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Hospital Annual Report Newsletter |
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In this third issue of the e-newsletter for Hospital Annual Report (HAR) preparers, we will be going over a few Microsoft Excel tools and tips we have discovered over the course of the last few years. Some of you may be aware of these features already, but for those of you who are not, we hope this information will be useful. |
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Microsoft Excel |
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Microsoft Excel Tips and Useful Tools |
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Volume 1, Issue 3 April 18, 2006 |
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Automatically Track Changes to HAR Lines |
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When preparers are filling out the HAR, invariably numbers are changed during its completion. Excel has an easy way that allows you to track these. The “Highlight Changes” option under the “Track Changes” line on the “Tools” menu will automatically place comments in cells where you change numbers. The comments will display the value previously entered, and the date it was changed. When selecting “Highlight Changes”, a dialog box appears giving you several options. If you select the “list changes on a new sheet” it will list all the changes made on a new worksheet called “history”. This will display all saved changes since the “track changes” option was activated. Knowing what numbers were in an account before could be useful if it becomes necessary to undo a change, or if you need to know what accounts you have altered after a given point in time. Click here to view screenshots.
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To remove your name from our newsletter mailing list, please click here. Questions or comments? E-mail us at jpeters@mnhospitals.org or call 651-659-1422.
To contact the Minnesota Department of Health with questions or comments, e-mail amy.camp@health.state.mn.us or call 651-201-3575. |
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“Track Changes” line on the “Tools” Menu |
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One useful feature we use often when reviewing the HAR is the “Page Break Preview” option under the view menu in the menu bar. When this option is selected instead of “Normal View”, Excel outlines each page as wells as displays a watermark of the page number in the background. Viewing the information this way makes finding certain lines easier and provides a quick reference as to your location in the HAR. If the size of the text is too small, go to “Zoom” under the “View” tab on the menu bar and select “100%”. At any time you can go back to the normal view by selecting “Normal View” under the “View” tab on the menu bar. Click here to view screenshots. |
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View the HAR as Pages instead of as a Spreadsheet |
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Find All Feature |
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The “Find” feature in Excel is somewhat bothersome when trying to use it to locate accounts in the HAR since some account names are referenced several times throughout the formset. To help preparers find a certain account, a name box was developed to take preparers to certain locations in the HAR. Using the “Find All” feature in Excel is an alternative way to quickly locate the correct account. To use this, select “Find” under the “Edit” menu on the menus bar, or hold down the “Ctrl” key while striking the “F” key. Type in the account number or value you are looking for, and click on the “Find All” button. All the places the value is found will be displayed in the text box below the button. If it is an account number you are looking for, click on the line that has that exact number in the “value” field. This will take you to the location of that account in the HAR formset. Click here to view screenshots.
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