# Do you have any Excel OCD habits?



## MrKowz (Nov 16, 2010)

We need another discussion thread! Do you have any Excel OCD habits? Do you find yourself always formatting things a certain way, setting up borders with specific thicknesses, etc?

Whenever I get a spreadsheet from a colleague that has no formats, I go insane. I have to put a thick border around anything that is meant to be looked at as a group (with thin borders between), any cell that is meant to be manually inputted I color with a light yellow. Any cell that is a formula output I color with light green, and any cell that is a macro output I color with light blue. Cells that are a "total" (sum, product, average, etc), I color in a light orange. Any dollar amounts, I have to put into Accounting Format.

Also, I hate... HATE HATE HATE HATE having things in Column A when it isn't a data table or if the number of rows used is less than what fits on my screen.  When things bump up right against the left edge of the table, it makes me go bonkers. :D

For example... any time I get a spreadsheet that starts out looking like this:

Excel WorkbookAB2Interest Rate6.50%3Years2.0045Principal AmountAccrued Value610001134.23720002268.45830003402.68940004536.901050005671.131112Total17013.38Sheet1*Excel 2003*Cell FormulasRangeFormulaB6=A6*(1+$B$2)^$B$3B7=A7*(1+$B$2)^$B$3B8=A8*(1+$B$2)^$B$3B9=A9*(1+$B$2)^$B$3B10=A10*(1+$B$2)^$B$3B12=SUM(B6:B10)


I put it into something that looks like this (Imagine thick borders around the separate arrays):

Excel WorkbookBC2Interest Rate6.50%3Years2.0045Principal AmountAccrued Value6$ 1,000.00$ 1,134.237$ 2,000.00$ 2,268.458$ 3,000.00$ 3,402.689$ 4,000.00$ 4,536.9010$ 5,000.00$ 5,671.131112Total$ 17,013.38Sheet1*Excel 2003*




Also, with macros... any time I get code, the FIRST thing I do is go through and tier it so that it is easier to follow where loops, ifs, for statements, select cases begin/end.


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## JamesW (Nov 16, 2010)

I too have to tier code, it drives me mental when I see it all lines up... Sometimes I tier it, show it to my colleagues who then go "ohhhh I see what I did wrong now!".

I also hate merged cells. I ALWAYS remove them... Trying to sort/reference an individual cell when one or more are merged? Good luck!

I ahve to agree with you on the formatting and borders... I usually use neutral colours, as most of my collegues seem to think dark blue and dark red cell background colours with bold black font work well together.

Then there's the freeze panes, which *apparently* work really well when put in the middle of a spreadsheet, or are done on a PC with a resolution of 1600*1200 and put where no one else can see them!

/Rant


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## RoryA (Nov 16, 2010)

Usually the first thing I do with workbooks I receive is to remove all the formatting to avoid my retinas catching fire, and delete any pie or 3D (or, God forbid, both) charts. I then apply a custom colour palette, add minimal formatting - mostly a few grey borders at the top and bottom of tables, a bit of alignment and hiding decimal places (or showing in '000s) for most figures. A few cells bold where they are key outputs. 
Then work out what it is I'm actually looking at.


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## JamesW (Nov 16, 2010)

rorya said:


> ...to avoid my retinas catching fire


 
Love it.


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## RoryA (Nov 16, 2010)

It does seem that when some of my colleagues refer to "eye-catching", it is short for "eye-catching-fire".
To be fair, though, some of their designs _are_ quite useful for disguising the bad news contained therein.


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## KestrylR (Nov 16, 2010)

Header row has GOT to be bold, text-wrapped & frozen. Column widths have to be adjusted & some data types really need to be centered in the column, while others have to be aligned to the right. And there needs to be a little splash of color somewhere, preferably in about the middle third of the screen. They send me these monotonous files that are nothing more than little black ants marching across the screen and then they wonder why it takes them so long to locate anything in it! GAH!!!!


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## MrKowz (Nov 16, 2010)

rorya said:


> Usually the first thing I do with workbooks I receive is to remove all the formatting to avoid my retinas catching fire, and delete any pie or 3D (or, God forbid, both) charts. I then apply a custom colour palette, add minimal formatting - mostly a few grey borders at the top and bottom of tables, a bit of alignment and hiding decimal places (or showing in '000s) for most figures. A few cells bold where they are key outputs.
> Then work out what it is I'm actually looking at.


 
So this would drive you nuts? (Sorry, I had to)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/MrKowz/rorya.jpg


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## JamesW (Nov 16, 2010)

rorya said:


> It does seem that when some of my colleagues refer to "eye-catching", it is short for "eye-catching-fire".
> To be fair, though, some of their designs _are_ quite useful for disguising the bad news contained therein.


 
Combine that with having 65 columns and a zoom of 125% and you are not only blind, but you start having a fit. 

"BUT IT LOOKS SO PRETTY.."


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## RoryA (Nov 16, 2010)

That's not bad, but it needs more slices, datalabels and linking lines, and preferably some bezel and glow effects. And at least 8 different fonts.
It also reminds me of one of the only questions I've ever flatly refused to answer on a forum - when someone asked how to make cells *flash*...


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## MrKowz (Nov 16, 2010)

rorya said:


> It also reminds me of one of the only questions I've ever flatly refused to answer on a forum - when someone asked how to make cells *flash*...


 
Application.OnTime....... *stabs out own eyes*

I don't blame ya... better to save the world from those situations before they are created. You did the community a favor!


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## JamesW (Nov 16, 2010)

Thank God for powerpoint (I never thought I'd say that...)


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## arkusM (Nov 16, 2010)

MrKowz said:


> Also, with macros... any time I get code, the FIRST thing I do is go through and tier it so that it is easier to follow where loops, ifs, for statements, select cases begin/end.


 
You would benefit from the Auto Indentor in my signature. Not my program but an awesome tool.


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## TinaP (Nov 16, 2010)

All code must be indented properly. No excuses.

Red is used for critical problems and nothing else.

Mint green or light yellow for input cells that still require information.

Merged Cells are the spawn of the devil and will be summarily unmerged.

If it is a list of data, absolutely no rows may be skipped. I don't care how pretty it looks, it screws up the pivot table and the macro. First offense will result in a stern talking to; second offense, a slap on the hand; each offense thereafter, a sound whuppin'.

No fonts over 12 points in the main area.

Do not put a title in row 1 and then repeat for each page of the worksheet.  That is what Headers are for.  Learn it.  Use it.

Do not, under any circumstances, let me see you put a number in a box and another number in a second box, then go to your adding machine and add the two numbers together and then, finally, put the total in yet another box.  Excel knows how to add, subtract, multiply, divide and a boatload of other things.  If you don't know how to do it, ask me.


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## Atroxell (Nov 16, 2010)

Many of my OCD activities are listed already, so I am just going to mention my latest: USE THE WORKBOOK PROPERTIES!!!!

I have too often seen people present "their" reports only to discover later from someone else that the report was built by the someone else. My response is always, "Did you fill out the properties?" 

Although anyone can edit the properties as the workbook gets passed down the line, most people don't even think of them. 

I was once present when an objection regarding ownership to a new report was stated and the original owner (and objector) proved it was theirs by asking to see the Properties of the workbook. There was their name, nice and clear! I can assure you that at least 10 people learned how to edit the workbook properties within hours of that meeting. Very embarrassing for the perp as well....

It helps to have some description of the data source in the comments. I often include the query name and any other critical parameters for creating the report, just in case I forget.

And it helps (sometimes) to fill out the keywords when you're searching for that workbook you worked on several months back but cannot find...


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## cornflakegirl (Nov 17, 2010)

My main irrational hates are underlining and headings where the initial letter of every word is capitalised. I'm also not fond of negative numbers in red.

A colleague of mine is trying to get us to standardise the output pages of the models that we produce. Very sensible idea, except that his proposed standard had the main body of output numbers with the background cell colour either bright orange or bright yellow. I was really quite rude to him.


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## Domski (Nov 17, 2010)

All of the above!!!. My worst is the nasty format SAP exports reports in. If I'm using someone else's machine you should see me frantically pressing Ctrl+Shift+Q trying to banish it with no success.

Explaining to people that having a worksheet for every supplier/employee/day of the week etc really isn't a good idea if you want to do anything useful with the data in the future.

I could go on...and on...and on...


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## sous2817 (Nov 17, 2010)

Domski said:


> Explaining to people that having a worksheet for every supplier/employee/day of the week etc really isn't a good idea if you want to do anything useful with the data in the future.



I think I should make this my work email signature! 

One thing that gets me is file size.  I love getting 10MB workbooks through email, typically done by the department "excel expert"  that's full of entire row and column highlighting, sheets dedicated to holding data for convoluted 3-d pie charts on entirely different sheets, lists conveniently tucked away in cell ZZ1000:ZZ1002 (so no one will see them!).  

Last one I can think of...password protected sheets when it's really not needed...especially when you get an 'urgent' email to fix it before their 9am performance review but they neglected to send you their password.


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## Domski (Nov 17, 2010)

Another one that probably shouldn't annoy me is omitting optional arguments from worksheet functions such as match and vlookup. I know they're optional but the amount of people I see using vlookup and not even knowing there's a 4th argument and wondering why they aren't getting the results they expect. The even scarier thing is how long it takes to spot this sometimes.

Dom


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## SydneyGeek (Nov 17, 2010)

sous2817 said:


> Last one I can think of...password protected sheets when it's really not needed...especially when you get an 'urgent' email to fix it before their 9am performance review but they neglected to send you their password.



Yeah... love that. Several years ago someone posted a simple code snippet that cracks worksheet passwords. It's come in useful more than once. 
Then you can send it back with a *new* password and wait for the response...

Denis


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## sous2817 (Nov 17, 2010)

I'm talking about the passwords to just open the file...I usually wait 30 minutes and then reply with something like:

"I've guessed my wife's name, both my children, town where I was born, the  best man at my wedding, my mother's maiden name, my pet's name, and favorite sports team.  None of these worked. Have any ideas?"


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## Domski (Nov 17, 2010)

SydneyGeek said:


> Several years ago someone posted a simple code snippet that cracks worksheet passwords. It's come in useful more than once.



The amount of bacon I've saved over the years with that little bit of code. Of course I make people grovel suitably before I ask them to turn their backs while I work my 'magic'. Password cracked and that'll be one beer you owe me 

Dom

DISCLAIMER - Not that I condone the promotion of the ability to crack passwords or circumvent security in any way


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## SydneyGeek (Nov 18, 2010)

Domski said:


> The amount of bacon I've saved over the years with that little bit of code. Of course I make people grovel suitably before I ask them to turn their backs while I work my 'magic'. Password cracked and that'll be one beer you owe me
> 
> Dom
> 
> DISCLAIMER - Not that I condone the promotion of the ability to crack passwords or circumvent security in any way



Absolutely. I have used it only where a client wants some work done and one of their former employees has locked down a sheet and left the business. 
Makes them rethink their ideas about Excel having any security...

Denis


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## Jon von der Heyden (Nov 18, 2010)

Domski said:


> Another one that probably shouldn't annoy me is omitting optional arguments from worksheet functions such as match and vlookup. I know they're optional but the amount of people I see using vlookup and not even knowing there's a 4th argument and wondering why they aren't getting the results they expect. The even scarier thing is how long it takes to spot this sometimes.



I'll echo this.  I'm guilty of omitting arguments in my workseet functions for solutions posted to this board, e.g:
=MATCH(9.99E+307,A:A)
...should be:
=MATCH(9.99E+307,A:A,1)

We are taught to be explicit in our VBA coding (PEDII even suggests we should complete all arguments, even if populating with the default), so I think the same care should be taken with worksheet functions.


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## SuperFerret (Nov 18, 2010)

I just get wound up by the little things, first things first is all the disgusting colours people use to make it look nice. Most of the time it's not even consistant so it's just a worksheet with hundreds of luminous yellow highlighting dotted here, there and everywhere.

After that, and probably my most pathetic OCD tendency, is extra sheets on workbooks with no purpose. They are deleted VERY quickly 
(I have my Excel defaulted to 1 worksheet, if I need more I'll add them myself thank you very much).

The biggest thing that effects me most in my day to day job is people pasting into fields on spreadsheets completely overwriting validation, and it's always in some horrible font (Comic Sans I'm looking at you!) in some awful colour, with a background colour. YAK YAK! 

I'm currently writing a macro that will 'correct' all the sheets before saving


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## cornflakegirl (Nov 18, 2010)

Oooh yes, extra empty worksheets - I hate them!


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## RoryA (Nov 18, 2010)

I am baffled by the ability to have a _default_ of 255 worksheets in 2007.


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## Domski (Nov 18, 2010)

It's for if you want one for every working day in the year 

Dom


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## Cbrine (Nov 18, 2010)

rorya said:


> I am baffled by the ability to have a _default_ of 255 worksheets in 2007.



I coundn't even wrap my mind around what hell you were talking about, mostly because I can't even comprehend wanting 255 sheets in my excel workbook as a default opening value.


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## Jon von der Heyden (Nov 18, 2010)

Domski said:


> It's for if you want one for every working day in the year
> 
> Dom



He'd only need 10.  He spends most of his 'work' days in the pub drinking guinness (yuck)!


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## MrKowz (Nov 18, 2010)

Jon von der Heyden said:


> He'd only need 10. He spends most of his 'work' days in the pub drinking guinness (yuck)!


 
I'll take HIS job!


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## RoryA (Nov 18, 2010)

Oh no you won't! (well, it is panto season)


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## Greg Truby (Nov 18, 2010)

Well, while I have done almost all of the above - I guess I'm the only one that has a pet peeve of gridlines. Annoy the he11 outta me. 

Before moving to Excel 2007 my Personal Macro Workbook dated back to like 1998 and the *very first* macro I put a macrito in there so that a quick *Ctrl+Shift+G* would toggle gridlines.

@ Tina - I taught Excel seminars around the country the first six months of 2010 and the workbook the seminar company used had a section on the _Merge and Center_button. Whenever we got to that section I instructed the class to draw horns and a pitchfork on the image of the button.  Personally I think the button's icon should be:


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## RobMatthews (Nov 18, 2010)

Domski said:


> ... My worst is the nasty format SAP exports reports in. ...


x2, but I have jumped up a notch or two (That puts me on notch two...) in my bosses' eyes by automating the re-format and combination of several reports, saving both of them (my bosses) at least half an hour per week.

But don't get me started on the sheets from one of our USA offices in the 2007 format that can't be opened by 2003, since the creator has the table running the wrong way. Seriously, who puts the date across the columns, and the fields down the rows? (Is that the right terminology?) Records should go across, people!!


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## Sandeep Warrier (Nov 19, 2010)

1. Gridlines turned off (especially if the worksheet contains borders)

2. Maintaining similar formatting throughout the worksheet. I have seen colleagues copy paste from everywhere changing the formatting and leaving it just as is. Irritates the hell out of me  ... just recently there was a colleague who pasted info on cells containing CF and was wondering why the formatting wasn't working....

3. VLOOKUP is *NOT* the answer to every Excel problem 

4. People behaving as if they are Excel Gurus and filling up the worksheet with n number of formulae.

I have seen a spread sheet where the person wanted to find out the number of times someone has been on leave (annual or sick) in the month. He had (in columns beyond Z) formula like =IF(A3 = "Annual",1,0) and so on.... for all employees for all days for all types of holidays .... and at the end the SUM.... this SUM was linked to a summary page. I was like WTF!!!!!!!


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## Jon von der Heyden (Nov 19, 2010)

sandeep.warrier said:


> 2. Maintaining similar formatting throughout the worksheet.



People should use styles!  And if anyone thinks that it's a bit too much work to set-up styles, then they should set them up in the default workbook template.


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## RoryA (Nov 19, 2010)

On the subject of styles, this is useful.


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## SydneyGeek (Nov 19, 2010)

Nice link, Rory 

Denis


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## Sandeep Warrier (Nov 19, 2010)

Thanks for posting the link Rory!


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## Cbrine (Nov 19, 2010)

My first 2003 macro in my personal macro workbook was one that formated my MSAccess query dumps into a consistant format, it also took care of all my printing setup and headers and footers.  Don't know if styles can do the printing and headers or not.

My second macro was one to toggle the **** grid lines, although I've gotten over that little OCD issue now


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## HalfAce (Nov 19, 2010)

I guess my main two 'things' are formatting & code indenting.
I don't care much about colors and what-not (I don't usually add them much but I don't care if they're there), but what pushes me closer to _completely_ insane (than I already am) is not having the text & numbers line up in the columns. I hate (hate, hate, hate  ) having the text values on the left and the number values on the right of the same column. They don't even look like they go together. Most everything in my sheets are centered in the columns.

The other thing is indenting the code. So far, I haven't given up on threads with lots of code and no code tags or indenting, but the very first thing I do is get it into the vbe and set it up to look like it's supposed to before even trying to figure out the problem.
(Interestingly, about 70% of the time you can find the problem _while_ you're setting it up this way, which tells me that if people set it up correctly by habit, the question I'm working on probably wouldn't even have been asked.)

Yep, if it weren't for those two things, all would be right with the world. 

(oh yeah, can't forget the 3rd OCD behavior, making sure Pink Floyd is good & loud!)


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## T. Valko (Nov 23, 2010)

rorya said:


> Usually the first thing I do with workbooks I receive is to remove all the formatting to avoid my retinas catching fire


AMEN, brother!

Excel IS NOT an electronic coloring book for adults.

I absolutely loathe long sheet/file names.


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## Michael M (Nov 24, 2010)

OH Yeah !!
Long file names AND repetition
An employee downloaded a folder to my server to take a look at his data.
A day for each !!! OMG !!!

RoadsData revision version 1 dated  Friday 010110.xls
RoadsData revision version 2 dated  Monday 040110.xls
RoadsData revision version 3 dated Tuesday 050110.xls
etc,etc,etc.


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## Jon von der Heyden (Nov 24, 2010)

#NAME? said:


> Excel IS NOT an electronic coloring book for adults.




Haven't seen you around the board for a while.  Welcome back!

I hate it when people create lists in hidden columns beside their summaries.  By lists I mean for list validation.  I believe the lists should be transparent in a separate sheet.


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## Domski (Nov 24, 2010)

Jon von der Heyden said:


> I believe the lists should be transparent in a separate sheet.



What's the fun in that? At least format them ;;; to make the hunt a little bit interesting


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## RoryA (Nov 24, 2010)

If they are _transparent_, the hunt should already be interesting.


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## Michael M (Nov 24, 2010)

Speaking of transparent......
I remember being caught with a VLOOKUP table that was setup in white font.


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## Jon von der Heyden (Nov 24, 2010)

Michael M said:


> Speaking of transparent......
> I remember being caught with a VLOOKUP table that was setup in white font.



Ooooh I hate that.  Workings that are given the same font colour as the fill colour.


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## cornflakegirl (Nov 24, 2010)

HalfAce said:


> Most everything in my sheets are centered in the columns.



I hate values that are centred - much harder to compare them!

I also tend to end up with quite long file names - I'm modelling business cases that go through several revisions, so tend to use the business case name, plus the main change that's been done, plus the date, to give us a fighting chance of working out which of the seven versions is the right one to look at.


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## cornflakegirl (Nov 24, 2010)

Actually, there's one thing that I do that I hate (or at least think is pretty rubbish). I'm a big fan of data tables for displaying the results of High/Medium/Low scenarios for example, but I often want to show just the results part, and not the top row or leftmost column that drive the table (because they can be confusing for users who don't understand how the tables work). But since the tables have to be on the same sheet as the High/Medium/Low dropdown cell that drives them, I resort to hiding the extraneous bits. It's a messy solution that I don't like at all!


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## crook_101 (Nov 24, 2010)

Formatting, formatting and probably my biggest bugbear is "expert excel users in the Company"

Formatting 1 - colours burning eyes, previously mention I known, just thought that I would re-ignite this baby

Formatting 2 - Merged/hidden cells - if you are have a problem with your sheet and want me to look at it, i need to see all of it Merged cellls - spot one and run my unmerge all macro - this is such a pleasing thing, gives me a little warm feeling inside every time I use it

"expert excel users in the Company" - my blood pressure is rising already!! There are some people that really shouldn't have user rights for excel, they should be limited to paper and blunt crayons

/rant over


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## Greg Truby (Nov 24, 2010)

Michael M said:


> ...
> RoadsData revision version 1 dated Friday 010110.xls
> RoadsData revision version 2 dated Monday 040110.xls
> RoadsData revision version 3 dated Tuesday 050110.xls
> etc,etc,etc.


 


cornflakegirl said:


> ... plus the date, to give us a fighting chance of working out which of the seven versions is the right one to look at.


 

I don't mind a bit of length in a file name. I don't mind embedding a date in the name. But, if yer gonna put a date in the name then fer heaven's sake, use an intelligent format. In the U.S. you usually see

MyFile 11-22-2010.xlsx
MyFile 12-22-2010.xlsx
MyFile 01-22-2011.xlsx
which sorts all wrong in Windows Explorer. For some reason it appear to be exceedingly difficult for people to use a format that would sort properly...

MyFile 2010-11-22.xlsx
MyFile 2010-12-22.xlsx
MyFile 2011-01-22.xlsx


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## Domski (Nov 24, 2010)

I guess some of you won't like my file names then e.g.:

Smith P - Childrens Services Equality Data - Apr to Sep 2010 @ 27-10-10.xls

Dom


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## Atroxell (Nov 24, 2010)

Ok. All of you have to come out from behind your psuedonyms and admit what department in my company you work for.... I swear, I have seen every single one of the formatting comments listed above in a single workbook not of my creation--you must work here somewhere to have seen this!

Who on Earth feels that a bright yellow background fits well on the same sheet as a bright red and a bright green background with blue text?  And has anyone tried to print this worksheet before they distribute it? My eyes are bad enough to need glasses, but I don't need any help with destroying my retinas.


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## JamesW (Nov 25, 2010)

Those file names are tiny compared to the ones I see at work:

OTIF File v2.2 12/12/2009 14:00PM AndrewW rev 2.3.xls
OTIF File v2.23 12/01/2010 4:51PM AndrewW rev 2.4412.xls
OTIF File v2.2331.2 12/02/2010 10:12:33PM AndrewW rev 2.12AB.22.a.xls

I understand that you made a TINY change, but seriously...


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## Jon von der Heyden (Nov 25, 2010)

I have another one, this time VBA related.

I hate heavily commented code.  I sometimes see code that has a comment for almost every line of code.  If you can't understand VBA, then your probably shouldn't be tampering with it.  My commenting pretty much extends to a line or two at the top of each procedure broadly explaining what it does.

So my OCD habit is to avoid comments throughout my code religiously!


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## JamesW (Nov 25, 2010)

Haha, yeah. I've seen comments that actually explain that there is a new line:


```
Sub hello() 'this is the start of the sub called hello
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
''' CREATED BY BOB '''
'''                         '''
''' COPYRIGHT 2010 '''
''' V 122.21.1.03333'''
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
 
    msgbox "Hello" 'This is a message box that says hello.
' This is a blank line, and seperates code but doesn't actually do anything
' So is this.
End Sub 'This ends the sub.
```


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## Domski (Nov 25, 2010)

Dashboards that are made to look like a car dashboard complete with speedometer and fuel gauge etc 

Dom


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## RoryA (Nov 25, 2010)

People who think that code should be as short and unintelligible as possible, should be shot.


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## Domski (Nov 25, 2010)

rorya said:


> People who think that code should be as short and unintelligible as possible, should be shot.



Hmmm, I can think of one regular'ish contributor to another forum I frequent that almost always posts code which takes me an age to understand when an extra couple of lines would have made it so straightforward. It could just be me being a bit thick though.

Dom


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## JamesW (Nov 25, 2010)

We once had a competition in college to program a lighting christmas tree in Java in the fewest number of lines.

I didn't win, even though mine was all on one line (I cheated).


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## RoryA (Nov 25, 2010)

Domski said:


> Hmmm, I can think of one regular'ish contributor to another forum I frequent that almost always posts code which takes me an age to understand when an extra couple of lines would have made it so straightforward. It could just be me being a bit thick though.



It's not just you. He seems to think that shorter is necessarily better (amongst his other delusions) and doesn't see how it's incredibly unhelpful to give code like that to people who don't know what they are doing with VBA. The irony of his signature is inescapable too.


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## Domski (Nov 25, 2010)

rorya said:


> The irony of his signature is inescapable too.



Indeed! 

Dom


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## Jon von der Heyden (Nov 25, 2010)

There are definitely a number of peope that believe the shorter the code the better.  But often efficiency comes by adding a few extra lines, and sometimes a few extra lines makes it so much easier to follow.

The same applies to formula.  I have learned the hard way that often a stepped approach so much better than a double-jointed nested formula.  By the hard way I mean I have paid the price when I have had to amend my own spreadsheets and then had to unwravel my own formula.


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## cornflakegirl (Nov 25, 2010)

But a few of the really complicated ones are quite handy in terms of job security


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## Richard Schollar (Nov 25, 2010)

cornflakegirl said:


> But a few of the really complicated ones are quite handy in terms of job security


 
That is so true


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## RoryA (Nov 25, 2010)

Not really - by the time _they_ work out you're indispensable, they've already got rid of you...


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## HalfAce (Nov 25, 2010)

> People who think that code should be as short and unintelligible as possible, should be shot.


AT BIRTH! 


Not to mention those 30 yard long Offset, R1C1, STDEVP formulas. 

Gotta love being asked to unravel some ignorantly convoluted Index/Match STDEVP formula with 64 nested IFs that some goof wrote and says "it was working just fine but now it 'doesn't work...' "


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## cornflakegirl (Nov 26, 2010)

rorya said:


> Not really - by the time _they_ work out you're indispensable, they've already got rid of you...



I found maternity leave quite handy here - my cover was done by someone who thought that advanced Excel was knowing how to create a pivot table - very gratifying to have people genuinely miss you


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## JamesW (Nov 26, 2010)

> who thought that advanced Excel was knowing how to create a pivot table


 
You mean it isn't?! Crap, I need to change my CV.


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## diddi (Nov 26, 2010)

So is there possibly anything left to be OCD about? You've got all mine, well the top 50 or so.

Prolly all I could add is to point out is my abhorance of "the meddling boss" or "aspiring underling" who hacks your sheets when your not around and then wonders why, a week later, something doesn't work.  then it takes hours of tracing to find an utterly illogical error that one would never concieve of even if intoxicated.


----------



## Domski (Nov 26, 2010)

I do some of my best conceiving when intoxicated 

Dom


----------



## HalfAce (Nov 26, 2010)

> then it takes hours of tracing to find an utterly illogical error  that one would never concieve of even if intoxicated.


And NOBODY will admit to having made any changes!!! 




> I do some of my best conceiving when intoxicated


 I hear that!
Most all of my more complicated workbooks have been designed & written in this 'condition'.
(And no, don't get the wrong idea, I do a lot of my 'creating' at home.)
The biggest problem that causes is having to troubleshoot something at work where I'm not allowed to 'return to the state I was in' when I wrote it!


----------



## JamesW (Nov 26, 2010)

This webcomic sums up drinking and programming:

http://xkcd.com/323/


----------



## HalfAce (Nov 26, 2010)

Drinking??? 
I never said anything about drinking...


----------



## SydneyGeek (Nov 27, 2010)

diddi said:


> So is there possibly anything left to be OCD about? You've got all mine, well the top 50 or so.
> 
> Prolly all I could add is to point out is my abhorance of "the meddling boss" or "aspiring underling" who hacks your sheets when your not around and then wonders why, a week later, something doesn't work.  then it takes hours of tracing to find an utterly illogical error that one would never concieve of even if intoxicated.



...More often than not, they have typed a value over a formula. Next time it doesn't update and they tell you it's broken. ALT+EGSF is a great time saver. 

Denis


----------



## Jon von der Heyden (Nov 27, 2010)

Hi Denis

ALT+EG = F5


----------



## SydneyGeek (Nov 27, 2010)

Yep. But by running those 4 keys I can highlight all the formulas and find where people have stuffed up 

Just a habit of mine...

Denis


----------



## steve case (Nov 29, 2010)

I had to Google "OCD  acronym"  Is there some reason people use alphabet soup in place of real words?


----------



## Domski (Nov 29, 2010)

steve case said:


> Is there some reason people use alphabet soup in place of real words?



It's a compulsive obsession of mine!!!

Dom


----------



## RoryA (Nov 29, 2010)

Another ironic signature, I see.


----------



## Domski (Nov 29, 2010)

ROFLMAO 

Dom


----------



## arkusM (Nov 29, 2010)

Greg Truby said:


> I don't mind a bit of length in a file name. I don't mind embedding a date in the name. But, if yer gonna put a date in the name then fer heaven's sake, use an intelligent format. In the U.S. you usually see
> 
> MyFile 11-22-2010.xlsx
> MyFile 12-22-2010.xlsx
> ...


 
Ha Totally....
I force myself to use YY-MM-DD file prefixs SOOOO much easier to find stuff...


----------



## steve case (Nov 29, 2010)

arkusM said:


> Ha Totally....
> I force myself to use YY-MM-DD file prefixs SOOOO much easier to find stuff...


Why the dashes?

Today is 20101129 or 101129 if your files don't go back to 091231 and before. 

I hate the Excel date feature. As is often the case I download some data off 
the 'net and Excel chooses to regard it as a date.  Very frustrating.  I'm told I 
can't turn the @#% thing off.


----------



## arkusM (Nov 29, 2010)

steve case said:


> Why the dashes?
> 
> Today is 20101129 or 101129 if your files don't go back to 091231 and before.
> 
> ...


Habit I guess... and i found it a little easier read. no good reason really.


----------



## MrKowz (Nov 29, 2010)

Another OCD of mine I just realized today is that when I'm working in a sandbox (blank spreadsheet) to test formulas and such for the forums... I do often resize my columns to varied widths.  When I clear the sheet of all data/formulas, I select all cells and resize to the default (8.43) size.  When I see cells that are really really wide or really really narrow with no data in them, it drives me bonkers.


----------



## Greg Truby (Nov 29, 2010)

steve case said:


> Why the dashes?


 
In my case - for others.  I'd see a string of numbers like that and immediately think it's a date stamp, but many average office workers have harder time seeing the date w/o the dashes.

Mark, 2-year dates?  Too young to remember Y2K I assume...


----------



## Taul (Nov 29, 2010)

MrKowz said:


> when I'm working in a sandbox (blank spreadsheet)



yeah, me too, obsessive about column widths.
only I call it "sandpit" cos that's where kids play, right! at least that’s what it was called when I was a kid.

My other OCD behaviour relates to the colour of the text for data input pages
Black for normal typed data
Dark blue for drop down data
Dark Grey for cells with formula

Only use a coloured background for highlighting cells on report pages, then only pastel shades so they print ok on a black ink printer, still use colour just for the odd report that actually gets printed in colour.


----------



## steve case (Nov 29, 2010)

Greg Truby said:


> ...many average office workers have harder time seeing the date w/o the
> dashes...


Oh without a doubt!  I meant for just my use.  When I was working and 
building all sorts of toys for people to use out on the factory floor, I made 
darn sure it was blue collar friendly.

White collar friendly was another matter (-:
.
.
.
.


----------



## arkusM (Nov 30, 2010)

Greg Truby said:


> In my case - for others.  I'd see a string of numbers like that and immediately think it's a date stamp, but many average office workers have harder time seeing the date w/o the dashes.
> 
> Mark, 2-year dates?  Too young to remember Y2K I assume...



Haha, I remember... Oh wait nothing happened. and since I doubt any of my stuff will be around for the next eighty or so years when the '90s show up again I figure I'm good.  

I do remember playing with these radio-type phones called Mike at midnight that new years (wow that was TEN years ago)with my buddy(an IT guy incidentally) seeing if they would work, being that they were on a digital network and all. 

As for seeing the time stamp deal. Saddly I am just an average office worker.


----------



## Norie (Nov 30, 2010)

arkusM

Don't keep us in suspense - did the phones work at midnight?

Or did you perhaps forget to check?


----------



## arkusM (Nov 30, 2010)

Norie said:


> arkusM
> 
> Don't keep us in suspense - did the phones work at midnight?
> 
> Or did you perhaps forget to check?


 
Haha, well the night was black and cold, the party rolled on toward midnight. Light from the moon boucing off the snow. Tensions mounted as the minutes expired, would this be the end of the world? 
11:59:02, 2009... I dialed my buddy... Ring Ring Ring. 
11:59:55, 1999; "hello? hello?"
12:00:00, 2000 "SquUUuu-AAA-akkkKKkkk

12:00:15, 2000; "Dude back up, I'm getting some wicked feedback and pass the chips." 

"Haha, that is cool feedback let's try that again"

And as they say the rest is history.


----------



## MrKowz (Nov 30, 2010)

arkusM said:


> 11:59:02, 2009... I dialed my buddy... Ring Ring Ring.
> 11:59:55, 1999; "hello? hello?"
> 12:00:00, 2000 "SquUUuu-AAA-akkkKKkkk


 
Yay for time travel!


----------



## arkusM (Nov 30, 2010)

MrKowz said:


> Yay for time travel!


----------



## Norie (Nov 30, 2010)

By the way, forgetting the leap back in time, 53 seconds to answer the call?

Was this crucial piece of scientific experimentation being conducted under stringent protocols in a clean environment with no outside influence?


----------



## arkusM (Nov 30, 2010)

Norie said:


> By the way, forgetting the leap back in time, 53 seconds to answer the call?
> 
> Was this crucial piece of scientific experimentation being conducted under stringent protocols in a clean environment with no outside influence?


Haha. 
Getting a shovel to help me dig this hole a bit faster. LOL 

But it might not have been 53 seconds but often felt that long the technology was "new", and often took a long time to connect. I remember testing it once where it took 20+ seconds before the other handset rang...
Actually if I remember correctly we used the "walkie-talkie" feature of the phone to make the feedback sound.
I think my buddy was relieved, as he had sent many^10 hours preparing for that night/day.

Getting back to digging now.


----------



## squiggler47 (Nov 30, 2010)

I never start a page in cell A1!

All my sheets have row1 and column a blank (at least until I finish the sheet!) I like the empty border around the work area!


----------



## cornflakegirl (Dec 1, 2010)

I hate it when sheets have blank columns at the left or blank rows at the top for no reason


----------



## squiggler47 (Dec 1, 2010)

You'll like mine then! I put them there for a reason, I like them there!

(although I often delete them at the end If I havent created tables on the sheet!)


----------



## Domski (Dec 1, 2010)

People who insist on selecting the whole worksheet before they do a sort or apply a filter!!!

Dom


----------



## litrelord (Dec 1, 2010)

Domski said:


> People who insist on selecting the whole worksheet before they do a sort or apply a filter!!!
> 
> Dom



Worse than that it when people leave out a couple of column headers so quick sort only sorts half the data. 

Nick


----------



## Sandeep Warrier (Dec 1, 2010)

Domski said:


> People who insist on selecting the whole worksheet before they do a sort or apply a filter!!!
> 
> Dom





litrelord said:


> Worse than that it when people leave out a couple of column headers so quick sort only sorts half the data.
> 
> Nick



And leave blank rows in data so auto-filter doesn't filter all data.


----------



## Jon von der Heyden (Dec 2, 2010)

sandeep.warrier said:


> And leave blank rows in data so auto-filter doesn't filter all data.



I think that there are aot of people that don't quite undetstand how autofilter works.  Many select only the header row (e.g. 1:1) and then invoke Auto Filter.  With this method excel will attempt to determine the filter range and it will only grab the first area / contiguous range (i.e. last row to the 1st blank row).

One should always select the actual table (e.g. A1:Z100) rather than just the header row, thus *explicitly *telling excel what the filter range is.


----------



## litrelord (Dec 2, 2010)

Jon von der Heyden said:


> One should always select the actual table (e.g. A1:Z100) rather than just the header row, thus *explicitly *telling excel what the filter range is.



True, but if it's a table of data for analysis rather than presentation it should be kept as one contiguous range anyway. I prefer Alt, D, F, F over making sure I select a range first (haven't progressed past using Excel 2003 key combinations yet for most things).

The introduction of 'Tables' in 2007 was a big help when it came to this, saved a lot of dynamic named ranges for me too. 

Nick


----------



## Domski (Dec 2, 2010)

Jon von der Heyden said:


> One should always select the actual table (e.g. A1:Z100) rather than just the header row, thus *explicitly *telling excel what the filter range is.



I would never do this unless I've got multiple header rows and Excel guesses the wrong one, or the data layout I'm working with is a bit 'interesting'. I wouldn't select the header row either, just a cell in the data table.

Dom


----------



## MrKowz (Dec 2, 2010)

Another of mine I just noticed today, I put an extra line in my VBA code after I Dim my variables, after I define my variables, and before/after each parent For, If, and With trees.  I find it easier to read and follow.

Example (This is code I wrote for someone a month or two ago):


```
Public Sub CutDate()
Dim i As Long, rowx As Long, LR As Long, LC As Long
 
With Application
    .ScreenUpdating = False
    .Calculation = xlCalculationManual
End With
 
rowx = 1
LR = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("G" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
LC = Sheets("Sheet1").Cells(2, Columns.Count).End(xlToLeft).Column
 
For i = LR To 2 Step -1
    If Sheets("Sheet1").Range("G" & i).Value > DateSerial(2011, 1, 20) Then
        Sheets("Sheet1").Rows(i).Cut Destination:=Sheets("Sheet2").Range("A" & rowx)
        Sheets("Sheet1").Rows(i).Delete
        rowx = rowx + 1
    End If
Next i
 
With Application
    .ScreenUpdating = False
    .Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
End With
 
End Sub
```


----------



## Sandeep Warrier (Dec 2, 2010)

Jon von der Heyden said:


> I think that there are aot of people that don't quite undetstand how autofilter works.  Many select only the header row (e.g. 1:1) and then invoke Auto Filter.  With this method excel will attempt to determine the filter range and it will only grab the first area / contiguous range (i.e. last row to the 1st blank row).
> 
> One should always select the actual table (e.g. A1:Z100) rather than just the header row, thus *explicitly *telling excel what the filter range is.



True. I usually use Ctrl+A to select data and a blank row doesn't let me do that too....


----------



## Greg Truby (Dec 3, 2010)

I tried, I _really_ tried to walk away. But Keith has pushed one of my _MrExcel_ OCD buttons. 

There is always a chance that you will some day take code from an existing routine and copy and paste it into another project where the original routine gets called by a "Main" routine, i.e. the original procedure is now a part of a larger sequence of procedures. You don't want to *assume* that you are restoring the settings to their original values when the routine was called, you want to *know *that you're restoring them. In other words.



MrKowz said:


> ```
> ...
> With Application
> .ScreenUpdating = False
> ...


should read
	
	
	
	
	
	



```
Dim i As Long, rowx As Long, LR As Long, LC As Long, _
    booScrnUpdt As Boolean, lngCalcMode As XlCalculation
 
With Application
    Let booScrnUpdt = .ScreenUpdating
    Let lngCalcMode = .Calculation
    .ScreenUpdating = False
    .Calculation = xlCalculationManual
End With
 
'// {snip}
 
With Application
    .ScreenUpdating = booScrnUpdt
    .Calculation = lngCalcMode
End With
```


----------



## MrKowz (Dec 3, 2010)

Greg Truby said:


> I tried, I _really_ tried to walk away. But Keith has pushed one of my _MrExcel_ OCD buttons.
> 
> There is always a chance that you will some day take code from an existing routine and copy and paste it into another project where the original routine gets called by a "Main" routine, i.e. the original procedure is now a part of a larger sequence of procedures. You don't want to *assume* that you are restoring the settings to their original values when the routine was called, you want to *know *that you're restoring them. In other words.
> 
> ...


 
I like! Never really thought about handling it in that fashion 

Now lets see what other buttons I can find!


----------



## RoryA (Dec 3, 2010)

Those of us born after 1900 can, of course, omit the use of the word 'Let'...


----------



## MrKowz (Dec 3, 2010)

rorya said:


> Those of us born after 1900 can, of course, omit the use of the word 'Let'...


 
According to the help file: "Explicit use of the *Let* keyword is a matter of style"

Maybe Greg just likes to code with style!


----------



## Greg Truby (Dec 3, 2010)

rorya said:


> Those of us born after 1900 can, of course, omit the use of the word 'Let'...


 
(a)  + 

(b) Somewhere - I thought it was on this forum, though I couldn't find it - is a thread where Nate mentions that he'll use LET due to something he read of Ken Getz'. And yes, I do it purely for stylistic reasons, I like it because it makes it clear that an assignment is happening and not a test. And yes, it probably helps that LETs were required back when I learned to program. But hey, at least I no longer use the *Rem* keyword.


----------



## Smitty (Dec 4, 2010)

> I prefer Alt, D, F, F over making sure I select a range first (haven't progressed past using Excel 2003 key combinations yet for most things).



Is it an OCD to hate the "new" keyboard shortcuts?


----------



## SydneyGeek (Dec 4, 2010)

Smitty said:


> Is it an OCD to hate the "new" keyboard shortcuts?



I don't hate them -- just never bothered to learn them when I found the old ones still worked. 

Denis


----------



## mikerickson (Dec 5, 2010)

Greg Truby said:


> But hey, at least I no longer use the *Rem* keyword.


So you trust that new fangled ' 


Am I the only one who customizes Cmd+K for Delete?


----------



## Greg Truby (Dec 5, 2010)

mikerickson said:


> So you trust that new fangled '


 
Not really, but the VBE coughs and sputters when I try to use our ol' buddy the REM statement for an inline comment, so I've been forced to accept the *'* upstart.


----------



## repairman615 (Dec 6, 2010)

mikerickson, 

before you posted here and after I read the post above about rem...

I actually remember you using Rem.  I thought it was pretty cool.

A few weeks back, noticed a post by mikrickson using the Rem, curious as a biginner, Looked in the help file and found it to be like the '...I thought Rem was new and better than '. 

Funny.


----------



## Jon von der Heyden (Dec 6, 2010)

Greg Truby said:


> I like it because it makes it clear that an assignment is happening and not a test.



I never thougt of it like this.  I've been swayed to start using *Let*.


----------



## Greg Truby (Dec 6, 2010)

repairman615 said:


> ...I thought Rem was new and better than '.
> 
> Funny.


 
A couple of other oldies but goodies that you might want to look up that are still in the language - and these two are *not* purely stylistic: LSET & RSET. They're actually more like a LET than a SET. Don't get used often, but if you have to exchange data using any kind of a fixed-width format, they can come in handy.
	
	
	
	
	
	



```
Dim s As String * 25
 
    RSet s = "Rory's a real hoot":    Debug.Print "|" & s & "|"
```


----------



## Colin Legg (Dec 6, 2010)

Two habits of mine.

(1) I use the VBA prefix whenever I call something in the VBA object library, although I am happy to make the call via globals <GLOBALS>within that library eg.

```
Sub foo()
    VBA.MsgBox "Hello the world!"
 
   'I don't use either of these
    MsgBox "Hello the world!"
    VBA.Interaction.MsgBox "Hello the world!"
End Sub
```
If I'm answering a question on the forum, I generally try to make an effort to comply with the OP's style, although sometimes I end up creating an inconsistent mixture.




(2) Everything within a procedure is indented to at least one level, including declarations. A lot of VBA'ers seem to write code like this:

```
Sub foo()
 
Dim l As Long
 
    l = Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row
 
End Sub
```
or like this:

```
Sub foo()
 
Dim l As Long
 
l = Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row
 
End Sub
```
 
Whereas I would write:

```
Sub foo()
 
    Dim l As Long
 
    l = Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row
 
End Sub
```


----------



## mikerickson (Dec 6, 2010)

One of my habits is to order inequalities so the smallest is to the left. As in

```
If 2 < x And x < 10 Then
```
 What one sees is all in order, similar to a number line.

As opposed to the more common practice of putting the variable first
	
	
	
	
	
	



```
If x > 2 And x < 10 Then
```


----------



## Greg Truby (Dec 6, 2010)

Colin Legg said:


> (1) I use the VBA prefix whenever I call something in the VBA object library


 
Colin, I began specifying libraries for *objects* a couple years back due to the recommendation to do so in _Professional Excel Development_ in order to guard against accidentally getting a *Word* range object instead of an *Excel* range if one's code get's ported to *Word* in an automation setting. 
I know you also are active at _ExtremeVBTalk_ where they cover a wide variety of platforms. Is there some type of a danger of code getting ported onto other platforms that you're guarding against? 




Colin Legg said:


> Whereas I would write:
> 
> ```
> Sub foo()
> ...


 
I indent the same and yes, I go a bit OCD and fix the indenting if someone posts code that isn't properly indented. Speaking of which, somebody around here posted some code where they aligned the AS's in the DIM. I am trying it out to see if I like it and thus far I kinda do...
	
	
	
	
	
	



```
Rem ___old way___
    Dim strFullNameCurr As String, strFullNameHome As String, _
        strHomePath As String, strCurrPath As String, _
        lngResult As VbMsgBoxResult, i%
 
    '// ___new way___
    Dim strFullNameCurr As String, _
        strFullNameHome As String, _
        strHomePath     As String, _
        strCurrPath     As String, _
        lngResult       As VbMsgBoxResult, _
        i%
```


----------



## Colin Legg (Dec 6, 2010)

Hi Greg,

Good to hear from ya, fella.


> Is there some type of a danger of code getting ported onto other platforms that you're guarding against?


I think I just formed my own opinion that it's better not to let the compiler guess where it should be looking but, yes, there could be clashes all over the place.



> somebody around here posted some code where they aligned the AS's in the DIM. I am trying it out to see if I like and thus far I kinda do...


I think I quite like the "As" alignment but it's not a habit I've picked up yet. I think that's because I tend to group similar data types on the same line, so its value is lost? eg.

```
Dim strFullNameCurr As String, strFullNameHome As String
```
 
I'm not keen on using line continuation characters in my declarations, nor type declaration characters, so I guess 'my version' on those other data types would look like this:

```
Dim lngResult As VBA.VbMsgBoxResult
    Dim i As Integer
```


----------



## Greg Truby (Dec 6, 2010)

Colin Legg said:


> I think I quite like the "As" alignment but it's not a habit I've picked up yet. I think that's because I tend to group similar data types on the same line, so its value is lost? eg.


 
I also prefer to group like types, what I'm figuring out is that by doing it this way, it makes it a cinch to sort my variables alphabetically. And since I always employ my version of the Simonyi naming conventions, this results in like types getting grouped.



Colin Legg said:


> ... so I guess 'my version' on those other data types would look like this:
> 
> ```
> Dim lngResult As VBA.VbMsgBoxResult
> ...


Don't you mean?
	
	
	
	
	
	



```
Dim lngResult As VBA.VbMsgBoxResult
    Dim i         As Integer
```


----------



## MrKowz (Dec 6, 2010)

Greg Truby said:


> I also prefer to group like types, what I'm figuring out is that by doing it this way, it makes it a cinch to sort my variables alphabetically. And since I always employ my version of the Simonyi naming conventions, this results in like types getting grouped.
> 
> 
> Don't you mean?
> ...


 
Oh now THAT is going to be my newest OCD.


----------



## Domski (Dec 6, 2010)

Colin Legg said:


> ```
> Dim i As Integer
> ```



You still use Integers in VBA? I thought they were redundant 

Dom


----------



## Greg Truby (Dec 6, 2010)

Yeah, I wanna say Nate (coulda been Rory) said sumpin 'bout them gettin' converted to Longs under the hood anyhow.  Nonetheless, for a simple counter that's only gonna run a dozen to a couple-hundred iterations, I struggle to break the habit of using the _integer_ type.


----------



## Colin Legg (Dec 6, 2010)

Domski said:


> You still use Integers in VBA? I thought they were redundant
> 
> Dom


 
No I don't.


----------



## Norie (Dec 6, 2010)

Don't know if it's OCD or not but I always try and fully reference objects, particualrly when working with multiple objects eg worksheets, workbooks etc.


----------



## Joe C (Dec 6, 2010)

I once tried to use colors that was least likely to run out of ink. 
I thin it was  OCD, stupid and Greeen all in one really horrible color choices.


----------



## Norie (Dec 6, 2010)

In a similar vein when the cartidge was running low I used to print in a single colour until the whole cartridge ran out, started with red I think.

Once one colour was finished I changed to the next barely visible colour I could find and so on.

Also bought one of those print refill kits, stained the desk a lovely colour.


----------



## MrKowz (Dec 6, 2010)

Norie said:


> Also bought one of those print refill kits, stained the desk a lovely colour.


 
***WAY OFF TOPIC***

I've always been STRONGLY against refilling ink cartridges (even buying professionally filled ones). I've done a LOT of independent research on printers and ink (used to sell them for a living), and I can honestly say that you will get a cheaper cost per page when buying the name-brand cartridges. There are several reasons for this:


The print heads in the cartridges are meant to be used for 1 cycle, and they cannot be cleaned in a cost-effective way. This leads to clogging. And the circuit boards on the cartridges are, again, only built for one cycle. They can build up corrosion.
Approx 30% of refilled cartridges fail in the first 20 pages.
The formulation of ink put in the cartridges is NOT the same formula as the cartridge was intended. For example, HP uses a formula that is able to be dropped in droplets half the size of Epson or Canon. The result is that HP does not need a light cyan and light magenta cartridge to get the wider array of colors. The ink tends to be a bit thicker in refilled cartridges, as they rely less on pigmentation and more on filler. Pigmentation is what costs so much.
If your printer, itself, fails while under use of a refilled cartridge, the manufacturer will not honor their warranty.
Refilled cartridges get, on average, only 60% of the pages a genuine cartridge would have in it. Largely due to #1, #2, and #3 above. Also, depending how the cartridge was emptied (or how many times it was used), there is a high chance of there being ink-buildup on the inside of the cartridge. Thus making it contain less liquid ink, and a higher chance of clogging.
Also, when I worked at an office supply store about 8 years back, we had a customer who bought one of our brand cartridges, and used it in their printer. The circuit board had a bit of corrosion on it, which caused something to glitch in the printer. The printer effectively was telling the cartridge to drain ink, even when it wasn't being used. Needless to say, the entire cartridge drained out into the printer, which made its way through the cracks of the printer onto their desk, and eventually down onto their carpet. We had to replace their carpet, desk, and printer for them.

I don't know about you, but saving $4 isn't worth the potential headaches caused by remanufactured/refilled cartridges.

And that being said, there is a LOT of difference between printer companies and what area of printing they specialize in. If anyone has questions, hit me up. I will just say that Brother _inkjet_ printers, Dell printers, and Lexmark printers are horrible.


----------



## Greg Truby (Dec 6, 2010)

MrKowz said:


> ***WAY OFF TOPIC***


 
 No comprendo. Are those words Chinese or Croation or something?


----------



## Smitty (Dec 6, 2010)

Greg Truby said:


> No comprendo. Are those words Chinese or Croation or something?



Nah, he's just starting to learn "Truby". 

Now what about used motor oil for chainsaw lubricant?  It's a lot cheaper and seems to work just fine for me, although there is a bit more sling off of the bar because of the viscosity breakdown...


----------



## Norie (Dec 6, 2010)

Smitty said:
			
		

> a bit more sling off of the bar because of the viscosty breakdown


----------



## Domski (Dec 7, 2010)

Smitty said:


> although there is a bit more sling off of the bar because of the viscosity breakdown...



Sounds like what happened to me last Saturday night


----------



## Jon von der Heyden (Dec 7, 2010)

Sounds like some sort of really invasive and embarrassing medical probe!  Does that sounds about right Dom?


----------



## Domski (Dec 7, 2010)

Slippy bar stool


----------



## litrelord (Dec 7, 2010)

Domski said:


> Slippy bar stool



Happens to the best of us. Especially if you've been served 'a dodgy pint'


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## Norie (Dec 7, 2010)

Or one of the 13 pints you drank was 'rogue'.


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## Rastaman (Dec 8, 2010)

Fun post, figured I'd join the party and throw in another OCD.  I can't believe nobody has brought it up yet.  I hate workbooks with a bunch of sheet tabs all the same color.  I try to color the tabs with some sort of meaning (yellow tabs require user input, black for instructions, blue for raw data...).  So now we can hear from those that hate tab colors. 

Oh, and I hate the 2007 default pivot setup.  First step is to switch to classic mode.  Who is it that decided taking away drag/drop functionality was an improvement?

Rick


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## Norie (Dec 8, 2010)

I'm waiting until you can put pictures on the tabs - perhaps even small thumbnails of the sheets.

That might save the user actually looking at the worksheets.


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## cornflakegirl (Dec 8, 2010)

Rastaman said:


> So now we can hear from those that hate tab colors.



Yeah, that would be me. A couple of my finance colleagues colour tabs - probably in the spirit that you describe, except that I don't know what the colours signify. And they're not even nice pastel colours!


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## Greg Truby (Dec 8, 2010)

cornflakegirl said:


> Yeah, that would be me. A couple of my finance colleagues colour tabs - probably in the spirit that you describe, except that I don't know what the colours signify. And they're not even nice pastel colours!


 
You're right - unless you know the key or it's part of a widely known SOP, doing it for that reason wouldn't help a lot. However, I color the tabs for two reasons - 
(a) grouping like information or showing which "color" of a worksheet it is. I will frequently use say a blue accent on Report A and a green accent on Report B, perhap purple on Report C and color the tabs to correspond. Folks pick up on color coordination pretty quickly. And
(b) If the tabs are colored, then it helps (doesn't guarantee it - but it helps) make it likely that I'll notice that I'm in group mode. Less of an issue these days. But I've had cases in the past where I would be editing several worksheets in group mode and the phone would ring or a colleague would stop by and when I returned to Excel, I'd forget I was in group mode and make a royal mess of things.


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## Norie (Dec 8, 2010)

You could take things further - colour every single cell with data based on the type of data in it and/or the value.

For ease of use you could add a legend to the right.

Could be useful for some 'models'.


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## Greg Truby (Dec 8, 2010)

Norie said:


> ...colour every single cell with data based on the type of data in it and/or the value.


 
We already have a thread on that concept - see Jon vdH's thread on _"Do You Use Styles"_.


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## Joe C (Dec 8, 2010)

norie said:


> i'm waiting until you can put pictures on the tabs - perhaps even small thumbnails of the sheets.
> 
> That might save the user actually looking at the worksheets.



dude i i want to do that so bad


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## Domski (Dec 8, 2010)

Joe C said:


> dude i i want to do that so bad



Where's my gun? 

Dom


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## RoryA (Dec 8, 2010)

I compulsively answer Excel questions - does that count?


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## Rastaman (Dec 8, 2010)

Hey, I didn't say my tab coloring was useful or effective, it's just one of my habits.  Another thing I hate is really long tab names.  Having to scroll right to find the fourth tab because the names are too long is a pain.  But I guess if the tabs were all pretty pictures I'd enjoy it... once.  Oh, and I don't like spaces in tab names.  When typing/editing a formula I can never remember which side of the ! the ' goes. 

Rick


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## TinaP (Dec 8, 2010)

Like Greg, I like to color tabs of like information.  I have one workbook with about 45 sheets.  15 are individual branches, 3 are regions, 3 are purely informational and the rest are departmental; each color group has its own formatting, columns, etc.  

For some reason, I always use orange for sheets of data tables--don't know why.


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## Greg Truby (Dec 8, 2010)

TinaP said:


> For some reason, I always use orange for sheets of data tables--don't know why.


 
Hello?!  Because you associate Excel with the MrExcel color scheme.  Some folks just miss the obvious...


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## TinaP (Dec 8, 2010)

Greg Truby said:


> Hello?! Because you associate Excel with the MrExcel color scheme. Some folks just miss the obvious...


I didn't realize Mr. Excel used subliminal messaging.  Or maybe I'm just paranoid.


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## crook_101 (Dec 9, 2010)

Scary stuff - with Tina on this one, my "work" data tabs are all highlighted orange... *gulps*...brainwashing cycle 1 complete


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## RoryA (Dec 9, 2010)

You love Mr Excel
No nothing weird going on here
You love Mr Excel
Nothing at all.


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## crook_101 (Dec 9, 2010)

Phew, I am so glad there is nothing going on here.  

However I feel I have to mention now though that I really do love Mr Excel **shivers**


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## TinaP (Dec 9, 2010)

I love Mr. Excel.

I love Mr. Excel.


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## diddi (Dec 9, 2010)

i really try to avoid having lots of tabs and would rather waste a heap of time constructing a menu sheet or form.  i find the more things a user can explore (read as 'click without reason or cause'), the more chances of them stuffing up everything you have tried to do for them =)


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## MrKowz (Dec 10, 2010)

diddi said:


> i really try to avoid having lots of tabs and would rather waste a heap of time constructing a menu sheet or form. i find the more things a user can explore (read as 'click without reason or cause'), the more chances of them stuffing up everything you have tried to do for them =)


 
Just hide the tabs you don't want them to click.


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## diddi (Dec 11, 2010)

you underestimate my users.  they are veerryy  resourceful. short of writing error traps for every conceivable stupid data entry, its just easier for me to not have much data in sheets at all.  they delete cell contents when their input error causes a problem elsewhere, even when protected, and even delete/ammend lines of vba in the odd event of a debug error. i am not allowed to password anything as the control freaks at the top forbid it.

anyway, it just changes the way one tackles a problem.


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