John Walkenbach's Favorite Excel 2010 Tips and Tricks

Chapter 11. Spotting, Fixing, and Preventing Errors

Just because your spreadsheet doesn't display an error value doesn't mean that it's accurate. The tips in this part will help you identify, fix, and prevent errors.

Tips and Where to Find Them

• Tip 195 Using the Excel Error-Checking Features 419

• Tip 196 Identifying Formula Cells 421

• Tip 197 Dealing with Floating-Point Number Problems 424

• Tip 198 Removing Excess Spaces 426

• Tip 199 Viewing Names Graphically 428

• Tip 200 Locating Phantom Links 429

• Tip 201 Understanding Displayed versus Actual Values 430

• Tip 202 Tracing Cell Relationships 431

Using the Excel Error-Checking Features

If your worksheets use a lot of formulas, you might find it helpful to take advantage of the automatic error-checking feature. You enable this feature on the Formulas tab of the Excel Options dialog box (see Figure 195-1). To display this dialog box, choose File

You turn error checking on or off by using the Enable Background Error Checking check box. In addition, you can specify which types of errors to check by selecting check boxes in the Error Checking Rules section.

Figure 195.1. Excel can check your formulas for potential errors.

When error checking is turned on, Excel continually evaluates your worksheet, including its formulas. If a potential error is identified, ...