question re: the Go To tool

Posted by Hansoh on December 11, 2001 11:44 AM

does anyone use the Go To tool in the EDIT menu bar? i can't find any info on it in the HELP.

i understand WHAT it does, but i can't seem to think of any practical applications for it...with the exception of identifying blank cells in an array so you can input values into them in one fell swoop.

i'd be interested to know if there are some high-level, creative applications for this.

also, what is GO TO--> SPECIAL--> Row Differences & Column Differences?

thanks in advance.

Posted by Mark W. on December 11, 2001 11:57 AM

> what is GO TO--> SPECIAL--> Row Differences & Column Differences?

It helps you find inconsistent formulas. Suppose
A1:C9 contains...

{8,8,4
;7,7,7
;10,2,5
;4,8,10
;4,1,4
;8,6,6
;2,4,4
;3,2,7
;2,1,2}

A10 contains the formula, =SUM(A1:A9), and B10:C10
(mistakenly) contain the formulas, =SUM(B2:B9) and
=SUM(C2:C9) respectively. You can quickly find this
discrepancy by selecting row 10:10 and choose the
Row Differences option of Go To... Special. This
option will select those cells whose formulas differ
from the active cell selection when the command was
invoked. You could use the Auditing tools for this
purpose, but you'd have to inspect each summary
cell on row 10:10. What if your worksheet had
256 such columns? If you right-click each of the
Go To... Special radio button labels you'll get a
popup window with a short explanation of each.

Posted by Juan Pablo G. on December 11, 2001 12:00 PM

Another great use is when you design a Template, and want to erase all *input* cells you can use the constant - values to select them all and don't touch the formulas.

Juan Pablo G.