Microsoft Excel Essential Hints and Tips Fundamental hints and tips to kick start your Excel skills Microsoft Excel Essential Hints and Tips Fundamental hints and tips to kick start your Excel skills.
Microsoft Excel Essential Hints and Tips Fundamental hints and tips to kick start your Excel skills By Diane Griffiths Published by Diane Griffiths Copyright 2015 Diane Griffiths Disclaimer The information contained in this book is for general information purposes only While I endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, I make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the book or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained within the book for any purpose Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk Contents The ‘Learn Excel Visually’ Journey What’s in it for Me? About Me Introduction Setting up your Spreadsheet Getting data into Excel Formatting your spreadsheet Display Management Printing and sharing Bonus - Make it Idiot Proof Bonus - A Summary of my Favourite Shortcuts Conclusion The ‘Learn Excel Visually’ Journey Excel is relevant for all aspects of a business and it’s not hard to learn, but even apparently smart people can have trouble mastering Excel Why is this? Well - Excel provides the tools, but doesn’t tell you how to use them You can read about the functionality of Excel and try and figure out what to use, but how do you know what to apply and when? The Learn Excel Visually (LEV) journey is here to take you through the essentials of the Excel process; set up your spreadsheet, capture and structure data efficiently, cleanse it, analyse it meaningfully and present it with visual oomph There are no complicated macros or convoluted functionality on the LEV journey, I teach what you need to know, not what you don’t What I tend to find with Excel textbooks is that they give you a lot of information, it’s all very good information but I don’t use most of it Therefore the idea of these short handy bite-size books is to provide you with what I have found to be most useful elements of Excel within my day-to-day work and life I don’t tell you about all the bells and whistles – just what you need on a daily basis These ebooks are suitable for anyone who is looking to learn Excel and wants to increase their productivity and efficiency, both at work and home Please bear in mind I don’t cover all functionality of all areas, the point is that I strip out anything that’s not useful and only highlight the functionality that I believe is useful on a daily basis Don’t buy a huge textbook which you’ll never fully read, pick an ebook which is most relevant to your current learning; read it, apply it and then get on with your day What’s in it for Me? I’m assuming that you will already know the very basics of using Excel; open, close, basic data entry This book will give you new skills to super-charge your spreadsheet aptitude Introduction We start off with some basic Excel information and terminology to ensure we’re on the same page Setting up your spreadsheet It’s important to have an excellent spreadsheet structure You don’t want a fragile spreadsheet, a well formatted spreadsheet will be robust; allow the viewer to read the data, understand what the spreadsheet is trying to tell them, spot the key information and be able to action it Getting data into Excel We also look at a couple of great timesavers; how to quickly input data using shortcuts, and how to transpose and convert data that might be in the wrong format to use Formatting your spreadsheet How to format things within Excel; how Excel understands and interprets what we type, dictates how it displays it, which isn’t always what we want – so this will give you the best practice tips of what to do to present your data Display management Next we look at display management; this considers your workspace rather than your data How can you set up Excel to optimise your visual working screen and use Excel efficiently Printing and sharing Once you have an amazing spreadsheet may need to print or share this data Different screens and printers have different settings, but I’ll give you some key things to watch-out for in order to share your data in the best way Bonus 1 - Make it Idiot Proof A short section on how to protect your workbook from user error Bonus 2 - My favourite shortcuts As it says in the title; my favourite Excel shortcuts About Me Excel is such powerful tool; you really can do almost anything you want with it However that’s not always a good thing! Throughout my career most of my roles have involved using Excel to a large extent, I’ve had to come up with creative solutions to complex problems which allow users to solve, track and improve their daily processes in a simple way Many of my spreadsheets started simple, got complex and then I had to pull it back to the simple level The trouble with complex spreadsheets is that they break, get forgotten about and almost always provide at least some incorrect data at some point I have various levels of experience which allow me to approach Excel from many different angles: - Media/advertising production management and operational roles - Best practice, change management and process improvement projects - Operational and financial software implementation - Accounting and financial activities - Advanced Excel/VBA modelling and analysis Qualifications - First Class BA Honours Degree in Media (TV Production) and Business Management and IT - Advanced Microsoft Excel, Access and VBA (Macros, pivots, database management with Best STL Training) - AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) Qualification – Advanced Certificate - ACT Change Management Training Bronze Practitioner (DHL training) - DEPICT Project Management Training (DHL training) - Prince2 Registered Practitioner Certificate (APMG-International Quality Management System) - DAMIC Process Improvement Champion Training Bronze Master (DHL training) – (Six Sigma) - Microsoft Project Level 1 & 2 and Advanced Powerpoint - Presenting with Impact - Train with Confidence - Coach with Confidence Introduction Excel first appeared in 1980s – however spreadsheets have been about since the 1960s, some of you may remember Lotus 123 and perhaps a few of you may have heard of VisiCalc In the early 1990s Lotus 123 was very popular, I remember using it myself However in the mid-1980s Microsoft launched Excel which became the popular spreadsheet that we all use today Excel went through many versions and I remember quite a few of them, I remember that the 2007 version caused a bit of a fuss by introducing a ribbon rather than simple drop-down menus and toolbars A lot of people didn’t really agree with the ribbon, but I loved it straight-away – it’s much more visual Then 2010 and 2013 Excel came out, which are very similar but have some new features and improvements Which version do I have? You can either go to ‘help’ in your menu bar or if you don’t have a ‘help’ go to ‘File’ > ‘help’ and you should be able to see the version Throughout this book when I take you through examples I will be talking through the 2010 version of Excel However from 2007 onwards the location of most of the functionality will be very similar so hopefully you will still be able to follow the steps even if you don’t have the 2010 version of Excel Main File formats There are quite a few different Excel file formats, the below are the ones I normally have to deal with: xls - the Excel 97-2003 workbook format xlsx - the Excel 2007+ workbook format xlsm - the Excel macro-enabled format – you can tell whether an Excel file has a macro (advanced programming) based on its file format Excel 97-2003 will not be able to open the xlsx format So if you are using an old version of Excel, check the format if you are having trouble opening it If you aren’t sure which format a certain file is in you can right-click that file within Windows Explorer and click ‘Properties’ Under the ‘General’ tab you will see ‘Type of file:’ this will tell you which file format you are working with, for example, ‘Microsoft Excel Worksheet (.xlsx)’ Excel 2007+ can open any of the above formats and for the most part you’ll probably be working with xlsx Quick Glossary Most of you will already understand the basic elements of Excel but I want to use this section to clarify some key Excel terminology to ensure we are on the same page Menu = The list of items along the top of the screen; for example, file, insert, page layout etc… Ribbon = Ribbon is like an expanded menu It depicts all the features of Excel in an easy to understand pictorial form Since Excel has 1000s of features, they are grouped in to several ribbons For example, the ‘insert’ ribbon has functions grouped into; clipboard, font, alignment, number, styles etc… Name box = Just underneath the Ribbon you have a white box on the left-hand side – it shows the cell reference (default A1) or if you have specified a name for a cell or range of cells, it will show that name Formula bar = Next to the Name box, also underneath the Ribbon The formula bar shows you the contents of a selected cell, particularly useful if you want to see a calculation within a cell and not just the output of the calculation Spreadsheet = A method of spreading information across a sheet of paper - the screen represents a piece of paper with grid lines Workbook = The file you create in Excel Worksheet = A page within the Workbook By default an Excel Workbook contains worksheets; they are the viewed using tabs along the bottom Cells = The grid lines make rectangular boxes - known as cells Referred to as a letter and a number Columns = Cells down a spreadsheet are columns - letters Rows = Cells across the spreadsheet are rows - numbers First TIP! In your ribbons under some of the groups or sections you have a little icon which has two lines and an arrow While you can see some of the popular functionality in the ribbon, if you click on these little icons they will take you to a full list of available functionality within that section Setting up your spreadsheet There are no standard set of rules to ensure that you build the ‘perfect’ spreadsheet However there are certain principles that you can follow in order to create a framework of best practice in order to achieve good spreadsheet design Purpose The first thing you need to know is the purpose of your spreadsheet This plays a key role in how to design and develop it Start off by knowing what your outputs need to be What do you need to get out of your spreadsheet? Do you just need to capture and track data, or do you need to capture it so you are able to carry out certain calculations or provide reports? I find it helps to work backwards; ensure you are clear about the purpose of the spreadsheet, consider the outputs and therefore what logical inputs you require in order to achieve those outputs Let’s step through the process 1 - Define You should be able to define the purpose of the spreadsheet in one sentence or less This sounds rather obvious and at little basic but try it If you can’t tell someone what the purpose of a spreadsheet is in one sentence or less, then I would question what you are doing with it In particular watch out for trying to do too much with a spreadsheet - one spreadsheet should not and will not solve everything An example of a spreadsheet purpose could be: - To capture weekly timesheet information for team A and produce a weekly summary report - To provide summarised management information on the sales for Site X in Jan You should also ensure that the spreadsheet is as self-explanatory as possible Someone should be able to pick up this spreadsheet in a years’ time and be able to understand what the spreadsheet is for, what it is telling them and how to use it 2 - Consider what inputs you want and what inputs you have As a rule of thumb it’s better to have more data than you need You can exclude data quite easily but it’s hard to get data, particularly accurate data, added in at a later stage There might be a gap between what inputs you have and what inputs you need in order to achieve your required outputs Be realistic here Can you access that extra data you require or do you need to adjust the purpose of the spreadsheet Finally, always state what your data source is, ideally with a date stamp of when the data was captured I’ll show you a couple of ways you can document this later 3 - Consider what you want the spreadsheet to process What do you need to do with those inputs? Do you need to collect them in order to get a bigger picture? Do you need to perform calculations on them? Do you need to be able to manipulate the data in order to present it as a visual summary? Or are you collecting it in order to pass it onto someone else who will be working with it? This will affect how you work with the spreadsheet and whether there are certain requirements you need to meet 4 - Consider the output - what and for whom First, consider for whom the output is for; staff, peers, management or board level? This will dictate the type of output; visual summary, data table, pivot table or dashboard for example We don’t go into detail in this book on the output format, but it’s something to keep in mind 5 - Document assumptions Any assumptions that you have made about the data or any calculations that you perform on the data must be documented This might be rate of inflation, bonus assumptions, working hours a week, etc… There is nothing wrong with adding notes or instructions within your spreadsheet Don’t underestimate the value of this at a later stage for yourself, as well as someone else who might be taking it over in the future 6 – File naming Please take the time to consider how to name your spreadsheet; be as descriptive as you can Too many times I’ve quickly named a spreadsheet and forgotten what I called it and not been able to find it afterwards For example; Project_Obvious Descriptive Name_20151105 v1 I also use a specific date format yyyymmdd rather than dd.mm.yy Firstly I don’t like using full stops in my filename A full stop is classically the differentiator between the filename and file type so I don’t like using it within a file name for consistency purposes Secondly I use this format because when sorting in Windows Explorer by filename I can easily see the latest files It doesn’t matter too much what the naming convention is, just ensure there is a descriptive naming convention and that you use version control I can’t stress enough how much you may thank your lucky stars you have version controlled a spreadsheet rather than saved over it I have had to revert or refer back to previous versions many a time To keep your folder structure tidy you can set up a folder called ‘old’ to keep the old versions Structure The second part of setting up your spreadsheet is to ensure that you have strong structural foundations in place We’re going to work with some basic sales data as below and set up the spreadsheet: Sales for Freddy Toys 13/01/2013 Racing Track 18605053 £300 Kent store ID 6330 15/01/2013 Princess Doll 18605674 £49.99 Kent store ID 6330 15/01/2013 Teddy Bear 18604477 £9.99 Kent store ID 6330 16/01/2013 Lego Set 18605995 £249 Kent store ID 6330 Start at the top left-hand corner and work down 1 - Start with your title 2 – Column headers All versions of Excel have many many more rows than you need, and many more rows than columns What this means is that you need to have your defined list as column headers and your growing number of items, in this case ‘sales’, in the rows Then decide what your column headers should be and what they should be called, try to be as descriptive as you can I’ve seen many an incorrect data analysis carried out because of vague column headers and people misinterpret what that data is telling them For example, don’t just put ‘date’, put ‘date collected’, ‘date sold’, ‘date ordered’ - something which provides the user with a bit more information The next step is to decide what order the columns should be Again there is no hard and fast rule for this The layout should be logical – both for reading and entering data, ideally working from left to right and top to bottom, just as you would read a book As a rule of thumb for your first column you want something that will provide a unique reference It’s good practice to have this unique identifier at the beginning of your data because it will allow for easier data analysis later down the line In the list above we have something which looks like an order number This will be the unique reference so I’ll start with that I’ve also resized the columns so I can see the column headers in full Do this by moving your mouse over the line between columns The cursor will change to look like this: Then you can either click and drag the column to the required size or double-click the mouse and the column will automatically resize in order to show the longest piece of text in that column The double-click method works well, but as you can see below the column has resized to fit the title, but we only need it to fit the ‘order number’ You can manually move this back to the end of the ‘r’ I’ve actually done the columns manually in this case I like a bit of space between the headers so the data doesn’t run into each other Now you can enter your data At the bottom there is also a Scaling option Here I don’t have much data so ‘No Scaling’ is fine However the next 3 options are really useful if you have more data Where possible I try to ‘Fit Sheet on One Page’ – everyone likes a one-page summary Otherwise if I know I need to go onto more than one page I select either ‘Fit All Columns on One page’ (for data with lots of rows) or ‘Fit All Rows on One Page’ (for data with lots of columns) This ensures that when the pages print we won’t have data falling across many different pages with a matrix of rows and columns cutting across pages If you have a lot of headers, take a close look at them – you really need to print them all or can you hide some of the columns? 4- Header/Footer Another useful tool is to add a header or footer This is something I don’t do unless I need to If I’m just printing something to review with someone and it’s a one-off then I don’t bother However if it’s for something a little more official and we need to record a bit more information about who printed it, when and what the print-out contains, then this is a perfect place for this information Go to ‘Insert’ and ‘Header & Footer’ Don’t let yourself get carried away when adding this information You could actually spend quite a bit of time messing around with the different options trying to decide what to include and how it should look Keep it simple First you’ll see the Header area, there are three sections to it Left, centre and right Click on the left-hand section and under the ‘Design’ ribbon select ‘File Name’ You’ll see ‘&[File]’ appear – this means when you print out the spreadsheet the file name will appear at the top, so you know which file was printed You can also use the header to add a ‘Picture’ – this would typically be where I would put a logo, just check the image dimensions and the margins, a large logo can take up most of the paper if you’re not careful Now click ‘Go to Footer’ In the footer I add ‘Current Date’ perhaps a confidentially clause on the left Then the ‘Page Number’ and ‘Number of Pages’ on the right However this is just a guide; use what works best for you 5 - Repeat rows on top when printing This is a really useful bit of functionality if you have a lot of data Go to ‘Page Layout’ and select ‘Print Titles’ Under the ‘Sheet’ tab you will see a ‘Print titles’ section Here you can select a certain set of rows or columns to repeat on each page you print I don’t often use the columns option but the rows one is very useful Say you wanted to repeat the top information and column headers on each page Click on the grid and arrow icon to the right of the ‘Rows to repeat at the top:’ title and select the rows Very useful for the below data with lots of rows It means that it doesn’t matter which page the viewer is looking at, they know what each of the columns are for because they are repeated at the top of every print-out PDF If you are sending a report which is information only – I would always aim to save it as a PDF It ensures that data doesn’t get changed and ensures that when it’s printed that your viewer is seeing it in exactly the way that you want them to see it Set up your spreadsheet as you would for hard copy printing – however quite simply – go to ‘File’ > ‘save as’ and under ‘Save as type:’ select the PDF option Simples Bonus - Make it Idiot Proof Now you have a functional and beautiful spreadsheet You may need to protect this amazing piece of work I always do this if there will be multiple users and protect the parts of the workbook that aren’t supposed to be changed my users You can protect the worksheet as below Choose which cells can be amended or need to be locked (depending on the spreadsheet) You do this by highlighting the cells, right-clicking and selecting ‘format cells’ In this case I want people to be able to enter information in the table, but I don’t want them to change the top information or the column headers Go to the ‘Protection’ tab and select ‘Locked’ Click OK Now you can protect your worksheet Go to the ‘Review’ ribbon and ‘Protect Sheet’ As default Excel ticks ‘Select locked cells’ and ‘Select unlocked cell’ I like to have only ‘select unlocked cells’ ticked This means users can only select unlocked cells You don’t even have to set a password – just the act of protecting the worksheet is often enough to deter people from messing around – you can leave the ‘Password to unprotect sheet’ field blank Click OK You’ll notice that you can only select the data under the table now and not the header or column labels I try not to set passwords for my Excel workbooks unless there is anything I genuinely have to protect, for example I may have a tab with salary information on When I show that to a viewer I may want to hide that tab and protect it I this by the ‘Protect Workbook’ option rather than ‘Protect Sheet’ This protects the workbook for ‘Structure’ which will stop people accessing hidden information such as tabs They will also not be able to add, delete or rearrange the existing tabs I tend to ignore the ‘Windows’ option – this will fix any windows you have set up, e.g the size and position of them There aren’t many spreadsheets I know of which require that amount of precision in their protection Bonus - My Favourite Shortcuts Ctrl + S – save the active workbook with its current file name and location Ctrl + Z – undo the last action Ctrl + Y - redo the last action (undo an undo!) Ctrl + C – copy the selected cells Ctrl + X – cut the selected cells Ctrl + V – pasted the copied cells Ctrl + B – add or remove bold formatting Ctrl + I – add or remove italic formatting Ctrl + D – copy the above cell into the below selected cells Ctrl + R – copy the left cell into the right selected cells Ctrl + F – open the find dialog box Ctrl + H – open the find and replace dialog box Conclusion Congratulations! Today we have covered how to set up a spreadsheet; knowing the purpose of your spreadsheet will determine how you need to set it up From there you can create a spreadsheet structure which will be logical and future-proofed We also covered how to get that data into Excel from speedy data entry through to converting external data into an Excel readable format Next we moved onto spreadsheet formatting and some best practice tips with regards to consistency, types of cell formats, how to best display descriptions and some tips on how to present the data We looked how to set up your display in order to be able to quickly and easily work with the Excel data by manipulating the tabs, zoom, panes, rows, columns, sort and filter functionality Finally we looked at how to print and share your spreadsheet; on screen, printed out or via PDF, and the bonus sections included how to protect your data and some of my favourite shortcuts That’s a lot of information to take in! I’ve keep the data very simple for this book so you can easily re-create some of the examples yourself, but don’t forget to try it with some examples of your own You won’t master these techniques until you practice them So that’s what I recommend you do next Take your next Excel project and analyse it going through each stage of this book; what’s its purpose, structure, data entry, formatting and printing presentation Thanks again for taking the time to read this ebook I love writing and I love helping people to understand complex things in a simple way I’m a very visual person so when I write, I start off with a vision of what I want to create, and then aspire to capture that in a way that translates in the readers’ mind This is why the journey is about learning Excel visually! The freedom and individuality you can flaunt both in pictures and words is empowering, getting abstract thought into a tangible format is a challenge I’ll never tire of If I don’t enjoy writing it, why would you enjoy reading it? That’s very important to me; books aren’t just a learning experience, but an entertaining one More books coming soon! Click here to get the latest updates on my ebook releases Leave a Review Did you find this book helpful? If you liked the book then I would very much appreciate an honest review - I’m always trying to improve my books so your comments will help If you noticed any errors please let me know! Drop me an email diane@handonart.com so I can fix them Table of Contents The ‘Learn Excel Visually’ Journey What’s in it for Me? About Me Introduction Setting up your Spreadsheet Getting data into Excel Formatting your spreadsheet Display Management Printing and sharing Bonus - Make it Idiot Proof Bonus - A Summary of my Favourite Shortcuts Conclusion .. .Microsoft Excel Essential Hints and Tips Fundamental hints and tips to kick start your Excel skills By Diane Griffiths Published by Diane Griffiths... Copying non -Excel data into Excel You might need to select and copy data from another program into Excel, however sometimes the format it appears in when it’s pasted into Excel is not always easy to work... We also look at a couple of great timesavers; how to quickly input data using shortcuts, and how to transpose and convert data that might be in the wrong format to use Formatting your spreadsheet How to format things within Excel; how Excel understands and interprets what we type,