Excel Functionality

Sparklines Microsoft Excel

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Practical hands-on basic Excel training

In Microsoft Excel, some of the new features are sparklines and slicers, and improvements to PivotTables and other existing features, can help us to discover patterns or trends in the data. To get started with the features of Excel, first we will look at the details of the  Sparklines and slicers features of Excel.

Sparklines

Sparklines in Microsoft Excel Traiing
https://www.trainingint.com/advanced-excel-2016-certification

Sparklines are tiny charts that is used to fit in a cell to visually summarize trends beside the data.

Since sparklines show trends occupies less space, they are exclusively useful for dashboards and other places where we need to show a glimpse of the business in an simple practical visual format.

In the image to the left, the sparklines that appear in the Trend column lets us have a quick look of the performance of each department in the month of May.

Slicers

Excel Slicers Sample
Excel Slicers Sample

Slicers are visual controls. They let us quickly refine data in a PivotTable in an interactive, automatic manner. If we insert a slicer, we can use buttons to quickly segment and refine the data to display appropriate results.

Not only that, when we apply more than one filter to the PivotTable, we no longer have to open a list to see which filters are enforced to the data. Rather, it is displayed on the screen in the slicer.

We can make slicers relate to the workbook formatting and easily reuse them in other PivotTables & PivotCharts.

If you would like to learn more about these new features of Microsoft Excel /  Office 365, or would like to attend the Advanced Microsoft Excel Training, do contact us at Intellisoft Systems.

If you have any further questions or want to join a training on how to use Sparklines, contact Intellisoft for Corporate Training on Excel or call at +65 6250-3575

Trainer: We have certified trainers who excel in imparting their knowledge and are very patient. Master Trainer Vinai teaches Advanced Excel Techniques, Dashboard Techniques using Excel, Data Interpretation and Analysis Training courses at Intellisoft.

He has  conducted over 700 live workshops, and trained over 5,000 students in over 18 countries, and regularly conducts Excel Workshops in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, India, Dubai, Egypt, Zimbabwe, South Africa etc.

How To Use Custom Sort in Microsoft Excel

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Excel training in Singapore at Intellisoft

Do you know how to use custom sort in Excel?

I bet you know how to sort data in Excel. It is pretty easy. Most of the time an ascending sorting is what we need – letters and numbers listed in the ascending order – a to z, 1 to 100 etc. And just in case you need to sort in the reverse order, you have the Z to A sort, also called the Sort in Descending order. Between the two, most people are quite happy, thanks to Microsoft‘s intuitive sorting options.

However, there arises a time when you don’t want either the sort in Ascending order or the Descending order in Excel.

Examples where a Standard Sorting won’t work:

For example, if the departments in your organization are Finance, Marketing, Sales & Engineering. And you want the Sales department to be listed first, followed by Marketing, Engineering, and Finance being the last.

Now how would you sort the departments in this order? Ascending or descending sort is not going to work.

Do not despair however. Here is where the power of Microsoft Excel Custom sort shines.

Another scenario is the Sorting of Months – say you want to sort April, May & June, in this order. Or maybe you want to sort regions by East, West, North & South. This EWNS order also needs a custom sorting in Excel.

Or if you have a completely random order – which defies any kind of sorting. Say you want to list Oranges, then Apples, then Grapes, and finally Bananas. You can go nuts without custom sorting criteria in Excel.

Using Custom Sort in Excel 

First, let’s create the custom list in Excel.

Go to Tools, Options, Custom Lists.

You can key in your list and click Add. Or you can import your list from another area of the spreadsheet, where you list the options in the sorted order.

Custom sort option screen in Excel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you have imported the list in the correct order, you can go to Data, Sort, and then click on Options at the bottom of this popup window.

Choose your custom sorted list from the list of First Key Sort Order.

Voila! Your list is now sorted in your very own custom order.

Multi level sort in Excel with Custom Sorting options

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alternatives to Custom Sort in Excel

Of course, if you don’t want to use Custom Sort, there are other alternatives. I have often used a Lookup Table

Fruit                Sorting
Oranges             1
Apples               2
Grapes               3
Bananas            4

I then use the inbuilt Lookup function of Excel called VLOOKUP function and pick the correct value, and then do an Ascending sort. This is a quick cheat trick.

But it would be tough if you did not know how to use the Lookup functions of Excel in the first place. More on this lookup function in another post.

Let me know if this neat trick help you. And if you want to learn more, join me in a Excel Training workshop in Singapore.

Till then…

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash
Founder & Master Trainer at Intellisoft Systems, in Singapore

Do You Use These Advanced Features in Microsoft Excel?

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Advanced Excel training at Intellisoft
Practical hands-on advanced excel training at Intellisoft
Practical hands-on advanced excel training at Intellisoft

Most people hardly use the huge number of features available in Microsoft Excel. Many are just using Excel as a calculator. This is a gross under use of Excel’s vast potential and feature rich functionality.

Do a quick check, and see if you use these advanced features of Microsoft Excel in your day to day work.

Some of the common things that can be done easily with Excel are:

  1. Finding the Top 10 Customers or Finding the Bottom 10 Performers in the organization
  2. Highlight values that are above or below a certain threshold – like all sales above $25,000 to be highlighted
  3. Sort the values in Ascending, Descending or any customized order – like sorting in order of Manufacturing, Accounts, Sales departments.
  4. Give Names to Range of Cells, and then use them in formulas for easy referencing and decoding
  5. Exploit Pivot Tables to Summarize the data and slice & dice it in any way – finding sales by product groups, or calculating productivity by department
  6. Write Macros to automate routine things that save you a huge amount of time – example creating pivots, charts, tables, and doing complex calculations automatically.
  7. Use advanced filtering conditions, and be able to filter data using multiple different criteria
  8. Create fantastic charts that portray the given business situation perfectly. There are over 50 different types of charts to choose from, and each has its edge, advantages and a reason.
  9. Create management dashboard that are dynamic, and provide a complete snapshot of the key business KPIs in the company – change the chart values at the click of a checkbox or change in a drop-down value
  10. Use Excel’s advanced What-If analysis to do projections for future, forecasting, trend analysis etc. with ease
  11. Use Lookup tables to find any value or corresponding value from a table using advanced functions and formulas

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Microsoft Excel is really extremely powerful. Each version of Microsoft Excel – be it Excel 2007, or Excel 2010 or Excel 2013 adds more and more features to the already powerful dynamite of a package.

At Intellisoft, we teach people how to leverage the maximum power out of Microsoft Excel in short training courses. Some of the popular courses are:

We have a number of Public Classes each month, and we also provided In-House Training to your staff and team at your office, if you have a group of 10+ people, and have a room to hold the training.

So what are you waiting for? If you would like to learn any one or more of such useful features of Microsoft Excel, come for a short Excel Training at Intellisoft.

Go ahead, equip your team with the right skills. Get everyone on board to learn the basic and advanced features of Microsoft Excel, and Be Awesome in Excel!

Email to training@intellisoft.com.sg or call +65-6250-3575 for the next available schedule of Microsoft Excel Training in Singapore.

We are located at Fortune Centre, in Singapore! Location Map of Intellisoft

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash, PMP, ITIL, Six Sigma, GAP,
Master Trainer

How To Write Excel Formulas

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Learn Excel at Intellisoft

Do You Know How to Write Excel Formulas?

Chances are that you can only click on the Autosum button to add a few numbers. If you have never written a single formula in Microsoft Excel, fret not. It is not difficult at all. In fact, with our step by step Excel training, you will be able to write Excel formulas in no time.

Advanced Excel training at Intellisoft in Singapore
Advanced Excel training at Intellisoft in Singapore

The real power of Microsoft Excel is the usage of Formulas. This is what differentiates it from Paper or Typewritten Reports. With the use of Formulas, Excel can calculate and update the totals, and complex calculation or computations on the fly.

How Excel identifies Rows and Columns

Excel uses a simple numbering system to differentiate between cells. Each cell or box that you see in an open Excel file has a unique number – pretty much like the pigeon hole letter box that each house has. Each letterbox number is unique, making the life of postmen easier.

In Excel, Rows are numbered from 1 onwards. These Rows appear on the Left of your screen.

Excel VLookup Sample
Excel VLookup Sample Setup

For Columns, it uses alphabet combination – like A, B, C, and when it comes to Z, it starts with AA, AB, AC and so on.

So the first cell cross-section of column A and row 1 is called A1, column M and row 5 is called M5. Simple huh?

Using Rows & Columns in a Formula

How does these unique references to each cell make a difference? Well, let’s say you want to add the total of A1 and A2  in the cell A10. All you need to do is to go to A10 cell, and then start to write a formula.  A formula begins with the = sign.

So you are at A10. Key in =A1+A2 and hit the enter key.

That’s it. You see the totals of A1 & A2 show there.

Go ahead. Fire up Excel. You can’t learn Excel by looking at tutorials. You have got to try it out, and practice. Practice makes you perfect.

Exercise:

  1. Key in 20 in cell C1, 30 in cell C2, and 40 in cell C3.
  2. Then go to cell C4, and key in the formula to calculate the total.
  3. If it matches 90, you have got it correct!
  4. Congratulations. You are on your way to write Excel Formulas and get better at computing using Microsoft Excel.

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash
founder & principal trainer at Intellisoft Systems Singapore.

Looking for Microsoft Advanced Excel Training? You have come to the right place! 

Contact us at +65 6250-3575 for any questions, or to join our upcoming classes in various versions of Excel.

Top 3 Features of Microsoft Excel You Must Know

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top_excel_features_in_interviews

Microsoft Excel is heavily used in Banking, Sales, Finance, Marketing, Customer Service… you name it, it is used by people at operations level, supervisory level and management level for data entry, data analysis, tracking and reporting data.

No wonder in job interviews, Excel features heavily for such job roles.

The Top 3 features often asked in the Job Interviews are regarding Pivot Tables, VLookup Functions and Macros.

Do you know Pivot Tables in Excel?

Excel Pivot Table Training
Summarize Data Quickly With Microsoft Excel

Pivot tables are used to summarize multiple data rows in one or multiple sheets, and create a summary report. It is a fantastic tools that makes it much easier to view the data at a high level – by category, by division, by department, by area and by country etc… based on your data.

It is best if you master pivot tables, and its nuances, its options, its hidden features and become an expert at using Pivot tables.

Here are some articles I wrote about using Pivot Tables in Excel, and its advanced options of getting pivot data in summary sheets within Excel.

But you may want to attend the Advanced Excel classroom training, and even avail government grants, SkillsFuture, SDF funding etc. to get subsidized fees.

Do you know how to use the Vlookup Function in Excel?

Vlookup and Hlookup are 2 of the Lookup functions within Excel. They help to lookup prices of parts, employee names etc. from tables where you know the part number, employee number, IC number etc.

It is like looking up the meaning of a word in a dictionary. These are extremely powerful functions, and you must know them well.

Do note that there are couple of variations of the Lookup functions – Exact Match or Range Lookup (Approximate match). You must know what to use, and when to use which option.

Knowledge of VLookup is a  must for most industries using Excel, like the Banking & Finance industry.

Excel VLookup Sample
Excel VLookup Sample

Again, at Intellisoft, we cover the Lookup Functions in the Advanced Excel and the Excel Dashboard MasterClass, where you learn how to create Management Reports and Dashboards using Microsoft Excel.

Do you know how to write Macros in Excel?

To save time in doing repeated steps, Microsoft introduced the Visual Basic for Applications programming language. IT is popularly called as VBA Macro programming. With VBA programming, you can extend Excel to create routines that can do the basic, mundane steps, quickly, and correctly, so you can spend more time with the more important stuff.

Excel macros are used in creating specific user forms, creating conditional logic, creating work flow within a n organization.

Excel Macro Sample
Excel Macro Sample

The end user can simple execute multiple steps without knowing how to do the intermediate steps, simply by clicking a button, which in turn can run a complex macro. It is so simple, and magical to use and execute macros within Excel.

You could use it to generate a profit and loss statement, a balance-sheet, a leave approval form, a cash flow statement, pivots and charts automatically, without doing multiple steps.

Read more about VBA Macro Programming here. And you can attend our 3 day VBA Macro programming training in Singapore.

Conclusion:

These are the most important and most used features of Microsoft Excel. Master these, and you will be very popular in your company, and you will improve your job prospects significantly by learning these 3 most important things in Excel.

Cheers,
Vinai Prakash,
Founder & Principal Trainer,
Intellisoft Systems

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