Tools For Excel 

Several Excel developers have written free utilities and add-ins for Excel that will help make many task easier and more convenient.  This pages describes several of the most common and widely used.  These are the "must have" add-ins for Excel power users. 

Most are free. 

Microsoft Excel Viewer

This program allows users who do not have Excel on their computers to view Excel files.  The viewer allows users to see the contents of a workbook, but no change any values or perform any calculations.  Download from Microsoft.

 

         FindLink by Bill Manville

This add-in is the perfect tool to help you track down links in your workbooks.  It searches out links in formulas, defined names, and controls.  Download from Stephen Bullen's site.

 

 

RemoveMenus by Jim Rech

This add-in allows you to remove menus created in Excel version 5 or 95 from your workbooks.  Once you've converted a workbook to version 97 or 2000, you can't remove menus created in an earlier version.  This add-in allows you to do this. Download from Stephen Bullen's site.

 

 

VBA CodeCleaner by Rob Bovey 

As you do extensive editing to a VBA project, lots of "garbage" gets left in the file because VBA doesn't properly clean up after itself.  Not only does this increase the file size, but it can lead to very strange behavior at run time.  CodeCleaner exports all your VBA code to text files, removes the modules from your project, and then imports the code from the text files.   This forces VBA to clean out all the garbage and start with a "clean" copy of the code.   I very strongly recommend this add-in.  Download from Rob Bovey's site.  (Or download the version for Excel5/95.)

 

Dialog Converter by Rob Bovey

When Excel97 was introduced, it replaced the existing Dialog Sheets with the far more powerful UserForm objects.  However, it didn't provide a way to convert existing dialog sheets to the new UserForms.  Rob's Dialog Converter automates this tedious and cumbersome task. Dowload from Rob Bovey's site.

 

VBA Code Documenter by Rob Bovey

This add-in will document the "vital statistics" of your VBA project.  Dowload from Rob Bovey's site. 

Excel Utility Kit by Rob Bovey

This is a collection of 25 routines that assist in working with defined names, worksheet settings, and range selections.  Dowload from Rob Bovey's site.

 

FaceIDs For Command Buttons by John Walkenbach

When you create your own command buttons on toolbars, you'll want to assign an image to the button.  Unfortunately, unless you know what image corresponds to what ID number, this isn't an easy task.  John's FaceID add-in displays each image, and its ID number, that you can use on a command button (and there are a lot more than you may think!).  Download from John Walkenbach's site.

 

ASAP Utilities

Created by Bastien Mensink in the Netherlands,  this is a fantastic collection of over 300 utilities, all very well organized into a menu structure added to the Excel menu bar.  This is truly one of the best and most useful add-ins I've ever used.  Download from www.asap-utilities.com

 

  MZTools by Carlos Quintero

This is one of the best add-ins for the Visual Basic Editor ever written.  It provides hundreds of tools to make coding easier.  Available free from www.mztools.com .

 

 
  Power Utility Pak (PUP) by John Walkenbach

This is the only "for a fee" utility I list here. I was inclined not to list any non-free utilities, but PUP version 5 is so good and so useful, that I couldn't resist. (And no, I don't get anything for referrals from here.)  This is a truly remarkable set of tools.  PUP version 5 (works only in Excel 2000 or later -- not 97) costs US$40, or US$60 with the full VBA source code. See J-Walk & Associates PUP page  for more details and ordering information.

 

 
  Google Search Utility by Ron de Bruin

This free add-in makes is simple to search directly from within Excel the Excel newsgroups via Google.com for answers to questions stored in Google's vast archives of the usenet newsgroups. 

Download directly from Ron's web site.

 

 
  Name Manager by Jan Karel Pieterse

The basic interface in Excel for managing defined names is, to put it charitably, lacking.  Excel MVP Jan Karel Pieterse has written a great add in for managing the defined names in a workbook. 
Download from http://www.jkp-ads.com/Download.htm#namemanager .

 

Smart Indenter by Stephen Bullen

This add-in properly indents VBA code for a structured and professional format. Download from www.oaltd.co.uk/Indenter

VBE Tools by Stephen Bullen

A variety of extension tools for the VBA Editor. Download from www.oaltd.co.uk/VBETools

VBA Code Compare

A very nice add-in that compares and manages changes in VBA Projects.
http://www.formulasoft.com/vba-code-compare.html

 

 

 

The bottom line:

For VBA, the best utility is MZTools, by Carlos Quintero.

For Excel, the best utility is ASAP Utilities (free) or Power Utility Pak (US$40).

 

Have you found other utilities that are "Must Have's" for Excel users?  Send me an email and I'll add it to the list.  The only requirement is that the add-in or workbook be free.