Is it possible to have excel impose certain formatting on files that you open?

We get reports from a 3rd party, and they recently started providing them in
excel (.xls) format (used to be html).

Problem is, the sheets are setup to print the report on one page, which is
fine for the short ones, but the longer ones are shrunk down so much that
they are illegible.

We are working with this 3rd party on it, but that doesn't look to hopeful.
Also we do around 700 of these reports so changing the formatting each time
would be too cumbersome (the process is bad enough already).

Is there some way I can have the page setup change automatically each time?

I am using excel 2007 and the incoming sheets are in the old xls format.

Thanks in advance.

Try this

=TEXT(J4,"hh:mm am/pm")&"-"&TEXT(K4,"hh:mm am/pm")
Mike

"sopclod" wrote:

Is it possible to have excel impose certain formatting on files that you open?

We get reports from a 3rd party, and they recently started providing them in
excel (.xls) format (used to be html).

Problem is, the sheets are setup to print the report on one page, which is
fine for the short ones, but the longer ones are shrunk down so much that
they are illegible.

We are working with this 3rd party on it, but that doesn't look to hopeful.
Also we do around 700 of these reports so changing the formatting each time
would be too cumbersome (the process is bad enough already).

Is there some way I can have the page setup change automatically each time?

I am using excel 2007 and the incoming sheets are in the old xls format.

Thanks in advance.

If you're receiving these workbooks, then you're probably going to have trouble
asking them to include any macro that would reformat the worksheet(s) the way
you want. (If it they were willing to change, they'd just fix the worksheets
before they sent them.)

But what you can do is create a utility workbook that contains macros that do
all the work for you. Then you could share this workbook with anyone who needs
it on your end (and maybe the sender's end???).

You could record a macro (or a few macros) that do all the work that you need.
Then create a way for your users to run the macros (alt-f8 isn't the nicest
way).

Then save this utility workbook as an addin. Distribute it to the users and
tell them to open it when they need to do the reformatting.

=========

Since you're sharing with others, don't share a workbook named personal.xls.
Excel only allows one workbook with that name to be open in any particular
instance.

If the recipients have their own personal.xls workbook, then they'll have to
close that file and open yours.

Instead create a new utility workbook that contains all your macros. Name it
BugZeeUtils.xls and tell them to save it in a particular location on their
harddrive (like: C:\ExcelUtilities\sopclodutils.xls

This file can have code that creates the button on the toolbar when it opens and
removes the button when it closes.

For additions to the worksheet menu bar, I really like the way John Walkenbach
does it in his menumaker workbook:
http://j-walk.com/ss/excel/tips/tip53.htm

Here's how I do it when I want a toolbar:
http://www.contextures.com/xlToolbar02.html
(from Debra Dalgleish's site)

In xl2007, those toolbars and menu modifications will show up under the addins.

And if you use xl2007:

If you want to learn about modifying the ribbon, you can start at Ron de Bruin's
site:
http://www.rondebruin.nl/ribbon.htm
http://www.rondebruin.nl/qat.htm -- For macros for all workbooks (saved as an
addin)
or
http://www.rondebruin.nl/2007addin.htm

sopclod wrote:

Is it possible to have excel impose certain formatting on files that you open?

We get reports from a 3rd party, and they recently started providing them in
excel (.xls) format (used to be html).

Problem is, the sheets are setup to print the report on one page, which is
fine for the short ones, but the longer ones are shrunk down so much that
they are illegible.

We are working with this 3rd party on it, but that doesn't look to hopeful.
Also we do around 700 of these reports so changing the formatting each time
would be too cumbersome (the process is bad enough already).

Is there some way I can have the page setup change automatically each time?

I am using excel 2007 and the incoming sheets are in the old xls format.

Thanks in advance.

--

Dave Peterson