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.

Features

Highlight Values Found Multiple Times

By Jeff Lenning | February 27, 2024 |

Today, we’ll highlight recurring values within a dataset in order to answer a recent question. I was asked the following “I’m trying to get it to recognize if a specific letter, like X, is in a column at least three times. What could the formula look like?” And I’ll answer that question in this post.…

Merge Excel Files with Multiple Sheets

By Jeff Lenning | February 20, 2024 |

Today, we’re answering a question we received about how to combine multiple Excel workbooks into a single workbook, even when there are a variable number of worksheets within each workbook. This post shows how to use Power Query to accomplish it. Let’s jump right in! Video Classic Problem, User-friendly Solution In handling large datasets or…

Highlight Correct Answer with Conditional Formatting

By Jeff Lenning | February 6, 2024 |

Time to walk through another exciting Excel adventure 🙂 Today, we’re zooming in on an interesting question I recently received: “How can I highlight correct answers on an Excel worksheet for my granddaughter’s multiplication tables?” Sounds like a marvelously practical application of Excel, doesn’t it? Well, let’s dive in and find out how we can…

Create a Dynamic Month List for Reports or KPIs

By Jeff Lenning | January 30, 2024 |

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a dynamic list of months in Excel using various functions including TAKE, EOMONTH, and SEQUENCE. This list can be used for reporting or pulling key performance indicators (KPIs) with lookup functions such as XLOOKUP. If you create the same basic report each month, and would like…

PIVOTBY A Dynamic PivotTable Alternative

By Jeff Lenning | January 16, 2024 |

Excel’s PIVOTBY function allows you to create dynamic summary reports that look very much like PivotTables. However, they are totally dynamic … no need to click Refresh. They are created with a single formula, but do not have the rich features and capabilities of PivotTables. Depending on your workbook, the PIVOTBY function may be a…

Dynamic Pivot-style Report with GROUPBY

By Jeff Lenning | January 9, 2024 |

In this tutorial, we will learn how to use the GROUPBY function to create dynamic pivot-style reports with a single formula. Let’s back up a sec. For years, we’ve turned to PivotTables to build summary reports. Now we have another option: the GROUPBY function. While it doesn’t create a true PivotTable, it does create a…

How to Find Invalid Characters

By Jeff Lenning | January 2, 2024 |

Welcome to this tutorial on how to find invalid characters in Microsoft Excel. In this tutorial, we will explore different methods including formulas and conditional formatting to detect and highlight characters you define as “invalid” in your Excel worksheets. Since you can easily customize the list of “invalid” characters, this approach is extremely flexible and…

Checkboxes

By Jeff Lenning | December 26, 2023 |

The goal of this tutorial is to learn how to insert checkboxes in Microsoft Excel using two different methods: checkbox cell controls and legacy form controls. We will also explore how to use checkboxes in formulas, conditional formatting, and how to activate the developer tab for legacy form controls. Video Step-by-step Exercise 1: Inserting Checkboxes…

UPPER lower Proper Case (3 ways)

By Jeff Lenning | December 5, 2023 |

The objective of this tutorial is to demonstrate three different methods to change the case of text in Microsoft Excel: Flash Fill, formulas, and Power Query. By the end of this tutorial, you will be confident in using these techniques to convert text to upper case, lower case, and proper case. Video Walkthrough Let’s walk…

Count and Sum Negative Numbers

By Jeff Lenning | November 28, 2023 |

Welcome to our tutorial on how to count and sum negative numbers in Excel! We will cover three exercises where we will learn how to utilize COUNTIF, SUMIF, and conditional formatting to count, sum, and identify negative transactions. By the end, you will have multiple techniques to operate on negative numbers in Excel. Let’s jump…