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

Icon Sets

Icon Sets, also known as Cell Icons, are in-cell graphical indicators that provide a sense of scale or value relative to other numbers in your list. As with Data Bars, you can choose to show numbers and icons in the same cell or hide the numbers and only show the icons. By default, Icon Sets group amounts based upon percentages, but you can edit the rule to use percentiles instead. Here are the default percentages that Excel uses and how they’re calculated:

  • 67th percent: This calculation takes the form smallest value from the list plus .67 multiplied by (largest value minus smallest value). This is illustrated by the formula =MIN(D8:D27)+0.67*(MAX(D8:D27)-MIN(D8:D27)) in cell C2 of the Cell Icons – Percent worksheet. The MIN function returns the smallest value in a range, while the MAX function returns the largest. As shown in cell D2, this calculates as 72.03%, which means any amounts that are greater than the largest value in the list multiplied by...