I bet you know how to sort data in Excel. It is pretty easy. Most of the time an ascending sorting is what we need – letters and numbers listed in the ascending order – a to z, 1 to 100 etc. And just in case you need to sort in the reverse order, you have the Z to A sort, also called the Sort in Descending order. Between the two, most people are quite happy, thanks to Microsoft‘s intuitive sorting options.
However, there arises a time when you don’t want either the sort in Ascending order or the Descending order in Excel.
Examples where a Standard Sorting won’t work:
For example, if the departments in your organization are Finance, Marketing, Sales & Engineering. And you want the Sales department to be listed first, followed by Marketing, Engineering, and Finance being the last.
Now how would you sort the departments in this order? Ascending or descending sort is not going to work.
Do not despair however. Here is where the power of Microsoft Excel Custom sort shines.
Another scenario is the Sorting of Months – say you want to sort April, May & June, in this order. Or maybe you want to sort regions by East, West, North & South. This EWNS order also needs a custom sorting in Excel.
Or if you have a completely random order – which defies any kind of sorting. Say you want to list Oranges, then Apples, then Grapes, and finally Bananas. You can go nuts without custom sorting criteria in Excel.
Using Custom Sort in Excel
First, let’s create the custom list in Excel.
Go to Tools, Options, Custom Lists.
You can key in your list and click Add. Or you can import your list from another area of the spreadsheet, where you list the options in the sorted order.
Once you have imported the list in the correct order, you can go to Data, Sort, and then click on Options at the bottom of this popup window.
Choose your custom sorted list from the list of First Key Sort Order.
Voila! Your list is now sorted in your very own custom order.
Alternatives to Custom Sort in Excel
Of course, if you don’t want to use Custom Sort, there are other alternatives. I have often used a Lookup Table
Fruit Sorting
Oranges 1
Apples 2
Grapes 3
Bananas 4
I then use the inbuilt Lookup function of Excel called VLOOKUP function and pick the correct value, and then do an Ascending sort. This is a quick cheat trick.
It is now very easy to split a name into first name and last name, using Excel, even if the name is in a single column.
Text to Column Function in Microsoft Excel 2010 or older versions
1. Select the data in Excel.
2. Go to the Data Menu, and select Text to Columns 3. Choose Delimited, and click the Space checkbox, and click Finish.
4. The data would have been split into separate columns.
Text to Column Function in Microsoft Excel 2013, 2016, 2019
You can also customize how you want your data to be separated by specifying a fixed column break location in the cell, using Excel 2016 or Excel 2019.
Select the cells, and then click Text to Columns on the Data menu.
In Step 1 of the Convert Text to Columns Wizard, click Fixed Width, and then click Next.
In the Data preview window, drag a line to indicate where you want the content to be divided.
The data will now be split according to your specifications, in separate columns.
Simple, isn’t it!
For more such tips on Excel, join Intellisoft Trainings on Excel in Singapore. Visit https://www.intellisoft.com.sg/advanced-excel-2016-training.html.
Most people take Excel to be a number crunching tool… boring and unattractive.
Actually, Microsoft Excel has been slowly transforming… adding more and more features that make presentation of number much better with every new edition of Excel.
The Excel 2016, 2019 & Microsoft Office 365 versions are extremely powerful and you can create dynamic dashboards with buttons, check boxes, drop downs, scroll bars, conditional formatting, pivot charts, slicers, and a host of other features, just by using Excel.
What is an Excel Dashboard?
An Excel Dashboard is a simple tool for the management, allowing them to get a glance at the business in just a single screen – without looking at multiple sheets of data or charts.
See the dashboard created in the image here. You may not even realize that it was created in Microsoft Excel.
Plus, it is not just a pretty dashboard. There are things that can change – with the click of a button, you can change the division, product, year, and the entire set of graphs, numbers, charts will change dynamically. Try that in PowerPoint….
Is Excel Good for Creating Dashboards?
Yes, Excel has all the important features that can make a complete dashboard. In fact, small companies rely on Excel for almost all their work as they can’t afford the more expensive Business Intelligence software. You can create multiple charts, KPIs, to be displayed in a single page, and set them to refresh automatically upon opening.
There are several options to add buttons, dropdowns, check boxes, radio buttons that add interactivity to Excel dashboards. With these control, plus macros, and Power Query running in the background to fetch and clean data, is all you need to make any kind of dashboard in Excel.
How to Create a Dashboard in Excel from Scratch?
It is pretty easy to make a Dashboard in Microsoft Excel. Here are some steps for you to follow:
How To Create a Dashboard in Excel
Step 1: To make a dashboard in Excel, you must begin with the end picture in mind.
If you do not have a clear end picture in mind, it may make sense to do some brainstorming on a piece of paper.
Better still, gather a bunch of colleagues and managers, and do this in a meeting, to understand what are the key things you must measure. KPI, ROI, Net Margin, Market Share, Cost per acquisition etc. are good things to measure. This can be translated into any industry. So you can measure Number of hotel nights booked, Number of patients admitted vs discharged, average hours worked per week etc.
You also have to think about the Dimensions you would like to slice this data on – by Country Department, Quarter, Zone, Area, Cost Center, etc. This will allow you to compare the metrics from the different periods and it becomes much easier to track if the performance is getting better or worse.
Step 2: Collect the Required Data For the Excel Dashboard
Once you know what you want to track and measure, you must make sure that this data is collected, and is available. You might have to extract it from your ERP or internal databases or systems.
Microsoft Excel can load any kind of data – be it text file, CSV file, directly scrape off the data from the Internet, or even read it from a SQL RDBMS database.
Step 3: Clean the Data
Extract & take the required data. You will have to clean it using Excel Formulas and functions, or you can use Power Query. Remove useless columns.
Use of functions like these can be handy
FILTER
CONCATENATE
LEN
PROPER
DATEDIFF
TODAY
NOW
LEFT
RIGHT
FIND
Step 4: Build Connections With Master Data
Raw data on its own may not be very useful. Build the right VLookups to link with Master Data for our Dashboard Creation in Excel.
You can link Excel to other external or internal workbooks, and worksheets. You must know how to copy or link data from external worksheets and workbooks.
The good thing is that once the connection is built, you don’t have to open the associated file to use it.
Excel will automatically open the linked files when the management dashboard is being refreshed.
Step 5: Build Measures & Calculations For the Excel Dashboard
A few new formulas may be required to be built, to calculate the key measures. This requires knowledge of advanced excel formulas like the ones here. You may need more or less….
Starting out with these key Advanced Excel Functions is going to be crucial for a good Excel Dashboard.
VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP
INDEX,
MATCH,
OFFSET,
SUMIF,
LARGE
SUBTOTAL
FILTER
Step 6: Build Charts & Tables With the KPIs in the Excel Dashboard
The next step is to start building the dashboards with the KPIs, Charts, Pivots to summarize the data at the right granularity.
Excel dashboard training in Singapore by Intellisoft – Vinai Prakash
You can add pivot tables, Excel Tables, Charts, and Summary Calculations. You can also use Conditional Formatting for these values, to be able to pin point them easily. Once the Dashboard looks great, you move to the next step in Excel Dashboard creation, where interactivity is added.
Step 7: Add Interactivity With Excel Controls
Once the KPIs are in place, it is required for your to build the interactivity in, to slice and dice by country, division, zone, periods like quarters, months etc. You can add Slicers, Buttons, Dropdowns, Check boxes to check or uncheck, and based on the selection, the appropriate charts and KPIs can be updated.
Step 8: Begin Using The New Dashboard
That’s it. Your Excel dashboard is ready. Begin using it. Tweak it as needed. Share it with other colleagues, so you can gather more feedback, and improve it. Once a dashboard becomes ready, it becomes easy to measure things throughout the company, based on the same benchmark or metrics.
Excel Dashboard Training Participants at Intellisoft
You can attend our 2 day Most Popular Excel Dashboards Training in Singapore – it starts at the basics, and covers step by step features required to create such dashboards with Excel, on your own.
Plus we provide you with snacks, tea/coffee breaks, so everything required is available… and you can focus on learning and building the Excel dashboards quickly, and easily.
Intellisoft runs Dashboard MasterClass in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Dubai, Qatar, India, and many other countries.
If you would like to join our next Excel Dashboard Training Course, simply contact us, and we will advice you of the dates, training schedule in the city of your choice.
Contact us to enroll for this practical, hands on training. We will email you the Course Brochure too, so you can see the topics covered in detail.
Customized Corporate Training is available for this Excel Dashboard Training in Singapore
So far we have conducted a number of such classes for the staff of large MNC companies, teaching them how to create such reports and dashboards with ease, and they have been highly popular and successful… requiring us to do multiple repeat sessions for other divisions, countries also.
Do learn these simple techniques to create useful, and interactive Dashboards using Excel and beyond. You will be amazed at the ease with which you can track and measure things. Better still, everyone will be on the same page.
Removing confusion from the corporate culture is a major step towards success with Excel Dashboards
Cheers,
Vinai Prakash
Intellisoft Systems Team
Singapore
We do not work just to get paid, just to finish the 9-5 routine.
We want to make a difference, a contribution, a celebration of life, of living. Therefore, work matters!
But are you doing your best today?
Are you excelling at work?
If not, why not. WHY?
W H Y ?
What are you waiting for?
Today, we are not fighting war with the communists. We may not be working on THE project of a lifetime – The Taj Mahal, The Rocket to Moon, The Scaling of South Pole, or The Everest. So therefore, should we do just a mediocre job… just a job to get by?
Or should we make any job, any crummy job as THE PROJECT of my Life… and really excel at it.
Why Not? Do you need anyone’s permission to do an excellent job? And will you do an excellent job, an Wow job only when someone’s life or job is at stake?
Decide today to do Your Best. Excel at anything. Make it the Project of your lifetime. Do such a wonderful job that people will talk about this work ten years from now. Man… those were the days… We worked on THE project of my life. It was such fun, such camaraderie, such great teamwork, such coordination, so much precision, and we pulled it against all odds. Those were the days!!!
Do not think of any job as just a job. Make it a WOW project. THE project of your life. Even if it is a small, simple job. Do with with dedication, do it with perfection. You will enjoy it more. You will be happy. You are not doing it to show off to anyone.But you are doing it to Show it your YOURSELF. You will feel job satisfaction. You will feel that
you are making a difference.
And you will be surprised. Others will see it. Notice it. They have no choice. A good quality work gets noticed pretty quickly. Because it is a rarity today. People are so used to seeing the mediocre job, the average job, that when you do an Excellent job, everyone notices… Automatically. You do not have to announce it.
And even if no one notices, or no one shows that they have noticed…. it is bound to happen. With it come its own rewards. More recognition, more power, more money, more satisfaction, and more success. You will know it first.
I take pride in my work. I find ways to add more value… provide more value. Find ways to give you new tips, tricks, new ways to add value to your work. When I coach, I try to give practical tips, not just theory, so that you can benefit from it immediately. Learn new skills – hard technical skills like Advanced Excel Techniques, or Soft Skills like Communication Skills… Train yourself, and your staff. There are several benefits of training. Invest in your knowledge, and spread the word.
Make it a point from today onwards. Find ways to transform your work… every day work, into a project that matters. Because Work Matters. Your Life Matters. What You Do matters, and You Matter Too!
– By Vinai Prakash, Founder & Principal Trainer at Intellisoft Singapore
P.S. – Write your comments. Tell me what you think. Does it ring a bell somewhere? Or you simply do not agree with this philosophy. What ever you feel, post a comment, and I’ll be happy to see what you feel, and where you come from. Thanks.
Practical hands-on advanced excel training at Intellisoft
Most people hardly use the huge number of features available in Microsoft Excel. Many are just using Excel as a calculator. This is a gross under use of Excel’s vast potential and feature rich functionality.
Do a quick check, and see if you use these advanced features of Microsoft Excel in your day to day work.
Some of the common things that can be done easily with Excel are:
Finding the Top 10 Customers or Finding the Bottom 10 Performers in the organization
Highlight values that are above or below a certain threshold – like all sales above $25,000 to be highlighted
Sort the values in Ascending, Descending or any customized order – like sorting in order of Manufacturing, Accounts, Sales departments.
Give Names to Range of Cells, and then use them in formulas for easy referencing and decoding
Exploit Pivot Tables to Summarize the data and slice & dice it in any way – finding sales by product groups, or calculating productivity by department
Write Macros to automate routine things that save you a huge amount of time – example creating pivots, charts, tables, and doing complex calculations automatically.
Use advanced filtering conditions, and be able to filter data using multiple different criteria
Create fantastic charts that portray the given business situation perfectly. There are over 50 different types of charts to choose from, and each has its edge, advantages and a reason.
Create management dashboard that are dynamic, and provide a complete snapshot of the key business KPIs in the company – change the chart values at the click of a checkbox or change in a drop-down value
Use Excel’s advanced What-If analysis to do projections for future, forecasting, trend analysis etc. with ease
Use Lookup tables to find any value or corresponding value from a table using advanced functions and formulas
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Microsoft Excel is really extremely powerful. Each version of Microsoft Excel – be it Excel 2007, or Excel 2010 or Excel 2013 adds more and more features to the already powerful dynamite of a package.
So what are you waiting for? If you would like to learn any one or more of such useful features of Microsoft Excel, come for a short Excel Training at Intellisoft.
Go ahead, equip your team with the right skills. Get everyone on board to learn the basic and advanced features of Microsoft Excel, and Be Awesome in Excel!
Email to training@intellisoft.com.sg or call +65-6250-3575 for the next available schedule of Microsoft Excel Training in Singapore.
When it comes to PowerPoint, it remains the professional tool of choice for business and corporate presentations. Features that were already in PowerPoint 2010 just became easier to discover and use with the new 2013 release. As with all other Microsoft Office 2013 applications, PowerPoint 2013 has been given a brand-new look. You’ll see fewer but more relevant choices, and you’ll find tools that were previously hidden, such as Shape Merge.
PowerPoint Interface
Microsoft PowerPoint 2013 is cleaner and primed for use on tablets and phones, so you can swipe and tap your way through presentations. Powerpoint 2013 makes it easy to design and deliver beautiful presentation with ease and confidence. Instead of opening without light precipitation you now have several options to star your next presentation using a template, theme, recent presentation, web link presentation.
Start it up, and you’ll be given a range of templates to choose from to create your new presentation. What is new with PowerPoint 2013 templates is that they’re now available with 16:9 aspect ratios, which is the default ratio. More and more monitors and videos are going to wide screen to you and so as power point. You can also change the default wide screen size 16:9 to standard 4:3 using new tab options. We teach that and you can join us in this teaching learning process by contacting us.
And when you’re working with others, you can add comments to ask questions and get feedback. So it includes presenter view, improved commenting system and a whole new set of Templates. You can learn all of these at Intellisoft. We have several PowerPoint Training Classes in Singapore.
Themes in PowerPoint
You’ll find new themes, a design to take advantage of a wide screen. Now themes come with new variants of color palettes and there’s a color bar of the color palette available. You can also click on more images to get a sample of what your presentation might look like with different elements. To learn how to do this come and join our Microsoft PowerPoint training class.
You can also set the guidelines in Master view. As you go through your slides the created guidelines will always be there. When you create the most path animation. PowerPoint will show you where it will end up. Your original object stays put and a ghost image moves along a path to show you where it will end up.
New Features in Microsoft PowerPoint
You will enjoy the features like
Presenter View: Stay organized with new behind-the-scenes tools, so you can keep your presentation focused and your audience tuned in.
Slide Zoom: Direct your audience’s attention right to your point. Zoom in on a diagram, chart, or graphic with a couple of clicks, and zoom out just as smoothly.
Slide Navigator: Quickly switch slides—in or out of sequence—from a visual grid viewable at a glance. While in Presenter View, your audience sees only the slide you’ve selected.
Auto-extend: When you project your presentation to a second screen, your slides and Presenter View automatically appear on the correct screens. No fumbling with equipment.
Here are the top features you should explore in Power Point.
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