Market Risk - Part A
07 Sep 2008
Dec
28
Microsoft Excel 2007. The best new features: Part 2 - Styling
by David Harper, CFA, FRM, CIPM
Tools |
In Part 1, I briefly reviewed my three favorite usability features in the new Excel 2007: the new user interface including the ribbon, the big grid that is associated with fewer memory restrictions, and file operations.
Here in Part 2, I’ll briefly explain three more new features that I collectively dub Styling features:
Styling #4: Rich conditional formatting
For those who practice data visualization (dataViz), the rich conditional formatting surfaces some incredible new functionality. A handful of Excel gurus have been “visualizing data” in Excel for several years; Excel 2003 and prior version do have visualization functionality. But most users couldn’t suffer to actually use it, it was just too difficult. Excel 2007 succeeds in making visualization very accessible. If you have a dataset, “heat maps” (or color scales), data bars and icon sets are literally one-click away:
Styling #5: Smart tables
In previous versions of Excel, you could create a list from a range. In Excel 2007, the list morphs into a table. I didn’t really use lists, but tables in Excel 2007 are smart and fun. Auto-filters are automatically created in the header row (And if you scroll the header row out of the view, the header labels snap into, and replace, the regular column labels so you don’t lose your view of the header labels. Very clever.) The table is referenced like a range, so too the columns and rows. So performing math on the table is really simple (e.g., you can just “turn on” totals at the bottom) and sub totaling is more intuitive. Finally, like some other objects, you can format the table by selecting presets from among the “live preview” gallery.
Styling #6: Easier illustrations
I’m having the most fun with the illustrations: SmartArt, Shapes and pictures/clip art. Cumulatively, they allow you to inject artwork into your spreadsheet. SmartArt replaces the previous Diagrams; these are collections of shapes that communicate lists or processes or relationships. Shapes replaces the previous Auto-Shapes. There are more shapes, they are easier to access and there are a couple of formatting enhancements. My favorite is the ability (as shown below-right) to label a shape with a reference/link to a spreadsheet cell.
Comments
Be the first to leave a comment!
Leave a Comment