Excel Quick and Easy

CHAPTER 8Working with Tables

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Reviewing the parts of a table
• Adding a table to a worksheet
• Working with table data
• Changing how a table looks
• Working with table formulas

Tables provide a more structured way to organize, analyze, and format Excel data. This chapter discusses how to create a table, sort and filter table data, format a table, and work with table formulas.

Understanding a Table's Structure

A table is a specially designated area of a worksheet. When you designate a range as a table, Excel gives it special properties that make certain operations easier and that help prevent errors.

The purpose of a table is to enforce some structure around your data. If you're familiar with a table in a database (like Microsoft Access), then you already understand the concept of structured data. If not, don't worry. It's not difficult.

In a table, each row contains information about a single entity. In a table that holds employee information, each row will contain information about one employee (such as name, department, and hire date). Each column contains the same piece of information for each employee. The same column that holds the hire date for the first employee holds the hire date for all the other employees.

Figure 8.1 shows a simple table. The various components of a table are described in the following sections.

This workbook, named ...