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

Projecting amounts with the Forecast Sheet feature

The Forecast Sheet feature is available in Excel 2016 or later for Windows. You can use it with data that comprises dates/times and values, as shown in Figure 6.20. Let’s assume that we want to protect this data through the end of 2024:

Figure 6.20 – The source data for a forecast

Nuance

The Forecast Feature adds a new worksheet to your workbook that uses the FORECAST.ETS and FORECAST.ETS.CONFINT worksheet functions to project your amounts. You can share a forecast with someone using Excel 2013 or earlier for viewing. The catch is that any edits to the workbook could cause the forecast functions to recalculate. In that event, the forecasted amounts will return #NAME? because older versions of Excel cannot recognize those worksheet functions.

Now, let’s give the Forecast Sheet feature a try:

  1. Select any cell within your date-based or time-based data, such as cell B4 on...