11 TRICKS

FOR
EXCEL
POWER
BY ANTHONY DOMANICO
I L LU ST R AT I O N BY M AT T H E W H O L L I ST E R
A N I M AT I O N BY JOA N N Y C AU SS E USERS
Learn these functions
from PivotTables to Power
Viewand become a
spreadsheet savant.

THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF MICROSOFT EXCEL USERS: those who make
neat little tables, and those who amaze their colleagues with sophisticated charts,
advanced data analysis, and seemingly magical formula and macro tricks. Mastering the
11 essential Excel skills presented here will ensure your membership in the latter group.

1. Vlookup
Vlookup helps you nd
information in large data
tables such as inventory lists.

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VLOOKUP HELPS YOU herd data that is Summon the Vlookup formula in
scattered across dierent Excel sheets and the formula menu, and enter the
workbooks, and bring those sheets into a central cell containing your reference
location to create reports and summaries. number (1). Then enter the range
Lets suppose that you work with products of cells in the sheet or workbook
in a retail store. Each product typically has a that you need to pull data from (2),
unique inventory number, and you can use the column number for the data
that number as your reference point for point youre looking for (3), and
Vlookups. The Vlookup formula matches the either True, if you want the closest
ID to the corresponding ID in another sheet, reference match, or False, if you
so you can pull the items description, price, need an exact match (4).
inventory level, and other data points into
your current workbook.

2. Creating charts
TO CREATE A CHART, enter data into Excel with
column headers (1), and then select Insert u
Chart u Chart Type (2). Excel 2013 even includes
a Recommended Charts section (3) with layouts
based on the type of data youre working with.
After creating the generic version of a chart,
open the Chart Tools menus to customize it. Excel 2013 includes
Recommended
Youll nd a surprising number of options to
Charts with layouts
play around with in those menus.
based on the type
of data youre
working with.
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3. IF and IFERROR formulas

IF formulas
IF AND IFERROR are the two most useful types of IF
let you pull in
just the data formulas in Excel. IF lets you use conditional formulas that
you need. calculate in one way when a certain thing is true, and in
another way when that thing is false. For example, you can
identify students who scored 80 points or higher on an
exam by having the cell report Pass if the score in column
C is above 80, and Fail if its 79 or below.
IFERROR is a variant of the standard IF formula. It permits
you to return a particular value (or a blank value) if the
formula youre trying to use returns an error. If youre
running a Vlookup to another sheet or table, for example,
the IFERROR formula can render the eld blank in any
instance where the Vlookup cant nd the reference.

4. PivotTable
A PIVOTTABLE IS essentially a summary table that lets
you count, average, sum, and perform other calculations
based on reference points that you enter. Excel 2013
added Recommended PivotTables, making it even easier
for you to create a table that displays the data you need.
For example, to count the number of passes and fails in a
chart, put your Pass/Fail column in the Row Labels tab (1),
and then again in the Values section of your PivotTable
PivotTables are
(2). It will usually default to the correct summary type
a summarization
tool for performing
(count, in this case), but you can choose among many
calculations based other functions in the Values dropdown box (3). You can
on reference also create subtables that summarize data by category
points that you such as Pass/Fail numbers by gender.
enter.

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5. PivotChart

PivotCharts
help you
PART PIVOTTABLE, PART traditional Excel chart, a
easily digest
complex data.
PivotChart lets you quickly and easily look at complex data
sets in an easy-to-digest way. PivotCharts have many of
the same functions as traditional charts, with data series,
categories, and the like, but they add interactive lters so
you can browse through data subsets.
Excel 2013 added Recommended PivotCharts, which
you can nd listed under the Recommended Charts icon
in the Charts area of the Insert tab. You can preview a
chart by hovering your mouse pointer over that option. To
create a PivotChart manually, select the PivotChart icon
on the Insert tab.

6. Flash Fill

Vlookup helps you

nd information in EASILY THE BEST new feature in Excel 2013, Flash Fill
large data tables solves one of the programs most vexing problems:
such as inventory how to quickly pull needed pieces of information from
lists.
a concatenated cell. In the past, when working in a
column with names in Last, First format, for example,
either you had to type everything out manually or you
had to create a (frequently complicated) workaround.
Suppose that youre working with a eld of peoples
names in Excel 2013. You simply type the rst name of
the rst person in a eld immediately next to the one
youre working on (1), and choose Home u Fill u Flash
Fill (2). In response Excel will automatically extract the
rst names of all of the other people that are recorded
in the existing eld and ll the new eld with them.

7. Quick Analysis
EXCEL 2013S NEW Quick Analysis tool reduces
the amount of time required to create charts
based on simple data sets. When you select
your data, an icon will appear near the bottom
right corner of the page (1). Click that icon to
bring up the Quick Analysis menu (2).
Quick Analysis
speeds the This menu provides tools for Formatting, Charts,
process of Totals, Tables, and Sparklines. By hovering your
working with mouse pointer over each option, you can
simple data generate a live preview of it.
sets.

8. Power View
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Power View
lets you create POWER VIEW IS an interactive data exploration and
interactive,
visualization tool that can pull and analyze large
presentation-
quantities of data from external data les. In Excel
ready reports.
2013, go to Insert u Reports (1) to use Power View (2).
Reports created with Power View are presentation-
ready, with modes for reading and for full-screen
presentation. You can even export an interactive
version into PowerPoint. The Business Intelligence
tutorials (go.pcworld.com/exceltutor) on Microsofts
site will help you become an expert in no time.

9. Conditional Formatting
FOR MOST TABLES, Excels extensive conditional
formatting functionality makes identifying data
points of interest easy. This feature is housed on
Conditional the Home tab in the taskbar (1). Select the
Formatting lets range of cells that you want to format, and click
you highlight the Conditional Formatting dropdown (2). The
data points of Highlight Cells Rules submenu (3) serves as host
interest with to the features youre likely to use most often.
minimal eort.

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 Converting columns into rows
10. (and vice versa)

The Paste
Special
feature lets
you transpose
columns and
rows. NOW AND THEN you may want to
convert data from a column format to a
row format (or vice versa). To do so,
simply copy the row or column youd like
to transpose, right-click the destination
cell, and select Paste Special. Then check
the box labeled Transpose at the bottom
of the resulting popup window, and click
OK. Excel will do the rest.

11. Essential keyboard shortcuts
THESE EIGHT KEYBOARD shortcuts are especially useful
for navigating quickly through an Excel spreadsheet and for
performing various other common tasks in Excel.

<Control>-<Down Arrow> Move cursor to the top or bottom

or -<Up Arrow> cell of the current column.

<Control>-<Left Arrow> Move cursor to the cell farthest

or -<Right Arrow> left or right in the current row.

<Control>-<Shift>-<Down Select all cells above or below

Arrow> or -<Up Arrow> the current cell.

Create a new blank worksheet

<Shift>-<F11>
within your workbook.

Open the cell for editing in

<F2>
the formula bar.

<Control>-<Home> Navigate to cell A1.

Navigate to the last cell that

<Control>-<End>
contains data.

Autosum the cells above

<Alt>-=
the current cell.

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