2020

[ADVANCED MS-EXCEL FOR

DATA ANALYSIS]
AAT Business School
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Contents
Creating a Template ...........................................................................................................................................3
Share a workbook ...............................................................................................................................................3
Merging copies of a shared workbook ...........................................................................................................4
Compare and merge workbooks: ...................................................................................................................4
Formulas .............................................................................................................................................................5
Using Common Built-In Functions ..................................................................................................................5
Text Functions ................................................................................................................................................6
Information Functions ....................................................................................................................................6
Conditional Functions .....................................................................................................................................7
Creating Dates & Times ..................................................................................................................................8
Data Lookup Functions ...................................................................................................................................8
Basic Numeric Information .............................................................................................................................9
Statistical ........................................................................................................................................................9
Working with Named Ranges .......................................................................................................................... 10
-----------------Function Example -------------....................................................................................................... 11
Create a custom number format ..................................................................................................................... 15
Conditional Formatting ................................................................................................................................... 17
Filtering Information ....................................................................................................................................... 18
Sorting ............................................................................................................................................................. 18
Using Hyperlinks .............................................................................................................................................. 19
Importing and Exporting Data ......................................................................................................................... 19
PivotTable data analysis using a Data Model in Excel 2013 ............................................................................ 20
Create a Power View report ........................................................................................................................ 27
Optimize for Power View reporting ............................................................................................................ 27
Create calculated fields ............................................................................................................................... 28
Data table basics.............................................................................................................................................. 30
A one-variable data table ........................................................................................................................ 30
A two-variable data table ........................................................................................................................ 31
Speed up calculation on a worksheet that contains data tables ............................................................ 32
Apply data validation to cells .......................................................................................................................... 33
Use Goal Seek to find the result you want by adjusting an input value ......................................................... 38
Switch between various sets of values by using scenarios ............................................................................. 40
Scenario basics ................................................................................................................................................ 40
Insert subtotals in a list of data in a worksheet .............................................................................................. 44
Define and solve a problem by using Solver ................................................................................................... 47

Advanced Excel 2013

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Record a macro ................................................................................................................................................ 49

Create a macro by using Microsoft Visual Basic .......................................................................................... 51
Assign a macro to an object, graphic, or control ......................................................................................... 52
Create a chart from start to finish ................................................................................................................... 53
Change the layout of chart elements manually ........................................................................................... 58
Add a chart title ....................................................................................................................................... 60
Add data labels......................................................................................................................................... 61
What are sparklines? ................................................................................................................................... 65
Show or hide data markers .......................................................................................................................... 67
Handle empty cells or zero values ........................................................................................................... 69
Password protect a workbook ......................................................................................................................... 71
Protect a worksheet with or without a password ....................................................................................... 72

Microsoft Excel
Excel is an electronic spreadsheet program
developed by Microsoft for the Windows
environment. A Powerful tool for analysing
and presenting information, Excel actually
consists of three programs in one:
Spreadsheet
Use for entering and analysing data, such
as financial forecasting, cash flow, and
auditing. Excel uses the term worksheet in
place of spreadsheet.
Graphics
Use for creating charts to represent
numeric data.
Database
Use for compiling and sorting lists.
Creating a Template
Creating a worksheet template can really save
you a lot of time. Templates are especially
useful if you find yourself having to create the
same spreadsheet over and over. For
example, if a spreadsheet has sheets for each
month of year it becomes a bit if a chore if
you have to type out the heading and formula
for each sheet. Instead, you only need to do it
once. Then you can save it as a template. If
you need a new month, you can then Insert
your template.
create the spreadsheet you want to use as a
template. In the image below, we've just set
up a simple spreadsheet with Week headings
at the top and some labels down the left:
Notice how none of the data is filled in for the
weeks. The reason there are zeros for the
Weekly Totals and the Item Totals is because
we have the formulas in place but no data for
the weeks. Once it is saved as a template and
Advanced Excel 2013
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inserted into a new workbook, then the data
can be added. We won't have to add the
formulas because they are already in place.
Once you have your spreadsheet looking the
way you want it, click the Office button then
Save In Excel 2013,click File >Save, then
under Save As, select Computer. Under the
Computer heading, click the Browse icon.
When the Save As dialogue box appears
change the Save as type area at the bottom
to Excel template. Type a name for your
template:
Click the Save button to save your template.
Use a shared workbook to collaborate
You can create a shared workbook and place
it on a network location where several people
can edit the contents simultaneously. For
example, if the people in your workgroup
each handle several projects and need to
know the status of each other's projects, the
group can use a shared workbook to track the
status of the projects and update information.
As the owner of the shared workbook, you
can manage it by controlling user access to
the shared workbook and resolving conflicting
changes. When all changes have been
incorporated, you can stop sharing the
workbook.
Share a workbook
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To share a workbook, create a new workbook
or open an existing workbook that you want
to make available for multiuser editing.
Review tab, in the Changes group,
click Share Workbook
The Compare and Merge Workbooks
command is not available on the Review tab
but can be added to the Quick Access
toolbar. Start here if you have not already
added the command.
1. Click the File tab.
2. Choose Options.
3. The Excel Options dialog box will appear.
Select Quick Access toolbar.

Share Workbook dialog box, on the

Editing tab, select the Allow changes by more
than one user at the same time. This also
allows workbook merging check box.

Advanced tab, select the options 4. Under Choose commands from, click the
that you want to use for tracking and drop-down menu and select All
updating changes, and then click OK. Commands.
5. Find and select the Compare and Merge
Click the File tab and then click Save . Workbooks command.
6. Click Add to add it to the Quick Access
toolbar.
Merging copies of a shared workbook

Turning on the Track Changes feature

automatically shares your workbook. When
multiple users collaborate on the same shared
workbook, you can use the Compare and
Merge Workbooks command to view all of
their changes at once and address them by
accepting or rejecting them.

Each person you collaborate with must save a 7. Click OK.

8. The Compare and Merge Workbooks
copy of the shared workbook using a unique
command will be added to the Quick
file name that differs from the original. For Access toolbar.
example, if the original file name is Agenda,
your collaborators could use the files names
Compare and merge workbooks:
Agenda—Ana's Changes or David Agenda
Feedback.
1. Open a copy of the shared workbook.
2. Click the Compare and Merge Workbooks
You can only merge copies of the same command on the Quick Access toolbar.
shared workbook. All of the copies you plan
to merge should be located in the same
folder.

To add the Compare and Merge

Workbooks command:
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3. If prompted, allow Excel to save your
workbook.
4. The Select Files to Merge into Current
Workbook dialog box will appear.
5. Select another copy of the same shared
workbook you want to merge. To select
multiple copies, hold CTRL or SHIFT on
your keyboard while clicking the file
names.
Using Mixed Absolute and Relative
Cell References
Cell addresses do not have to have both
absolute column and row references. You can
have mixed cell references. The column
reference can be absolute and the row
reference relative (e.g. $E5). If a formula
including this reference is copied to a new
location, only the column reference ($E) is
constant, and the row reference is adjusted
for the new location.

Conversely, if you copy a formula including a

6. Click OK.
7. The changes from each copy of the shared
workbook will be merged into a single
copy. All changes and comments can now
be addressed at the same time.
cell reference with an absolute row reference
and a relative column reference (e.g. E$5) to a
new location, Excel will adjust only the
column reference for the new location. This
adds flexibility for creating cell formulas,
which will become increasingly important as
your worksheets become more complex.
As a general rule of thumb: if you intend to
copy the formula to other cells in the same
row and keep the column reference locked,
place the $ in front of the column letter; if
you intend to copy the formula to other cells
in the same column and keep the row
reference locked, place the $ in front of the
row number.

Displaying and Printing Formulas

To see the formula in a cell, you must select
Formulas that cell and examine the formula displayed in
the formula bar, or press F2 to see the
The Order of Operations is : ie BEDMAS formula in the cell. In some circumstances,
you may want to see all the formulas in all the
cells at the same time, especially when you
Brackets ()
are verifying the accuracy of the spreadsheet.
Exponents ^
Excel has an option available to display all
Division /
formulas at the same time. Cells that contain
Multiplication *
numeric or other values will simply display
Addition +
those data values. CTRL + ~
Subtraction -

Using Common Built-In Functions

An easy way to remember this is to use the
acronym formed from the first letter of each Excel provides over 450
word in the order of operations: built-in functions for

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mathematical and data operations. Functions
accept numbers, values, and cell references
as arguments within parentheses,
=SUM Calculates the sum of the
values in the range of
specified cells.
=AVERAGE Calculates an average of
the values in the specified
cells (totals the range and
divides the total by the
number of entries).
=MIN Displays the minimum
value in the range of
specified cells.
=MAX Displays the maximum
value in the range of
specified cells.
=COUNT Counts the number of
values within the specified
range.
Text Functions
Functions to Remove Extra Characters
1. TRIM() Removes duplicate spaces, and
spaces at the start and end of a text
string
Functions to Convert Excel Data Types
2. VALUE() Converts a text string into a
numeric value
Functions to Convert Between Upper & Lower
Case
3. LOWER() Converts all characters in a
supplied text string to lower case
4. PROPER() Converts all characters in a
supplied text string to proper case (i.e.
letters that do not follow another
letter are upper case and all other
characters are lower case)
5. UPPER() Converts all characters in a
supplied text string to upper case
Converting Between Characters & Numeric
Codes
6. CHAR() Returns the character that
corresponds to a supplied numeric
value
Replacing / Substituting Parts of a Text String
7. REPLACE() Replaces all or part of a
text string with another string (from a
user supplied position)
8. SUBSTITUTE() Substitutes all
occurrences of a search text string,
within an original text string, with the
supplied replacement text
Cutting Up & Piecing Together Text Strings
9. CONCATENATE() Joins together two or
more text strings
10. LEFT() Returns a specified number of
characters from the start of a supplied
text string
11. MID() Returns a specified number of
characters from the middle of a
supplied text string
12. RIGHT() Returns a specified number of
characters from the end of a supplied
text string
13. REPT() Returns a string consisting of a
supplied text string, repeated a
specified number of times
Information Functions

14. LEN() Returns the length of a supplied
text string
15. FIND() Returns the position of a
supplied character or text string from
within a supplied text string (case-
sensitive)
16. EXACT() Tests if two supplied text
strings are exactly the same and if so,
returns TRUE; otherwise, returns
FALSE. (case-sensitive)
Conditional Functions
The ability to perform different calculations
based on changing values is one of the most
powerful and useful features of spreadsheets.
The primary function used for this is the IF
function. This function makes an evaluation or
logical test and performs one of two different
calculations based on the result. This
automatic evaluation provides “on the fly”
worksheet calculations.
The format of the IF function is as follows:
=IF(logical test,value if true,value if false)
Logical Test
Specify what the IF statement will
evaluate.
Value if True
If the Logical Test is found to be true,
then the result of the IF function will be
whatever is in this section of the formula.
Value if False
If the Logical Test is found to be false, then
the result of the IF function will be
whatever is in this section of the formula.
The Logical Test section of the function often
uses comparison operators that will help you
obtain the desired result. Qualifiers are
punctuation marks used to identify or define
different types of data; for example, text used
Advanced Excel 2013
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in a formula requires double quotes as
qualifiers.
Some of the comparison operators you can
use are:
= Equal to (or the same as)
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal to
<= Less than or equal to
<> Not equal to
17. IF() Tests a user-defined condition and
returns one result if the condition is
TRUE, and another result if the
condition is FALSE
18. IFERROR() Tests if an initial supplied
value (or expression) returns an error,
and if so the function returns a
supplied value; otherwise the function
returns the initial value.
Boolean Operator Functions
19. AND() Tests a number of user-defined
conditions and returns TRUE if ALL of
the conditions evaluate to TRUE, or
FALSE otherwise
20. OR() Tests a number of user-defined
conditions and returns TRUE if ANY of
the conditions evaluate to TRUE, or
FALSE otherwise
21. NOT() Returns a logical value that is
the opposite of a user supplied logical
value or expression
(ie. returns FALSE is the supplied argument is
TRUE and returns TRUE if the supplied
argument is FALSE)
Information function
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Other Data Type Functions
22. ISBLANK() Tests if a supplied cell is
blank (empty), and if so, returns TRUE;
Otherwise, returns FALSE
23. ISTEXT() Tests if a supplied value is
text, and if so, returns TRUE;
otherwise, returns FALSE
General Information Functions
24. CELL() Returns information about the
contents, formatting or location of a
given cell
Creating Dates & Times
25. DATE() Returns a date, from a user-
supplied year, month and day
26. TIME() Returns a time, from a user-
supplied hour, minute and second
Current Date & Time
27. NOW() Returns the current date &
time
28. TODAY() Returns today's date
Extracting the Components of a Time
29. HOUR() Returns the hour part of a
user-supplied time
30. MINUTE() Returns the minute part of
a user-supplied time
31. SECOND() Returns the second’s part of
a user-supplied time
Extracting the Components of a Date
32. DAY() Returns the day (of the month)
from a user-supplied date
33. MONTH() Returns the month from a
user-supplied date
34. YEAR() Returns the year from a user-
supplied date
35. WEEKDAY() Returns an integer
representing the day of the week for a
supplied date
Performing Calculations with Dates
36. WORKDAY() Returns a date that is a
supplied number of working days
(excluding weekends & holidays)
ahead of a given start date
37. WORKDAY.INTL() Returns a date that
is a supplied number of working days
(excluding weekends & holidays)
ahead of a given start date, using
supplied parameters to specify
weekend days
38. DAYS360() Calculates the number of
days between 2 dates, based on a 360-
day year (12 x 30 months)
39. NETWORKDAYS() Returns the number
of whole networkdays (excluding
weekends & holidays), between two
supplied dates.
40. NETWORKDAYS.INTL() Returns the
number of whole networkdays
(excluding weekends & holidays),
between two supplied dates, using
parameters to specify weekend days
Excel Lookup and Reference Functions
Data Lookup Functions

41. VLOOKUP() Looks up a supplied value
in the first column of a table, and
returns the corresponding value from
another column
Other
42. HYPERLINK() Creates a hyperlink to a
document in a supplied location.
43. TRANSPOSE() Performs a transpose
transformation on a range of cells (ie.
transforms a horizontal range of cells
into a vertical range and vice versa)
Basic Numeric Information
44. ABS Returns the absolute value (ie.
the modulus) of a supplied number
Basic Mathematical Operations
45. SUM() Returns the sum of a supplied
list of numbers
46. POWER() Returns the result of a given
number raised to a supplied power
47. SQRT() Returns the positive square
root of a given number
48. MOD() Returns the remainder from a
division between two supplied
numbers
Rounding Functions
49. EVEN() Rounds a number away from
zero (ie. rounds a positive number up
and a negative number down), to the
next even number
50. INT() Rounds a number down to the
next integer
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51. MROUND() Rounds a number up or
down, to the nearest multiple of
significance
52. ODD() Rounds a number away from
zero (ie. rounds a positive number up
and a negative number down), to the
next odd number.
53. ROUND() Rounds a number up or
down, to a given number of digits
Exponentials & Logarithms
54. LOG() Returns the logarithm of a given
number, to a specified base
Conditional Sums
55. SUMIF() Adds the cells in a supplied
range, that satisfy a given criteria
56. SUMIFS Adds the cells in a supplied
range, that satisfy multiple criteria
Trigonometry Functions
57. PI() Returns the constant value of pi
58. COS() Returns the Cosine of a given
angle
59. SIN() Returns the Sine of a given angle
60. TAN() Returns the Tangent of a given
angle
Statistical
Finding the Largest & Smallest Values
61. MAX() Returns the largest value from
a list of supplied numbers
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62. MIN() Returns the smallest value from
a list of supplied numbers
Averages, Frequency & Rank
63. AVERAGE() Returns the Average of a
list of supplied numbers
64. AVERAGEIF() Calculates the Average
of the cells in a supplied range, that
satisfy a single criteria
65. AVERAGEIFS() Calculates the Average
of the cells in a supplied range, that
satisfy multiple criteria
66. MEDIAN() Returns the Median (the
middle value) of a list of supplied
numbers
67. MODE() Returns the Mode (the most
frequently occurring value) of a list of
supplied numbers
Deviation & Variance
68. STDEV() Returns the standard
deviation of a supplied set of values
(which represent a sample of a
population)
69. VAR() Returns the variance of a
supplied set of values (which
represent a sample of a population)
Counting Cells
70. COUNT() Returns the number of
numerical values in a supplied set of
cells or values
71. COUNTBLANK() Returns the number
of blank cells in a supplied range
72. COUNTIF() Returns the number of
cells (of a supplied range), that satisfy
a given criteria
73. COUNTIFS() Returns the number of
cells (of a supplied range), that satisfy
a set of given criteria
Investment Value Functions
74. PMT Tea PMT function, one of Excel’s
financial function, can be used to
calculate the payments for a loan or
the future value of an investment
Data Lookup Functions
75. VLOOKUP Looks up a supplied value in
the first column of a table, and returns
the corresponding value from another
column
Working with Named Ranges
When developing spreadsheets, you will find
that they quickly become very large and it
becomes difficult to keep track of all the cells.
One feature in most spreadsheet programs is
the ability to create a name for a cell or range
of cells. It is much easier to understand the
formula =Revenues-Expenses than a cryptic
formula such as =C7-C16.
To define a range with a name, select the
range and then use one of the following
methods:
On the Formulas tab, in the Defined Names
group, click Define Name; or
click in the Name Box and type the name; or
right-click the selected range and then click

Define Name.
Once you define a name for a cell or a range
of cells, you can use that name when creating
formulas. Excel also provides tools for
applying range names to your existing
formulas.
You can also quickly jump to a named range
by using Go To or by selecting the named
range from the Name Box list to the left of
the Formula bar.
In addition to making spreadsheets easier to
read, range names can make the process of
entering cell data easier. Simply changing the
range defined by a range name updates all
formulas that use that range name; therefore,
there is no need to edit every formula in the
spreadsheet.
Range names can be from 1 to 255 characters
in length. They may contain alphabetic or
numeric characters (alphanumeric),
underscores (_), backslashes (\), periods (.)
and question marks (?). You cannot use
spaces in range names. The first character
must be alphanumeric, an underscore or a
backslash.
Modifying and Deleting Named
Ranges
You can use the Name Manager to modify
and delete range names or change the cell
range references.
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Be cautious when deleting named ranges.
When you delete a named range, any formula
that refers to this name no longer displays the
correct value. Deleting a range name may also
cause a domino effect with other formulas
that indirectly refer to this formula.
-----------------Function Example -------------
There are a number of date functions
available in Excel. Depending on your needs,
you can use a date function in Excel to return
the current date, the current time, or the day
of the week. This article covers using the most
commonly used date functions used in Excel:
=TODAY() and =NOW()
Like all functions in Excel, entering date
functions is very straightforward - just type in
the function in the cell where you want the
date or time to appear.
Computer Serial Date
There are no arguments to enter for the
=TODAY() or =NOW() functions. Both of these
date functions draw their data from the
computer's built-in clock. Computers store
the date as a number representing the
number of full days since midnight January 1,
1900 plus the number of hours, minutes, and
seconds
1=TODAY()
This function returns the current date. To
display the date in a different format than the
default:
1. Click on Format > Cells in the menus to
bring up the Format Cells dialog box.
2. Click on the Number tab.
3. Select Date in the Category window.
4. Pick from the available formats in the
Type window.
12 | P a g e
2=NOW()
This function returns both the current date
and time
3. DAY
The DAY function displays the day portion of a
date that has been entered into the function.
A typical use for the function is to subtract
dates in Excel that occur in the same month.
In the example below we will find the number
of days between two dates. Since the function
excludes the month and year portions of a
date, it will not correctly calculate the number
of days between two dates that are in
different months or years.
The syntax for the DAY function is:
= DAY ( Serial_number )
Serial_number - the serial date or the cell
reference to a date to be used in the
calculation.
4. MONTH
The MONTH function displays the month
portion of a date that has been entered into
the function. A typical use for the function is
to subtract dates in Excel that occur in the
same year.
In the example below we will find the number
of months between two dates. Since the
function excludes the year portion of a date,
it will not correctly calculate the number of
months between two dates that are in
different years.
The syntax for the MONTH function is:
= MONTH ( Serial_number )
In this example we want to find out the
number of months between two dates. Our
final formula will look like this:
= MONTH ( D1 ) - MONTH ( D2 )
The DATE function, one of Excel's date and
time functions has several uses for adding
dates to a spreadsheet.
 It can be used to combine date elements
from different locations.
 It can be used to convert dates to the
computer's serial date.
 It can be used to ensure that imported
dates are formatted correctly in a
spreadsheet - such as a date or a number
instead of text.
The syntax for the DATE function is:
5 DATE( Year, Month, Day)
Year - enter the year as a four digit number or
the cell reference where it is located.
Month - enter the year as a two digit number
or the cell reference where it is located.
Day - enter the day as a two digit number or
the cell reference where it is located.
6. NETWORKDAYS

The NETWORKDAYS function is used to
calculate the number of whole business or
working days between the start date and end
date of a project.
NETWORKDAYS automatically removes
weekend days (Saturday and Sunday) from
the total. In addition, specific days, such as
statutory holidays, can be omitted as well.
If you need to use weekend days other than
Saturday and Sunday and you are using Excel
2013, try using the Excel 2013
NETWORKDAYS.INTL Function
Uses for this function include planning or
writing proposals to determine the time
frame for an upcoming project or to back
calculate the amount of time spent on a
completed one.
= NETWORKDAYS ( Start_date , End_date ,
Holidays )
Start_date - (required) the start date of the
chosen time period. The actual start date can
be entered for this argument or the cell
reference to the location of this data in the
worksheet can be entered instead.
End_date - (required) the end date of the
chosen time period. As with the Start_date,
enter the actual end date or the cell reference
to the location of this data in the worksheet.
Holidays - (optional) one or more additional
dates that are excluded from the total
number of working days. Use the cell
references to the location of the data in the
worksheet for this argument.
7. NETWORKDAYS.INTL
How the NETWORKDAYS.INTL function differs
from the NETWORKDAYS function is that
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 13
NETWORKDAYS.INTL allows you to specify
which days and how many are considered
weekend days rather than automatically
removing two days per week - Saturday and
Sunday - from the total number of days.
= NETWORKDAYS.INTL ( Start_date,
End_date, Weekend, Holidays )
=DATEDIF
The DATEDIF function can be used to
calculate the number of days between two
dates in versions of Excel from 97 to 2013.
An interesting point about DATEDIF is that it is
an "undocumented" function which means it
is not listed with other functions under the
Formulas tab in Excel 2007 and 2013.
To use the function you must type it manually
into a cell on the worksheet rather than using
the dialog box method available for other
functions.
8 DATEDIF ( start_date , end_date , unit )
The function has three arguments that need
to be entered as part of the function:
 start_date - the first or starting date.
 end_date - the second or last date.
 unit - tells the function to find the number
of days ("D"), complete months ("M"), or
complete years ("Y") between the two
dates.
9 WORKDAY
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The WORKDAY function can be used to
calculate the end date or start date of a
project for a given number of business days.
The number of business days cannot include
weekend days. Specific holidays can also be
omitted.
= WORKDAY ( Start_date , Days , Holidays )
Start_date - the start date of the project or
time period in question.
End_date - the end date of the chosen time
period.
Method - A Boolean value (TRUE or FALSE).
 If TRUE -- the function uses the U.S.
method of calculating start and end dates.
 If FALSE -- the function uses the European
method of calculating start and end dates.

Days - the number of days work on the

project occurred after the Start_date.

Holidays - can be used to exclude one or more

dates from the total number of working days
(optional).

PMT

The PMT function, one of Excel's Financial

functions, can be used to calculate the
payments for a loan or the future value of an
investment.

The syntax for the PMT function is:

10. DAYS360

The DAYS360 function, one of Excel's Date

and Time functions, can be used in accounting
systems to calculate the number of days
between two dates based on a 360-day year
(twelve 30-day months).
= PMT ( rate , nper , pv , fv , type )
The syntax for the DAYS360 function is:
rate - the annual interest rate for the loan.
= DAYS360 ( Start_date , End_date , Method
) nper - the total number of payments for the
loan.
Start_date - the start date of the chosen time
period. pv - the present value or the amount
borrowed or the "principal of the loan.
 P a g e | 15

fv - future value - for a loan this will be $0.00.  click the appropriate formatting option from the
For loans this argument can be omitted. Mini toolbar, if active.

Create a custom number format

type - indicates when payments are due:
 "0" (or omitted) - at the end of the period
ie: end of the month.
 "1" - at the beginning of the period ie:
beginning of
Let's look at the preceding example, step-by-
step.
Excel provides many options for displaying
numbers as percentages, currency, dates, and
so on. If these built-in formats do not meet
your needs, you can customize a built-in
number format to create your own. To learn
more about how to change number format
codes, you may want to review the guidelines
for customizing a number format before you
get started.

You want to borrow $100,000. You want to

take 180 months to pay off the loan, and you
can afford payments of $900 per month.
Because you want to calculate the interest
rate needed to meet your goal, you use the
PMT function because it calculates a monthly
payment amount. In this example, the
monthly payment amount is the goal you
seek.

What Does Formatting Mean?

Formatting refers to changing the appearance of data
to draw attention to parts of the worksheet, or make
the numbers presented easier to read. You do not alter
any underlying values.

You can format a cell or range of cells at any time,

either before or after you enter the data. A cell Create a custom number format
remains formatted until you clear the format or
reformat the cell. When you enter new data in the cell, 1. Open the workbook in which you want to
Excel will display it in the existing format. When you
create and store a custom number
copy or fill a cell, you copy its format along with the cell
contents. format.
2. On the Home tab, click the Dialog Box
You can apply formatting using one of the following Launcher next to Number.
methods:
 On the Home tab, click the command to apply
formatting from the appropriate group; or
 on the Home tab, in the appropriate group, click
the Format Cells: Dialog box launcher; or Review guidelines for customizing a
 press + ; or number format
 right-click and then click Format Cells; or
 press the appropriate keyboard shortcut for To create a custom number format, you start
specific formatting features, such as + for bold;
or
by selecting one of the built-in number
formats as a starting point. You can then
change any one of the code sections of that

Advanced Excel 2013

16 | P a g e
format to create your own custom number
format.
A number format can have up to four sections
of code, separated by semicolons. These code
sections define the format for positive
numbers, negative numbers, zero values, and
text, in that order.
<POSITIVE>;<NEGATIVE>;<ZERO>;<TEXT>
For example, you can use these code sections
to create the following custom format:
[Blue]#,##0.00_);[Red](#,##0.00);0.00;"sales
"@
You do not have to include all code sections in
your custom number format. If you specify
only two code sections for your custom
number format, the first section is used for
positive numbers and zeros, and the second
section is used for negative numbers. If you
specify only one code section, it is used for all
numbers. If you want to skip a code section
and include a code section that follows it, you
must include the ending semicolon for the
section that you skip.
The following guidelines should be helpful for
customizing any of these number format code
sections.
Guidelines for including text and
adding spacing
 Display both text and numbers To display
both text and numbers in a cell, enclose the
text characters in double quotation marks ("
") or precede a single character with a
backslash (\). Include the characters in the
appropriate section of the format codes. For
example, type the format $0.00" Surplus";$-
0.00" Shortage" to display a positive amount
as "$125.74 Surplus" and a negative amount
as "$-125.74 Shortage." Note that there is
one space character before both "Surplus"
and "Shortage" in each code section.
The following characters are displayed
without the use of quotation marks.
$ Dollar sign
+ Plus sign
( Left parenthesis
: Colon
^ Circumflex accent (caret)
' Apostrophe
{ Left curly bracket
< Less-than sign
= Equal sign
- Minus sign
/ Slash mark
) Right parenthesis
! Exclamation point
& Ampersand
~ Tilde
} Right curly bracket
> Greater-than sign
Space character
 Include a section for text entry If included, a
text section is always the last section in the
number format. Include an "at" character (@)
in the section where you want to display any
text that you type in the cell. If the @
character is omitted from the text section,
text that you type will not be displayed. If
you want to always display specific text
characters with the typed text, enclose the
additional text in double quotation marks ("
"). For example, "gross receipts for "@
If the format does not include a text section,
any non-numeric value that you type in a cell
with that format applied is not affected by the
format. In addition, the entire cell is
converted to text.
 Add spaces To create a space that is the
width of a character in a number format,
include an underscore character (_), followed
by the character that you want to use. For
example, when you follow an underscore
with a right parenthesis, such as _), positive
numbers line up correctly with negative
numbers that are enclosed in parentheses.
 P a g e | 17

 Repeat characters To repeat the next

character in the format to fill the column
width, include an asterisk (*) in the number
format. For example, type 0*- to include
enough dashes after a number to fill the cell,
or type *0 before any format to include
leading zeros.

Conditional Formatting
You use cell formatting to enhance the visual
appeal of a worksheet. However, highlighting
certain cells to differentiate them from the
rest of the worksheet also draws attention to
them or conveys the data they contain in a
visual manner.

Conditional formatting is a powerful tool you

can use to display the data in cells one way
for some values, but another way for others,
without the additional effort of manually
changing the formatting each time you
modify data or add new data to a worksheet.
The Ribbon offers several choices for setting
up conditional formats.
Highlight Cell Rules
Use this option to highlight cell values based
on their relation to specific values you enter.
In this example, you specified that Excel
should highlight cell values of greater than
12000 with a green background, while cells
with less than 9000 would be highlighted with
a pink background, and cells with in-between
values would be in dark yellow
Top/Bottom Rules
Use this option to activate the conditional
formatting on the top or bottom ranking cells
in a range. In this example, the conditional
formatting is set so that Excel highlights the
top 10% of cells in red with a pink
background, and the bottom 10% in dark
green with a light green background. There
are 20 cells selected in the range, so 10% is 2
cells each. If the
range comprises 50 cells, the top and bottom
10% would be 5 cells each.
You can choose to highlight any percentage of
cells for conditional formatting.

Data Bars
You can use conditional formatting to embed
a bar chart into a selected range of cells,
based on the value in each cell. This type of
formatting offers a quick visual
representation of each cell value in relation to
the others.

Color Scales

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18 | P a g e

Use this type of conditional formatting to viewing. Filtering does not change the
show the relative value of each cell to each content of your worksheet or the sequence of
other cell using color gradients. This example the rows (like the way sorting does), only
shows the red-yellow-green option, with the what you see of your worksheet.
lowest value highlighted with dark red, dark
green for the highest value and yellow for the The quickest and easiest way to filter data in
middle values. text with a light yellow Excel is to use the AutoFilter tool. When you
background. activate this tool, Excel places AutoFilter icons
on the right side of each of the column titles.
Icon Sets Use these icons to specify the selection
You can use this type of conditional criteria that Excel uses to display the records.
formatting to highlight values using icons. In
this example, a 5-bar strength meter (similar
to the wireless network strength indicator on
laptop computers) indicates the relative value
of each cell to each other cell. The cells with
the lowest values have no bars filled, while
the highest values have all bars filled.

In all of these examples, you see the same

conditional format applied to the entire cell
range. If you change a value in any of these
cells, the conditional format is automatically
re-evaluated and the highlighting may
change.

A cell may have both a manual format and a In its simplest form, the AutoFilter finds and
conditional format. If the cell contains a value displays the rows where the value in the
that does not meet any of the specified selected column is equal to a specific value.
conditions, the cell uses the manual format.
Sorting
Formatting options include only the font
styles (regular, bold, italics or bold and italics),
font colors, borders and background fill
patterns. You may not choose different font
names or font sizes in a conditional format.

Filtering Information
Worksheets are often used to store large
amounts of data. Finding information in large
worksheets is often difficult because of the
sheer volume. Sorting the rows is one way of
making it easier to find information; however,
you still have to look through many if not all
the rows in the worksheet. Another way to
locate information quickly is to use a filter to
hide the rows you are not interested in
Sorting by Single-Level Data
The Ribbon offers the quickest method of
sorting your data, but you are limited to
sorting by one column.
The Ribbon has two ready-to-use buttons for
this:
on the Home tab, in the Editing group, click
Sort & Filter and then click Sort A to Z or Sort
Z to A, or

on the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group,
click Sort A to Z or Sort Z to A.
Sorting by Multi-Level Data
In many cases, you will need to sort by more
than one column to handle situations with
multiple rows with
the same value (e.g., a list of names where
several people have the same last name).
Excel allows you to
choose the custom sort option, which displays
the sort dialog box.
This dialog box provides a comprehensive set
of options for sorting your data:
Using Hyperlinks
A hyperlink is a clickable element in an
electronic document that you can use to jump
to or open another document. The World
Wide Web consists of web pages (which are
essentially documents) containing text,
images, videos and hyperlinks to other web
pages. You can insert hyperlinks into
workbooks to enable the same capability of
launching web pages from the Internet or an
internal corporate intranet, or open
documents located on any computer within
your local area network.
A hyperlink can be text or a picture on a page
that links you from where you are to another
location. This allows you to “jump” to that
location, which may be in the same
document, another document, a document or
page on another Web site or an e-mail
address.
Inserting Hyperlinks
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 19
By clicking a hyperlink, you can display the
referenced document. Each hyperlink
contains a code in the form of a Uniform
Resource Locator (URL), which is the unique
address for this document or page at this
particular location on the Internet or intranet.
URLs can be stored in Excel worksheets or
workbooks and used as hyperlinks to jump to
other documents on the Internet or intranet,
other Excel workbooks or other Microsoft
Office documents.
To insert a hyperlink, use one of the following
methods:
On the Insert tab, in the Links group, click
Hyperlink; or
right-click on a cell and click Hyperlink; or
press + .
The displayed Insert Hyperlink dialog box
allows you to insert one of four types of
hyperlinks:
Importing and Exporting Data
Importing Data Files
Most businesses use various specialized
computer systems for their operations.
Typically these systems
reside on servers, other PCs, or even
mainframe computers. The challenge has
always been trying to move
data from one system to another without
having to manually re-enter the data. Almost
all of these systems
have the ability to export data into files, and
the text data file format is the most
commonly used.
Because Excel uses a customized binary
format for its own workbook data, it has to
convert external data
20 | P a g e
files by importing them.
On the Data tab, in the Get External Data
group are four icons used for importing
external data:
The From Other Sources button shows a drop
down menu for the remaining options for
importing data:
These
PivotTable data analysis using a Data
Model in Excel 2013
In less than an hour, you can build a
PivotTable report in Excel that combines data
from multiple tables. The first part of this
tutorial steps you through data import and
exploration. In the second half, you’ll use the
Power Pivot add-in to refine the data model
that lives behind the report, learning how to
add calculations, hierarchies, and
optimizations for Power View reporting.
Let’s start by importing some data.
1. Open sample data (ContosoV2) for this
tutorial. Extract and save the data files
in a location that’s easily accessible.
2. In Excel, open a blank workbook.
3. Click Data > Get External Data > From
Access.
4. Go to the folder that contains the
sample data files and select
ContosoSales.
5. Click Open. Because you are
connecting to a database file that
contains multiple tables, the Select
Table dialog appears so that you can
choose which tables to import.
6. In Select Table, check Enable selection
of multiple tables.
7. Choose all of the tables and click OK.
8. In Import Data, click PivotTable
Report and click OK.
Notes You might not have realized it
yet, but you’ve just created a data
model. The model is a data integration
layer that’s created automatically
when you import or work with
multiple tables simultaneously in the
same PivotTable report.
The model is mostly transparent in
Excel, but you can view and modify it
directly using the Power Pivot add-in.
In Excel, the presence of a data model
is evident when you see a collection of
tables in the PivotTable Fields list.
There are several ways to create a
model. See Create a Data Model in
Excel for details.
Explore data using a PivotTable

Exploring data is easy when you drag fields to
the Values, Columns, and Rows areas on the
PivotTable field list.
1. In the field list, scroll down until you
find the FactSales table.
2. Click SalesAmount. Because this data
is numeric, Excel automatically places
SalesAmount in the Values area.
3. In DimDate, drag CalendarYear to
Columns.
4. In DimProductSubcategory, drag
ProductSubcategoryName to Rows.
5. In DimProduct, drag BrandName to
Rows, placing it beneath subcategory.
Your PivotTable should look similar to the
following screen.
With minimal effort, you now have a basic
PivotTable that includes fields from four
different tables. What made this task so
simple were the pre-existing relationships
among the tables. Because table relationships
existed in the source, and because you
imported all the tables in a single operation,
Excel could recreate those relationships in the
model.
But what if your data originates from
different sources, or is imported at a later
time? Typically, you can incorporate new data
by creating relationships based on matching
columns. In the next step, you’ll import
additional tables and learn the requirements
and steps for creating new relationships.
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 21
Add more tables
Learning how to set up table relationships
requires that you have some additional,
unconnected tables to work with. In this step,
you’ll get the remaining data used in this
tutorial by importing one additional database
file and pasting data from two other
workbooks.
Add product categories
1. In the workbook open a new sheet.
You’ll use it to store additional data.
2. Click Data > Get External Data > From
Access.
3. Go to the folder that contains the
sample data files and select
ProductCategories. Click Open.
4. In Import Data, select Table, and click
OK.
Add geography data
1. Insert another sheet.
2. From the sample data files, open
Geography.xlsx, place the cursor in A1,
and then press Ctrl-Shift-End to select
all of the data.
3. Copy the data to the clipboard.
4. Paste the data into the empty sheet
you just added.
5. Click Format as Table, choosing any
style. Formatting the data as a table
lets you name it, which will come in
handy when you define relationships
in a later step.
6. In Format As Table, verify that My
table has headers is selected. Click
OK.
7. Name the table Geography. In Table
Tools > Design, type Geography in
Table Name.
8. Close Geography.xlsx to clear it from
your workspace.
Add store data
22 | P a g e
 Repeat the previous steps for the
Stores.xlsx file, pasting its contents
into an empty sheet. Name the table
Stores.
You should now have four sheets. Sheet1
contains the PivotTable, Sheet2 contains
ProductCategories, Sheet3 contains
Geography, and Sheet4 contains Stores.
Because you took the time to name each
table, the next step, creating relationships,
will be much simpler.
Use fields from the newly imported
tables
You can immediately begin using fields from
the tables you just imported. If Excel cannot
determine how to incorporate a field into the
PivotTable report, you’ll be asked to create a
table relationship that associates the new
table with one that is already part of the
model.
1. At the top of PivotTable Fields, click All
to view the complete list of available
tables.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the list. That’s
where you’ll find the new tables you
just added.
3. Expand Stores.
4. Drag StoreName to the Filters area.
5. Notice that Excel prompts you to
create a relationship. This notification
occurs because you’ve used fields
from a table that is unrelated to the
model.
6. Click Create to open the Create
Relationship dialog.
7. In Table, choose FactSales. In the
sample data you’re using, FactSales
contains detailed sales and cost
information about Contoso’s business,
as well as keys to other tables,
including store codes that are also
present in the Stores.xlsx file you
imported in the previous step.
8. In Column (Foreign), choose StoreKey.
9. In Related Table, choose Stores.
10. In Related Column (Primary), choose
StoreKey.
11. Click OK.
Behind the scenes, Excel is building a Data
Model that can be used throughout the
workbook in any number of PivotTables,
PivotCharts, or Power View reports.
Fundamental to this model are table
relationships that determine navigation and
calculation paths used in a PivotTable report.
In the next task, you’ll create relationships
manually to connect the data you just
imported.
Add relationships
You can systematically create table
relationships for all new tables that you
import. If you’re sharing the workbook with
colleagues, having predefined relationships
will be appreciated if they don’t know the
data as well as you do.
When creating relationships manually, you
will work with two tables at a time. For each
table, you’ll choose columns that tell Excel
how to look up related rows in another table.
Relate ProductSubcategory to
ProductCategory
1. In Excel, click Data > Relationships >
New.
2. In Table, choose
DimProductSubcategory.

3. In Column (Foreign), choose
ProductCategoryKey.
4. In Related Table, choose
Table_ProductCategory.accdb.
5. In Related Column (Primary), choose
ProductCategoryKey.
6. Click OK.
7. Close the Manage Relationships
dialog.
Add categories to the PivotTable
Although the Data Model has been updated
to include additional tables and relationships,
the PivotTable isn’t using them yet. In this
task, you’ll add ProductCategory to the
PivotTable Fields list.
1. In PivotTable Fields, click All to show
tables that exist in the Data Model.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the list.
3. In the Rows area, remove BrandName.
4. Expand
Table_DimProductCategories.accdb.
5. Drag ProductCategoryName to the
Rows area, placing it above
ProductSubcategory.
6. In PivotTable Fields, click Active to
verify that the tables you just used are
now actively used in the PivotTable.
Checkpoint: Review what you learned
You now have a PivotTable that includes data
from multiple tables, several of which you
imported in a subsequent step. To pull this
data together, you had to create table
relationships that Excel uses to correlate the
rows. You learned that having columns that
provide matching data is essential for looking
up related rows. In the sample data files, all of
the tables include a column that can be used
for this purpose.
Although the PivotTable is functional, you’ve
probably noticed several things that could be
improved. The PivotTable Fields List seems to
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 23
have extra tables (DimEntity) and columns
(ETLLoadID) that are unrelated to Contoso’s
business. And, we still haven’t integrated the
Geography data.
Next up: View and extend your model
with Power Pivot
In the next series of tasks, you’ll use the
Microsoft Office Power Pivot in Microsoft
Excel 2013 add-in to extend the model. You’ll
find that you can create relationships more
easily using the Diagram View the add-in
provides. You’ll also use the add-in to create
calculations and hierarchies, hide items that
shouldn’t be appearing in the field list, and
optimize the data for additional reporting.
Note The Power Pivot in Microsoft Excel
2013 add-in is available in Office Professional
Plus. See Power Pivot in Microsoft Excel 2013
add-in for more information.
Add Power Pivot to the Excel ribbon by
enabling the Power Pivot add-in.
1. Go to File > Options > Add-Ins.
2. In the Manage box, click COM Add-
ins> Go.
3. Check the Microsoft Office Power
Pivot in Microsoft Excel 2013 box, and
then click OK.
The ribbon now has a Power Pivot tab.
Add a relationship using Diagram View
in Power Pivot
1. In Excel, click Sheet3 to make it the
active sheet. Sheet3 contains the
Geography table you imported earlier.
2. On the ribbon, click Power Pivot > Add
to Data Model. This step adds the
Geography table to the model. It also
opens the Power Pivot add-in, which
you’ll use to perform the remaining
steps in this task.
24 | P a g e
3. Notice that the Power Pivot window
shows all the tables in the model,
including Geography. Click through a
couple of tables. In the add-in, you can
view all of the data that your model
contains.
4. In the Power Pivot window, in the
View section, click Diagram View.
5. Use the slide bar to resize the diagram
so that you can see all objects in the
diagram. Notice that two tables are
unrelated to the rest of the diagram:
DimEntity and Geography.
6. Right-click DimEntity and click Delete.
This table is an artifact from the
original database and is not needed in
the model.
7. Zoom in on Geography so that you can
view all of its fields. You can use the
slider to make the table diagram
bigger.
8. Notice Geography has GeographyKey.
This column contains values that
uniquely identify each row in the
Geography table. Let’s find out if other
tables in the model also use this key. If
they do, we can create a relationship
that connects Geography to the rest of
the model.
9. Click Find.
10. In Find Metadata, type GeographyKey.
11. Click Find Next several times. You’ll
notice the GeographyKey shows up in
the Geography table and in the Stores
table.
12. Reposition the Geography table so
that it is next to Stores.
13. Drag the GeographyKey column in
Stores to the GeographyKey column in
Geography. Power Pivot draws a line
between the two columns, indicating
the relationship.
In this task, you learned a new technique for
adding tables and creating relationships. You
now have a fully integrated model, with all
tables connected and available to the
PivotTable in Sheet1.
Tip In Diagram View, several table diagrams
are fully extended, showing columns like
ETLLoadID, LoadDate, and UpdateDate. These
particular fields are artifacts from the original
Contoso data warehouse, added to support
data extraction and loading operations. You
don’t need them in your model. To get rid of
them, highlight and right-click the field, and
click Delete.
Create a calculated column
In Power Pivot, you can use Data Analysis
Expressions (DAX) to add calculations. In this
task, you’ll calculate total profit, and add
calculated column that references data values
from other tables. Later, you’ll see how to use
referenced columns to simplify your model.
1. In the Power Pivot window, switch
back to Data View.
2. Rename the Table_ProductCategories
accdb table to a friendlier name. You’ll
be referencing this table in the
following steps and a shorter name
will make the calculations easier to
read. Right-click the table name, click
Rename, type ProductCategories, and
then press Enter.
3. Select the FactSales table.
4. Click Design > Columns > Add.
5. In the formula bar above the table,
type the following formula.
AutoComplete helps you type the fully
qualified names of columns and
tables, and lists the functions that are
available. You can also just click the
column and Power Pivot adds the
column name to the formula.
= [SalesAmount] - [TotalCost] -
[ReturnAmount]

6. When you have finished building the
formula, press Enter to accept the
formula.
Values are populated for all the rows
in the calculated column. If you scroll
down through the table, you will see
that rows can have different values for
this column, based on the data that is
in each row.
7. Rename the column by right-clicking
CalculatedColumn1 and selecting
Rename Column. Type Profit, and
then press Enter.
8. Now select the DimProduct table.
9. Click Design > Columns > Add.
10. In the formula bar above the table,
type the following formula.
= RELATED
(ProductCategories[ProductCategoryN
ame])
The RELATED function returns a value
from a related table. In this case, the
ProductCategories table includes the
names of product categories, which
will be useful to have in the
DimProduct table when you build a
hierarchy that includes category
information. For more information
about this function, see RELATED
Function (DAX).
11. When you have finished building the
formula, press Enter to accept the
formula.
Values are populated for all the rows
in the calculated column. If you scroll
down through the table, you will see
that each row now has a Product
Category Name.
12. Rename the column by right-clicking
CalculatedColumn1 and selecting
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 25
Rename Column. Type
ProductCategory, and then press
Enter.
13. Click Design > Columns > Add.
14. In the formula bar above the table,
type the following formula, and then
press Enter to accept the formula.
= RELATED
(DimProductSubcategory[ProductSubc
ategoryName])
15. Rename the column by right-clicking
CalculatedColumn1 and selecting
Rename Column. Type
ProductSubcategory, and then press
Enter.
Create a hierarchy
Most models include data that is inherently
hierarchical. Common examples include
calendar data, geographical data, and product
categories. Creating hierarchies are useful
because you can drag one item (the
hierarchy) to a report instead of having to
assemble and order the same fields over and
over.
1. In Power Pivot, switch to Diagram
View. Expand the DimDate table so
that you can more easily see all of its
fields.
2. Press and hold Ctrl and click the
CalendarYear, CalendarQuarter and
CalendarMonth columns (you will
need to scroll down the table).
3. With the three columns selected,
right-click one of them and click
Create Hierarchy. A parent hierarchy
node, Hierarchy 1, is created at the
bottom of the table, and the selected
columns are copied under the
hierarchy as child nodes.
4. Type Dates as the name for your new
hierarchy.
26 | P a g e
5. Add the FullDateLabel column to the
hierarchy. Right-click FullDateLabel
and select Add to Hierarchy. Choose
Date. FullDateLabel contains a full
date, including year, month and day.
Verify that FullDateLabel appears last
in the hierarchy. You now have
multilevel hierarchy that includes year,
quarter, month, and individual
calendar days.
6. Still in Diagram View, point to the
DimProduct table, and then click the
Create Hierarchy button in the table
header. An empty hierarchy parent
node appears at the bottom of the
table.
7. Type Product Categories as the name
for your new hierarchy.
8. To create hierarchy child nodes, drag
the ProductCategory and
ProductSubcategory onto the
hierarchy.
9. Right-click ProductName and select
Add to Hierarchy. Choose Product
Categories.
Now that you know a couple of different ways
to create a hierarchy, let’s use them in the
PivotTable.
1. Go back to Excel.
2. In Sheet1 (the sheet that contains the
PivotTable), remove the fields in the
Rows area.
3. Replace them with the new Product
Categories hierarchy in DimProduct.
4. Similarly, replace CalendarYear in the
Columns area with the Dates hierarchy
in DimDate.
When you explore the data now, it’s easy to
see the benefits of using hierarchies. You can
independently expand and close different
areas of the PivotTable, providing more
control over how available space is used.
Furthermore, by adding a single hierarchy to
both Rows and Columns, you get rich and
immediate drill down, without having to stack
multiple fields to get a similar effect.
Hide columns
Now that you’ve created a Product Categories
hierarchy and placed it in DimProduct, you no
longer need DimProductCategory or
DimProductSubcategory in the PivotTable
Fields list. In this task, you’ll learn how to hide
extraneous tables and columns that are taking
up room in the PivotTable Fields list. By hiding
the tables and columns, you improve the
reporting experience without affecting the
model that provides data relationships and
calculations.
You can hide individual columns, a range of
columns, or a whole table. Table and column
names are grayed out to reflect that it is
hidden to reporting clients that consume the
model. Hidden columns are grayed out in the
model to indicate their state, but remain
visible in the Data View so that you can
continue to work with them.
1. In Power Pivot, make sure Data View is
selected.
2. In the tabs at the bottom, right click
DimProductSubcategory and select
Hide from Client Tools.
3. Repeat for ProductCategories.
4. Open DimProduct.
5. Right-click the following columns and
click Hide from Client Tools:
o ProductKey
o ProductLabel
o ProductSubcategory
6. Multi-select adjacent columns. Start
with ClassID and continue to
ProductSubcategory at the end. Right-
click to hide them.
7. Repeat for other tables, removing IDs,
keys, or other details that you won’t
use in this report.
 P a g e | 27

Switch back to Excel to Sheet 1 with the 1. In Excel, open a new sheet and copy
PivotTable Fields list to see the difference. these values:
The number of tables is reduced and
DimProduct includes only those items that ManufacturerURL ManufacturerID
you’re more likely to use when analyzing http://www.contoso.com Contoso, LTD
sales.
http://www.adventure- Adventure
works.com Works
Create a Power View report
http://www.fabrikam.com Fabrikam, Inc.
PivotTable reports are not the only type of
report that benefits from a Data Model. Using 1. Format the cells as a table, and then
the same model you just built, you can add a name the table URL.
Power View sheet to try out some of the 2. Create a relationship between URL
layouts it provides. and the table that contains
manufacturer names, DimProduct:
1. In Excel, click Insert > Power View. a. Click Data > Relationships. The
Create Relationship dialog
Note If this is the first time you’re appears.
using Power View on this machine, b. Click New.
you’re prompted to enable the add-in c. In Table, select DimProduct.
and install Silverlight first. d. In Column, select Manufacturer.
e. In Related Table, select URL.
2. In Power View Fields, click the arrow f. In Related Column (Primary),
next to the FactSales table, and click select ManufacturerID.
SalesAmount.
3. Expand the Geography table and click To compare before and after results, start a
RegionCountryName. new Power View report and add FactSales |
4. In the ribbon, click Map. SalesAmount, dimProduct | Manufacturer,
5. A map report appears. Drag a corner and URL | ManufacturerURL to a report.
to resize it. On the map, blue circles of Notice that the URLs show up as static text.
varying size indicate sales
performance for different countries or Rendering a URL as an active hyperlink
regions. requires categorization. To categorize a
column, you’ll use Power Pivot.
Optimize for Power View reporting
1. In Power Pivot, open URL.
Making a few small changes to your model 2. Select ManufacturerURL.
will result in more intuitive responses when 3. Click Advanced > Reporting Properties
designing a Power View report. In this task, > Data Category: Uncategorized.
you will add web site URLs for several 4. Click the down arrow.
manufacturers, and then categorize that data 5. Select Web URL.
as a Web URL so the URL address shows up as 6. In Excel, click Insert > Power View.
a link. 7. In Power View Fields, select FactSales
| SalesAmount, dimProduct |
As a first step, add URLs to your workbook. Manufacturer, and URL |
ManufacturerURL. This time, the URLs
show up as actual hyperlinks.

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28 | P a g e
Other Power View optimizations include
defining a default field set for each table and
setting properties that determine whether
rows of repeating data are aggregated or
listed independently.
Create calculated fields
In the second task, Explore data using a
PivotTable, you clicked on the SalesAmount
field in the PivotTable Fields list. Because
SalesAmount is a numeric column, it was
automatically placed into the Values area of
the PivotTable. Sum of SalesAmount was then
ready to calculate sales amounts for whatever
filters are to be applied. In this case, no filters
at first, but then CalendarYear,
ProductSubcategoryName, and BrandName.
What you really did was create an implicit
calculated field, making it easy to analyze
sales amounts from the FactSales table
against other fields such as product category,
region, and dates. Implicit calculated fields
are created by Excel when you drag a field to
the Values area or when you click on a
numeric field, like you did with SalesAmount.
Implicit calculated fields are formulas that use
standard aggregation functions such as SUM,
COUNT, and AVERAGE, created automatically
for you.
There are other types of calculated fields too.
You can create explicit calculated fields in
Power Pivot. Unlike an implicit calculated
field, which can only be used in the PivotTable
they were created, explicit calculated fields
can be used in any PivotTable in the
workbook, or by any report that uses the Data
Model as a data source. With explicit
calculated fields, created in Power Pivot, you
can use AutoSum to automatically create
calculated fields using standard aggregations,
or you can create your own by using a
formula created using Data Analysis
Expressions (DAX).
As you can imagine, creating calculated fields
can help you analyze your data in immense
and powerful ways, so let’s get started
learning how to create them.
Creating calculated fields in Power Pivot is
easy when you use AutoSum.
1. In the FactSales table, click on the
Profit column.
2. Click Calculations > AutoSum. Notice a
new calculated field named Sum of
Profit was automatically created in the
cell in the Calculation Area directly
beneath the Profit column.
3. In Excel, in Sheet1, in the field list, in
FactSales, click Sum of Profit.
That’s it! That is all it takes to create a
calculated field using a standard aggregation
in Power Pivot. As you can see, in just a
couple of minutes, you created a SUM of
Profit calculated field and added it to the
PivotTable, making it easy to analyze profits
depending on the filters applied. In this case,
you see Sum of Profit filtered by the Product
Category and Dates hierarchies.
But, what if you need to do some more
detailed analysis, like number of sales for a
particular channel, product, or category? For
that you will need to create another
calculated field that counts the number of
rows, one for each sale in the FactSales table,
depending on the filters applied.
1. In the FactSales table, click on the
SalesKey column.
2. In Calculations, click the down arrow
on AutoSum > Count.
3. Rename the new calculated field by
clicking on Count of SalesKey in the
calculation area and then in the
formula bar, change Count of
SalesKey to just Count, and then press
Enter. Unlike calculated columns,

calculated field names are included as
part of the DAX formula.
4. In Excel, in Sheet1, in the field list, in
FactSales, click Count.
Notice a new column, Count is added to the
PivotTable showing the number of sales
depending on the filters applied. Just like with
the Sum of Profit calculated field, you see
Count filtered by the Product Category and
Dates hierarchies.
Let’s create another. This time, you will create
a calculated field that calculates the
percentage of total sales for a particular
context or filter. However, unlike the previous
calculated fields you created by using
AutoSum, this time you will manually enter a
formula.
1. In the FactSales table, in the
Calculation Area, click an empty cell.
Tip: The top left cell is great place to
start placing your calculated fields. It
makes them easier to find. You can
move around any calculated field in
the Calculation Area.
2. In the formula bar, type and use
IntelliSense to create the following
formula: Percentage of All
Products:=[Count]/CALCULATE([Count
], ALL(DimProduct))
3. Press ENTER to accept the formula.
4. In Excel, in Sheet1, in the field list, in
FactSales, click Percentage of All
Products.
5. In the PivotTable, multi-select the
Percentage of All Products columns.
6. On the Home tab, click Number >
Percentage. Use two decimal places to
format each new column.
What this new calculated field does is
calculate the percentage of total sales for a
given filter context. In this case, our filter
context is still the Product Category and Dates
hierarchies. You can see for instance,
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 29
computers as a percentage of total product
sales have increased over the years.
Creating formulas for both calculated columns
and calculated fields will be fairly easy for you
if you are familiar with creating Excel
formulas. Whether you are familiar with Excel
formulas or not, a great place to learn the
basics of DAX formulas is by stepping through
the lessons in QuickStart: Learn DAX Basics in
30 Minutes.
Save your work
Save your workbook so that you can use it
with other tutorials or further exploration.
Next steps
Although you can easily import data from
Excel, it’s often faster and more efficient to
import using the Power Pivot add-in. You can
filter the data that you’re importing,
excluding columns you won’t need. You can
also choose whether to use a query builder or
query command to retrieve the data. As a
next step, learn about these alternate
approaches: Get data from a data feed in
Power Pivot and Import Data from Analysis
Services or Power Pivot.
Power View reporting is designed to work
with Data Models similar to the one you just
built. Read on to learn more about the rich
data visualizations that Power View brings to
Excel: Start Power View in Excel 2013 and
Power View: Explore, visualize, and present
your data.
Try enhancing your Data Model to make
better Power View reports by following this
Tutorial: Optimize your Data Model for Power
View reporting
Calculate multiple results by using a
data table
30 | P a g e

scenarios. Although it is limited to only one or

two variables (one for the row input cell and
A data table is a range of cells that shows how
one for the column input cell), a data table
changing one or two variables in your
can include as many different variable values
formulas will affect the results of those
as you want. A scenario can have a maximum
formulas. Data tables provide a shortcut for
of 32 different values, but you can create as
calculating multiple results in one operation
many scenarios as you want.
and a way to view and compare the results of
all the different variations together on your
For information about what-if analysis tools,
worksheet.
follow the links in the See Also section.

Overview Data table basics

Data tables are part of a suite of commands
You can create one-variable or two-variable
that are called what-if analysis tools. When
data tables, depending on the number of
you use data tables, you are doing what-if variables and formulas that you want to test.
analysis.
One-variable data tables Use a one-variable
What-if analysis is the process of changing the
data table if you want to see how different
values in cells to see how those changes will
values of one variable in one or more
affect the outcome of formulas on the
formulas will change the results of those
worksheet. For example, you can use a data
formulas. For example, you can use a one-
table to vary the interest rate and term length
variable data table to see how different
that are used in a loan to determine possible
interest rates affect a monthly mortgage
monthly payment amounts.
payment by using the PMT function. You
enter the variable values in one column or
Kinds of what-if analysis There are three
row, and the outcomes are displayed in an
kinds of what-if analysis tools in Excel:
adjacent column or row.
scenarios, data tables, and goal seek.
Scenarios and data tables take sets of input
In the following illustration, cell D2 contains
values and determine possible results. Goal
the payment formula, =PMT(B3/12,B4,-B5),
Seek works differently from scenarios and
which refers to the input cell B3.
data tables in that it takes a result and
determines possible input values that
produce that result.

Like scenarios, data tables help you explore a

set of possible outcomes. Unlike scenarios,
data tables show you all the outcomes in one
table on one worksheet. Using data tables
makes it easy to examine a range of
possibilities at a glance. Because you focus on A one-variable data table
only one or two variables, results are easy to
read and share in tabular form. Two-variable data tables Use a two-variable
data table to see how different values of two
A data table cannot accommodate more than variables in one formula will change the
two variables. If you want to analyze more results of that formula. For example, you can
than two variables, you should instead use use a two-variable data table to see how

different combinations of interest rates and
loan terms will affect a monthly mortgage
payment.
In the following illustration, cell C2 contains
the payment formula, =PMT(B3/12,B4,-B5),
which uses two input cells, B3 and B4.
A two-variable data table
Data table calculations Data tables are
recalculated whenever a worksheet is
recalculated, even if they have not changed.
To speed up calculation of a worksheet that
contains a data table, you can change the
Calculation options to automatically
recalculate the worksheet but not the data
tables. See the section Speed up calculation in
a worksheet that contains data tables.
Create a one-variable data table
A one-variable data table has input values
that are listed either down a column (column-
oriented) or across a row (row-oriented).
Formulas that are used in a one-variable data
table must refer to only one input cell.
1. Type the list of values that you want to
substitute in the input cell either down one
column or across one row. Leave a few
empty rows and columns on either side of
the values.
2. Do one of the following:
 If the data table is column-oriented (your
variable values are in a column), type the
formula in the cell one row above and one
cell to the right of the column of values. The
one-variable data table illustration shown in
the Overview section is column-oriented,
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 31
and the formula is contained in cell D2.
If you want to examine the effects of
various values on other formulas, type the
additional formulas in cells to the right of
the first formula.
 If the data table is row-oriented (your
variable values are in a row), type the
formula in the cell one column to the left of
the first value and one cell below the row of
values.
If you want to examine the effects of
various values on other formulas, type the
additional formulas in cells below the first
formula.
3. Select the range of cells that contains the
formulas and values that you want to
substitute. Based on the first illustration in
the preceding Overview section, this range
is C2:D5.
4. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group,
click What-If Analysis, and then click Data
Table.
5. Do one of the following:
 If the data table is column-oriented, type
the cell reference for the input cell in the
Column input cell box. Using the example
shown in the first illustration, the input cell
is B3.
 If the data table is row-oriented, type the
cell reference for the input cell in the Row
input cell box.
Note After you create your data table, you
might want to change the format of the result
cells. In the illustration, the result cells are
formatted as currency.
Add a formula to a one-variable data
table
Formulas that are used in a one-variable data
table must refer to the same input cell.
1. Do one of the following:
 If the data table is column-oriented (your
variable values are in a column), type the
32 | P a g e
new formula in a blank cell to the right of
an existing formula in the top row of the
data table.
 If the data table is row-oriented (your
variable values are in a row), type the new
formula in a blank cell below an existing
formula in the first column of the data
table.
2. Select the range of cells that contains the
data table and the new formula.
3. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group,
click What-If Analysis, and then click Data
Table.
4. Do one of the following:
 If the data table is column-oriented, type
the cell reference for the input cell in the
Column input cell box.
 If the data table is row-oriented, type the
cell reference for the input cell in the Row
input cell box.
Create a two-variable data table
A two-variable data table uses a formula that
contains two lists of input values. The formula
must refer to two different input cells.
1. In a cell on the worksheet, enter the formula
that refers to the two input cells.
In the following example, in which the
formula's starting values are entered in cells
B3, B4, and B5, you type the formula
=PMT(B3/12,B4,-B5) in cell C2.
2. Type one list of input values in the same
column, below the formula.
In this case, type the different interest rates in
cells C3, C4, and C5.
3. Enter the second list in the same row as the
formula, to its right.
Type the loan terms (in months) in cells D2
and E2.
4. Select the range of cells that contains the
formula (C2), both the row and column of
values (C3:C5 and D2:E2), and the cells in
which you want the calculated values
(D3:E5).
In this case, select the range C2:E5.
5. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group,
click What-If Analysis, and then click Data
Table.
6. In the Row input cell box, enter the
reference to the input cell for the input
values in the row.
Type cell B4 in the Row input cell box.
7. In the Column input cell box, enter the
reference to the input cell for the input
values in the column.
Type B3 in the Column input cell box.
8. Click OK.
Example A two-variable data table can show
how different combinations of interest rates
and loan terms will affect a monthly mortgage
payment. In the following illustration, cell C2
contains the payment formula,
=PMT(B3/12,B4,-B5), which uses two input
cells, B3 and B4.
Speed up calculation on a worksheet
that contains data tables
1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , click
Excel Options, and then click the
Formulas category.
 P a g e | 33

2. In the Calculation options section, under
Calculate, click Automatic except for data
tables.
Tip Alternatively, on the Formulas tab, in
the Calculation group, click the arrow on
Calculation Options, and then click Automatic
Except Data Tables.
For example, in a marketing workbook, you
can set up a cell to allow only account
numbers that are exactly three characters
long. When users select the cell, you can
show them a message such as this one:

Apply data validation to cells

You use data validation to control the type of

data or the values that users enter into a cell.
For example, you may want to restrict data
entry to a certain range of dates, limit choices
by using a list, or make sure that only positive
whole numbers are entered.

This article describes how data validation

works in Excel and outlines the different data
validation techniques available to you. It does
not cover cell protection, which is a feature
that lets you "lock" or hide certain cells in a
worksheet so that they can't be edited or
overwritten.
Important If you save worksheet data to
Excel Services and want to use data validation
to restrict data entry, you need to create the
data validation in Excel before you save it to
Excel Services. Excel Services supports data
entry, but you won’t be able to create data
validation.
If users ignore this message and type invalid
data in the cell, such as a two-digit or five-
digit number, you can show them an actual
error message.
In a slightly more advanced scenario, you
might use data validation to calculate the
maximum allowed value in a cell based on a
value elsewhere in the workbook. In the
following example, the user has typed $4,000
in cell E7, which exceeds the maximum limit
specified for commissions and bonuses.

What is data validation?

Data validation is an Excel feature that you

can use to define restrictions on what data
can or should be entered in a cell. You can
configure data validation to prevent users
from entering data that is not valid. If you
prefer, you can allow users to enter invalid
data but warn them when they try to type it
in the cell. You can also provide messages to If the payroll budget were to increase or
define what input you expect for the cell, and decrease, the allowed maximum in E7 would
instructions to help users correct any errors. automatically increase or decrease with it.

Advanced Excel 2013

34 | P a g e
The data validation commands are located on
the Data tab, in the Data Tools group.
You configure data validation in the Data
Validation dialog box.
When is data validation useful?
Data validation is invaluable when you want
to share a workbook with others in your
organization, and you want the data entered
in the workbook to be accurate and
consistent.
Among other things, you can use data
validation to do the following:
 Restrict data to predefined items in a
list For example, you can limit types
of departments to Sales, Finance,
R&D, and IT. Similarly, you can create
a list of values from a range of cells
elsewhere in the worksheet.
 Restrict numbers outside a specified
range For example, you can specify a
minimum limit of deductions to two
times the number of children in a
particular cell.
 Restrict dates outside a certain time
frame For example, you can specify a
time frame between today's date and
3 days from today's date.
 Restrict times outside a certain time
frame For example, you can specify
a time frame for serving breakfast
between the time when the restaurant
opens and 5 hours after the restaurant
opens.
 Limit the number of text
characters For example, you can
limit the allowed text in a cell to 10 or
fewer characters. Similarly, you can
set the specific length for a full name
field (C1) to be the current length of a
first name field (A1) and a last name
field (B1), plus 10 characters.
 Validate data based on formulas or
values in other cells For example,
you can use data validation to set a
maximum limit for commissions and
bonuses of $3,600, based on the
overall projected payroll value. If users
enter more than $3,600 in the cell,
they see a validation message.
Data validation messages
What users see when they enter invalid data
into a cell depends on how you have
configured the data validation. You can
choose to show an input message when the
user selects the cell. Input messages are
generally used to offer users guidance about
the type of data that you want entered in the
cell. This type of message appears near the

cell. You can move this message, if you want
to, and it remains until you move to another
cell or press Esc.
You can also choose to show an error alert
that appears only after users enter invalid
data.
You can choose from three types of error
alerts:
Icon Type Use to
Prevent users from entering
invalid data in a cell. A Stop
Stop
alert message has two
options: Retry or Cancel.
Warn users that the data
they entered is invalid,
without preventing them
from entering it. When a
Warning alert message
Warning
appears, users can click Yes
to accept the invalid entry,
No to edit the invalid entry,
or Cancel to remove the
invalid entry.
Inform users that the data
Information
they entered is invalid,
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 35
Icon Type Use to
without preventing them
from entering it. This type
of error alert is the most
flexible. When an
Information alert message
appears, users can click OK
to accept the invalid value
or Cancel to reject it.
You can customize the text that users see in
an error alert message. If you choose not to
do so, users see a default message.
Input messages and error alerts appear only
when data is typed directly into the cells.
They do not appear under the following
conditions:
 A user enters data in the cell by
copying or filling.
 A formula in the cell calculates a result
that is not valid.
 A macro enters invalid data in the cell.
Tips for working with data validation
Use these tips and tricks for working with
data validation in Excel.
 If you plan to protect the worksheet or
workbook, protect it after you have
finished specifying any validation
settings. Make sure that you unlock any
validated cells before you protect the
worksheet. Otherwise, users will not be
able to type any data in the cells.
 If you plan to share the workbook, share
it only after you have finished specifying
data validation and protection settings.
After you share a workbook, you won't
be able to change the validation settings
unless you stop sharing. However, Excel
will continue to validate the cells that
you have designated while the
workbook is being shared.
36 | P a g e
 You can apply data validation to cells
that already have data entered in them.
However, Excel does not automatically
notify you that the existing cells contain
invalid data. In this scenario, you can
highlight invalid data by instructing
Excel to circle it on the worksheet. Once
you have identified the invalid data, you
can hide the circles again. If you correct
an invalid entry, the circle disappears
automatically.
 To quickly remove data validation for a
cell, select it, and then open the Data
Validation dialog box (Data tab, Data
Tools group). On the Settings tab, click
Clear All.
 To find the cells on the worksheet that
have data validation, on the Home tab,
in the Editing group, click Find & Select,
and then click Data Validation. After
you have found the cells that have data
validation, you can change, copy, or
remove validation settings.
 When creating a drop-down list, you
can use the Define Name command
(Formulas tab, Defined Names group)
to define a name for the range that
contains the list. After you create the
list on another worksheet, you can hide
the worksheet that contains the list and
then protect the workbook so that users
won't have access to the list.
If data validation isn't working, make sure
that:
 Users are not copying or filling
data Data validation is designed to
show messages and prevent invalid
entries only when users type data
directly in a cell. When data is copied or
filled, the messages do not appear. To
prevent users from copying and filling
data by dragging and dropping cells,
clear the Enable fill handle and cell
drag-and-drop check box in the
Advanced category of the Excel Options
dialog box (File tab, Options command),
and then protect the worksheet.
 Manual recalculation is turned off If
manual recalculation is turned on,
uncalculated cells can prevent data
from being validated correctly. To turn
off manual recalculation, on the
Formulas tab, in the Calculation group,
click Calculation Options, and then click
Automatic.
 Formulas are error free Make sure
that formulas in validated cells do not
cause errors, such as #REF! or #DIV/0!.
Excel ignores the data validation until
you correct the error.
 Cells referenced in formulas are
correct If a referenced cell changes so
that a formula in a validated cell
calculates an invalid result, the
validation message for the cell won't
appear.
How to handle a data validation alert
If you see a data validation alert when you try
to enter or change data in a cell, and you're
not clear about what you can enter, contact
the owner of the workbook.
If you inherited the workbook, you can modify
or remove the data validation unless the
worksheet is protected with a password that
you do not know. If possible, you can contact
the previous owner to help you unprotect the
worksheet. You can also copy the data to
another worksheet, and then remove the
data validation.
Add data validation to a cell or range
So let's add some data validation. The steps in
this section explain how to apply one type of
validation—restricting data entry by providing

a drop down list—and the table that follows
explains how to add some of the other types
of validation that Excel provides.
Follow the first three steps in this section to
add any type of data validation.
1. Select one or more cells to validate.
2. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools
group, click Data Validation.
3. If it isn't already selected, in the Data
Validation dialog box, click the
Settings tab.
4. In the Allow box, select List.
5. Click the Source box and then type the
list values, separated by your
Microsoft Windows list separator
character (commas by default). For
example:
o To limit an answer to two choices
("Do you have children?" for
example), type Yes, No.
o To limit a vendor's quality
reputation to three ratings, type
Low, Average, High.
o You can also create the list entries
by referring to a range of cells
elsewhere in the workbook.
Note The width of the drop-down list is
determined by the width of the cell
that has the data validation. You
might need to adjust the width of
that cell to prevent truncating the
width of valid entries that are wider
than the width of the drop-down
list.
6. Make sure that the In-cell dropdown
check box is selected. Otherwise, you
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 37
won't be able to see the drop-down
arrow next to the cell.
7. To specify how you want to handle
blank (null) values, select or clear the
Ignore blank check box.
Note If your allowed values are based
on a cell range that has a defined
name and there is a blank cell
anywhere in that range, selecting the
Ignore blank check box allows any
value to be entered in the validated
cell. This is also true for any cells that
are referenced by validation formulas:
if any referenced cell is blank,
selecting the Ignore blank check box
allows any value to be entered in the
validated cell.
Tip If you change the validation
settings for a cell, you can
automatically apply your changes to
all other cells that have the same
settings. To do so, on the Settings tab,
select the Apply these changes to all
other cells with the same settings
check box.
8. Test the data validation to make sure
that it is working correctly. Try
entering both valid and invalid data in
the cells to make sure that your
settings are working as you intended
and your messages are appearing
when you expect.
Help! The Data validation command is
unavailable.
 An Excel table might be linked to a
SharePoint site You cannot add data
validation to an Excel table that is linked
to a SharePoint site. To add data
validation, you must unlink the Excel
table or convert the Excel table to a
range.
38 | P a g e
 You might currently be entering
data The Data Validation command is
not available on the Data tab while you
are entering data in a cell. To finish
entering data, press Enter or ESC.
 The worksheet might be protected or
shared You cannot change data
validation settings if your workbook is
shared or protected.
Display an optional input message
 Click the Input Message tab (Data tab >
Data Tools > Data Validation).
 Make sure the Show input message
when cell is selected check box is
selected.
 Fill in the title and text for the message.
Specify an optional alert or error message
when invalid data is entered.
 Click the Error Alert tab (Data tab >
Data Tools > Data Validation), and
make sure that the Show error alert
after invalid data is entered check box
is selected. If you want to allow users to
type entries that are not in the list, clear
the Show error alert after invalid data is
entered check box instead.
 Select one of the following options for
the Style box:
 To display an information message that
does not prevent entry of invalid data,
select Information.
 To display a warning message that does
not prevent entry of invalid data, select
Warning.
 To prevent entry of invalid data, select
Stop.
 Fill in the title and text for the message
(up to 225 characters). If you don't,
Excel displays a generic alert message.
Use Goal Seek to find the result you
want by adjusting an input value
If you know the result that you want from a
formula, but are not sure what input value
the formula needs to get that result, use the
Goal Seek feature. For example, suppose that
you need to borrow some money. You know
how much money you want, how long you
want to take to pay off the loan, and how
much you can afford to pay each month. You
can use Goal Seek to determine what interest
rate you will need to secure in order to meet
your loan goal.
Note Goal Seek works only with one variable
input value. If you want to accept more than
one input value; for example, both the loan
amount and the monthly payment amount for
a loan, you use the Solver add-in. For more
information about the Solver add-in, follow
the links in the See Also section.
Step-by-step with an example
Let's look at the preceding example, step-by-
step.
Because you want to calculate the loan
interest rate needed to meet your goal, you
use the PMT function. The PMT function
calculates a monthly payment amount. In this
example, the monthly payment amount is the
goal that you seek.
Prepare the worksheet
1. Open a new, blank worksheet.
2. First, add some labels in the first
column to make it easier to read the
worksheet.
a. In cell A1, type Loan Amount.
b. In cell A2, type Term in Months.
c. In cell A3, type Interest Rate.
d. In cell A4, type Payment.
3. Next, add the values that you know.
a. In cell B1, type 100000. This is the
amount that you want to borrow.

b. In cell B2, type 180. This is the
number of months that you want
to pay off the loan.
Note Although you know the
payment amount that you want,
you do not enter it as a value,
because the payment amount is a
result of the formula. Instead, you
add the formula to the worksheet
and specify the payment value at
a later step, when you use Goal
Seek.
4. Next, add the formula for which you
have a goal. For the example, use the
PMT function:
a. In cell B4, type
=PMT(B3/12,B2,B1). This formula
calculates the payment amount.
In this example, you want to pay
$900 each month. You don't enter
that amount here, because you
want to use Goal Seek to
determine the interest rate, and
Goal Seek requires that you start
with a formula.
The formula refers to cells B1 and
B2, which contain values that you
specified in preceding steps. The
formula also refers to cell B3,
which is where you will specify
that Goal Seek put the interest
rate. The formula divides the
value in B3 by 12 because you
specified a monthly payment, and
the PMT function assumes an
annual interest rate.
Because there is no value in cell
B3, Excel assumes a 0% interest
rate and, using the values in the
example, returns a payment of
$555.56. You can ignore that value
for now.
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 39
For more information about the
PMT function, see the See Also
section.
Use Goal Seek to determine the
interest rate
1. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools
group, click What-If Analysis, and then
click Goal Seek.
2. In the Set cell box, enter the reference
for the cell that contains the formula
that you want to resolve. In the
example, this reference is cell B4.
3. In the To value box, type the formula
result that you want. In the example,
this is -900. Note that this number is
negative because it represents a
payment.
4. In the By changing cell box, enter the
reference for the cell that contains the
value that you want to adjust. In the
example, this reference is cell B3.
Note The cell that Goal Seek changes
must be referenced by the formula in
the cell that you specified in the Set
cell box.
5. Click OK.
Goal Seek runs and produces a result,
as shown in the following illustration.
6. Finally, format the target cell (B3) so
that it displays the result as a
percentage.
40 | P a g e
a. On the Home tab, in the Number
group, click Percentage.
b. Click Increase Decimal or
Decrease Decimal to set the
number of decimal places.
Switch between various sets of values
by using scenarios
A scenario is a set of values that Microsoft
Office Excel saves and can substitute
automatically on your worksheet. You can
create and save different groups of values as
scenarios on a worksheet and then switch
between these scenarios to view the different
results.
If several people have specific information
that you want to use in scenarios, you can
collect the information in separate
workbooks, and then merge the scenarios
from the different workbooks into one.
After you have all the scenarios you need, you
can create a scenario summary report that
incorporates information from all the
scenarios.
Overview
Scenarios are part of a suite of commands
called what-if analysis tools. When you use
scenarios, you are doing what-if analysis.
What-if analysis is the process of changing the
values in cells to see how those changes will
affect the outcome of formulas on the
worksheet. You can use scenarios to create
and save different sets of values and switch
between them. You can also create a scenario
summary report, which combines all the
scenarios on one worksheet. For example,
you can create several different budget
scenarios that compare various possible
income levels and expenses, and then create
a report that lets you compare the scenarios
side-by-side.
Kinds of what-if analysis There are three
kinds of what-if analysis tools in Excel:
scenarios, data tables, and goal seek.
Scenarios and data tables take sets of input
values and project forward to determine
possible results. Goal seek differs from
scenarios and data tables in that it takes a
result and projects backwards to determine
possible input values that produce that result.
Like data tables, scenarios help you explore a
set of possible outcomes. Unlike data tables,
scenarios from several different worksheets
or workbooks can be merged. Scenarios make
it easy to gather data about possible
outcomes from a variety of sources, and then
combine the data.
Each scenario can accommodate up to 32
variable values. If you want to analyze more
than 32 values, and the values represent only
one or two variables, you can use data tables.
Although it is limited to only one or two
variables (one for the row input cell and one
for the column input cell), a data table can
include as many different variable values as
you want. A scenario can have a maximum of
32 different values, but you can create as
many scenarios as you want.
For information about other what-if analysis
tools, see the See Also section.
Scenario basics
Creating scenarios Suppose that you want
to create a budget but are uncertain of your
revenue. By using scenarios, you can define
different possible values for the revenue and
then switch between scenarios to perform
what-if analyses.

Note This section explains how to use
scenarios, and shows sample data and the
results of applying scenarios that use that
data. It does not provide step-by-step
instructions. For step-by-step instructions, see
the section Create a scenario, later in this
article.
For example, assume that your worst case
budget scenario is Gross Revenue of $50,000
and Costs of Goods Sold of $13,200, leaving
$36,800 in Gross Profit. To define this set of
values as a scenario, you first enter the values
in a worksheet, as shown in the following
illustration:
1. Changing cells have values that you type in.
2. The result cell contains a formula that is
based on the changing cells (in this
illustration, =B1-B2).
You then use the Scenario Manager dialog
box to save these values as a scenario, name
the scenario Worst Case, and specify that cells
B1 and B2 are values that change between
scenarios.
Note Although this example contains only
two changing cells (B1 and B2), a scenario can
contain up to 32 cells.
Now suppose that your best case budget
scenario is Gross Revenue of $150,000 and
Costs of Goods Sold of $26,000, leaving
$124,000 in Gross Profit. To define this set of
values as a scenario, you create another
scenario, name it Best Case, and supply
different values for cell B1 (150,000) and cell
B2 (26,000). Because Gross Profit (cell B3) is a
formula— the difference between Revenue
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 41
(B1) and Costs (B2)— you do not change cell
B3 for the Best Case scenario.
After you save a scenario, it becomes
available on the list of scenarios that you can
use in your what-if analyses. Given the values
in the preceding illustration, if you chose to
display the Best Case scenario, the values in
the worksheet would change to resemble the
following illustration:
1. Changing cells
2. Result cell
Merging scenarios There may be times
when you have all the information in one
worksheet or workbook that is required to
create all the scenarios that you want to
consider. However, you may want to gather
scenario information from other sources. For
example, suppose you are trying to create a
budget for a larger company. You might
collect scenarios from different departments,
such as Payroll, Production, Marketing, and
Legal, because each of these sources has
different information to use in creating
scenarios.
You can gather these scenarios into one
worksheet by using the Merge command.
Each source can supply as many or as few
changing cell values as you want. For
example, you might want each department to
supply expenditure projections, but only need
revenue projections from a few.
When you collect different scenarios from
various sources, you should use the same cell
structure in each of the workbooks. For
example, Revenue might always go in cell B2
and Expenditures might always go in cell B3. If
42 | P a g e
you use different structures for the scenarios
from various sources, it can be difficult to
merge the results.
Tip Consider first creating a scenario
yourself, and then sending your colleagues a
copy of the workbook that contains that
scenario. This makes it easier to be sure that
all the scenarios are structured the same way.
Scenario summary reports To compare
several scenarios, you can create a report that
summarizes them on the same page. The
report can list the scenarios side by side or
present them in a PivotTable report. A
scenario summary report based on the
preceding two example scenarios would look
something like the following:
Note By default, the summary report uses
cell references to identify the changing cells
and result cells. For this example, names were
created for those cells to make the summary
report easier to read. If you create names for
the cells before you run the summary report,
the report will contain the names instead of
cell references.
A note appears at the end of the summary
report explaining that the Current Values
column represents the values of changing
cells at the time the Scenario Summary
Report was created, and that the cells that
changed for each scenario are highlighted in
gray.
For more information about creating a
scenario summary report, see the section
Create a scenario summary report.
Create a scenario
Before you create a scenario, you should have
an initial set of values already on the
worksheet. To make scenario summary
reports easier to read, you should also
consider naming the cells that you plan to use
in scenarios. For Help on naming cells, see the
topic Use names to clarify formulas.
1. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group,
click What-If Analysis, and then click
Scenario Manager.
2. Click Add.
3. In the Scenario name box, type a name
for the scenario.
4. In the Changing cells box, enter the
references for the cells that you want to
specify in your scenario. For example, if
you want to see how changing the values
of cells B1 and B2 will affect the outcome
of a formula based on those cells, enter
B1,B2.
Note To preserve the initial values for
the changing cells, add a scenario that
uses those values before you create
additional scenarios that use different
values.
5. Under Protection, select the options that
you want.
Note These options apply only to
protected worksheets. For more
information about protected worksheets,
see the See Also section.
o Select Prevent Changes to prevent
editing of the scenario when the
worksheet is protected.
o Select Hidden to prevent display of the
scenario when the worksheet is
protected.
6. Click OK.
7. In the Scenario Values dialog box, type
the values that you want to use in the
changing cells for this scenario.
8. To create the scenario, click OK.

9. If you want to create additional
scenarios, repeat steps 2 through 8. After
you finish creating scenarios, click OK,
and then click Close in the Scenario
Manager dialog box.
Display a scenario
When you display a scenario, you switch to
the set of values that are saved as part of that
scenario. The scenario values are displayed in
the cells that change from scenario to
scenario, in addition to the results cells. For
example, using the preceding scenarios, if you
display the Best Case scenario, cell B1 displays
150000, cell B2 displays 26000, and cell B3
displays 124000.
1. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group,
click What-If Analysis, and then click
Scenario Manager.
2. Click the name of the scenario that you
want to display.
3. Click Show.
Note After you close the Scenario
Manager dialog box, the values from the
last scenario that you displayed remain
on the worksheet. If you saved your
initial values as a scenario, you can
display those values before you close the
Scenario Manager dialog box.
Merge scenarios
1. Select the worksheet in which to store
the merged scenarios results.
2. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group,
click What-If Analysis, and then click
Scenario Manager.
3. Click Merge.
4. In the Merge Scenarios dialog box, click
the arrow next to Book and select a
workbook that contains scenarios that
you want to merge in your results.
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 43
5. In the Sheet box, click the name of the
worksheet that contains scenarios that
you want to merge.
6. Click OK to merge the scenarios from the
selected worksheet into the current
worksheet.
The Merge Scenarios dialog box closes,
and the scenarios that you merged now
appear in the Scenario Manager dialog
box.
7. Repeat the preceding four steps as
needed until you have merged all the
scenarios that you want.
When you are finished, the scenarios that
you merged are all part of the current
worksheet. You can close the Scenario
Manager dialog box, or leave it open to
continue your analysis.
Create a scenario summary report
1. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group,
click What-If Analysis, and then click
Scenario Manager.
2. Click Summary.
3. Click Scenario summary or Scenario
PivotTable report.
4. In the Result cells box, enter the
references for the cells that refer to cells
whose values are changed by the
scenarios. Separate multiple references
with commas.
Notes
o Scenario reports do not automatically
recalculate. If you change the values of a
scenario, those changes will not show up
in an existing summary report, but will
show up if you create a new summary
report.
o You don't need result cells to generate a
scenario summary report, but you do
44 | P a g e
need them for a scenario PivotTable
report.
Insert subtotals in a list of data in a
worksheet
You can automatically calculate subtotals
and grand totals in a list for a column by
using the Subtotal command.
Important
The Subtotal command will appear
grayed out if you are working with a
Microsoft Excel table. To add subtotals in
a table, you must first convert the table
to a normal range of data, and then add
the subtotal. Note that this will remove
all table functionality from the data
except table formatting.
When you insert subtotals:
 Subtotals are calculated with a
summary function, such as Sum or
Average, by using the SUBTOTAL
function. You can display more than one
type of summary function for each
column.
 Grand totals are derived from detail
data, not from the values in the
subtotals. For example, if you use the
Average summary function, the grand
total row displays an average of all of the
detail rows in the list, not an average of
the values in the subtotal rows.
If the workbook is set to automatically
calculate formulas, the Subtotal command
recalculates subtotal and grand total values
automatically as you edit the detail data. The
Subtotal command also outlines the list so
that you can display and hide the detail rows
for each subtotal.
Insert subtotals
Note If you filter data that contains
subtotals, your subtotals may appear hidden.
To display them again, clear all filters For
more information on applying filters, see
Quick start: Filter data by using an AutoFilter.
1. Make sure that each column in a range of
data for which you want to calculate
subtotals has a label in the first row,
contains similar facts in each column, and
that the range does not include any blank
rows or columns.
2. Select a cell in the range.
3. Do one of the following:
Insert one level of subtotals
You can insert one level of subtotals for a
group of data as shown in the following
example.
 P a g e | 45

f. If you want an automatic page break

following each subtotal, select the Page
break between groups check box.
g. To specify a summary row above the
details row, clear the Summary below
data check box. To specify a summary
row below the details row, select the
Summary below data check box. For
example, using the example above, you
would clear the check box.
h. Optionally, you can use the Subtotals
command again by repeating steps one
1. At each change in the Sport column… through seven to add more subtotals
with different summary functions. To
2. …subtotal the Sales column.
avoid overwriting the existing subtotals,
clear the Replace current subtotals check
a. To sort the column that contains the data
box.
you want to group by, select that column,
and then on the Data tab, in the Sort &
Insert nested levels of subtotals
Filter group, click Sort A to Z or Sort Z to
A. You can insert subtotals for inner, nested
b. On the Data tab, in the Outline group, groups within their corresponding outer
click Subtotal. groups as shown in the following
example.

The Subtotal dialog box is displayed.

c. In the At each change in box, click the

column to subtotal. For example, using
the example above, you would select
Sport.
d. In the Use function box, click the
summary function that you want to use
to calculate the subtotals. For example,
using the example above, you would
select Sum.
e. In the Add subtotal to box, select the
check box for each column that contains 1. At each change in the outer, Region
values that you want to subtotal. For column…
example, using the example above, you
would select Sales. 2. subtotal the Sales for that region and at
each change for the inner, Sport column.

Advanced Excel 2013

 46 | P a g e
i. To sort the column that contains the data
you want to group by, select that column,
and then on the Data tab, in the Sort &
Filter group, click Sort A to Z or Sort Z to
A.
j. Insert the outer subtotals.
How to insert the outer subtotals
i. On the Data tab, in the Outline group,
click Subtotal.
The Subtotal dialog box is displayed.
ii. In the At each change in box, click the
column for the outer subtotals. For
example, using the example above, you
would click Region.
iii. In the Use function box, click the
summary function that you want to use
to calculate the subtotals. For example,
using the example above, you would
select Sum.
iv. In the Add subtotal to box, select the
check box for each column that contains
values that you want to subtotal. In the
example above, you would select Sales.
v. If you want an automatic page break
following each subtotal, select the Page
break between groups check box.
vi. To specify a summary row above the
details row, clear the Summary below
data check box. To specify a summary
row below the details row, select the
Summary below data check box. For
example, using the example above, you
would clear the check box.
vii. Optionally, you can use the Subtotals
command again by repeating steps one
through six to add more subtotals with
different summary functions. To avoid
overwriting the existing subtotals, clear
the Replace current subtotals check box.
k. Insert the nested subtotals.
How to insert the nested subtotals
i. On the Data tab, in the Outline group,
click Subtotal.
The Subtotal dialog box is displayed.
ii. In the At each change in box, click the
nested subtotal column. For example,
using the example above, you would
select Sport.
iii. In the Use function box, click the
summary function that you want to use
to calculate the subtotals. For example,
using the example above, you would
select Sum.
Select any other options that you want.
iv. Clear the Replace current subtotals
check box.
l. Repeat the previous step for more nested
subtotals, working from the outermost
subtotals in.
Tip To display a summary of just the
subtotals and grand totals, click the
outline symbols next to the row
numbers. Use the and symbols to
display or hide the detail rows for
individual subtotals.
Remove subtotals
1. Select a cell in the range that contains
subtotals.
2. On the Data tab, in the Outline group,
click Subtotal.
 P a g e | 47

expenses, and the profit. Solver can change

the quarterly budgets for advertising (decision
variable cells B5:C5), up to a total budget
constraint of $20,000 (cell F5), until the total
profit (objective cell F7) reaches the
maximum possible amount. The values in the
3. In the Subtotal dialog box, click Remove
variable cells are used to calculate the profit
All.
for each quarter, so they are related to the
formula objective cell F7, =SUM(Q1 Profit:Q2
Define and solve a problem by using Profit).
Solver

Solver is part of a suite of commands

sometimes called what-if analysis tools. With
Solver, you can find an optimal (maximum or
minimum) value for a formula in one cell —
called the objective cell — subject to
constraints, or limits, on the values of other
formula cells on a worksheet. Solver works
with a group of cells, called decision variables 1. Variable cells
or simply variable cells, that participate in
computing the formulas in the objective and 2. Constrained cell
constraint cells. Solver adjusts the values in
the decision variable cells to satisfy the limits 3. Objective cell
on constraint cells and produce the result you
want for the objective cell. After Solver runs, the new values are as
follows.
Note Earlier versions of Solver referred to
the objective cell as the "target cell," and the
decision variable cells as "changing cells" or
"adjustable cells."

Overview
Define and solve a problem
Use Solver to determine the maximum or
minimum value of one cell by changing other 1. On the Data tab, in the Analysis group,
cells. For example, you can change the click Solver.
amount of your projected advertising budget
and see the effect on your projected profit
amount.

Example of a Solver evaluation

In the following example, the level of If the Solver command or the Analysis
advertising in each quarter affects the group is not available, you need to load
number of units sold, indirectly determining the Solver Add-in program.
the amount of sales revenue, the associated

Advanced Excel 2013

48 | P a g e
How to load the Solver Add-in program
a. Click the File tab, click Options, and then
click the Add-Ins category.
b. In the Manage box, click Excel Add-ins,
and then click Go.
c. In the Add-ins available box, select the
Solver Add-in check box, and then click
OK.
2. In the Set Objective box, enter a cell
reference or name for the objective cell.
The objective cell must contain a formula.
3. Do one of the following:
a. If you want the value of the objective cell
to be as large as possible, click Max.
b. If you want the value of the objective cell
to be as small as possible, click Min.
c. If you want the objective cell to be a
certain value, click Value of, and then
type the value in the box.
4. In the By Changing Variable Cells box,
enter a name or reference for each
decision variable cell range. Separate the
nonadjacent references with commas.
The variable cells must be related directly
or indirectly to the objective cell. You can
specify up to 200 variable cells.
5. In the Subject to the Constraints box,
enter any constraints that you want to
apply by doing the following:
a. In the Solver Parameters dialog box, click
Add.
b. In the Cell Reference box, enter the cell
reference or name of the cell range for
which you want to constrain the value.
c. Click the relationship ( <=, =, >=, int, bin,
or dif ) that you want between the
referenced cell and the constraint.
If you click int, integer appears in the
Constraint box. If you click bin, binary
appears in the Constraint box. If you click
dif, alldifferent appears in the Constraint
box.
d. If you choose <=, =, or >= for the
relationship in the Constraint box, type a
number, a cell reference or name, or a
formula.
e. Do one of the following:
 To accept the constraint and add
another, click Add.
 To accept the constraint and return to
the Solver Parameters dialog box, click
OK.
Note You can apply the int, bin, and dif
relationships only in constraints on
decision variable cells.
You can change or delete an existing
constraint by doing the following:
f. In the Solver Parameters dialog box, click
the constraint that you want to change or
delete.
g. Click Change and then make your
changes, or click Delete.
6. Click Solve and do one of the following:
a. To keep the solution values on the
worksheet, in the Solver Results dialog
box, click Keep Solver Solution.
b. To restore the original values before you
clicked Solve, click Restore Original
Values.
Notes
c. You can interrupt the solution process by
pressing ESC. Microsoft Excel recalculates
the worksheet with the last values that
are found for the decision variable cells.
d. To create a report that is based on your
solution after Solver finds a solution, you
can click a report type in the Reports box
and then click OK. The report is created
on a new worksheet in your workbook. If
Solver doesn't find a solution, only
certain reports or no reports are
available.
e. To save your decision variable cell values
as a scenario that you can display later,
click Save Scenario in the Solver Results

dialog box, and then type a name for the
scenario in the Scenario Name box.
Step through Solver trial solutions
1. After you define a problem, click Options
in the Solver Parameters dialog box.
2. In the Options dialog box, select the
Show Iteration Results check box to see
the values of each trial solution, and then
click OK.
3. In the Solver Parameters dialog box, click
Solve.
4. In the Show Trial Solution dialog box, do
one of the following:
o To stop the solution process and
display the Solver Results dialog box,
click Stop.
o To continue the solution process and
display the next trial solution, click
Continue.
Change how Solver finds solutions
1. In the Solver Parameters dialog box, click
Options.
2. Choose or enter values for any of the
options on the All Methods, GRG
Nonlinear, and Evolutionary tabs in the
dialog box.
Save or load a problem model
1. In the Solver Parameters dialog box, click
Load/Save.
2. Enter a cell range for the model area, and
click either Save or Load.
When you save a model, enter the
reference for the first cell of a vertical
range of empty cells in which you want to
place the problem model. When you load
a model, enter the reference for the
entire range of cells that contains the
problem model.
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 49
Tip You can save the last selections
in the Solver Parameters dialog box
with a worksheet by saving the
workbook. Each worksheet in a
workbook may have its own Solver
selections, and all of them are saved.
You can also define more than one
problem for a worksheet by clicking
Load/Save to save problems
individually.
Solving methods used by Solver
You can choose any of the following three
algorithms or solving methods in the Solver
Parameters dialog box:
 Generalized Reduced Gradient (GRG)
Nonlinear Use for problems that are
smooth nonlinear.
 LP Simplex Use for problems that are
linear.
 Evolutionary Use for problems that
are non-smooth.
Create or delete a macro
To automate a repetitive task, you can quickly
record a macro in Microsoft Office Excel. You
can also create a macro by using the Visual
Basic Editor in Microsoft Visual Basic to write
your own macro script, or to copy all or part
of a macro to a new macro. After you create a
macro, you can assign it to an object (such as
a toolbar button, graphic, or control) so that
you can run it by clicking the object. If you no
longer use a macro, you can delete it.
Record a macro
When you record a macro, the macro
recorder records all the steps required to
complete the actions that you want your
macro to perform. Navigation on the Ribbon
is not included in the recorded steps.
50 | P a g e
Note The Ribbon is a component of the
Microsoft Office Fluent user interface.
1. If the Developer tab is not available,
do the following to display it:
a. Click the Microsoft Office
Button , and then click Excel
Options.
b. In the Popular category, under
Top options for working with
Excel, select the Show
Developer tab in the Ribbon
check box, and then click OK.
2. To set the security level temporarily to
enable all macros, do the following:
a. On the Developer tab, in the
Code group, click Macro
Security.
b. Under Macro Settings, click Enable all
macros (not recommended, potentially
dangerous code can run), and then click
OK.
Note To help prevent potentially
dangerous code from running, we
recommend that you return to any one of
the settings that disable all macros after
you finish working with macros. For more
information about how to change the
settings, see Change macro security
settings in Excel.
3. On the Developer tab, in the Code
group, click Record Macro.
4. In the Macro name box, enter a name
for the macro.
Note The first character of the macro name
must be a letter. Subsequent characters can
be letters, numbers, or underscore
characters. Spaces cannot be used in a macro
name; an underscore character works well as
a word separator. If you use a macro name
that is also a cell reference, you may get an
error message that the macro name is not
valid.
1. To assign a CTRL combination shortcut
key to run the macro, in the Shortcut
key box, type any lowercase letter or
uppercase letter that you want to use.
Note The shortcut key will override
any equivalent default Excel shortcut
key while the workbook that contains
the macro is open. For a list of CTRL
combination shortcut keys that are
already assigned in Excel, see Excel
shortcut and function keys.
2. In the Store macro in list, select the
workbook where you want to store the
macro.
Tip If you want a macro to be available
whenever you use Excel, select Personal
Macro Workbook. When you select
Personal Macro Workbook, Excel
creates a hidden personal macro
workbook (Personal.xlsb) if it does not
already exist, and saves the macro in
this workbook. In Windows Vista, this
workbook is saved in the C:\Users\user
name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Excel\X
LStart folder. In Microsoft Windows XP,
this workbook is saved in the
C:\Documents and Settings\user
name\Application
Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLStart folder.
Workbooks in the XLStart folder are
opened automatically whenever Excel
starts. If you want a macro in the
personal macro workbook to be run
automatically in another workbook, you
must also save that workbook in the
XLStart folder so that both workbooks
are opened when Excel starts.

3. In the Description box, type a
description of the macro.
4. Click OK to start recording.
5. Perform the actions that you want to
record.
6. On the Developer tab, in the Code
group, click Stop Recording . the Insert menu, click Module.
Tip You can also click Stop Recording
on the left side of the status bar.
Create a macro by using Microsoft
Visual Basic
1. If the Developer tab is not available,
do the following to display it:
a. Click the Microsoft Office
Button , and then click Excel
Options.
b. In the Popular category, under
Top options for working with
Excel, select the Show
Developer tab in the Ribbon
check box, and then click OK.
2. To set the security level temporarily to
enable all macros, do the following:
a. On the Developer tab, in the
Code group, click Macro
Security.
b. Under Macro Settings, click
Enable all macros (not
recommended, potentially
dangerous code can run), and
then click OK.
Note To help prevent
potentially dangerous code
from running, we recommend
that you return to any one of
the settings that disable all
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 51
macros after you finish working
with macros.
3. On the Developer tab, in the Code
group, click Visual Basic.
4. If needed, in the Visual Basic Editor, on
Note Modules are automatically
created for all sheets in the workbook.
5. In the code window of the module,
type or copy the macro code that you
want to use.
6. To run the macro from the module
window, press F5.
7. In the Visual Basic Editor, on the File
menu, click Close and Return to
Microsoft Excel when you finish
writing the macro.
Copy part of a macro to create
another macro
1. If the Developer tab is not available,
do the following to display it:
a. Click the Microsoft Office
Button , and then click Excel
Options.
b. In the Popular category, under
Top options for working with
Excel, select the Show
Developer tab in the Ribbon
check box, and then click OK.
2. To set the security level temporarily to
enable all macros, do the following:
a. On the Developer tab, in the
Code group, click Macro
Security.
b. Under Macro Settings, click
Enable all macros (not
52 | P a g e
recommended, potentially
dangerous code can run), and
then click OK.
Note To help prevent
potentially dangerous code
from running, we recommend
that you return to any one of
the settings that disable all
macros after you finish working
with macros.
3. Open the workbook that contains the
macro that you want to copy.
4. On the Developer tab, in the Code
group, click Macros.
5. In the Macro name box, click the
name of the macro that you want to
copy.
6. Click Edit.
7. In the code window of the Visual Basic
Editor, select the lines of the macro
that you want to copy.
Tip To copy the whole macro, include the
Sub and End Sub lines in the selection.
1. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
Tip You can also right-click and then b.
click Copy, or you can press CTRL+C.
2. In the Procedure box of the code
window, click the module where you
want to place the code.
3. On the Edit menu, click Paste.
Tip You can also right-click and then
click Paste, or you can press CTRL+V.
Tip You cannot edit your Personal Macro
Workbook file (Personal.xlsb) because it is a
hidden workbook that is always open. You
must first unhide it by using the Unhide
command. You can also open it in the Visual
Basic Editor by pressing ALT+F11.
Assign a macro to an object, graphic,
or control
1. On a worksheet, right-click the object,
graphic, or control to which you want
to assign an existing macro, and then
click Assign Macro.
2. In the Macro name box, click the
macro that you want to assign.
Delete a macro
1. Do one of the following:
o Open the workbook that contains the
macro that you want to delete.
o If the macro that you want to delete is
stored in the personal macro
workbook (Personal.xlsb), and this
workbook is hidden, do the following
to unhide the workbook:
i. On the View tab, in the Window
group, click Unhide.
ii. Under Unhide workbooks, click
PERSONAL, and then click OK.
2. If the Developer tab is not available, do
the following to display it:
a. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and
then click Excel Options.
In the Popular category, under Top options
for working with Excel, select the Show
Developer tab in the Ribbon check box, and
then click OK.
3. On the Developer tab, in the Code
group, click Macros.
4. In the Macros in list, select the
workbook that contains the macro
that you want to delete. For example,
click This Workbook.

5. In the Macro name box, click the
name of the macro that you want to
delete.
6. Click Delete.
Create a chart from start to finish
Microsoft Excel no longer provides the chart
wizard. Instead, you can create a basic chart
by clicking the chart type that you want on
the Insert tab in the Charts group. To create a
chart that displays the details that you want,
you can then continue with the next steps of
the following step-by-step process.
Getting to know the elements of a
chart
A chart has many elements. Some of these
elements are displayed by default, others can
be added as needed. You can change the
display of the chart elements by moving them
to other locations in the chart, resizing them,
or by changing the format. You can also
remove chart elements that you do not want
to display.
1. The chart area of the chart.
2. The plot area of the chart.
3. The data points of the data series that are
plotted in the chart.
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 53
4. The horizontal (category) and vertical
(value) axis along which the data is plotted in
the chart.
5. The legend of the chart.
6. A chart and axis title that you can use in the
chart.
7. A data label that you can use to identify the
details of a data point in a data series.
Modifying a basic chart to meet your
needs
After you create a chart, you can modify any
one of its elements. For example, you might
want to change the way that axes are
displayed, add a chart title, move or hide the
legend, or display additional chart elements.
To modify a chart, you can do one or more of
the following:
 Change the display of chart axes You
can specify the scale of axes and
adjust the interval between the values
or categories that are displayed. To
make your chart easier to read, you
can also add tick marks to an axis, and
specify the interval at which they will
appear.
 Add titles and data labels to a
chart To help clarify the information
that appears in your chart, you can
add a chart title, axis titles, and data
labels.
 Add a legend or data table You can
show or hide a legend, change its
location, or modify the legend entries.
In some charts, you can also show a
data table that displays the legend
keys and the values that are presented
in the chart.
 Apply special options for each chart
type Special lines (such as high-low
lines and trendlines), bars (such as up-
54 | P a g e
down bars and error bars), data
markers, and other options are
available for different chart types.
Applying a predefined chart layout
and chart style for a professional look
Instead of manually adding or changing chart
elements or formatting the chart, you can
quickly apply a predefined chart layout and
chart style to your chart. Excel provides a
variety of useful predefined layouts and
styles. However, you can fine-tune a layout or
style as needed by making manual changes to
the layout and format of individual chart
elements, such as the chart area, plot area,
data series, or legend of the chart.
When you apply a predefined chart layout, a
specific set of chart elements (such as titles, a
legend, a data table, or data labels) are
displayed in a specific arrangement in your
chart. You can select from a variety of layouts
that are provided for each chart type.
When you apply a predefined chart style, the
chart is formatted based on the document
theme that you have applied, so that your
chart matches your organization's or your
own theme colors (a set of colors), theme
fonts (a set of heading and body text fonts),
and theme effects (a set of lines and fill
effects).
You cannot create your own chart layouts or
styles, but you can create chart templates
that include the chart layout and formatting
that you want.
Adding eye-catching formatting to a
chart
In addition to applying a predefined chart
style, you can easily apply formatting to
individual chart elements such as data
markers, the chart area, the plot area, and the
numbers and text in titles and labels to give
your chart a custom, eye-catching look. You
can apply specific shape styles and WordArt
styles, and you can also format the shapes
and text of chart elements manually.
To add formatting, you can use one or more
of the following:
 Fill chart elements You can use
colors, textures, pictures, and gradient
fills to help draw attention to specific
chart elements.
 Change the outline of chart
elements You can use colors, line
styles, and line weights to emphasize
chart elements.
 Add special effects to chart
elements You can apply special
effects, such as shadow, reflection,
glow, soft edges, bevel, and 3-D
rotation to chart element shapes,
which gives your chart a finished look.
 Format text and numbers You can
format text and numbers in titles,
labels, and text boxes on a chart as
you would text and numbers on a
worksheet. To make text and numbers
stand out, you can even apply
WordArt styles.
Reusing charts by creating chart
templates
If you want to reuse a chart that you
customized to meet your needs, you can save
that chart as a chart template (*.crtx) in the
chart templates folder. When you create a
chart, you can then apply the chart template
just as you would any other built-in chart
type. In fact, chart templates are custom
chart types — you can also use them to

change the chart type of an existing chart. If
you use a specific chart template frequently,
you can save it as the default chart type.
Step 1: Create a basic chart
For most charts, such as column and bar
charts, you can plot the data that you arrange
in rows or columns on a worksheet into a
chart. However, some chart types (such as pie
and bubble charts) require a specific data
arrangement.
1. On the worksheet, arrange the data
that you want to plot in a chart.
The data can be arranged in rows or
columns — Excel automatically
determines the best way to plot the
data in the chart. Some chart types
(such as pie and bubble charts) require
a specific data arrangement.
How to arrange data on the
worksheet
2. Select the cells that contain the data
that you want to use for the chart.
Tip If you select only one cell, Excel
automatically plots all cells that
contain data that is adjacent to that
cell into a chart. If the cells that you
want to plot in a chart are not in a
continuous range, you can select
nonadjacent cells or ranges as long as
the selection forms a rectangle. You
can also hide the rows or columns that
you do not want to plot in the chart.
How to select cells, ranges, rows, or
columns
To select Do this
Click the cell, or press the
A single cell arrow keys to move to the
cell.
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 55
To select Do this
Click the first cell in the
range, and then drag to the
last cell, or hold down SHIFT
while you press the arrow
keys to extend the selection.
A range of
cells You can also select the first
cell in the range, and then
press F8 to extend the
selection by using the arrow
keys. To stop extending the
selection, press F8 again.
Click the first cell in the
range, and then hold down
A large range SHIFT while you click the last
of cells cell in the range. You can
scroll to make the last cell
visible.
Click the Select All button.
All cells on a To select the entire
worksheet worksheet, you can also
press CTRL+A.
Note If the worksheet
contains data, CTRL+A selects
the current region. Pressing
CTRL+A a second time selects
the entire worksheet.
Select the first cell or range
of cells, and then hold down
CTRL while you select the
other cells or ranges.
Nonadjacent
cells or cell You can also select the first
ranges cell or range of cells, and
then press SHIFT+F8 to add
another nonadjacent cell or
range to the selection. To
stop adding cells or ranges to
56 | P a g e
To select Do this
the selection, press SHIFT+F8
again.
Note You cannot cancel the
selection of a cell or range of
cells in a nonadjacent
selection without canceling
the entire selection.
Click the row or column
heading.
1. Row heading
2. Column heading
You can also select cells in a
row or column by selecting
An entire row the first cell and then
pressing
or column
CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key
(RIGHT ARROW or LEFT
ARROW for rows, UP ARROW
or DOWN ARROW for
columns).
Note If the row or column
contains data,
CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key
selects the row or column to
the last used cell. Pressing
CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW key a
second time selects the
entire row or column.
Drag across the row or
column headings. Or select
Adjacent rows
the first row or column; then
or columns
hold down SHIFT while you
select the last row or column.
Nonadjacent Click the column or row
rows or heading of the first row or
To select Do this
columns column in your selection;
then hold down CTRL while
you click the column or row
headings of other rows or
columns that you want to
add to the selection.
Select a cell in the row or
The first or column, and then press
last cell in a CTRL+ARROW key (RIGHT
row or ARROW or LEFT ARROW for
column rows, UP ARROW or DOWN
ARROW for columns).
Press CTRL+HOME to select
The first or the first cell on the
last cell on a worksheet or in an Excel list.
worksheet or
in a Microsoft Press CTRL+END to select the
Office Excel last cell on the worksheet or
table in an Excel list that contains
data or formatting.
Cells to the Select the first cell, and then
last used cell press CTRL+SHIFT+END to
on the extend the selection of cells
worksheet to the last used cell on the
(lower-right worksheet (lower-right
corner) corner).
Select the first cell, and then
Cells to the press CTRL+SHIFT+HOME to
beginning of extend the selection of cells
the worksheet to the beginning of the
worksheet.
Hold down SHIFT while you
click the last cell that you
More or fewer
want to include in the new
cells than the
selection. The rectangular
active
range between the active cell
selection
and the cell that you click
becomes the new selection.
Tip To cancel a selection of cells, click
any cell on the worksheet.
3. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group,
do one of the following:

o Click the chart type, and then
click a chart subtype that you
want to use.
o To see all available chart types,
click to launch the Insert
Chart dialog box, and then click
the arrows to scroll through
the chart types.
Tip A ScreenTip displays the
chart type name when you rest
the mouse pointer over any
chart type or chart subtype.
For more information about
the chart types that you can
use, see Available chart types.
4. By default, the chart is placed on the
worksheet as an embedded chart. If
you want to place the chart in a
separate chart sheet, you can change
its location by doing the following:
a. Click anywhere in the embedded chart
to activate it.
This displays the Chart Tools,
adding the Design, Layout, and
Format tabs.
b. On the Design tab, in the Location
group, click Move Chart.
c. Under Choose where you want the chart
to be placed, do one of the following:
 To display the chart in a chart
sheet, click New sheet.
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 57
Tip If you want to replace the
suggested name for the chart, you
can type a new name in the New
sheet box.
 To display the chart as an
embedded chart in a worksheet,
click Object in, and then click a
worksheet in the Object in box.
5. Excel automatically assigns a name to
the chart, such as Chart1 if it is the
first chart that you create on a
worksheet. To change the name of the
chart, do the following:
. Click the chart.
a. On the Layout tab, in the
Properties group, click the Chart
Name text box.
Tip If necessary, click the Properties
icon in the Properties group to expand
the group.
b. Type a new name.
c. Press ENTER.
Notes
 To quickly create a chart that is based
on the default chart type, select the
data that you want to use for the
chart, and then press ALT+F1 or F11.
When you press ALT+F1, the chart is
displayed as an embedded chart;
when you press F11, the chart is
displayed on a separate chart sheet.
 If you no longer need a chart, you can
delete it. Click the chart to select it,
and then press DELETE.
Step 2: Change the layout or style of a
chart
After you create a chart, you can instantly
change its look. Instead of manually adding or
changing chart elements or formatting the
chart, you can quickly apply a predefined
58 | P a g e

layout and style to your chart. Excel provides

a variety of useful predefined layouts and
styles (or quick layouts and quick styles) that
you can select from, but you can customize a
layout or style as needed by manually
changing the layout and format of individual
chart elements.
Note When the size of the Excel
window is reduced, chart styles will be
available in the Chart Quick Styles
gallery in the Chart Styles group.

Apply a predefined chart layout
1. Click anywhere in the chart that you
want to format by using a predefined
chart layout.
This displays the Chart Tools, adding
the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.
2. On the Design tab, in the Chart
Layouts group, click the chart layout
that you want to use.
Note When the size of the Excel
window is reduced, chart layouts will
be available in the Quick Layout
gallery in the Chart Layouts group.
Tip To see all predefined chart styles,
click More .
Change the layout of chart elements
manually
1. Click the chart element for which you
want to change the layout, or do the
following to select it from a list of
chart elements.
a. Click anywhere in the chart to
display the Chart Tools.
b. On the Format tab, in the
Current Selection group, click
the arrow in the Chart
Elements box, and then click
the chart element that you
want.

Tip To see all available layouts, click

More . 2. On the Layout tab, in the Labels, Axes,
or Background group, click the chart
Apply a predefined chart style element button that corresponds with
the chart element that you selected,
1. Click anywhere in the chart that you and then click the layout option that
want to format by using a predefined you want.
chart style.

This displays the Chart Tools, adding

the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.

2. On the Design tab, in the Chart Styles

group, click the chart style that you
want to use.

Note The layout options that you select are
applied to the chart element that you have
selected. For example, if you have the entire
chart selected, data labels will be applied to
all data series. If you have a single data point
selected, data labels will only be applied to
the selected data series or data point.
Change the format of chart elements
manually
1. Click the chart element for which you
want to change the style, or do the
following to select it from a list of
chart elements.
a. Click anywhere in the chart to
display the Chart Tools.
b. On the Format tab, in the
Current Selection group, click
the arrow in the Chart
Elements box, and then click
the chart element that you
want.
2. On the Format tab, do one or more of
the following:
a. To format any selected chart
element, in the Current Selection
group, click Format Selection, and
then select the formatting options
that you want.
b. To format the shape of a selected
chart element, in the Shape Styles
Advanced Excel 2013
P a g e | 59
group, click the style that you
want, or click Shape Fill, Shape
Outline, or Shape Effects, and
then select the formatting options
that you want.
c. To format the text in a selected
chart element by using WordArt,
in the WordArt Styles group, click
a style. You can also click Text Fill,
Text Outline, or Text Effects, and
then select the formatting options
that you want.
Note After you apply a WordArt style,
you cannot remove the WordArt
format. If you do not want the
WordArt style that you applied,
you can select another WordArt
style, or you can click Undo on the
Quick Access Toolbar to return to
the previous text format.
Tip To use regular text formatting to
format the text in chart elements,
you can right-click or select the
text, and then click the formatting
options that you want on the Mini
toolbar. You can also use the
formatting buttons on the ribbon
(Home tab, Font group).
Step 3: Add or remove titles or data
labels
To make a chart easier to understand, you can
add titles, such as a chart title and axis titles.
Axis titles are typically available for all axes
that can be displayed in a chart, including
depth (series) axes in 3-D charts. Some chart
types (such as radar charts) have axes, but
they cannot display axis titles. Chart types
that do not have axes (such as pie and
doughnut charts) cannot display axis titles
either.
You can also link chart and axis titles to
corresponding text in worksheet cells by
60 | P a g e
creating a reference to those cells. Linked
titles are automatically updated in the chart
when you change the corresponding text on
the worksheet.
To quickly identify a data series in a chart, you
can add data labels to the data points of the
chart. By default, the data labels are linked to
values on the worksheet, and they update
automatically when changes are made to
these values.
Add a chart title
1. Click anywhere in the chart to which
you want to add a title.
This displays the Chart Tools, adding
the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.
2. On the Layout tab, in the Labels
group, click Chart Title.
3. Click Centered Overlay Title or Above
Chart.
4. In the Chart Title text box that appears
in the chart, type the text that you
want.
Tip To insert a line break, click to
place the pointer where you want to
break the line, and then press ENTER.
5. To format the text, select it, and then
click the formatting options that you
want on the Mini toolbar.
Tip You can also use the formatting
buttons on the ribbon (Home tab,
Font group). To format the whole title,
you can right-click it, click Format
Chart Title, and then select the
formatting options that you want.
Add axis titles
1. Click anywhere in the chart to which you
want to add axis titles.
This displays the Chart Tools, adding the
Design, Layout, and Format tabs.
2. On the Layout tab, in the Labels group,
click Axis Titles.
3. Do one or more of the following:
o To add a title to a primary horizontal
(category) axis, click Primary Horizontal
Axis Title, and then click the option that
you want.
Tip If the chart has a secondary horizontal
axis, you can also click Secondary
Horizontal Axis Title.
o To add a title to primary vertical (value)
axis, click Primary Vertical Axis Title, and
then click the option that you want.
Tip If the chart has a secondary vertical axis,
you can also click Secondary Vertical Axis
Title.
o To add a title to a depth (series) axis, click
Depth Axis Title, and then click the
option that you want.
Note This option is only available when the
selected chart is a true 3-D chart, such as
a 3-D column chart.
4. In the Axis Title text box that appears in
the chart, type the text that you want.
Tip To insert a line break, click to place the
pointer where you want to break the line,
and then press ENTER.

5. To format the text, select it, and then
click the formatting options that you
want on the Mini toolbar.
Tip You can also use the formatting buttons
on the ribbon (Home tab, Font group). To
format the whole title, you can right-click
it, click Format Axis Title , and then select
the formatting options that you want.
Notes
 If you switch to another chart type that
does not support axis titles (such as a pie
chart), the axis titles will no longer be
displayed. The titles will be displayed
again when you switch back to a chart
type that does support axis titles.
 Axis titles that are displayed for
secondary axes will be lost when you
switch to a chart type that does not
display secondary axes.
Link a title to a worksheet cell
1. On a chart, click the chart or axis title that
you want to link to a worksheet cell.
2. On the worksheet, click in the formula
bar, and then type an equal sign (=).
3. Select the worksheet cell that contains
the data or text that you want to display
in your chart.
Tip You can also type the reference to the
worksheet cell in the formula bar. Include
an equal sign, the sheet name, followed
by an exclamation point; for example,
=Sheet1!F2
4. Press ENTER.
Add data labels
1. On a chart, do one of the following:
o To add a data label to all data
points of all data series, click the
chart area.
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o To add a data label to all data
points of a data series, click
anywhere in the data series that
you want to label.
o To add a data label to a single
data point in a data series, click
the data series that contains the
data point that you want to label,
and then click the data point that
you want to label.
This displays the Chart Tools,
adding the Design, Layout, and
Format tabs.
2. On the Layout tab, in the Labels
group, click Data Labels, and then click
the display option that you want.
Note Depending on the chart type
that you used, different data label
options will be available.
Remove titles or data labels from a
chart
1. Click the chart.
This displays the Chart Tools, adding
the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.
2. On the Layout tab, in the Labels
group, do one of the following:
o To remove a chart title, click Chart
Title, and then click None.
o To remove an axis title, click Axis
Title, click the type of axis title
that you want to remove, and
then click None.
o To remove data labels, click Data
Labels, and then click None.
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Tip To quickly remove a title or data label,
click it, and then press DELETE.
Step 4: Show or hide a legend
When you create a chart, the legend appears,
but you can hide the legend or change its
location after you create the chart.
1. Click the chart in which you want to
show or hide a legend.
This displays the Chart Tools, adding
the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.
2. On the Layout tab, in the Labels
group, click Legend.
3. Do one of the following:
o To hide the legend, click None.
Tip To quickly remove a legend or a
legend entry from a chart, you can
select it, and then press DELETE. You
can also right-click the legend or a
legend entry, and then click Delete.
o To display a legend, click the display
option that you want.
Note When you click one of the display
options, the legend moves, and the
plot area automatically adjusts to
make room for it. If you move and
size the legend by using the mouse,
the plot area does not automatically
adjust.
o For additional options, click More
Legend Options, and then select the
display option that you want.
Tip By default, a legend does not overlap
the chart. If you have space
constraints, you might be able to
reduce the size of the chart by
clearing the Show the legend
without overlapping the chart check
box.
Tip When a chart has a legend displayed,
you can modify the individual legend entries
by editing the corresponding data on the
worksheet. For additional editing options, or
to modify legend entries without affecting the
worksheet data, you can change the legend
entries in the Select Data Source dialog box
(Design tab, Data group, Select Data button).
Step 5: Display or hide chart axes or
gridlines
When you create a chart, primary axes are
displayed for most chart types. You can turn
them on or off as needed. When you add
axes, you can specify the level of detail that
you want the axes to display. A depth axis is
displayed when you create a 3-D chart.
When the values in a chart vary widely from
data series to data series, or when you have
mixed types of data (for example, price and
volume), you can plot one or more data series
on a secondary vertical (value) axis. The scale
of the secondary vertical axis reflects the
values for the associated data series. After
you add a secondary vertical axis to a chart,
you can also add a secondary horizontal
(category) axis, which might be useful in an xy
(scatter) chart or bubble chart.
To make a chart easier to read, you can
display or hide the horizontal and vertical

chart gridlines that extend from any
horizontal and vertical axes across the plot
area of the chart.
Display or hide primary axes
1. Click the chart for which you want to
display or hide axes.
This displays the Chart Tools, adding the
Design, Layout, and Format tabs.
2. On the Layout tab, in the Axes group,
click Axes, and then do one of the
following:
o To display an axis, click Primary
Horizontal Axis, Primary
Vertical Axis, or Depth Axis (on
a 3-D chart), and then click the
axis display option that you
want.
o To hide an axis, click Primary
Horizontal Axis, Primary
Vertical Axis, or Depth Axis (on
a 3-D chart), and then click
None.
o To specify detailed axis display
and scaling options, click
Primary Horizontal Axis,
Primary Vertical Axis, or Depth
Axis (on a 3-D chart), and then
click More Primary Horizontal
Axis Options, More Primary
Vertical Axis Options, or More
Depth Axis Options.
Display or hide secondary axes
1. In a chart, click the data series that
you want to plot along a secondary
vertical axis, or do the following to
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select the data series from a list of
chart elements:
a. Click the chart.
This displays the Chart Tools,
adding the Design, Layout, and
Format tabs.
b. On the Format tab, in the
Current Selection group, click
the arrow in the Chart
Elements box, and then click
the data series that you want
to plot along a secondary
vertical axis.
2. On the Format tab, in the Current
Selection group, click Format
Selection.
3. Click Series Options if it is not
selected, and then under Plot Series
On, click Secondary Axis and then click
Close.
4. On the Layout tab, in the Axes group,
click Axes.
5. Do one of the following:
o To display a secondary vertical
axis, click Secondary Vertical
Axis, and then click the display
option that you want.
Tip To help distinguish the
secondary vertical axis, you can
change the chart type for just
one data series. For example,
you can change one data series
to a line chart.
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6. To display a secondary horizontal axis,
click Secondary Horizontal Axis, and
then click the display option that you
want.
Note This option is available only
after you display a secondary vertical
axis.
7. To hide a secondary axis, click
Secondary Vertical Axis or Secondary
Horizontal Axis, and then click None.
Tip You can also click the secondary axis
that you want to delete, and then press
DELETE.
Display or hide gridlines
1. Click the chart for which you want to
display or hide chart gridlines.
This displays the Chart Tools, adding
the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.
2. On the Layout tab, in the Axes group,
click Gridlines.
3. Do the following:
o To add horizontal gridlines to the
chart, point to Primary Horizontal
Gridlines, and then click the
option that you want. If the chart
has a secondary horizontal axis,
you can also click Secondary
Horizontal Gridlines.
o To add vertical gridlines to the
chart, point to Primary Vertical
Gridlines, and then click the
option that you want. If the chart
has a secondary vertical axis, you
can also click Secondary Vertical
Gridlines.
o To add depth gridlines to a 3-D
chart, point to Depth Gridlines,
and then click the option that you
want. This option is only available
when the selected chart is a true
3-D chart, such as a 3-D column
chart.
o To hide chart gridlines, point to
Primary Horizontal Gridlines,
Primary Vertical Gridlines, or
Depth Gridlines (on a 3-D chart),
and then click None. If the chart
has a secondary axes, you can also
click Secondary Horizontal
Gridlines or Secondary Vertical
Gridlines, and then click None.
o To quickly remove chart gridlines,
select them, and then press
DELETE.
Step 6: Move or resize a chart
You can move a chart to any location on a
worksheet or to a new or existing worksheet.
You can also change the size of the chart for a
better fit.
Move a chart
 To move a chart, drag it to the location
that you want.
Resize a chart
To resize a chart, do one of the following:
 Click the chart, and then drag the
sizing handles to the size that you
want.
 On the Format tab, in the Size group,
enter the size in the Shape Height and
Shape Width box.

Tip For more sizing options, on the Format
tab, in the Size group, click to launch the
Format Chart Area dialog box. On the Size
tab, you can select options to size, rotate, or
scale the chart. On the Properties tab, you
can specify how you want the chart to move
or size with the cells on the worksheet.
Step 7: Save a chart as a template
If you want to create another chart such as
the one that you just created, you can save
the chart as a template that you can use as
the basis for other similar charts
1. Click the chart that you want to save as a
template.
2. On the Design tab, in the Type group,
click Save as Template.
3. In the File name box, type a name for the
template.
Tip Unless you specify a different folder, the
template file (.crtx) will be saved in the
Charts folder, and the template becomes
available under Templates in both the
Insert Chart dialog box (Insert tab, Charts
group, Dialog Box Launcher ) and the
Change Chart Type dialog box (Design
tab, Type group, Change Chart Type).
Note A chart template contains chart
formatting and stores the colors that are in
use when you save the chart as a template.
When you use a chart template to create a
chart in another workbook, the new chart
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uses the colors of the chart template — not
the colors of the document theme that is
currently applied to the workbook. To use the
document theme colors instead of the chart
template colors, right-click the chart area, and
then click Reset to Match Style.
Use sparklines to show data trends
New in Microsoft Excel 2013, a sparkline is a
tiny chart in a worksheet cell that provides a
visual representation of data. Use sparklines
to show trends in a series of values, such as
seasonal increases or decreases, economic
cycles, or to highlight maximum and minimum
values. Position a sparkline near its data for
greatest impact.
"Sparklines enable us to create visual
representations of data with one click. It makes it
easier to grasp data, and it’s helping our CFO
analyze trends on the spot."
Matt Stuckey, IT Director of Levick Strategic
Communications
What are sparklines?
Unlike charts on an Excel worksheet,
sparklines are not objects — a sparkline is
actually a tiny chart in the background of a
cell. The following picture shows a column
sparkline in cell F2 and a line sparkline in F3.
Both of these sparklines get their data from
cells A2 through E2 and display a chart inside
a cell that shows the performance of a stock.
The charts show the values by quarter,
highlight the high value (3/31/08) and the low
value (12/31/08), show all the data points,
and show the downward trend for the year.
A sparkline in cell F6 shows the 5-year
performance for the same stock, but displays
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a Win/Loss bar chart that shows only whether correspond to underlying data, as shown in
the year had a gain (as in the years 2004 the following picture.
through 2007) or a loss (2008). This sparkline
uses values from cells A6 through E6. You can also create sparklines for rows of
data that you add later by using the fill handle
Because a sparkline is a tiny chart embedded on an adjacent cell that contains a sparkline.
in a cell, you can enter text in a cell and use a
sparkline as its background, as shown in the
following picture.

Figure 1: In this sparkline, the high value marker is

green, and the low value marker is orange. All 1. The range of data used by a group of
other markers are shown in black. sparklines

You can apply a color scheme to your 2. A group of sparklines

sparklines by choosing a built-in format from
the Style gallery (Design tab, which becomes One advantage of using sparklines is that,
available when you select a cell that contains unlike charts, sparklines are printed when you
a sparkline). You can use the Sparkline Color print a worksheet that contains them.
or Marker Color commands to choose a color
for the high, low, first, and last values (such as Create a sparkline
green for high, and orange for low).
1. Select an empty cell or group of empty
Why use sparklines? cells in which you want to insert one or
more sparklines.
Data presented in a row or column is useful, 2. On the Insert tab, in the Sparklines
but patterns can be hard to spot at a glance. group, click the type of sparkline that
The context for these numbers can be you want to create: Line, Column, or
provided by inserting sparklines next to the Win/Loss.
data. Taking up a small amount of room, a
sparkline can display a trend based on
adjacent data in a clear and compact
graphical representation. Although it's not
mandatory for a sparkline cell to be directly
next to its underlying data, it is a good
practice. 3. In the Data box, type the range of the
cells that contain the data on which you
You can quickly see the relationship between want to base the sparklines.
a sparkline and its underlying data, and when
your data changes you can see the change in
Note You can click to temporarily
the sparkline immediately. In addition to
collapse the dialog box, select the range
creating a single sparkline for a row or column
of cells that you want on the worksheet,
of data, you can create several sparklines at
the same time by selecting multiple cells that

and then click to restore the dialog
box to its normal size.
When one or more sparklines are selected,
the Sparkline Tools appear, displaying the
Design tab. On the Design tab, you can
choose one or more of several commands
from among the following groups: Sparkline,
Type, Show/Hide, Style, and Group. Use
these commands to create a new sparkline,
change its type, format it, show or hide data
points on a line sparkline, or format the
vertical axis in a sparkline group. These
options are described in detail in the
following section.
Customize sparklines
After you create sparklines, you can control
which value points are shown (such as the
high, low, first, last, or any negative values),
change the type of the sparkline (Line,
Column, or Win/Loss), apply styles from a
gallery or set individual formatting options,
set options on the vertical axis, and control
how empty or zero values are shown in the
sparkline.
Control which value points are shown
You can highlight individual data markers
(values) in a line sparkline by making some or
all of the markers visible.
In this sparkline, the high value marker is
green, and the low value marker is orange. All
other markers are shown in black.
 To show all values, select the Markers
check box.
 To show negative values, select the
Negative Points check box.
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 To show the highest or the lowest
values, select the High Point or Low
Point check boxes.
 To show the first or the last values,
select the First Point or Last Point
check boxes.
Change the style of or format
sparklines
Use the Style gallery on Design tab, which
becomes available when you select a cell that
contains a sparkline.
1. Select a single sparkline or a sparkline
group.
2. To apply a predefined style, on the
Design tab, in the Style group, click a
style or click the arrow at the lower
right corner of the box to see
additional styles.
3. To apply specific formatting to a
sparkline, use the Sparkline Color or
the Marker Color commands.
Show or hide data markers
On a sparkline that has the Line style, you can
show data markers so that you can highlight
individual values.
1. Select a sparkline.
2. In the Show/Hide group, on the
Design tab, select any of the check
boxes to show individual markers
(such as high, low, negative, first, or
last), or select the Markers check box
to show all markers.
Clearing a check box hides the
specified marker or markers.
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Show and customize axis settings
You can select Date Axis Type (in the Group
group, click Axis) to format the shape of the
chart in a sparkline to reflect any irregular
time periods in the underlying data.
In a line sparkline, applying the Date Axis type
can change the slope of a plotted line and the
position of its data points in relation to each
other.
In a column sparkline, applying the Data Axis
type can change the width of and increase or
decrease the distance between the columns,
as shown in the following image.
In the example shown here, there are two
column sparklines that use data from the
same range. The sparkline with the “Trend”
label uses the General Axis type, and the
sparkline with the “Trend (Data Axis Type)”
label uses the Date Axis type. In each
sparkline, the first two data points are
separated by two months, and the second
and third are separated by seven months. By
applying the Date Axis type, the space
between the three columns changes
proportionally to reflect the irregular time
periods.
You can also use these Axis options to set
minimum and maximum values for the
vertical axis of a sparkline or sparkline group.
Setting these values explicitly helps you
control the scale so that the relationship
between values is shown in a more
meaningful way.
1. With the sparkline or sparkline group
selected, in the Group group, click
Axis.
2. Under Vertical Axis Minimum Value
Options or Vertical Axis Maximum
Value Options, click Custom Value.
3. Set minimum or maximum values that
you feel will best emphasize the values
in the sparklines.
You can increase the height of the row that
contains the sparkline to more dramatically
emphasize the difference in data values if
some is very small and some is very large.
You can also use the Plot Data Right-to-Left
option to change the direction in which data
is plotted in a sparkline or sparkline group.
If there are negative values in your data, you
can emphasize this by showing a horizontal
axis in your sparkline.
1. With the sparkline or sparkline group
selected, in the Group group, click Axis.
2. Under Horizontal Axis Options, click
Show Axis.
Any sparklines that contain negative
data will display a horizontal axis at 0.
 P a g e | 69

Handle empty cells or zero values
You can control how a sparkline handles
empty cells in a range (and thus how the
sparkline is displayed) by using the Hidden
You can change the settings using different options for
the page setup. To display these options, use one of
the following methods:
 On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group,
click the option to change; or

 on the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group,

click the Page Setup Dialog box launcher to
display the Page Setup dialog box for more
options.
and Empty Cell Settings dialog box.

Previewing the Worksheet and Print

Margins The Top, Bottom, Left, and Right
Prior to printing your worksheet, preview it on the
options set the amount of white space
screen so you can make any required changes before
(measured in inches) from the edges of
distributing it to others.
the page around the printed area of
To preview a worksheet, click the File tab, and click the worksheet. The Header sets the
Print distance between the Header and the
top edge of the page, while footer sets
the distance between the Footer and
the bottom edge of the page.
Center Allows you to center the worksheet
on page horizontally or vertically on the page,
or both.

Header/Footer Tab

Excel displays both the print options as well as a

preview of the worksheet with the existing print
options.
The total number of pages in the printout displays at
the bottom left of the preview. This total is based on
the number of pages Excel needs to display the report
using the default page printing sequence of top to
bottom for the length of the worksheet, and then shift
to the right and top to bottom for the width of the
worksheet. As a result, you may need to change the
page setup for your report prior to sending the A header is text printed at the top of every page of the
document to print. worksheet. A footer is text printed at the bottom of
A chart in the worksheet previews or prints based on every page. By default, there is nothing in the header
where it is in the worksheet. You can move the chart to or footer.
a new worksheet, or put a page break between the The Header/Footer tab is located in the Page Setup
data and the chart. If you are using a monochrome dialog box.
printer, the chart will print in varying shades of gray; it
will only print in color if you have a color printer.

Customizing the Printout

Advanced Excel 2013

70 | P a g e

Format Changes the properties for

Picture the picture.

Sheet Tab
The last of the tabs in the Page Setup dialog box is the
Sheet tab. It enables you to change various settings
relating to how the worksheet will print.

Excel provides several standard header or footer

options, or you can create your own.
When you access Custom Header or Custom Footer,
you will see the following:

Each header or footer consists of three sections: Left,

Center, and Right, which represent the left, center, and
right parts of the header or footer. Use the buttons to
insert commonly used variables into the header or
footer.

Format Changes the font and size of the text
Text entered into one of the three sections.
Page The code &[Page] displays in the
Number selected section of the header or footer;
page numbering automatically starts at
1 unless you change the starting page
number in the Page tab.
Number The code &[Pages] displays
of Pages the total number of pages in
the document; this is often
used with the Page number
code (i.e., Page 1 of 4).
Date Inserts the current date into
the report; displays as the
code &[Date].
Time Inserts the current time into
the report; displays as the
code &[Time].
File Path Inserts the current path and
file name into the header or
footer; displays as the code
&[Path]&[File].
File Inserts the name of the file
Name into the header or footer;
displays as the code &[File].
Sheet Inserts the name of the
Name current worksheet; displays
as the code &[Tab].
Picture Inserts a picture into the
header or footer; displays as
the code &[Picture].
Print Selects the portion of the worksheet you
area want to print; this is useful when you want to
print only parts of the worksheet. If left
empty, a rectangular section of the
worksheet containing all data and cell
formatting will be printed.
Print Repeats the column or row titles on each
titles printed page; this is useful when you have
many rows and columns of data that span
more than one page. You can also select this
command in the Page Setup group of the
Page Layout tab.
Print Choose to include what will also print with
the report, such as row and column
headings, to show someone where to enter
the data for a report. Note that the gridlines
in this section are for printing purposes only.
You can also select these commands in the
Sheet Options group of the Page Layout tab.
Page Changes the order in which multiple pages
order are numbered and printed.
If you open the Page Setup dialog box from the Print
Preview screen, you cannot make changes to the Print
area or Print titles section of the Sheet tab.
Printing the Worksheet
Once you have previewed the worksheet on the screen
and made sure it is ready to print, you can select the
Print option.
By default, Excel only prints the current active
worksheet of the workbook. You can also choose to

print all worksheets in the workbook, a selected group
of worksheets, or only a selected range of cells.
Password protect a workbook
Excel gives you several ways to protect a
workbook. You can require a password to
open it, a password to change data, and a
password for changing the file's structure—
adding, deleting, or hiding worksheets.
Remember, though, that this type of
protection doesn't encrypt your files. Users
can still use third-party tools to read your
data.
We'll start with requiring passwords for
opening the file and changing data.
1. Click File > Save As.
2. Click a location, such as Computer or
your My Site web page.
3. Click a folder, such as Documents or
one of the folders on your OneDrive, or
click Browse.
4. In the Save As dialog box, go to the
folder you want to use, then open the
Tools list and click General Options.
You can enter either of two passwords here,
one to open the file, another to change
the file.
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P a g e | 71
See the notes below for more.
Important Write your passwords down and
store them someplace safe. If you lose
them, we honestly can't help you find
them.
1. Enter your password, enter it again to
confirm, and click OK.
Note To remove a password, follow the
steps above and delete the password.
Basically, just enter a blank password.
You can do that for any type of
password that you use in Excel.
To protect the structure of your workbook, do
this:
1. Click Review > Protect Workbook.
2. Click Structure.
See the notes below for more about this
option and the Windows option.
1. Enter a password in the Password box.
Important Write your password
down and store it someplace safe. If
you lose it, we really can't help you
find it.
1. Click OK, and retype the password to
confirm it.
Notes
o If you enter the same password for
opening and changing a workbook,
users only need to enter the password
once.
o If you only require a password for
changing a workbook, users can open
a read-only copy of the file, save it
under another name, and change your
data.
o Selecting the Structure option
prevents other users from viewing
72 | P a g e

hidden worksheets, adding, moving,

deleting, or hiding worksheets, and
renaming worksheets.
o You can ignore the Windows option.
It's disabled in this version of Excel.
o You can always tell when you've
protected the workbook's structure.
The Protect Workbook button lights
up:

Protect a worksheet with or without a

password

To help protect your data from deliberate or

unintentional changes, you can protect your
worksheet, with or without a password. A
password prevents other people from
removing the worksheet protection—it needs
to be entered to unprotect the sheet.

When you protect a worksheet, Excel locks all

the cells in that sheet by default. Before you
protect the sheet, unlock any cells you want
anyone to be able to change.

1. Click Review > Protect Sheet.

2. Make sure the Protect worksheet and
contents of locked cells box is
checked.
3. To use a password, enter it in the
Password to unprotect sheet box. If
you don't use a password, anyone can
remove the sheet protection.

Important Write down your password and

store it in a safe location. We honestly can't
help you recover lost passwords.

1. Check or clear any of the boxes under

Allow all users of this worksheet to.