I have been fortunate enough to get exposure to Excel since the start of my Career. Since then Excel has played an important role in shaping my career. Even though i have moved on to much better technologies, i still keep in touch with excel through out of work projects. In today’s working environment, with proficiency in Excel you could leverage it for some great features:
1) Build great charts
Excel allows business users to unlock the potential of their data, by using formulas across a grid of cells. Data is inserted into individual cells in rows or columns, allowing it to be sorted and filtered, and then displayed in a visual presentation. Using pie charts, graphs and clustered columns adds meaning to data, which otherwise may just exist as row after row of numbers. These visualisations can add extra emphasis to business reports and persuasive marketing material.
2) Use conditional formatting
Excel users can format their spreadsheets using different colours, bolds and italics, to differentiate between columns and bring the most important data to the fore. The vast number of tasks that can be achieved using this tool is impressive, here are just a few: Display simple icons which represent related data, Highlighting a row based on a single value, Comparing values, Comparing lists and Finding duplicates. Find out more about conditional formating.
3) Help identify trends
When presenting data in the form of charts or graphs, it can be helpful to include average lines, which explicitly detail the key trends emerging from the information. This may help demonstrate the key points to other users in a straightforward manner – for instance, an executive from a different department during a board meeting. Excel allows trend lines to be extended beyond the graph, to offer predictions of future activity – and such forecasts can help businesses develop their future strategy.
4) Bring data together
Excel can be used to bring information from various files and documents together, so that it exists in a single location. As well as raw data and information from other spreadsheets, it is possible to import text and images. Other objects can be added using the Insert tab, or additional spreadsheets can be added to the file.
5) Online access
Excel is available online as part of Microsoft’s Office 365 productivity suite. This means business leaders and employees have access to the program from a range of devices, from almost any location. Providing they have a web-enabled PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet it should be possible to access Excel, making remote and mobile working viable.