Excel, how can I link multiple spreadsheets to cells with changing values? - vba

I have a bit of a situation that I can't seem to be able to resolve. I'm currently using excel to keep track and sort 50 patients at the same time for research purposes. So in my main worksheet, A1:A50 are the patient's "station number" and B1:B50 are the patient's names. Columns "C" through "I" contain information about each patient (sex, gender, ecc.). I keep the patients sorted by their station number.
I then have a different worksheet for every patient in which I keep track of each patient's blood tests during time.
I'm trying to find a way so that I can click on a certain patient and get re-directed to his/hers bloodtest worksheet. And I've done so with hyperlinks. The problem is that patients constantly change, as do their station numbers.
For example, patient John Doe has "station number" 001, so he is on the top of my list. His station might change the week after to 005, so I manually copy/paste his info in row 5. This way, every time I cancel a patient I lose the hyperlink and need to manually search for the worksheet and re-link it to the new patient.
Is there any way in which I can lock a hyperlink to a cell regardless whether or not it is empty? This way I could move patients up and down my chart & change cell values without worrying about messing up the hyperlinks.
I also tried to create a chart with 50 rows in which every time I changed a station number a macro would then sort all the rows. It turned out to be a dead end as I was able only to get the macro to copy/paste the patient's info into the correct row instead of it replacing the row.
Any ideas?

The link below probably has the simplest solution I have seen for creating dynamic hyperlinks based on changing cells.
https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/4030-excel-dynamic-hyperlink-to-another-sheet.html
Also, see this link.
https://excelribbon.tips.net/T013034_Creating_a_Dynamic_Hyperlink.html
Finally, consider this...create a hyperlink that is dynamically linked to a cell value, in which the cell value points to a cell reference within a worksheet, and that when the value is changed can point to a different cell reference.
=HYPERLINK("#Sheet2!A"&Z1)

Related

Conditional formatting 1 cell based on cell input on another sheet, apply to entire row

For work I need to create a resource management excel file. My goal is to create an overview as is seen here:
If John would have taken a few hours off, or if he has a fey hours of sick leave, I would like to turn this cell only to change colour so I know that John will be absent for whatever reason on this day.
However, since I'm creating this for an entire row (for a whole year), I do not want to create conditional formatting per cell because that would be plain madness.
Here is an example per employee (in this example John):
enter image description here
So what I need is a formula to check if a cell in a row (for example sick leave) on the employee worksheet is grater than 0 and then change the colour of only the corresponding cell on the recourse planning worksheet, not the entire row.
Does any of you guys know if this is possible in excel 2016? Preferably without VBA scripting since I have to transfer this excel file to a co-worker who is not into VBA programming.
Thank in advance.
Nuntius transmittendus!
This is definitely possible without any code. Use CountIf() as tinus087 commented. The tricky part is how to create the address range used by the CountIf() so that you can put one conditional format on all the cells. On the the one hand you need the column of the cells being checked to match the column of your total cell. On the other hand the worksheet tab name needs to change depending on which row you are on. So use INDIRECT() to point to the correct worksheet and OFFSET() to look at the correct cells.
So, for cell C4, the formula you want to use as the range in your CountIf() is OFFSET(INDIRECT($A4&"!A1"),3,COLUMN(C1)-1,4). When applied to cell C4 this creates address John!C4:C7. When used for cell D4, it results in John!D4:D7.
You'll probably want some error checking to deal with the #REF! error happens when the formula is applied to a row without a first name or where the name listed doesn't match any worksheet tabs.
Something else to think about, if you haven't already, what happens if there are two John's? Is the 2nd John going to be named John2?

Job/Work scheduler/planner for teams

Currently we use an excel spreadsheet with 4 tabs (as tab for each team), each tab is a planner/diary that week, each day has 4 "slots" for jobs that are planned in.
The people type in the information for each job into one of the 4 slotsfor the day. Each slot contains information in different cells; Job No., Address, Duration, Notes, etc...
The issue/time consuming aspect of this method is when jobs have to be moved about between teams or moved to a different day it involves lots of copying, pasting and deleting.
What I am trying to achieve is some form of drag/drop interface (similar to the way the calendar in Outlook works), where the people who use the spreadsheet can input details for the job in a form and then have a drag an drop "tile" to be able to drag into one of the "slots.
The data contained in these slots needs to be able to produce a report which is a linear list of all the jobs planned that week.
I am at a loss to figure out what method I should use to create this, it seems it is beyond the reach of Excel from what I can find, also beyond the reach of Access, so I suspect it will involve some form of programming. I have basic understanding of VBA, but that's about it.
Can anyone make any suggestions.
Thanks
Working with data in this format will always be hard and I would not reccomend adding any drag and drop until you have sorted out the structure of your data.
You might like to consider another approach, which involves restructuring your data to make it easier to work with...
If you had one sheet with the following columns:
Teamname
Date (instead of Week Number and Day of week,)
Timeslot
JobNo
Address
Duration
Notes
Etc
Then each row would represent a job and have details of when it is occurring.
This is way a database would store the information about the jobs that are happening.
To change when a job is happening, all you have to do is update the date (and timeslot) of the row.
You could then create another worksheet for each team that uses excel formulas to lookup jobs happening this week and display them in a column for each day - like you have now. These sheets would be for display purposes only.
(You would use formulas like VLOOKUP etc)
If you want to change the date of a job you then simply go to the worksheet with the long list and change the date.
Having your data in this long list (ie normalised) format will give you many benefits. For instance you can summerise the report of the data using pivot tables.
If you add filters to the long list (SEE Ribbon>>Data>filters) you can order the data and reduce the list to only show jobs on a selected date, or for a selected team etc...
This is definitely the way forwards. Having restructured the data in this way, you could then add flashy ways to change when a job is taking place by adding buttons on the team worksheets or something.
PART2:
So in you ling list I would recommend excel CONCATENATE function to add an extra column with the text you want displayed elsewhere in your "calendar". #COLUMNA
I would also create another column which is a unique identifier for the row. This will probably be the "Date in YYYMMDD format & timeslot in HHMI format" concatenated together.
In the calendar view sheets say you need a column to display each day of the week with a row for each time slot: You need to
enter a StartDate of the period you want to view
Set up a column for each day (with a formula to calculate the date of the day (ie StartDate, StartDate+1 etc). The date is displayed as a column header (perhaps with a format that shows the dayname, but is stores the date)
each row will have a column that has the timeperiod name and each row will have a value entered. The value is the same as those used in the long list's timeperiod column.
When a user double clicks on a cell you can use the worksheet event
Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
in the VBA code, for this event you need to:
see if the cell double clicked is one you want to respond to
if it is find the date and timeperiod from the corresponding column and row header.
use VBA to activate the long list sheet and probably filter to only show the jobs taking place that day or perhaps that week. Then select (or highlight?) the job that was double clicked.
This is quite easy once you know VBA.
There is a lot to know though I would:
use a named range to define the row with the date and another to define the column with the timeperiod
use a named range to define the cells that will respond to a double click
use range functions in VBA like intersection and the entirerow, entirecolumn range properties to find the date and timeperiod of the double clicked cell.
use the macro record to write the initial code that will do the filter.
adjust the code to be well written and to find the date and timeperiod as required.
Create a sheet for all departments? Or just create one sheet where the dept can be chosen.
You could get clever and allow the user to select two cells in the calendar and provide buttons that do things like:
swap the jobs
If they select many cells then a button to Goto the list and only show jobs that were selected in the calendar.
Perhaps the user could select one job and buttons could move the job back or forwards 1,2,7,14 days.
Note that you can use the long list to record other details of the job like time taken, customer, start time, end time etc...
See about Pivot tables here which might give you some ideas about how you can summarise you data to give info like jobs per day, total value of jobs by day, etc...
Before you tie yourself in knots using Excel, you should always consider using Access.... as with someone who know what they are doing, access will deliver a lot more in a shorter period of time and can do nice things like print one page per job etc etc...
(Do you need a contractor?)
mr#HarveyFrench.co.uk

Splitting data between worksheets depending on status of Column A

I have been asked to create a database of volunteers in Excel. The main worksheet (called Data) holds all the information – names, addresses, numbers, reference checks, placements, supervisors, etc. What I am trying to achieve is for the relevant information to be moved from one worksheet to another when the status of the person changes.
There would be 5 categories which the volunteers would fall under (column A labelled ‘Status’)
PROCESSING
ACTIVE
ON HOLD
BARRED
STOPPED/RETIRED
What I want to get is a live database so the information would appear on a relevant worksheet whenever the status on the main spreadsheet changes , but I only want some information to show depending on the category…
Each Worksheet would contain columns A-F from the ‘Data’ worksheet and in addition:
Processing would contain columns X-AE
Active: AF-AW
On Hold: AZ-BC
Barred: AX-AY
Stopped/Retired:- BD-BH
I have searched and searched again but I know nothing about Macros (and my IT department is unable to help) So my question is – is this doable and if so is anyone able to help me?
I hope I am making sense and if not I can email across the dummy database with some made up names to show what it is I am trying to create
You can do this using array formulae. This link shows a simple example which provides the basic formula (explained in detail in the linked article)
=INDEX(range,SMALL(IF(col=value,ROW(range)),ROW(1:1)),COLUMN(A2))
Where range is the range of all your data from your main worksheet and value is the value you want to screen for (this changes for each of your sheets) and col is the column on your main sheet that you want to check the values of. Note it is an array forumla so you have to press control+shift+enter after typing in the formula as explained at the bottom of the link.
You will notice that I have changed the formula to say COLUMN(A2) instead of 2. This is so that you can drag the formula across the columns as well as down the rows. You might need to make this COLUMN(A2)-x where x is an offset because your data don't start in column A.
Note that the same applies for the ROW(1:1) part, if your range doesn't start in row 1 then you will need to offset this by some value as well (i.e. something like ROW(1:1)-y)

#REF! result when using INDEX function in Excel

I am trying to create a couple of reports from data on another Excel worksheet based on the value in a drop down list. I am using the MATCH and INDEX functions and have created Named Ranges of the columns of data. I am able to get the first value I want in the report but none of the others, even though when I debug by evaluating the formula it points to the right cell but still displays #REF! instead of the actual value from the referenced cell.
I'll do my best to make this clear:
In "POST_Data" worksheet I have 4 columns titled Course Name, Course Length, Attendee and Date Attended. Currently I have 33 rows of data (plus the header row) but I need the reports to be dynamic since new data will be added from time to time.
I have created Dynamic Named Ranges of the data using the OFFSET function (e.g. for the Course Name data I have a NameRange called CourseNamesData = OFFSET(POST_Data!$A$2,0,0,COUNTA(POST_Data!$A:$A),1)
In the "DashBoard_and_Data Entry" worksheet I have a two report areas: one to report the Course Name and Date Attended for a specified Attendee (specified by a drop down list in cell C7) and the other report to provide the Attendee Name and Date Attended for a specified Course Name (specified by a drop down list in I7).
In row 8 I report the column that the data belongs to in the POST_Data worksheet
What IS working: When I choose an Attendee from the drop down list in C7, I correctly report the first of the Course Names for this attendee from the data in the POST_Data worksheet. I used the following formula to do so: =INDEX(CourseNamesData,MATCH(C7,AttendeeNamesData,0),B$8)
What is NOT working: The corresponding "Date Attended" data when I use a similar formula as the one that is working. I have: =INDEX(DateAttendedData,MATCH(C7,AttendeeNamesData,0),C$8) but this gives me the #REF! error.
Again, when I try to follow the data that this formula points to, it looks like it is pointing to the correct cell but not showing the result.
Another issue is how to get all the data corresponding to the choice in the drop down and not just the first row. So for example, if I choose Richards, K. from the attendee list and he has attended 4 training courses, I need all 4 to show up, not just the first one.
I appreciate any help or insights on this. If you know of a better way to display the workbook contents, please let me know.
Thanks!
Can you provide a screenshot so that I can better understand the issue?
With regard to your post_data worksheet, you might find it easier to turn the data into a table. You can then point your named range to the column within the table without needing to use the offset function, and your range will update automatically as you add to the table.
I have a entire playlist on my youtube channel devoted to using ranges and tables if you are interested. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1nLTDk2QLL9415OPSjIICJs1EeV-HeK3

VLOOKUP on first and last name with no unique ID

Situation:
I have two sheets: The first sheet contains a list of employee names; the second sheet contains a piece of a pay report for employees. I need to pull the employee pay data from sheet 2 to sheet 1 by searching for the employee on sheet 2. What complicates this is the report on sheet 2 contains changing employees, pay, and has no unique ID.
I am looking to fill in column A. I cannot permanently modify this sheet as it affects downstream reporting.
I split column B which was previously first name, middle initial (if any), last name. Note, about 10% of the names may have a different last name. For example, sheet 1contains the name Tara Feather, but the second report uses her maiden name of Tara Bird.
Attempts so far:
I am new to Excel, and am just learning VLOOKUP. My first attempt was to pull the data based on the last name column on sheets 1 and 2, and enter data. Unfortunately, while that worked for 90% of the entries, the last 10% had the wrong values and the audit to correct took more time than manual entry.
Possible Ideas:
My next thought was to combine an If statement and VLOOKUP so that if last name matched, and first name matched, then execute the VLOOKUP and pull values, or enter "ERROR".
With this new thought, I don't know if I'm now in macro territory or if there are a combination of functions that can help. Ideally, the more it can do with 100% accuracy the better. However, if it can highlight the names it completed on sheet 2, I can always enter the non-highlighted manually, still saving time.
What are your thoughts and direction?
You want 100% accuracy, but if someone has different names on the two sheets, then that's never going to work.
So to get 90% of it right:
On the second sheet put this formula in G2 and copy it down for as many rows as you have names.
=B2&D2
Put this formula in H2 and copy it down
=F2
On the first sheet put this formula in A2 and copy it down
=VLOOKUP(D2&C2,'second sheet'G:H,2,false)
Any rows where it can't find a matching firstname and surname will have #N/A in them.
Assuming you can modify the second sheet permanently you can put the right surnames in so that the formulae work. You could also put in the middle names into the formulae in case you have two people with the same names.