Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction to Excel

What is Еxcеl?
What is Еxcеl Used For?
History of Excel
What is Office 365?
Excel File Types
The Excel Ribbon
The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)
Date Types in Excel and how to use Them
Chapter 2: Getting Started with Excel
What is an Excel Workbook?
How to Open a Workbook?
How to Save a Workbook?
How to Close a Workbook?
What is a Worksheet?
What is a Range?
Entering Data in Excel
The Excel Fill Handle
How to Minimise and Maximise the Excel Window
Zooming in and Out of Worksheets
Chapter 3: Managing your Worksheets
Inserting New Worksheets
Deleting Worksheets
Naming Worksheets
 Formatting Worksheet Tabs
Moving Worksheet Tabs
Hiding Worksheets
Unhiding Worksheets
Making Worksheets Very Hidden
How to Unhide Very Hidden Worksheets
How to Insert Rows and Columns
How to Delete Rows and Columns
How to Hide Rows and Columns
How to Unhide Rows and Columns
Adjusting the Height of Rows
Adjusting the Width of Columns
How to Freeze Panes
Chapter 4: Managing your Data
Sorting Data
Using Basic Filtering
Using Advanced Filtering
Using Text to Columns to Split Data
Removing Duplicates in a Dataset
How to use Flash Fill
Chapter 5: Formatting Worksheets
Introduction to the Format Cells Dialog Box
Changing Font Properties
Changing Text Alignment
Changing Text Orientation
 How to Wrap Text and Merge Cells
Indenting Text
Format Cells with the Cell Styles Tool
How to use the Format Painter
Chapter 6: Making Edits to Worksheets
How to Copy, Paste and Cut
Editing Cell Content
How to use the Find and Replace Tool
How to use the Text to Speech Tool
How to Undo and Redo Actions
Chapter 7: Excel Formulas
Basic Terms in Excel
Mathematical Operators to use in Formulas
How to Enter Basic Formulas
How to Create a Basic Formula
Copying Formulas Down
Editing a Formula
Absolute and Relative Cell References
AutoSum Function to Quickly Sum Values
Chapter 8: Creating Charts
Selecting the Data for the Chart
Choosing a Chart
How to Switch the Data on each Axis
Formatting the Chart
Changing the Y-Axis Measurement
 Resizing the Chart
How to Change the Chart Type
Chapter 9: Creating and Using Tables
How to Create a Basic Excel Table
Customising the Excel Table
Convert the Excel Table back to a Range
The Benefits of Using an Excel Table
Chapter 10: 82 Keyboard Shortcuts you Must Know
 Copyright ©
Copyright Protection
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or оthеr electronic or mechanical methods,
without the prior written permission of the publisher, еxcеpt in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain оthеr
non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
 Your Free Bonus Gift!

As a small token of thanks for buying this book, I would like to offer a
FREE bonus gift to all my readers. I am offering a FREE online VBA
macros course called How to Record Macros in Excel.

In this FREE course you will learn:

How to record a macro to eliminate manual repetitive Excel
tasks
How to execute a macro by:
Using the Macro Dialog Box
Using the Visual Basic Editor
Clicking a button
Clicking a shape

Once you have completed the course you will be able to:
Automate Excel tasks easily
Save valuable time
Advance your Excel skills

You can register for this FREE online VBA course by clicking the link
below.

https://mailchi.mp/8b8d27df975c/how-to-record-macros-in-excel
 Introduction
This book contains all the relevant information you need to work with
the latest version of Microsoft Excel. It provides clear step-by-step
instructions to use the many tools and functionalities Excel has to
offer and contains lots of screenshots so you can follow along very
easily. It is a no-nonsense book so users who have never used Excel
before can quickly get up to speed and become proficient in a matter of
days.

Most organisations around the world use Microsoft Excel as it is the

number one spreadsheet software. Learning Excel will set you apart
from everybody else in the workplace and can even get you a pay rise
or promotion. Even if you don’t use Excel at work, it is a great skill to
have at home. The knowledge you will get from this book will help you
to create spreadsheets to track weekly or monthly expenditure and
income at home for example.

Purpose of this Book

The purpose of this book is to give you a good solid knowledge of
Excel, so you carry out tasks such as data analysis, create charts,
format worksheets and much more. The aim is to teach you all the
tools and features in Excel, so you become comfortable using it daily,
even if you started as a complete beginner. The book will guide you
from the basics such as how to insert and delete rows and columns to
more advanced features such as how to create charts and Excel tables.
Once you have finished the book you will become an advanced user
and know much more about Excel than many people who currently
use it.
Who is this Book Aimed For?
This book is aimed at people who:
Have never used Excel before and want to learn how to use it
Have only used Excel occasionally and want to become more
proficient in it
Want to learn how to organise their data better
Want to analyse data better by creating charts
Want to find out about some of the hidden features of Excel
Want to learn more about data analysis

Version
This book uses the latest version of Microsoft Excel which is in Office
365. All the examples and screenshots are from the Excel version of
Office 365.

How to use this Book

You can use this book in any way you please. You do not need to read
it in chapter order. If you are new to Excel or have basic skills, then I
would recommend you read this book in chapter order as it is ordered
in a logical way. If you are a more advanced user and want to learn
about a specific topic such as how to make your worksheets very
hidden or how to create Excel tables, then please feel free to jump to
that section first.

Final Word
I hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I have enjoyed writing
it. My goal in writing this book is to teach Excel to as many people
around the world as possible. After many years of working with Excel,
I still really enjoy using this wonderful software program and I am
learning new things all the time from using it. After reading this book,
I hope you enjoy using Excel as much as I do.

I love to receive comments and feedback from my readers, either for

this book or for any of the other Excel books I have written. The best
way to contact me is through my website:

https://www.excelmasterconsultant.com/
 Chapter 1: Introduction to
Excel
Let’s get started and introduce you to the wonderful world of Microsoft
Excel. Before we learn all the essential tools and functions of Excel, it
is important to understand what Excel is and why millions of people
use it all over the world.

What is Еxcеl?
Excel is a software program created by Microsoft and it allows users to
organise and format their data as well as make calculations using
various in-built formulas and functions. It is used all over the world by
businesses of different sizes. Excel is part of the Microsoft Office Suite
and is compatible with other Microsoft Office applications.

What is Еxcеl Used For?

Excel is used to store, analyse, and report large amounts of data. It is
commonly used among financial people, but it is also used by other
professionals who work with large datasets. At a basic level, Excel is
used for entering and storing data as well as for people who want to
keep track of their household expenditure. Excel, however, is much
more than this and below, I have listed the most common reasons why
businesses use Excel in their workplace.

Business Analysis
Businesses gather various data in a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly
basis such as product sales, spending on supplies, customer feedback,
meeting KPIs, website traffic and so on. Business analysis is essentially
analysing this data and converting it into something more meaningful
to make informed business decisions. For example, a business sends
out quarterly surveys to their customer regarding their service to
them. One person may continually give low scores. The business can
then follow up with that person to find out what the issue is and rectify
the problem.

Typical job examples who use Excel for business analysis include
Business Analyst, Business Planning Analyst, Claims Analyst, Business
Solutions Analyst, Data Analyst, Credit Officer, Financial Analyst,
Senior Portfolio Analyst.

People Management
Excel is a powerful tool to organise information about people, such as
employees, customers, and training attendees. Personal information
can be stored and retrieved quickly and easily. A row in Excel can be
used for each individual record and include information such as first
name, last name, email address, employee start date, items purchased,
and mobile number.

Typical job examples who use Excel for people management include
HR Analyst, Client Growth Coordinator, Client Relationship Manager,
Client Services Manager, HR Administrator, HR Advisor.

Managing Operations
Many businesses rely on Excel to manage their day-to-day operations.
They use Excel for example to manage inventory to check what
products are in stock and which are low in stock, so the operation
doesn’t grind to a halt. Many of the larger businesses pay high prices
for custom software for operation management but smaller businesses
who can’t afford these rely on Excel. The advantage of using Excel is
that you do not need to be highly technical which means more people
can use it. There is also less chance of bugs which some of the more
higher tech custom software solutions may be prone to.

Typical job examples who use Excel for managing operations include
Business Operations Analyst, Data Operations Manager, In Market
Supply Chain Analyst, Operations Business Analyst, Supply Chain
Specialist.

Performance Reporting
Performance reporting is another form of business analysis which can
be done by Excel. One way to convert data into showing performance
is by creating a pivot table. A pivot table is an interactive tool that
allows you to quickly summarise large amounts of data. By linking the
pivot table with your data, you can see useful information and
visualise performance. Pivot tables have numerous in-built functions
that allows a user to sum and count data.

Typical job examples who use Excel for performance reporting include
Financial Accountant, Forecast Analyst, Performance Analyst,
Reporting Analyst, Sales Coordinator, Sales Operations Analyst,
Reporting Development Analyst.

Note: Pivot tables are a very powerful tool in Excel, and I highly
recommend you learn this once you have read this book. I have written
a whole book on pivot tables called “Excel Bible for Beginners:
The Step-by-Step Guide to Create Pivot Tables to Perform
Excel Data Analysis and Data Crunching” which you can
purchase from Amazon. Click the link below for more details:
www.amazon.co.uk/Excel-Bible-Beginners-Analysis-
Crunching/dp/B08BF2V4R4
Strategic Analysis
Strategic analysis is often conducted using Excel where business
decisions are closely connected to the data and formulas in a
spreadsheet. Excel can guide actions such as investments and asset
allocations. An example of an action using strategic analysis includes
taking out currency insurance.

Typical job examples who use Excel for strategic analysis include Asset
Manager, Mergers and Acquisitions Valuations Analyst, Portfolio
Analyst, Portfolio Management Officer, Portfolio Administration
Associate.

Project Management
Projects are business activities that have a budget as well as a start and
end date. Although there are various project management tools and
software that Project Managers can use to make project plans, Excel is
a very effective alternative. Project plans can be created in Excel and
then be used to track progress to keep the project on schedule. A big
advantage of using Excel is that you can share the project plan to
others, as many people do not have access to custom project
management software.

Typical job examples who use Excel for project management include
Project Managers, Project Analyst, Project Assistant, Project Business
Analyst.

Managing Programs
A program is like a project, but the key difference is that it may be
ongoing and can depend on participation by users. Excel is a great tool
for managing programs. It can be adapted to handle specific
characteristics of a given program. Program records can easily be
managed by multiple people and then handed over to a new manager
when the time comes.

Typical job examples who use Excel for managing programs include
Events Coordinator, Learning and Development Officer, Programs and
Office Coordinator, Training Administrator.

Contract Administration
Excel allows you to record contract details such as dates in a contract,
specific milestones, deliverables, and payments. You can create your
own contract template or use the many that are available online and
then adapt it to your own needs.

Typical job examples who use Excel for contract administration

include Building Contract Administrator, Contracts Administrator,
Estimator, Lease Administrator, Quote and Tender Administrator.

Account Management
Maintaining customer records is a key requirement in account
management. Account Managers need to be competent in Excel so
they can store and update their customer records. The key role for
Account Managers is to nurture relationships with existing clients and
to achieve customer loyalty and repeat sales. Excel is used in account
management to share and maintain files.

Typical job examples who use Excel for account management include
Account Managers, Accounts Coordinator, Advertising Manager,
Digital Account Manager.
History of Excel
In this section I will provide a brief history of Excel and how it has
evolved over the years. We normally take Excel for granted as many
large and small organisations use it daily to store data, record financial
information, create applications and models and much more but very
few of us know its origins.

VisiCalc
The very first electronic spreadsheet was VisiCalc which was created
by Dan Bricklin, a Harvard Business School student in 1978. It had a
total of five columns and twenty rows. Although the matrix was tiny
compared to today’s Excel, VisiCalc was a huge success. VisiCalc could
perform basic mathematical operations, automatic recalculations and
scrolling.

SuperCalc
After VisiCalc along came SuperCalc in 1980. SuperCalc was published
by Sorcim, and it is best remembered for being the first electronic
spreadsheet program to solve circular references.

Multiplan
Microsoft came to the scene and the first spreadsheet program they
developed was Multiplan in 1982. Whereas the other spreadsheet
programs used the A1 cell referencing, Multiplan used R1C1 cell
references. It was a difficult program to learn and use and never really
took off in the United States.

Lotus 1-2-3
Mitch Kapor and Jonathon Sachs created Lotus 1-2-3 in 1983 and it
proved to be an instant success despite its $495 price. It quickly
outsold VisiCalc and became the number one spreadsheet program.
Lotus 1-2-3 offered charting, graphing and database operations.

Excel Versions
Excel 1.0
Released in 1985 this was the first spreadsheet program to use a
graphical interface, pull down menus and a point and click capability.
This first version was only released for Macintosh.

Excel 2.0
This was the first version for Windows and appeared in late 1987. This
version included a runtime version of Windows because Windows was
not widely used at the time. The runtime version was a special version
with just enough features to run just Excel and nothing else.

Excel 3.0
Excel 3.0 was released 3 years after Excel 2.0 in 1990 and was a vast
improvement on its previous version. It included toolbars, drawing
capabilities, worksheet outlining, add-in support, 3D charts and much
more.

Excel 4.0
This was the first popular version of Excel as Windows increased in
popularity. This version was released in 1992 and included many new
features, better mouse implementation, more shortcuts, customizable
toolbars, and the fill handle was first introduced.
Excel 5.0
Released in early 1994, this version was a big upgrade from the
previous version and included multi-sheet workbooks, and the new
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro language to allow you to
automate Excel tasks.

Excel 95
Also known as Excel 7.0 (there was no Excel 6.0) this was released in
1995. This was the first major 32-bit version of Excel. There were no
other major external changes from Excel 5.0 although it was more
stable and faster.

Excel 97
Excel 97 was also known as Excel 8.0 and was released in 1997. This
version probably offered the most significant upgrades ever. Excel 97
introduced the paperclip office assistant; the toolbars and menus had
a new look and the number of rows available quadrupled. The user
interface for VBA also had a major uplift.

Excel 2000
Also known as Excel 9.0, Excel 2000 was released in 1999. In this
version the clipboard was improved so it could hold multiple objects at
a time. The Excel self help repair feature was also introduced. Another
advancement from the previous version was the ability to use HTML
as an alternative file format.

Excel 2002
This was part of Microsoft Office XP and was released in 2001. Also
known as Excel 10.0 this version’s main new feature was the ability to
save your work when Excel crashed. It also recovered corrupt
workbook files that may have been abandoned years ago.

Excel 2003
Also known as Excel 11.0 this version offered very few new features.
Released in 2003, the main new addition was the ability to import and
export XML files. It also introduced a new List range and smart tag
enhancements.

Excel 2007
Released in early 2007, its official name is Microsoft Office Excel
2007, but it is also known as Excel 12.0. This version offered the most
significant change since Excel 97 mainly due to a new user interface
called the ribbon. There was also a change to Excel’s default file
format. It introduced the .xlsx and the .xlsm format for workbooks
that contained macros. Microsoft also made enhancements to the List
range which was first introduced in Excel 2003. The number of rows
and columns were significantly increased, and charts had a major face
lift.

Excel 2010
Excel 2010, also known as Excel 14.0 (there was no Excel 13.0) was a
major upgrade from Excel 2007 and was released in 2010. It offered
new features such as extended image editing capabilities, Sparkline
graphics, improved pivot tables, ability to customise the ribbon and
more conditional formatting capabilities.

Excel 2013
Released in 2013, this version is also known as Excel 15.0 and includes
new features such as Power View, Flash Fill and many more.
Excel 2016
Excel 2016 was released in 2015 and is also known as Excel 16.0. This
was included in Microsoft Office 2016 and includes many new features
from Excel 2013. Some new features included Power Query
integration, keyboard access for pivot tables and slicers in Excel, new
chart types, quick data linking in Visio, Excel forecasting functions and
many others.

Excel 2019, Office 365

Microsoft no longer released Office or Excel in different versions.
Microsoft instead automatically introduced new features over time
using Windows updates. The version number remains 16.0.

What is Office 365?

Office 365 is a subscription-based version of the Microsoft Office
Suite. There are two main options when buying an account. One, is
Office 365 Personal, which gives a single user access to every Office
application. The second is Office 365 Home, which is designed for
families where multiple people will be using Office.

The overall experience of using Office 365 should be very familiar if

you have used the traditional Microsoft Office Suite as they are
similar. Office 365 however offers several advantages that are not
available with the Microsoft Office Suite. For example, subscribing to
Office 365 ensures you have access to more features such as the
Translator, a Resume Assistant and Smart Lookup. You can also
collaborate with others in Excel through the co-authoring feature
which enables other people to edit your workbook in real time. It also
includes other benefits too such as more file storage in OneDrive and
technical support.

Excel File Types

Microsoft Еxcеl has crеatеd nеw typеs оf ways to save wоrkbооks and
оthеr various Еxcеl files. With thе crеatiоn оf nеw typеs оf saving filеs,
Еxcеl crеatеd thе impоrt and еxpоrt fеaturе. This allоwеd Еxcеl usеrs
tо еasily impоrt alrеady crеatеd wоrkbооks оr filеs and еxpоrt
wоrkbооks оr filеs to be usеd at a latеr timе.

Here is a list of file types in Excel.

.xls
This extension is the most common and default type in the
sprеadshееt generated by Microsoft Officе. Prior to Еxcеl 2007, the file
extension was XLS. This file refers to a file which contains all typеs оf
information including data, formats, graphics, etc.

.xlsx
This file is used by the sprеadshееt filеs gеnеratеd with Еxcеl vеrsiоn
2007 оnwards. Fоr an Еxcеl filе, thе currеnt dеfault filе еxtеnsiоn is
XLSX.

.xlsm
This filе typе is gеnеratеd by thе sprеadshееt with Excеl vеrsiоn 2007
оnwards including Еxcеl macrоs. With thе hеlp оf this еxtеnsiоn, its
еasy tо establish that thе filе cоntains a macrо. Due to sеcurity rеasоns
and fоr prоtеcting a filе with cоmputеr virusеs, maliciоus macrоs,
infеcting cоmputеrs, еtc this vеrsiоn came intо еxistеncе.
.xlsb
If Excеl filеs cоntain a largе amоunt оf data оr infоrmatiоn, this filе
еxtеnsiоn typе fully suppоrts in thе cоmprеssiоn prоcеss, saving,
оpеning, etc. An Excеl filе which cоntains a largе amоunt оf data takеs
a lоt оf timе in оpеning and prоcеssing that filе. Sоmеtimеs while
оpеning it gеts hangеd and frequently crashes.

The Excel Ribbon

The Excel ribbon is the main user interface and is easy to use and very
intuitive. It is made up of tabs and within each tab there are groups.
Within each group are various command buttons which when pressed
perform different actions or open menus. The ribbon is always present
at the top of the screen. The screenshot below shows that the Home
tab has been selected. The Home tab contains groups which are
Clipboard, Font, Alignment, Number, Styles, Cells and Editing. Within
each group contains command buttons which are associated with the
groups they are in.

Tabs
There are nine tabs in the Excel ribbon by default. These are File,
Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, View
and Help. The Home tab is the default tab when Excel is open. You
can also unlock another tab called Developer. This tab is specifically
for more advanced Excel users who like to create or edit macros in
their workbooks or to insert various control buttons in their
worksheets.

Groups
Within each tab contains groups. The groups are related to the tabs
main purpose of activity. Within each group contains command
buttons that are related to the group they are in.

Command Buttons
Command buttons allows you to perform actions or open menus for
further actions. Now let’s go through each tab from left to right to
understand each of their features.

File Tab
The File tab gets you to the backstage view of all the commands that
are related to your workbook. For example, you can open a new
workbook, save a workbook, and print a workbook. You can also
access the Excel options where you can change various settings in
Excel.

Home Tab
The Home tab is the most used tab in Excel. This tab contains the most
widely used and essential commands in Excel. Here you can perform
formatting, change font types and sizes, change alignment of text,
perform conditional formatting, insert, or delete rows and columns,
sort, and filter as well as copy and paste.
Insert Tab
Here you can insert various items in your worksheet such as pivot
tables, tables, shapes, pictures, charts, sparklines, symbols and text
boxes.

Page Layout Tab

This tab allows you to customise the layout of the worksheet. You can
adjust the margins, colour themes, gridlines, page orientation and
print area.

Formulas Tab
This is where all the main Excel functions are categorised under the
Functions Library group. You can also perform error checking if any of
your formulas returns an incorrect result.

Data Tab
This tab allows you work with data in your worksheets. You can
connect to external data sources, perform filtering and sorting, refresh
pivot tables and remove duplicate values. You can also perform more
advanced features such as What If Analysis and Text to Columns to
split your data in different columns.
Review Tab
In the Review tab you can perform spell checks, access the Thesaurus,
add comments and notes, translate languages, and protect your
worksheets and workbook. The main purpose of this tab is to protect
data integrity.

View Tab
The View tab allows you to control how you view the worksheet. You
can turn on and off the gridlines, formula bar and the headings. You
can also freeze panes and switch windows as well as zoom in and out.

Help Tab
This tab gives you access to Microsoft support and search for help. It
also allows you to provide feedback.

Developer Tab
I mentioned earlier that there is a hidden tab which you can unlock
called Developer. I will show you how to unlock this tab later in this
section. The reason why this tab is hidden is because it is mainly used
for advanced users and beginners will rarely need this tab. You will use
the Developer tab to record and create macros. You can also access the
Visual Basic Editor (VBE) as well as insert control buttons in this tab.

Collapse the Ribbon

Sometimes you may need more worksheet space. If you do, then you
can collapse the ribbon. When you collapse the ribbon, only the tabs
will be visible. When you click a tab, the groups with the command
buttons will then show. There are four ways you can collapse the
ribbon:

1) Double click the tab you are currently on.

2) Press the keyboard shortcut keys Ctrl + F1.

3) Click the Collapse the Ribbon button which is located on

the bottom right corner of the ribbon.

4) Right click anywhere in the ribbon and select Collapse the

 Ribbon from the menu.

Show the Ribbon

You can show the ribbon again by performing one of the four following
methods:

1) Double click the tab you are currently on.

2) Press the keyboard shortcut keys Ctrl + F1 again.

3) Click on any of the tabs in the ribbon and then click the Pin
the Ribbon button which is located on the bottom right corner
of the ribbon.

4) Right click any of the tabs and choose Collapse the Ribbon
again from the menu.
Customise the Ribbon
You can add or remove tabs in the ribbon. As I have mentioned earlier,
the Developer tab does not display in the ribbon by default. You can
access this tab by following the below steps.

1) Right-click anywhere in the ribbon and then select

Customize the Ribbon from the menu.

2) The Customize Ribbon dialog box will appear. On the

right-hand pane you will see all the tabs. The ones that are
checked are the ones that are visible in the ribbon. In the
screenshot below, you can see that the Developer tab is
unchecked. To show this in the ribbon, you just check the
checkbox and then click on the OK button. To remove tabs,
simply uncheck them and then click the OK button.
The Developer tab is now showing in the ribbon.

Dynamic Ribbon Size

When you minimise the window, the groups in the tabs will change
size and some of your command buttons may not be visible. You will
have to search a bit harder and click a few more times to find the
command buttons you need.

The Home tab when the window is maximised.

The Home tab when the window is minimised.

The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)

The QAT is a toolbar on the top left of your window that contains the
most frequently used commands. By default, it contains the Save,
Undo and Redo commands. You can add more commands based on
which ones you use most often. There is no limit to the number of
commands you can include in the QAT, although not all the
commands may be visible depending on the size of your window. The
main goal of the QAT is to give you quick access to your favourite
commands without you having to search for them in the ribbon.

How to Customise the QAT

To customise the QAT, you need to access the Quick Access
Toolbar dialog box. There are three ways to do this:

1) Click on the File tab in the ribbon to get to the backstage view.
 Click on Options on the left-hand pane. The Excel Options
dialog box will appear. Select Quick Access Toolbar on the
left-hand side of the dialog box.

2) Right click anywhere in the ribbon and select Customize the

Ribbon from the menu.

3) Click the Customize the Quick Access Toolbar which is

located on the right of the QAT button and then select More
Commands from the menu.

Whichever method you use, the Quick Access Toolbar dialog box
will appear.
How to Add a Command to the QAT
You can add all sorts of commands to the QAT, including macros and
even commands that are not in the ribbon. To add a command, follow
these steps.

1) Click on the Choose commands from drop-down box and

select any of the options given. In this example, I want to add
the Bold command to the QAT. I know this is in the Home tab
of the ribbon so I select Home tab. If you are not sure which
tab the command you want to add to the QAT is in, then just
select All Commands.
2) Select the command you want to add from the left-hand pane.
In this example I select the Bold command. Then click the
Add button to move this command to the right-hand pane.
Repeat this process if you would like to add more commands.
Next click on the OK button.
 3) The Bold command has been added to the QAT.

How to Remove a Command from the QAT

You can remove a default command or one you added previously very
easily. There are two ways to do this.

Method 1
Right-click the command in the QAT and then select Remove from
Quick Access Toolbar.

Method 2
Access the Quick Access Toolbar dialog box and then select the
command you want to remove from the right-hand pane. In this
example I want to remove the Bold command, so I select Bold. Next
click on the Remove button which is located between the left and
right pane. Finally press the OK button to remove the command.
Rearrange Commands on the QAT
You can change the order of the commands in the QAT. To do this
simply access the Quick Access Toolbar dialog box. Select the
command in the right-hand pane you want to move and then click the
Move Up or Move Down arrows which are located on the right.
Once you have changed the positions of the commands then click the
OK button.

Move the QAT Below or Above the Ribbon

The default position of the QAT is above the ribbon. If you prefer, you
can move it below the ribbon. To do this click the Customize Quick
Access Toolbar button located to the right of the QAT. From the
menu select Show Below the Ribbon.
To move it above the ribbon then just click the Customize Quick
Access Toolbar button again and from the menu select Show
Above the Ribbon.
Date Types in Excel and how to use Them
It is important to understand the different data types used in Excel as
well as how to use them in your worksheets. Errors in interpreting and
computing the data can occur if you are not familiar with using the
different data types in Excel. The data that you enter in your
worksheets will be converted by Excel and then it will get processed by
different sets of functions and commands.

There are four main data types in Excel:

1) Number
2) Text
3) Logical
4) Error

I will explain each one in more detail.

The Number Data Type

Number data types are simply numerical values such as 8, 12.7, 68%,
$200, 56,875. It is important to note that Excel stores numbers as
Double-Precision Floating Point values. This means numbers in Excel
are often shown as decimal numbers where you can enter a lot of
decimal places if needed. This allows Excel to store very small and very
large numbers. You can only type 15 digits in Excel, and if you type any
more, then Excel will remove the other digits on the right-hand side
starting with the 16th number and replace them with zeros.

Numerical data types are most often used to signify a numerical value
such as the number of products a store sells a month, the length of a
product, the percentage of people who have filled in a questionnaire
and much more.

Numerical data types can also be used to represent dates. For example,
5th March 1985 is interpreted by Excel as a numerical value of 31111.
This is because in the world of Excel, the world started on the 1st of
January 1900. Excel will convert this date as 1. Dates are converted to
numbers so that Excel can calculate the number of years, months, and
days between dates. 5th March 1985 is 31110 months ahead of the 1st of
January 1900.
Times in Excel are also stored as numbers. For example, 09:45 is
stored as 0.40625 because Excel treats times as a fraction of a day.
Again, like with dates, this means Excel can calculate the difference
between different times.

You can also differentiate the value of a number from the way it will be
shown in Excel. If I take the example above about the dates, you will
not want the date to be shown as 31111 as you or whoever is viewing
the worksheet would not understand what this number means.
Instead, you can change the way this numerical value looks like by
choosing a date format such as 05/03/1985 or 05/03/85 or 5 March
1985 or any other date formatting options Excel provides. You will
learn how to format numbers later in the book.

The Text Data Type

The text data type is another commonly seen data type in Excel. A text
data type is any word or sentence in a worksheet. Excel treats text as a
string of characters. Letters of the alphabet, symbols such as the dollar
sign ($), spaces and tabs are interpreted by Excel as valid text. Values
will also be treated as text if Excel cannot determine whether it is a
numerical, logical or an error data type. Excel can recognise up to
32,768 characters, however it can only show up to 1,024 characters in
a single cell.
The Logical Data Type
Logical data types are often shown as either TRUE (or 1 in Boolean
value) or FALSE (or 0 in Boolean value). Logical data is often
displayed because of a certain function or expression. Let’s look at an
example below.

In this example, commission is awarded to any Salesperson who has

achieved sales over $300 in column B. A logical formula is entered in
column C which returns either TRUE or FALSE depending on whether
the sales is over $300 or not. Later in the book, I will show you how to
create simple formulas.
Logical data cannot be typed in Excel manually by the user like with
numerical and text data. Instead, it will show up as a result of an
expression or function like with the above example. You use logical
data types to make comparisons, create and test conditions, and
checking the contents of a cell location.

The Error Data Type

Error data types can occur when Excel is processing data and
evaluating the content of a cell. Let’s look at an example below.
In this example, there is a formula in column C which divides the
numerical values in column A by the zeros in column B. The formulas
in column C are returning a #DIV/0! error data type because dividing
a number by a zero cannot be possible mathematically.

Error data types are often displayed by a hash symbol (#) and then
uppercase text followed by a question mark (?) or exclamation mark
(!). Like with logical data types, error data types cannot be entered
manually, and they show up because of an error in a formula. Error
data types are useful because when they show, you know an error has
occurred and you can then fix it.

To conclude, all these data types are useful in their own ways, and
when used properly, users can use Excel more effectively.
 Chapter 2: Getting Started
with Excel
Now that you have a general understanding of what Excel is and why
we use it, let’s delve a bit deeper and get you started with Excel. In this
chapter you will learn all the essential things you need to learn to get
you up and running with Excel.

What is an Excel Workbook?

A workbook is a collection of one or more spreadsheets, which are also
called worksheets, in a single file. You can have as many workbooks
open at any time and each workbook has its own window. A workbook
is often called an Excel file. You can open a blank workbook or a
workbook that has previously been saved.

How to Open a Workbook?

When you open Excel for the first time, the Excel Start Screen will
appear as shown in the screenshot below. In the top section, you can
open a new blank workbook or choose from a variety of existing
templates. Below this section, you can also access your recently edited
workbooks under the Recent tab.
You can also open a new workbook by clicking New from the left-hand
pane from the Excel Start Screen.

You can open an existing workbook by clicking Open from the left-
hand pane from the Excel Start Screen.
How to Save a Workbook?
It is very important that you save your workbook whenever you start a
new workbook or make changes to an existing workbook. Saving
regularly is good practice just in case the worst happens, and Excel
crashes and all your hard work is lost.

There are two main ways to save a workbook in Excel which are:

1. Save As – You use Save As when you have created a

workbook for the first time, and you need to save it to your
computer. You will need to enter the name of the workbook,
select the file type, and choose the location of where you
want to save the workbook on your computer.

You also use Save As when you want to create a copy of your
workbook and keep the original. For example, if you have a
workbook called Employee Data, you can save it as Employee
Data2 so you can edit the new workbook and refer back to the
original workbook. If you do this, then you will need to
remember to choose a different workbook name and/or location
for the copied workbook.
 1. Save – When you are making edits to your workbook you
click on the Save button to save your changes. You will use
this command most of the time.

I will now show you how to save your workbook using the two
methods mentioned above.

Using Save As
1. Click on the File tab in the ribbon.

1. Click on the Save As command on the left-hand pane in the

Backstage view.

1. Click on the Browse button to save the workbook on your

 computer.

1. The Save As dialog box will appear. Type a name for your
workbook in the File name field. You can also choose to
save your workbook in a variety of different file types from
the drop-down box in the Save as type field. Finally,
choose the location of where you want to save the workbook,
either on your desktop or in any of your folders.

1. Click on the Save button to save your workbook.

Using the Save Button
There are 3 ways you can save an existing workbook which are:

1. Click on the Save button in the Quick Access Toolbar.

1. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + S.

1. Click on the File tab in the ribbon to go to the backstage

view.
 Then click on Save in the left-hand pane.

If you save the workbook using either of the first or second methods
and the workbook hasn’t been saved before then the Save this file
dialog box will appear. You need to give your workbook a name in the
File Name field. You also need to choose a location on your computer
to save the workbook using the drop-down box in the Choose a
Location field. Finally, click on the Save button to save the
workbook.

If you use the third method to save the workbook but the workbook
has not been saved before then you will be taken to the backstage
view and you will have to save the workbook using the Save As
method from step 3 onwards.

How to Close a Workbook?

Once you have finished using the workbook, you need to close it. There
are four different methods to close a workbook.

Method 1
Just click on the Close button which looks like a cross and is located
on the top right of the window.
Method 2
You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + W to close the
workbook.

Method 3
If you have more than one workbook open, then closing each
individual workbook can be time consuming if you have many open. A
quicker way to close more than one workbook is to hold the Shift key
while pressing the Close window button. This will close all open
workbooks at the same time.

Method 4
You can also add the Close All button to the Quick Access Toolbar
(QAT) to close all open workbooks. If you are unfamiliar with the QAT
and do not know how to add commands to it, then please see the
section on the QAT in chapter 1 to learn how to do this. This button
performs the same action as the one I mentioned for method 3.
What is a Worksheet?
So far in this chapter, I have talked about workbooks. In this section I
will explain what worksheets are. Worksheets are contained in a
workbook. It is basically a collection of cells where all your data and
formulas are stored. A cell can contain numbers, text, or formulas. By
default, Excel has three worksheets, but you can add or delete the
number of worksheets in a workbook. You will learn how to do this
later in the book.

A worksheet is organised by rows and columns. Rows are labelled with

numbers starting from 1 at the top all the way down to 1,048,576.
Columns are labelled with letters going from left to right starting with
A all the way through to XFD. Since there are 26 letters in the
alphabet, the columns go from A to Z for the first 26 columns. It then
moves to AA, AB, AC and so on until it reaches ZZ. It then moves to
AAA, AAB, AAC and so on. There are 1,048,576 rows and 16,384
columns in total.
Each cell in a worksheet is referenced by the column letter and row
number. For example, a cell in the third column and second row has a
cell address of C2. Only one cell in the worksheet can be active. You
will know which cell is active in three different ways:

1) The cell has a dark green border around it.

2) The column and row will be a darker shade of grey.
3) The cells address will appear in the Name Box.

When the cell is active, you can edit the cell or enter numbers, text, or
formulas in it.

A worksheet contains an invisible layer on top of the cells where

charts, diagrams and images sit. You can think of workbooks and
worksheets like a book. A workbook is like the front and back cover of
a book that holds the worksheets together in one place.

In the next chapter, I will explain how you can manipulate worksheets
such as inserting and deleting rows and columns, adding, and deleting
worksheets and adjusting row heights and column widths. For now, it
is important to understand what worksheets are.

What is a Range?
In the previous section about worksheets, you learnt that a cell is an
individual rectangular grid in a worksheet. Each cell references a
column and row such as D4. A range is a collection of two or more cells
in the worksheet that are selected or highlighted.

A range can be contiguous and non-contiguous.

A contiguous range is a group of highlighted cells that are adjacent to

each other. In the example above, I have selected range A1 to A10. This
is specified as A1:A10 in Excel when you start to use ranges in
formulas.
A non-contiguous range of cells contain two or more groups of cells
that are not adjacent to each other. These groups can be separated by
rows and columns like in the example above.

Range Names
Ranges are very important in Excel as you use them to create formulas
and charts. To make ranges easier to work with you can name them.
You can then use the range name instead of the range address in your
formulas. Using range names is good practice as you can describe what
the text or numbers signify in a range. For example, if the range A1:A5
contains Salespeople names, you can name this range “Salespeople”.
You can then use this range name in your formula, so it is easier to
understand what the formula is referencing.

To create a range name, just follow the steps below.

1) Select the range you want to name. In this example I have a

list of sales in the range A1:A5 which I have selected.
 2) In the Formulas tab in the ribbon under the Defined
Names group click on the Define Name button.

3) In the New Name dialog box enter the name you would like
to call the range in the Name field. In this example, I have
called it “Sales”. Then press the OK button.

Now, when I select the range, the name of the range appears in the
Name Box. You can also select the name in the Name Box which will
highlight the range.
There is also a quicker way to create a named range. For the quicker
method, follow these steps.

1) Highlight the range you want to name. In this example, I

highlight the range A1:A5.

2) Type the name of the range in the Name Box and then press
Enter on your keyboard.

Entering Data in Excel

Entering data, whether it is text or numbers in a worksheet is one of
the most common things you will do in Excel. To enter data in a
worksheet, do the following.

1) Move the cell pointer to the required cell and then start typing.
As you type the data, you will notice it will display in the
selected cell as well as in the Formula Bar. The Formula Bar is
located above the column headers.

2) Once you have entered the data in the cell, press the Enter
key. The cell pointer will move down to the cell below.

Note: When you start typing data in a cell and then press the Esc key,
the data will not be entered.

How to Delete and Replace Data

To delete data in a cell, select the cell with the data you want to delete
and then press the Delete key on your keyboard. If there is data in
more than one cell that you want to delete, then just select the cells
with the data and press the Delete key. You do not have to delete the
data in each cell individually.

To replace data with new data, simply select the cell and start to type.
The new data will overwrite the old data in the cell.
Using Undo and Redo
Sometimes, when you start to enter data, you realise that you have
made a mistake. You can go back to where you were before you made
the mistake by using the Undo button. The Undo button will undo the
last thing you did. You can keep on pressing the Undo button up to
100 times. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + Z.

If you have gone one step too far back, you can click the Redo button
to go forward a step again. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + Y.
The Undo and Redo buttons are in the Quick Access Toolbar. They are
one of the most useful and commonly used command buttons in Excel.

Overlapping Data
One thing to be aware of is that when you enter data that does not fit
the size of a cell, it looks like it has overlapped into the next column.

In the example above, we can see the text in cell B2 looks like it has
overlapped into the next column in cell C2. When I select cell B2, the
full text is shown in the Formula Bar. Cell C2 is in fact empty.

If you are not entering any data in the next column where the data is
overlapping, then you may just want to leave it as it is. However, when
you start to enter data in the overlapping column, then it looks as if
part of your data has gone missing.

In the above example, we can see that part of the text in cell B2 looks
like it has been cut off when I entered text in cell C2. The full text is
still in cell B2, it is just that the text in cell C2 is hiding the text in cell
B2. To view the full contents in the cells, you can adjust the column
width. You will learn how to do this later in the book.

The Excel Fill Handle

The fill handle allows you to copy cells down, up or across a worksheet.
You can use the fill handle to copy anything in a cell, whether it is text,
numbers, dates or even cell colours. Understanding how to use it will
save you time and make you more productive.

Let’s first look at what the fill handle is.

The fill handle is located on the bottom right of the active cell and
looks like a small green square. When you hover your mouse over it,
the pointer will turn into a plus sign (+).
How to use the Fill Handle
To use the fill handle to copy cells down a column, follow these steps.

1) Select the cell you want to copy down. In this example, I want
to copy down the number 1 in cell A1, so I select cell A1.

2) Hover your mouse on the bottom right edge of the active cell
until you see a plus sign (+).

3) Left click the mouse and drag it down to the last cell you want
to copy down to. In this example, I have dragged the fill
handle down to cell A10 and the number 1 has been copied
down.
To copy cells across or up, simply follow steps 1 and 2 but for step 3,
just left click the mouse and drag the mouse across or up, depending
on which direction you want to copy.

Using the Fill Handle to Autocomplete Lists

The fill handle is much more than just copying cells down, up, or
across the worksheet. It will also autocomplete lists too.

Let’s say you have a worksheet that contains the numbers 1 and 2 in
cells A1 and A2. You can use the fill handle to insert numbers up to the
desired number in increments of 1.

In the above example, I want to insert numbers up to 10 in the range

A1:A10. To do this, I select the range A1:A2, and then drag the fill
handle down to cell A10.
The cells have been filled from 1 to 10.

The above example shows how the fill handle completes numbers in
increments of 1. The fill handle can also complete lists based on
patterns it detects in a worksheet.

In this example, we have the number 1 in cell A1 and 5 in cell A2. The
difference between the two numbers is 4.
You can use the fill handle to insert numbers in increments of 4 as
shown above.

Another great way to use the fill handle is to autofill weekday names.

In cell A1, we can see it contains the text “Mon”. You can use the fill
handle to populate the rest of the days in the week.

In the above example, Tue to Sun has been populated in the range
A2:A7. This performs in the same way for full weekday names too. For
example, if cell A1 was “Monday” then it will fill cell A2 as “Tuesday”,
cell A3 as “Wednesday” and so on.
You can also autofill dates too using the fill handle.

In the above example, Cell A1 contains the date “01/01/2022”. I then

used the fill handle to autofill the dates through to “20/01/2022”. For
this to work correctly, the date must be in a date format that is
recognised by Excel.
When you drag down to autocomplete a list for dates, you can click on
the Auto Fill Options icon which is located on the bottom right and
some additional options become available.

Here is a description of what each of the options do if you select them.

Fill Days: This fills the list with days, and it will go up in increments
of 1.

Fill Weekdays: When you select this option, it fills the list with
weekdays only and removes the weekends.
Fill Months: This fills the cells with incrementing months. The day
number will stay the same, but the month number will change.

Fill Years: This fills the cells with incrementing years.

How to Minimise and Maximise the Excel

Window
Like with other Microsoft Office applications, you can minimise and
maximise the window. The buttons to control these are located on the
top right corner of the Excel window.

When the Excel window is maximised, the Maximise button turns into
the Restore Down button.

Now you know where the buttons are located, I will explain what
maximise, minimise, and restore down actually mean.

Minimised State
When you click the Minimise button, the Excel window is not visible
on the screen. It is minimised to remain on the windows taskbar.
Maximised State
When the Excel window is maximised, it fits the full size of the screen.

Restored State
Restored state refers to the window state when the Excel window is
restored to its original size. The restored window state makes the size
of the Excel window smaller than the maximised state. When the Excel
window is in a restored state, you can resize the window by clicking
and dragging the top, bottom, or sides of the window. When the Excel
window is at restored state, use the maximise button to maximise the
Excel window.

Zooming in and Out of Worksheets

You can zoom in to get a closer look at what is contained in your
worksheet or zoom out to see more detail. There are four ways to zoom
in and out of your worksheet.

Zooming in and out using the Mouse

If you have a mouse wheel, you can press the Ctrl button on your
keyboard while rolling the mouse wheel forward to zoom in and
backwards to zoom out.

Zooming in and out using the Keyboard Shortcut

You can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + plus sign (+) to
zoom in and Ctrl + Alt + minus sign (-) to zoom out.
Zooming in and out using the Zoom Slide
You can zoom in and out using the zoom slider which is located on the
bottom right of the window. You can keep on clicking the minus sign (-
) to zoom out and the plus sign (+) to zoom in. You can also use the
scroller and slide it to the left to zoom out or to the right to zoom in.

When you click on 100% which is located to the right of the plus sign
(+), the Zoom dialog box will appear. You can click on any of the
magnification buttons from 200% through to 25% to set your zoom
level. You can also set your own zoom level by entering a percentage in
the Custom field.

Adding Zoom Buttons to the Quick Access Toolbar

You can add the Zoom in and out buttons to the Quick Access Toolbar
(QAT) to give you quick access to zooming. To learn how to access the
QAT, please see chapter 1 on this topic.

Once the QAT dialog box is open, select All Commands from the
drop-down box in the Choose commands from field. Scroll all the
way to the bottom in the left-hand pane until you see the Zoom In
and Zoom Out buttons. Select Zoom In and then click on the Add
button. Do the same for the Zoom Out button and then press the OK
button.
 Chapter 3: Managing your
Worksheets
In this chapter you will learn everything you need to know about
managing worksheets in a workbook. When you work with Excel, most
of your time will involve working with worksheets. It is vitally
important therefore that you know all the tools, functions and features
that will help you manage your worksheets quickly and efficiently.

Inserting New Worksheets

As your workbook grows, you may need to insert new worksheets.
There are four main methods to insert new worksheets in a workbook.

Method 1

From the ribbon click on the Home tab. Under the Cells group click
on the downward arrow to the right of the Insert button. A list of
options will appear from the menu. Click on Insert Sheet.

Method 2
Right-click any existing worksheet tab and a shortcut menu will
appear. Select Insert from the menu.
The Insert dialog box will appear. Click on Worksheet and then the
OK button.

Method 3
Click on the plus sign (+) which is located at the bottom of the
worksheet next to the worksheet tabs.

Method 4
You can also use keyboard shortcuts to insert new worksheets in your
workbook. To use the shortcuts, do the following:

1) Press Alt + Shift + F1

2) Shift + F11

There are a couple of points to be mindful of regarding inserting

worksheets.

1) A workbook can contain up to 255 worksheets.

2) A workbook which contains a lot of worksheets and formulas

will be slow to use.

Deleting Worksheets
As well as inserting new worksheets, you can also just as easily delete
unwanted ones. There are three main methods to delete worksheets.

Method 1
In the ribbon click on the Home tab. Under the Cells group click on
the downward arrow to the right of the Delete button. A list of
options will appear from the menu. Click on Delete Sheet.

Method 2

Right-click the worksheet tab you want to delete. A shortcut menu will
appear. Select Delete from the menu.

Method 3
You can also use keyboard shortcuts to delete worksheets in your
workbook. To use the shortcuts, do the following:
1) Right-click + D
 Right-click the worksheet you want to delete and press D on your
keyboard.

2) ALT + H + D +S

You would need to press these keys in succession, one after the
other.

Naming Worksheets
Having multiple worksheets in your workbook makes your workbook
organised and structured. For example, you can have different
worksheets for different months of the year, for different years, for
different Salespeople or for different regions. The standard default
worksheet names are ‘Sheet1’, ‘Sheet2’, ‘Sheet3’ and so on.
Fortunately, you can name your worksheets to make them more
meaningful. There are three main ways to rename your worksheets.

Rename a Worksheet using the Ribbon

Click on the worksheet tab you want to rename. In the ribbon click on
the Home tab. Under the Cells group click on the Format button. A
list of options will appear from the menu. Click on Rename Sheet.
This will put the selected worksheet tab in edit mode where you can
then rename the worksheet.

Rename a Worksheet by Double Clicking the Mouse

Double-click the worksheet tab with your mouse. This will put the
sheet name in edit mode. You will know that it is in edit mode as the
worksheet name will be greyed out. Next, type the new name of the
worksheet and then press Enter or click anywhere in the worksheet to
confirm the name.

If you have multiple worksheets and you want to rename each one,
then you must follow the above process for each worksheet.

Rename a Worksheet using a Keyboard Shortcut

You can also rename a worksheet using the keyboard shortcut ALT +
O + H + R. You need to press the keys in succession, one after the
other.

Formatting Worksheet Tabs

Formatting worksheet tabs in different colours can help make them
stand out and be more visible. For example, you can colour code the
tabs that are closely related to each other in one colour, so they are
grouped together. This enables your workbooks to be more structured
and organised.
In the above example, I have a workbook that contains sales data from
January to March. This data is in the “Jan Data”, “Feb Data”, and “Mar
Data” tabs. I have also conducted some sales analysis for January to
March which is in the “Jan Sales”, “Feb Sales”, and “Mar Sales” tabs. I
want to colour the data tabs in red and the sales analysis tabs in blue.
This is so that I can see straight away which tabs contains the data and
which tabs contains the sales analysis without having to read each tab.
To colour the tabs, follow these steps.

1) Right-click with the mouse the tab you want to format. In this
example, I first want to colour the “Jan Data” tab, so I right-
click this tab.

2) A shortcut menu will appear. Select Tab Color from the

menu and then on the right a list of colours will appear under
Theme Colors and Standard Colors. In this example, I
selected red, and the “Jan Data” tab has been coloured red.

3) Follow the same process for the other tabs you want to colour.
 In this example, I chose red again for the “Feb Data” and “Mar
Data” tabs and blue for the “Jan Sales”, “Feb Sales” and “Mar
Sales” tabs.

If you feel you don’t have enough colours to choose from then Excel
can give you more choice.

When you right-click the worksheet tab you want to format, select Tab
Color from the shortcut menu and then click on More Colors.
The Colors dialog box will appear. You can then choose from a
greater variety of colours. Once you have selected a colour, press the
OK button.

If you want even more colour choice, then click on the Custom tab in
the Colors dialog box. You can then move your mouse curser across
the different colours in the square under Colors. You can also type a
number between 0 to 255 in the Red, Green and Blue fields to create
your own colours. Once you are happy with the colour which is shown
under New in the bottom right of the dialog box, press the OK button.

The Red, Green and Blue, also known as RGB, consists of layers of red,
green, and blue. Each is coded on levels between 0 to 255. For
example, black corresponds to the levels R=0, G=0, B=0. White
consists of the levels R=255, G=255, B=255.

Moving Worksheet Tabs

If you have a workbook with consists of many worksheets, you may
want to change the order around. There are two main ways to do this.

Change the Order of Tabs by Dragging

The simplest way to change the order of a worksheet tab is by dragging

the tab across with your mouse. To do this:

1) Click the worksheet tab you want to change.

2) Press the left mouse button and then drag it to the new
position.

3) Once you have dragged the tab to the new location, release the
left mouse button.

Change the Order of Tabs by using the Move or Copy

Dialog Box
You can also use the Move or Copy dialog box to move tabs. This is a
slightly longer way to move tabs. To do this, follow these steps.

1) Right-click the worksheet tab you want to move. In this

example, I have three worksheets in the workbook. I want to
move Sheet2 before Sheet1, so I select Sheet2.

2) From the shortcut menu select Move or Copy.

3) In the Move or Copy dialog box under Before sheet, select

the worksheet where you want to move your worksheet
before. For example, I want to move Sheet2 before Sheet1, so I
select Sheet1. Once you have selected the worksheet, press the
OK button. You can also move the worksheet to the end by
selecting (move to end).
 4) Sheet2 has now been moved before Sheet1.

Hiding Worksheets
You can hide worksheets to remove it from view. People often do this
to clean and declutter their workbook. It also offers some form of
protection. For example, a worksheet may contain formulas and you
want to hide this from view to avoid people editing it or deleting it by
accident.

To hide a worksheet, follow the below steps.

1) Right-click the worksheet tab you want to hide.

2) Click on Hide from the shortcut menu.

 3) This will instantly hide the worksheet and it will not be visible
in the workbook. The worksheet stays hidden when you save
the workbook and reopen it again, or when you send it to
somebody.

The steps above will hide one worksheet. However, what if you want to
hide multiple worksheets? Simply hold the Ctrl key and then select
the worksheet tabs you want to hide one by one. The tabs will turn
white as shown above. You can then follow the above steps to hide the
worksheets.

Unhiding Worksheets
When you have hidden a worksheet, it is very easy to unhide them too.
To unhide a worksheet, follow these steps.

1) Right-click any of the existing tabs.

2) In the shortcut menu, select Unhide.

 3) The Unhide dialog box will appear. Select the worksheet that
you want to unhide under Unhide sheet and then press the
OK button.

4) This will instantly make the worksheet visible in the

workbook.

One thing to note about unhiding worksheets is that you can only
unhide one worksheet at a time. To unhide other worksheets, you will
need to follow the above steps each time.
Making Worksheets Very Hidden
In the previous section, you learnt how to hide worksheets. This is
great when you want to tidy your workbook. However, if you want to
hide confidential information such sales, profits, or employee wages
then the hidden worksheets can easily be unhidden by anybody who
knows how to do it. What many people don’t know is that you can also
make your worksheets very hidden. The difference between making
your worksheet hidden and very hidden is that very hidden worksheets
do not show up in the Unhide dialog box when you try to unhide them.

Making a worksheet very hidden is done through the Visual Basic

Editor. The Visual Basic Editor is a separate application that is part of
Excel. It is used to write macros to automate workbooks and
worksheets. You also use it to edit macros. To access the Visual Basic
Editor, you need to have the Developer tab visible in the ribbon. If the
Developer tab is not visible, then please read Chapter 1 under the
section ‘Customise the Ribbon’ to access it.

To make a worksheet very hidden follow these steps.

1) Click on the Developer tab and then under the Code group
click on the Visual Basic button to access the Visual Basic
Editor. You can also press the shortcut keys Alt + F11 to
access the Visual Basic Editor.

2) On the top left of the Visual Basic Editor is the Project

 Explorer which lists all the worksheets in the workbook. In
this example, you can see that I have Sheet1, Sheet2 and
Sheet3 in the workbook. Below the Project Explorer is the
Properties Window. If these are not showing in your Visual
Basic Editor, then select View from the top menu and then
Project Explorer and Properties Window.

3) In this example, I want to make Sheet2 very hidden, so I

select Sheet2 from the Project Explorer.

4) In the Properties Window at the bottom of the Properties

panel is the Visible option. In the drop-down box, you can
select between -1 – xlSheetVisible, 0 – xlSheetHidden, and 2-
xlSheetVeryHidden. To make your worksheet very hidden
select 2- xlSheetVeryHidden.
 5) Sheet2 is now very hidden. Now when I try to unhide Sheet2
by right clicking a worksheet tab, the Unhide option is greyed
out which means I can’t unhide the worksheet.

How to Unhide Very Hidden Worksheets

To unhide a very hidden worksheet you again need to access the Visual
Basic Editor as explained in the previous section. You then select the
worksheet you want to unhide in the Project Explorer. In the previous
section, I made Sheet2 very hidden. I now want to unhide this
worksheet, so I select Sheet2 in the Project Explorer.

In the Visible option in the Properties Window, select -1 –

xlSheetVisible from the drop-down box.

Sheet2 is now unhidden.

How to Insert Rows and Columns

Inserting new rows and columns is one of the most common tasks you
will perform in a worksheet. You may want to insert new rows and
columns in tables or reports. Before you learn how to insert new rows
and columns, it is important to understand where Excel positions
these insertions. Below are the rules of how Excel inserts new rows
and columns.

A new row always inserts above the row you select.

A new column always inserts to the left of the column you

select.

Inserting a Row
There are three ways to insert a new row:

1) Using the ribbon

2) Using the mouse
3) Using keyboard shortcut keys

To use the ribbon to insert a new row, follow these steps.

1) Select the entire row where you want to insert a new row by
clicking on the row header number. In this example, I want to
insert a new row in row 5 so I select row header 5.
2) Go to the Home tab and under the Cells group click on the
Insert button. You can also select the arrow next to the Insert
button and select Insert Sheet Rows from the menu.

3) A new blank row is inserted in row 5. Notice that the cells

below the new blank row have shifted down one row.
To insert a new row using the mouse, follow these steps.

1) Select the entire row where you want to insert a new row by
clicking on the row header number. In this example, I want to
insert a new row in row 5 so I select row header 5.

2) Right-click your mouse and select Insert from the shortcut

menu.

3) A new blank row is inserted in row 5.

To insert a new row using a keyboard shortcut then select the entire
row where you want to insert a new row by clicking on the row header
number. Then press Ctrl + Shift + the plus sign (+). You can also
use the shortcut keys Alt + I + R. The I key is for insert and R is for
row.

If you want to insert multiple rows at once, then simply select the row
header numbers first and choose one of the methods above. For
example, I want to insert four new blank rows from row 4 so I select
row headers 4 to 7.
There are now four new blank rows inserted from rows 4 to 7.

Inserting a Column
Just like with inserting rows, there are three ways to insert a column:

1) Using the ribbon

2) Using the mouse
3) Using keyboard shortcut keys

To insert a new column using the ribbon, follow these steps.

1) Select the entire column to the right of the position where you
want to insert a new column. You do this by selecting the
column header letter. In this example, I want to insert a new
column in column D, so I select the column header D.
2) Go to the Home tab in the ribbon and under the Cells group
click on the Insert button. You can also click on the arrow
next to the Insert button and select Insert Sheet Columns
from the menu.

3) A new blank column has been inserted in column D. Notice

that the cells to the right of the new column has shifted one
column to the right.
To insert a new column using the mouse, follow these steps.

1) Select the entire column to the right of the position where you
want to insert a new column. You do this by selecting the
column header letter. In this example, I want to insert a new
column in column D, so I select the column header D.
 2) Right-click your mouse and then from the shortcut menu
select Insert.

3) A new blank column has been inserted in column D.

To insert a new column using a keyboard shortcut then select the

entire column where you want to insert a new column by clicking on
the column header letter. Then press Ctrl + Shift + the plus sign
(+). You can also use the shortcut keys Alt + I + C. The I key is for
insert and C is for column.
If you want to insert multiple columns at once, then simply select the
column header letters first and choose one of the methods mentioned
above. For example, I want to insert three new blank columns from
column B, so I select column headers B to D.

Three new blank columns have been inserted in columns B to D.

How to Delete Rows and Columns

As well as inserting rows and columns, you may also need to delete
them too. Deleting rows and columns is very similar to inserting rows
and columns. Below are the rules of how Excel deletes rows and
columns.
 When you delete a row, all the cells below the deleted row
shifts up one row.

When you delete a column, all the cells to the right of the
deleted column shifts to the left.

Deleting a Row
Like with inserting rows, there are three methods to delete a row:

1) Using the ribbon

2) Using the mouse
3) Using keyboard shortcut keys

To use the ribbon to delete a row, follow these steps.

1) Select the entire row where you want to delete a row by

clicking on the row header number. In this example, I want to
delete row 5 so I select the row header 5.

2) Go to the Home tab and under the Cells group click on

 Delete. You can also select the arrow next to the Delete
button and select Delete Sheet Rows from the menu.

3) Row 5 has been deleted. Notice that the cells below the
deleted row have shifted up one row.

To delete a row using the mouse, follow these steps.

1) Select the entire row where you want to delete a row by

clicking on the row header number. In this example, I want to
delete row 5 so I select the row header 5.
2) Right-click your mouse and select Delete from the shortcut
menu.
 3) Row 5 has been deleted and all the contents below have
shifted up one row.

To delete a row using keyboard shortcut keys then select the entire row
where you want to delete a row by clicking on the row header number.
Then press Ctrl + Shift + the minus sign (-).
If you want to delete multiple rows, you do this in the same way as
inserting multiple rows. Simply select the row header numbers first
and choose one of the methods above. For example, I want to delete
four rows from row 4 so I select row headers 4 to 7.

Rows 4 to 7 have been deleted.

Deleting a Column
Just like with deleting rows, there are three ways to delete a column:

1) Using the ribbon

2) Using the mouse
3) Using keyboard shortcut keys

To delete a column using the ribbon, follow these steps.

1) Select the entire column you want to delete. You do this by
selecting the column header letter. In this example, I want to
delete column D, so I select the column header D.

2) Go to the Home tab in the ribbon and under the Cells group
click on the Delete button. You can also click on the arrow
next to the Delete button and select Delete Sheet Columns
from the menu.

3) Column D has been deleted. Notice that the cells to the right
of the deleted column have shifted to the left by one column.
To delete a column using the mouse, follow these steps.

1) Select the entire column you want to delete. You do this by

selecting the column header letter. In this example, I want to
delete column D, so I select the column header D.
2) Right-click your mouse and then from the shortcut menu
select Delete.

3) Column D has been deleted.

To delete a column using keyboard shortcut keys then select the entire
column where you want to delete a column by clicking on the column
header letter. Then press Ctrl + the minus sign (-).

If you want to delete multiple columns at once, then simply select the
column header letters first and choose one of the methods mentioned
above. For example, I want to delete three columns from column B, so
I select column headers B to D.
Columns B to D have been deleted.

How to Hide Rows and Columns

You can hide columns and rows in your worksheet which contains
sensitive data such as salary information. Another reason to hide
columns or rows is to hide data you use for formulas. You may even
want to hide the formulas themselves. When you hide columns or
rows, it conceals them from view.

There are two main ways to hide rows and columns:

1) Using the ribbon

2) Using the mouse

Hiding a Row
To hide a row using the ribbon, follow the below steps.
1) Select the row or rows you want to hide. In this example I
want to hide rows 4 to 6 so I select the row headers 4, 5 and 6
to select the entire rows.

2) Click on the Home tab in the ribbon. Under the Cells group
click on the Format button. From the menu select Hide &
Unhide. Another menu will appear. Select Hide Rows.

3) Rows 4, 5 and 6 are now hidden. Notice a thin double line

between rows 3 and 7 which indicates where the hidden rows
are.
Hiding a row or multiple rows using a mouse is even quicker and very
easy. To do this follow these steps.

1) Select the row you want to hide. In this example I want to hide
rows 4 to 6 again so I select the row headers 4, 5 and 6 to
select the entire rows.

2) Right-click your mouse and then from the shortcut menu

select Hide.

3) Rows 4, 5 and 6 are now hidden from view.

Hiding a Column
To hide a column or multiple columns, you follow the same process as
hiding rows but this time you select the entire column by clicking on
the column header or headers. You can either use the ribbon method
or the mouse method.

If you are using the ribbon method, you need to ensure you select
Hide Columns and not Hide Rows from the menu. In the above
example, I want to hide the salary information in column D, so I click
on the column D header. I then select the Home tab and under the
Cells group I select the Format button. I then select Hide &
Unhide from the menu and then Hide Columns.

How to Unhide Rows and Columns

Unhiding rows and columns is just as easy as hiding them. Again, you
can unhide rows and columns using the ribbon or with your mouse.
Unhiding a Row
To unhide a row or multiple rows using the ribbon then follow the
below steps. I will follow on from the example where I hid rows 4 to 6.

1) Select the entire rows which are above and below the hidden
rows. In this example, rows 4 to 6 are hidden so I select the
row 3 and 7 headers.

2) From the ribbon, click on the Home tab. Under the Cells
group click on the Format button and then from the menu
select Hide & Unhide. Another menu will appear. Select
Unhide Rows.
 3) Rows 4 to 6 are now unhidden.

To unhide a row or multiple rows using the mouse then follow these
steps.

1) Select the entire rows which are above and below the hidden
rows. In this example, rows 4 to 6 are hidden so I select the
row 3 and 7 headers.
2) Right-click your mouse and from the shortcut menu select
Unhide.

3) Rows 4 to 6 are now unhidden.

Unhiding a Column
As with unhiding rows, you can unhide columns using the ribbon and
the mouse in the same way.
You first must select the entire columns to the left and to the right of
the hidden columns. In the above example, column D is hidden so I
select the column C and E headers.
If you are using the ribbon method, then ensure you select Unhide
Columns from the menu when you click the Format button. In the
above example, I selected the Home tab and under the Cells group I
selected the Format button. From the menu I selected Hide &
Unhide and then from the next menu I selected Unhide Columns.

One thing to note is that while you can hide and unhide either multiple
rows or multiple columns at the same time, you can’t hide or unhide
both rows and columns simultaneously.

Adjusting the Height of Rows

In an Excel worksheet, all the columns and rows are divided in equal
measurements. When you start to work with your worksheet, one of
the tasks you will perform is to adjust the height of the rows. In this
section, I will show you the four most common ways to adjust the
height of rows.

For each method, I will use the example above which is a project
document. I want to adjust the height of row 3 so that all the text will
be visible. With all the methods I mention below, you can
simultaneously adjust multiple rows at once by just selecting the row
headers that you want to adjust.

Change the Row Height using the Click and Drag

Method
The most common method to adjust the height of a row is the click
and drag method using your mouse. To do this:

1) Place the mouse curser at the bottom of the header row to

which you want to change the height. In my example, I want to
adjust the row 3 height, so I move the mouse curser below row
3. The curser will change into a plus icon.

2) Press the left mouse button and keep it pressed while you
drag the mouse down to increase the row height. You can drag
the mouse up to decrease the row height.

3) Once you are happy with the row height then just let go of the
left mouse button.

This is a great option if you want to increase the row height for one or
two rows. If you want to increase multiple rows, then simply select the
rows you want to adjust and follow the above steps. One downside to
this method is that you do not get consistent results. For example, if
you change the height for one row and then the height for another row,
the height for both rows may not be the same.
Change the Row Height using the Double Click
Method
A quicker and easier way to adjust the height of a row is by using the
double click method. With this method, the text will fit neatly within
the cell. To do this follow the below steps.

1) Place the mouse curser at the bottom of the header row to

which you want to change the height. Again, I want to adjust
the row 3 height, so I move the mouse curser below row 3. The
curser will change into a plus icon.

2) When the curser is at the bottom edge of the row header,

double click the mouse by pressing the left mouse button in
quick succession.

When you double click the left mouse button, the height automatically
expands or contracts to ensure all the text is visible within the cell.

Change the Row Height using the Autofit Row

Height
I have shown you the double click method to autofit rows. Another
way to autofit rows is by using the Autofit Row Height function from
the ribbon. Here are the steps to do this.
1) Select the row to which you want to adjust the height. In this
example, I want to adjust the height of row 3 so I select the
row 3 header.

2) From the ribbon, click on the Home tab. Under the Cells
group click on the Format button and then from the menu
select AutoFit Row Height.

3) The height of row 3 has been adjusted and all the text fits
perfectly in this row.
Manually Changing the Row Height
You can also manually change the row height. To do this follow these
steps.

1) Select the row where you want to adjust the height. In this
example I want to change the height of row 3 so I select the
row 3 header.

2) In the ribbon click on the Home tab. Under the Cells group
click on the Format button and then from the menu select
Row Height.

3) In the Row Height dialog box, enter the height that you
want for the row. In this example, I entered 65. Next, press
the OK button.
 4) Row 3 has now changed height.

Rather than using the ribbon for this method, you can also use your
mouse instead to change the row height manually.

Simply select the entire row you want to change height by clicking the
row header. Right-click your mouse and from the shortcut menu select
Row Height. The Row Height dialog box will appear, and you can
enter the row height number and then press the OK button.

The advantage of using this method over the double click or the
Autofit Row Height function methods is that all your rows will be the
same height which some people prefer, and your worksheet will look
neater.

Adjusting the Width of Columns

As with adjusting the height of rows, you can also adjust the width of
columns in the same way. Again, there are four main methods to do
this.

I will use the same example as when I adjusted the row height in the
previous section. This time I will adjust the width of column A above.
As you can see, not all the text in this column is visible. You can use
the following methods below to increase multiple column widths at
once. To do this just select the column headers you want to increase
and then use any of the below methods.

Change the Column Width using the Click and Drag

Method
You can adjust the column width by the click and drag method using
your mouse. To do this:

1) Place the mouse curser to the right of the column header to

which you want to change width. In my example, I want to
adjust the column A width, so I move the mouse curser
between column A and column B. The curser will change into
a plus icon.

2) Press the left mouse button and keep it pressed while you
drag the mouse to the right to increase the width. You can also
drag the mouse to the left to decrease the width.

3) Once you are happy with the column width then just let go of
the left mouse button.

Change the Column Width using the Double Click

Method
You can double click the left mouse to autofit the columns so that all
the text will be displayed neatly in the cell. To do this follow these
steps.
 1) Place the mouse curser to the right of the column header to
which you want to change the width. In my example, I want to
adjust the column A width, so I move the mouse curser
between column A and column B. The curser will change into
a plus icon.

2) Double click the mouse by pressing the left mouse button in

quick succession.

When you double click the left mouse button, the width automatically
expands or contracts to ensure all the text is visible within the cell. As
you can see above, all the text in column A is displayed neatly within
their cells.

Change the Column Width using the Autofit Column

Width
The second way to autofit columns is to use the Autofit Column Width
function. This is an alternative to using the double click method. Here
are the steps to do this.

1) Select column you want to adjust the width to. In this

example, I want to adjust the width of column A, so I select the
column A header.
2) From the ribbon, click on the Home tab. Under the Cells
group click on the Format button and then from the menu
select AutoFit Column Width.

3) The width of column A has now been adjusted so that all the
text fits neatly in this column.
Manually Changing the Column Width
You can also change the column width manually. To do this follow
these steps.

1) Select the column you want to adjust the width to. In this
example, I want to adjust the width of column A, so I select the
column A header.

2) In the ribbon click on the Home tab. Under the Cells group
click on the Format button and then from the menu select
Column Width.
 3) The Column Width dialog box will appear. Enter the width
that you want for the column. In this example, I entered 25.
Then press the OK button.

4) Column A has now changed width.

A quicker way to change the width of the column using this method is
to use the mouse rather than the ribbon.
Select the entire column you want to change the width to by clicking
the column header and then right clicking the mouse. A shortcut menu
will appear and then select Column Width from the menu. The
Column Width dialog box will appear where you can then enter the
column width number. Finally, press the OK button.

How to Freeze Panes

When you are working with a lot of data, keeping track of everything
gets difficult when you start to scroll down or across your screen. It’s
one thing working with three or four rows of data but when you start
to work with hundreds or even thousands of rows or columns then
things start to get very difficult. Fortunately, Excel has a freeze panes
function that allows you to see only the rows or columns you want to
see while you are scroll down or across. When you freeze panes, the
chosen panes are locked in place which means specific rows or
columns are always visible, no matter how far you scroll down or
across.
There are various ways to freeze panes. Below are the different
methods to freeze panes in Excel.

Freeze the Row Header

When you freeze the column headers, they will remain visible while
you scroll down. This ensures you know what the data in each column
refers to when you are scrolling down. To freeze column headers just
follow these steps.

1) Click on the View tab from the ribbon and under the
Window group click on the Freeze Panes button. From the
drop-down menu select Freeze Top Row.

2) A thick black line will appear underneath the top row. Now
when you scroll down, the top row will always remain visible.

Freeze a Row
There will be times when you don’t want to freeze the row header. You
may want to freeze a particular row in your dataset. To freeze a row is
also very easy.

1) Select the row underneath the row you want to freeze. In this
example, I want to ensure all the rows from Rachel in row 6
and above is visible, so I select the row underneath Rachel
which is row 7.

2) Click on the View tab and under the Window group click on
the Freeze Panes button. From the drop-down menu select
Freeze Panes.

3) A thick black line will appear underneath the row you have
frozen. Now when you scroll down, the row you have frozen
and all the rows above it will always remain visible. In this
example, I have frozen row 6 so this row up to row 1 will
 remain visible.

Freeze the First Column

You can also freeze the first column, so it remains visible while you
scroll across. Here are the steps to do this.

1) Click on the View tab from the ribbon and under the
Window group click on the Freeze Panes button. From the
drop-down menu select Freeze First Column.

2) A thick black line will appear to the right of the column you
have frozen. Now when you scroll across, the first column will
stay visible.
Freeze a Column
You can also freeze any column you wish. To do this follow these steps.

1) Select the column after the column you want to freeze. In this
example, I want to freeze columns A to F, so I select the
column header G.
2) Click on the View tab from the ribbon and under the
Window group click on the Freeze Panes button. From the
drop-down menu select Freeze Panes.

3) A thick black line will appear to the right of the column you
have frozen. Now when you scroll across, the column you have
frozen and all the columns to the left of it will always remain
visible. In this example, I have frozen column F so columns A
 to F will remain visible.

Freeze Rows and Columns

The previous examples show you how to lock a row or column
individually. You can also freeze rows and columns at the same time.
Let’s say I want to freeze column E and row 7. Here is how to do this.

1) Select the cell below the last row and to the right of the last
column you would like to freeze. In this example, I select the
cell F8 as this is to the right of column E and one row down
from row 7.
 2) Click on the View tab from the ribbon and under the
Window group click on the Freeze Panes button. From the
drop-down menu select Freeze Panes.

3) Now when I scroll down and across, rows 1 to 7 and columns

A to E are always visible.

How to Unfreeze Rows and Columns

To unfreeze a row or column, click on the View tab from the ribbon
and under the Window group click on the Freeze Panes button.
From the drop-down menu select Unfreeze Panes.
 Chapter 4: Managing your
Data
In this chapter you will learn all the essential tools and functions to
help you work with data easily. Working with data is one of the
fundamental tasks you will undertake when using Excel. In this
chapter you will learn how to sort and filter data, how to split text in
one cell to different columns, how to quickly fill data, and how to
remove duplicate entries in a dataset.

Sorting Data
Sorting data is considered one of the key components in data analysis
as it allows your data to be structured and organised. Once your data is
organised, it is much easier to make sense of it. There are various ways
to sort your data. You can sort the data in alphabetical and numerical
order, by date and time and even by cell colour. Let’s look at each one
in turn.

Sorting Data Alphabetically

In the table above, there is a list of Salespeople in column A along with
their sales in column B. The goal is to sort the Salespeople’s name in
alphabetical order. To do this, follow these steps.

1) Click anywhere in the column you want to sort. In this

example, I want to sort column A in alphabetical order, so I
select anywhere in the range A1:A14.

2) In the ribbon, click on the Home tab and under the Editing
group click on the Sort & Filter button. A drop-down menu
will appear. Click on Sort A to Z from the menu.
 3) The Salespeople’s names are now in alphabetical order. If you
want to sort in descending order, then just select Sort Z to A
from the shortcut menu.

Another way you can sort in alphabetical or descending order is by

right clicking the mouse in the column you want to sort. Select Sort
from the shortcut menu. From the next menu, select either Sort A to
Z or Sort Z to A depending on whether you want to sort
alphabetically or in descending order.
Sorting Data in Numerical Order
Sorting data in numerical order is performed in the same way as
sorting text in alphabetical order. This time you select the column with
the numbers you want to sort and then follow the same steps above.

In this example, I want to sort the sales from highest to lowest. First
click any cell in the range you want to sort. In the above screenshot, I
selected cell B6 and then chose Sort Largest to Smallest from the
menu when I clicked on the Sort & Filter button.
The Salespeople are now sorted by the highest sales all the way
through to the person who has made the least sales.

Again, you can also right-click the mouse button to sort in numerical
order. First remember to select any cell in the range you want to sort.
Choose Sort Smallest to Largest or Sort Largest to Smallest
from the menu depending on whether you want to sort in ascending or
descending order.

Sorting Data by Multiple Columns

In the last two examples, I showed you how to sort data by one
column. You can also sort data by multiple columns. I will use the
same dataset as before which shows the Salespeople and their sales.
This time I will first sort by the highest sales and then by the
Salespeople’s name in alphabetical order. To do this, follow these
steps.
1) Select the whole dataset. In this example, I selected the range
A1:B14.

2) In the ribbon select the Home tab and then under the
Editing group select the Sort & Filter button. A shortcut
menu will appear. Select Custom Sort from the menu.

3) In the Sort dialog box select the sort you want to apply in the
Sort by field drop-down box. In this example, I want to first
sort by Sales, so I select Sales. In the Order field, enter the
type of sort you want. I want to sort the sales from largest to
lowest, so I select Largest to Lowest in the drop-down box.
4) You now need to apply an additional sort if required. In this
example, I also want to sort the Salespeople’s names in
alphabetical order. To add another sort level, click on the Add
Level button located on the top left of the Sort dialog box. In
the Then by field, select the sort you want to apply. I want to
sort the Salespeople’s names in alphabetical order, so I select
Salesperson from the drop-down box. In the Order field, I
want to order in alphabetical order, so I select A to Z. Next
press the OK button.

5) The data is sorted in numerical order by highest to lowest

sales first and then by the Salespeople’s names in alphabetical
order.
Sorting Data by Date
Another way you can sort data is by date.

In the dataset above, there is a list of products sold in an electrical

store. I want to sort the data by the most recent payment received
date. To do this, follow these steps.

1) Select the whole dataset. In this example I select the range

A1:C7.

2) From the ribbon click on the Home tab. Under the Editing
group click on the Sort & Filter button. A shortcut menu will
appear. Click on Custom Sort from the menu.
 3) I want to sort by payment received date, so I select Payment
Received Date from the drop-down box in the Sort by field.
I want to sort the dates by the most recent dates through to
the oldest dates, so I select Newest to Oldest in the Order
field. Next press the OK button.

4) The data is now sorted by the most recent dates at the top
through to the oldest dates at the bottom.

If you have a dataset which includes time, such as hours, minutes, or

seconds instead of dates, you can sort the time in the same way.
Sorting Data by Cell Colour
Another way you can sort data is by cell colour. This is useful if you
have data in a red, amber, green traffic light system and you want to
sort the data with red cells at the top and green cells at the bottom.

In the dataset above, there is a list of Salespeople, and their sales are
highlighted in a red, amber, green traffic light system. Salespeople
with sales from $0 to $7,000 are highlighted in red. If they have sales
over $7,000 to $10,000, they are highlighted in amber. Anything over
$10,000 and the cells are highlighted in green. The goal is to put all
the Salespeople who have sales in the red cells at the top, sales in the
amber cells in the middle and the sales in the green cells at the bottom.
Here is how to do this.

1) Highlight the whole dataset. In this example, I select the range

A1:B14.

2) From the ribbon click on the Home tab. Under the Editing
 group click on the Sort & Filter button. A shortcut menu will
appear. Click on Custom Sort from the menu.

3) The Sort dialog box will appear. I want to sort the sales by
cell colour, so I select Sales from the drop-down box in the
Sort by field. I want to sort by cell colour, so I select Cell
Color in the Sort On drop-down box. In the Order field I
select red. In the next drop-down box, I select On Top
because I want to put all the cells in red at the top.

4) I now want to apply a second sort so I can put all the sales in
the green cells at the bottom. To do this I click on the Add
Level button which is located on the top left of the dialog box.
Another line in the Sort dialog box will appear. In the Then
 by field, I select Sales from the drop-down box. In the Sort
On drop down box I select Cell Color. In the Order field
drop-down box, I select green. In the next drop-down box, I
choose On Bottom. Next press the OK button.

5) The dataset is sorted by cell colour with red cells at the top,
amber in the middle and green cells at the bottom.

You can also sort the data by font colour instead of by cell colour. To
do this you perform the same steps as above but in the Sort dialog box
select Font Color in the Sort On field drop-down box.
Using Basic Filtering
You can apply filters to your dataset, so you are able to view only the
information you want to see. This helps you to drill down on the data,
especially if you have a large dataset with hundreds or thousands of
rows. When you filter your dataset, it eliminates the rows temporarily
from view and you only see the rows based on your filter criteria.
Filtering is essential when working with a huge dataset. To apply a
filter, the dataset must contain column headers.

There are three ways to apply a filter to your data. These are:

1) Filter through the Home tab in the ribbon.

2) Filter through the Data tab in the ribbon.

3) Using a keyboard shortcut.

Let’s look at each one in turn.

Filter Through the Home Tab

The dataset above contains a list of Salespeople along with their
quarterly sales, and the region they belong to. To apply a filter to this
dataset, follow the below steps.

1) Select any cell in the dataset.

2) From the ribbon click on the Home tab. In the Editing

group click on the Sort & Filter button. A shortcut menu will
appear. Click on Filter.

3) A filter is now applied to the dataset. You will know that a

filter has been applied as drop-down arrows will appear to the
 right of each column header.

Filter Through the Data Tab

The second way to apply a filter is through the Data tab in the ribbon.
To do this follow these steps.

1) Select any cell in the dataset.

2) In the ribbon click on the Data tab. From the Sort & Filter
group click on the Filter button.
 3) A filter is now applied to the dataset.

Filter through Keyboard Shortcut

If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, then you can use the shortcut
keys Shift + Ctrl + L. Remember to click any cell in the dataset first.
You can also use the shortcut keys Alt + D + F + F.

Specify Filter Criteria’s

Now that filters have been applied to the dataset using one of the three
methods above, you can start to specify your filter criteria’s.

In this example, I want to filter the data so that I see only the rows
where there have been sales in Quarter 3. To do this, follow the below
steps.

1) Click on the column filter where you want to apply the

filtering. In this example, I want to apply the filtering in the
Quarter column, so I click on the Quarter filter.
2) Uncheck the boxes against the data you don’t want to view
and keep the checkbox checked against the data you want to
see. In this example, I have unchecked the boxes against Qtr 1,
2 and 4 and kept Qtr 3 checked. Once done, press the OK
button.
 3) Only the rows where the Salespeople have made sales in
quarter 3 are now visible. Notice the row headers have turned
blue and are not in sequence anymore. This is because the
rows which you do not want to see are now hidden from view.

Using the Search Box to Apply Filters

Another way to apply filtering is to use the search box. Let’s say I want
to filter the data to show just the sales in quarter 3 again. To do this,
follow these steps.

1) Click on the column filter where you want to apply the

filtering. In this example, I want to apply the filtering in the
Quarter column, so I click on the Quarter filter.
2) In the search box, enter the text which you want to filter by. In
this example, I want to filter by quarter 3, so I type Qtr 3.
Next click on the OK button.
 3) The data is filtered to show just the sales in quarter 3.

Applying Multiple Filters

You can also apply a second filter to another column to narrow the
data even further. Let’s say I want to view only the sales in quarter 3
and in the West region. The filter on the quarter column has already
been applied from the previous examples. To filter the data on the
second column, follow these steps.

1) Click on the next column filter where you want to apply the
second filtering. In this example, I want to apply the filtering
in the Region column, so I click on the Region filter.

2) Uncheck the boxes against the data you don’t want to view
and keep the checkbox checked against the data you want to
see. In this example, I have unchecked the boxes against East,
North and South and kept West checked. Next press the OK
button.

3) The data is now filtered to show just the sales made in quarter
3 and in the West region.
How to Clear Filters
You can clear all filters in two different ways:

1) From the Home tab in the ribbon.

2) From the Data tab in the ribbon.

To clear all filters in your dataset from the Home tab simply click any
cell in the data. Click on the Home tab in the ribbon and under the
Editing group click on the Sort & Filter button. From the shortcut
menu, select Clear.
The filters have cleared, and all the data is now visible again.

To clear all filters using the Data tab in the ribbon, click on the Data
tab. Under the Sort & Filter group, you can either click on the Filter
button or the Clear button.

Note, if you click on the Filter button, the filters from the column
headings will also disappear. When you keep on pressing the Filter
button, it will toggle on and off the filter.

Using Advanced Filtering

Excel allows you to apply more advanced filtering to your datasets. I
will use the same dataset as in the previous examples on basic filtering
and look at two cases.

1) Filter sales greater than $8,000.

2) Filter sales greater than $4,000 and less than $12,000.

To filter sales greater than $8,000, follow these steps.

1) Click on the column filter you want to do the filtering on. In

this example, I want to filter by the Sales column, so I click on
 this filter.

2) Move your mouse to Number Filters. This opens another

menu with more options to choose from. I want to filter sales
greater than $8,000 so I Select Greater Than.
3) The Custom AutoFilter dialog box will appear. In the first
drop-down box you can select from a variety of different
options but for this example I will leave it as is greater than.
In the next field you enter the value that you want greater
than. I want to only view sales greater than 8,000 so I enter
this figure. Once done, click on the OK button.

4) The data is now filtered to show sales above $8,000 only.

For the second case I want to filter sales greater than $4,000 and less
than $12,000. For this, you follow the same steps above from 1 to 3.

In the Custom AutoFilter dialog box, from the first drop-down box I
select is greater than. In the field next to it I enter 4000.
Underneath, I can then choose from two further criteria. Because I
only want to see sales greater than $4,000 and less than $12,000, I
select the And option. In the second drop-down box, I select is less
than. In the field next to it I enter 12,000. Next press the OK button.

The data is now filtered so I only view sales greater than $4,000 and
less than $12,000.
Depending on whether the data in the column contains numbers or
text, the filtering will apply specifically to the data in that column. For
example, if I click on the filter for the Salespeople, the advanced
filtering option will change to Text filters and the sub menu is related
to filtering by text.

Note, clearing advanced filters is done in the same ways as described

in the basic filtering section.

Using Text to Columns to Split Data

Data is not always formatted perfectly for you to work with. For
example, if you extract data from an external system or if you import
data into Excel, the data may need to be manipulated first. Often, in
situations like this, there may be a lot of text in one cell such as a
person’s first and last name. You may want to split the first and last
name in separate cells. You can do this with complicated formulas, but
luckily there is another feature called Text to Columns. This is a great
tool which allows you to split text into multiple columns very easily.
Let’s now look at some examples of how to use Text to Columns to
split text.

Split Names into First Name and Last Name

In this example, there is a list of first and last names in column A. The
goal is to split the first and last names and put them in columns B and
C. Here are the steps to do this.

1) Select the dataset. In this example, I select the range A2:A7.

2) From the ribbon click on the Data tab and under the Data
Tools group click on the Text to Columns button.

3) This opens the Convert Text to Columns Wizard. There

are three steps to complete. In the first step select the
Delimited option. (This is the default option). The delimited
option allows you to split text based on where there is a
comma, space, tab, semicolon, or any other character. Click
on Next.
4) In step two, select Space as the delimiter under Delimiters.
If you think there may be double/triple consecutive spaces
between the names, then put a checkmark against Treat
consecutive delimiters as one. Click on Next.
5) In step three, under Column data format, leave the setting
as General. You need to enter the destination cell in the
Destination field. In my example, I want to enter the names
starting from cell B2, so I select this cell. If you don’t enter a
destination cell, it will overwrite the existing dataset with the
first name. The second name will go in the next column.
Finally, click on the Finish button.
 6) The data in column A has now been split with the first names
in column B and the last names in column C.

There are a couple of points to note when you use Text to Columns to
split text.

1) If the names have initials or middle names, then this

technique might not work correctly. It works well when there
is just a first and last name.

2) The results you get from using Text to Columns is static. This
means that if there are any changes to the original data you
will have to repeat the whole process again.

Split Email Addresses into Usernames and Domain

Name
You can also specify your own delimiter to split text. Let’s look at an
example of how to do this.

In this example, there is a list of email addresses and I want to split

this into usernames and domain names. I can do this by specifying the
@ sign as a delimiter. The names before the @ will become the
usernames and the text after it will become the domain names. The
steps to achieve this is very similar to the first example where I split
the names. Here is how to do this.

1) Select the dataset. In this example, I select the range A2:A7.

2) From the ribbon click on the Data tab and under the Data
Tools group click on the Text to Columns button.

3) The Convert Text to Columns Wizard will open. In the

first step select the Delimited option. Click on Next.
4) In the second step, select Other under Delimiters and then
enter the @ sign in the field next to it. If there are any other
delimiter options selected, then ensure you deselect them.
Click on Next.
5) In the final step, keep the setting as General under Column
data format. Enter the destination cell in the Destination
field. In my example, I want to enter the usernames from cell
B2, so I select this cell. Finally, click on the Finish button.
 6) The data has now been split with the usernames in column B
and the domain names in column C.

Convert Invalid Dates into Valid Dates

Text to Columns is not just used to split text. It can also correct invalid
dates to a date format that Excel recognises. You may get incorrect
dates when you extract data from a database or other systems and
import it into Excel. Fortunately, Text to Columns can quickly and
easily format incorrect dates into ones that Excel will recognise as
dates.
In column A above, there are some dates that Excel will not recognise
as valid dates. The goal is to convert these to actual dates in column B
which Excel will recognise. Here are the steps to do this.

1) Select the dataset. In this example, I select the range A2:A7.

2) From the ribbon click on the Data tab and under the Data
Tools group click on the Text to Columns button.

3) The Convert Text to Columns Wizard will open. In the

first step select the Delimited option. Click on Next.

4) In the second step, ensure there are no delimiters selected

 under Delimiters. If any are selected, then ensure you
deselect them. Click on Next.

5) In the final step, select Date under Column data format.

In the field next to it select the format DMY. This means day,
month, year. Enter the destination cell in the Destination
field. In my example, I want to enter the dates from cell B2, so
I select this cell. Finally, click on the Finish button.
 6) Valid dates are now in column B which you can use in Excel.

Convert Numbers in Text to Actual Numbers

Another great way to use Text to Columns is to convert numbers which
are stored as text to actual numbers. Numbers stored as text can
happen when you import data into Excel from databases or other
systems. They are stored as text when there is an apostrophe before
the number. Numbers are also stored as text if you use a text function
such as LEFT, MID or RIGHT which results in a number. When
numbers are stored as text, it means that you can’t perform
calculations with functions such as SUM and AVERAGE.
In the screenshot above, there are some numbers which are stored as
text in column A. You will know when a number is stored as text
because there is a green triangle on the top left of the cell. The
numbers are also aligned to the left and actual numbers are aligned to
the right.

To convert these text numbers to actual numbers using Text to

Columns then follow these steps.

1) Select the dataset. In this example, I select the range A2:A7.

2) From the ribbon click on the Data tab and under the Data
Tools group click on the Text to Columns button.

3) The Convert Text to Columns Wizard will open. In the

first step select the Delimited option. Click on Next.
4) In the second step, ensure there are no delimiters selected
under Delimiters. If any are selected, then ensure you
deselect them. Click on Next.
5) In the final step, select General under Column data
format. Enter the destination cell in the Destination field.
In my example, I want to enter the numbers from cell B2, so I
select this cell. Finally, click on the Finish button.
6) The text numbers are now converted to actual numbers in
column C. Notice the numbers are right aligned in the cells.
These numbers can now be used in formulas.
Removing Duplicates in a Dataset
Removing duplicate entries in a dataset is a common task among Excel
users. Combining different tables, or if there is a shared Excel file
where many users have access to and work with, may cause duplicate
entries in a dataset. Duplicate entries can cause many issues such as
giving you wrong results if you are using formulas to make
calculations.

There are two methods to remove duplicates. These are:

1) Using the Remove Duplicates button in the Ribbon.

2) Using an advanced filter.

I will show you how to remove duplicates for both methods using the
above dataset. The data shows a list of car sales, which country the car
was sold in and in what quarter. Rows 3 and 10 have been highlighted
in yellow as they are duplicate entries. Similarly, rows 6 and 13 are
also duplicate entries and have been highlighted in orange.

Using the Remove Duplicates Button

To remove duplicate entries using the Remove Duplicates button in
the ribbon then follow these steps.

1) Select any cell in the dataset. In this example, I have Selected

cell B7. When you select any cell in the dataset, Excel
automatically determines the range in the next step.

2) From the ribbon, click on the Data tab and under the Data
Tools group click on the Removes Duplicates button.

3) The Remove Duplicates dialog box will appear. If your data

 has column headers, then check the My data has headers
checkbox. This means that the first row will not be considered
for removing duplicates. You can also check which column
headers you want to compare for duplicates under Columns.
In my example, I want to check all the column headers, so I
have checked all the column header checkboxes. Next click on
the OK button.

4) Excel will delete the duplicate rows and a dialog box will
appear showing you how many duplicate values were found
and removed. It also displays how many unique values
remain. You can then click on the OK button.

5) The duplicate entries have now been removed.

Using the Advanced Filter
You can also remove duplicate entries using the advanced filter. This
filters duplicate values and copies the unique values to a different
location. Here are the steps to do this.

1) Select any cell in the dataset. In this example, I have selected

cell B7. Excel will automatically determine the range when you
click on the Advanced Filter button.
2) From the ribbon click on the Data tab. Under the Sort &
Filter group click on the Advanced button.

3) The Advanced Filter dialog box will appear. Select Copy to

another location so the unique values will appear in a
different location in the worksheet. The List range will
automatically be populated. It is good practice however to
check that the range of the data is correct. In the Copy to
field, select the cell where you want the unique values to be
copied to. In my example, I have selected cell F1. Ensure that
the Unique records only check box is checked. This is the
most important step. Finally click on the OK button.
 4) The unique values are now copied to cell F1.

How to use Flash Fill

Flash Fill is a data tool that will guess the pattern of what you are
typing in a few rows and then fills the rest of the data for you. Flash
Fill will save you lots of time in data entry. It will work automatically
after entering a few examples if Flash Fill is enabled in Excel options.
It will show a preview in light grey and then you can accept the results
by pressing Enter on your keyboard.
The Flash Fill button is in the Data tab of the ribbon, under the Data
Tools group.

It can also be found in the Home tab under the Editing group. Click
on the Fill button and a shortcut menu will appear. From the menu
click on Flash Fill.

Now let’s look at an example of how Flash Fill works.

The dataset above consists of employee first and last names in

columns A and B and the company they work for in column C. In
column D, I want to populate the employee email addresses. Typing
this out manually is laborious and takes time. Luckily with Flash Fill, it
will only take a few seconds.

I first entered the email address in cell D2 for Jess Smith. I then
started to write the email address for Mike Peters in cell D3. Flash Fill
automatically recognises the pattern and previews the next entries in
light grey.

If you are happy with the preview, then just press Enter on your
keyboard so the remaining rows are filled in. After a couple of entries,
Flash Fill recognised that the first and last names were lower case, and
that I combined the names with periods, the @ symbol and .com
extensions to create email addresses.

One thing to note is that Flash Fill cannot fill upwards. If you start
entering data in the middle of the column, then Flash Fill will fill
downwards and not up. To overcome this, you can click the Flash Fill
button either from the Data tab or the Home tab in the ribbon as
mentioned earlier. By doing this, the whole column will be filled.

There is also a keyboard shortcut for Flash Fill. The steps to use a
keyboard shortcut are as follows.

1) Type the example data.

2) Select all the cells in the column you want to fill, including the
example data.

3) Press Ctrl + E on your keyboard.

One more way to use the Flash Fill is to use the fill handle. To do this:

1) Type the example data. In the example above, I have typed

Jess Smith’s email address in cell D2.

2) Right-click the fill handle which is located on the bottom right

of the active cell and drag your mouse down to the bottom
row.

3) Release the right-click and then select Flash Fill from the
menu.
 Chapter 5: Formatting
Worksheets
In this chapter you will learn how to format your worksheet, so it looks
visually appealing. By learning the techniques in this chapter, your
worksheet will look more professional. Formatting a worksheet is
especially important when you are creating reports for people such as
clients or if you are making a dashboard. You can also use the
techniques in this chapter to highlight important text or cells so
nothing will get missed. In this chapter you will learn how to change
font size and style, how to add borders, how to change the orientation
of text and much more.

Introduction to the Format Cells Dialog

Box
The main dialog box you will use to format your worksheet is the
Format Cells dialog box. This dialog box will allow you to format
numbers, for example, put a currency symbol in cells where it should
show prices or to display dates in a specific date format. The Format
Cells dialog box will also help you align text to the left or right of a cell,
change font type, add borders to cells and fill cells with different
colours. All your formatting options are in the Format Cells dialog box,
so it is important that you get to know it.

How to Open the Format Cells Dialog Box

You can open the Format Cells dialog box in several ways.
Go to the Home tab in the ribbon and under the Font, Alignment
or Number group click on the arrow on the bottom right. Whichever,
group you click on will open that specific tab in the Format Cells dialog
box.

Another way to open the Format Cells dialog box is by clicking on the
Home tab in the ribbon. Under the Cells group click on the Format
button and a menu will appear. Select Format Cells from the menu.
You can also select any cell in the worksheet and then right-click the
mouse and select Format Cells from the menu.

If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, then you can press Ctrl + 1.

Once you have opened the Format Cells dialog box, you will see there
are six tabs which are Number, Alignment, Font, Border, Fill and
Protection. Now let’s see what each tab does in turn.
Number Tab
The Number tab allows you to format how your numbers will look.
You can select various formatting options such as currency, dates,
times, percentage fractions etc. You first need to select the cell you
want to format and then choose your formatting options from the left-
hand pane. In the example below, I have changed cell A1 to a dollar ($)
currency. You can see how the cell will be formatted under the
Sample section. Once you are happy with your selection, press the
OK button.
Alignment Tab
The Alignment tab allows you to customise the way you would like text
and numbers to be aligned, both vertically and horizontally under
Text Alignment. You can also change the text orientation under the
Orientation section. Under the Text Control section, you can
control the way Excel formats information in a cell. Finally, Text
Direction allows you to switch direction of the worksheet. For
example, column A could start from the upper right side instead of the
upper left. You will learn more about these different options later in
the chapter.
Font Tab
In the Font tab, you can change the font type, font size, make a text or
number italic, bold or underlined and change the font colour. You first
need to select the cell or cells you want to format before you make any
selections. You can also preview what the formatting will look like
under the Preview section. Once you are happy with the selections,
click the OK button.
Border Tab
The Border tab will allow you to create borders around cells. You can
choose the style of the line and the colour under the Style section. To
create a quick border, you can also choose Outline or Inside under
the Presets section. If you want to remove all borders, click on None.
The Border section allows you more control on creating borders. For
example, you may only want to create a border on the top and bottom
of a cell as shown in the example below. To create a border on any side
of a cell, just click on a side under the Border section. To remove the
border, simply click the border again.
Fill Tab
The Fill tab allows you to set the background colour of the selected cell
under the Background Color section. You can also apply various
patterns under Pattern Style. If you have chosen a pattern, you can
apply two colour patterns if you have chosen a colour under Pattern
Color. To apply different colours to your cells, simply select the cells
you want to colour. Then choose the colour and or pattern you want to
apply and then click the OK button.
Protection Tab
The Protection tab does not apply any formatting to your worksheet. It
is used to protect your worksheet so other users can’t make any
changes to it. It will stop a user from changing cell data or formulas,
typing into an empty cell, moving, and resizing a cell, and deleting the
cell or its contents.

Changing Font Properties

In Excel, you can change lots of font properties of text or cells. This
includes changing the:
Font type
Font size
 Font colour
Cell colour
Font to Bold, Italic or Underlined
Cell border

Changing the font properties are done through the various buttons in
the ribbon. The buttons are accessed through the Home tab under the
Font group. The screenshot above shows you where the various
buttons are located under the Font group with a description of each
button.

Let’s now look at how to change the different font properties in turn.

Changing Font Type

To change the font type then follow these steps.

1) Select the cell which contains the text you want to change.

2) From the ribbon click the Home tab and under the Font
group, click the down arrow which is next to the Font field.
Choose from any of the fonts in the menu. Once a font has
been selected the text in the cell will change to that font type.
A point to note is that if the selected cell does not contain any text, it
will change to the selected font type once text is in that cell.

Tip: As you hover your mouse over each font in the menu, you can see
the text change in the cell so you will know what it looks like before
you select the font.

Changing Font Size

Normally the default size of text is 11 or 12, however you can easily
change the size. To do this then follow these steps.
 1) Select the cell which contains the text you want to change.

2) From the ribbon click the Home tab and under the Font
group, click the down arrow which is next to the Font Size
field. Choose from any of the different sizes in the menu. Once
a size has been selected the text in the cell will change to that
size.

It is important to note that some fonts may not scale properly, so they
may have limited size options.

If the selected cell does not contain any text, it will change to the
selected size once text is in that cell.
Tip: As you hover your mouse over each size in the menu, you can see
the text size change before you select it.

Another way to change the size of text is to press the Increase Font
Size and Decrease Font Size buttons which are located to the right
of the Font Size field. Ensure you select the cell you want to change
first before you press either button. You can also type the size
manually in the Font Size field rather than choosing the size from the
menu.

Changing Font Colour

If you need to highlight text to make it stand out, then you can change
its font colour. To change a font colour, follow these steps.

1) Select the cell which contains the text you want to change.

2) From the ribbon click the Home tab and under the Font
group, click the down arrow next to the Text Color button.
The Text Color button is usually displayed as a letter “A” with
an underline. Choose from any of the different colours in the
menu. Once a colour has been selected the text in the cell will
change to that colour.
If the selected cell does not contain any text, it will change to the
selected colour once text is in that cell.

Tip: As you hover your mouse over each colour in the menu, you can
see the text change colour before you select it.
If you want a choice of more colours, then click on More Colors in
the menu.
The Colors dialog box will appear which contains two tabs. In the
Standard tab you get a greater choice of colours to choose from. In the
Custom tab, there are two colour models, RGB (Red, Green, Blue) and
Hue, Saturation, Lightness (HSL) where you can enter numbers to
create your own colours. Once you are happy with the colour you have
selected then press the OK button.

Changing Cell Colour

Changing the colour of a cell is done in the same way as changing the
font colour.

The only difference is that once you click on the Home tab in the
ribbon, you then click on the down arrow next to the Fill Color
button which is under the Font group as highlighted in the screenshot
above. You can then select from a range of colours from the menu or
choose even more colours by selecting the More Colors button.
Changing Font to Bold, Italic or Underlined
As well as changing the type, size, and colour of a font, you can also
highlight text by making them bold, italic or underlined. As mentioned
earlier in this chapter, the buttons to do this are in the Home tab of
the ribbon under the Font group. Bold is usually used if you want to
make text or numbers stand out or to highlight totals in tables. Italics
are often used for notes and underline is normally used for subtotals.

To make a text bold, italic or underlined simply select the cell you
want to change first and then click on the relevant button. The
screenshot above shows what the result looks like when you click on
each button. When you have made a text bold, italic or underlined, the
appropriate button will be shaded in dark grey.

You can make the text bold, italic and underlined together as shown
above by selecting the cell and clicking each of the buttons in turn.

If you want to return the text to its original state, then just select the
cell you want to change back and then click on the relevant button
again. The dark grey shading will disappear from the button.
There is a drop-down arrow next to the Underline button. When you
click this, you get a choice to double underline your text.

If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts rather than navigating through

the ribbon, then use the following shortcut keys:

Bold – Ctrl + B
Italic – Ctrl + I
Underline – Ctrl +U

Applying Cell Borders

By default, a cell does not have any borders. Applying cell borders is
often used when you are making a table or to emphasise data. It is an
easy way to make your data stand out, appear more organised and
make the worksheet easier to understand and read. Now let’s look at
an example of how to apply borders to some data.

The data above displays sales in an organisation by region and per

quarter. As you can see, there are no borders around it. I want to apply
borders so that it looks more like a table. To do this follow these steps.

1) Select the cells where you want to apply the border. In this
example, I select the range A1:E5.

2) From the ribbon, go to the Home tab and under the Font
group click on the down arrow next to the Cell Border
button. A list of border options appears in a menu. Select the
relevant option from the menu to apply the cell border. In this
example, I want to apply all borders around each selected cell,
so I select All Borders.

3) There is now a border applied around each selected cell.

Below are the various border options and what each one does to a
selected cell when you choose it from the Cell Border menu.

Bottom Border – Applies a border to the bottom of the cell only

Top Border – Applies a border to the top of the cell only
Left Border – Applies a border to the left of the cell only
Right Border – Applies a border to the right of the cell only
No Border – Applies no borders to a cell. If a cell has a border, then
it will remove them
All Borders – Applies a border all around the cell
Outside Borders – Applies a border on the outside of the cell only
Thick Outside Borders – Applies a thick border on the outside of
the cell only
Bottom Double Border – Applies a double border on the bottom of
the cell only
Thick Bottom Border – Applies a thick border to the bottom of the
cell only
Top and Bottom Border – Applies a border to the top and bottom
of the cell only
Top and Thick Bottom Border – Applies a border to the top and a
thick border to the bottom of the cell
Top and Double Bottom Border – Applies a border to the top and
a double border to the bottom of the cell

If you want more control of the look and style of the cell borders, you
can use the advanced border options. To do this, follow these steps.

1) Select the cells where you want to apply the border. In this
example, I select the range A1:E5.

2) From the ribbon, go to the Home tab and under the Font
group click on the down arrow next to the Cell Border
button. A menu will appear. Select More Borders from the
menu.
 3) The Format Cells dialog box will appear. Under the Style
section, select the line style you want. Under the Color
section, click on the drop-down arrow and select the line
colour from the menu. You can now specify the new border
style from the three available options under Presets or apply
borders individually in the Border section. Once you are
happy with your sections, click the OK button.

Changing Text Alignment

By default, Excel aligns numbers to the right and text to the left,
however you can easily change the alignment of text and numbers. You
can either make contents in a cell aligned to the left of a cells edge, to
the centre or to the right of a cells edge. In addition to this, the
contents can be aligned to the top, middle, or the bottom of a cell.
All the alignment buttons are accessed through the Home tab in the
ribbon, under the Alignment group. The screenshot above shows the
various buttons in the Alignment group with a description of each
button. Let’s now look at each one in turn.

Horizontal Alignment
Align Left – This is when the contents of the cell are aligned to the
left of the cells edge. To make the cell contents align to the left, select
the cell, and then click the Align Left button.

Centre – This is when the contents are in the middle of the cell. To
make the cell contents centre aligned, select the cell, and then click the
Center button.

Align Right – This is when the contents of the cell are aligned to the
right of the cells edge. To make the cell contents align to the right,
select the cell, and then click the Align Right button.

Vertical Alignment
Top Align – This is when the contents are aligned to the top of the
cell. To make the contents top aligned, select the cell and click the Top
Align button.

Middle Align – This is when the contents are centred between the
top and bottom of the cell. To make the contents middle aligned, select
the cell, and click the Middle Align button.

Bottom Align – This is when the contents are aligned to the bottom
of the cell. To make the contents bottom aligned, select the cell, and
then click the Bottom Align button.
Note that changing the vertical alignment does not have any visual
effect unless you change the height of the row. The default row height
is 15 points, and this is not high enough to see what the impact is when
each of the buttons are pressed. For this reason, I increased the row
height in the examples above to show you what the effects were of the
text when I clicked on each button.

You can combine the horizontal and vertical buttons to change the cell
contents in different ways. Below are a few examples to give you an
idea.

Changing Text Orientation

You can change the text orientation which allows you to fit more
information in a smaller space. Changing text orientation is also great
for headers when you are designing data tables.

There are two ways to change the orientation of text. These are:
 1) From the ribbon.

2) From the Format Cells dialog box.

For both methods, I will use the dataset above and change the month
headings to a 45-degree angle.

Changing the Text Orientation from the Ribbon

The orientation button is in the Home tab of the ribbon under the
Alignment group. To change the text orientation of the header, then
follow these steps.

1) Select the cell or the range of cells you want to change the text
orientation to. In this example, I select the range B1:M1.

2) From the ribbon, click on the Home tab and under the
Alignment group click on the down arrow next to the
Orientation button. A menu will appear with a list of
orientation options. To change the text direction to a 45-
degree angle going upwards, then select the first option
Angle Counterclockwise.
 3) The text is now rotated by 45-degrees in a counterclockwise
direction.

Below is a description of each text orientation and the effect it has on a

text.

Angle Counterclockwise – The cell contents will be displayed in a

45-degree angle in an upward direction.

Angle Clockwise – The cell contents will be displayed in a 45-degree

angle in a downward direction.

Vertical Text – The cell contents will be displayed vertically.

Rotate Text Up – The cell contents are rotated at 90 degrees.

Rotate Text Down – The cell contents are rotated at -90 degrees.

Changing the Text Orientation from the Format Cells

Dialog Box
If you want more precision on the text orientation, then you can use
the Format Cells dialog box to rotate the text. With this option, you
can enter a specific value to change the direction of the text. To do this,
follow these steps.

1) Select the cell or the range of cells you want to change the text
orientation to. In this example, I select the range B1:M1.

2) Right-click the mouse and then click on Format Cells from

the menu to open the Format Cells dialog box.
Alternatively, you can press the Ctrl + 1 keys on your
keyboard.

3) In the Format Cells dialog box, click on the Alignment tab to

view the orientation options. An alternative way to get to the
Alignment tab in the Format Cells dialog box is from the
ribbon when you click the Orientation button as described
in the previous method. When the menu opens, select
Format Cell Alignment.
Once the Alignment tab is open, you can set the angle of the text
by either typing a value or using the scroll buttons under the
Orientation section on the right. Alternatively, you can use the
semicircle above by moving the pointer to the angle you want
with your mouse.

Once you are happy with the angle, click on the OK button.

4) The headings are now rotated in a 45-degree angle.

Tip: Here are a couple of tips on text orientation.

1) A positive angle between 30 and 60-degrees works well.

2) Once you have changed the rotation of the text, use AutoFit to
reduce the columns to the smallest possible width. To do this,
just double click the column or use the Autofit Column Width
function as described in Chapter 3.

How to Wrap Text and Merge Cells

You can format your worksheets to make it look cleaner and neater by
using the Wrap Text and Merge & Center tools in Excel.

Wrap Text
You can use Wrap Text when there is long text in a worksheet and all
the text doesn’t fit in the cell. By default, a cell is 8.43 points in width
and 15 points high. If the text is too long, then you can adjust the width
of the cell so all the contents will fit. Changing column width and
height is covered in chapter 4. A better option might be to increase the
row height and use Wrap Text.

Let’s look at how to wrap text so all the contents will fit in a cell.

In the screenshot above, we can see that in cell A1, the text is long and
doesn’t fit inside the width of the cell and spills over to the cells on the
right. You can wrap the text, so it fits completely inside cell A1. There
are three ways to wrap text:
 1) Wrap text from the ribbon.

2) Wrap text using a keyboard shortcut.

3) Wrap text in the Format Cells dialog box.

Let’s look at each one in turn.

Wrap Text from the Ribbon

The Wrap Text function can be found in the Home tab of the ribbon,
under the Alignment group. To wrap text using the ribbon follow these
steps.

1) Select the cell or range of cells where you want to apply the
wrap text formatting. In this example, I select cell A1.

2) From the ribbon, click on the Home tab and under the
Alignment group click on the Wrap Text button.
 3) This has now wrapped the text inside cell A1. Notice that the
row height has been adjusted to fit all the text.

Once a text has been wrapped, you can adjust the column width and
change the text alignment to your needs.

Wrap Text using a Keyboard Shortcut

You can use a keyboard shortcut to quickly wrap text. To do this, first
select the cell where you want to wrap text and then press Alt + H +W
on your keyboard.
Wrap Text in the Format Cells Dialog Box
The third way you can wrap text is by using the Format Cells dialog
box. To do this, follow these steps.

1) Select the cell or range of cells where you want to apply the
wrap text formatting. In this example, I select cell A1.

2) Right-click the mouse and select Format Cells from the

menu to open the Format Cells dialog box. Alternatively,
press Ctrl + 1 on your keyboard.

3) In the Format Cells dialog box, select the Alignment tab.

Under Text control, check the Wrap text checkbox and
then click on the OK button.
 4) The text in cell A1 is now wrapped.

Tip: A quick way to access the Alignment tab in the Format Cells
dialog box is to click on the Home tab in the ribbon and then click on
the arrow that is in the bottom right of the Alignment group.

How to Remove Wrap Text

To remove wrap text is just as easy as applying it. First, you need to
select the cells that contain the wrap text and then do either of the
following three methods:

1) From the ribbon, click on the Home tab and under the
Alignment group press the Wrap Text button.

2) Press Alt + H + W on your keyboard.

3) Open the Format Cells dialog box and uncheck the Wrap
text option in the Alignment tab.

As you can see, you use the same commands to remove wrap text as
you do when you apply it.

Merge Cells
When you merge cells, it combines multiple cells into one. Merging
cells is particularly useful when you are creating table headings. When
you are merging cells, the text in the upper leftmost box is preserved.
The most common method for merging cells is by using the Merge &
Center button which is in the Home tab under the Alignment
group in the ribbon.

Let’s look at an example of how to use the Merge & Center button.

I will use the same example as the one I used for wrap text. As you can
see, the text goes across columns A to E. I want to merge the range
A1:E1 so this becomes just one cell. To do this follow these steps.

1) Select the cells you want to merge. In this example, I want to

merge the range A1:E1 so I select this range.

2) In the ribbon, go to the Home tab and under the Alignment

group click on the Merge & Center button. The range A1:E1
has now merged into one. The text is also centred in the
merged cell.

If you do not want the text to be centred when you merge cells, you can
click the drop-down arrow which is to the right of the Merge & Centre
button. A menu will appear which displays the following options:

Merge & Center

Merge Across
Merge Cells
Unmerge Cells

To unmerge cells, simply select the cell which is merged then click on
the Merge & Center button again. Alternatively, click the drop-down
arrow to the right of the Merge & Center button and select
Unmerge Cells from the menu.

One thing to note when using the Merge & Center button is that it can
merge the cells, but not the text within these cells. This means you will
lose some data.

For example, in the above dataset, if I try to merge cells A2:B2

together using the Merge & Center button, I get a warning to say that
merging cells only keeps the upper-left most value and discards the
other values.
When I click on the OK button, you can see it has kept the first name
which is the text from the left most cell and discards the last name in
cell B2.

Indenting Text
Indenting text or numbers allows you to move them to the left or right
of the cells border. By default, Excel aligns text to the left and numbers
to the right. If you don’t like them close to the borders edge, then you
can indent them.
There are three ways to indent text or numbers. These are:

1) Indenting using the ribbon.

2) Indenting using a keyboard shortcut.

3) Indenting individual lines in the same cell.

Indenting using the Ribbon

In the above dataset, there is a list of Salespeople with the number of
sales they have made. As you can see, the text is aligned to the left in
column A and the numbers are aligned to the right in column B. I want
to indent the Salespeople’s names to the right a little and the number
of sales to the left. Here are the steps to do this.

1) First, I want to indent the names to the right. Select the cells
you want to indent. In this example, I select the range A2:A7.

2) From the ribbon, click on the Home tab and under the
Alignment group click on the Increase Indent button.

3) The names have now indented to the right. If you want to

indent the text even more, then just keep pressing the
 Increase Indent button.

4) To indent to the left, select the cells you want to indent. In this
example, I select the range B2:B7. In the Home tab of the
ribbon, under the Alignment group, click on the Decrease
Indent button. Again, if you want to indent the text even
more, then just keep pressing the Decrease Indent button.

Indenting using a Keyboard Shortcut

You can also use keyboard shortcuts to indent to the right or left. Use
the shortcut keys ALT + H + 6 to indent to the right. To indent to the
left use ALT + H + 5.

Indenting Individual Lines in the Same Cell

Your worksheet may have individual lines in the same cell, and you
may only want to indent some lines and not the others. Unfortunately,
you can’t use the Increase Indent or Decrease Indent buttons in this
instance. This is because as soon as you go into edit mode, these
buttons are greyed out. You also can’t use the keyboard shortcut keys
mentioned above. There is a workaround however where you can add
space characters before the lines you want to indent.

In the above example, cell A1 contains four lines. I want to indent the
lines starting with 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 to the right. Here are the steps to do
this.

1) Select the cell. In this example, I select cell A1.

2) Double-click the cell or press F2 to go into edit mode.

3) Place the curser where you want to indent. In this example, I

first put the curser before 1.1 and then pressed the space
character until I get to the desired indentation.

4) Do the same for the other lines you want to indent.

If you want to indent to the left, follow the same process as above but
this time press the backspace key on your keyboard.

Format Cells with the Cell Styles Tool

Cell Styles is a great way to format your worksheets quickly and easily.
It contains a wide variety of pre-determined formatting options, so
you don’t have to apply the formatting yourself to cells. Each cell style
contains multiple formats. For example, a single cell style may contain
a red fill colour, a bold font, a cell border, and a number format. Cell
styles are used to quickly apply formatting to cells, so you don’t have to
format them through the ribbon. It also ensures consistent formatting
to your worksheets.

You can access all the cell styles through the ribbon. Click on the
Home tab and under the Styles group click on Cell Styles. A menu
will appear with a list of cell styles.

To apply a cell style, click the cell or range you want to format and
then go to the Home tab from the ribbon and click the Cell Styles
button under the Styles group. Next, choose the format you want to
apply from the menu. In the above example, I applied a Heading 1
format to the heading in cell A1.

Creating a Custom Cell Style

Although there are many built-in cell styles in Excel, you may wish to
create your own. When you create your own cell style, you can choose
the exact formats you want and then reuse the created cell style as
many times as you wish. To create your own custom cell style, then
follow these steps.

1) In the ribbon, go to the Home tab and under the Styles

group click on the Cell Styles button. From the menu, click
on New Cell Style.
2) The Style dialog box will appear. You can name the cell style
in the Style name field. The default name is Style 1. I will
leave it as the default name for this example. Next, uncheck
any formatting options you do not want to apply under the
Style includes section. For this example, I will leave this all
checked. Once done, click on the Format button.
3) The Format Cells dialog box will appear. Here, you can
select a variety of formatting options such as applying number
formatting, text alignment, font, borders, and colour fill. To
do this just click on the appropriate tab and choose your
settings. In this example, I want to fill the cell orange, so I
clicked on the Fill tab and selected the orange colour. After
choosing the formats you want, click on the OK button which
will return you to the Style dialog box.
4) Under the Style includes section, you will see all the formats
that you have just picked. The only formatting, I have applied
is fill colour and this has changed from Fill: No Shading to
Fill: Shaded. If you don’t want to apply any formats, then
just uncheck the formats you don’t want. Next click on the OK
button.
 5) To use the custom cell style, select the cell or range you want
to apply the formatting. Go to the Home tab from the ribbon.
Under the Styles group click on the Cell Styles button. You
will see your newly created cell style under Custom. Click
this to apply it to the selected cells.

One thing to note is that the custom cell style is available in all the
worksheets in the workbook where you created it. However, it is not
available in any other workbook. You will have to go through the same
steps as above for each workbook.

How to use the Format Painter

The Format Painter is a great tool that allows you to copy the
formatting of a cell or a range of cells and apply it to other cells in the
worksheet, other worksheets, or workbooks. It copies the font size,
style, borders, and cell colour from the cell. The Format Painter is
great because it allows you to quickly apply formatting you have
already done to other cells without the need to keep on using the Excel
ribbon, which will ultimately save you time.

The Format Painter is in the Home tab of the ribbon, under the
Clipboard group and looks like a paintbrush.

Now let’s look at an example of how the Format Painter works.

In the screenshot above, there is number in cell A1 which is formatted

with a dollar ($) currency, has two decimal places, the cell colour is
orange and has a border around each side. The range C1:C5 contains
no formatting and I want to quickly apply the same formatting as cell
A1 to this range. To do this, follow these steps.

1) Select the cell or cells you want to copy the formatting. In this
example, I select cell A1 as I want to copy the formatting from
this cell.

2) From the ribbon, go to the Home tab and under the

Clipboard group click on the Format Painter button. The
selected cell border will turn to dashes and move in a
clockwise direction.

3) Select the cells you want to apply the formatting to. In this
example, I select the range C1:C5. Instantly, the same
formatting has been applied to the range C1:C5.
In the above example, the Format Painter has copied the number
formatting, the number of decimal places, the cell colour, and the
border.

When you click the Format Painter button, the curser changes and will
have a brush next to it. This means the Format Painter is active. One
thing to note is that the Format Painter only copies the formatting of
the cell and not the actual value in the cell.

Tip: Once you have selected the range where you want to apply the
formatting, the Format Painter will turn off. This means you can only
apply formatting to the selected cells one at a time. To keep the
Format Painter on, double click the Format Painter button. To turn it
off, then click the Format Painter button again.
 Chapter 6: Making Edits to
Worksheets
In Excel, you will be required to make changes to your worksheets
every so often. You may need to update values in a cell, add new data,
replace cell contents and so on. Excel has various useful tools to do
this. This chapter will show you the main editing features and how you
can use them.

How to Copy, Paste and Cut

When you are working with data in Excel, you may need to copy the
data you have already entered and paste it to another area of the
worksheet or workbook. Copy and paste allows you to save valuable
time, as you do not need to keep on typing the same information again
and again. You can also remove data from one area of the worksheet
and paste it to another area or workbook by using the Cut tool.

There are three different ways you can copy, paste, and cut data.

1) Using the ribbon - The Copy, Paste and Cut buttons are in
the Home tab under the Clipboard group. Just click on the
relevant button to copy, paste, or cut.
2) Using a keyboard shortcut – This is the easiest and
quickest way to copy, paste or cut data. To copy, press Ctrl + C
on your keyboard. To paste, press Ctrl + V on your keyboard. To
cut, press Ctrl + X on your keyboard.

3) Right-click the mouse – If you right-click your mouse in

any cell, a menu will appear where you can select copy, paste, or
cut.
Now let’s look at how we do each one in turn using the data above. The
range A2:A11 contains some values. I want to copy the values in this
range and paste them in the range B2:B11. I then want to cut the
numbers in the range A2:A11 and place them in the range C2:C11.

Copy
To copy a cell or a range of cells, follow these steps.

1) Select the cell or range you want to copy. In this example, I

select the range A2:A11.

2) Copy the selection by using either the ribbon, keyboard

shortcut or by right clicking the mouse as mentioned above. A
moving border will appear around the selected cells. This
means Excel is in copy mode.

Paste
To paste the copied cell or cells, follow these steps.

1) Select the cell where you want to paste the copied cells. In this
example, I select cell B2.
 2) Use one of the three methods mentioned above to paste the
data. Use either the ribbon, keyboard shortcut or right-click
the mouse to paste.

Tip: The moving border around the copied cells will still be there even
after pasting the data. To stop the moving border, press the Esc button
on your keyboard to exit copy mode.

There is also a variety of paste options available in Excel. Once a cell

has been copied, if you click the drop-down arrow on the Paste button
in the Home tab of the ribbon you will see variety of paste options.
Below is an explanation of what each one does.

Paste – This will paste the cell contents and the formatting from the
copied cell.
Formulas - This will paste the formula from the copied cell. No
formatting will be pasted.

Formulas & Number Formatting - This will paste the formula and
the number formatting from the copied cell.

Keep Source Formatting - This will paste the cell contents and all
the formatting from the copied cell.

No Borders - This will paste the cell contents from the copied cell but
without any borders.

Keep Source Column Width - This will paste the cell contents, all
the formatting and apply the column width from the copied cell.

Transpose - This pastes the selection in a transposed way. For

example, if you copy a vertical range of cells then it will paste it
horizontally and vice versa.

Values - This will paste the cell contents only. No formatting will be
pasted. If you are copying a formula, it will paste just the result of the
formula and not the formula itself.

Cut
To cut data from a cell or a range of cells, follow these steps.

1) Select the cell or range of cells you want to cut. In this

example, I select the range A2:A11.
 2) Select the destination cell where you would like the data to
move to. In this example, I select cell C2.

3) Use one of the three methods mentioned above to move the

data. Use either the ribbon, keyboard shortcut or right-click
the mouse to cut. The numbers have now moved from column
A to column C.

Editing Cell Content

You can edit data in a cell very easily. There are three common
methods to do this. These are:

1) Double click the cell you want to edit.

2) Press the F2 key.

3) Using the Formula Bar.

Let’s look at each one in turn.

Double Clicking the Cell
To edit a cell by double clicking it, simply select the cell you want to
edit and then just double click the cell using the left button on your
mouse. The curser will be located at the end of the value in the cell
which means the cell is in edit mode. You can then edit the cell. To get
out of edit mode, simply click out of the cell.

Press the F2 Key

You can also edit a cell using the F2 key. Just select the cell you want
to edit and then press the F2 key on your keyboard. The curser will be
located at the end of the value in the cell which means the cell is in edit
mode and ready to edit. To get out of edit mode, simply click out of the
cell.

Using the Formula Bar

The third way to edit a cell is to use the Formula Bar. This is located
between the column letters and the ribbon. Whenever you click on a
cell with data, the text or number will be shown in the Formula Bar.
When you click in the Formula Bar, Excel will be in edit mode, and you
can then edit the text or number in it.

When you edit a cell using either of the three methods shown above,
the word Edit appears in the bottom left of the window. This is
another way you will know Excel is in edit mode along with the curser
showing in the cell or Formula Bar.

One further point to note is that when Excel is in edit mode, many of
the commands in the ribbon will not be available to use and become
greyed out as shown in the screenshot above.

How to use the Find and Replace Tool

People often work with very large datasets and may need to find
certain values or text. Once they have found what they are looking for,
they may need to replace it with something else. Doing this manually
by scrolling up or across the Excel window can be very time consuming
and tedious. Fortunately, with the Find and Replace tool, you can do
this in seconds.
Let’s now look at an example of how to use the Find and Replace tool.
The above dataset is an employee database for a small company which
contains a list of employees and the department they work in. Kelly
Jones in cell A4 has now left the company and I want to replace her
with a new employee called Sara Pickering.

Note, the above dataset is only seven rows long so it can be changed
manually without having to use the Find and Replace tool. However,
you may be working with large datasets with hundreds and thousands
of rows and finding the correct cell to change will be much more
difficult.

To Find Content
To first find content, follow these steps.

1) In the ribbon, from the Home tab under the Editing group,
click on the Find & Select button. From the drop-down
menu, select Find. You can also press the shortcut keys Ctrl +
F.

2) The Find and Replace dialog box will appear with the Find
 tab open. Enter the content you want to find in the Find
what field. In this example, I want to find Kelly Jones, so I
enter her name in the field. Now click on the Find Next
button. If the content is found, then the cell containing the
content will be selected.

If you have multiple cells that contain the search term, you can
keep on clicking the Find Next button to find further instances
or the Find All button to see every instance of the search term.

3) If you just want to find the content and not replace it with
another term or value, then press the Close button to close
the Find and Replace dialog box.
To Replace Content
To replace content you have found, follow these steps.

1) In the ribbon, from the Home tab under the Editing group,
click on the Find & Select button. From the drop-down
menu, select Replace.

2) The Find and Replace dialog box will appear with the
Replace tab open. Enter the content you want to find in the
Find what field. In this example, I want to find Kelly Jones,
so I enter this in the field. In the Replace with field, enter
the content you want to replace the old content with. In this
example, I want to replace Kelly Jones with Sara Pickering, so
I enter Sara Pickering in this field. Click on the Find Next
button. If the content is found, then the cell containing the
content will be selected.

3) Click either the Replace All button or the Replace button.

 If you click on Replace All, it will replace every instance of
the text throughout the workbook. If you click on the
Replace button, it will replace individual instances.

4) A dialog box will appear which tells you the number of

replacements that have been done. Click the OK button and
then the Close button in the Find and Replace dialog box.
Kelly Jones, in cell A4 has been replaced by Sara Pickering.

Tip: It is best to avoid pressing the Replace All button and to use the
Replace button instead. This is because the Replace All button will
replace everything in one go and doesn’t give you an option of skipping
anything you don’t want to change.

Change Formatting
The Find and Replace tool is not just used for replacing text or
numbers. You can also change the formatting of cells.

In the screenshot above, the range A1:B6 is filled in green. I want to

change the colour to red. Follow the below steps to learn how to do
this using the Find and Replace tool.

1) In the ribbon, from the Home tab under the Editing group,
click on the Find & Select button. From the drop-down
menu, select Replace.

2) The Find and Replace dialog box opens. You do not need to
enter any text in the Find what and Replace with fields.
Click the Options button.

3) Click the Format button next to the Find what field and
select the colour you want to find. Do the same with the
 Format button next to the Replace with field to replace it
with another colour.

4) A preview of the formatting will be shown in the Find and

Replace dialog box. Click on the Replace All button to
change all instances of the formatting.

5) A dialog box will appear to show the number of replacements

that have been done. Click the OK button and then the Close
button in the Find and Replace dialog box. All the cells in
green fill have now been replaced in red fill.
How to use the Text to Speech Tool
Text to Speech is one of the least known tools in Excel. It reads text or
numbers out loud when the cell is selected. It is very useful for when
you are entering data in the worksheet as you do not need to keep on
looking up at your screen. The reason why Text to Speech is not so well
known is because it is not available in the ribbon. To access Text to
Speech, you will need to add it to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT).

Getting Access to Text to Speech

If you are not familiar with the QAT, then please read the section on
QAT in chapter 1. In this section, you will learn how to access the QAT
dialog box and how to add commands to it.
Once you have opened the QAT dialog box, click on All Commands
from the drop-down list under Choose commands from.

In the left-hand pane, scroll down the list and select the Speak Cells
options. There are five options you can add to the QAT. You can add
just one or all five.

Understanding the Text to Speech Options

Here are what each of the options does.
Speak Cells – When you click this button, it reads out loud the text in
the selected cell or range of cells.

Speak Cells – Stop Speaking Cells – When you click this button,
then Excel will stop reading the cells out loud.
Speak Cells by Columns – Excel will read the cells in the left most
column and then move across to the next column on the right.

Speak Cells by Rows – Excel will read the cells in the top row from
left to right and then move to the next row below.

Speak Cells on Enter – Excel will only read the cell once you press
the Enter key on your keyboard.

Note that at a given time, only one of the two options (Speak Cells by
Column and Speak Cells by Row) can be active.

How to use Text to Speech

To use Text to Speech, simply select the cells you want to convert to
speech and then click on the Speak Cells button. Excel will pronounce
the text or numbers that were selected. If the text in the cell is not an
actual word, then Excel will read out the alphabets.

How to Undo and Redo Actions

One of the most often used tools in Excel are the Undo and Redo
buttons. In fact, they are so popular that Microsoft have put them in
the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) by default.
The Undo button reverts your worksheet to the state it was in just
before you performed the most recent action. If you have made a
mistake in your worksheet, then just press the Undo button. The Redo
button has the opposite effect. It will redo what you have just undone,
for example if you accidently delete something.

The above screenshot shows where the Undo and Redo buttons are in
the QAT. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts instead. For Undo,
press Ctrl + Z on your keyboard. For Redo, press Ctrl + Y.

How Undo Works

The Undo feature quickly allows you to undo previous actions. You
may need to use Undo for the following reasons:

You delete a formula by mistake, and you want to get it back.

You delete cell contents by mistake.

 You have resized a row or column and it is too large or small.

You deleted a chart or picture by mistake.

When you press the Undo button, it goes back one step. You can go
back up to 100 times. The Undo button doesn’t work for all actions you
have performed, however. It doesn’t reverse clicking menu items,
deleting worksheets, or saving items.

If you are using the Undo button from the QAT, you can click on the
downward arrow next to it. This shows all the previous actions that
you can undo. You can do this one at a time or several at once.

How Redo Works

The redo is useful when you have hit the Undo button too many times.
When you press the Redo button, it goes forward one step. You can go
forward up to 100 times. You can’t redo something unless that action
was affected by an undo action. For example, you can’t undo deleting a
worksheet so therefore you can’t redo this.

Like with undo, the Redo button in the QAT has a downward arrow
next to it. This shows all the previous redo actions that you can redo.
Again, you can do this one at a time or several at once.
 Chapter 7: Excel Formulas
Arguably, one of the biggest reasons people use Excel is to perform
calculations with formulas. To become proficient in Excel, it is
important to know how to create formulas in your worksheets. When
you create a formula, Excel performs like a calculator where it can do
mathematical equations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication,
and division. In this chapter, you will learn how to create simple Excel
formulas so you can use them in your own worksheets.

Basic Terms in Excel

Before we delve deeper into how to create formulas, it is important to
understand some basic terms. The terms formulas and functions are
often intertwined to mean the same thing. In fact, they are both
different and it is important to understand what each are.

Formulas
A formula is an expression that operates on values in a cell or a range
of cells. For example, =A1+B1+C1. This formula will add up the values
in cell A1, B1 and C1 and give a total.

Functions
Functions are pre-defined formulas in Excel. There are over 400 built-
in functions in Excel. Functions help to eliminate manual entry of
formulas. For example, =SUM(A1:C1). The SUM function will add up
all the values from cells A1 to C1. Different functions perform different
calculations. Each function contains arguments where you will need to
enter a value or select a cell or a range. Each function has a different
set of arguments.
Mathematical Operators to use in
Formulas
Excel uses standard mathematical operators to perform calculations.
However, the symbols on some of the operators are different to what
you have learnt at school. The table below lists the mathematical
operators and the symbol you need to enter to perform the calculation.

How to Enter Basic Formulas

There are five main ways to enter formulas in your worksheet. I will
describe how to do each method below.

1. Typing a Formula Inside the Cell or Formula

Bar

The most common method to enter a formula is to type the formula in

a cell or the formula bar. When you enter a formula in a cell or formula
bar, you start it by entering an equal’s sign (=) followed by the
function name and then an open bracket. You then enter the cell or
range you want to include in your formula and then close the formula
with a closed bracket. In the screenshot above, I entered the formula
in cell E1 to sum the values in A1 to C1.

1. Using the Insert Function Button in the Ribbon

You can also use the Insert Function dialog box to insert a formula.
First, select the cell where you want the formula to be in. From the
ribbon, click on the Formulas tab and under the Function Library
group click the Insert Function button. The Insert Function
dialog box will open containing a list of functions to choose from.
Select the function you want and then press the OK button. The
Function Arguments dialog box will then appear where you will
need to enter the functions arguments.

1. Selecting a Function from the Ribbon

The Excel ribbon contains a list of in-built functions. Simply, select the
cell where you want the formula to be in and then from the ribbon,
click on the Formulas tab. All the main functions are grouped in
categories under the Function Library group. When you click on a
category button, a sub menu will appear with a list of functions. In the
above example, I have clicked on the Text category button and a list of
text functions are shown in the sub menu. If your preferred category is
not showing, click on the More Functions button and it may be
showing in there.

1. Using the AutoSum Option

The AutoSum button contains quick everyday functions. This is in
the Formulas tab of the ribbon under the Function Library group.
If you click on the down arrow at the bottom of the button, a sub menu
will appear where you can choose from five different functions. If you
click More Functions from the sub menu, the Insert Functions
dialog box will appear as already mentioned in the second method.

1. Using the Recently Used Button

To avoid having to keep on typing your favourite functions, you can
use the Recently Used button. To find this button, go to the ribbon
and click on the Formulas tab. The button is under the Function
Library group.

How to Create a Basic Formula

There are three main ways you can create a formula in Excel. These
are:

1) Hardcoding the values in the formula.

2) Using the point and click method.

 3) Using Excel functions.

For each method, I will use the dataset above which contains sales by
Salespeople for each quarter. The formula which I will enter in column
F will add up all the sales in each quarter for each Salesperson. The
formula for each method must always start with an equal’s sign (=).

Hardcoding the Values in the Formula

You can hardcode the values in the formula itself. For example, in cell
F2, I entered an equal’s sign and then entered the sales figures from
each quarter like this =2433+5686+4914+2973. However, this is
very time consuming and tedious and if you copy the formula down to
other cells, it will give incorrect results.

Using the Point and Click Method

A much better way to create a formula is to use the point and click
method. This is where you click the cell you want to include in the
formula. To do this:

1) Select the cell where you want the formula to be in. In this
example, I select cell F2.

2) Type an equal’s sign (=).

3) Select the first cell you want to include in your formula. In

this example, I clicked on cell B2.

4) Enter the mathematical operator to perform your calculation.

In this example, I want to add all the sales figures in each
quarter, so I enter a plus sign (+).

5) Select the second cell to include in your calculation. In this

example, I clicked on cell C2.

6) Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have included all the cells you
need in the formula.

7) Click the Enter button on your keyboard to return the answer.

Using Excel Functions

Another good method to create formulas is to use the in-built Excel

functions. As mentioned earlier, each function performs different
calculations. For this example, I will use the SUM function which sums
values in cells. To use the SUM function, follow these steps.

1) Select the cell where you want the formula to be in. In this
example, I select cell F2.

2) Type an equal’s sign (=).

3) Start to enter the name of the function. Excel will show a list
of all the functions available when you start to enter the first
few characters of the function name. When you have found
the function in the list, select it, and then press the Tab key on
your keyboard. This will place an open bracket after the
function name.

4) Select the cells you want to include in the formula. In this

example, I select the range B2:E2.

5) Press the Enter key on your keyboard. This will automatically

enter the closed bracket after the formula.

Copying Formulas Down

Once you have created a formula in a cell, you may need to copy the
formula down the column. I will show you four ways you can easily
copy a formula down. These are:

1) Using the fill handle.

2) Double-clicking the plus sign.

3) Copy and paste.

4) Pressing the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + D.

Using the Fill Handle

To use the fill handle to copy a formula down, place the mouse curser
at the lower right-hand corner of the cell where the formula is. The
curser will change to a plus sign (+). Left click the plus sign and then
drag the mouse down to the last row of where you want the formula to
be. Let go of the mouse button and the cells will fill with a copy of the
original formula. The fill handle is explained in more detail in chapter
2.

Double-Clicking the Plus Sign

The first method is great when there are only a few rows to copy down.
What if you want to copy the formula down a thousand or more rows?
Using the first method, is not only time consuming but is also very
tedious. Fortunately, with this second method of double-clicking the
plus sign, you can copy formulas down thousands of rows very quickly.

To do this, place the mouse curser at the lower right-hand corner of

the cell where the formula is. The curser will change to a plus sign (+)
and then just double click the plus sign with the left mouse button.
This will copy the formula down as far as Excel sees data to the left.
The fill will stop when Excel sees that you have no headers of data to
the left.

Copy and Paste

If you want more flexibility in copying formulas down such as wanting
to copy beyond the last row of the data, then use copy and paste. Copy
and paste is explained in more detail in chapter 6. This includes how
to copy and paste using the ribbon, mouse, or keyboard shortcut. To
copy and paste a formula, follow these steps.

1) Select the cell where the formula is.

2) Copy the formula by clicking either the Copy button in the

Home tab of the ribbon, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C or
right clicking the mouse and selecting Copy from the menu.
3) Select all the cells to which you want to copy the formula.

4) Click the Paste button in the Home tab of the ribbon or

press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + V to paste the formulas to
the selected cells.

Pressing the Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl + D

The final way to copy formulas down is to use the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl + D. To do this, select the cell that includes the formula and all
the cells underneath where you want to copy the formula down to.
Then press Ctrl + D on your keyboard. The formula is instantly copied
down to the selected cells. Note that any formatting applied such as
borders, font or fill colour will also be copied.

Editing a Formula
Once you have created a formula, you can edit it later. There are three
main ways to edit a formula. These are:

1) Press the F2 key – Select the cell that contains the formula
you want to edit and then press the F2 key on your keyboard.

2) Edit directly in the Formula Bar - Select the cell that

contains the formula you want to edit. Click in the Formula Bar
and you can start to edit the formula there.

3) Double-click the formula cell – You can edit the formula

directly in the cell it’s in by double-clicking it.

All three methods will make Excel go into Edit mode and will say Edit
in the bottom left of the window.

Let’s now look at an example of how to edit a formula. I will use the
same dataset as the one I used to explain how to create basic formulas.
In the screenshot above, I want to add up all the sales in each quarter
for Jason. The formula in cell F2 is incorrect however, because I
mistakenly included the Q4 sales for Lisa in cell E3 instead of clicking
on cell E2. Below is how to fix this formula.

1) Select the cell that contains the formula. In this example, I

select cell F2.
 2) Use one of the three methods mentioned above to edit the
formula. Different coloured borders will appear around the
cells that are included in the formula.

3) Now you can edit the formula. In this example, I have

changed the last cell from E3 to E2.

4) Press the Enter key on your keyboard. The correct result is

now displayed in cell F2.

Absolute and Relative Cell References

When you are creating formulas in Excel, you need to be aware of two
types of cell references. These are relative and absolute cell
references. Both these cell references behave differently when copied
and filled to other cells. The key difference between the two is that
relative cell references change when a formula is copied to another
cell. Absolute cell references remain constant no matter where they
are copied.

Relative Cell References

All cell references by default are relative. When a formula is copied
across multiple cells, they change based on the relative position of
rows and columns. For example, if there is a formula in cell C1 which
says =A1*B1 and you copy this down to the second row, the formula
will become =A2*B2. If it is copied down to the third row, it will
become =A3*B3 and so on. Relative cell references are great when you
need to repeat the same calculation across multiple rows and columns.

Now let’s look at an example to see how this works.

The dataset above shows the quantity of products sold at a hardware

store along with the price per product. In column D, I will enter a
formula to get the total sales. The formula to be applied is price
multiplied by the quantity.
1) I first entered the formula = B2*C2 in cell D2 and then
pressed Enter on my keyboard to return the result.

2) I then copied the formula down. If you are unsure on how to

do this, then please see the section ‘Copying Formulas Down’
earlier in this chapter.

3) The formulas contain relative cell references, and the values

are calculated in each cell. To check for accuracy, I double-
clicked cell D4. The formula in this cell is =B4*C4. This is
correct because the formula is contained in row 4 and the cells
B4 and C4 refer to row 4.
Absolute Cell References
There will be occasions when you do not want a cell reference to
change when copying formulas to other cells. Absolute cell references
do not change when copied to other cells. You use an absolute cell
reference when you want to keep a row and or column constant.

You use a dollar sign ($) before the column and row to make it
absolute. If the dollar sign precedes the column or row but not both,
then it is called a mixed reference. Here are some examples of absolute
and mixed references:

$A$1 – The column and row does not change when copied.
This is an absolute cell reference.

A$1 – The row does not change when copied. This is a mixed
cell reference.

$A1 – The column does not change when copied. This is a

mixed cell reference.

Mixed cell references in formulas are less frequently used than relative
and absolute references.
Tip: You do not need to manually type the dollar sign ($) before the
column or row. A much quicker way is to press the F4 key when
writing the formula. When you keep on pressing the F4 key, it will
switch between relative, mixed, and absolute cell references.

Now let’s look at an example of how to use absolute cell references.

In the above dataset there is a list of Salespeople with their sales in

column B. I want to enter a formula in column C to apply a
commission based on the commission rate in cell F1. To ensure the
commission rate stays constant when the formula is copied down, I
need to make cell F1 an absolute reference by putting dollar signs
before the column and row like this $F$1. To calculate the commission
earned, I need to multiply the sales in column B by the commission
rate in cell F1. Here are the steps to do this.

1) I first enter the formula =B2*$F$1 in cell C2 and then pressed

Enter on my keyboard to return the result.
2) I then copied the formula down column C.

3) The formulas in each cell contain the absolute cell reference

$F$1. The sales in column B are relative to the cells row. In
the screenshot below, I double-clicked cell C5 to check the
formula is correct. This is correct because the formula
contains the absolute cell reference $F$1 and the sales in
column B is relative to row 5.
It is extremely important to ensure your formulas contain absolute cell
references when they should. If they don’t, then the formula will give
incorrect results.

In the screenshot above, I made cell F1 relative and then when I copied
the formula down, it gave incorrect results. When I clicked on cell C5,
you can see that the formula is multiplying the sales in B5 by cell F4
which contains no values, hence it returns $0.00.

AutoSum Function to Quickly Sum Values

The AutoSum function is a very useful tool if you want to quickly sum
numbers in your worksheet. It will automatically create a formula to
sum all the numbers in a continuous range. Instead of having to type
=SUM( and then select the cells to include in the formula, the
AutoSum function will do this for you automatically. The AutoSum
will add numbers either vertically or horizontally.

There are three ways to access the AutoSum function.

1. In the Home tab of the ribbon

From the ribbon, click on the Home tab and under the Editing
group, click the Sum button which looks like a big E. You can also
click the drop-down arrow on the right of the button where a menu
will appear. The AutoSum option will be there as well as other
functions such as Average, Count, Max, and Min.

1. In the Formulas tab of the ribbon

The AutoSum button is also located in the Formula tab of the ribbon
under the Function Library group. Again, you can click the drop-
down arrow and a list of other functions will also appear.

1. Using the keyboard shortcut

You can press the keyboard shortcut Alt +.

How to use AutoSum

Here are the steps to use the AutoSum function in your worksheet to
sum values.

1) Select a cell below the column of values you want to sum. If

you want to sum a row of values, then select a cell to the right
of the row of values.

2) Use one of the three methods mentioned above to access the

AutoSum function. In the screenshot below, it has
automatically created a SUM formula in cell A8 and included
the numbers in the range A1:A7.

3) Press the Enter key on your keyboard to return the answer.

As already mentioned, AutoSum can also sum vertically. In the
screenshot below, it has automatically summed the values in A1:F1 in
cell H1.
 Chapter 8: Creating Charts
When you have a large dataset, it is very hard to visualise patterns and
trends just by looking at it. This is where charts come into play as you
can easily visualise data in a clear and easy to understand way. In this
chapter, you will find step by step instructions on how to create a
simple chart, and then format it to your needs.

Selecting the Data for the Chart

The first thing you need to do is to select the data. The data can be
inputted by yourself, or you could have exported it from another
system. For this example, I will use the above dataset which shows the
number of products sold in a computer shop in January to April. You
will need to highlight the whole dataset, including the headers. In this
example, I select the range A1:E7.

Choosing a Chart
Excel has a wide variety of charts to choose from. It is important to
choose the chart that will present the data in the best possible way.
Below are the most common charts you can choose from in Excel.
Column Charts
Column charts have vertical bars to present the data. They are very
versatile and can be used for most types of data.

Bar Charts
Bar charts are like column charts, but the bars are displayed
horizontally rather than vertically.

Surface Charts
Surface charts are useful for when you have a large dataset. They are
particularly helpful when you want to find the optimum combinations
between two data sets.

Line Charts
Line charts are best used when you want to analyse trends. The lines
are connected to the data points so you can easily see if the trend is
going up or down.

Area Charts
Area charts are like line charts. The difference between the two is that
the area under the lines is filled.

Combo Charts
Combo charts are good to use if you have a dataset arranged in
columns and rows. Combo charts are like combining two charts into
one, hence the name.
Pie Charts
Pie charts are often used when you want to compare portions. Each
value is shown as a slice of a pie. If you have data which is arranged in
a row or column then a pie chart will be a good option.

Scatter Charts
Scatter charts are typically used for scientific, statistical, and
engineering data to show and compare numeric values. Data that’s
arranged in columns and rows can be plotted in a scatter chart.

Radar Charts
Radar charts compare the aggregate values of several data points. If
data is arranged in columns and rows, then you can use a radar chart.

Stock Charts
Stock charts can show fluctuations in data such as stock prices, daily
rainfall, or annual temperature. You must ensure the data is organised
in the right order and arranged in columns and rows to use this chart.

You can access all the charts from the ribbon in the Insert tab under
the Charts group. From here you can select the desired chart.
For the above dataset, I want to use a Clustered Column chart, so I
clicked on the Insert Column or Bar Chart button and then from
the menu chose the 2-D Clustered Column Chart. The chart is then
embedded into the worksheet.

How to Switch the Data on each Axis

If you want to switch the data on the X and Y axis, then click on the
chart and then the Chart Design tab in the ribbon. Under the Data
group, click on the Switch Row/Column button. This will rearrange
what axes carry which pieces of data. As you can see from the above
screenshot, the months are now on the x axis whereas before it was the
products. I prefer to have the products on the x axis so I will press the
Switch Row/Column button again to change it back.

Formatting the Chart

Now that you have created a chart, the next thing to do is to format it
to make it look more visually appealing. You can add a chart and axis
titles, change the colour of the bars, change the chart style and much
more. Excel has many different formatting options to tailor the chart
to your needs. Most of the formatting can be done from the Chart
Elements button which is activated when you click on the chart. The
Chart Elements button is on the right of the chart and has a plus sign
(+) in it. When you click this button, you will see various formatting
options which you can turn on and off by checking or unchecking the
appropriate boxes.
Changing the Chart Title

When you have created a chart, you will notice Excel gives a default
name of ‘Chart Title’. You can write a more descriptive title which
describes what the chart is showing. Changing the chart title is easy.
Simply click the chart title until you see a curser. You can then freely
type a new name for the chart. In this example, I have renamed the
title ‘Number of Products Sold by Month’.

If you do not want a chart title, then click on the chart. Three icons will
appear on the right. Click the top one which is the Chart Elements
button and then uncheck Chart Title.
Adding Axis Titles

By default, your chart will not have x and y axis titles. You can however
add them to your chart. The axis titles give your axis a descriptive
name. To add axis titles, click the chart and then the Chart Elements
button. Next, check the Axis Titles. The x and y axis titles will appear.
They will have a default name of ‘Axis Title’. To change the name, click
the axis title until you see a curser. You can then type a new axis name.
In this example, I have named the x axis ‘Products’ and the y axis
‘Number Sold’.

Changing Chart Style

You can quickly and easily format your chart using one of Excels pre-
formatted templates. Each chart style has their own font style, font
size, and colour. Data labels may also be displayed, depending on what
chart style you have chosen. To access the templates, click the chart
and then the Chart Design tab in the ribbon. Under the Chart
Styles group you can click on any of the templates. If you want access
to more templates, then click on the down arrow in the bottom right of
the Chart Styles group. In this example, I am going to choose the Style
6 design.

Another way you can access the chart styles is by clicking the chart and
then pressing the Chart Styles button. This is located under the
Chart Elements button and has a paintbrush in it.
Changing the Colour Scheme

Another formatting option available is to change the colour scheme of

the chart. To do this, click the chart to activate it and then the Chart
Styles button. Click the Color tab and a list of colour schemes will be
displayed. You can choose from a variety of colourful and
monochromatic colour schemes.
Changing the Position of the Legend

By default, the legend will appear at the bottom of the chart. You can,
however, change the position of it. To change the position of the
legend, click the chart to activate it. Click the Chart Elements button
and then click the arrow pointing to the right next to Legend. Another
menu will appear where you can choose where the legend will be
positioned. I prefer the legend to be at the top of the chart, so I
selected Top.
Adding Data Labels

If the chart style you have chosen doesn’t display any data labels, then
you can add these to your chart. To do this, click the chart and then the
Chart Elements button. Check the Data Labels box and then click
the arrow to the right of Data Labels. You can then select where the
data labels will be positioned in the chart. In this example, I have
selected Outside End.
Changing the Y-Axis Measurement

You may want to change the y axis measurement to scale your chart.
Excel will automatically apply the best axis options for the chart, but
you may want to change this manually. To change the y axis
measurement, right-click the y axis and then from the menu select
Format Axis.
The Format Axis options will appear on the right of the window.
Here you can change the minimum and maximum value of the y axis
as well as how many units the y axis goes up by.

Resizing the Chart

You can easily resize the chart by using the size handles on each side of
the chart to make it larger or smaller. To make the size handles
appear, you first need to click the chart to activate it. Click and drag
the size handle up or down with your mouse on the top or bottom edge
to make the chart taller or shorter. Click and drag the size handle on
either side of the chart left or right with your mouse to make it wider
or narrower. You can also resize the chart using the size handles in the
corners.

How to Change the Chart Type

Once you have created your chart, you can change the chart type
without having to create a brand-new one. When you change the chart
type, all the data, formatting, the chart title, and axis titles will remain.
To change the chart type, follow these steps.

1) Right-click the chart and select Change Chart Type from

the menu.
2) The Change Chart Type dialog box will appear. From here,
you can select a new chart from the left-hand pane. Once a
new chart has been selected, you can then select the type of
chart you want and whether it is 2D or 3D from the options at
the top of the dialog box. Once done, press the OK button.
3) In this example, I have chosen the Bar chart. Notice all the
formatting, data, chart title and axis titles remain.
Chapter 9: Creating and Using
Tables
A table is a powerful tool that will group your data together. It is a
specific set of rows and columns in a worksheet. You can have multiple
tables in the same worksheet. When there is data in a worksheet, you
may think it is already in a table because it is grouped in rows and
columns. However, this is not a true table unless you use the Excel
table feature. In this chapter, you will learn how to create a basic table
and use all its features too.

How to Create a Basic Excel Table

The above dataset shows a list of students at school along with the
subjects they have studied and their grades. I want to convert this
dataset into a table. To do this, follow these steps.

1) Select any cell in the dataset.

2) From the ribbon, select the Insert tab and under the Tables
group, click the Table button.
3) The Create Table dialog box will appear. Excel will usually
display the correct data range in the field. If it doesn’t, then
just select the data range and then press the OK button. If
your dataset already has headers, then ensure the My table
has headers checkbox is checked. If this is unchecked and
the data does have headers, then Excel will assign them by
default as Column 1, Column 2 and so on. In my example, the
dataset has headers, so I have kept this option checked.

4) Excel has now converted the dataset into an Excel table.

Notice the formatting has changed so you know the dataset is
now a table.
Customising the Excel Table
Now that you have created a table, you can customise it to your needs.
Select any cell in the table and you will see the Table Design tab
appear in the ribbon. When you click the tab, you will get various
options to choose from.

Adding a Table Name

Excel will give a default name to your table as Table 1, Table 2 and so
on. It is good practice to give your table a more meaningful name. To
do this, follow these steps.

1) Click anywhere inside the table and then select the Table
Design tab.

2) In the Table Name field under the Properties group, enter

the name you want to use. In this example, I entered “Data” as
my table name.
Show or Hide Rows, Columns, and Buttons

In the Table Design tab, under the Table Style Options group,
you will see various options to show or hide rows, columns, and
buttons. Just check any of the options you want to show or uncheck
the ones you want to hide in the table.

Change Table Styles

When you convert your dataset into an Excel table, it will apply a
default table style. You can keep this table style or choose another one.
In the Table Design tab, under the Table Style group, you can
select from a variety of different table styles. Click on the down arrow
on the bottom right and Excel will display all the table styles for you to
choose from.

Convert the Excel Table back to a Range

If you decide you no longer want to use the table you have created, you
can convert it back to a range of cells. To do this, follow these steps.

1) Select any cell in the table.

2) Click the Table Design tab in the ribbon and under the
Tools group, click the Convert to Range button.

3) A message box will appear asking if you are sure you want to
convert the table to a normal range. Click on the Yes button.
The table will now be converted back to a range of cells.

The Benefits of Using an Excel Table

There are many benefits of using an Excel table. The main benefits are
mentioned below.

1) Table headers remain visible when scrolling down

You do not have to freeze panes in a table as Excel will recognise
that the top row is a header. In the screenshot below, I have
scrolled down but the headers remain visible.
2) Tables automatically resize when you add more data
Whenever you add more data to the dataset, the Excel table will
resize automatically. The table name will include the new data
without having to rename the table again. This is especially
useful when a pivot table or chart is referencing the table. This
means that you do not have to keep on specifying the new data
range whenever new rows or columns are added to the table.

3) Formulas are automatically copied down when you

add more data If a table contains formulas and you insert new
rows of data in the table, the formulas will automatically be
copied down. You do not have to copy the formulas down
manually.

4) Tables automatically name ranges

When you create a table, it automatically creates names for each
column. You can then use these names in your formulas instead
of cell references. This makes your formulas easier to understand
and you will be able to see what columns the formulas refer to.

5) You can format tables easily

As already mentioned, you can very easily change the formatting
of a table with just a few clicks of the mouse from the Table
Design tab using the different table style options.

6) Filters are automatically inserted when you create a

table
This is not a huge benefit but even so, it saves you from having to
insert filters manually.
You can now see the huge benefits of using Excel tables and how
flexible and dynamic they are. You should use them as often as you can
to make your life easier.
 Chapter 10: 82 Keyboard
Shortcuts you Must Know
One of the essential skills you must possess when using Excel is to
know and use keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts will not only
save you lots of time, but it will also increase your productivity too.
There are over 500 keyboard shortcuts that are available in Excel,
however, you will not need to know every one of them. Below I have
listed 82 of the most important and useful shortcuts you need to know
which can be learnt very easily.

If you want to view all available keyboard shortcuts, then press the Alt
key on your keyboard. Excel will display the keys to use to open a tab
from the ribbon. Once you have pressed a key to open the tab, Excel
will display further keys you can select to open further commands
within that tab.
Basic Keyboard Shortcuts
Formatting Keyboard Shortcuts
Insert, Delete and Layout Keyboard Shortcuts
Functions and Data Keyboard Shortcuts
 About the Author

Harjit Suman is an Excel and VBA consultant. He has over 10 years’

experience in Excel and VBA and has written a range of books,
including Amazon best sellers, to pass on his knowledge of Excel to
others. He has also provided Excel and VBA consultancy services to
small and medium sized companies. An Analyst in a large global
organisation, he enjoys playing lots of sports and in particular tennis
and football.

Harjit is also the founder and owner of the Excel Master Consultant
website which offers information on everything about Excel. In his
website you will find:

Lots of free Excel tutorials and blogs to expand your Excel

knowledge.
Online Excel and VBA courses you can buy.
An online shop where you can buy Excel books in paperback,
Kindle, and eBook formats.
To check out his website just click the link below:

www.excelmasterconsultant.com/
Please take a visit and drop him a message. He would love to hear
from you.
More Books by Harjit Suman

Available to buy on Amazon now!

Amazon UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08C4KVFX3

Amazon US: www.amazon.com/dp/B08C4KVFX3
Amazon UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0868RV3D5
Amazon US: www.amazon.com/dp/B0868RV3D5
 PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW

What did you think of this

book?
First of all, thank you for purchasing this book. I know you could have
picked any number of Excel books to read, but you picked this book
and for that I am extremely grateful.

I hope that it has improved your Excel skills and you can now
confidently use Excel for work and personal use. If so, I would be
really grateful if you could share your experience of reading this book
with your friends and family by posting to Facebook and Twitter.

If you enjoyed this book, I’d like to hear from you and hope that you
could take some time to post a review on Amazon. Your feedback
and support will help me to greatly improve my writing craft for future
projects and make this book even better. You can leave a review by
clicking either of the links below.

Amazon UK:
Leave a review on Amazon UK here

Amazon US:
Leave a review on Amazon US here
Your feedback is very important to me and I would be very grateful for
your review.

I wish you all the best in your future success and happy Excel learning!

Thank you

Harjit