Datasheet

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PART II
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GETTING THE DATA IN
Figure 4.28. The Formula Auditing toolbar
If a perceived error is located, the Error Checking dialog box appears
and tells you what it thinks the error is. You can use any of the helpful
buttons to understand and fix the error; if you know the error is not an
error, click Ignore Error to continue the check.
If you have an error value displayed on the worksheet (see Table 4-2
to see what error values look like), you can open the Formula Auditing
toolbar, click in the error cell, and click the Trace Error button.
Sometimes the error is not in the cell itself, but is in a precedent cell.
The Trace Error button finds what it thinks is the culprit input cell. It
might or might not help you, but you still have to fix the error yourself
after it’s found, using Table 4-2 as a reference.
Then again, you may never need to trace errors, because Excel tries to
catch your errors as you enter them. If you enter an alleged error, such as a
number with an apostrophe first to make the number text, Excel pops a
green triangle into the corner of the cell and when you click the cell you
get an error button in the worksheet as well. You can click the error button
for a shortcut menu that might or might not help. I think the green trian-
gles are a useless intrusion and turn them off like this: Choose Tools

Options

Error Checking, and deselect the Enable background error
checking check box.
Finding invalid data in a worksheet
If someone has entered invalid data into a worksheet in which data vali-
dation is in effect (see Chapter 3), you can locate the inaccuracies with
the Circle Invalid Data button on the Formula Auditing toolbar.
(Remember, when you set data validation, if you don’t use the Stop style
on the Error Alert tab, users can ignore your warnings and enter invalid
data; see Chapter 3.)
To locate invalid data, on the Formula Auditing toolbar, click the
Circle Invalid Data button. All entries that don’t meet validation criteria
are circled, as shown in Figure 4.29. You have to fix them yourself.
Error Checking
Trace Error
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