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

Conditional Formatting

In this chapter, I’ll show you the wonders of Excel’s Conditional Formatting feature that can help you enliven your data with color, charts, or icons. You can, of course, use all three at once, but usually, less is more when it comes to data visualization. Conditional Formatting is a live overlay for worksheet cells that dynamically applies formatting such as font color, cell color, borders, and number formatting, based upon the cell contents matching specific criteria. The built-in Conditional Formatting rules eliminate the need to manually color-code data, and you can extend this functionality in limitless ways by crafting custom rules. Along the way, I’ll point out nuances that frustrate even the most experienced spreadsheet users.

In this chapter, I’ll cover the following:

  • Formatting versus Conditional Formatting
  • Highlight Cell Rules
  • Top and Bottom Rules
  • Data Bars
  • Color Scales
  • Icon Sets
  • Wingdings...