Excel for Professionals

2002 VJ Books. All rights reside with the author.
Managing & Tabulating Data in Excel
2
M
M
M
a
a
a
n
n
n
a
a
a
g
g
g
i
i

l
a
a
a
t
t
t
i
i
i
n
n
n
g
g
g
D
D
D
a
a
a
t
t
t
a
a


Volume 4 of the series
E
E
E
x
x
x
c
c
c
e
e
e
l
l
l
f
f
f
o
o
o
r

o
o
n
n
n
a
a
a
l
l
l
s
s
s
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
Volume 2: Charting in Excel
Volume 3: Excel-- Beyond The Basics
Volume 4: Managing & Tabulating Data in Excel
Volume 5: Statistical Analysis with Excel
Volume 6: Financial Analysis using Excel
Published by VJ

Books Inc
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by
any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written
permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
reviews, articles, and research papers. Making copies of any part of this book for any

U
U
T
T
T
T
T
T
H
H
H
E
E
E
A
A
A
U
U
U
T
T
T
H

Managing & Tabulating Data in Excel
4
V
V
V
I
I
I
S
S
S
I
I
I
O
O
O
N
N
N
Vijay has a vision for software tools for Office Productivity and
Statistics. The current book is one of the first tools in stage one of his
vision. We now list the stages in his vision.
Stage one:
Books to
Teach
Existing Software

that the success of the software tools and the books will convince
financiers to provide enough capital so that a successful software
development and marketing endeavor can take a chunk of the multi-
billion dollar Office Suite market.
Prior to the construction of the Office software, Vijay plans to
construct the “Definitive” statistics software. Years of working on
and teaching the current statistical software has made Vijay a
master at picking out the weaknesses, limitations, annoyances, and,
sometimes, pure inaccessibility of existing software. This 1.5 billion
dollar market needs a new visionary tool, one that is appealing and
inviting to users, and not forbidding, as are several of the current
software. Mr. Gupta wants to create integrated software that will
encompass the features of SPSS, STATA, LIMDEP, EViews,
STATISTICA, MINITAB, etc.
Other
He has plans for writing books on the “learning process.” The books
will teach how to understand one’s approach to problem solving and
learning and provide methods for learning new techniques for self-
learning.
C
C
C
O
O
O
N
N

1.1.f Database applications: Access, Oracle, MS SQL Server, FoxPro, Paradox,
other 28
1.2
Special Formats: Adobe PDF, Html, Web Archive, XML 28

1.3

Workspace— “I Have To Work On Several Files Together Each Day…Can't I
Open Them All At One Time?” 29

Creating a workspace 29
Using the workspace— Opening several files together 30

1.4
New In The XP Version Of Excel: Document Recovery And Safe Mode 30

CHAPTER 2 DATA ENTRY FORM 33
2.1

An Easier Way To Type In Data Plus A Multi-Series “Find” Utility (Data /Form)
33

2.2
Form Based Data Entry 33

2.2.a New data 34
2.3
Using The Form As A “Find” Or “Search” Utility 34

A Summary Of The Two Roles Of Data/Form 38

Autocorrect 57

CHAPTER 4 USING FILL AND OTHER TOOLS TO SAVE ON TYPING TIME 59
4.1

Making Excel Fill In Numbers And Dates 60

4.1.a Filling years/integers 60
4.1.b Filling in every alternate year 62
4.2
Auto Fill — Filling From Pre-Defined Lists Of Days, Months, Other 63

4.2.a Filling weekdays 66
4.3 Creating A New “Custom List” 67
4.4
Filling Missing Values 72

4.4.a Using constant increase in values 73
4.4.b Using constant growth rates 74
4.5

Filling Formats 76

4.6
Copying The Active Cell 76

4.7
Using A Right-Click-On-Mouse For Quick-Filling 76

4.8


5.8

Selecting All Cells With The Same Conditional Format Rule 87

Managing & Tabulating Data in Excel
8
CHAPTER 6 SORTING 89
6.1
Basic sorting 89

6.2

Names of series or columns 91

6.3

Case sensitivity 92

6.4 Sorting by rows 93
6.5
Sorting ranges that do not cover entire columns or rows 95

6.6
Choosing the entire worksheet 95

CHAPTER 7 FILTER (“HIDING THE DATA YOU DO NOT WANT TO VIEW”) 97
7.1
By one criterion on one column 98


8.1.a Selecting cells with comments, empty cells, unhidden cells, cells in the
contiguous region of the currently active cell 111
8.2
Conditional Formatting 112

8.3
Selecting based on Data Validation 113

8.4

Selecting based on formulae 114

8.4.a Constants 114
8.4.b Formula Results 115
8.5
Selecting based on cell references in formulas 116

8.5.a Selecting all cells whose formulas reference the active cell (directly or/and
indirectly) 116
8.5.b Selecting all cells referenced (directly or/and indirectly) by the formula in
the active cell 117
Contents
9
8.6
GO TO / SPECIAL as a search tool 118

CHAPTER 9 SUBTOTALS 119
9.1

Basics 119

External data options 138
10.1.f Step 4b: Wrapping it up — creating the Pivot Report 139
10.2

Modifying/editing a Pivot Report 140

10.2.a Modifying the structure of a Pivot Report 142
10.2.b Adding a new function (and thus a new row series) 143
10.2.c Editing fields 148
Selecting a field 148
Viewing the options available for modifying/editing a field 149
10.2.d Deleting a field 152
10.3
Refreshing the Report 152

10.4
Pivot Report example with a third dimension (row, column and page) 152

10.4.a Viewing different “pages” 154
10.4.b Making a new worksheet for each “page” 155
10.4.c Making a new chart for each “page” 156
10.5
Pivot reports from Scenarios 156

10.6

OLAP: New feature in the XP version of Excel 157

10.7
Icons for Pivoting 157


12.2
Linking to data from a database (or, “creating and executing a data query”) 177
12.2.a Step 1: Choosing the Database File from which data will be imported 178
12.2.b Step 2: Choosing the Columns/Fields/Variables to Import 180
Selecting fields for import into Excel 182

12.2.c Step 3: (Pre–) Filtering the data to be imported 184
12.2.d Step 4: Pre–sorting the data to be imported 190
12.2.e Step 5: Saving the Query (that is, saving steps 1–4) 191
12.2.f Step 6: Wrapping it up— getting the data into Excel 192
12.3
Refreshing the link between the Excel range and data in the database file 193

12.4
Editing an existing query 194

12.5

Using “External data source” to create a Pivot Report 195

12.6

New in the XP version of Excel: OLAP 195

12.6.a Data from the Internet 195
12.7 Icons relevant to External Data 195
CHAPTER 13 READING ASCII TEXT DATA 198
13.1
Understanding ASCII Text data 199

14.2.a Pasting only the formula (but not the formatting and comments) 218
14.2.b Pasting only formats 218
14.2.c Pasting data validation schemes 219
14.2.d Pasting all but the borders 219
14.2.e Pasting comments only 219
14.3
Performing An Algebraic “Operation” When Pasting One Column/Row/Range On
To Another 220

14.3.a Multiplying/dividing/subtracting/adding all cells in a range by a number
220
14.3.b Multiplying/dividing the cell values in cells in several “pasted on”
columns with the values of the copied range 221
14.4

Switching Rows To Columns 221

CHAPTER 15 SAVING OR TRANSFORMING TO SPECIAL WEB AND DOCUMENT
FORMATS 223
15.1

Converting to a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) file 223

15.1.a Creating a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) file from the printout 224
15.1.b Other tools for converting one or multiple files into PDF 226
15.2
Saving as an HTML file 226

15.2.a Interactivity when saving a worksheet 227
15.2.b Interactivity when saving a chart 229

Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
PRINT
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
PROPERTIES
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
Table 2: Mapping of the options in the “EDIT“ menu
Menu Option Section that discusses the option
UNDO
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
REDO
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
Contents
13
Menu Option Section that discusses the option
CUT
COPY
PASTE
Various

OFFICE CLIPBOARD
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
PASTE SPECIAL
Volume 3: Excel– Beyond The Basics
FILL chapter 4
CLEAR
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
DELETE SHEET
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
MOVE OR COPY SHEET
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners

Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
COMMENTS
Volume 3: Excel– Beyond The Basics
FULL SCREEN
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
ZOOM
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
Table 4: Mapping of the options in the “INSERT“ menu
Menu Option Section that discusses the option
CELLS
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
ROWS
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
COLUMNS
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
WORKSHEETS
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
CHARTS
Volume 2: Charting in Excel
PAGE BREAK
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
FUNCTION
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
Volume 3: Excel– Beyond The Basics
Volume 5: Statistical Analysis with Excel
Volume 6: Financial Analysis using Excel
FUNCTION/FINANCIAL
Volume 6: Financial Analysis using Excel
FUNCTION/STATISTICAL
Volume 5: Statistical Analysis with Excel

Volume 3: Excel– Beyond The Basics
HYPERLINK
Volume 3: Excel– Beyond The Basics
Table 5: Mapping of the options inside the “FORMAT“ menu
Menu Option Section that discusses the option
CELLS
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
ROW
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
COLUMN
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
SHEET
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
AUTOFORMAT
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
Managing & Tabulating Data in Excel
16
Menu Option Section that discusses the option
CONDITIONAL FORMATTING chapter 5
STYLE
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
Table 6: Mapping of the options inside the “TOOLS“ menu
Menu Option Section that discusses the option
SPELLING
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
ERROR CHECKING
Volume 3: Excel– Beyond The Basics
SPEECH 4.9
SHARE WORKBOOK
Volume 3: Excel– Beyond The Basics

OPTIONS
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
Table 7: Mapping of the options inside the “DATA” menu
Menu Option Section that discusses the option
SORT chapter 6
FILTER chapter 7
FORM chapter 2
SUBTOTALS chapter 9
VALIDATION chapter 3
TABLE
Volume 3: Excel– Beyond The Basics
CONSOLIDATION
section 48.5
GROUP AND OUTLINE
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
PIVOT REPORT chapter 10
EXTERNAL DATA
chapter 12
Table 8: Mapping of the options inside the “WINDOW“ menu
Menu Option Section that discusses the option
HIDE
Volume 3: Excel– Beyond The Basics
SPLIT
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
FREEZE PANES
Volume 1: Excel For Beginners
Managing & Tabulating Data in Excel
18

Table 9: Mapping of the options inside the “HELP“ menu

example, “Section 1.2” is the numbering for the second section in
chapter 1.
— A few sub-sections (and maybe one further segmentation) within
each section. Each sub-section lists a specific function, task, or
proviso related to the “master” section. The sub-sections are
numbered——for example, “1.2.a” for the first sub-section in the
second section of chapter 1.
Unlike other publishers, I do not consider you dummies or idiots. Each
and everyone had the God given potential to achieve mastery in any field.
All one needs is a guide to show you the way to master a field. I hope to
play this role. I am confident that you will consider your self an Excel
“Guru” (in terms of the typical use of Excel in your profession) and so will
others.
Once you learn the way to master a windows application, this new
approach will enable you to pick up new skills” on the fly.” Do not argue
for your limitations. You have none.
I hope you have a great experience in learning with this book. I would
love feedback. Please use the feedback form on our website vjbooks.net.
In addition, look for updates and sign up for an infrequent newsletter at
the site.
MANAGING & TABULATING DATA
Excel has extremely powerful data entry, data management, and
tabulation tools. The combination of tools provide almost database like
Managing & Tabulating Data in Excel
20
power to Excel. Unfortunately, the poor quality of the menu layout and
the help preclude the possibility of the user self-learning these features.
BASICS
The fundamental operations in Excel are taught in Volume 1: Excel For
Beginners, Volume 2: Charting in Excel, and Volume 3: Excel– Beyond The

Sample data
All the sample data files are included in the zipped file.
I have not included the dat set for conducting statistical procedures. This
is intentional; often, readers fail to internalize the few key concepts of
hypothesis testing because they do not subject themselves to a “sink-or-
swim” inference-drawing thinking and imbibing process when
interpreting the results of statistical procedures.
Sample data
Most of the tutorials use publicly available data from the International
labor Organization (ILO). I used a simple data set with only a few
columns and observations. All the sample data files are included in the
zipped file. Saving or transforming to special web and document formats
23
CHAPTER 1
SAVING (OPENING) IN (FROM)
DIFFERENT FILE FORMATS
In this chapter, I briefly discuss the following topics:
— SAVING/OPENING TO/FROM FILE FORMATS LIKE LOTUS 1–
2–3 VERSIONS 1.0 TO 4.0, QUATTROPRO AND DBASE
VERSIONS I TO IV, TEXT.
— STATISTICAL APPLICATION FILES: SPSS, SAS, STATA, ETC
— DATABASE APPLICATIONS: ACCESS, ORACLE, MS SQL
SERVER, FOXPRO, PARADOX, OTHER
— WORKSPACE— “I HAVE TO WORK ON SEVERAL FILES

data (and to which Excel will save data). Several of the formats are
historical versions of Excel.
Saving or transforming to special web and document formats
25
Figure 1: The FILE/OPEN or FILE/SAVE AS dialog (user-input form)

Excel worksheet versions 2.0 to 4.0.
If the option includes the text “Excel worksheet” then only the active
worksheet is saved. This is useful if you want to read Excel files into
software like SPSS, SAS and other applications that do not read Excel
workbooks but do read Excel worksheets.

Figure 2: Old Excel formats