Force Byte - Group editing features in Excel

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Last time we establish a group of four quarterly expenditure worksheets, we can now use some group editing features to facilitate our work. The "Fill" command is one of them. Using this command is similar to using the "Copy and Paste" commands but it is much simpler.

For example, originally we enter data in the "Expense 1" worksheet only and the other three worksheets are blank, we first select a cell range (e.g. A1:F10) containing the repetitive data in the "Expense 1" worksheet. Then we can choose the "Across Worksheets" command from the "Fill" submenu of the "Edit" menu. Remember this command is not available until a group of sheets has been selected. In the "Fill Across Worksheets" dialog box shown, you select the "Contents" option and click "OK" to copy the text and values entered in "Expense 1" into "Expense 2", "Expense 3" and "Expense 4".

Now all we have to do is just to edit the headings (e.g. First Quarter Expenditure) in "Expense 2", "Expense 3" and "Expense 4" to read Second Quarter, Third Quarter and Fourth Quarter respectively, and enter the proper amounts for each expense item. For any formulas defined, they will be copied correctly using the "Across Worksheets" command.

There are also other group editing features in Excel to let you perform a number of other actions on the same cells of all member sheets simultaneously:

Action	Effect
Entering Text	Whatever you type in one sheet is replicated in all sheets belonging to the group.
Printing	When editing a group, every sheet in your group is applied with all printing commands on the "File" menu at the same time.
Formatting	Any formatting changes you make with the Number, Alignment, Font, Border, Patterns and Protection tabs in the "Format Cells" dialog box are applied to all members at the same time. The results of the Row, Column, AutoFormat, Conditional Formatting, and Style commands are also applied across sheets in group editing mode.
Editing Item	All commands on the "Edit" menu except "Find and Replace" will be applied to every member at the same time.
Inserting Item	The Cells, Rows, Columns and Function commands to insert the corresponding items are also applied in every sheet in the group simultaneously.

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