Analyze custom views of your Excel data

by Mary Ann Richardson | Apr 27, 2005 12:42:00 AM

Tags: Sales strategy, Microsoft Office, Sales force management, Mary Ann Richardson, Microsoft Excel 2003, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office Suite Excel Tips Newsletter

Takeaway: If you want a quick analysis of your data, then see why you should utilize Excel 2003's List feature. You'll learn how you can create a simple report in less than a minute that will calculate the sales of a particular product.

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Microsoft Excel 2003's List feature provides you with a quick way of analyzing different views of your data. For example, suppose you have a worksheet that lists sales of three products over the last three months. You need to report on the total quarterly sales for one of those products, say Product A. After sorting the data by Product, select only the rows that pertain to Product A. Then, follow these steps:

1. Go to Data | List and choose Create List.
2. Click Toggle Total Row in the List toolbar.

A new row is appended to the list of data for Product A. You'll notice that the cells in the Total row display drop-down list arrows. To prepare your summary report for Product A, simply click on the drop- down arrow in the Sales column and select Sum.