While the error is quite generic and doesn’t tell you what the problem is, in most cases, this happens when you give a formula a data type that is not expected (explained with examples below). For example, if you have a few numbers that you’re adding in Excel, and you also try and add a text value in the same formula, Excel will give you an error. This is because Excel expects only numbers to be used in addition or subtraction....

Pareto Chart is based on the Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule), which is a well-known concept in project management. According to this principle, ~80% of the problems can be attributed to about ~20% of the issues (or ~80% of your results could be a direct outcome of ~20% of your efforts, and so on..). The 80/20 percentage value may vary, but the idea is that of all the issues/efforts, there a few that result in maximum impact....

You can also copy-paste formatting from one cell/range to the other. Or, you can choose to clear the formatting from cells that contain a specific value or a specific format. In this short Excel tutorial, I will show you how to quickly remove cell formatting in Excel (and some other cool things you can do). So let’s get started! Remove All Cell Formatting from the Entire worksheet This is something I do when I get the Excel workbook from a database download or a colleague....

In Excel. there are text functions that allow you to quickly change the case of the text (to lower case, upper case, or proper case). Below is an example of each type of case: Excel LOWER Function – Overview LOWER function is one of the many text function in Excel. What does it do? It takes a string as the input and converts all the upper case characters in that text string to lower case....

I have taken an editable map of the US. The idea is to highlight a state in the US when its name is selected from a drop down. Something as shown in the pic below: Now before I show you the code, here are a few prerequisites for this trick. Follow these simple steps while pasting this code Download the file from here and follow along

And if you don’t like these numbers/texts are too close to the cell border, you also have an option to indent the content of the cell. You can indent to the left or to the right in a cell. In this short Excel tutorial, I will show you how to indent In Excel. There is a button to do that right there in the ribbon, and you can also use a keyboard shortcut (if you are more comfortable with that)....

And one such common thing people often have to do is to remove the first characters from a string in Excel. Suppose you have a dataset as shown below (in column A) and you want to remove only the first characters from each cell and keep the rest of the text as is (resulting data shown in column B). There are multiple ways to do this in Excel… And in this tutorial, I will show you different ways to remove the first characters from a string in Excel....

If you don’t know how to do this already, you may scratch your head and look for options. Unfortunately, it’s not as straightforward as you want it to be. There is no key on the keyboard to do this, or any direct option to do this using a click of a button. Don’t worry! There are plenty of ways to insert or type a degree symbol in Excel. Inserting Degree Symbol in Excel In this tutorial, I will show you these easy ways to do it (including a keyboard shortcut)....

Sometimes, it’s easy to get rid of the extra flab and keep the excel file size in check, and sometimes, it isn’t. And since Excel is not a web-based tool, most of us work and collaborate by sending Excel files via email. And a large Excel file that weighs 50 MB can be hard to share with your colleagues/clients. In my last job, we used Lotus Notes email client, which is snail-slow, and sending heavy Excel files over that was torture....

This Call Center Performance Dashboard enables the user to analyze the performance on a weekly basis and track key call center metrics. Call Center Performance Dashboard Here’s a how the dashboard looks: Click here to download the Call Center Performance Dashboard Here are the metrics that you can track using this dashboard: Call center level data: This includes total call, average answer speed, abandon rate, average calls/minute, overall satisfaction score (chart), SLA limits....

This blog post has a downloadable file (at the end) that has an Excel Formula Crossword in it. Go ahead and test your formula knowledge. Since I am a nice guy, I did not put a timer in it. Solve it at your own pace, and I am sure you would also discover some cool excel features that I have used to create this. Have Fun!! Want to Prep: Refresh Excel Formula basics before jumping into the crossword?...

When it’s way past your work time, you think about that to-do list (stare at it if you have it written) and curse the world for not having enough time in the day. Sounds familiar? If you are nodding your heading in agreement, you – my friend, are suffering from an acute condition of expanding-to-do-list. Well, I am neither a brain doctor nor a self-help guru. I can not help you in overcoming procrastination and getting your work done....

For example, you can not (with 100% certainty) predict the temperature of the next 10 days or the stock price of a company in the coming week. There will always be a level of variability in the data. The final value could be a little higher or lower. If you have to represent this kind of data, you can use Error Bars in the Charts in Excel. What are Error Bars?...

Suppose you have a list as shown above (which has repetitions) and you want to get unique items as shown on the right. Here is a combination of INDEX, MATCH and COUNTIF formulas that can get this done: When there are no more unique items, the formula displays an error. To handle it, I have used the Excel IFERROR function to replace the error message with a blank. Since this is an array formula, use Control + Shift + Enter instead of Enter....

It’s widely used in the financial world and is considered a robust way to make accurate investment decisions. To give you an example, if you’re considering an investment plan, where you invest $100 every month for the next 10 years and get $20,000 at the end of 10 years, you can use the NPV method to find out whether this is a profitable investment decision or not. Don’t worry, things will get a lot clearer as I cover some examples later in the tutorial....

I asked him to use Power Query to combine different sheets, but then I realized that for someone new to Power Query, doing this can be tough. So I decided to write this tutorial and show the exact steps to combine multiple sheets into one single table using Power Query. Below a video where I show how to combine data from multiple sheets/tables using Power Query: Below are written instructions on how to combine multiple sheets (in case you prefer written text over video)....

Download Example File Watch Video – One-Variable Data Table in Excel Two Variable Data Table in Excel. Scenario Manager in Excel. Goal Seek in Excel. Excel Solver. One variable Data Table in Excel is most suited in situations when you want to see how the final result changes when you change one of the input variables. If you want to change two variables, use two variable data table, or Scenario Manager....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1bxByrpqKg For all those who think working with Excel is boring, here is your answer to them – Excel Camera Tool. Now, don’t get all excited. It’s is not about a fancy DSLR and lens. It’s just another feature with a cool name. To begin with, Excel Camera Tool is not even available by default in Excel QAT or Ribbon. You need to take a few steps to dig down into excel features and pull it out....

I often find it quite frustrating when Excel automatically creates a hyperlink as soon as I insert an email id or a URL in a cell and hit enter. Now, when I try to select a cell (or double-click on it to get into the edit mode), it automatically opens the link in a new browser window. Arghhh! In such cases, there is a need to remove these hyperlinks from the worksheet....

You can easily sort your data alphabetically, based on the value in the cells, or by cell and font color. You can also do multi-level column sorting (i.e., sorting by column A and then by column B) as well as sorting rows (from left to right). And if that was not enough, Excel also allows you to create your own custom lists and sort based on that too (how cool is that)....