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I’m a big fan of custom number formats in Excel. People generally think that formatting is all about making your data “pretty” for want of a better term. It’s not. It’s all about making your data easier to read. In this blog I’m going to start by showing you how to deal with leading zeros, aka insignificant zeros, in your Excel spreadsheets. Continue reading “Dealing with Leading Zeros in Excel”
When working with data in Excel it surprises me how many people don’t know how to setup a database (also known as a list or table) correctly. This can cause many problems when trying to sort, filter, subtotal, build pivot tables or utilising the table tool. I’ve seen first hand the devastating results of a user sorting only part of a database because the database wasn’t set up correctly and they didn’t know how to safely manage the data. Whether you enter the data directly into your database or you download the data from an external source I’m going to go through the design considerations that you need to apply when setting up your database. There are not many considerations however they are very important. Continue reading “Database Management in Excel”
I’ve been a Microsoft Office Master Instructor for over 12 years now and I’ve seen some pretty silly things in Excel when it comes to working with dates. Most people don’t understand how dates are stored so they tend to do whatever it takes to get an answer to their problem. This result often leads to more work, heartache and pain further down the track or they simply just don’t get the right answer. In their eyes, ‘close enough is good enough’. Some of the Insidious, diabolical, mega formulas I’ve seen would leave mathematicians scratching their heads. Lets take a closer look at working with dates in Excel. Continue reading “Working with Dates in Excel”