Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
Epicurus – Greek philosopher

Excel Dashboards #1 Guidelines & Techniques

In this recording of a live webinar I ran in March 2023 you will learn about guidelines and technique for building dashboards in Excel.

Use the button below the video to download the materials.

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This is the first session is a series of five webinars on Excel dashboards. The other four sessions are paid sessions.

In this free session we will focus on chart and dashboard guidelines plus some techniques used to create better dashboards. We will also look at creating a bullet chart which is a better alternative to a gauge or dial chart.

The session covers

  • general chart guidelines
  • questions to ask yourself to develop better charts
  • best charts to use
  • charts and formats to avoid
  • using text boxes on dashboards
  • how to create small charts
  • chart templates
  • lining up and re-sizing charts
  • useful number formats for dashboard charts
  • using the #N/A error with charts
  • how to create a bullet chart

As always I will share a few other tips.

Forcing a Function to Spill in Excel

Dynamic arrays can spill. The means a single formula populates a range. Most Excel functions can refer to and use a spill range. This causes the formulas to spill to match the spill range. There are some functions that don’t work with spill ranges. Here is a technique that forces a function to work with a spill range.

Excel Power Query and Multiple Files 2023

In this recording of a live webinar I ran in late January 2023 you will learn how to import multiple files in a single Power Query. If you use data at all then Power Query is an essential skill to possess.

Use the buttons below the video to download the materials.

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Building on the skills covered in the Introduction session, we will start working with multiple files. For example you may have 12 separate CSV files in a folder. All with the same layout, one for each month of the year. Power Query can import all 12 files as if they were a single file and create a table for the whole year

This session covers
• importing multiple CSV files from a folder
• a technique to capture the file name in a field (column)
• importing multiple Excel files
• merging data from multiple tables
• Extracting header information into a column from multiple CSV files

As always, I shared other tips and tricks along the way.

Introduction to Excel Power Query 2023

In this recording of a live session ran in late January 2023 you will learn how to automate data importation in Excel with Power Query. If you use data at all then Power Query is an essential skill to possess.

Use the buttons below the video to download the materials.

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Power Query allows you to automatically perform data cleansing routines on your data sources – no manual intervention required. Simply refresh and your data is ready to use. You can use csv files; txt files; databases and existing Excel tables as your data sources.

Learn the basics, plus an advanced technique to automate data cleansing routines on your data sources.

This session covers

  • fixing dates so that Excel can recognise them
  • formatting columns as text – retaining leading zeroes in CSV files
  • deleting unwanted rows and columns from your data
  • removing leading and trailing spaces
  • populating blank values with zeroes
  • populating blanks with entries from above
  • correcting trailing minus signs
  • unpivot a report – converting a report layout into a table layout
  • converting a MYOB report into a data table
  • capture header information in a column

As always, I shared other tips and tricks along the way.

Percentage of the Year in Excel

As we get used to the new year we may want to perform some calculations based on the old year. A recent inquiry requested a formula that could calculate the percentage of a year that an employee had been employed. He suggested using an IF function. See the solution below, but it doesn’t involve the IF function.

Format As Table Webinar Recording 2023

In this session you will learn all about Excel’s formatted tables. Using Formatted Tables is an essential skill in Excel. Use the buttons below the video to download the materials and completed file.

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Many of Excel’s features and functions work seamlessly with formatted tables. They can help you improve the structure and reliability of your spreadsheet files.

Formatted tables can allow you to create powerful reports like those in a relational databases.

Topics covered

  • advantages and limitations of formatted tables
  • keyboard shortcuts
  • using formatted tables with formulas
  • solutions to some of the limitations of formatted tables
  • using range names with formatted tables
  • using formatted tables with data validations
  • creating a running total
  • using PivotTables
  • Relationships (Data tab)
  • introduction to dynamic arrays

As always I shared a few other tips.

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”

James Clear – Atomic Habits

 

Atomic Habits