Why don't Excel users know this?
Wyn Hopkins
Solving data challenges for companies and people. Power BI | Excel | Fabric | Solver Budgeting & Consolidation. Part of the Amazing team at Access Analytic Microsoft MVP ??6 Million+ YouTube views
The single greatest advancement in Excel in the last 10 years was the introduction of Tables. Yet although Tables were introduced in Excel 2007 there are still a huge number (I'd even say the majority) of Excel users that don't know how to create tables or what they do.
Click in a cell in a block of data (to be super safe highlight the entire block)
Press CTRL + T
Ensure that My Table has headers is ticked, and press OK
You now have a Table. There are 10 or so great features of Tables but here are the 3 key ones for me...
- Tables expand automatically when you type at the bottom or to the right. This is fantastic for those using Pivot Tables or Data Validation.
- Formulas "auto-fill" up and down the table whenever you enter a new formula or amend an existing one.
- INDEX MATCH works brilliantly with Tables
If you've never used Tables but you do use Excel to analyse "tables" of data then you are missing out on a huge opportunity!
Director - Deal Advisory Analytics
7 年Huh, didn't know it but do always use ctrl+L for the same thing (I think)
Microsoft Excel MVP. Author, trainer and consultant. Master of 365 Functions, Data Analysis & VBA
7 年You can also use CTRL-L. It yields the same result. The CTRL-L is a "remnant" of Excel 2003, where it was used to create a List (the "precursor" of the table which was introduced in XL 2007)
FP&A Analyst - Palantir Technologies
7 年Probably my second favorite Excel shortcut. Second to Ctrl+Z
Principal Consultant at Jankowski Project Svcs
7 年Been using tables a long time, but never CTL-T. Excellent to build pivot tables from because the Table IS the pivot source range. No pivot range resizing required.
Analytics & AI for Modern Excel ?? LinkedIn Learning Instructor ?? Microsoft MVP ?? O'Reilly Author ??
7 年Hell yeah - Charles is right, it's much more than cosmetic.