Category Archives: Excel Downloads

Examples of Excel documents to download (written by Microsoft qualified trainers) – Best STL Training blog (Excel Downloads)

Excel 2013: Sparklines through Quick Analysis

new feature for microsoft office 2013Introduced in Excel 2010, Sparklines create charts within a cell. It can help to show one figure in context with others and illustrate trends. In this example a blank column is created for the sparklines before selecting the adjacent data.

In Excel 2013 the Quick Analysis feature has now brought Sparklines to the fore. Perfect for tracking performance over time, this new way of accessing them will give a quick insight into your data.

Sparklines in Excel 2013

How to: Highlight some Excel data in a table and look for the Quick Analysis tag to float over the bottom-right corner of your selection. Put your mouse over this icon to explore the options.

For more tips and features on Excel 2013 and other versions, browse Excel training courses from Best STL, available London and UK wide.

Excel 2013: Complete data entry quickly with Flash Fill

new feature for microsoft office 2013Save time and effort with Flash Fill for Excel 2013. Just one in a long line of nifty improvements to help you work more efficiently.

Flash Fill for Excel 2013 notices patterns in your data entry and then auto completes the remaining, so there’s no need to use formulas or macros to do this. Data gets filled in automatically. Previously you would have to use variations on LEFT(), RIGHT(), MID() plus a few other supporting functions to do this.

For example the Flash Fill feature will automatically complete a list of surnames after starting to type the second surname. It recognises patterns and predicts what data to fill in for you. Start typing the initials and Flash Fill fills the list for you.

Flash Fill for Excel 2013

Top Tip: Flash Fill also recognises text case. After typing a name in upper case, clicking Flash Fill on the Data Ribbon fills all the rest of the names in upper case.

Flash Fill for Excel 2013

 

Whether you’re splitting out email addresses or stripping out surnames, Flash Fill is a very useful feature.

For more tips and features on Excel 2013 and other versions, browse Excel training courses from Best STL, available London and UK wide.

Excel 2013: Suggested Charts through Quick Analysis

new feature for microsoft office 2013So many times people pick the wrong chart type for their data. There’s a time and a place for pies, and lines aren’t for everyone. Picking the right one takes a bit of thought.

The Charts option in the Quick Analysis gallery, a new feature for Excel 2013, allows the user to quickly view and analyse data by choosing a variety of chart types. Excel will predict which chart types will best suit your selected data. Scroll through the different chart types until you’ve found one that works for your message.

Charts through Quick Analysis

How to: Highlight some Excel data in a table and look for the Quick Analysis tag to float over the bottom-right corner of your selection. Put your mouse over this icon to explore the options.

For more tips and features on Excel 2013 and other versions, browse Excel training courses from Best STL, available London and UK wide.

Excel 2013: Conditional Formatting through Quick Analysis

new feature for microsoft office 2013If you’ve got a lot of data, it’s not always easy to spot trends and to easily analyse your figures. Conditional Formatting can instantly show you patterns in your data by highlighting cells that meet certain conditions. So for example you might want to flag up sales below a certain threshold in red, or bold occurrences of a certain word. This feature has been present in Excel for years, but in Excel 2013 there’s a faster way to get to visualise patterns.

Excel 2013 has introduced Formatting through Quick Analysis. In the below example, Colour Scale Formatting is used to look for high and low spots and highlighting them as such.

Colour Scale Formatting for Excel 2013

How to: Highlight some Excel data in a table and look for the Quick Analysis tag to float over the bottom-right corner of your selection. Put your mouse over this icon to explore the options.

Icon Set is another option available under Quick Analysis formatting. For example totals meeting a target display a green arrow or a red arrow if they don’t.

Suggested options not doing it for you? You can always create your own Conditional Formatting rules.

How to: Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules (to define the target criteria)

Conditional Formatting in Excel 2013

For more tips and features on Excel 2013 and other versions, browse Excel training courses from Best STL, available London and UK wide.