Monday 15 August 2011

AET Chart Tools

When working with lots of charts in a workbook, you can quickly find yourself overwhelmed. AET Chart Tools make working with charts a lot easier.



Problem 1
I have so many charts, I don't what sheets have which charts or where they are on the sheet. Scrolling around is driving me crazy!

Solution - Use the Chart Selecter tool
The Chart Selecter tool allows you see all charts in the active workbook and select them without having to scroll to where they are.

Problem 2
I have to reset the ranges or labels in a lot of charts. Not only is it time consuming, it's also prone to user error since it's such a boring and repetitive task.

Solution - Use the Series Find and Replace tool
It helps you find and replace in series values in the active chart, all charts on the active sheet, or the entire workbook.

Problem 3
I have so many charts, with so many series. Sometimes the chart type and series chart type are different, some have a secondary axis, etc, etc. I wish there was a way I could see the details of all the charts I'm working with.

Solution - Use the Workbook Chart Report
It tells you details of all charts in the workbook. Information includes the Sheet Name, Chart Name, Chart Type, Series Name, Series Formula (range references and series number), Series Axis Type and Series Chart Type.

Problem 4
All of the tools above sound good. But my workbook is so slow and it takes so long for my charts to render. Is there a faster way to see them?

Solution - Export the charts as images
The Export Charts as Pictures tool allows you to export whatever charts you want from the active workbook as GIF, JPG or PNG files. Using Preview on Windows Explorer right-click menu, you can browse through the charts that you exported using the navigation arrow buttons at the bottom. This is also a great way to keep a backup of your charts so you know what they looked like before you edited them.

You can download AET Chart Tools here!

27 comments :

  1. looks good mate! Will try it out soon
    Keep up the good work
    Ross

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  2. Hi Ross,

    Glad you like it. IMHO it saves a fair bit of time :-)

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  3. Looking forward to see again some smart Excel tips from you!

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  4. Thanks Sige. I'll do my best :-)

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  5. Thanks Andrew for the useful tool. I have an excel sheet with dozens of charts linked to data in the sheet. When I duplicated the sheet for putting another set of data, the charts in the duplicated sheet linked to the source worksheet. I spent more than one hour to find solution for batch search and replace text trings in excel charts without luck before I found your solution. Your tool did it very efficiently! Great help and many thanks!

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  6. Saved me a whole lot of time and boredom! Thanks a bunch!

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  7. Thank you so much! Works amazing- saving me hours!
    -Ashlyn

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  8. Awesome! Thank you very much!

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  9. Thanks, Andrew! Series search and replace saved me hours of work!

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  10. Great stuff - a nice timesaver, though it doesn't seem to work across all charts in a workbook, still made life much easier updating about ten graphs with ~20 data series each.

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  11. This is fabulous! Thank you!! I might get to leave work early today :-)

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  12. The tool is very useful... a great time saver... however, in my limited testing it appears that the Search and Replace does not work within formulas of my custom error bars in a chart.

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    Replies
    1. Have not tested with all chart types in all versions. Sorry.

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  13. Thanks man! Works perfect!

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  14. This is great thanks Andrew!

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  15. This is amazing!!! Saved me tons of time!!

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  16. Very good to see so many positive reviews. Great to hear I helped you all save time :-)

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  17. I'm having a bit of an issue with this tool now. I'm wondering if you can help me.
    It worked perfectly for many months but I must've changed something that interrupted the code. I tried removing and reinstalling but it's still giving me Run-Time Error '91'.
    Help?

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  18. Please send me an email. (See the About tab above). I will need to know which tool(s), which line of code, what version of Excel and what was selected (cells, charts, etc).

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  19. Great stuff! Thanks so much for making this available.

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  20. Just used this in Excel 2013 and it worked like a charm! Thanks very much for the free solution - you just saved me about 2 hours!

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  21. Thanks for this tool. works perfectly with Excel 2013!

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  22. Thanks. has been great help..

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  23. So close, yet so far. I have Excel 2011 for MAC. I get the following message.

    Run-time error '5':
    Invalid procedure, call or argument

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    Replies
    1. Sorry, I have no experience programming with Macs, and don' own one to test with, so I can't help you.

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  24. Brilliant! really!!

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