Creating multipurpose worksheets
You’ve likely reached the tipping point in an Excel worksheet where so much data accumulates that you think, Wow, I should create a summary of this information. And away you go, adding another worksheet to your workbook. This, in turn, raises the bar on spreadsheet maintenance, as adding more information to the detailed worksheet can then require making continuous changes to keep the summary worksheet up to date. Instead of adding more worksheets, you may be able to use the Custom Views feature to have both detail and summary views on a single worksheet.
The Figure 8.1 shows a hypothetical financial report that we’ll use as the basis for our Custom Views. We’ll be able to toggle the worksheet between views to see details for the entire year and activity by quarter, as well as a third executive summary view, all from a single worksheet:
Figure 8.1 – Example data for creating a Custom View
