To be able to see a snapshot of your workbook is a great time saver especially if you have a LOT of workbooks.
This method of saving workbooks gives a great visual clue as to the contents of your workbook. When you open an Excel workbook using the Open dialog box, there are a number of options as to how your files are displayed. You can change the way the files are displayed by selecting the arrow on the view icon in the Open dialog box. Let’s take a quick look at these.
There are a few options to choose from
- Thumbnails- This is the filename shown with a large icon.
- Tiles- This is the filename shown along with the file type and size.
- Icons- This is the same as title above but with no file type and size.
- List- Filenames are shown but with no other information supplied.
- Details- Filenames shown with other information, the list can be sorted by clicking on any of the columns.
- Properties- Displays information about the selected file, if you have any extra information then in the properties panel then this is where is it displayed.
- Preview- displays a preview of the file.
Let’s look at setting up out workbooks so a preview (no 7 above) is saved.
Excel 2007
- Office
- Prepare
- Properties to display the properties pane
- click document properties drop down list and choose advanced
- Select Save Thumbnails For All Excel Documents options
After these steps when you save an Excel file, a picture is generated on the upper left hand side of the first page of your workbook. This picture will also be updated each time the file is saved. Neat huh?
A few points to note- if you workbook is password protected, then a preview is not shown (for security), there is also not the facility for this type of file saving to be set as the default in excel, but it is still a neat way to save a very helpful preview of your files.
What do you think of this tip, have you used it, let us know your thoughts.
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