XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 1
EDITION 130 – SEPTEMBER 2012
IN THIS EDITION
1 Disaster 7: Reports
compiled with old
printouts
3 Drag the mouse at
different speeds
5 Create your first
PivotTable
XL02/03
XL07/10
15 Retrieve data using
the VLOOKUP
function
20 Add trendlines to
examine data
relationships
23 Add some sparkle to
reports with
Sparklines
27 Move right with
keyboard shortcuts
31 Conventions: Make
inputs a blue font
34 Apply pure blue in
Excel 2007/2010
36 Instant inquisition
37 Editor’s letter
37 AbleOwl information
Disaster 7: Reports
compiled with old printouts >>Files: PrintDateTime.xls Back to top
Know the potential disasters that befall Excel users and discover the solutions.
In the mad scramble to meet
a deadline, you include an
old printout in the report
You know how it is: there’s a mad scramble to meet
a deadline, reports get printed, you finally assemble
the reports into a document, make copies and
distribute them to all and sundry. At the meeting,
having met your deadline, you breathe a sigh of
relief, relax a little, glance at a printout and then
struggle to stifle a shriek as you realise that the
printout is not the latest one, but one with errors.
It is a common- enough situation. How can it be
avoided?
Print the date and time in
the footer
If each printed page includes the date and time,
then you can determine which of several page-
versions is the latest.
The date and time of printing can easily be included
in the header or footer, which prints on every page.
At AbleOwl, we standardise reports by placing the
date and time in the left of the footer.
2 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
The preview above has the date and time on the left of the footer, the file path and
name in the centre and the page number (of pages) on the right.
Put date and time in footer To enter the date and time in the header or footer:
(1) In XL07/10, display the Page Layout ribbon.
Surprisingly, headers and footers are nowhere to be seen on the ribbon; they are not
even listed in any of the drop-down menus. Notice a wee arrow in the bottom right
of the Page Setup group. (The mouse pointer below points to it). That arrow is
known as a dialog box launcher.
(2) In XL07/10, click the dialog box launcher. The keyboard shortcut for steps 1 and 2
is Alt P SP.
In XL02/03, choose File | Page Setup (Alt F U).
In all Excel releases, the Page Setup dialog box appears.
(3) Choose the Header/Footer page of the dialog box.
(4) Choose Custom Footer.
The dialog box below appears. The footer (as well as the header) is in three sections.
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XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 3
(5) Click in the Left section.
(6) Click the Insert Date button, which is left of Insert Time as shown below.
That enters &[Date].
(7) Type a space character
(8) Click the Insert Time button.
That enters &[Time]. The result is as below.
When the report prints, the footer contains the date and time of printing.
Drag the mouse at different speeds
>>Files: BigSheetNavigate.xls Back to top
Be in control as you drive your mouse.
There are five vertical speeds
and three horizontal ones
If you try to select a large range with the mouse, you often overshoot and oscillate
back and forth until you get it right. A simple bit of information about the mouse
can help you control this: it has five vertical speeds and three horizontal.
In the sheet below, the task is to select a range from K395 to the bottom right of the
inputs area, which happens to be Z577. (Typically, you wouldn’t know that Z577 is
the bottom of the inputs; you would only recognise it when you saw the cell). The
range is fairly large.
4 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
File: BigSheetNavigate.xls, sheet: iDatabase
(1) Click on K395.
(2) Drag down.
For speed 1 of 5, position the
mouse just into the area of
the tabs
(3) When you reach the sheet tabs area as shown below, move the mouse just into
that area.
Then, you scroll down the sheet at speed 1 of 5, which is a slow, controllable speed.
A little further down is speed
2 of 5
(4) Drag the mouse down a little further, to about two-fifths of the distance from the
top of the tabs to the bottom of the Status bar (let’s call that the grey area).
You scroll down at speed 2 of 5.
(5) Drag progressively further down into the grey area.
You accelerate gradually to maximum speed, at which point you are really hurtling
along.
Most people only know one
speed: maximum
To drag right at speed 1,
position the mouse at the left
of the vertical scroll bar
As most people only drive the mouse
with the foot firmly to the floor, they
hurtle past the destination, hurtle back,
overshoot and so on until eventually,
with more luck than judgement, they
come to a stop at the destination.
Similarly, there are five ‘up’ speeds.
Experiment with the mouse to discover
where to position it for the different up
speeds.
There are three horizontal speeds. For
the slowest speed right, position the
mouse just into the vertical scroll bar, as
shown right.
File: BigSheetNavigate.xls,
sheet: iDatabase
XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 5
Create your first PivotTable
>>Files: FirstPivotTableXL03.xls, FirstPivotTableXL07.xlsm, FirstPivotTableXL03Final.xls,
FirstPivotTableXL07Final.xlsm Back to top
XL07/10 XL02/03
PivotTables are great tools to quickly summarise large amounts of data. The following article shows how to quickly
create a simple PivotTable for textual data. Note: The PivotTables feature varies considerably among Excel
versions. Separate example files/screenshots/procedures are included here for both XL02/03 and XL07/10. While the
first three screenshots are of XL07/10, these screenshots are identical in XL02/03.
PivotTables quickly
summarise large amounts of
data
Excel's PivotTables are great tools to quickly summarise large tables of data. In the
figure below, Martin, the sales manager for a struggling business, has hit upon an
incentive scheme for his sales reps.
Each sales rep is ranked
Gold, Silver or Bronze
Inspired by the recent Olympics, Martin has ranked each rep's performance as
Gold, Silver or Bronze. After the first month of his new scheme, Martin wants to
analyse the results.
File: FirstPivotTableXL07.xlsm, sheet: mRankData
Team performance is hard to
determine from raw data
It is not very easy to see how each team has performed just by looking at the table.
But by inserting a PivotTable, he can quickly produce the summary shown below.
PivotTables quickly
summarise performance data
File: FirstPivotTableXL07.xlsm, sheet: rRankSummary
6 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
Martin follows the steps below to create the PivotTable shown above:
Select the data you want in
the PivotTable including
column headings
(1) Select K14:M34 in the mRankData sheet. Include the column headings in row 14.
File: FirstPivotTableXL07.xlsm, sheet: mRankData
Although not done here, it is good practice to include the first blank row after your
bottom entry in the selection. This will be covered in a future PivotTable article.
Follow the appropriate steps
for your version of Excel
Once the data is selected, it is time to create the PivotTable. PivotTables work
differently in XL02/03 compared to XL07/10, so follow the appropriate steps below
for your version of Excel.
Excel 2007/2010
Martin inserts a PivotTable as follows:
(2) Choose Insert | Tables | PivotTable (Alt N V T).
The PivotTable button is
located in the Insert ribbon
Create PivotTable dialog box The Create PivotTable dialog box appears, as shown below.
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XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 7
The top half of the dialog box
asks for the source data
The top section of the dialog box asks you to choose the data to be analysed.
Because Martin selected the data before he chose to insert a PivotTable, the data
range is already entered into the Table/Range text box.
The bottom section of the dialog box asks where the PivotTable should be placed.
Place the PivotTable on a
separate sheet
It is good practice to place the PivotTable on a different sheet to the data it analyses,
so that it won't interfere with the data. Consequently, Martin selects a new
worksheet:
(3) Select New Worksheet.
To start with, the PivotTable
is empty
(4) Choose OK to insert the PivotTable.
When first created, the PivotTable just
appears as an empty outline (see right),
which Martin will populate with the
PivotTable data.
File: FirstPivotTableXL07.xlsm,
sheet: Sheet1
8 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
PivotTable Field List is on
the right
Choose those columns
(fields) you wish to add to
the PivotTable
You will also see a PivotTable Field List
to the right of the window.
The PivotTable Field List is where you
choose those columns (known as fields)
from your data that you wish to
summarise on your PivotTable.
Martin wants to compare the number
of gold, silver and bronze ranks
achieved by each region.
Martin drags the Region field
to the Row Labels box
(5) Click and hold the mouse button
down on Region, and with the mouse
button still held down, drag the Region
field to the Row Labels box, as shown
right.
The PivotTable now appears as shown
below.
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XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 9
Martin drags the Rank field
to the Column Labels box
To set up the column headings:
(6) Drag the Rank field to the Column
Labels box.
The PivotTable now has row and column headings as shown below.
The last step is for Martin to add his data to the table.
Add Sales rep field to Values (7) Drag the Sales rep field to the Values box.
The resulting PivotTable is shown below.
File: FirstPivotTableXL07.xlsm, sheet: Sheet1
Sales rep field is textual You may wonder where the values in the PivotTable come from, as the information
in the Sales rep field is textual, not numerical.
10 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
PivotTables count the
number of items in text fields
that match row and column
headings
When a text field is added to the Data Items region of a PivotTable, Excel counts the
number of records in the source data that match each Column heading-Row
heading combination.
Thus, for the figure above, you can see that there were four records that were from
the North region and that achieved a Gold rank for sales performance.
Column headings need to be
put into correct order; labels
are non-descriptive
You will also note that the Gold, Silver and Bronze rankings are not in the correct
order, and instead of descriptive titles for the row and column headings, there are
just Column Labels and Row Labels.
A future article will show you how to quickly alter the field order in a PivotTable,
change the PivotTable heading labels, and adjust PivotTable column widths (and
keep them adjusted).
Excel XP/2003
To insert a PivotTable in XL02/03:
(2) Choose Data | PivotTable and PivotChart Report… (Alt D P).
The PivotTable and PivotChart Wizard appears (see below).
Insert PivotTables in XL02/03
with the PivotTable and
PivotChart Wizard
In Step 1, choose Next > (3) In Step 1 of the Wizard, leave the settings at their defaults and choose Next >.
Step 2 of the PivotTable and PivotChart Wizard displays (below).
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XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 11
In Step 2, the data is already
selected so choose Next >
Martin has already selected the data to be used in the PivotTable, so he can leave the
Range as is:
(4) Choose Next >.
A message appears if a
PivotTable has already been
created from your data
If there is already another PivotTable created from the same source data, the
following message displays.
Choosing ‘Yes’ saves space
but may lead to unwanted
behaviour
If you choose Yes, you will save space and memory by linking the two PivotTable
reports. However, this means that some changes made in one PivotTable will affect
the other PivotTable, which may be undesirable behaviour.
Step 3 of the PivotTable and PivotChart Wizard asks where to place the PivotTable.
Step 3 asks for the
location of the
PivotTable
Place the PivotTable on a
separate sheet
It is good practice to place the PivotTable on a different sheet to the data it analyses,
so that it won't interfere with the data.
(5) Select New worksheet and choose Finish. The PivotTable below appears.
12 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
When first created, a
PivotTable is blank
File: FirstPivotTableXL03.xls, sheet: Sheet1
Also see PivotTable Field List
Choose which columns
(fields) get added to the
PivotTable
You will also see a PivotTable Field List in a
separate window.
The PivotTable Field List is where you choose
those columns (known as fields) from your data
that you wish to summarise on your PivotTable.
Martin wants to compare the number of gold,
silver and bronze ranks achieved by each region,
so he proceeds as follows:
Martin drags Region field to
Drop Row Fields Here
(6) Click and drag the Region field onto the area labelled Drop Row Fields Here in
the PivotTable (see below).
The PivotTable now appears as shown below.
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XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 13
Martin drags Rank field to
Drop Column Fields Here
Martin proceeds to set up the column headings:
(7) Drag the Rank field onto the area labelled Drop Column Fields Here (see below).
The PivotTable now has
row and column
headings as shown
below.
The last step is for
Martin to add his data to
the table.
Martin drags Sales rep to
Drop Data Items Here
(8) Drag the Sales rep field to the PivotTable area labelled Drop Data Items Here
(see below).
14 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
The resulting PivotTable is shown below.
File: FirstPivotTableXL03.xls, sheet: Sheet1
Sales rep field is textual
PivotTables count the
number of items in text fields
that match row and column
headings
You may wonder where the values in the PivotTable come from, as the information
in the Sales rep field is textual, not numerical.
When a text field is added to the Data Items region of a PivotTable, Excel counts the
number of records in the source data that match each Column heading-Row
heading combination.
Thus, for the figure above, you can see that there were four records that were from
the North region and that achieved a Gold rank for sales performance.
Column headings need to be
put into correct order
You will also note that the gold, silver and bronze rankings are not in the correct
order, and instead of descriptive titles for the row and column headings, there are
just Column Labels and Row Labels.
A future article will show you how to quickly alter the field order in a PivotTable,
change the PivotTable heading labels, and adjust PivotTable column widths (and
keep them adjusted).
XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 15
Retrieve data using the VLOOKUP function >>Files: VLOOKUP.xls Back to top
Excel's knack for neatly organizing vast quantities of data commends it to many users; however, the flip side of that
capacity is the tendency for Excel to become a black hole of data. Luckily, Excel provides several functions to
retrieve that data for you, the most commonly-used of which is VLOOKUP.
Bettina needs to retrieve
data from Excel
To explore the handy VLOOKUP function, we visit Bettina's Bridal Boutique. This
fine establishment offers four extravagant wedding packages – at four extravagant
price points, of course. To retrieve the appropriate price depending on the
wedding package selected by the giddy newlyweds-to-be, Bettina turns to the
VLOOKUP function.
VLOOKUP takes at least
three arguments…
The VLOOKUP function minimally takes three arguments: (a) Lookup value.
(b) Lookup table. (c) Column number. It also accepts an optional fourth argument:
(d) Match type (FALSE = exact; TRUE = approximate).
…but the optional fourth
argument is actually quite
important
Within the first column of the lookup table, VLOOKUP searches for the lookup
value. When it finds a match, VLOOKUP scans across that row and returns the
corresponding value in row (c) of the lookup table.
It specifies whether you
want an approximate…
What does "match type" mean? When this argument is set to an approximate
match (which is the default if the argument is omitted), VLOOKUP scans down the
first column from the top until it finds the first value that is greater than the lookup
value; then, the function considers the previous value to be the match.
…or an exact match type An exact match, on the other hand, is exactly what it sounds like: VLOOKUP
searches for a perfect match (although not case-sensitive), and returns an error if it
cannot locate one. Misuse of the fourth argument is a common source of
VLOOKUP problems.
Below, the formula =VLOOKUP("Superman",K16:O18,4,FALSE) returns "Lois
Lane." Why?
File: VLOOKUP.xls, sheet: mExample
VLOOKUP searches for
your lookup value and
retrieves a corresponding
entry within your lookup
table
VLOOKUP searches the first column of the lookup table until it finds an exact
match for "Superman;" then, it moves right to the fourth column of the lookup
table. In the fourth column of the lookup table, in the same row as "Superman,"
VLOOKUP finds "Lois Lane," and dutifully retrieves that value for you: the Man of
Steel's lady love is the one and only Lois Lane.
Ready to start retrieving? That's all well and good for Clark Kent and the quick-witted brunette beauty in the
next cubicle, but how can VLOOKUP help Bettina? Consider the screenshot below.
16 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
Make sure you know where
your lookup value and
lookup table are located…
Bettina's lookup value, the wedding package, is selected from a drop-down menu
in cell L13. Her table of values is located in cells K20:N23, with package names in
the first column, as required, and the corresponding prices in the fourth column.
File: VLOOKUP.xls, sheet: mCosting
…and use VLOOKUP to
retrieve your data
Now, she just needs to build a VLOOKUP formula to look for the designated
package choice in the first column and then return the corresponding price from
the fourth column, as shown below.
File: VLOOKUP.xls, sheet: mCosting
Bettina follows these steps:
Select the cell for your
formula and click the
function button
(1) Select the cell in which you want your formula placed.
(2) Click on the function button next to the Formula bar.
In the Insert Function dialog
box…
This activates the Insert Function dialog box, which includes a list of your most
recently-used functions for quick selection. VLOOKUP isn't there, so you need to
search for it.
…search for VLOOKUP (3) Type VLOOKUP into the Search for a function: box and either click the Go
button or press Enter.
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XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 17
Select the VLOOKUP
function…
The list of recently-used functions now displays a list of lookup-related functions,
including VLOOKUP. Beneath the Select a function: box, Excel also offers a brief
explanation of the function to help you make a decision.
(4) Select VLOOKUP by double-clicking on the function name or by clicking the
OK button.
…to open the Function
Arguments dialog box
This brings you to the Function Arguments dialog box, as shown below.
Explanation of the selected function
Recently-used functions
Search results
Mandatory arguments are bold
Explanation of
the function
Explanation of the selected argument
Argument requirements
18 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
Here, Excel offers an explanation of the function's purpose; when you move your
cursor into a different argument entry box, an explanation of that specific
argument appears. The first three arguments are in bold text because they are
required; the fourth, optional argument is shown in regular text.
Define your arguments in
the argument entry boxes
To define your arguments,
(5) Place your cursor in the correct entry box.
(6) Select the chosen cell or range, or type in the correct value.
Cell L13 provides the lookup value; range K20:N23, the lookup table. Counting
across the columns of the lookup table yields the appropriate column index
number of 4. Finally, enter FALSE for the fourth argument to ensure VLOOKUP
performs an exact match.
Once you have entered cell references or values for your arguments, Excel displays
the contents of each argument. When all mandatory arguments have been defined,
Excel shows the formula result in two locations within the dialog box.
① ② ③ ④
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Enter the formula (7) Click the OK button or press Enter.
This enters the formula =VLOOKUP(L13,K20:N23,4,FALSE) into the active cell,
L24.
Change lookup values to
test the formula
When you change the wedding package selection in cell L13, the VLOOKUP
function returns the correct fixed costs price.
Change the fourth
argument…
Try omitting the fourth argument (or changing it to TRUE) in Bettina's example,
and then set the wedding package choice to Gold or Platinum. What value does
your formula return?
…and things start to go
awry
Because VLOOKUP is looking for an approximate match, it only searches until it
finds the first value greater than the lookup value. Since Gold and Platinum both
occur before Silver in alphabetical order, VLOOKUP only looks as far as Silver, and
then returns the previous value – the fixed costs price of a Bronze package.
Remember, you should
(almost) always set the
fourth argument to FALSE
Bettina probably won't appreciate VLOOKUP offering such a hefty discount to her
customers, so it's best to always set that fourth argument to FALSE – unless you
have a very convincing reason to do otherwise. For just such a situation, tune in
next edition to learn about banded VLOOKUPs.
Entered arguments are displayed
The formula result is shown in two
locations
20 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
Add trendlines to examine data relationships >>Files: Trendline.xls Back to top
Add trendlines to charts to easily visualize trends, relationships, and the effects of one variable upon another.
You have some data… but
what does it mean?
Annalise owns a reindeer rental company and she's spent the last year trying out
different marketing strategies in Australia and New Zealand. Now, with a year's
worth of marketing costs and sales figures before her, Annalise wants to know
whether there is any relationship between the amount of money she spent on
marketing and the number of sales her company made.
A trendline summarizes
relationships between data
values
One of the simplest ways to answer Annalise's question is to add a trendline to her
data; before she can add a trendline, however, Annalise must first chart her data.
To chart sales against marketing dollars spent, Annalise follows these steps:
Chart the data first… (1) Select the data range, L15:W17.
(2) Insert a chart:
In XL07/10, go to Insert | Charts | Scatter (Alt N
D) and select Scatter with only Markers.
In XL02/03, go to Insert | Chart (Alt I H) as
show right, and then select XY (Scatter) in the
Chart Wizard.
This creates a scatter plot of her data, as shown below.
File: Trendline.xls, sheet: rSummary
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…and then add a trendline Now, Annalise is ready to add trendlines. She follows these steps:
(3) Select the New Zealand series of data.
(4) Add a trendline:
In XL07/10, go to Chart Tools | Layout | Trendline | More trendline options (Alt
JA N M).
In XL02/03, go to Chart | Add Trendline… (Alt C R).
In XL07/10, this opens the Format Trendline dialog box as shown below.
In XL02/03, the Add Trendline dialog box that opens looks slightly different but
includes the same options.
Select trendline options
appropriate for your data
and purposes
In this dialog box, select appropriate options based on your individual trendline
requirements.
(5) Select a regression type (Annalise selects Linear trendline).
(6) Change the trendline name, if required, by selecting Custom under Trendline
Name and typing in the desired name (Annalise types NZ trend into the entry
box).
Select the appropriate regression type here
Change the name that will appear in your chart legend by selecting Custom here
Extend the trendline into the future or past here
Force your trendline to intercept the vertical axis at a designated value here
Display the equation or R2 value of the trendline on your chart by ticking the options here
Alter the appearance of your trendline here
22 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
(7) Enter a forward or backward forecast period to extend the trendline into the
future or past (Annalise leaves these blank; she's not interested in forecasting).
(9) Enter an intercept value, if required (Annalise leaves this option un-ticked
because she has no prior knowledge to suggest that her trendline should have a
specific intercept value).
(10) Tick or un-tick boxes to select display options (Annalise ticks only the box
Display R-squared value on chart).
(11) Press Enter to close the dialog box and add the trendline to the chart.
Annalise follows the same steps to add a trendline to her Australia data. Before she
finishes, however, she needs to take one additional step: changing the colour of this
second trendline so that it can be distinguished from the first.
If adding more than one
trendline, change colours to
aid differentiation
(12) Adjust the line color of the trendline.
In XL07/10, proceed through step (10) and then select the Line Color tab in the
Format Trendline dialog box.
In XL02/03, proceed through step (11) and then (i) Right-click on the
completed trendline, and (ii) Select Format Trendline… from the menu.
(13) Select Solid line and choose an appropriate color (Annalise chooses red).
(14) Press Enter to close the dialog box.
Now the spreadsheet includes two trendlines, complete with R2 values.
File: Trendline.xls, sheet: rSummary
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Back to that first question –
what does it mean?
They look nice, but what do they mean? The correlation coefficient (R2) of a
trendline is a value between 0 and 1 that indicates how much of the variance in the
dependent variable is predicted by the independent variable
R2 tells you how well your
independent variable
predicts the dependent
variable…
In Annalise's case, her R2 values tell her how much of the variance in sales is
explained by the amount she spent on marketing. A value of 0 would indicate no
relationship whatsoever between $NZD spent and sales made, whereas a value of 1
would indicate that $NZD spent alone predicts 100% of the variance in sales made.
…so here, how much of the
sales variance is predicted
by marketing variance
The cut-off between "good" and "bad" R2 values can be quite subjective, but it is
clear from Annalise's two trendlines that her Australian marketing campaign had a
much greater effect on sales than did her New Zealand marketing campaign.
Add some sparkle to reports with
Sparklines >>Files: Sparklines.xlsx Back to top
Sparklines were introduced in Excel 2010. They offer a great way to quickly and easily visualize your results, or
add strong, graphic impact to data reports.
Graphical summaries
improve data interpretation
and presentation
Nobody wants to look at rows of numbers and try to make sense of them; that's
why data reports almost always include some variety of graphical reporting, be it
in the form of a line, column, or bar chart. With multiple data series, however,
charts can become crowded, and often, you may not want a full-sized chart front
and centre.
Sparklines are a nifty new
charting feature available in
Excel 2010
Excel 2010 introduced a brilliant new tool for graphical summarization: Sparklines!
To add Sparklines to a data report in XL10, follow the steps below.
Select the series and ask
Excel to add Sparklines…
(1) Select the series (single or multiple) of data, excluding headings or series names,
for which you want to create Sparklines.
(2) Go to Insert | Sparklines | Line (Alt N S L).
The Create Sparklines dialog box appears, as shown below.
…but be sure to tell Excel
where to put them
If you made an error when selecting your data cells, you can adjust the selection in
the Data Range selection box; otherwise, simply choose a location for your
Sparklines.
(3) Select the range of cells into which you want your Sparklines placed.
In practice, the cells to the left or right of your input data are usually the most
appropriate selection for the Location Range.
24 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
File: Sparklines.xlsx, sheet: rSparklines
(4) Press Enter or click OK.
This creates the line chart Sparklines shown below.
File: Sparklines.xlsx, sheet: rSparklines
Format your Sparklines
using the contextual
ribbon…
When a cell containing a Sparkline is selected, the Sparkline Tools Design
contextual ribbon appears, with many options for customization.
On the left-hand size of the ribbon, you can adjust source data, change chart type,
add markers for specific points, and choose from several pre-set Sparkline styles …
Source data for your Sparklines
Location for your Sparklines
XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 25
…where you'll find all sorts
of useful options
…whereas, on the right-hand side of the ribbon, you can choose a colour for your
Sparkline and a colour for any markers you may have added, adjust the axes,
group and ungroup Sparklines for quick batch editing, and clear the Sparklines
from selected cells.
One option is pretty
important though:
Many of these options are, as the name suggests, entirely optional; however, if you
are creating Sparklines for the purpose of comparing multiple data series, then
there is one "option" that strays far closer to the "necessary" than the "optional."
…you must remember to set
the axes to the same for all
Sparklines if you want to
compare them!
With one of your Sparklines selected:
(5) Go to Design | Axis (Alt J D A).
On the Axis menu, you can see the default selections for both the vertical axis
maximum and minimum: Automatic for Each Sparkline. If you want to be able to
make a valid comparison among Sparklines, these need to be altered so that all
Sparklines use the same axis values.
(6) Under Vertical Axis Minimum Value Options, select Same for All Sparklines.
(7) Under Vertical Axis Maximum Value Options, select Same for All Sparklines.
Change the source data
Change the chart type
Apply pre-set styles
Add markers to specific points
Apply pre-set styles
Change the color of the Sparkline or
markers
Edit Sparkline
axes
Delete Sparklines
Group or ungroup
Sparklines
26 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
Tells a different story, eh? This minor change can make quite a difference to the appearance of your
Sparklines, and consequently, quite a difference to the interpretation of your data.
File: Sparklines.xlsx, sheet: rSparklines
If you don't have Excel 2010,
be sure to tune in next
month!
Sparklines have many potential applications for quick and easy visualisation of
data series; of course, this inbuilt Excel 2010 feature excludes all Excel users with
prior versions. To learn how to create a Sparkline alternative in all Excel versions,
read next month's edition of Instant Excel.
XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 27
Move right with keyboard shortcuts
>>File: BigSheetNavigateRight.xls Back to top
Learn to quickly move from where you are on your spreadsheet to a cell in the same row, but far to the right
The spreadsheet example here has many columns of data, and you wish to edit the
data in the last column. The active cell is N19 and the cell to which you want to
navigate is Z19.
File: BigSheetNavigateRight.xls, sheet: iDatabase
Here are three keyboard
shortcuts to move quickly to
the right
The three keyboard shortcuts to quickly move to the right of your spreadsheet are:
Ctrl+Right arrow Jump to the right, stopping next to an empty cell each time
Alt+PageDown Jump to the right, one screen page at a time
End Enter Jump to the rightmost cell (in a row) with formatting or value
Jump to the right using Ctrl+Right arrow Pressing the Ctrl and Right
arrow keys together moves
the active cell to the right
Pressing the Ctrl key and the Right arrow key together moves the active cell to the
right.
If there are empty cells between N19 and Z19 (as there are in the example), then
after you press Ctrl+Right arrow, the active cell stops adjacent to an empty cell.
28 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
File: BigSheetNavigateRight.xls, sheet: iDatabase
It stops at empty cells… (1) From cell N19, press Ctrl+Right arrow.
The active cell moves to cell P19, the cell before the next empty cell, as shown below.
File: BigSheetNavigateRight.xls, sheet: iDatabase
…but happily jumps over
them upon request
(2) From cell P19, press Ctrl+Right arrow again.
The active cell moves right to the cell after the empty cell, as shown below.
File: BigSheetNavigateRight.xls, sheet: iDatabase
…even if there are many
empty cells
What if there are multiple blank cells in your row?
(3) From cell S19, press Ctrl+Right arrow.
The active cell moves right across multiple intervening blank cells, and the new
active cell is the cell just after the last blank cell, as shown below.
XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 29
File: BigSheetNavigateRight.xls, sheet: iDatabase
With just a few key presses, you can quickly navigate across your data range. Want
to go even faster?
Hold down the Ctrl+Right
arrow keys to go to the last
column in the sheet…
Holding the Ctrl and Right arrow keys down repeats these rightward jumps. If you
hold the keys down long enough, the active cell moves to the last column in the
spreadsheet. In XL02/03, this is column IV; in XL07/10, column XFD.
…but you can always go
home
Now that you're at the edge of the world, so to speak, how do you get back? Press
the Ctrl and Left arrow keys to move the active cell back to the left (alternatively, try
pressing the Home key).
Jump to the right using Alt+PgDn Another way to jump to the
right: Alt+PageDown
Press the Alt key and the PageDown key together to move the active cell one screen
page to the right.
On some keyboards (especially laptops) it will be the Alt key and the PgDn key. For
the rest of this article, PageDown is synonymous with PgDn.
File: BigSheetNavigateRight.xls, sheet: iDatabase
Alt+PageDown or Alt+PgDn
gets you close…
(1) From cell N19, press Alt+PageDown (or Alt+PgDn depending on your
keyboard).
The active cell jumps to the first cell in the next window, AA19, as you can see
below.
… fine-tuning then gets you
exactly to Z19
(2) Press the Left arrow key once to navigate to Z19.
This can be an even quicker way to jump across great swathes of data.
30 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
File: BigSheetNavigateRight.xls, sheet: iDatabase
Hold down Alt+PageDown
keys to move the active cell to
the far right of the
spreadsheet
As before, holding down the Alt and PageDown keys will eventually move the
active cell to the last column in the spreadsheet displayed.
Once you're off in the rightward wilds of a spreadsheet, try pressing Alt and the
PageUp key to move the active cell back to the left (alternatively, press the Home
key).
Jump to the right using End Enter Use the End and Enter keys… Pressing the End key and then the Enter key (consecutively, not together) moves the
active cell to the last column in the row that contains either a value or formatting.
…to move to the rightmost
cell that contains formatting
(1) From cell N19, press End then Enter
The active cell jumps to AA19. Why?
This is the rightmost cell that contains formatting: it has a solid border on the right
side. This border is the reason why the End Enter key sequence stops at AA19.
You are now only one keystroke from Z19.
(2) Press the Left arrow key once.
What were all those shortcuts
again?
To summarise, here are three keyboard-only ways to move to the right of your
spreadsheet, and a key to bring you home again:
Ctrl+Right arrow Jump to the right, stopping next to an empty cell each time
Alt+PageDown Jump to the right, one screen page at a time
End Enter Jump to the rightmost cell (in a row) with formatting or value
Home Jump back to the leftmost cell in a row
Coming soon In later editions of Instant Excel, we will cover shortcuts that include combinations
of the keyboard and the mouse.
To note! Please don’t try to learn all the shortcuts at one time. Practice a few many times
until they are built into your long-term memory.
XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 31
Conventions: Make inputs a blue font
>>Files: ConventionInputBlue.xls Back to top
Help prevent formulas from being overtyped, show users where the input cells are and make your sheets clearer.
A formula is easily overtyped It’s easy for formula cells to be accidentally overtyped; when someone enters data,
he or she looks at the cell, and might not notice the formula displayed in the
Formula bar. Conventions: Make inputs a blue font
Some apply fill colours or
borders to input cells;
AbleOwl apply a blue font
In the sheet below, which are input cells? It is not possible to tell at a glance. Some
people apply a fill to input cells. Pale yellow and pale blue are common colours for
such, though by no means universal. Others apply a grid or borders. At AbleOwl,
we do none of those. Instead, we apply a pure blue font.
File: ConventionInputBlue.xls, sheet: iStockMoveNothing
With a blue font applied to inputs, the sheet looks as below.
File: ConventionInputBlue.xls, sheet: iStockMoveFontBlue
32 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
With the blue font applied, when you look at a cell, you can immediately tell
whether it is an input cell, which minimises the risk of overtyping a formula. There
are other benefits to identifying the inputs:
Input identification makes
communication easier
(i) You can communicate to others where the inputs are, which in turn minimises
the risk that some inputs get overlooked, that is, do not get input.
The sheet becomes more
understandable
(ii) You understand the sheet better. For example, you now see that the closing
balance is calculated from the opening balance plus activities during the month.
Why is a blue font better than a yellow fill?
With a yellow fill applied to inputs, the sheet looks as below.
File: ConventionInputBlue.xls, sheet: iStockMoveFillYellow
If you identify inputs with a
fill, you can’t use a fill to, say,
identify actual months
Suppose you want to apply a fill to the Dec-11 column to indicate that it is an actual
month as opposed to a forecast month. Applying that fill will remove the fill used to
indicate input. However, the blue font still clearly shows, as you see in column R
below.
File: ConventionInputBlue.xls, sheet: iStockMoveFontBlueFill
XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 33
With borders applied to inputs, the sheet looks as below.
File: ConventionInputBlue.xls, sheet: iStockMoveBorder
Borders make it hard to find
the active cell
While a fill can be overlaid to keep inputs identified, it is hard to find the active cell
if it is in a bordered cell. Furthermore, too many borders become distracting and
make you a little cross-eyed.
Blue font inputs work better
in printouts than fill or
borders
And there’s another benefit to a blue font: on a printout, it is not usually necessary
or even desirable to identify inputs. On black and white printouts, blue prints as
black. However, fill and borders appear and look decidedly unattractive (and
mystifying).
Finally, in XL07/10, where do you find the pure blue colour? See the article, Apply
pure blue in Excel 2007/2010.
34 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
Apply pure blue in Excel 2007/2010
Pure blue was hidden away by Excel beginning in 2007. Read on to discover where to find it now. Back to top
Pure colours are useful in
creating easy-to-follow
spreadsheets
You could describe a spreadsheet as an engineered product. Good use of colour
helps make a product easier to understand and use. Therefore, for clarity, you need
easily-identified colours. Applying multiple tints of the same colour can result in an
attractive sheet, but if difficulty in distinguishing colours results in a lack of clarity,
the design is poor.
Clear identification of inputs
is important to spreadsheets
So where is pure blue?
So, well-engineered products use bright colours
where clarity is paramount. For example, the live
wire is red, neutral is blue and ground is green.
There won’t be any subtle tints in those colours,
so you would never mistake one for another.
Clear identification of inputs is an important
principle to apply to spreadsheets. See the article
‘Conventions: Make inputs a blue font’ elsewhere
in this edition. The AbleOwl convention is to
apply a pure blue font. The colour is easily
distinguishable from black and stands out clearly
on a white background.
But where is pure blue in XL07/10? There’s its
colour palette on the right (Figure A).
Figure A
In XL02/03, it’s right there
In XL07/10, you need to dig
deeper
In XL02/03, pure blue is in the second
row, sixth column of the palette
(Figure B).
XL07/10 has Theme Colours (Figure A)
and, below that, Standard Colours, but
though pure red and yellow are there,
blue and green are not. You need to dig
deeper.
Figure B
In XL07/10, choose More Colors … (Figure A). The Colors dialog box appears
(Figure C). Pure blue is on the second row, sixth from the left.
The RGB number confirms
that you have pure blue
If you want to be sure that the blue you choose is pure blue, display the Custom
page. Every colour is a combination of red, green and blue. The degree of a colour is
a number 0 to 255. As you see in Figure D, the chosen colour has no red or green,
but blue is to the maximum.
XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 35
Figure C
Figure D
Once applied, the colour
remains on the button, to be
easily applied again
Note that after you apply a colour, the color
button face (the letter A right) displays that
colour, which means that if you click on the
button letter A rather than the drop-down arrow,
you apply that colour again. Also note that the
colour appears in Recent Colors (Figure E). The
colour remains there while the workbook is open.
Figure E
36 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010
Instant inquisition
Test your understanding of the topics covered in this edition of Instant Excel. Back to top
(1) How many vertical drag
speeds are there?
a) 2
b) 3
c) 4
d) 5
(2) What is the date and time
in the footer?
a) Time last calculated
b) Time printed
c) Time of last save
(3) What does Excel do when
textual values are added
to a PivotTable's Value
region?
a) The text is treated as zero.
b) The PivotTable spits out an error.
c) The PivotTable counts the entries.
(4) Which of these are true of
the fourth argument of
VLOOKUP function?
(choose all that apply)
a) By default, it is set to TRUE, which performs an approximate match.
b) By default, it is set to FALSE, which performs an exact match.
c) It is an optional (but important) argument.
d) It is a mandatory argument.
(5) Of what must you be
careful when comparing
among Sparklines?
a) The vertical axis maximum and minimum values must be Automatic.
b) The horizontal axis maximum and minimum values must be the Same for All
Sparklines.
c) The vertical axis maximum and minimum values must be the Same for All
Sparklines.
(6) Which of these are true of
the R2 value of a linear
regression trendline?
(choose all that apply)
a) A value of 0 indicates no linear relationship between your variables.
b) A value of 1 indicates a perfect linear relationship between your variables.
c) It communicates how much of the variance in the dependent variable is
predicted by the variance in the independent variable.
d) The specific R2 cut-off value between a strong and weak relationship is 0.732.
(7) What keyboard shortcut
might you use to move
right across a worksheet?
(choose all that apply)
a) Ctrl+Right arrow
b) Alt+PageDown
c) End Enter
(8) A blue font for inputs has
which advantages?
(choose all that apply)
a) Allows fill to be used for other purposes
b) Is easier to spot inputs on screen
c) Does not distract, especially on the printout
d) Contrasts well on a white background
(9) RGB stands for?
a) Raster Graphic Basic
b) Russian Government Bureau
c) Red Green Blue
Go to answers
XL02/03=Excel XP(2002)/2003
XL07/10 = Excel 2007/2010 AbleOwl (SEY) Ltd © 2012 37
Editor's letter
If you're a long-time Instant Excel Sheet subscriber, you may have noticed a few
new things going on this month… that's right, we changed our fonts! While we
were at it, we decided to make a few other minor tweaks, too.
I hope you enjoy this inaugural (and greatly extended for this month!) edition of
shiny new Instant Excel, and I'd love to hear your feedback at
[email protected]. Do you like the videos? Are the picture-oriented
articles more helpful than our previous, text-based articles? Is the longer quiz a
useful recap? What other features would help the Instant better help you?
And while we're at it, I'll stick my face over there to the left – I'm the newest editor
of this fine publication, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Happy Excel-ing!
Jillian Pennington Back to top
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Quiz Answers: (1) d; (2) b; (3) c; (4) a,c; (5) d; (6) a,b,c; (7) a,b,c; (8) a,b,c,d; (9) c