Excel Project

In execution of the Excel Project for ISM 3004 I have learned many exciting tactics that have expanded my knowledge of Microsoft Excel. Basic functions such as the use of "freeze panes", formatting data, and using formulae are necessary skills for anyone to understand. One of the most useful features I have learned is formatting worksheets to print properly or to a custom setting the user desires. Despite extensive use of Excel in my profession I have never learned hot to construct a Pivot Table until taking this course.

Basic Excel skills are necessary for anyone in the working world no matter your profession. The use of "freeze panes" are very important because this function will allow you to display headers as you scroll down the page looking at what sometimes will be thousand of rows of data. To add a "freeze frame" simply go to view on you ribbon bar, look in the window, bar and click on “Freeze Panes" from there you can select which frames you might like to freeze or unfreeze. Inserting formulae in Excel is quite easy once you have used it a few times. I especially find the auto fill feature to be helpful.

Formatting your worksheet to print properly and legibly was very enlightening. In the past this has been an area that has caused much heartburn in my office. The best part is that this is a very easy fix. In the ribbon bar simply select Page Layout, then in the Page Setup Bar click the arrow in the bottom right corner to expand the window. Wow! I never knew that was there! Now you can select how many rows or columns should appear on every page or how many pages your report should fit into. By using this window and the Print Preview window you can now format your report to look perfect.

A pivot table is an incredible way to display large amounts of data in a concise manner. Learning to format a pivot table takes some work, and in my case trial and error, but in the end I believe it to be the most useful tool I have learned to use. To insert a pivot table in Excel go to Inset on the ribbon bar, and then click on Pivot Table in the upper left corner. From there the program should automatically pick up the data in the worksheet you were presently on and you can select to have the table be placed on a new worksheet. Depending on your data set you can now customize a table that will display results in a manageable fashion.