Excel University Blog

Read on for in-depth articles, tutorials, and videos. Search or browse for specific topics. Be sure to subscribe if you'd like to be notified when we write something new.

Jeff Lenning

Format Items Found in a List

By Jeff Lenning | August 6, 2024 |

In this post, we’ll learn how to format a range to automatically highlight any items found in a list. In other words, we will learn how to highlight transactions that have a status value that matches any of the status values in a specific list, such as Pending or Processing. This illustration uses status values,…

Formatting Condition is a Calculated Value

By Jeff Lenning | July 30, 2024 |

Hello and welcome to this tutorial on how to use conditional formatting with a calculated value in Excel! Today, we’re going to dive into the following question: How do you conditionally format a cell when the condition is based on a calculated value? Let’s jump right in! Video Tutorial Let’s work through the concepts sequentially…

Last Date in Column

By Jeff Lenning | July 23, 2024 |

Hello and welcome to our latest tutorial! Today we’re diving into a common Excel challenge: finding the last date in a column. This is especially useful if you add rows to your data regularly. Let’s explore three different exercises to solve this problem. Video Tutorial Exercise 1: Using the TAKE Function in a Table Step-by-Step…

Turn a Table of Events into a Graphical Calendar

By Jeff Lenning | July 16, 2024 |

Today, we’re tackling the following question: How do you create a calendar that can show multiple events per day in Excel? We’re going to transform a simple table of events into a dynamic, graphical calendar. Let’s dive right in! Objective In summary, we have a list of events stored in a Table named Table1, like…

Combine Lots of Tables in the Same Workbook

By Jeff Lenning | July 9, 2024 |

Today we will tackle a common question: “How can we combine numerous tables that are in the same workbook?” Let’s dive right in and learn how to easily combine tables, even if they have different column orders! Video Step-by-step Process In this guide, we’ll explore how to use Power Query to combine several tables from…

Stealth Formulas

By Jeff Lenning | July 2, 2024 |

Have you ever wondered how you could work some magic in your Excel sheet such that you could include formulas, yet your cell appears empty? Have you pondered on making your Excel worksheets more secure by protecting your formulas from being changed or seen? If so, this blog post is for you! We will dive…

Avoid XLOOKUP Errors

By Jeff Lenning | June 25, 2024 |

This article will help you navigate the waters of common XLOOKUP errors and issues. We’ll first begin by identifying errors, issues, and unexpected results. Then we’ll talk about specific ways to avoid and address each one. I hope this article will help you be able to use this wonderful function more effectively in your workbooks!…

Automate File Cleanup

By Jeff Lenning | June 18, 2024 |

I was recently asked the following question: I download an excel file every week and make changes like deleting columns, counting and adding rows and so on. Can I automate this repetitive task ? In this post, I’ll attempt to answer this question. The built-in Excel feature we’ll use to accomplish this is Power Query.…

Replace 25+ Nested IFs with a Single Simple Lookup

By Jeff Lenning | June 11, 2024 |

I was recently asked the following question: “I have a drop-down with 25+ categories that determines the fee percentage. Can I use an IF function to compute the fee based on the selected category?” I answer this question in this post. Video Objective Let’s begin by understanding the objective and the question. There is an…

Get Last Data Row from PivotTable

By Jeff Lenning | June 4, 2024 |

The post was written to answer a question I recently received: How can we retrieve the last row from a PivotTable? Buckle up as we solve this challenge by nesting two Excel functions into a single formula. Video Step-by-step Let’s visualize the essenence of the question. We have a PivotTable in our worksheet, perhaps something…