Transform your day with top spreadsheet tips

After I open Excel Mobile, I click the file I had saved. Excel Mobile in Windows Mobile 6 Standard always shows a spreadsheet in a Full Screen view that uses the small screen as effectively as it can. It doesn’t show scrollbars or menus that would take up display space (Figure 3).

Clicking the soft keys reveals the two main menus: View and Menu. Clicking the left SOFT KEY brings up the View menu, which displays the viewing options. There are multiple sheets in this spreadsheet file and I decide to select the second sheet, “Assumptions” (Figure 4).

The contents of some spreadsheet cells might be too long to display entirely. This can happen even on a large PC screen and is common on a small phone screen (Figure 5).

Windows Mobile 6 Standard has a unique feature to help me out here. Pressing the phone’s Select soft key provides a special Cell Text view, which as you can see in Figure 6 shows the entire contents of a cell with a large font for easy reading. This feature is not present in Excel Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 Professional.

If I want to navigate quickly around a large spreadsheet on a small screen, Excel Mobile in Windows Mobile 6 Standard has another unique feature to help me there, too.

By clicking the left SOFT KEY to display the View menu, I can click Overview. This displays a thumbnail view of the entire sheet (Figure 7, Figure 8), so I can navigate quickly to the portion I want to see. Like the Cell Text view (visible in Figure 7), Overview is unique to Excel Mobile in Windows Mobile 6 Standard. By default, you are in view mode. (To return to view mode when in edit mode, click Menu, then click View.)

Using the Edit mode
We’ve been looking at the View mode so far. There is also an edit mode. To get there: click the right SOFT KEY below Menu, and then click Edit (Figure 9). In Edit mode I can change the contents of a cell as you can see in Figure 10.

In Figure 11, we see that the Edit mode menu is quite a bit different from the Edit menu in view mode that we saw above in Figure 9.

Clicking Close prompts me (Figure 12) to check what I want to name the file and where to save it. I’ve saved it to the Storage Card instead of Main Memory.

Displaying charts
Excel Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 Standard can display charts created using Excel 2007 for the PC or Excel Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 Professional (touch screen phones). However, you cannot modify the chart type or create a new chart (Figure 13).

Phones for Windows Mobile 6 Professional and Windows Mobile 6 Classic have touch screens. This means that you can use a pointing device (stylus) or even a finger (if you don’t mind fingerprints on your screen) to enter information or select areas of the screen as you would with a mouse on a PC. These phones often have larger displays and keyboards than those with Windows Mobile 6 Standard. These phones are also well suited for more intensive data entry in addition to data retrieval.

Excel Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 Professional has features above and beyond those already described for Excel Mobile for Windows Mobile 6 Standard. Here are some of the capabilities that I found the most interesting and useful:

At the bottom of the screen in Figure 14, you can see the Status Bar and Formatting toolbar, similar to tools available with Excel 2007 for the PC. You can hide them or use the Full Screen view to see more of the spreadsheet itself. Figure 15 shows the Full Screen view. You can also independently turn off the row and column headings as well as the vertical and horizontal scrollbars to see even more of the spreadsheet.

Creating charts
Figure 16 shows an Area chart. Other chart types that can be created using Excel Mobile on a touch screen phone are Column, Bar, Line, Pie, and XY (scatter).

You can also specify titles, x-y scales, and which series of data you want to use to create the chart.

I use Excel Mobile on touch screen phones for all kinds of uses. There are, of course, the usual work-related spreadsheets. But, I also track my automobile’s gas usage and mileage (very important these days) and keep my tax records on my phone: one worksheet for income, one for expenses. When I buy something, I go right into Excel Mobile and add it. I also use it to jot down ideas for blog entries, podcasts, and articles (like this one).

Although I know this will make database experts cringe, you can think of Excel Mobile as a kind of simple database. (I remember reading a comment from a Microsoft Excel Product Manager that Excel was probably the most widely used database in the world.)

So, take advantage of what is probably the most versatile built-in Windows Mobile application. Remember that you don’t need to be a number cruncher to use Excel Mobile. But, if you are a number cruncher, so much the better!

One More Tip. Buy and install an appropriately-sized flash storage card. Having Office Mobile on your Windows Mobile phone makes it more likely that you carry files with you or download attachments you receive in e-mail. Learn more about choosing and using storage cards.