Zack and Kevin met for the first time at a Microsoft MVP Summit in 2006. With their mutual respect for each other’s skills and talents in place after watching each other post solutions on Experts Exchange, they became friends and eventually started working on projects together. About a year ago Zack approached Kevin with the idea of writing a book about Excel Tables. Kevin, having assisted with the writing of another book with Bill Jelen, Tom Urtis, and Tyler Nash, was eager to work on another, especially with his buddy Zack. Both had been using Tables for a while on various projects and felt that their value was understated and underappreciated. Thus began their journey to bring the simplistic and easy beauty and function of Excel Tables to the rest of us as well as the Excel pros.
Kevin is all about elegance and simplicity. Having worked for all kinds of big and small companies in several different industries, he knows the value of good spreadsheet design. Once he was hooked on the benefit Tables provided, he never wanted to go back. Zack, has always looked for the most efficient method to getting data to just work and look good while doing it. Together they saw a void in the availability of educational material illustrating the power, depth, and value of Excel Tables.
In 2009, Zack was hired by Microsoft to build many of those fancy templates that you see when you click File, New in Excel 2010 and 2013. He was directed by Microsoft to use Tables in each template. So he found himself using Tables a lot over the course of working with hundreds of templates. What he quickly discovered is that Tables really rock! They are brilliant, dynamic, and easy to create and manage.
Why is this book worth it? This book has all the fundamentals for working with Tables effectively and efficiently. Get more work done faster, more efficiently, and have your data looking better than ever before. It’s said that less than 1% of all Excel users actually utilize Tables. We’ve found them to be amazing work horses and have shared that knowledge in this book. Make all your work look like it was implemented by a pro: dominate Excel Tables like a boss! Everyone who picks up this book will learn something, whether you’re a beginner in Excel or a seasoned guru. Wherever you stand on the Excel learning curve, this book has something for you!
Here are seven reasons why you will love tables:
For all the good that tables bring, they also have some major annoyances that will bite you if you are not careful. Here are five major gotchas to watch out for:
1. If you stack one table above one another, the lower table has to be within the same columns or narrower than the first. For details, see Table Behavior in Chapter 2.
2. Entering duplicate column header names will automatically change headers without warning. For more on column header names, see section Table Anatomy in Chapter 2.
3. Using absolute standard cell referencing in a Table won’t update formulas properly. For more on absolute cell referencing, see section Calculating a Running Total in Chapter 4.
4. Sorting a Table on a protected sheet doesn’t always work. For more on sorting a protected Table, see section Sorting in Chapter 6.
5. Converting imported data from a text file into a Table breaks the connection. For more on imported text data, see Working with Data from Text Files in Chapter 8.