Essential Excel Techniques

1. Powerful Functions

VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP: Used to search for a value in one column and return a corresponding value from another column. Essential for merging data from different tables.

PivotTables: The best tool for summarizing, analyzing, and presenting large datasets. You can create reports and find trends in seconds.

IF Statements: Logic functions like `=IF(A1>10, "Yes", "No")` allow for dynamic data categorization.

2. Chart Visualizations

Visuals are key to data storytelling. I focused on creating:

• Combo Charts: Combining columns and lines to show different data types (e.g., revenue in bars and profit margin as a line).
• Conditional Formatting in Charts: Making charts dynamic by using formulas to change series colors based on thresholds.

3. Data Import & Cleaning

Using Power Query (Get & Transform) to import data from text files, websites, or databases. This tool allows you to clean data (remove duplicates, split columns, change data types) before it even loads into your worksheet.