This week’s hint and tip is about creating a table from your data in Excel and how it makes named ranges more flexible this way than​ just selecting and naming the range of cells. This is on our Basic Excel training course and it covers creating them as well as removing the table formatting. We are going to go through it now below.

Excel Tables in your spreadsheets

In Excel you can name ranges of cells (which we looked at in a previous hint and tip early this year). However if you then add a row of data to this named range, it isn’t included automatically. To overcome this problem, you have to go and amend the named range (Formulas Tab, Name Manager).

However, if you make your data into an Excel Table, when you add a new row of data into your spreadsheet, it is automatically included in the original named range. So, you don’t have to go back and update it manually!

Making your data into an Excel Table

To do this, firstly select a single cell in your data and go to the Insert Tab. Next click on the ‘Table’ option on the ribbon. This will bring up a window showing your data range for your table, click OK. This will now have created your Table.

This is just one example of how Excel Tables can be used, there are lots more which we will look into in another hint and tip.

Take a look below at the video to find out more about Excel Tables and how they can be useful with named ranges. Then try it out using the example spreadsheet below!

Click here to download the example spreadsheet shown in the video to try it out yourself!

We hope you have enjoyed this hint and tip, why not take a look at some previous one on the Excel environment?

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This week’s hint and tip is about setting up the ‘Excel Environment’. This is on our Basic Excel training course and covers several​ options you can use to set it up. We are going to go through a few here that you can use on your computer.

QAT (Quick Access Toolbar) & creating your own Tab

First is the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar) within Excel. This little toolbar is found in the top left hand side of your screen within Excel. It is a feature that has been around for many years. Quite a few people use this toolbar but many don’t know they can customise it to their needs. You can add commands within Excel to this toolbar for quick and easy access to save you time flicking through multiple tabs.

Although the QAT is very useful, there is only so much space up there in the top left hand corner. So the next option we go through is creating your own Tab! This gives you a ‘much bigger QAT’ and allows you to create your own Tab with groups to add commands under. This is found by right hand clicking on a blank part of the ribbon and select ‘customise the ribbon’.

Splitting Your Screen

Finally we look at splitting your computer screen. This isn’t Excel specific and so can be used in any package or program on your computer. This is a keyboard shortcut that allows you to split the screen with the window you have open with another open window. This allows you to have the 2 windows open but evenly split in half.

The video below shows you how to set up the ‘Excel Environment’ on your computer. These options can enable you to save time in your day to day use of it.

Take a look below at the video to find out more and then try it out on your own computer!

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Excel is used on a daily basis by people all over the world with most of them constantly learning Excel in their work. It has lots of features that can be used from a basic to a more advanced level, with one of these features being macros. An Excel macro allows you to save a number of steps, by either recording them as you do the action or by typing them in as code (or a bit of both!) and then assigning that macro to a button to use in your spreadsheet.

In this blog, we have an example of an Excel macro for you to look at. If you would like to try it out, get in touch and we can send you a copy of the spreadsheet.

In this spreadsheet, we have 3 students taking part in a long jump competition. They each jump 3 times and their distances are recorded. There is also a column with the world record distance in it. At the bottom of each student a formula has been used to pick up their longest jump distance. There is then a formula in cell F5 that works out who the winner is and shows it in the cell, however the cell font colour has been coloured white to hide it until the button above is pressed. This button has a macro assigned to it that will show the name of the winner and fill the cell red to show it when pressed. How the macro works is explained below.

Firstly the formula in cell F5 is this: =INDEX($B$1:$D$1,MATCH(E5,B5:D5,1)).

The MATCH part of the formula is looking at the students longest jumps (B5:D5) and then comparing them to the world record figure in cell E5. The ‘1’ part of the MATCH formula is saying that it is looking for the figure that is next closest in value to the world record figure. The range must be sorted in ascending order for the ‘1’ argument in the MATCH function.

The INDEX part of the formula links the jump value worked out as the highest to the name that it correlates to (so it returns the name of the student that jumped the furthest).

However for this to all work, the highest figures at the bottom need to be ordered in value from left to right (lowest to highest). Normally sorting is carried out vertically but in this spreadsheet, we need the sorting to be carried out horizontally. This is changed through using the options button in Data, Sort. Under here you can change the orientation of the sort.

All of this comes together when a macro is recorded. The macro recording to begin with is just of the ‘longest jump’ figures being sorted. Once recorded, the macro is edited to add some VBA code in to fill the cell F5 red so that the name of the student stands out. Once this is done the macro can then be assigned to the button so that when it is pressed, it all comes together and the name of the student who has won appears in the cell with a red background!

Want to give it a go? Then get in touch so we can send you a copy to try!

Once you have done it and a name has appeared, change a distance of a student who didn’t win so that they would win, reset the fill colour cell F5 to no fill and then press the button again and the new student should show as winner!

If you’re interested in learning Excel, then get in touch we would be happy to help!

We hope you liked this hint and tip on learning Excel through games. Why not take a look at our previous hint and tip post on creating a pivot table in Excel?

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BODMAS. The word that tends to divide a room of people on one of our Excel courses up in to one of four groups:

1. Have no idea what we are talking about and never heard of BODMAS
2. Vaguely remember being told about it and learning about it at school but haven’t heard about it since
3. Remember it and are ok about it
4. Remember it clearly, didn’t like it then, don’t like it now and bolt for the door!

Ok so the bolting for the door doesn’t happen that often (thankfully!), people who fall in to the 4th group tend to go quiet and try and hide in their seats so that they aren’t asked a question on it!

So why does this small and seemingly harmless word sometime invoke such a strong reaction in some people?

The reason for this is that BODMAS originates in the Algebra section of Maths days back in school (now this is where people are more likely to bolt for the door, after the word Algebra has been spoken!). Not everyone enjoyed Maths at school and so this is sometimes why not everyone likes the BODMAS topic in our Excel courses.

But it isn’t that bad!

BODMAS

BODMAS is just an order of precedence built in to Excel that is used when calculations are being worked out in a Spreadsheet. The order goes as follows:

BO – Brackets Override
D – Division
M – Multiplication
A – Addition
S – Subtraction

When a calculation is typed in to a cell, Excel will start at the top of this ‘list’ and work its way down, doing whichever symbol comes first before moving to the next.

To help explain this a bit more, we have created a spreadsheet with a few calculations in it explaining each time why it has done what it has.

Please click here to save on to your computer and give it a go.

We hope this has helped you understand the Excel training basics BODMAS concept a bit more! Why not take a look at our previous hint and tip on Excel names?

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Comments from the IT Training classroom floor which made me think…

Having had the privilege of training thousands of staff of all ages and backgrounds in Excel and other Microsoft Office modules I’ve heard loads of comments during the class. Most are naturally to do with the topic being explained but some are more general which made me stop and think….

I think I’m on the wrong course

Two people have said this. One was completely on the wrong course. Instead of being of a health and safety course they came on our Basic Excel course! Another however had booked themselves onto our Intermediate Excel course and realised early on they should have been on our Basic Excel course first.

It made me think… how important it is to evaluate both from the trainer’s standpoint and trainee’s standpoint the content of the course and any pre-requisites. We always publish and send agendas in advance through to the organiser of the course and ask them a good training needs analysis be conducted to make sure that the person is on the right level of training. It’s not unknown for some to go back and do Basic Excel after say Intermediate Excel but it’s best to do the training in the right order

I will never remember all this

This is a very popular comment often made towards the end of each course. We may have taught a trainee a hundred features and they will have successfully completed those hundred tasks during the day. The key however is to put into practise quickly those new skills after training has finished.

We offer a variety of ways of doing this from ‘reminder exercises and videos’ to encouraging employers to allow a few minutes each day for their staff to look at their own spreadsheets and to improve on them. Practice may not make perfect, but it sure helps!

Have you ever been on stage!?

I do tend to have a very informal but animated style whilst training often trying to add humour into my courses to make the rather drier topics at least more palatable. We believe that if you enjoy a course you are far more likely to want to learn more

I hate Excel and you won’t teach me anything today!

Although this was an exceptional comment made by one lady at the outset of the course it made me think. Here was a person who came into the course with a prejudice against the topic, a closed mind and an attitude which meant she was not prepared to give it a go!

Despite all kinds of encouraging questions and assistance she stubbornly refused to engage and learn. Sadly, at the close of play she still hated Excel and had not learned anything. Her employer had wasted their money. It made me think how important it is when it comes to learning a new subject to come with an open and eager mind and engage, ask for help and be prepared to at least give it a go. In my classes all are unsuccessful (apart maybe from that 1!)

I can work part time now

At a recent course one lady said that the time she could save implementing those shortcuts in Excel she had learned could save her hours and she could now work part time! It made me think that here was a payback and justification for the IT training. Not that all staff can go part time but that their efficiency will improve and in their roles, they can become more productive. I’m always seeking to see how they can put into practice their skills to save time and make life easier for all.

If you would like to hear more stories or simply just information on our courses please email us on johnlegge@jplcomputer.co.uk

Or click on the link here to learn more about our courses.

You might also like to read our previous post Excel training in Gloucestershire.

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We’ve all done it, typed a calculation or formula in Excel, hit enter and an error message appears! The problem we then have is “What does that error message mean?!?”

This weeks hint and tip goes through some common Excel error messages and why they have occurred so that you know how to fix them!

We’ve also got a hint and tip on the little green triangle errors that appear, you can see the link for this at the bottom of this hint and tip!

#N/A!

This error message appears when a formula or part of a formula can’t find the data that you have referenced inside it or have asked it to look for. An example of this is the MODE formula. This formula picks out the most occurring number in a range of numbers. If all the numbers are unique then the #N/A! message will come up because there is no number that occurs the most; what you are asking the formula to look for does not exist.

#NAME?

This error appears when there is an error in what you have typed in for the formula syntax (the actual formula name you type in after the = sign). The main reason is often that you have made a typo when typing in the formula. Just double check what you have types in for a spelling mistake. The example here is a spelling mistake, SUN has been typed in instead of SUM for the formula.

#DIV/0!

This error message appears when you are trying to divide something by 0 within Excel. In the example you can see that the first answer is dividing 10 by 2 and the third answer is dividing 30 by 3 whereas the second answer is trying to divide 20 by nothing.

#VALUE!

This error message appears when there is something wrong with your formula (e.g. with the cells you are referencing) or when there is something wrong with what you typed in your formula. In this example, the calculation is trying to times a number by a text cell.

This error is quite general and can sometimes be hard to find out the exact problem.

#REF!

This error message appears when a cell that is reference in a formula no longer exists, the reference is invalid. In this example, the SUM formula references to 3 individual cells B2, C2 and D2. Feb column is then deleted, which causes the #REF! message to appear because the ‘original’ C2 cell has been removed.

What are those little green triangle errors? If you’ve ever asked yourself this but not known the answer, then take a look at out hint and tip on it here to find out more.

If you liked this Excel meaning hint and tip on Errors in Excel, let us know! Why not take a look at our previous one on the meanings of some symbols in Excel?

The post Excel Errors Meaning – Understanding and Fixing Excel Errors appeared first on JPL IT Training Ltd.

Further to a blog we did in May 2017 on Excel Symbols we thought we would give you a further insight into 5 more Excel symbol meanings.

There are a number of different symbols used within Excel all with different meanings and uses.

It can be confusing trying to work out what they all mean and how you can use them, so we thought we would break down some of them and their meanings to give you a bit more insight.

See below for the Excel symbol and information on what its use is in Excel!

5 Excel Symbols

() – Brackets are an essential symbol in Excel bring used for 2 prime purposes:

1. To follow a function and contain the arguments of that function e.g. =SUM(b2:b5) or =VLOOKUP(b2,$d$5:$g$12,2,False)
2. To obey the BODMAS premise where brackets override multiply and divide symbols which themselves override addition and subtraction

‘ – An apostrophe before a cell value forces Excel to interpret the value as text. Here we have 2 examples:

1. If you type in a phone number say in a cell as 1 long number Excel drops the first 0 so by inserting an apostrophe firstly means it displays the whole number including the 0
2. If you refer to a worksheet in a formula which has spaces, then the ‘ treats the sheet name as text and you wont get an error e.g. =sum(‘Q 1:Q 4’!b2)

& – See this example in the image of cell C1 to the right

^ – To the power of e.g. =2^3 would give us the answer 8 if you typed it in to Excel

{} – Used when using an Array type of formula in Excel

We cover the use of Excel symbols on our Basic Excel training course and now there are 5 to choose from.

See our website here for more details or contact us on 07903 840105 or johnlegge@jplcomputer.co.uk

You might also like to read our previous post on some lesser known features in Word.

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This week we are bringing you a hint and tip in Excel on Sparklines!

Sparklines

Sparklines is a feature within Excel that can be useful however it is sometimes looked over as it is either not known about or isn’t known how to actually use it in Excel! So because of this, we decided to do a post on what they are and also how to actually use them in Excel.

To make it easier to show this, we decided to do a video blog again to give you a more visual way of demonstrating how to use it. You can see this video below and it shows you how to use Sparklines in Excel.

Let us know what you think about the hint and tip!

Just watched the video? What are your thoughts? We always love to hear what you think about our hints and tips, do you prefer the video style of the hint and tip to a text based one? Or would you prefer a mix? Let us know!

If you want to get in touch, then please feel free to email us on johnlegge@jplcomputer.co.uk

Did you like this hint and tip on Sparklines in Excel? If so then have you seen our previous hint and tip on VLOOKUPs? If not then do take a look at it here! It is a similar layout to this hint and tip with a video explaining how VLOOKUPs work and how you can use them in your work.

As well as this hint and tip we also have a whole list of hints and tips on our website, these cover a number of packages within Microsoft Office including a whole list of Excel tips too! Why not take a look at them to see if any can help you save time at work.

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This week’s blog focusses on colour in Excel. We’ve done this before so it contains a new feature in Excel 365 as well as recapping on a traditional one that we have covered already in a previous hint and tip.

Maps In Excel

This new Add in is found on the Add in gallery of the Insert Ribbon. Maps in Excel allows you to display your data in a more visual way than just using text and displaying the figures next to it. This more visual approach can often be more appropriate and effective depending on what you are displaying the data for and who to. In the example above, you can see how the data is laid our clearly in the top left corner of the Excel worksheet but the Map that takes up most of the worksheet gives a bit more information and detail in displaying the locations visually. This could be beneficial if a comparison was needed to be made in how far each location was from each other.

Essentially, it gives you your data in a more visually descriptive layout compared to just having a table.

Conditional Formatting

Using this flexible feature on the Home ribbon brings data to life. All the conditions are managed so that the split of data relating to colours can be easily changed.

In the example above, the conditional formatting is able to add more colour to the data in the spreadsheet. This colour can very quickly give an overview of the data without having to look too closely at the individual figures. Using both icons and colour formatting is useful for making large amounts of data easier to read, show trends or quickly locate any issues/problems.

Like this post on Excel exposure? For more details on it and our courses please visit our website here or phone 07903 840105. You can also see our previous post here on pivot tables in Excel.

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Comments from attendees on an Intermediate Excel Training 2016 course run on their premises:

“Best part of the course: discovering I can work smarter, quicker”.

“Excellent, fun, informative & a great trainer. Best part of the course: well structures, well explained and taught. Learning was fun”.

“It was very useful and professional. Best part of the course: positive spirit of John and the training interactive sessions”.

“Very good, course explained clearly. Best part of the course: working in a team”.

– Jo, Penny, Stefan and John

If you would like to know more information about the courses we run, please see our website. We offer lots of Microsoft training, please do get in touch.

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