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

Unpivoting data

Unpivoting data is sometimes referred to as flattening the data, which means that all similar values appear in columns instead of rows. For instance, the Profit & Loss By Class report that I exported from QuickBooks Desktop, shown in Figure 12.24, spans 123 columns, running from column A to column DS. It’s hard to do much with a report like that since the data is so broadly dispersed. Let’s use Power Query in Excel for Windows or macOS to transpose 123 columns of data into three. Once again, I’ll move faster by not renaming anything in the Applied Steps list:

Figure 12.24 – Data to be unpivoted

  1. Press Ctrl + N ( + N) to create a blank workbook (or choose File | New and choose Blank Workbook).
  2. Click Data | Get Data | From File | From Excel Workbook, select Chapter 12 – Unpivoting Data.xlsx, and then click Import.
  3. Select Sheet1 from the list and then click Transform Data.
  4. Click Column1 and...