If you are like me, you learn to do things one way and as long as that method continues to meet your needs, you look no further.
Such is not the case for programmers who would rather spend 30 minutes to find a way to save them 30 seconds later on.
Don Wood, who write the macros that allow us to do the very helpful sorts in the Index file, has recently pointed out a feature in Excel that few of us use.
It is called autofilter.
It is easier to show you what it will allow you to do than to describe it.
Just follow the instructions below.
- Go to the tph folder and double click on Indexes.
- Microsoft Excel should activate and you may or may not get a macros warning.
- If you get a macros warning, make sure you click the Enable macros button.
Let me interject a few comments about Macros.
If you did not get the message to enable macros, it is because of one of two reasons.
1) You have security set "high", therefore Excel never gives you the option to enable macros.
2) You have security set "low", therefore Excel allows all macros to run without your knowledge.
To change your Excel security, go to Tools > Macro > Security.
I suggest you set security to "medium" so you will get a message anytime a macro wants to run in Excel.
This way you have the option to allow macros to run.
Enabling macros is not required to use autofilters, but is required to use the predefined sorts.
In other words, without macros enabled, you will be all out of sorts. Sorry.
- Make sure you are on the Song Index by clicking Song Index at the bottom of the screen.
- On the menu bar at the top of the Excel screen, click on Data.
- From the Data menu, select Filter, then Autofilter.
- Notice the little down arrows across the second row titles.
- Click the down arrow for The Paperless Hymnal Volume and select (NonBlanks) from the menu.
- Use the scroll bar on the right side of your window to scroll down the page.
- Notice that only the songs found in The Paperless Hymnal are now listed.
- Also notice that the little down arrow for TPH is now blue.
- Click the down arrow for Songs of Faith and Praise and choose (NonBlanks) from the menu.
- Notice that only the songs found in TPH & SFP are now listed.
- To restore all row listings just turn AutoFilter off at Data / Filter.
- To turn one colume's Autofilter off, select its Autofilter down arrow and select All from the menu.
This is a great way to customize your index file to meet your specific needs.
One example is getting a list of only the songs for a specific song book.
Thanks Don.
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