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

Extracting data from PDF files

Some users purchase third-party software to extract data from PDF files due to a lack of better alternatives. PDF stands for Portable Document Format, a product of Adobe Corporation. PDF files are cross-platform compatible, and can be opened on any device. Extracting data from PDF files with Power Query requires Excel 2021 or Microsoft 365. The steps in this section cannot be carried out in Excel 2019 or earlier. At the time of writing, Excel for macOS does not support extracting data from PDF files.

Tip

Word 2013 and later allows you to open and edit most PDF files if your version of Excel doesn’t allow extracting data with Power Query. Open a PDF file in Word the same way you would open a Word document, and then copy and paste the results over to Excel. Some PDF documents will transfer cleanly, while others will be a jumbled mess.

Any software that extracts data from PDF files uses optical character recognition, so somtimes your data...