Microsoft Excel: More Tips, Tricks & Techniques Excel 2010 & Excel 2007 Cutting Edge Chapter of IAAP Dawn Bjork Buzbee, MCT The Software Pro Microsoft Certified Trainer
Bonus Resources Follow-up Q&A, additional resources, handouts, links, and other helpful tips are waiting for you at: /vip/cuttingedge.htm Dawn Bjork Buzbee, MCT The Software Pro Geek Speak Becomes People Friendly Dawn Bjork Buzbee is The Software Pro with over two decades of experience transforming geek speak into people friendly. A professional speaker, trainer, consultant, author of 6 books, and business owner since 1984, Dawn simplifies complex processes with an informative and entertaining approach and delivers content that is immediately useful. Dawn has helped more than 100,000 individuals from Fortune 500 companies, government, and other organizations to learn smart, easy, and productive ways to use software and technology more effectively. Microsoft has awarded Dawn with the certifications of Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and Microsoft Certified Application Specialist (MCAS) Instructor for her expertise in Microsoft Office. Dawn also holds the distinctions as a Certified Microsoft Office Expert and a Certified Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor with a proven track record in Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Access. Dawn Bjork Buzbee, MCT The Software Pro 11675 Bent Oaks Street, Suite 200 Parker, CO 80138 (303) 699-6868 Dawn@SoftwarePro.com Twitter: @thesoftwarepro Facebook: Facebook.com/thesoftwarepro LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dawnbuzbee
Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques Conditional Formatting With conditional formatting, you can change the appearance of your data based on its value which can make your data easier to display and interpret. Plus, with conditional formatting, the results automatically change as data is added or updated. Although conditional formatting has been available in a number of previous versions of Excel, this feature was greatly expanded starting with Excel 2007. In earlier versions of Excel, conditional formatting could be applied to highlight all cells with a value over 250, format dates before 6/30/2010, or which have an order amount between $100 and $500. All of these options are still available in Excel 2010 and Excel 2007 plus new choices to format cells by using a two-color scale, three-color scale, data bars, and icon sets; format cells that contain specific text, number, date or time values, top or bottom ranked values; and create many rules and manage rules more easily. For instance, in the example below, a conditional format of data bars is applied to markup values. A longer bar represents a higher value. Options for data bars include different colors of gradient or solid fills. 1
2 Creating Conditional Formatting Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques In Excel 2003 and earlier, you could have a maximum of three conditional formats. There s no such limit in Excel 2010 and Excel 2007; you may have as many conditional formats as you like. To create a conditional format: 1. Select the cells where you want to apply the format. 2. Display the Home tab, and then, in the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting to display a menu of possible conditional formats. 3. Choose from one of the many sets of formatting options. Point to each option to see a live preview of its effect on your selected data. Click the option you want to use. For more choices of each style, click More Rules at the bottom of each of their respective submenus. 4. Or, pick New Rule to build your own set of conditional formatting for the selected cells. 5. In the New Formatting Rule dialog box, select Edit The Rule Description. From here, change from one style to another and, depending on the style, change colors, change the values attributed to an icon or color, and make other customizations. 6. Click OK when finished. Editing Conditional Formatting Although the choices in the Conditional Formatting menu might serve your needs much of the time, you might want to fine-tune a few things, such as which cells are affected and what they look like. To edit a conditional formatting rule after you ve applied it: 1. From the Conditional Formatting menu, choose Manage Rules to open the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager dialog box. 2. Double-click the rule you want to edit to open the Edit Formatting Rule dialog box. 3. Select settings as needed. 4. Click OK in each dialog box.
Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques Conditional Formatting with Graphics In addition to simply applying basic Excel formats such as fills and font colors, conditional formatting can help you represent data in graphical form. Use data bars and icon sets to depict values, divide them into categories, or compare column values to on another. Or, use color scales to format scales to format cells differently depending on their values. Choose from one of three formatting styles for graphical conditional formatting: Data bars: display in each cell colored bars whose length is proportional to their value as compared to the other values in the selection. Color scales: blend two or three colors (such as green-yellow-red traffic light metaphor) to differentiate among high to low values. Icon sets: use from three to five similar icons to differentiate among high to low values. The example below displays your choices for icon sets which apply a conditional format to cells based on how each value falls within the range of cells. 3 Excel 2010 includes some additional options and icons; the icon sets are now more organized than in Excel 2007.
4 Sorting & Filtering with Conditional Formatting Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques To sort and filter data based on cell color, font color, or conditional formatting, click the arrow next to the column heading that contain s the values you want to sort or filter. From the menu, choose Sort by Color or Filter by Color, and select the fill or font color you want to sort or filter. Using Excel 2010 and Excel 2007, options include sorting and filtering by format, including cell color and font color, whether you have manually or conditionally formatted the cells. Sorting or filtering by color works with automatic, conditional formatting as well as manual formatting.
Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques Paste Special Tricks with Paste Special When copying Excel data, choose Paste Special when you only want to copy and paste a piece of the original data. For instance, only the values or only the formats. Paste Special is available from the Paste drop-down button in the Home tab or from the right-click shortcut menu. One little known trick to convert Excel data is Transpose which switches column data to rows. 5 Paste Live Preview A new and extremely helpful feature in Excel 2010 is Paste Live Preview is available with the Paste command when you start a Copy operation. With earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, for example, you had a variety of paste options with the Paste Special command. This is still available, but now, in Excel 2010, you can choose from visual icons instead such as Paste Values or Paste Formatting. Paste Live Preview is also available with other Office 2010 programs. Examples of Paste Live Preview in Excel 2010; Paste Button & Shortcut Menu
6 Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques What is a Pivot Table? One of the most useful tools in Excel, the pivot table, is also one of the least understood. A pivot table is an interactive table that summarizes, organizes, and compares large amounts of data in a worksheet. With it, you can quickly slice and dice your data. You can examine the data for similarities, differences, highs, and lows. Why Pivot? Pivot, as a verb, means to rotate or revolve. If you think of your data as a physical object, a pivot table lets you rotate the data summary and look at it from different angles or perspectives. A pivot table lets you move fields around easily, nest fields within each other, and even create your own custom items. Examining Pivot Tables The data a pivot table is based on is called the source data. Each column represents a field, or category of information, which you can assign to different parts of the pivot table to determine how the data is arranged. With a pivot table, you simply drop the data into one of four areas shown at the left. A sample pivot table is shown at the right. Report Filter: Filters the summarized data in the pivot table. If you select an item in the report filter, the view of the pivot table changes to display only the summarized data associated with that item. For example, if Region is a report filter, you can display the summarized data for the North region, the West region, or all regions. Row Labels: Displays the items in a field as row labels such as quarters. Column Labels: Displays the items in a field as column labels such as products or categories. Values: Contains the summarized data. These fields usually contain numeric data, such as sales and inventory figures. The area where the data itself appears is called the data area.
Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques Preparing to Create a Pivot Table Pivot tables are based on lists. Lists are made up of rows and columns. You can use a worksheet list or you can connect to a list from another data source, such as Access. Before you can create a pivot table, you need to collect your data and organize it in a list format Excel can use. Your data may already be in the correct format, or you may have to do a little or a lot of preparation before you can create a pivot table from your data. Organize Data in Rows and Columns: The Excel data to be used as the source for a pivot table must be organized in rows and columns, with each row containing information about one record, such as a sales order or inventory transaction. Add Unique Column Headings: Each column in the source data must contain a heading. The column can be one word or multiple words, and all characters are allowed. If you use duplicate headings, Excel will number them to make them unique when you create a pivot table. Enter Similar Data in Each Column: Each column in the source data should contain one type of data. Separate Data into Multiple Columns: To create an effective pivot table, some of the source data should be separated into multiple columns, instead of using a single column. Remove Repeated Columns: Don t create multiple columns to store the same type of information. For example, tracking the same type of data by different columns for a category, such as four headings for each region, may be easy to calculate in a standard worksheet but is tough to use in a pivot table. Enter Related Data in Each Row: Each row in the source data should contain the details for one record, such as a sales order or lease number. If possible, include a unique identifier for each row, such as an order number or even a record number. Create an Isolated Block of Data: The source data should not have any blank rows within it and cannot include any completely blank columns. The source data should be separated from any other data on the worksheet, with at least one blank row and one blank column between it and the other data. Ideally, have only the source data on the worksheet. If the column headings are not on Row 1, there should be at least one blank row above the headings to separate the data from titles and other introductory information. If you re creating a pivot table from data in a worksheet, it s a good idea to format the data as a table. Then, if you expand the table by adding new rows of data, Excel will refresh the pivot table without the need to manually indicate the new data range. 7
8 Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques Creating a Pivot Table The steps to build a pivot table from a list of data in Excel are fairly straightforward. To create a pivot table: 1. Select a cell in the data range or formatted Excel table. 2. Pick PivotTable > PivotTable from the Insert tab, or, If your Excel data is formatted as a table, you can also click the Design tab from the contextual Table Tools tab. Then click Summarize with PivotTable in the Tools group. 3. From the Create PivotTable dialog box, Choose the data that you want to analyze and Choose where you want the PivotTable report to be placed. You can place the pivot table in a new or existing worksheet. 4. Click OK to create the pivot table. When the Create PivotTable dialog box closes, Excel inserts a new worksheet in the workbook using the next available sheet number (unless you specified Existing Worksheet). The outline of an empty pivot table starts in cell A3. At the right of the Excel window, the PivotTable Field List pane appears (as shown on the following page).
Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques Adding Fields Add fields to a pivot table to specify the data you want to display. The fields of the source data appear in the PivotTable Field List task pane. To add fields for your pivot table: 1. From the PivotTable Field List, click to choose the fields you want to add to the report. 2. Working within the PivotTable Field List Pane, drag the fields to the appropriate areas of the table, any of the four areas of a pivot table. You can add more than one field to an area, and you don t need to add all fields to the table. To display data and not just headings, you need to place at least one field in the Values area. 9
10 Adding a Slicer to Filter New in Excel 2010 Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques Pivot tables have let you filter large sets of data using drop-down lists so you can display only the data you want. But it is sometimes difficult to see or share how the pivot table filters the data especially when you filter on more than one value. In Excel 2010, you have the option of filtering using slicers. Slicers are formatted button sets you create next to your pivot tables. Each slicer button represents a pivot table field. You click the slicer buttons to filter data quickly and easily. Inserting a Slicer & Filtering Data To insert a slicer for a pivot table: 1. Click in the pivot table, then click the PivotTable Tools Options tab, if necessary. 2. Select the Insert Slicer button in the Sort & Filter group. The Insert Slicers dialog box opens, listing the fields in the pivot table. 3. Pick the field name(s) you want to use to filter your data, then click OK. 4. To filter data using a slicer, click a slicer button to change the data displayed in the pivot table. In the example below, only the sales for the locations in the West region are shown. To select more than one entry in the slicer, hold down C as you click on the choices. A slicer can be moved and sized so it fits within the pivot table window. Just like report filters, you can add multiple slicers to one pivot table.
Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques Adding Charts Charting features were dramatically updated in Excel 2007 and Excel 2010. Changes include: Creating new charts is fast; the Chart Wizard is gone. New, easy to use contextual Ribbon tabs with descriptive, clear chart options. More professional chart formatting options as well as quick formatting with themes. More colors and better 3-D looks. 11 Chart Forms Charts can be created in one of two forms: Embedded Charts: Objects that reside on a worksheet much like a drawing or picture, along with other objects and its underlying data. The chart is enclosed within a border and can be sized and moved similar to other graphic objects. When they are located on the same worksheet as the data, embedded charts can be printed with or without the associated worksheet data. Chart Sheets: Workbook sheets that contain a chart separated from its underlying worksheet. These charts also can be sized and moved within the sheet, and other graphic objects, such as pictures and SmartArt can be more easily added to the chart sheet. Chart sheets are printed separately from the data worksheet.
12 Selecting Data for Charts Charts are created from worksheet data. Excel makes assumptions on how to set up the plot area, assign axes, and make labels based on the data. Guidelines for setting up data for charting and assumptions Excel uses include: The selected data must be a rectangular data range or consist of multiple selections in a rectangular way. Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques Text, which is used solely to create labels, should only be in the topmost row and/or leftmost column; otherwise, text encountered within the range is charted as zero. Text labels are parallel to associated data. The selected range should not include blank rows or blank columns. Each cell must contain a value (or data point). Values in the same row or column are considered to be related and are called a data series. The first data series starts with the first cell in the upper-left area of the selected data that is not text or formatted as a date. Subsequent data series are determined by Excel, continuing across the rows or down the columns. Values are plotted on the vertical (generally, the Y, or value) axis. Though you do not have to select a range of data to create a chart (you can just click a cell within the range and Excel will do its best to assume the range), if you do, the chart initially displayed by Excel will give you a more accurate view of your data.
Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques 13 1 Cool Selecting Tip! To select non-contiguous data ranges for charts such as labels and totals: 1. Select the label range first. 2. Press and hold C and then select the value range (which should be parallel to the labels. 3. Continue with normal charting steps (beginning on Page 14). 2
14 Building a Chart: Step-By-Step To build a chart in Excel 2010 or Excel 2007: 1. Select the data range you want to chart. Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques 2. From the Insert tab Charts group, click the chart type you want. To see a description of the chart types or subtypes, point to a chart icon and a tooltip displays. To see all chart types in one dialog box, click the Dialog Launcher button (the arrow in the lower-right corner of the group area) for the Charts group or choose All Chart Types from the bottom of each chart drop-down list. 3. Choose the type and subtype of chart that you want from the galleries of choices. A professionally designed chart is created and displayed on the worksheet.
Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques Creating a Chart Quickly To create charts with easy shortcut keys: 1. Select the data range that you want to chart. 2. Press A + 1 to create an embedded chart. -OR- 15 Press! to create a chart sheet. In either case, a chart is created using the default chart type. Turn to Page 11 for an explanation of the different chart forms. See Changing a Chart Location (Page Error! Bookmark not defined.) to switch a chart between embedded and a chart sheet. Chart Contextual Tabs Once a chart is created and selected, additional design, layout, and formatting options are available from the contextual Chart Tools tab. The Chart Tools contextual tabs shown above are for Excel 2010 but your choices in Excel 2007 are the same.
16 Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques New in Excel 2010 Picture Your Data with Sparklines Excel charts are a great way to get a picture of your data to see trends and other patterns. But sometimes you want to summarize a trend in a small amount of space. Sparklines are tiny charts that fit inside one cell. They give a quick snapshot of the story your data has to tell. You can place them near, or even behind, the data itself, so they act as a handy and compact reference. You can also use them to highlight maximum or minimum values. After you create a sparkline, you can choose a style for it and then customize the way it looks. Like any Excel chart, sparklines respond to changes you make to the underlying data. Inserting a Sparkline To insert a sparkline into an Excel worksheet: 1. Select the range which contains the data you want to graph as one or more sparklines. 2. Click the Insert tab, then click the sparkline type you want in the Sparklines group. Your choices are Line, Column, or Win/Loss. The Create Sparklines dialog box opens, with the data range you selected in the Data Range text box. 3. Select the cell or range where you want to insert the sparkline. The cell address appears in the Location Range text box. Sparkline data must be in a single column or row Data range you selected for your sparklines appears here Cells that you want to contain the sparklines 4. Click OK. Sparklines appear in the Location Range cells you selected. Sparklines reflect data trends
Microsoft Excel: Tips, Tricks & Techniques Tips & Timesavers 17 Bonus Resources Follow-up Q&A, additional resources, handouts, links, and other helpful tips are waiting for you at: /vip/cuttingedge.htm