How to Use IF ISNA to Hide VLOOKUP Errors

When writing a series of VLOOKUP formulas, one of the annoying things is having to see the "#N/A" error after Excel has determined a lookup value is not available.  While we don't want to show any values when they are truly unavailable, from a visual design perspective, it's sometimes better just to show a blank space ... Continue Reading >>

Why You Should Be Cautious About Using Excel’s IFERROR Formula

The IFERROR formula was designed to solve a common aesthetic problem that most of us have encountered when using Excel - when we know that there are errors in our data, but we'd prefer not to see Excel's standard error message notation.  Error messages usually consist of all caps lettering that is preceded with the "#" ... Continue Reading >>

Three Key Principles of Visual Design in Excel

Visual Design is a concept that many people don’t think about when using Excel.  However, given how much Excel’s visual display capabilities have improved over the years, the concept is becoming more and more important.  There are a number of great books on Visual Design and they all have very similar themes. The following post is ...

How to Paste Excel Chart Formatting

Pasting chart formats is an Excel function that’s somewhat un-intuitive to find and therefore underutilized.  One of the main reasons that people don’t bother improving the formatting of their charts is because of the time it takes to make these adjustments.  By using the paste format function for your charts, you can save yourself time ...

How to Use Excel Custom Number Formatting

Because it’s buried deep in the cell formatting menu and has very little documentation, Excel’s custom number formatting is probably its most underutilized feature.  Understanding and mastering this feature can greatly enhance the Visual Design of your Excel workbooks.  The key benefit of custom number formatting is: It allows you to change the appearance of your ...

How to Add Total Data Labels to the Excel Stacked Bar Chart

For stacked bar charts, Excel 2010 allows you to add data labels only to the individual components of the stacked bar chart.  The basic chart function does not allow you to add a total data label that accounts for the sum of the individual components.  Fortunately, creating these labels manually is a fairly simply process. Step ...