Tag Archives: London Excel Training

Excel 2007 training – workbook protection

If you ever need to send an Excel workbook by email to someone else, you may want to hide certain worksheets. When they receive the file, you want to ensure they cannot unhide any hidden worksheets. After attending an excel training course you may only learn the skills of how to protect a worksheet with a password.

The first step towards protecting the workbook is to hide the required sheets so they are not in view. After that go to the Review Tab on the ribbon:

 

 

 

 

Click on Protect Workbook and then type a password in:

 

 

 

 

 

Once you have entered and confirmed the password click ok. If you right click over one of the Worksheet tabs, the Hide and Unhide options will be greyed out. The password would then be needed to obtain access to the hidden sheets.

 

Excel 2010 Courses – Calculating Times

One of the most asked questions during our Excel 2010 Training Courses in London has to be the subject of calculating times.

One important issue is how time values are typed in Excel. This should always be as
9:00 AM or 10:30 PM. There must be a colon separating the hours:minutes and if you are specifying AM or PM there MUST be a space between the minutes and the AM or PM.

In the example below we wish to calculate elapsed time.

The formula would be the later time minus the earlier time. E.g. 10:25 AM – 9:00 AM

The result will be formatted incorrectly. To format to show 1.25 you Select the Cell with the answer. Right-Click, From the context menu select Format Cells

Select Custom from the Category list, then choose the Type [h]:mm:ss

Note: You MUST select the format with the square brackets around the h.
Optional, you can remove the :ss from the end, unless you need to see the Seconds.

Click OK. This will display the correct format.

The other problem people on Excel Training Courses experience is when the time spans over midnight. This can give negative results. The secret is a function called MOD.

The last example from the above screen shot shows 10 PM from the previous evening and an end time the following day of 6 AM. The calculation would still be the later date/time minus the earlier one e.g. 6 AM – 10 PM

However, include this within the MOD function as below:

Microsoft Training Excel 2010 - MOD Function

Type: =MOD(Latest time – Earlier time, 1 )

This will give the correct Hours/Minutes elapsed between the times.

Excel Training: Using Sparklines to display trends visually

One of the great new features of Excel that users enjoy employing during our Microsoft Excel Courses here in London is the Sparklines. These can be thought of as mini-Charts that reside in a cell, and can show a trend visually of a group of values.

In the example shown below there are sales figures from four store locations, London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool. We want to see the trend of these figures visually beside each Department row, rather than create a separate Chart.

Excel Training - Sparklines

Start by selecting the range of cells required for the Sparklines. In the example above, Cells B6:E6.

From the Insert Ribbon select the Sparkline style required e.g. Line

The Create Sparklines dialog appears.

Excel Training in London - Sparklines Dialog

Select the location where the Sparkline should be displayed e.g. F6

Click OK – The Sparkline will appear in the chosen cell as seen below.

Excel 2010 Training - Excel Sparkline View

With the Sparkline cell selected you will see the Sparkline Ribbon – Design.

Excel London Training Centre - Excel Sparkline Ribbon

From this Ribbon you can chage the appearance and type of Sparkline e.g. from Line to Column or Win/loss.

Once the format has been completed you can copy the Sparkline to reflect other values, by copy/paste or using the AutoFill.

Sparklines are not visible in earlier versions of Excel (prior to 2010).

The Sparklines option will not be available if a Workbook is opened in Compatibility Mode.