Changing Y-Axis Label Width

Excel provides quite a bit of flexibility in how your chart looks. One of the least flexible places is in adjusting the width allocated for Y-axis labels in a bar chart. This tip looks at how this width allocation works.

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(Thanks to Ryszard Raciborski, Steve Aprahamian, David Newcomer, Ron Solecki, Elliot Penna, Wayne Edmondson, Martin Osborne, and William Driskell for contributing to this tip.)

Sorting a Range of Cells

When you sort data in a worksheet, you don't need to sort everything at once. You can sort just a portion of your data by using the techniques in this tip.

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Lookup Exactly the Data You Want

Excel's lookup functions are easily the most powerful worksheet functions you can use. Master these seven functions you'll never again view a worksheet full of data in the same way. The power these functions provide you is anything but small. Take your first step today!

AutoFill with Random Numbers

When entering data into a worksheet, you may have a need to fill a range of cells with a group of random numbers. This task is easy to do using the approaches outlined in this tip.

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Adjusting a Path Based on System and User

It is not uncommon to set variables in a macro based on other values, such as time or date. You could also set variables (such as a path on a drive) based on information such as a computer's name or the name of a user logged into a system. Here's how to determine those names (computer and user) so you can test the values in your macro.

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Finding and Replacing with Subscripts

Want to use Find and Replace to change the formatting of a cell's contents? You would be out of luck; Excel won't let you do it. Here's a macro that can shed light on how to do the formatting, though.

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Getting Rid of Non-Printing Characters Intelligently

Is your worksheet, imported from an external source, plagued by non-printing characters that show up like small boxes on-screen? You can get rid of them using the various techniques described in this tip.

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This section is for those having problems making Excel behave. If Excel is giving you fits, feel free to submit your own Help Wanted question.

If you have a solution for the problems below, click the link after the problem to send us your answer. (All responses become the sole property of Sharon Parq Associates, Inc., and can be used in any way deemed appropriate.) If your response is used in a future issue, you will be credited for your contribution to the answer.

Stopping Feet and Inches from Converting to Dates

I regularly copy information from a website that displays height in feet and inches in the format feet-inches. For example, 6-4 represents 6' 4". Excel seems to insist on this being a date. Is there a way to make Excel see these dates as text when I paste them?
—Jane Lawson (provide an answer for this Help Wanted question)