7 tools every Excel user must know
7 tools every Excel user must know were selected and presented by experts to help you get more out of excel. 7 tools which are set to improve your productivity and make you love excel more and more.
1. Slicers
Being able to quickly drill down into data is critical when analyzing. Instead of applying filters manually, add slicers to the data by navigating to the Insert tab > Slicers > select what you want to filter the data by and hit OK. Now just click any button to filter!
2. Power Query
Importing data into Excel never is as easy as it seems. Luckily, Power Query is here to fix that. Power Query imports data from various sources into Excel. So instead of copying data from the web, go to Data > From Web > enter URL > select the table and hit load.
3. Data types
Say goodbye to google searching and hello to data types. Data types pull in real-time data directly into your workbook. To create data types, select the data > Data tab > Select the data category. Now, you can select the data attributes you want to pull into Excel.
4. Named Ranges
Naming data will not only make your life easier when writing formulas but also make your formulas easier to understand. To name data, select the data > press CTRL SHIFT F3 > check where the headers are and press OK. Now you can reference the data by its name!
5. Custom Lists
If you enter recurring lists repeatedly, this one’s for you. You can create a custom list that Excel will recognize and autofill for you. Go to File > Options > Advanced > Edit Custom Lists > Import List > OK. Now, enter any value and fill with the fill handle.
7. Sparklines
Stay on top of (Excel) trends with sparklines. A sparkline is a mini line chart that visually represents data trends. To insert them, press ALT N SL > select the data range you want to visualize and hit okay. Lastly, fill the sparklines down using the fill handle.