Excel University Blog

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Excel

Center Across Selection QAT

By Jeff Lenning | January 22, 2015 |

Excel’s Merge and Center command has an icon, but, it is often better to Center Across Selection instead of merging cells. Unfortunately, the current version of Excel doesn’t have a Center Across Selection Ribbon icon. In this post, we’ll create a simple macro that we can activate with a Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) icon. Objective Let’s…

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PivotTable Report Group Formatting

By Jeff Lenning | January 14, 2015 |

In this post, we’ll check out a few PivotTable formatting techniques that help get our report looking just right. Objective Our objective is to create the following PivotTable report. There are a few formatting points to note about the report. First, the region groups, such as Midwest and Northeast, are in the same column as the…

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Income Tax Formula

By Jeff Lenning | December 31, 2014 |

In this post, we’ll examine a couple of ideas for computing income tax in Excel using tax tables. Specifically, we’ll use VLOOKUP with a helper column, we’ll remove the helper column with SUMPRODUCT, and then we’ll use data validation and the INDIRECT function to make it easy to pick the desired tax table, such as single or married…

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Indirectly Refer to Table Columns

By Jeff Lenning | November 20, 2014 |

Previously, we explored using the INDIRECT function to refer to various tables in a workbook. In this follow-up post, we’ll expand the discussion and refer to individual table columns. Objective Let’s start with our objective. We have several tables in a workbook. They have the same structure and store department data. For example, here is…

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Referring to Tables Indirectly

By Jeff Lenning | November 13, 2014 |

In this post, we’ll allow the user to select a table name from a data validation drop-down and our Excel formulas will operate on the values from the selected table. Thanks to Neelima for asking about this technique! Objective Before we get too far, let’s be clear about our objective. We have several data tables in…

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Excel University V3 Course is Available!

By Jeff Lenning | October 31, 2014 |

I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of the Excel University Volume 3 online course! This online course teaches the content of Volume 3 through online videos, homework activities, quizzes, and includes instructor-moderated forums in case you get stuck. It picks up right where Volume 2 ends. More Info   The topics include PivotTables, external…

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Heat Maps in Excel

By Jeff Lenning | October 29, 2014 |

In this post, we’ll recreate a heat map presented in Stephen Few’s Information Dashboard Design, 2nd Edition, using an Excel PivotTable and a bit of conditional formatting. Objective Before we get too far, let’s take a look at our objective. We are trying to create a heat map that uses variation in color intensity to…

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Bullet Graphs in Excel

By Jeff Lenning | October 27, 2014 |

I recently picked up a copy of Stephen Few’s outstanding book Information Dashboard Design. First of all…wow! If your reports include any type of chart or graph, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of this incredible resource. Stephen developed a graph called a Bullet Graph, and in this post, I’ll walk through…

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Simulate Structured References in Named Ranges

By Jeff Lenning | October 23, 2014 |

The table feature introduced in Excel 2007 is amazing and has nearly eliminated the need to build dynamic named ranges since tables auto-expand. Beyond auto-expansion, tables offer numerous other benefits, including, structured references which allow us to refer to an area within the table, such as a specific column. In this post, we’ll examine a method…

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Dashboard Course

By Jeff Lenning | October 14, 2014 |

The charting capabilities of Excel are remarkable. During the course of my career, I have developed only a cursory knowledge of Excel charts and graphs. I recently took an online Excel dashboard course, and I wanted to share my experience and provide a link so you can check it out…plus….a 20% discount is now available!…

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