Chapter 03

MS Excel 2010 – Advance Features

Cell reference in MS Excel 2010

A cell reference, or cell address, is an alphanumeric value used to identify a

specific cell in a spreadsheet.
There are three types of cell references.

01. Relative references

• When moved or copied across multiple cells, relative references change based
on the relative position of rows and columns.
• So, if you want to repeat the same calculation across several columns or rows,
you need to use relative cell references.
Example - if you copy the formula =A1+B1 from row 1 to row 2, the formula
will become =A2+B2.
Relative references are especially convenient whenever you need to repeat
the same calculation across multiple rows or columns.

02. Absolute references

There may be times when you do not want a cell reference to change when
copying or filling cells. You can use an absolute reference to keep a row and/or
column constant in the formula.

An absolute reference is designated in the formula by the addition of a dollar sign

($). It can precede the column reference, the row reference, or both.

You will most likely use the $A$2 format when creating formulas that contain
absolute references. The other two formats are used much less often.
03. Mixed cell reference

A mixed reference contains one relative and one absolute coordinate, like
$A1 or A$1.

• There may be many situations when only one coordinate, column

or row, should be fixed.
• For example, to multiply a column of numbers (column A) by 3
different numbers (B2, C2 and D2), you put the following formula
in B3, and then copy it down and to the right:

=$A3*B$2

• In $A3, you lock the column coordinate because the formula

should always multiply the original numbers in column A. The row
coordinate is relative since it needs to change for other rows.
• In B$2, you lock the row coordinate to tell Excel always to pick the
multiplier in row 2. The column coordinate is relative because the
multipliers are in 3 different columns and the formula should
adjust accordingly.

Sorting data in MS Excel 2010

You can sort data by text (A to Z or Z to A), numbers (smallest to largest or largest
to smallest), and dates and times (oldest to newest and newest to oldest) in one or
more columns.
There are two types of sorting
- Ascending order (A to Z)
- Descending order (Z to A)

You can sort your Excel data on one column or multiple columns. You can sort in
ascending or descending order.

One Column

To sort on one column, execute the following steps.

1. Click any cell in the column you want to sort.

2. To sort in ascending order, on the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click
AZ.
Multiple Columns

To sort on multiple columns, execute the following steps.

1. On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Sort.
2. Select Last Name from the 'Sort by' drop-down list.
3. Click on Add Level.

4. Select Sales from the 'Then by' drop-down list.

5. Click OK.

Custom List

In the example below, we would like to sort by Priority (High, Normal, Low). To sort
by a custom list in Excel, execute the following steps.

1. Click any cell inside the data set.

2. On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Sort.
3. The Sort dialog box appears.

4. Select Priority from the 'Sort by' drop-down list.

5. Select Custom List from the 'Order' drop-down list.

6. The Custom Lists dialog box appears.

7. Type the list entries.

8. Click OK.

Filtering data in MS Excel 2010

Filtering data in MS Excel refers to displaying only the rows that meet certain
conditions. (The other rows get hidden.)
There are two types of filters,

1. Filter – when u apply filter Gray colour filter switches appear to the right
column of heading.

2. Advance filter – it helps to filter the list based on specific criteria.

Filtering data

Begin with a worksheet that identifies each column using a header row.

1. Select the Data tab, then locate the Sort & Filter group.

2. Click the Filter command.

3. Drop-down arrows will appear in the header of each column.

4. Click the drop-down arrow for the column you want to filter.

5. The Filter menu appears.

6. Uncheck the boxes next to the data you don't want to view, or
uncheck the box next to Select All to quickly uncheck all.

7. Check the boxes next to the data you do want to view.

8. Click OK.

Removing filter

1. Click the drop-down arrow in the column from which you want to
clear the filter.
2. Choose Clear Filter From.
3. The filter will be cleared from the column. The data that was
previously hidden will be on display once again.

Conditional formatting in MS Excel 2010

Conditional formatting in Excel enables you to highlight cells with a certain
colour, depending on the cell's value.

Apply conditional formatting

1. Select the cells you want to add formatting to.

2. In the Home tab,
3. click the Conditional Formatting command. A drop-down menu will
appear.
4. Select Highlight Cells Rules or Top/Bottom Rules. We'll choose
Highlight Cells Rules for this example. A menu will appear with
several rules.
5. Select the desired rule (Greater Than, for example).
6. From the dialog box, enter a value in the space provided
7. The formatting will be applied to the selected cells.
Clearing conditional formatting

1. Select the cells that have conditional formatting.

2. In the Home tab,

3. click the Conditional Formatting command.

4. A drop-down menu will appear.

5. Select Clear Rules.

6. A menu will appear. You can choose to clear rules from the,

- Selected Cells, Entire Sheet, This Table, or This PivotTable.

Charts in MS Excel 2010

A chart is a graphical representation of information.

There are different types of chart that can be created in Excel.

Draw the table 3.1 (chart types and their usage)

Creating charts

1. Select the cells you want to chart, including the column titles and row
labels. These cells will be the source data for the chart.
2. Click the Insert tab.
3. In the Charts group, select the desired chart category (Column, for
example).
4. Select the desired chart type from the drop-down menu (Clustered
Column, for example).
5. The chart will appear in the worksheet.

Chart tools

Once you insert a chart, a set of chart tools arranged into three tabs will appear
on the Ribbon. These are only visible when the chart is selected. You can use these
three tabs to modify your chart.

Change chart type

1. From the Design tab, click the Change Chart Type command. A
dialog box appears.
2. Select the desired chart type, then click OK.