Page 100 - Excel 2013 All-in-One For Dummies

82 Designer Spreadsheets
Keep in mind that you can add online comments to parts of the template that instruct co-workers on how to properly fill in and save the data. These comments are helpful if your co-workers are unfamiliar with the template and may be less skilled in using Excel. (See Book IV, Chapter 3 for details about adding comments to worksheets.)
Designing a workbook from scratch
Not all worksheets come from templates. Many times, you need to create rather unique spreadsheets that aren’t intended to function as standard models from which certain types of workbooks are generated. In fact, most of the spreadsheets that you create in Excel may be of this kind, especially if your business doesn’t rely on the use of highly standardized financial state- ments and forms.
Planning your workbook
When creating a new workbook from scratch, you need to start by consider- ing the layout and design of the data. When doing this mental planning, you may want to ask yourself some of the following questions:
✦ Does the layout of the spreadsheet require the use of data tables (with both column and row headings) or lists (with column headings only)?
✦ Do these data tables and lists need to be laid out on a single worksheet or can they be placed in the same relative position on multiple work- sheets of the workbook (like pages of a book)?
✦ Do the data tables in the spreadsheet use the same type of formulas?
✦ Do some of the columns in the data lists in the spreadsheet get their input from formula calculation or do they get their input from other lists (called lookup tables) in the workbook?
✦ Will any of the data in the spreadsheet be graphed, and will these charts appear in the same worksheet (referred to as embedded charts), or
will they appear on separate worksheets in the workbook (called chart sheets)?
✦ Does any of the data in the spreadsheet come from worksheets in sepa- rate workbook files?
✦ How often will the data in the spreadsheet be updated or added to?
✦ How much data will the spreadsheet ultimately hold?
✦ Will the data in the spreadsheet be shared primarily in printed or online form?
All these questions are an attempt to get you to consider the basic purpose and function of the new spreadsheet before you start building it, so that you can come up with a design that is both economical and fully functional.