A Revised Cell Map!

In the Blog 'What is a Cell Map?', I included an image of a Cell Map. On reflection the presentation was muddled. A simpler and clearer design seemed worthwhile. The result below is more clearly rectangular, with the headings for the map, the formula table and the names/validation table matched along the same row.

The validation table is new and highlights where user inputs are limited by validation and the nature of the validation criteria.

The revised software is available at ACBA-Mapping. In addition, although software is intended to be intuitive and self explanatory, it rarely is. I have created a user group at MSExcelCellMapping@groups.io . You are welcome to join and ask questions about the software.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w3tHk1l-G9LjmCsOqMBkJpE9kaSj0iX_/view?usp=sharing

Spreadsheet errors and inconsistensies is a subject that is of concern by professional developers as well as amateurs. The European Spreadsheet Risk Interest Group (EuSpRIG) considers the problems from an academic and professional perspective. The following links provide access to the EuSpRIG website and discussion forum.

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Walberswick – June 2023

Patrick and I chose the hottest week of the year so far to stay at Esme’s caravan in Walberswick. I spent the first few days on my own to check the workings of the caravan. It is old and showing signs of wear and tear, but the absence of curtains in large south facing window was a real irritation. Bryony saved the day by bringing our large picnic table cloth, which we were able to pin over the window for shade. That turned out to be vital given the weather. I claim that it was all the fault of COVID 19 that I am now over weight and unfit. I used these first few days to identify how unfit I was. The answer turned out to be “very”. The walking of the shingle beach from the camp site to the Blythe estuary was a nightmare. In previous years, I would get up early and walk for an hour or so before considering the activity for the day. This was based on a circular walk up the river path and over the heathland that surrounds Walberswick. Morning Walk This took rather longer than I had

ACBA Mapping: Employing ‘UsedRange’ in Excel

When reviewing a worksheet the ACBA Mapping software uses VBA’s ‘UsedRange’ function to identify the full scope of the sheet. This function is excellent for identifying separate ranges employed in a worksheet, but has some drawbacks. One of these drawbacks has been identified while reviewing the Enron corpus of files ( https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Enron_Spreadsheets_and_Emails/1221767 ) The Enron corpus of spreadsheets and other correspondence is huge. Felienne Hermans however has whittled the number of workbooks down to 16,189 unique items. https://www.felienne.com/archives/3634 The workbook that clearly displayed the UsedRange issue is named ‘benjamin_rogers__938__historical outages.xlsx’. Clearly the files have been renamed to prevent duplicates. In this blog though I will refer to it as ‘Historical Outages’. In the original Mapping software, users were advised when the ‘UsedRange’ exceeded half a million cells. This allows the user to escape from the process and t

What is a Cell Map?

It is a simplified, colour coded version of an Excel Worksheet. The map shows the structure of the worksheet, its input cells, constants, primary formula and 'named' ranges. The map is designed for spreadsheet developers who work in isolation (i.e. not part of a team), but who, nevertheless, build complex spreadsheet systems. It highlights oddities and inconsistencies within a spreadsheet structure. Excel has its own built-in auditing and mapping tools. Excel's name manager and formula auditing tools These are useful for auditing one formula or one name, but they become overburdened with detail when trying to audit/review a whole worksheet. The ACBA Mapping [A revised version of the software is now available. Stephen Allen 05 September 2023] utility generates a map of the original spreadsheet and three map keys to aid the interpretation of the detail. For example, I went on strict weight reducing diet last year where I measured the weight/volume of everythin

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