Monday, January 10, 2011

How Green is Your Excel?

Have you seen the little green triangle in the upper left corner of a cell in Excel?

What is this green triangle?




It simply tells you that something is wrong with the formula in the cell.  It may not create an error message; but when you click on the green triangle, you'll see a yellow exclamation point.

Click on the drop down next to the yellow exclamation point and Excel will provide some possible answers.

If you have Excel 2007 or 2010, the yellow exclamation point provides you with a "trace error" function which helps follow the formula to find out where there may be a mistake.

Understand these "smart tags" like the green triangle and you'll be able to correct errors without a lot of frustration.

2 comments:

  1. I need my workbook to add the green tags. The only way that they will appear is that if I edit the cell and then click out of the cell. Please advise.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Tommy,
    If you do not see the green triangle, your error checking may not be enabled. Follow these steps to enable it:
    Click the Microsoft Office Button Button image, click Excel Options, and then click the Formulas category.
    Under Error Checking, select the Enable background error checking check box.
    Click the Indicate errors using this color button, and then select a new color from the palette.

    ReplyDelete

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