ExcelCube Lite

ExcelCube merges, or consolidates, entire worksheets across standard Excel workbook files without using linking formulas, add-ins, or macros. A Windows Explorer tree structure is used to organize workbooks into multiple groups, or levels, of consolidation. This structure is external to and independent of the workbooks themselves. All of the input data and consolidated results reside in stand-alone Excel files. The input level workbooks and consolidated workbooks can be added, deleted, or moved around a structure using the mouse. This is done in the same way as moving files and folders in Explorer. After changes are made to the structure, the results held in the consolidated workbooks are updated in a few seconds. In ExcelCube, the folders are more than a name for the group of files below them. They also represent the workbooks holding the results of the consolidation of the workbooks below them. ExcelCube creates these workbooks every time the structure is calculatted. A single application can organize the same input-level workbooks into several different and independent structures. Different consolidations can be made without any duplication of data. ExcelCube's protocol is simpler and vastly more productive than using linking formulas or add-ins to add portions of a worksheet across a handful of workbooks. The structure makes up a cube of input level and merged workbooks, from which slices can be taken along any axis without programming. The slice is placed onto a worksheet in a new workbook. The specification of what a slice contains can be changed and re-run in seconds. This represents a deceptively simple OLAP capability. This feature is referred to as a Cross Section in ExcelCube. All of the worksheets and in the workbooks can be changed by editing the worksheets in a single workbook. This is a centralized, one step Maintenance capability comprising a huge time saver by itself.