Question about Excel

[David Freed]

     I have a question about the computer program Excel if anyone thinks they could answer it. Although I have been using it for lots of simple things for several months, I finally decided to tax my brain and try to set up something more complicated. I may have only reinvented the wheel, (there is probably already a program that does this), but I wanted to spend some time to learn what Excel can do.
     I have made a simple program for floors with 2 or 3 widths that will show what size blanks to cut from different size boards, and shows approximately what percentage of waste I will have going from rough lumber to finished flooring. It allows for some boards being crooked and also allows for the saw kerf on each blank. The blank guide helps reduce waste, and the waste estimator will let me more closely estimate how much lumber I need to buy for a certain floor. I am sure I will need to refine it some as I use it in the real world, but I hope it will take out a some of the guesswork as well as save time and money.
     Now for the question, if I can explain it. I have drop down lists to select the blanks from that shows the sum of width in inches of the blanks that I can get from a board. I have assigned each sum a name. I need to see the number to be able to choose the right one, but it would make things a lot easier if it would switch to its name after I choose a number. I have been reading help files and just randomly trying different things but I can't figure it out. This whole process took me a while to do, and the answer may be staring me in the face, but I'm not seeing it. Any ideas?

[Dan_Shade]

can you attach the file?  I'm "sorta decent" at excel, which means if you don't know anything, you'll think i'm great, and if you know everything, i'll be adequate  :D  I'll take a look at it and see if I can follow what you are trying to do if you post it.

[SwampDonkey]

Dave are you doing any calculations on the numbered item? Or is the result being stored in the field going to be a name?


You can only use one column of data in Excel for drop down lists and combo boxes as far as I know. In Access you can have multiple columns.

[David Freed]

I am still learning a lot of stuff on Excel. That is why it's taking me so long to figure this out. ??? :P
I have posted photos here, but I've never tried to post something like this.

Swamp Donkey; I'm not even sure what is supposed to be called what. The name can end up in a different cell, I just can't figure out how to get it to show up.

It worked.  8)

[David Freed]

I just realized the copy of the Excel program I posted had some of my attempts to get the result I was after. All the numbers on the bottom don't do anything.

[SwampDonkey]

Looks like you attempted to make a PivotTable and I can't 'Format Control' for any of the combo boxes when I right click on them. In the Format Control you tell the combo box what range to use and where to spit the selection (Cell Link field) into.

Here is an attached Excel Sheet with a combo box that displays the selected item in "Col 1" and based on that result, selects the corresponding name in "Col 2" using a nested IF command.

[SwampDonkey]

This updated version uses the Index command to set up a range of values (from a 1 column array) to display in "Col 3" based on the combo box selection.

[David Freed]

SD,
That is what I wanted. I had tried using more than one "if" in an equation, but I thought there was supposed to be an equal sign before each "if", and kept getting an error message. Thanks for the help.

[beenthere]

Another Excel spreadsheet question.

I have a string of characters, that I can load into an Excel spreadsheet, that all go into one column (A). I'd like to separate the string at every comma, so the string drops out into columns across the sheet.

Such as:

word,name,title,phone  is now in column A

I would like a formula (or ?) to apply that will string it out into

Col A      Col B       Col C       Col D
word      name       title          phone

Any suggestions?

[Radar67]

Try this

Select the range of cells that contains the text values. The range can be any number of rows tall, but no more than one column wide.
Note  There must be one or more blank columns to the right of the selected column or the data to the right of the selected column will be overwritten.

On the Data menu, click Text to Columns.
Follow the instructions in the Convert Text to Columns Wizard to specify how you want to divide the text into columns. You will have to select the comma box when asked about delimits.

I tested this one and it works fairly easy.

[Jeff]

Import the text file with an assigned delineation.  I'm not sure exactly the steps using Excel, as I use open office.  This is what it looks like there, maybe it will give you an idea what to do with Excel




This is telling the file how to divide.

[SwampDonkey]

Load the file as text, each row of text is separated by a carriage return in your text document. An empty cell is two commas and loads a null cell (no data). When you load the file a wizard appears for the delimited options.

I guess I don't know the details, whether you want to load the file as a new document or append it to an existing spreadsheet, or build a Macro to make it automated?

A text file set up as the following:

return,winter,heat,cold
delete,help,,please

loads into excel as:

[beenthere]

Thanks for your help.
Got it done. All had the idea what to do, but followed Stew's first, and it worked perfect.
It was a YahooGroup's member list, separated by comma's, and put into a new spread sheet.
8) 8) 8)
What a place.