Working With Data

NOTE - When working with data, assign field names for each column. That is, each column will have a field name in the first row. You cannot have a cell with a blank value in the first row.

Q I have a spreadsheet full of data that I would like to be able to look at all the records that match a certain criteria. I don't, however, want to bother with a pivot table and the need to refresh all the time. Can I enter a value and filter the data so that I will only see records that match my criteria?
A Use the "Data,Filter" function. Select the entire data table you are using. Then, from the menu bar at the top, select "Data,Filter,AutoFilter". Now you will see drop down boxes in each cell in row 1. Clicking on any of the drop down boxes will enable you to select your criteria or to input your own custom criteria. You can also do multiple filtering on your data. That is, you can filter on one cell and then further refine your filter on another cell.

Pivot Tables

(THE way to work with data)

Q I have a table of data and I want to perform various analyses on this data. The analyses include:

Calculating totals for each region

Calculating averages for each region

Calculating totals for each salesman and do this by region

You get the idea.........So how do I do this?
A Pivot tables are an extremely powerful (and dynamic) way to summarize and analyze data. However, I feel the best way to demonstrate this is by pictures - a picture is worth a thousand words.