Explore in-depth tutorials and strategies for data management, analysis, and visualisation using Microsoft Excel.
Make sense of someone else’s workbook When you are given a workbook that has already been created it can be hard to work out which cells contain manually entered values and which cells are the result of formulas. So how do you show formulas in Excel? Below is an example workbook, at first glance it’s not easy […]
Save yourself from errors with the BODMAS rule A question we often hear is “Why do we need to put Brackets in Excel Formulas?” Some formulas that you use won’t need brackets. If you write the formula =5+2+10, It will calculate the result as 17. There were no brackets in that formula, and it still […]
How to remove duplicates from a column of data in Excel It’s not uncommon when adding or importing records that you may need to remove duplicates in Excel. Whilst filtering and deleting records to make a list of unique items is an effective solution, there is an even easier way. Simply follow these steps to remove duplicates […]
How to use SpecialCells method in Excel VBA SpecialCells in VBA is a really useful method to deploy in Excel. It returns a Range Object that only covers the type of cells you specify. You can use the SpecialCells in VBA Method to return a Range Object that only holds numbers, text, blank cells, formulae, cells with […]
What’s the difference between Count and CountA in Excel? The Count function is one of the 400 functions in Excel. Count as the name suggests, counts the number of cells selected that contain numbers. You can use the Count function to obtain the number of values within a range, rather than the total of those values. If we wanted to count the […]
Quickly and easily delete blank rows and columns in Excel It’s not uncommon to end up with blank cells or rows in an Excel worksheet. If you need to delete these to maintain accuracy, especially when calculating the average value, the quick way is to filter out all blank cells / rows and delete them […]
Refine your filter options with the Advanced Filter in Excel For most filtering of data Excel AutoFilter is perfectly adequate. Here we’ll look at some benefits for moving beyond the AutoFilter by using the advanced filter in Excel. A Recap of AutoFilter Benefits For ease of use, it’s hard to beat the Excel AutoFilter feature. Just click […]
Quick and easy ways to change case text in Excel. You may have a list which you wish to change the case test in Excel. Rather than manually re-entering the data in Excel, there are some useful functions you can call on to save you this work. Let’s look at a few of them. In […]
A comprehensive guide to these powerful functions in Excel The LOOKUP functions can be used to look up data in an Excel list or Excel database, saving a lot of time and potential error when comparing two lists of data. You have two LOOKUP functions, Excel VLOOKUP and the HLOOKUP. The only difference between the two functions is that the VLOOKUP is used for […]
Discover some useful options available in the Excel status bar The Excel status bar, which is located at the bottom right side of the Excel screen, is an often overlooked but informative feature in Excel. For example say you wanted to find the total, or average of a selection of cells, the status bar is quickest place to […]
Summarise data quickly by using Subtotal Excel’s subtotal feature provides a quick and easy way of summarising tabular data. A common use of the feature is to display only the totals for different categories. For example suppose you want to calculate and display only the total units for each product from data (partly shown below) Step 1 Sort the data by the Product field. Click inside the […]
The concatenate function quickly links the content of two or more cells The concatenate function in Excel allows you to join text strings from different cells (like first name and last name) which can be very useful. It can be used with a number of other Excel functions. You can concatenate in Excel by using the Concatenate function […]
Pull out a segment in an Excel pie chart Pie charts are great for visually showing categories. Occasionally we might want to emphasise a segment. To do this, we can pull out a pie chart segment! 1 – Create a Pie Chart Start by selecting your data, going to the Insert tab along the Ribbon […]
Save hours in Excel: spend a few minutes learning these shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts are great time-savers; allowing you to shave seconds off a task, but ultimately saving hours in the long run. This is especially true when you are working with Excel. There are over 200 Excel keyboard shortcuts that you can use, here we have selected 15 […]
The Definitive Guide to Excel Keyboard Shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts can be a real productivity booster, here’s a comprehensive list to serve almost any situation that arises in Excel. CTRL combination Excel shortcut keys Key Description CTRL+SHIFT+( Unhides any hidden rows within the selection. CTRL+SHIFT+) Unhides any hidden columns within the selection. CTRL+SHIFT+& Applies the outline border to […]
Save time and reduce errors by viewing two or more worksheets at the same time It’s not uncommon to end up jumping between different Excel worksheets/workbooks because you are comparing data, copying & pasting or even creating links. This back and forth process takes up time and can increase the risk of error. Well there is a […]
Save hours and eyesore by using freeze panes in Excel Reviewing data in spreadsheets can be very demanding on the eyes and time consuming when you are trying to remember what a particular column or row of data actually is! If you’re not already familiar with how to freeze panes in Excel, read on and […]
Save time by avoiding repetition and errors Excel is great for lists; sales figures, staff rota’s, stock control, to name a few. But an easy trap to fall into is repetitive error prone data-entry that leads to inaccurate business reporting and lost time in troubleshooting. If you create a drop-down list in Excel, you can avoid […]
Improve collaboration and save time It is not uncommon with Excel to have multiple people requiring access to the same file. Whether the file in question is a sales report, marketing budget, or time-sheet for example. This is where the Share Workbook feature in Excel comes in handy, here we’ll look at how to share files […]
How to create AND split a stacked chart in Excel Amongst the many charts available in Excel, some of the most popular are column charts, and the main variants being clustered and stacked. We’ll look at how to split a stacked chart in Excel, and to do this let’s start by creating a basic column […]
Trying to review a spreadsheet with unformatted data can be a real eye sore, but by using the Total cell style in Excel you can quickly give your data more context. An example of using the Total cell style in Excel Below we have a list of sales figures for several sales reps in a travel […]
An easy way on how to calculate the age from date of birth using Excel formula Here we’ll look at how using the Today() function along with a less well known function, Datedif(), calculates the age from a date of birth. Even if this isn’t a pressing need of yours the example below is a handy […]
Ever received a spreadsheet and all the data on it is in the wrong case? You might received a dodgy dump of data from your website or database, or maybe the user-inputted data is poorly or inconsistently formatted. Here I’ll guide you through how to do Excel VBA Uppercase, lowercase and capitalising the first letter […]
Excel VBA is used for all sorts (!) of data manipulation tasks. One of the most common is sorting your data. Performing an Excel VBA sort seems trivial but some parts of it may misbehave if you’re not diligent. I’ve seen some people try to write their own sort routine in Excel VBA, but frankly […]
VLOOKUP is one of the most useful and versatile functions in Excel. As you work further with macros it’s not uncommon to make your create an Excel VBA VLOOKUP macro. With this you get the ability to reference your tables of data, but automated. Wait, what’s a VLOOKUP function? The Vertical Lookup is one of […]
That’s not a headline designed just to capture your attention. It’s a very real possibility. Spreadsheets can be powerful. They’re full of functionality yet easy to use. Everyone can create and use a spreadsheet without much in the way of training. But all those benefits are also the dangers. Spreadsheets weren’t designed to carry the […]
In life as in business, we always strive to find the easiest ways of getting things done. Sometimes, however, the simplest methods involve cutting corners, obtaining short-term results but long-term headaches. One of a long line of Excel features, the PivotTable is the best way to break your information down into more manageable chunks. In […]
See the timing of trends in your Excel 2013 PivotTable data with the new timeline feature. By default the data is split into months, though manipulation allows you to break this down into weeks, quarters, years or even days if you prefer. If you make user of Slicers in your PivotTables and PivotCharts, you will […]
Whether you’ve decided to use a suggested chart to represent your data or already knew which one works best from the outset, a new toolbar in Excel 2013 allow you to customise your visualisation quicker. Selecting the chart will automatically reveal two tool ribbons: Design & Format, both specifically designed to help you manipulate your […]
Introduced in Excel 2010, Sparklines create charts within a cell. It can help to show one figure in context with others and illustrate trends. In this example a blank column is created for the sparklines before selecting the adjacent data. In Excel 2013 the Quick Analysis feature has now brought Sparklines to the fore. Perfect […]
For users with the Office Professional Plus package, the Inquire add-in comes pre-installed on Excel 2013. Helping you to analyse, audit and review workbooks, this great new feature also has the potential to highlight errors and security concerns. We recently discussed, how to take back control of your spreadsheets by reducing “fat finger mistakes” and […]
Save time and effort with Flash Fill for Excel 2013. Just one in a long line of nifty improvements to help you work more efficiently. Flash Fill for Excel 2013 notices patterns in your data entry and then auto completes the remaining, so there’s no need to use formulas or macros to do this. Data […]
So many times people pick the wrong chart type for their data. There’s a time and a place for pies, and lines aren’t for everyone. Picking the right one takes a bit of thought. The Charts option in the Quick Analysis gallery, a new feature for Excel 2013, allows the user to quickly view and […]
If you’ve got a lot of data, it’s not always easy to spot trends and to easily analyse your figures. Conditional Formatting can instantly show you patterns in your data by highlighting cells that meet certain conditions. So for example you might want to flag up sales below a certain threshold in red, or bold occurrences of […]
Poor Excel skills are costing UK businesses millions in lost revenue. According to an article in the Financial Times more than half of financial service groups have “poorly applied or no controls for managing business critical spreadsheets”. The article blamed losses in part due to “avoidable errors in MS spreadsheets”. So, what could thousands of UK […]
It’s important to stay ahead of the game and decent spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel is still regarded as one of the most empowering and flexible ways to track your SEO campaigns. In conjunction with important tools such as Google Analytics & Keyword Tools, Excel is able to help provide unrivalled analysis to aid […]
I used to work with a colleague who maintained a postal mailing list for a brochure we would send out. He used to spend some of his time cleaning up that list by removing repeat entries of customer email addresses who had signed up more than once. “De-duping” he called it. He would block out […]
Printing out Excel spreadsheets can be frustrating. Often you end up with one piece of paper with only one column of data on! If you are printing a spreadsheet that will take up more than one page, you have the ability to control were the page breaks. To do this you need to be in […]
I even like the sound of it “zoom control”…I was so used to working in whatever view is set up, and then scrolling across endlessly to find the data I wanted to view…and if that didn’t work…I squinted. But I don’t have to. I discovered Zoooom control. I can access it using the Zoom control […]
Minor panic yesterday…I’d worked on an Excel file and quite possibly (you can take that as a yes) I hadn’t saved the changes. I was a bit distracted at the time and seemed to have forgotten the basic Save. Excel is very forgiving like this. It has a way that you can recover unsaved work. […]
Error checking is part of Excel’s auditing tools. It is set up to check your formulas for errors. Like spellcheck, the Error checker tool won’t necessarily find all errors, but it is a useful auditing tool as it works through your document to flag up the errors it spots. In the Formula tab, you have […]
Hyperlinks can add links to an Outlook email address to your Excel worksheet. Here is how to do it. In the cell you wish to add the email address, go to the Insert tab, and select the hyperlink button Type your preferred text into the cell (this saves space as email address are long). This […]
If you use mailmerge in Word, often the source of contact details comes from Excel. And there are times when you inherit contact details from another project or colleague, and the names may not be separated. This can be a heart-sink moment as you need to separate each name individually. Argh…this is going to take […]
When you have worked hard to set up and create an Excel workbook, which may include 3D formulas, pivot tables and links to other key worksheets, you will want to protect your work from unwanted changes. Excel allows you to protect your worksheets work and allow editing It isn’t just about stopping people from making changes to […]
PDF makes a document read only. This can be useful when you want to share information with colleagues, but don’t want them to have access to formulas or make changes to your document. It is one of several ways you can use to protect your Excel documents. To save your current Excel worksheet as a […]
It is possible to use Excel for data entry and miss out some of the tools that can make analysing and summarising data easy-peasy. For me, this was Pivot tables. I avoided Pivot tables because a) I didn’t know what they were and b) I thought it would be too difficult to use as they […]
For that professional edge it is really worth using Excel’s proofing tools to make sure that your worksheets are accurate. With more teams sharing Excel documents, adding comments and making changes, you need effective ways to track changes, check for duplicates and ensure that your business works with the most up to date and accurate […]
Part of the process of learning about Excel is overcoming the fear of new terminology, especially when it is linked to functions. Today’s term is SumIF. I use Autosum all the time, so why would I need to use SumIF? Well, Autosum adds up every cell that I select in a row or column. Great […]
In this example, I am looking at how to add a percentage increase to calculate a monthly projected fundraising target. Imagine my team is fundraising for a new community centre. In the last month they raised £76,000. I’d like to increase the total per month, but not put them off, so I want to add […]
One of the many things I like about Excel is that I can set up the formula in one cell and copy it to other cells. If I want to apply a percentage reduction to a figure, I can set it up for the first line of data and then autofill the relevant cells. With […]