A1  ·  xUtilsPlus.xlam

AlatiphA xUtils(Plus)

One Excel add-in, one ribbon, a few dozen small annoyances solved: text cleanup, named ranges, formulas, a built-in calculator, QR codes, even a translator — all without leaving the spreadsheet.

Format: .xlam add-in Runs on: Excel desktop (Windows) Access: Free trial, then subscription

On this page

1. Getting Started
2. Text & Formatting
   1. Change Case
   2. Bullets & Numbering
   3. Leading Zeroes
3. Data & Ranges
   1. Named Ranges
   2. Rows & Columns
   3. Checkboxes
   4. Duplicates
4. Formulas & Functions
   1. Surround with IF
   2. Custom Functions
5. Layout & Objects
   1. Merge & Currency
   2. Align Objects
   3. Colored Boxes
6. Handy Utilities
   1. Calculator
   2. Age Calculator
   3. QR & Barcode
   4. Translate
   5. Workbook Helpers
7. Subscription

Setup

Getting Started

xUtils(Plus) installs like any other Excel add-in and adds its own ribbon tab. Everything below lives there — no separate app, no website, no copy-pasting between windows.

Install the add-in

Open Excel, go to File → Options → Add-ins, choose Excel Add-ins from the dropdown at the bottom, click Go..., then Browse... and select the .xlam file.

After installing: a new ribbon tab appears with every tool on this page grouped into sections. If you don't see it, check File → Options → Add-ins → Disabled Items — Excel sometimes disables new add-ins the first time.

Try it free, then activate

The add-in starts in trial mode automatically the first time you use it. Once your trial ends, the subscription screen prompts you for an activation key — see the Subscription section below for how that works.

Tab

Text & Formatting

Cleans up messy text without you having to write a formula for it — select some cells, click a button, done.

Change Case UPPER · lower · Proper · Sentence

Converts the text in your selection to any standard case, in one click each.

How to use: select a range of cells with text in them, then click UPPERCASE, lowercase, Proper Case, or Sentence case. Cells that hold a formula result are left untouched on purpose — this only ever touches plain typed text, so it can't accidentally overwrite a working formula.

Bullets & Numbering

Turns a plain list of cell text into a numbered list, a Roman-numeral list, or a bulleted list — and can strip any of those back off again.

How to use: select the cells, then choose Add Numbering, Add Bullets, Add Roman Numbering, or the round-dot bullet option. Run Remove Numbering on the same range any time to take it back to plain text — it recognizes all four styles, not just the last one you applied.

Leading Zeroes

Adds or removes leading zeroes from IDs, codes, and phone-number-like values — the kind of thing Excel usually "helpfully" strips on its own.

How to use: select the cells, click Insert or Remove Leading Zeroes, then choose whether to work by count ("add/remove exactly 3 zeroes") or by target length ("pad every value out to 8 characters"). Results are stored as text, so a partly-zero value like 0070123 keeps exactly the zeroes you asked for.

Tab

Data & Ranges

Structural housekeeping for a worksheet: ranges that name themselves, rows and columns that behave, checkboxes that actually go away when deleted.

Named Ranges

Turns a table's headers into ready-made named ranges — either a fixed snapshot, or a dynamic range that grows with your data.

How to use: select a table including its header row, then click Static Named Ranges (locks in the current size) or Dynamic Named Ranges (automatically extends as you add rows). Delete Named Ranges removes the names for whichever columns are currently selected.

Rows & Columns

Insert several rows or columns at once, autofit to the content that's actually there, and clear out rows or columns with nothing in them.

How to use: Insert Columns/Rows asks how many to add at the active cell. Autofit resizes to fit your data (not the whole 16,384-column sheet, so it's fast even on a small selection). Delete Blank Rows/Columns removes only rows or columns that are completely empty — it won't touch a row that's got even one cell filled in.

Checkboxes

Drops a real checkbox into every cell in your selection, linked to that cell, and can clean them all back up again.

How to use: select the cells that should get a checkbox and click Insert Checkboxes. Delete Checkboxes in Range and Delete All Checkboxes remove them by position — so this also cleans up checkboxes you added by hand through Excel's own Developer tab, not just ones this add-in created.

Both delete options ask for confirmation first — Delete All removes every checkbox on the sheet, including ones outside your current selection.

Duplicates

Highlights repeated values in a range, or blocks them outright with a validation rule.

How to use: Highlight Duplicates colors repeated entries yellow — this uses conditional formatting, so it stays live as your data changes (and won't budge if you try to fill-color over it by hand; use Remove Duplicate Highlight to actually clear it). Prevent Duplicates sets up a rule that rejects a duplicate entry the moment it's typed.

Tab

Formulas & Functions

A set of formula shortcuts, plus a library of custom =ALA_...() worksheet functions for things Excel doesn't have a built-in formula for.

Surround with IF / IFERROR

Wraps existing formulas in a condition, without you retyping every one by hand.

How to use: select the formula cells, click Surround with IF, and either let it auto-detect the condition from the first formula or pick a condition cell yourself. It skips cells that are already wrapped with that exact condition, so running it twice doesn't double up. Surround with IFERROR and Convert Formulas to Values work the same way — select, click, done.

Custom Functions (ALA_...)

Type these directly into a cell like any other Excel function.

A few of the most-used ones:
=ALA_FIRSTNAME(A1) / ALA_MIDDLENAME / ALA_LASTNAME — split a full name apart.
=ALA_CALCAGE(A1) — age in years from a date of birth.
=ALA_WORKDAYSBTN(A1,B1,C1) — weekdays between two dates, minus a holiday count.
=ALA_EXTRACTNUMBERS(A1) / ALA_EXTRACTTEXTS(A1) — pull just the digits, or just the letters, out of a mixed value.
=ALA_TRIMLEADZEROES(A1) — strips leading zeroes while leaving the rest of the value exactly as-is.

Tab

Layout & Objects

Visual tidy-up: merged cells that keep all their text, currency formatting in one click, and shapes that line up properly.

Merge Cells & Currency Formatter

Merges cells without silently throwing away everything but the top-left value, and applies proper currency number formats.

How to use: Merge Cells (Combine Contents) joins the text from every cell in the selection with a line break between each, then merges — nothing gets discarded. Format as GH₵ and the multi-currency option apply a real number format (not just a symbol typed into the cell), so totals and sums still work normally afterward.

Align & Arrange Objects

Lines up shapes, pictures, and charts horizontally, vertically, or into a grid, with even spacing.

How to use: select two or more objects on the sheet (not cells), then choose a horizontal, vertical, or grid arrangement and enter the spacing you want. Same Size and Same Format copy one object's dimensions or styling to all the others in the selection.

Colored Boxes

Draws a colored outline box around a range — handy for calling out a region without changing the cells' own formatting.

How to use: select a range, pick a color (red, blue, green, or yellow), and it draws an outline over it. Delete All Boxes clears every colored box on the sheet in one go.

Tab

Handy Utilities

Small standalone tools that live in the ribbon but don't really touch your data — a calculator, a QR code generator, even a translator.

Calculator

A pop-up calculator window with square, square root, inverse, percentage, and a few color themes.

How to use: click to open it, use it like any desktop calculator — mouse or keyboard both work, including Enter for "=" and Backspace to correct a digit.

Age Calculator

A small pop-up that turns a date of birth into an age in years and months.

How to use: open it, pick a date with the built-in calendar (or type one directly), and click Calculate Age.

QR Code & Barcode Generator

Generates a QR code or barcode from text, a link, or a cell value, and drops the image right onto the sheet.

How to use: either type =ALA_QRCODE(A1) / =ALA_BARCODE(A1) directly into a cell, or use the pop-up form to type or link a cell's value in, then click Generate. Generated images are cached locally, so regenerating the same value doesn't re-download it.

Requires an internet connection the first time a given value is generated — after that, it's read from the local cache.

Translate

Translates cell text into another language, right inside a formula.

How to use: =ALA_TRANSLATE(A1,"fr") translates the text in A1 into French; swap "fr" for any language code. Repeated phrases are cached, so translating the same text again doesn't re-query the network.

Workbook Helpers

A grab-bag of everyday shortcuts: a generated table of contents sheet, opening the current file's folder, unhiding every sheet at once, starting a WhatsApp chat, and formatting a phone number so Excel stops eating its leading zero.

How to use: each of these is a single click from the ribbon — no dialog to configure, they just do the one thing they're named for.

Access

Subscription

xUtils(Plus) is free to try, then requires an activation key to keep using.

How activation works

The first time you use the add-in on a computer, a trial period starts automatically — no sign-up needed. Once it ends, you'll see a subscription screen asking for an activation key tied to that specific computer.

To activate: get in touch for a key (see the contact links in the add-in itself), enter it in the subscription screen when prompted, and it takes effect immediately — no restart needed.

AlatiphA xUtils(Plus) — built by Abdul-Latif Ahmed.