IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING EXCEL 2007 FEATURES

By: Danielle ZandriCSC 200-04

Professor Workman

VLOOKUP

This feature is used to determine a value from a two-column vertical table. For example, you can create an table of numerical grades and their letter equivalents, and look up one value based on the other.

To use the function, one must input the value to lookup, the range of the entire table, and the column number with the associated value.

THEMES

A theme refers to a selected visual motif that is applied to an workbook as a whole or to specific parts.

The selected theme encompasses such things as: font, lines, fill effects, and a set of colors.

DROP-DOWN LISTS

Drop down lists are designed to make data entry less complicated by supplying a limited number of items or terms to be entered into a cell. The list itself displays those entries that are “valid” to be inputed. These terms are to come from preexisting cells of the same workbook.

WEB QUERIES

Web queries allow Excel to obtain information that is available on the internet and be put into a workbook. This includes extracting tables and various statistic such as stocks.

If your web query involves data that may change over time, it is necessary to refresh the page in order to view the most current information.

CONDITIONAL FORMATTING This feature refers to different visual

cues that are a applied to specific conditions within a cell. If the condition(s) are met, a particular format, such as a color fill, will be applied to that particular cell, so that it stands out from the rest.

SORT & FILTER When sorting data in Excel, one

arranges records by the values in a field. One must select a field to arrange the records by. For instance, last name, pay rate, etc… These fields can be arranged by ascending or descending order.

Filtering refers to displaying records that only meet specified criteria. For example only last names that begin with the letter “W”.

Records that are eliminated are merely hidden, not deleted.

SUM FUNCTION The Sum button automatically totals a

selected group of cells with numerical values. One must highlight the desired cells, and the sum appears in the cell directly below, or to the right, depending on if the cells are horizontal or vertical.

PMT FUNCTION This function calculates the

payment on a loan. To employ this feature, one must enter in a cell:

For more details on the PMT Function, see the website:

http://www.techonthenet.com/excel/formulas/pmt.php

=PMT(interest rate/12,

# of periods of payment,

- Amount of the loan)

EXCEL 2007 WRAP-UP The following features:

VLookup Themes Drop-down lists Wed QueriesConditional Formatting Sort & FilterSum functionPMT function

only offer a small insight into what Microsoft Excel 2007 has to offer. Explore the program for yourself, and discover more interesting features!