Ensure cleaner input dates with conditional formatting [quick tip]
Here is a familiar problem: You create a workbook to track some data. You ask your staff to fill up the data. Almost all the
Hello, Namaste & Kia Ora. Welcome to Chandoo.org.
My name is Chandoo. My mission is to make you awesome in Excel and Power BI.
I do this by sharing Excel & Power BI tutorials, examples, tips, videos and articles on this website. I live in Wellington, New Zealand with my beautiful wife Jo & our twins Nishanth & Nakshatra. Take a minute to browse various topics of the site to see how I can help you.
Thank you and welcome.
Here is a familiar problem: You create a workbook to track some data. You ask your staff to fill up the data. Almost all the
I am in Sydney and yesterday we had a meetup of Sydney Excel users. Around 15 people turned up for the event and we talked about various Excel related topics over few drinks. One of the questions that came up was,
I learn and use Excel in better ways. But my boss doesn’t how to open the workbook and use simple stuff like filters, slicers, sorting and selecting. So I end up sending screenshots or PDFs instead of powerful Excel files. What to do?
Although we discussed various possible solutions to the problem, I thought it would be a good topic for us discuss here.
So how would you train your boss to use Excel?
Please share your thoughts, experiments, experiences and suggestions in the comments. Let’s make our bosses awesome.
Here is a fairly annoying problem.
Imagine a chart showing both sales & customer data. Sales numbers are large and customer numbers are small. So when you make a chart with both of these, selecting the smaller series (customers) becomes very difficult.
In such cases, you can use arrow keys – as shown above.
Note: This is a not an Excel tips post. It is a dairy of one of the most awesome conferences I have ever attended.
I just finished attending PASS Business Analytics conference in Santa Clara (USA) and am now heading back home to India. And it has been one of the most fun, uplifting and educational experiences of my life. I met so many remarkable people in this trip.
Read on for some pics & gossip.
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In the 34th session of Chandoo.org podcast, Let’s hear from Jordan Goldmeier – my friend, fellow blogger, Excel blogger & author. After many years of interaction thru email, blogs, Skype calls, finally I met him at PASS BA conference at Santa Clara this week. He gave me a copy of his new book – Advanced Excel Essentials and I immediately asked him to do a podcast. So here we go.
In this podcast,
True story:
On Friday (17th April – 2015), I flew from Vizag (my town) to Hyderabad so that I can catch a flight to San Francisco to attend a conference. As I had 10 hours of overlay between the flights in Hyderabad, I checked in to a lounge area so that I can watch some sports, eat food while pretending to do work on my laptop. There was a gentleman sitting in adjacent space doing some work in Excel. As I began to compose few emails, the gentleman in next sitting space asked me what I do for living. Our conversation went like this.
Me: I run a software company
He: Oh, so you must be good with computers
Me: smiles and cringes at the stereotyping
He: What is the formula to select all the blank cells in my Excel data and highlight them in Yellow color
Mind you, he had no idea that I work in Excel. We were 2 random guys in airport lounge watching sports and eating miserable food.
Me: Well, what are you trying to do?
He: You see, I am auditing this data. I need to locate all the blank rows and set them in different color so that my staff can fill up missing information. Right now, I am selecting one row at a time and filling the colors. Is there a one step solution to this problem?
Needless to say, I showed him how to do it faster, which led to an interesting 3 hours at the lounge.
End of true story.
So today, let’s understand how to find & highlight all the blank cells in the data.
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.
Imagine you are looking at a pivot table like above.
And you want to insert a column or row. Go ahead and try it.
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.
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.
for more videos…
BeginnerTables & Structural Referencing
Cell referencing
Excel operators
IF
IntermediateSUMIFS, COUNTIFS
XLOOKUP NEW
VLOOKUP
INDEX + MATCH lookups
AdvancedMulti-condition lookups
Array Formulas
OFFSET
INDEX
Lists100+ Excel Formulas list
Top 10 formulas
15 Everyday formulas
Challenges & Home workExcel Homework
BeginnerExcel Pivot Table Tutorial
Multi-table pivots with data model
Advanced
Advanced Pivot Tables
Distinct count in Pivots
Ranking values in Pivots
GETPIVOTDATA
How to use slicers
Lists35 shortcuts & tricks for data analysis
Top 10 pivot table tricks
15 quick & powerful ways to analyze business data
ResourcePivot Tables Page
BasicsHow to pick right charts
Why bar charts should start at 0
Add a line to column chart
Correlation vs. Causation
ExamplesHand-drawn charts
Budget vs. Actual chart
Interactive charts
Chart typesHistograms & Pareto charts
Forecasting with charts
Gantt chart
Funnel chart
5 star chart
Indexed charts
Panel charts - Small multiples
AdvancedTarget vs. Actual progress - Biker on a hill chart
Stacked chart with indicators
Cropped chart - when some values are too big
Jitter plot
Joy plot
Step chart
Dynamic chart with check boxes
Lists & TricksCharting shortcuts & tricks
Using shapes in charts
Awesome chart titles with this trick
Use chart themes and styles
Use selection pane to work with charts faster
If you are new to Excel or have never used it, use below links to come up to speed.
Work with Excel a lot and know your game well? We have some very-advanced topics for you too.
Check out:
Excel challenges
Advanced Charting
Data Tables & Simulations
Power BI
Power BI is the most exciting thing to happen for your data since spreadsheets. If you are looking for a new skill to learn this year, I highly recommend Power BI. Check out below tutorials and get started today.
Learn how to work with data, make calculations, pivots, create amazing charts and powerful dashboards from scratch using Excel School + Dashboards program. Suitable for analysts, managers or professionals who need to use Excel often.
Use VBA to automate your tasks and build powerful spreadsheet based apps. In this course, learn all about how to program with VBA, how to use the language and object model to your advantage. Suitable for people who build a lot of things with Excel.
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