12 instances of the same sheet

users
#1

Hi guys (and girls),

I need to create a spreadsheet with a sheet for each month of the
year. This per-month sheet is actually quite complex, involving
a lot of formatting, DDE(), and VLOOKUP() calls etc.. Therefore,
I would really like to create one master sheet that has the month
parametrised (which I know how to do).

But how can I instantiated 12 sheets from a master sheet such that
changes to the master apply to all 12 sheets? For instance, if
I change the formatting of a cell, or the DDE() function call, how
can I make sure that I don't have to make this change 12 times?

Have you had any experienced with the like?

I've considered creating just one sheet for all 12 months, but it
just gets too wide and isn't really nice to deal with anymore. I've
also considered providing 12 forms as "views" into the sheet, but
that does seem like overkill too.

Does anyone know what I should best do?

#2

For cell formatting, instead of making local changes to cell formats, create cell styles as necessary and apply these to appropriate cell ranges. When you need to change the formatting of a cell or cell range, modify the style instead.

For function calls, you may be able to achieve what you need by making those calls refer in some way back to a master sheet:
o If you need, say, identical function calls on your many sheets, you could put the function call on the master sheet and have each dependent sheet merely refer to the result expressed there.
o In other cases, it may be possible to create a more complicated function call on the dependent sheets, where the parameters of the function call themselves refer back to a controlling (and adjustable) value on the master sheet. The master sheet would not itself have the function calls but would have cells whose contents controlled the function calls elsewhere.

But there is another trick that will help. Use Shift+click or Ctrl+click on the sheet tabs to select multiple sheets. Changes that you make whilst multiple sheets are selected apply to all those sheets.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker