How Excel Can Spot What You Need To Know
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How Excel Can Spot What You Need To Know
Excel documents can be the very epitome of dreary: all those rows and rows and rows of numbers could send anyone to sleep. But with a few clever tricks, you'll not only be able to make your documents more exciting-looking, but also more useful. You'll be able to spot trends , patterns and potential problems from several feet away, thanks to Conditional Formatting.
Step 1: Prepare for Amazingness
Boot up the document, select all the reams of data you want to make sparkle, and find the Conditional Formatting button at the top on the ‘home' tab. Give it a click and a whole host of options appear.
Step 2: Amazingness!
By far the most amazing form of Conditional formatting are Data Bars, Color Bars and Icon Sets.
They take all your data into account and display a little graphic behind the numbers so you can see whether it's higher or lower than the rest. This way, you can spot with a click who's got the best sales. They all look phenomenally funky, and are dead easy to implement.
This all works with the new Live Preview function as well, so you can see changes to your document without clicking anything. Just hover over a colour or style you like the look of and the document will change to that style for you as a taster.
Step 3: Lay Down Some Rules
If you click on New Rule... you can set up some conditions that change graphical representations of your data nice and quickly. Want to see if an Outgoing figure goes over £100? Set up a rule to make anything over £100 big and red and bold and underlined. Then you'll spot it, alright.
Want to know how your sales are matching up? Set up a rule to compare and contrast figures with each other. Green for good, amber for OK and red for bad. Like traffic lights!
There's actually a near-limitless amount of stuff you can do with Conditional Formatting, so it's worth having a click about to see what's possible.
Step 4: Sort Out Someone Else's Mess
Don't forget you can apply these rules to documents sent to you by The Office Idiot, so you'll be able to make sense of their poorly-formatted list of numbers instantly.
If you're still viewing Excel documents in black and white you're making things harder for yourself, frankly. Step into the future with the rest of us.
Done