Often when people start building a project in Excel, they just start typing in Cell A1. If you have even a slightly complicated project, we recommend you first step back from the keyboard and do some planning.
One trick we often recommend is to conceptualize your spreadsheet project as two separate areas: A "work" area and a "print" area. This can have some nice, practical value if the printed report requirements do not include seeing how the values were obtained. Study this diagram to get the idea.
By placing the "corners" of the work area and the print area together, you could insert or delete rows or columns in one region and not disturb the layout of the other region.
The next "trick" becomes the process of moving information from the work area to the print area. Again, this will require a little planning, but Excel is quite helpful. What would happen in this sample spreadsheet in Cell D2? If you guessed that the contents of cell K55 would be displayed in Cell D2, you were correct!
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Sales Total | =K55 |
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This is the essence of the idea. You FIRST build the necessary document to be printed. What values are needed in this printed form will come from the work area. You will use the =Cell Address to copy what you need to the correct place in the printing area of your project. Easy to do and it may save you some headaches in trying to force the work area to also be used as a printed report form too!