by clicking this link – this is a free subscription.

Click here to see a listing of “The 50 Best Tips for Excel 2007.”

Learn how you can “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!”

Use Excel’s Goal Seek to Find Formula Error

A viewer wrote me seeking help with a formula. He was calculating a monthly payment for a loan using Excel’s PMT() Function and he was surprised at the result of the formula. I reviewed his formula and discovered that it was not a “formula problem.” Rather, it was a “results problem!” Watch this short video to see how I solved this problem for my viewer by using Excel’s “Goal Seek” tool. So now, instead of a monthly payment of $10,666.67, the result is $501.38 – a very different result!

You can download this video – for free – here on my website. Just click the button below the video image.

You can also subscribe to my Podcast, “Danny Rocks Tips and Timesavers” at the iTunes Store.

You can “Master Excel in Minutes – Not Months!”