"Pretty print" for long equations?

P

parthb

So I use Excel for a lot of engineering analysis, and end up plugging
in long tedious equations. Due to the complexity of these equations,
it takes a really long time to make sure everything's right, and that
all the parentheses are in order so nothing gets messed up.

So I end up spending hours at times debugging these formulas, and I was
wondering if there's any tool or add-on that can let me view the formula
that I typed in a more symbolic way... kind of like how the newer TI
calculators have 'pretty-print'... This would literally save us
hours!

Please let me know if there's any such tool or anything out there!

Thanks a lot!
 
J

John James

If you press the Ctrl and tilde (~) keys together, your worksheet
toggles between showing values and showing the underlying formulae. Is
this what you want?
 
B

Bryan Hessey

Try
http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/28468

--
So I use Excel for a lot of engineering analysis, and end up pluggin
in long tedious equations. Due to the complexity of these equations
it takes a really long time to make sure everything's right, and tha
all the parentheses are in order so nothing gets messed up.

So I end up spending hours at times debugging these formulas, and I wa
wondering if there's any tool or add-on that can let me view the formul
that I typed in a more symbolic way... kind of like how the newer T
calculators have 'pretty-print'... This would literally save u
hours!

Please let me know if there's any such tool or anything out there!

Thanks a lot!
 
B

Bob Phillips

One trick that I use is to split the formula by embedding ALt-Enter in the
formula so that it spans multiple lines.

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(remove nothere from email address if mailing direct)
 
J

John James

Also ... To understand what complex formulae are doing, I've found the
"Evaluate formula" icon on the Formula auditing toolbar a helpful tool.
This enables you to loop through the individual of parts of the formula
to see what value they evaluate to.
 
T

Teodomiro

John said:
Also ... To understand what complex formulae are doing, I've found the
"Evaluate formula" icon on the Formula auditing toolbar a helpful tool.
This enables you to loop through the individual of parts of the formula
to see what value they evaluate to.

This sounds great! But I can't find it. Is it available in Excel
2000, or was it added later?
 
B

Bob Phillips

This came in Excel 200 (XP). In previous versions, you can select a part of
the formula in the formula bar, and then hit F9 to evaluate it. Ctrl-Z
restores the formula.

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(remove nothere from email address if mailing direct)
 

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