Excel 2000 in a Nutshell

Name

Data → Group and Outline

Synopsis

If you have ever written a report you are probably very familiar with the concept of creating an outline. An outline typically lists all the headings and subheadings for a document. This is a feature that is commonly used within word processing packages, such as Microsoft Word.

Excel also provides this feature by allowing you to group common information in sections and then expanding and collapsing each section as needed. These features are accomplished using the submenu options of Data → Group and Outline.

With these features you can either manually create your outline by selecting the columns or rows in each selection and then selecting Data → Group and Outline → Group or you can let Excel automatically create the outline using Data → Group and Outline → Auto Outline.

Use of a Predefined Consolidation Name

If you name the consolidation range Consolidate_Area, you don’t need to select the range each time you want to update or modify the consolidation. Consolidate_Area is a predefined name within Excel used to reference a consolidated area within a workbook. Although, if you have multiple consolidations within the same workbook, you will only be able to name one of them.

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When you create an outline, Excel creates various outline levels that can be expanded and collapsed. The various levels are indicated with the numbers on the left side of the window (1, 2, 3, etc.). You can collapse and expand each of the levels by clicking on ...