I have been including this as a bonus exercise in our Pivot Table sessions, but it is too good not to share as a Byte. I learned about this magical feature (wizardry) from a session taught by Mr. Excel last fall. This is the beginning of the cool AI features to come with Microsoft Office… it is an amazing tool to help you better illustrate location oriented data, or better yet, location data on a timeline. Let’s check it out.

Availability

This feature is available to those of you using the Windows version of Microsoft Office 2016 or later.  WSU faculty and staff, if you have an older version of Office and would like to upgrade, please contact the Help Desk at 4357.  If you are a Mac user and want to try out this feature, please come to one of our open labs listed in myTraining! We would love to have you, and you will be able to export the data we create for use in presentations.

Exercise File

Follow along with the exercise file: GeographicInfo

This is a list of fictional student registrations: student hometowns, class, and the date they registered.

Data Layout

Notice how this list is laid out vertically: each column is a new piece of information and each new row is a separate entry. This is exactly how data should be laid out in Excel: for pivot tables, for graphing, and also for geographic data.

Oh, and remember… friends don’t let friends merge cells. It can really mess with features that create visual elements with data… But I digress.

 Creating the Map

Just like with your pivot table data, you do not need to preselect all this information.

1. Place your cursor anywhere inside the data. I selected cell B5 randomly.
2. Go to the Insert tab, and in a group called Tours select 3D Map.

Note: if this is your first time using this feature, you may be asked if you want to enable this feature. You do. This is going to give Excel permission to access these maps online.

Another Note: it may take a few moments for the feature to run… so don’t be alarmed if you see the famous spinning wheel.

3. A new screen will load with a map view. You can move the globe around with your mouse, or zoom in with the + and – buttons at the lower right.

Adjusting the Map

We want to see more information than just data points, though. Notice that the right side of the screen has an almost pivot table feel: with different groups of customizable information. Let’s insert a couple fields:

1. Press the + next to Category and select Class
2. Press the + next to Time and select Date

Now rotate your globe, and notice that there is dimension to the entry points…

but that is not all you have just done…

3. Notice there is a play button at the bottom of your screen. Press this button to see a moving timeline of registrations.

Isn’t this awesome??

Export Options

Take a look at the ribbon in the Map view. Notice the second option allows you to Create Video or Capture Screen. Maybe you would like to incorporate this live timeline into a PowerPoint, or maybe you just need a quick picture of the map. These options will allow you to do just that.

Saving Your Maps

This file is going to save with your excel file once you exit the map view. To access it again after closing out of map view, revisit the Insert tab, and select 3D Maps. Instead of starting over, this also gives you the option to revisit the “tour” you created. You might choose to create several!

Thoughts?

I would love to hear how you end up using 3D maps in your work space! Let me know. 😊

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

• Jose Intriago Suarez

There are two types of people in the Excel world: people who rename their sheets by double clicking, and people who rename their sheets by right clicking. A lot of us are double clickers, and therefore have never noticed the plethora of options for organizing sheets available on the right click menu. There are some very useful organization tools available to you on this menu… Let’s take a look.

Exercise File

You could really follow along on any old Excel spreadsheet, but if you would like one to experiment upon, here is the exercise from the Form Entry blog entry: ExcelSampleWorkBook

This workbook contains a list of fictional course grades that work with in some of the Excel trainings.

Right Click Menu

To try out the options below, hover your mouse over the sheet name (Fictional Course Grades) and right click. A menu will appear to select the options lined out below.

Rename

This is the one most of you know about already. You could also rename a sheet by double clicking on it.

Move or Copy

Okay, this is such a useful time saver. If you have a sheet you would like to duplicate or move to another location, rather than selecting the entire contents of a sheet and copy/pasting it, consider this option.

When you select Move or Copy a pop up will appear with some more options.

• The dropdown at the top will allow you to select any open Excel Workbook to move or copy your sheet to. So if you have other Excel workbooks open right now, you will see a list of all of them here.
• The center section allows you to choose where in the workbook you would like the sheet to go (in front of or behind existing sheets).
• The Create a copy box is something you would want to check if you don’t simply want to move the sheet, you would also like it to remain in its original location.

Check this box and press OK. Notice you now have two sheets with the same content in the same workbook.

This is especially handy if you are wanting to create multiple versions of tables, charts, or data lists that are similar enough in layout that you don’t want to reinvent the wheel every time.

Color Code Sheets

On to many people’s favorite organizational technique: color coding!

Select the Tab Color option. This will bring up the full list of theme colors and a full color wheel under More Colors.

I selected the orange standard color. Notice how it will look a little bit different depending on if you have selected the color coded sheet. Typically the color appears a little bit faded when selected. I created a Sheet 3, and selected it in the image below… you can see how it looks different from the first two sheets.

Hide Sheets

In Excel Essentials we talk about hiding rows and columns. In Advanced Formulas we talk about how sometimes you want to put formulas on one sheet that reference another. Here is a great feature that brings the two concepts together. Maybe you want to put a list of data on a hidden sheet, and only show the summary pivot table on another. Hiding a sheet allows you to do that.

Just remember, just like with hidden rows and columns, anyone will have the ability to unhide them. To unhide a sheet, right click on top of the existing sheet, and select Unhide.

We talk about protection options in Advanced Formulas, which can address some of the privacy issues with hiding sheets and rows, but protection comes with some large caveats, so if you are interested in learning more about protection, please come to an Excel Advanced Formulas session. Plus, it is just fun to learn about formulas, so come anyway!

…or of course feel free to email or call me and we can chat about it. 😊

Thoughts?

What do you think? Will any of these organization tips help you with your Excel workbooks?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

• Brenda Achey (as Flash Phil)

We talk about calculations with dates in Advanced Formulas training (hooray for DateDif!). Working with time in Excel can be a bit trickier. I have seen people give up when formulas don’t work initially, but sometimes all that is needed is a change in formatting. Let’s see how we can work with time in a common example.

Exercise File

To follow along, download the exercise file here: TimeCalcExercise

• In this file is a list of times that you attended some fictional February meetings. You want to figure out how much time you spent in meetings last month.
• Note that there are two sheets in this workbook: February Meetings, which is your challenge, and Solution, so you can check your work as we go.

Number Formats

You are going to see that the formulas themselves are going to be very simple: basic addition and subtraction. The real key with times is the Number Format.

We are going to be using several Custom number formats. In the custom time formats, h stands for hours, and m for minutes.

• h:mm AM/PM: 12 hour time, indicated by AM/PM, for example 11:00 PM
• h:mm: 24 hour time, not including AM/PM, for example 11:00.
  
• [h]:mm: Elapsed time, beyond a 24 hour clock. With this you are adding total number of hours, not adding hours to a clock of revolving time.

Start and End Time

The first thing we should do is fix up the start and end time formatting so Excel will know what we are trying to calculate. I created a couple helper columns in Columns C and D called Extract Start and Extract End. Columns A and B are a common format that happens when you export time from other programs.

Extract Start and End Time with Flash Fill

There are a number of ways you might chose to do this, but as a fan of Flash Fill, that is the route I would like to take.

1. Create a pattern: click into C2 and type 9:00 AM (from A2)
2. Select C3 an type 11:00 AM (from A3)

3. Select C4. Go to the Home tab, Editing Group, Fill Dropdown an select Flash Fill

This should complete the rest of Column C. If it doesn’t, double check that you have established a pattern that matches what you are seeing in Column A.

Complete Column D the same way, extracting the end time from Column B.

Check Number Format

Let’s check the number format for columns C and D.

1. Select C2 through D32.
2. In the Home tab, Number group, click the More arrow in the lower right.
3. The Type should display as h:mm AM/PM. If it doesn’t you can type it in manually, as it is listed below. This means you are view time in a way most of us are familiar with: for example, 12:30 PM.

We are going to revisit this number format area again soon, so stay tuned.

Calculating Time Spent in Each Meeting

Let’s calculate the time spent in each meeting, and then we can move on to calculate a grand total.

Subtracting Time

Column E, Total Time, is meant to calculate the time spent in each meeting. This is going to be a simple subtraction.

1. Select Cell E2.
2. Type =D2-C2 . You can also select cells D2 and C2 as you are creating the formularather than typing the names of the cells.
3. Press enter to calculate.

4. Auto Fill the rest of the column, either by clicking and dragging or double clicking on the auto fill handle.

Adjust Number Formats

Let’s check the number format of Column E. Excel may have assumed that you wanted to use the same number formatting as C and D, but remember that includes AM and PM, which isn’t relevant for Column E.

1. Select Cells E2 through E32.
2. In the Home Tab, Numbers group, press the More button at the lower right.
3. This time, you want the number format to be simply h:mm. So no AM/PM necessary. Make sure you are on the Custom category.

   Click into the Type field and type h:mm (or find it in the type list).

Calculating Grand Total

1. In Cell A33, type Grand Total.
2. Select Cell E33: This is where we are going to calculate the total time.
3. In the Home tab, Editing group, select the AutoSum dropdown and select Sum to add all the times in column E.

Grand Total Formatting

Something is not quite right about our Grand Total.

This is all about number formatting. This Sum is displaying in the same format as the rest of column E: h:mm. This means Excel is adding the time on a 24 hour clock, which is not what we intended.

Let’s make one more number formatting adjustment.

1. Go back to your Number Format options, just like above.

2. In the Type, type square brackets [ ] around the “h.” This will send the message to Excel that you want a total elapsed time… beyond the 24 hour clock. So it will look like [h]:mm

Now the total elapsed time is showing in hours and minutes.

Perfect! So it looks like you have spent almost 36 hours in these fictional meetings last month.

Solution Sheet

Did you get lost somewhere along the way? Double check your answer with the Solution sheet in the exercise file.

Thoughts?

Do you have a use for calculating time in your day to day spreadsheets? Do tell!

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

Catherine Lawless

Jackie Boyles

Juanita Fonseca-Rodriguez

Krista Searle

A lot of people prefer a form entry view to a table view for data entry. Forms for data entry are something we are all used to seeing in popular programs like Filemaker and Access, but also for something as basic as filling out an online form… that is data entry too, after all.

There are ways to accomplish this task with macros, but there is an even simpler way to activate a new view involving Tables.

Exercise File

If you would like to follow along, download the exercise file here:

ExerciseFormEntry

This looks familiar if you have attended Advanced Formulas training. We use this same data to calculate age from birthday and grade from a grade percent. Notice that columns E, G and H all contain formulas, while the other columns are free entry.

Important: Format as a Table

This data has been formatted as a Table. We talk about tables at great length in Excel Essentials. Remember how I said there are endlessly cool things that will happen in your life when you format data as a table? Here is another one!

Creating a Form Button

Form entry is not a command you can find in the ribbon, but there is a work around for this. You might recall that the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) contains all the commands you can find on the ribbon and also commands not in the ribbon… let’s find this one.

1. Find the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) above the ribbon.
2. Select the dropdown arrow at the right side of the QAT.
3. Select More Commands.
4. On the Choose Commands From dropdown, select Commands not in the Ribbon.
5. On the left pane, scroll down and select Form (features are listed alphabetically).
6. Press the Add button between the two panes.
7. Form will appear on the right pane.
8. Press OK

A new button will appear in your QAT for Form entry.

Using the New Button

Let’s test out the button.

1. Place your cursor anywhere inside the table.
2. Press the Form button you just created in your QAT.
   
3. A form entry box will appear.

New: Adding Entries

1. On the right side of the form view, press New
   
2. Enter in your own information (give yourself a good grade!)
3. Notice how the columns that contain formulas (E, G and H) are not enterable.
4. Tab to move between fields
5. Press enter once data is entered.
6. Scroll down to look at the new entry in the table.

Criteria:  Search for a Specific Field

1. On the right side of the form view, press Criteria.
2. Place your cursor in the Last Name field and try searching for Last Name: Green
3. Press Find Next to be taken to the next entry.

Possible Pitfalls

• If you are sharing a workbook with a group of people who would like to do form entry on your table, they will need to add the Form tool to their QAT too. They will still be able to type into the table without the form view, of course.

Thoughts?

What do you think? Do you have any old tables lying around that could use this handy feature?

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

• Hannah Bates