The advantage of that approach is, that you save enourmous amounts of time, because you enter the data only once. Just imagine you have a table like the one shown in the screenshot below:
Instead of creating one sheet and then copy it over and over until you have finally the whole year, there is an easier way to do things. Select the first sheet of the ones with same structure. Then SHIFT-click the last sheet, you want to modify. If they are not "in line" meaning they do not stand together (in our example this would be Jan 2010 and Mar 2010) you can CTRL-click them to group.
Enter your data. In our example this would be the headings in cells A1 to A3, the categories in cells A2 to A5 and the content in cells B2 to C5.
Now switch over to one of the other sheets like Feb 2010 or Mar 2010. The same data / content is added there, too. This works for formulas as well as for pure data entry like values.
Just some notes:
- This approach works in MSXL 2003 and 2007
- Ungrouping in MSXL 2003 can be different than in MSXL 2007: In 2003 you simply select one of the grouped sheets to ungroup, in 2007 this approach won't work. There you have to right-click the group and select "
Ungroup sheets". This option by the way is also available in 2007.
If you like this tip, please leave a comment. Thanks and all the best for a successful 2010!
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