Clean up Incorrectly Formatted Phone Numbers using Excel

In our Utopian imaginations all the data would have been standardized and shareable across systems and people. But alas, the reality is totally different. We seldom get data in the format / way we desire it to be. In other words, the ingredients are all there, but for us to prepare the dinner, you must […]

Changing Sort Orientation in Excel – Sorting across columns instead of rows

change-sort-orientation-excel-columns You can sort data across columns instead of rows by changing sort options. If you ever had to sort across columns now you know a simple way to do this 🙂 Follow these steps for changing sort orientation: Select the table you want to sort (just the data, not the headers as when you […]

Skip weekends while autofilling dates in excel

Often you may want to fill a column only with weekday dates instead of all dates. Here is a simple trick you can use instead of writing nifty if formulas or manually entering the weekday dates. When you auto fill dates by dragging mouse (or using menu > edit > fill > series > selecting […]

Quickly display unique items in an excel list using advanced filters

Imagine you have long list of data and you need to quickly identify which of the items are unique. You can use Advanced Filters to do this. Just select the list of items you want to filter, go to menu > Data > Filter > Advanced filter. You will see a dialog box like this: […]