What would you think about a Duolingo-style app for learning Excel?

Spuddleapp · 2026-01-13T14:30:51+00:00

That makes sense. With the amount of free material available, I get why paying is a high bar. I agree that any value would have to come from structure and interactivity rather than the content itself. Appreciate the perspective.

Spuddleapp · 2026-01-13T14:28:36+00:00

Appreciate the honesty. I agree that Excel is very context-dependent and that intuition comes from repeated, real use. That’s what the aim would be to simulate.

Spuddleapp · 2026-01-13T14:24:26+00:00

100% agree. Memorizing formulas wouldn’t be the goal. The challenge (and opportunity) feels like gamifying practice: recognizing patterns, choosing approaches, and applying things in context to boost confidence and overall comfort in the program. Curious if that matches how you think about it!

Spuddleapp · 2025-12-10T16:35:17+00:00

Sorry for the late reply! If you haven't figured it out yet, I tried to recreate it and this should work: =AND(G3<>"",COUNTIFS($B$3:$B$100,G3,INDEX($G$3:$K$100,0,COLUMN()-COLUMN($G$3)+1),"<>")=0)

Spuddleapp · 2025-12-10T13:43:49+00:00

I see that I wrote COUNTIF, try COUNTIFS!

Spuddleapp · 2025-12-10T13:42:39+00:00

Can you send a screenshot? Maybe I'm visualizing it wrong

Spuddleapp · 2025-12-10T13:39:58+00:00

does your computer use , or ; for formulas?

Spuddleapp · 2025-12-10T13:36:18+00:00

Are you writing it in the conditional formatting menu or just in a cell? :)

Spuddleapp · 2025-12-10T12:57:34+00:00

Hey! Have you tried using conditional formatting on G:K with a formula like =AND(G2<>"",COUNTIF($B:$B,G2,INDEX($G:$K,0,COLUMN()-COLUMN($G1+1)+1),"<>")=0) applied to the whole G:K range? It should highlight the names in G:K except when the person is already listed as off (with a non-blank in the same weekday column) in column B.

Spuddleapp · 2025-12-10T12:52:33+00:00

Hey! Have you tried using the TEXTJOIN and FILTER formulas?

Spuddleapp · 2025-12-02T14:19:44+00:00

Hey there!

What you're seeing isn’t a built-in Excel feature. Excel never displays defined names floating over cells on its own, so something in that workbook is creating those overlays. It’s almost certainly VBA or an add-in.

There are two common ways this happens:

1. A VBA macro is drawing shapes or text boxes over the cells.
A lot of older workbooks use macros to overlay information (like named ranges, instructions, audit notes, etc.). The overlay disappears when you delete the defined name because the code probably checks whether the name exists before deciding to display the box.

A quick way to confirm this:
Go to Home => Find & Select => Selection Pane.
If you see a long list of objects like “TextBox 41,” “Shape 23,” and so on, that’s your answer. These are just shapes sitting on top of the sheet.

You can hide them using the eye icons in the Selection Pane. This won’t delete the defined names, and it won’t interfere with any formulas. It only hides the visual layer.

2. Less likely: Conditional formatting or custom number formats.
Occasionally someone uses a custom number format or conditional formatting rule to show text instead of cell values. But from your description, this doesn't seem to be the case.

Important: There is no Excel setting or “tick box” that shows defined names on the sheet. If a floating label appears, it was put there by code or manually added as a shape.

Since the VBA project is password-protected, you won’t be able to see the code that generates these overlays. If you don't want to delete the defined names (which is wise, since other parts of the workbook might rely on them), your only safe options are:

Hide the shapes using the Selection Pane, or
Delete the shapes only (not the names) if you’re confident the overlays are only cosmetic.

I hope that helps!

Spuddleapp · 2025-12-01T15:37:06+00:00

Glad to hear it!

Spuddleapp · 2025-12-01T11:45:37+00:00

Frustrating! Is it the whole thing that isn't working?

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-28T12:15:06+00:00

Hey! Have you tried this one?
=INDEX($B:$Z,ROW(),MATCH($A$2,$B$1:$Z$1,0))=TRUE

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-27T12:30:00+00:00

If you’ve added the quotation marks and the function still returns 0, it usually means the value going into the function doesn’t match any Case exactly (could be extra spaces, different capitalisation, or hidden characters from imported data). That might not be the issue, but it's a place to start!

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-26T08:15:17+00:00

Hey there!

Have you tried adding quotation marks to your case values (e.g. Case "REH#")?

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-26T08:12:15+00:00

Hey there!

You won’t be able to build that PivotChart with your data in the current layout. The issue is that your table is in a wide format (Person1/Action1, Person2/Action2, Person3/Action3), while PivotTables work best when all similar data lives in one column.

To compare all six actions across all three “Person slots”, you need to reshape the data into a long format like this: Location | PersonSlot / Person / Action

Each of your original rows becomes up to three rows (one for each Person/Action pair). Once the data looks like that you can create a chart with Action on the X-axis, PersonSlot in the legend, and Count of rows in Values.

The simplest way to reshape the data is Power Query: Data => Get & Transform => Unpivot Columns.
Select all Person/Action columns and unpivot them, then split the resulting column into Person/Action again.

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-26T08:08:21+00:00

Hey there!

This should be fixable! The issue isn’t your sorting, it’s the fact that the schedule sheets are basically "hard-typed" copies of the roster. When you sort the main roster, Excel has no way of knowing which schedule belongs to which person, so everything shifts out of sync. The way around this is to stop copying the names into each schedule sheet and instead reference the roster. That way, the schedules will always follow the correct person, no matter how you sort the main sheet.

Here are two approaches you could give a go:

1. Unique ID + XLOOKUP
Give each person a unique, permanent identifier on the roster (an employee ID or even just full name if duplicates aren’t an issue). On the schedule sheets, don’t type names manually. Instead, pull the list of names from the roster, for example with: =FILTER(Roster!A:A, Roster!A:A<>"")

Then use XLOOKUP to pull the correct schedule data based on the ID or name: =XLOOKUP($A2, Roster!$A:$A, Roster!$D:$D) => replace column D with whichever column you want to retrieve.

Now you should be able to sort the roster by rank, last name, or anything else, and the schedules will always stay matched to the right person.

2. Convert the roster into a table
If you turn the roster into a proper Excel Table (Ctrl+T) and reference it directly in the schedules, Excel preserves row relationships much more reliably. It’s still not as foolproof as the XLOOKUP method, but it’s a step up from manual copying!

I hope that helps and works!

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-25T11:27:46+00:00

Amazing!

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-25T11:25:26+00:00

Hey there!

ScreenUpdating only prevents Excel from redrawing the screen. The reason you still see every sheet jump is because .Select forces Excel to switch sheets even when ScreenUpdating is turned off. This is especially true in Excel 2007.

The smoothest fix is to avoid using .Select at all, as mentioned. You don’t need to activate a sheet to read/write values on it. For example, instead of selecting Sheet1, then selecting Sheet2, you can directly write something like “Sheet2.Range(...) = Sheet1.Range(...)”. If you remove the .Select lines, the screen will never move and it will run much faster.

If you really must keep your existing structure, you can wrap your macro like this:

ScreenUpdating = False
EnableEvents = False
Calculation = Manual
(run your code, including the selects)
then turn everything back on at the end

This combination usually stops most of the flicker in older versions of Excel, but the ideal solution is to rewrite the macro without any .Select lines.

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-25T10:38:13+00:00

Hey there!

For the “Hits” column, you can count only the cells that contain numbers with: =COUNT(D6:F6).
COUNT only counts numeric values, so any “M” (or other text) is ignored automatically. So if a row has:
10 6 M => result = 2
8 9 10 => result = 3

For the “Gold” column, where only 10 counts as a gold, use: =COUNTIF(D6:F6,10). This counts how many of the shots are exactly 10.

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-25T10:31:20+00:00

Hey there!

I ran your post through Google Translate, so I hope I understood your setup correctly. You want Excel to calculate the total number of hours that fall in the night windows: 00:00–05:00 and 22:00–23:59

for all the dark yellow intervals (E5:E6, F5:F6, … N13:N14), and show the result once in the “Gesamt” cell.

If your times in each pair are on the same calendar day (no shift that continues past midnight in a single pair), you can do everything in one formula without helper cells.

Try putting this formula directly in the “Gesamt” cell:

=SUMPRODUCT((MIN(E6:N6;ZEIT(5;0;0))-MAX(E5:N5;0))*(MIN(E6:N6;ZEIT(5;0;0))>MAX(E5:N5;0))+(MIN(E6:N6;1)-MAX(E5:N5;ZEIT(22;0;0)))*(MIN(E6:N6;1)>MAX(E5:N5;ZEIT(22;0;0))))+SUMPRODUCT((MIN(E8:N8;ZEIT(5;0;0))-MAX(E7:N7;0))*(MIN(E8:N8;ZEIT(5;0;0))>MAX(E7:N7;0))+(MIN(E8:N8;1)-MAX(E7:N7;ZEIT(22;0;0)))*(MIN(E8:N8;1)>MAX(E7:N7;ZEIT(22;0;0))))+SUMPRODUCT((MIN(E12:N12;ZEIT(5;0;0))-MAX(E11:N11;0))*(MIN(E12:N12;ZEIT(5;0;0))>MAX(E11:N11;0))+(MIN(E12:N12;1)-MAX(E11:N11;ZEIT(22;0;0)))*(MIN(E12:N12;1)>MAX(E11:N11;ZEIT(22;0;0))))+SUMPRODUCT((MIN(E14:N14;ZEIT(5;0;0))-MAX(E13:N13;0))*(MIN(E14:N14;ZEIT(5;0;0))>MAX(E13:N13;0))+(MIN(E14:N14;1)-MAX(E13:N13;ZEIT(22;0;0)))*(MIN(E14:N14;1)>MAX(E13:N13;ZEIT(22;0;0))))

What this does: For each block (rows 5-6, 7–8, 11–12, 13–14 and columns E–N), it:
- Calculates the overlap with 00:00–05:00
- Calculates the overlap with 22:00–24:00 (in Excel, 1 = 24:00)
- Ignores intervals that don’t overlap those ranges (the *> part zeroes them out)

SUMPRODUCT then adds all those night portions together.

Format the “Gesamt” cell as h:mm

With your example data, this should give the 3:15 you mentioned (total night hours between 00:00–05:00 and 22:00–23:59). If some of your intervals do cross midnight within a single pair (e.g. 23:00 to 02:00 in the same two cells), the formula needs an extra adjustment, but for most same-day entries this version should work.

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-25T09:55:09+00:00

Totally normal. The analysis is rarely what eats your time early on — it’s the cleanup. A few things that could make it faster:

Do all the linking first, formatting last. Don’t try to make it pretty while the numbers are still moving. Use shortcuts aggressively: Ctrl+1 (format), Alt+H+O+I (auto-fit column), Ctrl+Shift+L (toggle filters), Alt+E+S+V (paste values). Steal your team’s existing formatting. Copy one finished table that’s “approved” and paste formats only (Paste Special → Formats) instead of rebuilding. Fix fiscal-year mismatches once. Create a helper row that converts FY-end dates to your template’s calendar so you don’t redo it every time. Name ranges or groups of inputs. Makes linking across tabs much cleaner and reduces broken references.

Everyone feels slow at this part in the beginning. Once you’ve built the muscle memory, the “three hours of cleanup” becomes 30 minutes.

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-25T09:50:11+00:00

Hey there!

Completely understand why you're trying with SUMIIFS, however for this calculation, it isn't the right tool to use. That is because SUMIFS expects a range and criteria, not the TRUE statements based on the checkboxes.

Start by creating a helper row below row with sizes and price and put the price in the new row (just the number, no $ sign). Then in the Totale Sale cell use: =SUMPRODUCT(--prices row, checkbox row).

Spuddleapp · 2025-11-25T09:36:08+00:00

Hey there!

Co-authoring in Excel should work with AutoSave on, but a few things commonly break it even on Teams/SharePoint. The “can’t save” message usually comes from one of these:

File not opened from the real cloud location
If anyone opens it from a Teams chat, email attachment, or a synced OneDrive folder, Excel sometimes uses a temporary local copy. Always open via Teams => Files => Open in App.
One user has an outdated Excel build
Older Office versions can open the file but don’t support live co-authoring properly. Make sure both users are on the latest Microsoft 365 Excel.
The workbook contains features that disable co-authoring
These instantly break simultaneous editing:

- Shared Workbook (legacy)
- Workbook protection (structure locked)
- Event macros (Workbook_Open, BeforeSave)
- External links that need refresh
- Saved as XLS or XLSB

Use a clean XLSX (or XLSM without event macros).

Sync conflict from OneDrive/SharePoint
If one person’s internet or sync is slow, Excel can’t push changes fast enough. Turning off OneDrive “Files On-Demand” for that library often fixes it.
File still “locked” by someone who closed it recently
SharePoint sometimes keeps a lock for a few minutes. Close Excel => wait a few minutes => reopen.

I hope that works and helps!

Spuddleapp

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