Microsoft Excel is one of the most powerful and most popular business software packages globally. Learning how to use Excel proficiently is a good way to impress your co-workers and help you with day-to-day tasks and processes. Here are ways to take your Excel skills to the next level.
SUM is a function that allows you to add individual ranges, cell references, values, or all three. To do this, follow these steps:
Another way to add numbers in a row or column is to click on the AutoSum button on the Home tab, select the cells you want to add, then press the Enter key. Here’s a short video with examples of how to use SUM and AutoSum.
The COUNT function lets you determine how many cells in a spreadsheet contain numbers. To use this function, click on an empty cell and type in the formula =COUNT(B1: B50).
In this example, Excel will check column B, rows 1 to 50, for any numbers. If there are 25 cells with numbers, Excel will return a value of 25. The COUNT function only looks at numbers and will ignore text. If you use COUNT in a column full of text, it will return a value of zero.
The COUNTA function is similar to COUNT, but it looks at cells containing text. So if you want to count how many cells in a column contain text, simply type this formula into an empty cell: =COUNTA(P1: P25). If there are five cells with text under that range, Excel will return a result of 5.
A pivot table lets you summarize large amounts of information, analyze related totals, and present detailed reports in a simplified and user-friendly way.
For example, you want to determine how many sales each person in your team has made during the past six months. Using a pivot table, you can easily display all the data grouped together under different categories (a task that would be time-consuming if you were just using functions and formulas).
Here are the steps for creating a pivot table:
You can check out this short video if you want to learn more about creating a pivot table.
Filtering allows you to temporarily hide irrelevant data so you can focus on the ones you need. This feature is useful if you’re working on a spreadsheet with a large amount of data. For instance, you want to know how many students in Section 3 of your class got a midterm score of 90 and above. You can have Excel filter out the students in Section 3 who scored below 90, leaving you with a list of those who got a score of 90 and above.
Here are the steps to use filtering in Excel:
Check out this video clip about filtering data on a spreadsheet.
Mastering these features will significantly improve your Excel skills and your productivity. To find out more about Microsoft Excel, give our experts a call today.
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