Looking for an Excel solution for a work issue? Here are a few Excel informations: Pivot Tables offer several significant benefits, which is why they’re so popular. But they also have significant limitations, which is why I seldom have used them in the past. The benefits are obvious. Pivot Tables offer a powerful ability for Excel users to explore relational data in Excel and to return sorted, summarized, and filtered slices of the data to spreadsheets. I don’t know of any other product that offers such power. On the other hand, from my perspective, Pivot Tables have always seemed to be merely a report generator bolted to Excel. They offer many reporting capabilities, but only one spreadsheet function-GETPIVOTDATA-to allow worksheet functions to use PivotTable data. Therefore, Excel users-again in my opinion-have always had to work much harder than we should to use data from one or more Pivot Tables in standard Excel reports. But finally, in Excel 2010, Microsoft added most of the features Excel users need to use Pivot Tables as a truly useful source of data for standard reporting and analysis. Because we can work around the missing features, we finally can use a collection of Pivot Tables as a powerful and massive spreadsheet database.
Spreadsheets are composed of columns and rows that create a grid of cells. Typically, each cell holds a single item of data. Here’s an explanation of the three types of data most commonly used in spreadsheet programs: Number data, also called values, is used in calculations. By default, numbers are right aligned in a cell. In addition to actual numbers, Excel also stores dates and times as numbers. Other spreadsheet programs treat dates and times as a separate data category. Problems arise when numbers are formatted as text data. This prevents them from being used in calculations.
Excel automatically recognizes dates entered in a familiar format. For example, if you enter 10/31, Oct 31, or 31 Oct, Excel returns the value in the default format 31-Oct. If you want to learn how to use dates with formulas, see Properly Enter Dates in Excel with the DATE Function.
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Excel file formats: The default XML-based file format for Excel 2010 and Excel 2007. Cannot store Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro code or Microsoft Office Excel 4.0 macro sheets (.xlm). .xls: The Excel 97 – Excel 2003 Binary file format (BIFF8).
Text file formats: .txt Saves a workbook as a tab-delimited text file for use on another Microsoft Windows operating system, and ensures that tab characters, line breaks, and other characters are interpreted correctly. Saves only the active sheet. .csv Saves a workbook as a comma-delimited text file for use on another Windows operating system, and ensures that tab characters, line breaks, and other characters are interpreted correctly. Saves only the active sheet.
Excel Tips and Tricks!
If you want to move one column of data in a spreadsheet, the fast way is to choose it and move the pointer to the border, after it turns to a crossed arrow icon, drag to move the column freely. What if you want to copy the data? You can press the Ctrl button before you drag to move; the new column will copy all the selected data.
In order to retain the validity of data, sometimes you need to restrict the input value and offer some tips for further steps. For example, age in this sheet should be whole numbers and all people participating in this survey should be between 18 and 60 years old. To ensure that data outside of this age range isn’t entered, go to Data->Data Validation->Setting, input the conditions and shift to Input Message to give prompts like, “Please input your age with whole number, which should range from 18 to 60.” Users will get this prompt when hanging the pointer in this area and get a warning message if the inputted information is unqualified.