Spreadsheet skills: knowing your 2007
times tables
May 2011
This month, Spreadsheet skills considers a new feature introduced in Excel 2007: tables.
By Liam Bastick, director with Corality.
Query
I understand Excel 2007 onwards has a table functionality. Is this similar to data tables (see
March 2011 article)? Could you provide a brief overview?
Advice
The table function supersedes Excel 2003's ‘list’ feature. This is completely different from
data tables.
Creating a table in Excel 2007 and later versions is straightforward. To begin, select the data
to be used in the table:
Example data for the table
You do not need to select the whole range as Excel will prompt for the whole table even if
only one cell is selected. Pivot table creation works similarly.
In the ‘Home’ tab, choose ‘Styles’ from the ribbon. Click on the button that says ‘Format as
Table’:
Format as Table
After clicking this button, Excel shows a new interface element called a gallery, with a
number of formatting choices for your table, shown above. A new style may be created by
selecting ‘New Table Style…’ if required.
Choose a format. Excel will then ask which cells are to be converted to a table:
Format As Table dialog box
If the table contains a heading row, ensure that the ‘My table has headers’ checkbox is
selected. Click ‘OK’ to convert the range to a table.
A typical table will resemble the following:
Table example
Tables have various useful functionalities, like the filtering which was performed in lists in
earlier Excel versions. If the table has a header row it will always have inbuilt filter and
sorting which can be readily accessed from this top row.
Filtering and sorting a table
Selecting an entire column or row of a table is simple. Move the mouse to the top of the table
or to the beginning of the first row, until the pointer changes to an arrow pointing down or
right. Left click to select the data area of that column or row. For columns, click again to
include the header and any total rows in the selection.
The whole table can be selected by positioning the mouse in the top left hand corner of the
table. The following diagrams illustrate these points.
Select row
Select column
Select all
One new aspect of the table function is the frozen header. If a cell has been selected within
the table, then scrolling down the table used to make the headers scroll off screen. Now the
column headings are temporarily replaced with the column names, if the cursor is positioned
within the table (see below):
Frozen column headings
A table will automatically resize to accommodate additional rows and columns, provided that
data is entered in a cell immediately after the last column or row.
If Excel 2007 (or later) automatically adds a new row or column to the table that is not
required, click the ‘AutoCorrect Options’ button next to the expansion. Select ‘Undo Table
AutoExpansion’ from the drop down menu.
To turn off AutoExpansion choose ‘Stop Automatically Expanding Tables’ from the drop
down menu. To turn it back on, use Office Button -> Excel Options -> Proofing ->
AutoCorrect Options button (ALT + T + O + PP + [ALT & A]).
In the AutoCorrect dialog box, click the ‘AutoFormat As You Type’ tab and select the
‘Include New Rows And Columns In Table’ check box. Click the ‘OK’ buttons to close each
dialog box in turn.
AutoCorrect options
When a row or column is added or deleted in the table, Excel 2007 will automatically adjust
the formatting. For example, if alternate shading formatting has been chosen this formatting
will be retained (see the example above).
If rows or columns are added to the table, any object that uses the table data will
automatically include the new data. This will replace the need for dynamic range name
creation often used in earlier versions that caused problems with some of Excel’s built in
functions (see April 2009’s article).
This makes adding data to charts very simple. Create the table first for the chart data, and
then add to the chart in the usual way.
I recommend naming tables when working with multiple tables. To do this, click on the table
and then from the ‘Table Tools’ -> ‘Design’ tab on the Ribbon. Enter the table name in the
Properties Group as shown below (ALT + JT + A):
Properties Group
The table name is used when you refer to cells within the table in a formula. For example, if
you click in a cell immediately to the right of the table, type ‘=SUM(’ and then clicked on a
cell within the table, a formula similar to the following would appear:
=SUM(TableName[[#This Row],[Quantity]])
where:
•
•
•
‘TableName’ refers to the name given to the table
‘[# This Row]’ denotes that the data comes from the same row that the formula is in
‘[Quantity]’ is the heading of the column referred to.
No two columns may have the same heading given their roles in table reference formulae. If a
second heading is given the same name as a previous one, Excel will automatically correct
the duplication by appending a number to the new column name.
Once the formula is entered into the cell, the table is automatically resized to include it. The
formula is automatically copied to fill the entire column, consistent with the data. Excel puts
in a default column heading as well. It is possible to undo these actions by using the smart tag
that appears.
There’s more to learn about these extremely versatile tables than this, but I hope this provides
an introduction. Why not experiment with the attached Excel file (103KB)?
If you have a query about the spreadsheet skills section, please feel free to drop Liam a line at
[email protected] or visit the Corality website.
Links
Mastercourse: spreadsheet skills for forecasting, planning and budgeting
CIMA professional development