ONLINE: Preventing Errors in Your Spreadsheets

When you attend this comprehensive presentation, you’ll learn a variety of tricks and techniques to improve the integrity of your Excel spreadsheets as well as audit the spreadsheets created by others. Excel expert David Ringstrom discusses the benefits and uses of several Excel features and functions, including the Hide and Protect feature, the Conditional Formatting feature, the VLOOKUP function, the SUMIF function, and more.

David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in the subscription-based Office 365 version of Excel. David draws your attention to any differences in the older versions of Excel (2019, 2016, 2013, and earlier) during the presentation as well as in his detailed handouts. David also provides an Excel workbook that includes most of the examples he uses during the webcast.

Office 365 is a subscription-based product that provides new-feature updates as often as monthly. Conversely, the perpetual licensed versions of Excel have feature sets that don’t change. Perpetual licensed versions have year numbers, such as Excel 2019, Excel 2016, and so on.

Who should attend:

Practitioners who may benefit from improving the integrity of their Excel spreadsheets and boost their efficiency while doing so.

 

Topics typically covered:

•Understanding how the VLOOKUP function allows you to look up data instead of having to manually reference individual cells.

•Using Conditional Formatting to identify unlocked cells into which data can be entered.

•Performing dual lookups, which allow you to look across columns and down rows to cross-reference the data you need.

•Limiting access to sensitive workbooks by way of password protection.

•Preventing errors from the start by choosing from thousands of free Excel spreadsheet templates.

•Preserving key formulas using hide and protect features.

•Utilizing the New Window and Arrange Windows commands to view two different worksheets simultaneously.

•Utilizing the New Window and Arrange Windows commands to view two different worksheets simultaneously.

•Removing Conditional Formatting when it’s no longer needed within a spreadsheet.

•Streamlining Custom Views by adding a drop-down list to Excel’s Quick Access Toolbar.

•Improving the integrity of many Excel features by placing column headings within a single row instead of spanning two or more rows.

•Learning a simple design technique that greatly improves the integrity of Excel’s SUM function.

Learning objectives:

•Apply Data Validation to document input cells and enforce data integrity.

•State how to hide and unhide multiple worksheets with a single command.

•Apply Conditional Formatting to identify unlocked cells into which data can be entered.