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

The Data Table feature

Data Tables allow you to swap one or more inputs through a formula to return an array of results. I’m going to walk you through three different variations for calculating loan payments:

  • Using one input with five interest rates
  • Using two inputs, five interest rates, and five loan lengths
  • Using three inputs with five interest rates, five loan lengths, and five loan amounts

The common factor between all three is that we’ll start by calculating a loan payment in the fashion that I described in the PMT function. The PMT function will anchor all three of the Data Tables that we’ll work through.

Creating a Data Table with one input

Cells D2:D4 of the Data Table-One Input worksheet in this chapter’s example workbook are the inputs used by the =-PMT(D2/12,D3*12,D4) formula in cell D6, which returns $2,176.03 as the payment amount for a 30-year loan of $500,000 with a 3.25% interest rate. Let’s say that interest...