Excel Pivot Table Tips: Refreshing the Table After Source Data Changes

February 1, 2017 by Tyrone Pernsley

The pivot table in Excel is one of the most vital and versatile tools available. It allows you to look at your data from a wide range of customizable views. In the following guide, we explore how to update the Pivot Table after the source data changes.

There are a variety of reasons you might need to update the pivot table. Maybe you get a weekly report that needs to be added each week. Instead of recreating the pivot table, you can simply refresh it. Maybe there were errors in the source data that needed to be corrected. Again, it’s simpler to refresh than to recreate.

Let’s say you had the following spreadsheet:

And you created this pivot table for it:

Then your manager informs you of a price correction on the last 4 items. They went up $50 each. For such a minor correction, it would be a waste of time to create a whole new pivot table. Instead, you will:

Make the source data correction
Go to the tab with the pivot table
Go to the Data tab on the Excel ribbon
Select Refresh

You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt+F5 to perform this task.

As you can see in the animation above, once you apply the refresh option, the data in the table automatically updates with the source data corrections.

We hope you now feel comfortable making corrections to your pivot table source data and applying the refresh. This is one of many tools available to help you perfect your pivot tables.

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Kevin – Learn Excel Now

Excel Date Calculations Part 2: Setting Sequential Dates

December 21, 2016 by Tyrone Pernsley

Excel offers a variety of ways to perform date calculations. In part 1 of this series, we showed you how to find the difference between dates. In this week’s post, we cover setting sequential dates in Excel.

Sheryl is getting ready to perform her annual budget. Her job pays her every two weeks. As a result, 10 months of the year, she receives two paychecks, but there are two months where she ends up with three paychecks. She wants to find each payday in the upcoming year and highlight the months where she will receive three checks.

She starts off with her current payday date:

To find the two week pay schedule dates she will:

Enter the formula =A2+14
This yields the next pay day
Then copy the formula across to find all dates
Then look for the date with three in a month and highlight them

In the example, we see that Excel automatically finds the date 14 days from the original date input. In copying the formula across it populates each date two weeks apart.

We at Learn Excel Now hope you now feel confident setting sequential dates in Excel. This process can be used for a variety of business and personal situations.

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Kevin – Learn Excel Now

Excel Date Calculations Part 1: Finding the Difference Between Two Dates

December 14, 2016 by Tyrone Pernsley

Excel has several built-in date functions you can use to quickly find important information. These are known as Excel date calculations. Today, we will focus on how to find the difference, in number of days, between two different dates. We will also cover how to find a date based on number of days from a given date.

For today’s example, we will use the following spreadsheet outlining due dates for a library:

Here, we have the due date and the current date. To enter the current date into your spreadsheet, you will use the formula =TODAY(). It will autofill with today’s date.

What we don’t have is the number of days overdue, and the overdue fee. To find that, we will:

Subtract the due date from the current date

Multiply the number of days by the fee per day

As you can see, Excel makes it easy to find the exact number of days and then calculate the amount owed. This process involves first finding the number of days and then separately finding the amount due. But you can also build the date calculation right into the fee calculation.

You will use the parenthesis to indicate which function you want performed first (always remember: Excel operates on the Order of Operations).

So, the first part of the calculation will be: =(B3-A3)

Then, tell the formula to also multiply by the amount owed column: =(B3-A3)*D3

Finding a Date Based on Number of Days

Let’s say you had the same spreadsheet, except that the original due date was missing, but you still have the number of days. Your job is to find the original due date. This is basically a reverse of finding the number of days overdue. You will enter:

=B3-C3

This is how you use Excel to find the number of days between two dates or vice versa. Next week, we will cover additional date functions you will want to know. We hope you found today’s lesson on Excel date calculations useful.

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Kevin – Learn Excel Now

Excel Data Validation: An Introduction

December 7, 2016 by Tyrone Pernsley

Excel data validation allows you to set specific criteria for the type of data that can be entered into a cell or group of cells. In addition to creating that criteria, you can write a brief message on what can be entered into the cell and error message when the wrong information is entered.

In today’s example, we will use the following customer survey as our example:

Here, we need to set data validation so only whole numbers between 1 and 10 can be entered. To do this, we will:

Go to the Data tab
Go to Data Validation
Open the Data Validation Dialogue box
On the Settings tab, set the range (whole numbers between 1 and 10)
On the Input message, enter our unique message
On the Error Alert tab, enter your custom error message

Once you hit okay, the rules will apply. Here is a demonstration in Excel:

As you can see, the only numbers that can be entered are whole numbers between 1 and 10. There are a variety of reasons to use Excel data validation and it depends on the situation and problem you’re trying to solve.

We here at Learn Excel Now hope you found today’s lesson on Excel data validation useful.

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Kevin – Learn Excel Now

Excel Rank Function: What is It & How to Use It

November 30, 2016 by Tyrone Pernsley

One of Excel’s advanced functions is the RANK function. This formula is used to rank numbers in a dataset by either ascending or descending order.

Let’s say you were running a customer loyalty program based on earning points. You need to rank customers’ point totals to determine what rewards they receive. You could do a simple sort, but your boss wants the customer names to stay in the same order.

This is the example we will use:

You will use the RANK function for this challenge, but let’s first explore how the function works.

Syntax of the Rank Function

=RANK(Number, Ref,[Order])

When you use the rank function, your first argument is the number. This is where you specify the cell containing the number you want to be ranked. Next, you identify the range of numbers to be used as the reference (Ref). Finally, you select the order, which is ascending or descending.

Solving the Challenge

So, we will identify B2 as the cell to be used. Then, identify the range as B2 through B11:

Then, select Ascending order and we get our first result:

Before moving onto the remaining lines in the table, we need to add absolute referencing to the range so that it stays consistent while the number being compared changes for each line. A reminder to use the $ between the letter and number of the cell for absolute referencing:

Once you’ve added the absolute reference, you can now copy and paste the formula all the way down to reveal the rank for all lines:

We at Learn Excel Now hope you feel comfortable using the RANK function after this article.

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Kevin – Learn Excel Now

How to Use the Excel MEDIAN Function

November 9, 2016 by Tyrone Pernsley

In this week’s Excel tip, we cover how to use the Excel MEDIAN function. The MEDIAN function is used the return the median value within the defined range.

For this demonstration, we will use the follow example:

The task assigned for this spreadsheet was to find the median sale amount. To do this, we will use the MEDIAN formula:

=MEDIAN(Number1, [number2]..)

Since the goal is to find the median in a single range, the formula becomes:

=MEDIAN(D2:D21)

And once you enter the formula, you get the return value:

Since there were 20 cells within the range, the formula found the average between two middle values.

We at Learn Excel Now hope you feel comfortable using the MEDIAN function now.

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Kevin – Learn Excel Now

How to Show Formulas in Excel

October 26, 2016 by Tyrone Pernsley

In this week’s blog post, we cover how to show formulas in Excel. This convenient feature is ideal for identifying which cells contain formulas and what those formulas are.

John was recently hired in human resources for a large sales firm. His job is to manage the salaries for the sales, accounting and shipping departments. Once hired, he received the following spreadsheet from his predecessor.

He was not a fan of the layout and functionality of the spreadsheet. He wanted to change it around to make more sense to him and to give him more control over the data. However, he knew some of the cells contained formulas and moving things around could throw off the whole spreadsheet.

So, his first step in taking ownership over the spreadsheet was to identify which cells are using formulas. There are two ways to show formulas in Excel:

On the Excel Ribbon, go to the Formulas tab and click on the Show Formulas button
Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+` (Control and the accent mark, aka Tilde)

The following Gif provides a demo using the first option:

However, using the Ctrl+` would result in the same.

We at Learn Excel Now hope you now feel confident finding the formulas in your spreadsheet.

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Kevin – Learn Excel Now

Excel Formulas: Using Trace Dependents to Find Data Solutions

October 19, 2016 by Tyrone Pernsley

In last week’s post, we covered how to use Trace Precedents to find and resolve formula errors. In this week’s follow up, we cover how to use trace dependents to see which formulas use the data contained in a particular cell.

Donna was recently sent her company’s sales spreadsheet:

The commission rate was set to 5% for sales over $500. Her boss wants to increase the rate to 6%. She has two tasks: identify which sales will be affected by the increase and how many sales are over $500.

There are a number of ways Donna can find the data she needs. She could manually count the sales columns. She could use a lookup function. However, she prefers to have a clear visual to show which ones are the important ones.

By using Trace Dependents, she can quickly see which bonuses are for sales over $500, allowing her to determine which ones will be impacted and how many there are. Here is how she used Trace Dependents:

Find the cell with the relevant data – in this case, the 5% in the commission table (Cell I6)
While you are on that cell, click the Formulas tab in the Ribbon
Under the Formula Auditing menu, click on Trace Dependents
The arrows will point to every cell using a formula which uses I6

We at Learn Excel Now hope you feel confident using Trace Dependents now. There are many times and reasons this tool will come in handy.

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Kevin – Learn Excel Now

Excel Formulas: Using Trace Precedents to Find & Resolve Errors

October 12, 2016 by Tyrone Pernsley

The power of Excel comes from the ability to do complicated calculations using formulas and functions. Sometimes, though, there are errors in formulas that give an error message or return the wrong value. In those instances, Excel also provides tools to resolve errors and check your work. One such tool is trace precedents.

The trace precedents tool finds any and all cells that provide information for the target cell. For example, if you summed up the totals in A1 and B1 into cell C1, both cells A1 and B1 would be precedents for C1.

Some errors in Excel are related to one or more precedent cells giving information that throws off the formula. Trace precedents is a great way to determine if there is a cell causing the issue, and if so, which cell needs to be corrected

For an example of using trace precedents to resolve formula errors, we will use the following spreadsheet:

In this instance, the table is using a simple formula to create revenue projections. The previous year’s quarterly total is increased by the projected growth of 5%. As you can see though, the Q3 project, cell I5, is showing an error message.

So, we will use the trace precedents tool to see if there are any cells causing the issue:

In the demo above, the error was created because one of the cells was incorrect. Instead of the cell containing the percentage amount (5% in cell F4) it was trying to pull the definition of that number one cell above (F3).

The issue could have been caused by simple human error. The person entering the formulas could have simply clicked on the wrong cell.

Once the wrong cell was identified using trace precedents, it was a simple matter of editing the formula to the correct cell and the error was resolved.

There are many instances where this tool could come in handy. Aside from resolving errors, sometimes you might just want to see which cells feed into a formula.

Stay tuned for part 2 next week on Trace Dependents!

We here at Learn Excel Now hope you now feel confident using the trace precedents tool to resolve formula issues.

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Kevin – Learn Excel Now

Excel Essentials: Running Spell Check in Excel

October 5, 2016 by Tyrone Pernsley

Excel offers many built-in tools to help you perfect your spreadsheets. Some of these tools, however, need to be activated rather than running automatically. Today, we explore one such tool: running spell check in Excel.

When most people think Excel, the first thing that comes to mind is numbers. But text is often required in Excel to put those numbers into context. This is especially true on any type of report where you might need to add background information, explain your thought process, or just explain where the numbers on the page came from. Even something as simple as column headings, or a client name will require written text.

When submitting reports, you want the spreadsheet to be as accurate as possible and look good. Misspellings and typos simply won’t do. But unlike many Microsoft programs (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc.), Excel doesn’t automatically spell check, giving you those convenient squiggly, red lines when something is wrong. This can make it extremely difficult to catch little errors.

Let’s say you had the following spreadsheet:

Maybe you can recognize all of the typos right away, maybe you can only see a few. The only way to be sure you caught all of the misspelled words is to run Spell Check:

As you can see in the above spreadsheet, all of the misspelled words were fixed:

“projcet” was changed to “project”
“prdoucts” was changed to “products”
“incrase” was changed to “increase”
“esitmated” was changed to “estimated”
“retruns” was changed to “returns”

Excel spell check is the perfect tool for verifying accuracy and correcting mistakes when it comes to text in Excel.

We at Learn Excel Now hope you feel comfortable checking the spelling in your text.

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Kevin – Learn Excel Now

Excel Pivot Table Tips: Refreshing the Table After Source Data Changes

Excel Date Calculations Part 2: Setting Sequential Dates

Excel Date Calculations Part 1: Finding the Difference Between Two Dates

Excel Data Validation: An Introduction

Excel Rank Function: What is It & How to Use It

How to Use the Excel MEDIAN Function

How to Show Formulas in Excel

Excel Formulas: Using Trace Dependents to Find Data Solutions

Excel Formulas: Using Trace Precedents to Find & Resolve Errors

Excel Essentials: Running Spell Check in Excel

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