Excel Tips

Excel 2024: Set Up Your Data for Data Analysis »

April 17, 2024

Make sure to follow these rules when you set up your data for sorting, subtotals, filtering and pivot tables.

Excel 2024: Place Pictures In Cell From Local Computer »

April 15, 2024

For the last 30 years, you could use Insert, Picture in Excel. The image was added to a special drawing layer that floated above the grid. In June of 2023, that legacy experience became known as Place Over Cells. The new experience is to Place In Cell.

Excel 2024: Display Online Pictures In a Cell Using a Formula »

April 12, 2024

The IMAGE function debuted in August 2022. It is only for online images that are available through a URL.

Excel 2024: Use People to Add Interest to Your Worksheet »

April 10, 2024

Microsoft 365 subscribers now have access to 925 People in Excel. In a study conducted by YouTube, 90% of the most-watched videos have an emotive human face prominently on the title card.

Excel 2024: Add Meaning to Reports Using Data Visualizations »

April 8, 2024

Three easy visualization tools were added to the Conditional Formatting dropdown in Excel 2007: Color Scales, Data Bars, and Icon Sets.

Excel 2024: Plotting Employees on a Bell Curve »

April 3, 2024

Rather than creating a generic bell curve, how about plotting a list of employees or customers on a bell curve?

Excel 2024: Create a Bell Curve »

April 1, 2024

A bell curve is defined by an average and a standard deviation. In statistics, 68% of the population will fall within one standard deviation of the mean. 95% falls within two standard deviations of the mean. 99.73% will fall within three standard deviations of the mean.

Excel 2024: Create Funnel Charts and Filled Map Charts »

March 27, 2024

In 2016, Microsoft 365 introduced Funnel charts. Early in 2017, Map Charts appeared on the Insert tab in Office 365. A Map chart shades closed regions on a map such as countries, states, counties, even zip code boundaries.

Excel 2024: Create Waterfall Charts »

March 25, 2024

For 12 years, I worked at a company doing data analysis. One of my regular tasks was to analyze the profit on sales proposals before they went out the door. I did this with a waterfall chart. For me, the waterfall chart never would have to dip below the zero axis.