| There are a lot of uses for the old Excel spreadsheet.
Probably one of the most popular uses is to store a flat database of
addresses or other similar data. If your list is very long, however,
entering the data can be quite a chore. Navigating through the columns and
rows can be difficult as your list grows longer. Wouldn't it be great if
you had a form you could use to enter all that data? Well...you do have
one! This tutorial was written for Microsoft Excel XP (2002), but the same
feature is available in Excel 97, found in the Office 97 Suite.
The first thing to do is open an Excel spreadsheet and start a list if
you don't have one already. The first row should be used to create your
column headings. In this example we are going to create a simple address book.
Type the following items in the first row, with each word in a separate
cell: First, Last, Address, City, State. Note that I have used bold
formatting and centered the text in the cells. This is not necessary, but
looks cool, don't you think?!
Now you can open a data form at this point. However, since
you do not have any data entered yet, you will get and warning message
telling you that Excel can not determine the field names. When you get
this message, click OK to use the text in the first row as labels. If you
enter a row of data first, however, Excel will be able to pick on the
labels right away.
But I'm
getting a little ahead of myself here. After you've entered the label text
and/or sample data, go to the menu bar and click "Data", scroll
down to "Form..." an click it. Now you will get either the data
entry form or the warning message, depending on whether or not you have
entered any data in the row below the field labels.
After you click the "Form..." selection, here
is what you get!
In the example here, I had already entered some sample data in the row
beneath my label text, so it shows up in the form right away. To begin
entering more data, click the "New" button. This will clear the
text entry fields and all you to begin entering new data. By pressing the
[Enter] key, you will also clear the data in the form and start a new
record. Use [Tab] to move through the form and then click [Enter] to place
the data in the spreadsheet and start on a new record. When you are done,
you can click the "Close" button to close the form and return to
the spreadsheet.
Here is what the spreadsheet will look like after you have added
several names using the Data Form. I think that after you have had a
chance to use it, you will find that it makes entering data into large
spreadsheets much easier and more enjoyable!
Article Copyright © October 2004 by
Steve Maurer, Steve Maurer Publications
3000 West Anne
Fayetteville, AR 72704
Email: steve@maurer.net
Website: http://steve.maurer.net |
