Book Image

Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures

By : David Ringstrom
Book Image

Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures

By: David Ringstrom

Overview of this book

David Ringstrom coined the phrase “Either you work Excel, or it works you!” after observing how many users carry out tasks inefficiently. In this book, you’ll learn how to get more done with less effort. This book will enable you to create resilient spreadsheets that are easy for others to use as well, while incorporating spreadsheet disaster preparedness techniques. The time-saving techniques covered in the book include creating custom shortcuts and icons to streamline repetitive tasks, as well as automating them with features such as Tables and Custom Views. You’ll see how Conditional Formatting enables you to apply colors, Cell icons, and other formatting on-demand as your data changes. You’ll be empowered to protect the integrity of spreadsheets and increase usability by implementing internal controls, and understand how to solve problems with What-If Analysis features. In addition, you’ll master new features and functions such as XLOOKUP, Dynamic Array functions, LET and LAMBDA, and Power Query, while learning how to leverage shortcuts and nuances in Excel. By the end of this book, you’ll have a broader awareness of how to avoid pitfalls in Excel. You’ll be empowered to work more effectively in Excel, having gained a deeper understanding of the frustrating oddities that can arise daily in Excel.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Improving Accessibility
6
Part 2:Spreadsheet Interactivity and Automation
12
Part 3: Data Analysis

Introducing Power Query

Each time you use Power Query, you will work through a series of at least three, and sometimes as many as five, phases:

  • Connecting: Power Query enables you to connect to a variety of data sources, including worksheet ranges, workbooks, text files, PDF files, and databases.

Nuance

Any worksheet ranges that you connect to within an Excel workbook will automatically be converted into Tables.

  • Transforming: The Power Query Editor enables you to shape your data, much like a potter shapes a lump of clay, but in this case, you can opt to remove unnecessary rows and columns, add columns, separate data from a single column into two or more columns, and much more.
  • Combining: The optional combining phase enables you to stack different datasets together, such as combining individual worksheets from a workbook into a single list or merging data, which is akin to using lookup formulas in Excel to match related data from a second list into list...