What is the coolest thing you made with Excel? [weekend poll]
It is almost weekend. I am sure most of you have plans (if you are USA, wish you happy 4th of July). As for me, I am going on a 80KM (50 mile) bicycle trip to a nearby lake to watch birds on Saturday morning. On Sunday, we (kids & I) are planning to make a scrapbook from our Australian experiences.
So let me keep this nice & simple.
What is the coolest thing you made with Excel?
Go ahead and share your answers in the comments area.
15 Quick & powerful ways to analyze business data
Here is a situation all too familiar.
You are looking at a spreadsheet full of data. You need to analyze and tell a story about it. You have little time. You don’t know where to start.
Today let me share 15 quick, simple & very powerful ways to analyze business data. Ready? Let’s get started.
Introduction to Slicers – What are they, how to use them, tips, advanced techniques & interactive reports using Excel Slicers
Slicers are one of my favorite feature in Excel. And here is a quick demo to show why they are my favorite.
Slicers – what are they?
Slicers are visual filters. Using a slicer, you can filter your data (or pivot table, pivot chart) by clicking on the type of data you want.
For example, let’s say you are looking at sales by customer profession in a pivot report. And you want to see how the sales are for a particular region. There are 2 options for you do drill down to an individual region level.
- Add region as report filter and filter for the region you want.
- Add a slicer on region and click on the region you want.
With a report filter (or any other filter), you will have to click several times to pick one store. With slicers, it is a matter of simple click.
Read more to learn all about slicers
Use Paste Special to multiply (or add, divide etc.) a range with a variable [quick tip]
Here is a fun way to use Paste Special to quickly multiply everything in a range with 1.1 (why 1.1? Well, imagine you have a report with everything in US $s and your boss wants to see the numbers in Australian $s…)
Since your report has different formulas for each cell, you can’t multiply first cell with a rate variable and drag it down. You have to manually edit each formula and add *rate at the end of it.
Oh wait…, you can use Paste Special.
How to insert a blank column in pivot table?
We all know pivot table functionality is a powerful & useful feature. But it comes with some quirks. For example, we cant insert a blank row or column inside pivot tables.
So today let me share a few ideas on how you can insert a blank column.
But first let’s try inserting a column
Imagine you are looking at a pivot table like above.
And you want to insert a column or row. Go ahead and try it.
Excel Links – PASS BA 2015 Edition
In about 3 days, I am leaving to USA for participating in PASS Business Analytics conference – 2015. It is an annual event for people in analytics profession. This is the first time I am attending & speaking at the event. I am so excited for many reasons.
- I will be meeting many Excel bloggers, authors & internet friends for the first time
- I will be meeting many of you (readers, listeners, followers & customers of Chandoo.org) too
- I will be speaking at an awesome conference
- I will be visiting San Francisco for the first time in life
- I will be meeting a few college friends too
All this excitement means, I have too much going on. But that shouldn’t leave you out . So here are a few awesome Excel links for you. Check out and learn.
Formatting shortcuts for keyboard junkies
A lot of analysts swear strong allegiance to keyboard shortcuts. But when it comes to formatting a spreadsheet, these shortcuts go for a toss as formatting is a mouse-heavy activity.
But we can use a few simple & effective shortcuts to zip through various day to day formatting tasks. Let me share my favorite formatting shortcuts.