Excel: Special characters in sheet name

[annsolomon]

I right-clicked on the sheet tab and attempted to rename the sheet "1/1/08" (without the quotes). The slashes are not accepted. How can I use special characters in the sheet name?

Ann

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

Try 1-1-08

But I'd advise against making a tab for each day or week or month. It is not a sound, best or accepted design practice.

Make a additional column for your date entry and then use Excel's analysis & reporting features to zoom in or select a particular day, week, month, quarter, year, decade, century etc.

Skip,
[sub]
When a diminutive clarvoyant had disappeared from detention, headlines read...
Small Medium at Large[/sub]

 

[annsolomon]

Thanks, Skip. I wonder why the dash is accepted but not the slash. Do you know where I can find a list of other restricted characters?

By the way, I intended to collect weekly data on each sheet so 1-1-08 is a Week Ending date. Do you still think I'm off base here?

Ann

 

[combo]

I tried to use an invalid character in sheet's name and got limitations in direct message:
- max 31 characters,
- no any of: :, \, /, ?, *, [ or ],
- no empty mame.
Does it work for you?

combo

 

[xlbo]

Yes you are off base. Data should be STORED in one place such that you can REPORT from it easily. People often get data storage and reporting mixed up and try to combine them. Unless you are storing so much data that excel cannot handle in a single sheet, there is no good reason to store data on seperate sheets. You should store it all on the same sheet with the appropriate Date. As long as you have dates next to the data, it is very easy to aggregate for weeks / months / quarters etc...

Rgds, Geoff

We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colours but they all live in the same box.

Please read FAQ222-2244 before you ask a question

 

[SkipVought]

Ditto Geoff!!!

Chopping data up into different weeks, renders its usefullness about equivalent to a paper in a file drawer.

Skip,
[sub]
When a diminutive clarvoyant had disappeared from detention, headlines read...
Small Medium at Large[/sub]