What Makes a Good Utility?

An Excel utility, of course, should ultimately make your job easier or more efficient. But if you're developing utilities for other users, what makes an Excel utility valuable? I've put together a list of elements that are common to good utilities:

• It adds something to Excel. This addition could be a new feature, a way to combine existing features, or just a way to make an existing feature easier to use.

• It's general in nature. Ideally, a utility should be useful under a wide variety of conditions. Of course, writing a general-purpose utility is more difficult than it is to write one that works in a highly defined environment.

• It's flexible. The best utilities provide many options to handle various situations.