All articles with 'spreadsheets' Tag

This post is authored by Martin, one of our readers.

Situation:

Sometimes I encounter data in my tables with blank cells where there is a repeated value from the cell directly above. See below:

This can be annoying when it comes to interpreting the data and when sorting columns.

Solution:

To know how I solve this, just read rest of the article.

Filtering is a simple yet powerful way to analyze data. When you apply filters to any list of values, Excel gives you some really useful pre-defined filters so that you can analyze the data in a variety of ways. So, assuming you have data like this: We all know how to filter data for Bananas. […]

Lets just say, you run a nice little orange shop called, “Joe’s Awesome Oranges“. And being an Excel buff, you record the daily sales in to a workbook, in this format. After recording the sales for a couple of months, you got a refreshing idea, why not analyze the sales between any given 2 dates? […]

Pivot Tables are an integral part of Excel based reports. So it is no surprise that many of create multiple pivot reports in one Excel workbook. So when the underlying data changes, we often spend time refreshing individual pivot tables. Today, I want to share a quick tip about how to refresh all pivot tables […]

Dear Friends & Readers of Chandoo.org

I am happy to announce that our Online VBA Training Program is now open for your consideration. Please read this short post to understand the benefits of this program and how you can join. Click here to join our class, if you are ready.

What is this VBA Class?

VBA Class is a structured and comprehensive online training program for learning Microsoft Excel VBA (Macros). It is full of real world examples & useful theory.

The aim of VBA Classes is to make a beginner an expert in VBA.

Last week we learned how to create dynamic hyperlinks in Excel. Today, I want to show you something even cooler. An interactive dashboard based on hyperlinks, like shown above.

Isn’t it impressive?

Well, to create something like this, you don’t need a degree in advanced cryogenics. You just need a bunch of data, a chart, a one line macro code and some pixie dust (go easy on pixie dust).

Recently, I ran a contest asking you to analyze a bunch of sales data and present your results in charts. We received a total of 78 charts from 45 people. The contest entries had a mind-boggling variety of excel charts, techniques and ideas. It took me a while to go thru all the files and compile the results. Thanks for your patience. In this post, you can find all the charts along with my comments & links to download files.

With Excel 2007, Microsoft has introduced a powerful and useful feature called as Tables. One of the advantages of Tables is that you can write legible formulas by using structural references. That means, you can write easy to understand formulas like this,

But, there is a problem. When you write these formula and drag the formula cell sideways to fill remaining cells, Excel changes table column references and thus makes your formulas almost useless.

Well, there is a simple workaround for this problem

– Cue, alluring music.
Just like Jack and the crew of Oceanic Airlines flight 815, Excel has a number of LOST functions.
This post will look at some of Excel’s Undocumented, Unloved and Rarely used Functions

Dear Readers & Friends,

I am very happy to announce that our first batch of VBA Classes is open for your consideration. Please read this short post to understand the benefits of this program and how you can join. Click here to join our class, if you are ready.

What is this VBA Class?

VBA Class is a structured and comprehensive online training program for learning Microsoft Excel VBA (Macros). It is full of real world examples & useful theory.

The aim of VBA Classes is to make a beginner an expert in VBA.

What are the benefits of this class?

Oh so many! Learning VBA one ups your Excel mojo. You will suddenly start saying “Yes” several work opportunities & challenges. Your boss might fall in love with you. You realize the potential to automate large chunks of your work and save time & money.

If IFERROR() were to be a person, I would hug her so hard that Jo (my wife) would get in to a cat fight with her. I know many a woman (and man) who get in to a fight with Excel formulas often. But thankfully, we avoid that as IFERROR is not a real person. It is, however a darned useful formula.

Since I cannot hug a formula anymore than I can get my son to sit tight, I will go ahead and sing an ode to her, in my style – by writing about how useful and powerful IFERROR formula is.

Lets say you have some data in 2 columns and you want to compare row by row to spot the differences. Of course you can write a formula or apply conditional formatting. But there is a quick and dirty solution that works just as fine.

This week’s poll is dead simple. Just tell me since how many years you are using Excel. I will go first: I have first started using Excel in year 2003 to keep track of my MBA entrance exam preparation. It helped me a lot in recording practice test scores, listing all the mistakes I made […]

Last week we saw a really cool holiday request form made by Theodor. This week, we will learn how to combine conditional formatting and data validation to create an awesome data entry form. First see a demo to understand what I mean: How to create such a data entry form? Very simple, just grab a […]

This is a guest article by Matt, who works as a Business Analyst with allrecipes.com. He shares with us how he is using Excel to become a rockstar business analyst. In his own words,

“At Allrecipes.com we use excel for a variety of purposes. Analyzing site trends, forecasting traffic, charts, dashboards, and slide shows; you name it, we use excel for it. That’s why Chandoo’s tips have been so helpful – because we use excel every day. Thanks to chandoo.org, I’ve developed a reputation as an “excel wizard” and even taught a 4 week excel training class!“