Data Analysis - Excel 365 – Dynamic Array Formulas (a game changer), Pivot Table Techniques, Macros and beyond

Who should attend and what is covered

This course is intended for experienced excel users. It has two main aims: 1. Providing a detailed introduction to the new tools in Excel 365: what they do, how they operate and show them working in real world examples. These tools are Dynamic Array Formulas. This is will include (where appropriate) contrasting with how these real world issues would have been handled in ‘legacy’ (i.e. pre-365) Excel. 2. Focusing on particularly useful techniques in a few areas that will be familiar - Charting and Formatting - and one that may or not be well known to you - Macros. This course will operate with a mixture of instructor-delivery and practical exercises using a case-study approach. The emphasis will be on delivering practical techniques which can be used in everyday work, rather than on esoteric theory.

Benefits

Participants will benefit from: An understanding of the breadth and application of newer tools developed in the past number of years. Using more traditional techniques in more modern settings; macros etc. Sharpening visualisation skills. Understanding and appreciating the use of custom functions (LAMBDA) and how you might utilise these. Visibility on and the ability to operate 365 functions combined with each other for greater effectiveness etc. Gaining the basis for follow-on courses or study in in-depth areas such as Power Query and Power Pivot.

Functions

Dynamic arrays and the concept of SPILL. Original 365 functions - SEQUENCE, UNIQUE, FILTER, RANDARRAY, SORT and SORTBY. New functions added: DROP and TAKE, EXPAND, CHOOSE (Cols and Rows), FIELDVALUE etc. Newer text based functions such as TEXTSPLIT, TEXTJOIN etc. As well as the ‘given’ functions, we will also cover the custom function tool introduced in the last year or so - LAMBDA and even newer functions such as VSTACK, IMAGE etc. will be introduced.

Macros

What is a macro and how can they be utilised to automate work processes? This will include constructing a basic macro and examining the code behind its output. Expanding this we prepare a ledger re-organisation macro and finally a routine involving the generation of a dialogue box. We will briefly touch on the use of support tools (in this case Power Query) to avoid the need for macros in some cases.

Pivot Tables

Specific areas of analysis with Pivot Tables will include; Calculated Field and Item, time based operation, multiple report generation and utilising pivot tables to produce dashboards and regular reports which require updating. This section will also cover the use of Tables in generating the input for Pivot Tables that need to be updated periodically.

Formatting

This section briefly covers all the different types of formatting; general, custom and conditional and more importantly the principles behind formatting.

Charting

Visualisation is vital in reporting and is a huge area to try and cover in any Excel course. We will focus on some niche areas such as: • Variance analysis including the use of custom formatting. • Use of XY Plot to generate dynamic labels etc • The use of symbols in charting through use of formatting etc. • Using custom and given functions to generate dynamic charts and controlling these visually. • The use of newer chart types offered; Tree, Sunburst, Box and Whisker, Funnel and Waterfall.