This Pivot Table lesson shows you how to use the Pivot Table Field Layout to quickly change the layout of your pivot table. This allows you to try different pivot table layouts so you can be sure your data is being grouped, aggegated and displayed in the most useful way possible. It also allow you to generate multiple reports from the same underlying data without having to create multiple pivot tables.
Learn Microsoft Excel
If you want to learn Microsoft Excel, you're in the right place. There is a lot to learn about Microsoft Excel, and not everything is in the manual. We've got a range of free online lessons on how to get the best out of Excel, starting from the basics right up to advanced subjects. We'll help you to do your job better - with the right Excel skills you could even get a raise or a better job! If you don't see what you want to learn, why not get in touch and suggest a lesson we should write.
If you have a range of cells, of which some contain values and some are blank, and you want to select just the blank cells, there is a quick way to select those blank cells that doesn't involve manually clicking on every one.
It can sometimes be useful to know the address of a cell in a worksheet, so you can use that address in a formula. In this lesson, we'll look at how to use the ADDRESS function to find out the address of a cell. We'll then use the ADDRESS function in an example to demonstrate how useful it can be.
Excel is a powerful tool for manipulating large amounts of data. Make sure you know the rules Excel uses when setting up a data spreadsheet.
Sometimes you'll find yourself working with dates in an Excel spreadsheet that have been pasted or imported into Excel from another datasource. When that happens, Excel can treat those dates as text - in other words, they look like dates but don't behave like dates. For example you can't sort by date properly. This lesson looks at several ways you can convert a date which Excel is treating as text into a proper date value in Excel.
The Pivot Table Report Filter adds another dimension to your pivot tables - literally. Rather than all of your data being presented in a flat table, the Report Filter lets you create a pivot table report and then change the data being presented using one or more Report Filters.
In this lesson, we look at a specific example where you have a table of sales data, and you need to find out the name of the person who had the highest sales for the month. It's one of those things that seems like it should be easy until you actually try to do it. The solutions we present here are not the only way of achieving this, but the do have the advantage of solving the problem with a single formula. The methods here could also be used for a variety of other applications as well.
VLOOKUP allows you to look for a specified value in a column of data inside a table, and then fetch a value from another column in the same row. An example might be where you need to find the sales for a specific salesperson from within a monthly sales report. In this lesson you'll learn how to use VLOOKUP in your spreadsheets by walking you through several simple examples. The lesson will also highlight some shortcomings of VLOOKUP, plus a solution to those shortcomings.
When you are working with a large spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel, it's easy to find yourself scrolling down or across and losing track of where you are. This lesson explains how to freeze rows and columns (officially known as "Freeze Panes") in Excel 2010 for Windows and Excel 2011 for Mac.
This lesson explains how to use Excel's logical operators and logical functions (AND, OR, NOT). These boolean operators can be used in a number of ways, either on their own, or to complement other Excel functions. In many cases, you can even use one of these functions instead of a more complicated function. For example, it is often easy to rewrite an IF statement using either AND or OR. This lesson includes examples of how to do this.
If you have a column of numbers and you want to calculate a running total of the numbers alongside, you can use the SUM() formula combined with a clever use of absolute and relative references.
If you have a spreadsheet with time values that have been added to the spreadsheet as text values, you need the TIMEVALUE function. This will allow you to convert the text values into valid time values. A common scenario where this might be useful is when you've been provided data to import into Excel, and the times in the imported data are not recognised by Excel as valid times.
The IF statement is a simple function in Excel that is one of the building blocks you need when you are working with large spreadsheets. You may not know you need it yet, but once you know how to use it, you won't want to live without it.
If you're getting started with Excel, creating formulas is one of the first things you should learn. In this lesson you'll learn how to create simple formulas and calculations in Excel.
INDEX is an Excel function that allows you to find a value inside a list or table of data in Excel. If you know (or can calculate) the row and column position of the value you want, INDEX is the function to retrieve that value for you. This lesson shows you how to use the INDEX function and includes some simple examples to help illustrate how you can use it.
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Excel Formulas
Do you need help with an Excel formula or function? We have lessons on a range of different Excel functions, and the list is growing all the time.
Click here to see the full list of Excel Formulas and Functions