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Many people use Excel to analyze data and to “watch” data.  Did you know that you can have Excel play a sound or even a song when a cell changes if you want to alert someone?  In fact, you could trigger any kind of workflow you wanted.  This example shows how to call into the Win32 API using Excel to play a sound.

We first need to declare to Excel how to call into the Win32 API.  We also want to declare a public variable to keep track of the value in cell A1 so we can know when it changes.

First, add a module to the workbook that you will be using and add the following 2 lines of code:

Declare Function sndPlaySound32 Lib “winmm.dll” Alias “sndPlaySoundA” (ByVal lpszSoundName As String, ByVal uFlags As Long) As Long
 
Public CellValue As Variant ’store the cell value here

The first line is how you make Excel aware of the Win32 API call to play a sound.  The second line of code is declaring the global variable.

Second, we want to read in the value of cell A1 when the workbook first opens so we can keep track of when it changes.  Use the following code:
Private Sub Workbook_Open()
CellValue = Sheets(1).Range(”a1″)
End Sub

Now that we are storing what the value is and we have told Excel how to play the sound we now need to check the cell each time something on that sheet changes.  Use the following code:

Private Sub Worksheet_Calculate()
If Range(”a1″) > 1 And CellValue <> Range(”a1″) Then
    sndPlaySound32 “C:\Error.WAV”, 0
    CellValue = Range(”a1″)
End If
End Sub

‘if you want it to play the sound every time anything on the sheet changes, delete out the
‘parts about CellValue

Obviously you can add in any logic you would like.  You could choose to send an email, print the document to the printer or even using Unified Communications (UC) services (from companies such as http://www.engage2day.com) you could have the system IM someone or even have the system call them and let them know a threshold has been reached.  This may be overkill for an Excel spreadsheet but it certainly opens up the possibilities of what you can do with a simple Excel sheet.

The Page Setup window of Excel does not offer many choices for adding dynamic information into the header and footer.

To add the time the file was last saved use the following code:

Sub LastSavedTimeInFooter()
ActiveSheet.PageSetup.CenterFooter = ActiveWorkbook.BuiltinDocumentProperties(”Last Save Time”)
End Sub

Note, the above code will have to be manually run.  To have this happen automatically you could do the following:

Private Sub Workbook_BeforePrint(Cancel As Boolean)
ActiveSheet.PageSetup.CenterFooter = ActiveWorkbook.BuiltinDocumentProperties(”Last Save Time”)
End Sub

With this code it would automatically run every time you had to print and would always be updated on your hard-copies. 

Sometimes when writing a complex formula you may not know which sheet of data you want the value to come from.  Or, maybe the sheet will change based on some conditions.  This is easy to accomplish.

For example, the following formula will return the value in cell A1 of whichever sheet is typed into cell B1. 

=INDIRECT(ADDRESS(1,1,,,B1))

The INDIRECT function can be used for many useful dynamically determined values.  In this case, the Address function will return the full address of the cell you are looking for based on the current workbook.  So, if ”Sheet2″ is typed into cell B1, ADDRESS(1,1,,,B1) = Sheet2!$A$1.  If the value in cell B1 were changed to “JanuarySales” the value returned by the Address function would be JanuarySales!$A$1.

The power is in the Indirect function.  Indirect will return the value of the cell that you are passing into the function.  So, Indirect(”Sheet2!$A$1″) will return the value that is in cell A1 on Sheet2.

The wonderful power of Excel is that any of the parameters can be specified with other functions.  Maybe you need to use an If statement to properly determine which sheet to pull from.  =INDIRECT(ADDRESS(1,1,,,If(Month(Now())=1,”JanuarySales”,”FebruarySales”)))

Many people use Microsoft Excel to aggregate data from many sources or to analyze the data using Excel’s many great functions.  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to trigger work-flow or notifications if certain cells changed or maybe if they changed above a certain threshold?  This is easy to do.

First, open the workbook that contains the cells you would like to monitor.  Then press Ctrl+F11 to open the Visual Basic Code Editor.  You first need to tell Excel that you would like to be notified when cells on a particular sheet change.  You can do that with the following code.

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Sub auto_open()
‘if you make any changes to the code, you will need to save and reopen the workbook
ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(”Sheet1″).OnEntry = “DidCellsChange”
End Sub

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You have now wired the OnEntry event on the Sheet object to your code.  This method is called each time a cell changes.Now, all you have to do is have a Sub routine called “DidCellsChange” to catch the event.  The below example shows how to check to make sure that the cell being changed is within a range of cells which you care about.

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Sub DidCellsChange() ‘checks to see if the cells in the Range have changed
If Not Application.Intersect(ActiveCell, Range(”b5:b65″)) Is Nothing Then
  ‘ do your code here
  ‘ call out to a webservice or change the cell color or send an email, etc.
End If
End Sub

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Pretty simple.  Note, your workbook will have to be open for this to work because it is dependent on Excel’s formulas and features.

Download the full solution.

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The code for this is below:Dim FirstSheet As IntegerPrivate Sub cmdCancel_Click()
Unload Me
Sheets(FirstSheet).Select
End
End Sub

Private Sub cmdOk_Click()
Dim Total As Double, SubTotal As Double
Dim i As Integer
Dim StartTime As Variant
StartTime = Now()
Me.MousePointer = fmMousePointerHourGlass
Total = 0

If optThis.Value = True Then
    On Error Resume Next
    Total = Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas, 23).Count
End If
If optEntire.Value = True Then
    For i = 1 To ActiveWorkbook.Sheets.Count
        SubTotal = 0
        Sheets(i).Activate
        On Error Resume Next
        SubTotal = Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas, 23).Count
        Total = Total + SubTotal
    Next i
End If
If optSelection.Value = True Then
    Dim SelRange As Range
    Dim address As String
    address = RefEdit1.Value
    Set SelRange = Range(address)
    On Error Resume Next
    Total = SelRange.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas, 23).Count
End If
Me.MousePointer = fmMousePointerDefault
If Total = 0 Then
    MsgBox “There were no formulas counted.” & vbCrLf & “Total time: ” & Format(Now() - StartTime, “h:m:ss”), , “Formula Count”
Else
    MsgBox “There were ” & Format(Total, “###,###,###”) & ” formulas counted.” & vbCrLf & “Total time: ” & Format(Now() - StartTime, “h:m:ss”), , “Formula Count”
End If
Sheets(FirstSheet).Select
End Sub

Private Sub optEntire_Click()
Frame2.Visible = False
End Sub

Private Sub optSelection_Click()
Frame2.Visible = True
Frame2.SetFocus
End Sub

Private Sub optThis_Click()
Frame2.Visible = False
End Sub

Private Sub UserForm_Initialize()
optThis.Value = True
FirstSheet = ActiveWorkbook.ActiveSheet.Index
End Sub

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Download the full solution.

Here is some sample code that will document the formulas you have in your worksheet.  It will create a separate sheet named Formulas that will list all of the formulas being used.

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Public Sub DocumentFormulas()
‘——————————————————————————————
‘Created by Ryan Brown
‘This is a sample that will document the formulas from the sheet that it is run on
‘It will create a sheet called Formulas and you will get an error if a sheet named formulas
‘already exists.
‘It will put both the cell address and the cell formula into 2 separate columns
‘——————————————————————————————
Dim SelRange As Range
Dim oCell As Object
Dim strSheet As String
Dim i As Integer

strSheet = ActiveSheet.Name

’store all of the formulas on the given sheet into a range variable
Set SelRange = Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas, 23)

ActiveWorkbook.Sheets.Add
ActiveSheet.Name = “Formulas”

i = 1   ’start at cell A1

‘loop through each cell in the range of formulas and print the address and formula
For Each oCell In SelRange.Cells
    Sheets(”Formulas”).Cells(i, 1) = oCell.address
    Sheets(”Formulas”).Cells(i, 2).NumberFormat = “@”   ‘change cell format first to text so formula shows
    Sheets(”Formulas”).Cells(i, 2) = oCell.Formula
    i = i + 1
Next oCell
End Sub

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