ISB 11C

Microsoft Excel: Exercise 3 Applying data validation and outlines in a data set.
Excel has plenty to offer not only in data manipulation but also in data validation. In this activity you
will learn data validation and the use of Outlines.
We will reuse your list from the Exercise 1 with the payroll computation but add additional names to
make it 30 employees. Copy the list of employees you have and paste it in a new Excel file. Rename
sheet1 to EmployeeData and add another sheet name DeptNames. In the DeptNames sheet, encode
the following:

After encoding, highlight the department names from

Accounting to IT Support, and define a name: Departments
We will use this Departments as our list source for data
validation.

EmployeeData Sheet

The above data will be your columns for EmployeeData Sheet. The Department column MUST NOT
be encoded but you will apply Data Validation (in the Ribbon Menu: DataData Validation). In this
Data Validation, you will utilize your Department list as the only selection when assigning a
Department for each Employee in the EmployeeData sheet. What we want to achieve in data
validation is similar to this image below.
ISB 11C
Microsoft Excel: Exercise 3 Applying data validation and outlines in a data set.
Create Data Validation Using a List
Position your cursor in the Department column of the EmployeeData sheet. Go to Data Validation
and follow the Data Validation screen as shown earlier. We are going to use a list of Departments as
the allowable values.
Then use the Departments name that you have created earlier as the Source. After that, we will also
implement a message alert in case the user incorrectly enters inappropriate values.

To apply the error message alert, go to Error

Alert. And follow the same below and click OK:

Error Alert

Department Selection
Select a department for each employee. Distribute the employees in all departments, there should be
6 employees in each Department. Sort the list by Department so group employees with similar
department. It should be similar below.
ISB 11C
Microsoft Excel: Exercise 3 Applying data validation and outlines in a data set.
Payroll Data from January to December
To populate data for employee salary, use RANDBETWEEN function. Salary range must be between
6500 and 10000.
Once all columns are filled, copy the salary data and paste as “Values Only” in the same cells. This
process should remove the RANDBETWEEN function, thereby allowing us to have a static value for
the salary. Apply two decimal places for the amounts.

Apply Outlines (Grouping and Subtotals)

a) Insert a row in between departments
b) Insert a new column for every quarter and label 1st Qtr Total, 2nd Qtr Total, etc.
c) Get total sum of salary per quarter
d) Get total sum of salary per department
e) Apply Grouping (Data  Outline: Group, Ungroup, Subtotal). To apply groups, highlight
corresponding quarters and click group. Do the same for the rows or departments.
Refer to the image on the next page. After applying groups and performing the summation it will
look like this.
ISB 11C
Microsoft Excel: Exercise 3 Applying data validation and outlines in a data set.

But our ultimate goal to summarized, is just like below.

Once you are done, save your file (Familyname-ExcelExercise3) and upload in SOUL.