Excel University Blog
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Have you ever split one column in to many columns, or vice versa, combined many columns into a single column? If so, you have likely relied on the text-to-columns feature to split a single column into many and the CONCATENATE function to join many columns into a single column. Beginning with Excel 2013, Microsoft provides…
Today, we will look at using conditional formatting with formulas, data validation, and comparison formulas. Think you are up for it? Let’s do this thing. Let’s say we have a worksheet that computes the payment of a loan. We can use the PMT function to easily accomplish this task. The PMT function requires three arguments…
Let me ask you a question. How do you hide a row or a column? Since this is Excel we are talking about, there are several methods to accomplish this goal. Common Approaches One common approach is to select the row or column, and then select the Hide command, either from the Format Ribbon icon…
This post demonstrates how to count the number of distinct (unique) values in an Excel 2013 PivotTable. Prior to Excel 2013, this capability was not built-in to the PivotTable feature. For Excel versions earlier than 2013, there are a variety of different workarounds available, some use VBA code, some use helper formulas, and some of…
Note: see this post for instructions on using the new stock quotes system in Excel. I happened to notice that the MSN MoneyCentral Investor Stock Quotes IQY file did not install automatically with Excel 2013. I’m not sure if this just occurred on my system, or, if this is by design. In any event, I’d like to…
Microsoft Excel 2013 offers many new features and functions worth exploring. This post provides a few highlights and a link to my May-2013 CalCPA Technology and Business Resource Guide article, “Spreadsheet Nerdiness” which goes into more detail. Summary Design With the exception of some minor cosmetic changes and some animations, the design is similar to…
Have you ever called up the Go To dialog in Excel? There is a little button in it that enables you to go to special places in Excel. This post explores some of these special destinations. For starters, let’s call up the Go To dialog within an empty workbook. There are a few different ways…
The Data Validation feature allows you to control what a user can type into a cell. This post digs into the details of the data validation alert style options. Data Validation Primer First, a quick overview of the Data Validation feature. Data Validation has been in Excel for a long time, and it is one of…
Did you know that Excel has two levels of hidden worksheets? Excel has “hidden” worksheets, and, “very hidden” worksheets. This post walks through the differences, and how to hide worksheets at each level. By default, all new worksheets are visible. A visible worksheet’s tab appears in the bottom of the Excel window, enabling the user…
Often, we use Excel to summarize detail that comes from some other program or accounting system. There are essentially three ways that I am aware of to get data from another program into a destination Excel worksheet, I’ll nickname them: Copy/Paste Pull Push Copy/Paste The Copy/Paste method is probably the most common. It is when…