Excel 3 Table of Contents

Advanced Conditional Formatting Advanced Charts PivotCharts (and more on PivotTables) Solver

o Working with data Advanced Sorting Advanced Filtering (these are potential additional areas of content if the above

is not enough)

Instructor comments in red

Introduction (time: 5 min)

This class is a continuation of Excel parts 1 & 2.

Advanced Conditional Formatting (time: 15min)

Demonstrate opening Excel 3 class file, and have class do same. Default open location will be “Cond. Formatting” worksheet

Easier data interpretation

Conditional formatting adds a visual element to your tables, making it easier for the user to interpret data at a glance. There are a variety of formats to apply to tabular data. Charts are a more graphic representation of tabular data, but sometimes the sheer volume of data makes conditional formatting a better choice.

1. Select data for conditional formatting (hint- if columns contain different types of data then they should not be formatted the same way, this works best on data with similar headers.

(Hours Production and Units Produced should not be formatted together at the same time, because these columns contain dissimilar data)

2. Select . You will see several options. Each of these has a different visual approach, but all are designed to function in a similar fashion. Walk the students through each element of conditional formatting, specifically Highlight Cell Rules, Data Bars, and Color Scales. Show advantages of each with examples of column conditional formatting in the Cond. Formatting worksheet

3. Multiple rules can be combined. Rules can be cleared from a column either by clicking the “Undo” button r via CTRL-z. You can edit or remove specific rules from a column by choosing “Manage rules” under the Conditional Formatting icon

4. You can also create new rules from the “Manage Rules” dialog box, or by selecting “New Rule” from the conditional formatting menu

In Highlight Cell Rules, have them create a custom rule with you:

Go to “New Rule”

Choose “Only cells that contain _”highlight all cells in the with a value greater than 2.5Pick a custom fill (yellow?)

Time for Practice! (time 5min)Using the “Conditional Formatting” sheet, you’re going to create two rules.

1. First, clear all rules in your worksheet2. In the Total COGS column, flag all totals UNDER $800 with red text.

3. Next, in the Efficiency column, use the “New rule” selection on the Conditional formatting drop-down menu to create a rule that will highlight all cells with values between 12-14% with green fill background). The trick here is that when they create the rule they they must type a percentage symbol after the number, or the rule will not recognize the percentages in the column and nothing will be highlighted.

When you are done, your worksheet should look like this:

Charts (time 30-35 min)Advanced graphic representation of data: elements of a chart

(from office.microsoft.com)

The chart area of the chart.The plot area of the chart.

The data points of the data series that are plotted in the chart.The horizontal (category) and vertical (value) axis along which the

data is plotted in the chart.The legend of the chart. A chart and axis title that you can use in the chart.A data label that you can use to identify the details of a data point in

a data series.

Charts are a great way to represent relatively short lists of data. We’re going to create a basic chart from a data table. We’ll use the data in the “Adv. Charts” work sheet.

First, highlight the chart by clicking-and-dragging, or by using the handy “highlight everything” icon in the upper left-hand corner of the worksheet.

TIP If you select only one cell, Excel automatically plots all cells that contain data that is adjacent to that cell into a chart

Go to the Insert tab. We’re going to insert a simple 2-D Column chart

The chart will be inserted on the current worksheet. You’ll also see a new section of the Office ribbon appear, which has tabs for chart features. It’s on the right-hand side of the screen and looks like this:

When you click elsewhere on the worksheet, these tabs will disappear. To get them back, click on the chart (demonstrate). When the chart is created, one of the first things we see is that the cheese sales columns are offset by the large “totals” column:

Most sales are less than 300lbs, but the totals, which go past 1300, make it hard to see the smaller totals on the chart. To fix this, we can change the data that the chart shows, by clicking on the Design tab and selecting the “Select Data” icon. (we also could have highlighted all the table save the totals row- please demonstrate that- but it’s important to show students how to edit data selection AFTER a chart has been created)

Looking at the “Select Data” dialog box, we see how we can edit out a row or column we don’t like. (demonstrate)

With totals removed from the chart, it becomes easier to see cheese sales patterns among cities. Also, you can see that there is an option to swap rows & columns. Try switching the output to see if this portrays the data in a more useful way. This is a great way to edit charts after you’ve created them. (demonstrate).

Next to the Select Data icon are preformatted “Chart Layouts.” These are premade templates that be applied to your chart for a quick makeover. Browse through the options. (demonstrate)

Other ways to change charts can be found in the Layout tab . Here, you can add a chart title and information that helps interpret your chart’s specific numbers.

Especially useful is a data table, which displays the chart’s figures, and data labels, which show numerical values attached to a chart item. (demonstrate). IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW THAT CHARTS DISPLAY INFORMATION DYNAMICALLY. The larger a chart, the more information it can display. It often helps to increase the size of a chart,

especially if you are adding a lot of information. Click-and-drag a chart border to make it bigger or smaller. (demonstrate changing chart size by clicking on border sizing handles)

Sometimes a chart is big enough that you should give it its’ own worksheet. Back in the Design tab, this option can be found in the upper left-hand corner

Choose where you like to move the chart to- a new worksheet, or an existing one:

With a big enough chart, you can display lots of helpful data; it also might be useful to update vertical and horizontal axis with smaller tickmarks for easier reading, or different gradation. This is in the Layout tab, in the “Axes” group:

Here you can add gridlines, change the scale to reflect more precise or divisive numbering, and maximum unit size of the chart. Most of these advanced options can be found under the “Primary Vertical Axis” icon, Options command, or you can right-click on the vertical axis on the chart and choose “Format Axis.”Please demonstrate the vertical axis and horizontal axis commands, especially the vertical axis options- changing the “major unit” option from auto to a fixed amount will let users customize the gradations of the chart scale, and are useful to know. There are also a lot of chart axis formatting tools buried in the Primary Vertical Axis options”Most of these changes might require a change in the size of a chart.

Chart types can be changed fairly easily in the Design tab. Some of these will work better for some types of data. For example our chart works pretty well as a column chart, but it is not a very good bubble chart. Radar charts work well with our example, and might be a unique substitute. You’ll have to experiment.

demonstrate different chart looks and limitations, i.e. not displaying data correctly

Practice! (time 5-10 min)

Go to the sheet marked “Practicum.” Select the chart marked “Annual Precipitation.” 1. Make this a line chart. 2. Inset a chart title (Annual Precipitation) above the chart3. Insert a vertical axis title (Inches)4. Switch the row/column to put the months on the horizontal axis5. Include a data table6. Include minor horizontal gridlines7. Remove the cities Acapulco and Toronto from the chart8. Resize the entire chart to make everything fit9. Put this chart in a new sheet

Example of finished product for instructor:

PivotTables and PivotCharts (time 20 min)

Pivotables are tools that allow you to make alternate displays of large quantities existing data, rather than requiring you to type a whole new sheet.

Go to the “Pivots” worksheet. Select all the data

In the Insert tab, click on PivotTable

Put the PivotTable in a new worksheet. You’ll be take to the new worksheet where your data headers can be dragged into rows, columns, & “values” fields. These are ways in which data can be sorted into manageable forms.

Using the mouse…

Move the to the Row labels

Move the to the Row labels

Move the to the Column labelsMove the to the Values labels

It should look like this:

Notice that this populates your PivotTable on the left (this is an example of the completed PivotTable)

Note that if you have multiple items in a Label category, you can switch between ways to sort your PivotTable by clicking the drop-down arrow:

(demonstrate the “Select a field” drop-down menu, check and uncheck PivotTable selections (August, September…, show how you could sort the overall table by Week in a month (1,2,3,4,5) if you added the “Week” field to the Report Labels box)

In a PivotTable, this symbol denotes a field that can be filtered, and this symbol denotes a field that has already been filtered (and is hiding content). Clicking on either symbol gives you filtering options.

The spirit of PivotTables is experimentation. You need to “play” with your labels and content, to get a table that the most useful. Usually, the Rows and Columns labels are things by which you filter results, and the Values labels is the variable data that you’re actually tracking (sales, precipitation, MPG, EBIT, sick days, et cetera). Also, realize that any fields you drag to a PivotTables labels box can be further sorted via the drop down arrow:

In the example above, we have chosen to display the sum of sales in the PivotTable report. We could have also counted the number of cells in the original data (Count), or the average/max/min of all sales (Average, Max, Min. ) (demonstrate)

The next step is a PivotChart. PivotCharts differ from regular charts in the same way that PivotTables differ from regular tables: PivotTables and PivotCharts allow you to create output that is in a compressed, filter-able format. You can quickly sort your chart data for different displays.

To create a PivotChart, go back to the previous worksheet (Pivots) and go to the Insert tab- PivotTable icon- drop down menu/ PivotChart

You’re going to build the pivot chart in the same way you would build a PivotTable. Try the same combinations of Labels items:

Move the to the Row labels

Move the to the Row labels

Move the to the Column labelsMove the to the Values labels

Notice that the chart you build includes all the possible content, and must be filtered (and the chart often needs to be expanded) to show the content correctly. Using the PivotChart Filter Pane…

…(visible when we click on the chart) we can sort the content into a quick display of the content we want. In this chart experiment by sorting by site and month in the Filter Pane.

All of the options for regular charts also pertain to PivotCharts.

Solver (time 30 min)

Solver is a tool built into Excel which allows you to find “optimal solutions” for data.

An example of a Solver problem would be catering for a wedding. Let’s say that… You have a limited budget The entrees (there are several choices) have different prices There are extra fees to offer more than one entrée choice. Some of the guests need a vegetarian or kosher dish. You in-laws insist on the salmon dish as an option for their immediate family

These restrictions (budget, entrée costs, entrée selection, dietary restrictions) are called constraints in a Solver problem. Solver would help you figure out the best combination of cost and entrees to achieve the optimal result within you budget.

Where is Solver?

Solver is an Excel option. To make the option active, go to the Office button and select

at the bottom of the selection. Go to the Add-ins command and make sure that Solver appears in the add-in list of tools

If the Solver tool does not appear, you can add it in by going to the “Manage” menu at the bottom of the screen.

Check the “Solver” check box.

(note-if you don’t see the Solver check box, you’ll have to browse for it. (demonstrate for the class where Solver is located…the path is:

Okay, once you have Solver installed, let’s practice solving. Go to the Solver worksheet.

This sheet is used by a brewery to determine how many “standard” and “master” brewing kits they should build with existing inventory, in order to maximize inventory use and, more importantly, profit. There is a “best” answer, and to find it we use Solver.

First, look over the worksheet and inspect it, to see any formulas and how the sheet arrives a total. You need to understand what the sheet is “doing” before you can use Solver on it. (show, explain, and demonstrate the simple formulas in cells D4, E4, f6:f12, and d15:f15)

At the bottom of the solver worksheet is a yellow box. This is filled with constraints- parameters we need to satisfy when we find a solution. For instance, we need to build at least 3 master kits.

These don’t always need to be spelled out, but it helps to have a list to keep track of things.

To start “solving” with Solver, go to the tab and click on

The Solver window will open:

(this will require ample explanation- the process w/o explanation is detailed below)

In the solver window, select a Target Cell by clicking in the empty box next to “Set Target Cell,” and then clicking on the cell on the worksheet. This is the “goal” of the Solver solution:

We want to “maximize” this number, so leave the “Max” radio button checked:

You want to find the maximum profit (cell F15) by changing the number of kits built:

Now for the constraints. In the “Subject to the Constraints” we need a few rules. Click on the Add button, and a new “Add Constraint” pop-up appears:

First, we want the number of kits built to be a whole number, in other words, an integer. Select these cells and fill out the first constraint thusly:

Once you’re done, click “Add”(do this every time you enter a constraint).

According to the constraints, we need to build at least 3 Master kits (demonstrate various equals, greater than, less than, and combination symbols here)

Finally, we need to specify that the inventory used must not exceed inventory available:

When you’re done with this last contraint, add it and then click on the red X in the corner to close the Add Constraint box. Click on the “”Solve” button:

Solver will find a solution, and ask if you want to keep it. IMPORTANT- if this answer looks completely wonky (number is way too big or small, has a negative answer, or no answer) then click “cancel”” or “restore orginal values.

”

Did you get this result?

Explain why Solver’s answer did not use all inventory (ran out of yeast packs to build kits, although there was other inventory left).

You can change the constraints and rerun solver to get other answers- what if we had to build 5 master kits…would that result in more profit, or less? (demonstrate by changing f18 and rerunning Solver)

Practice!