END USER COMPUTING.

 
BICT 1101
Lecture 3: Spreadsheets ( Conditional Formatting, Importing Data, Append Data, Data Integrity, Sorting

Data and Filtering Data )

APPLYING CONDITIONAL FORMATTING TO CELLS

 In Excel conditional formatting feature enables you to apply formatting

according to rules.
 You can apply a single rule or multiple rules, and you can use the preset rules
provided by Excel or customize them for your particular needs.
 Excel Rules Manager gives you even greater control over rules by enabling
you to set the order of multiple rules, fine-tune rule settings, and more.
Applying a Specific Conditional Format
 To apply a specific conditional format, we use the Conditional Formatting
menu in the Styles group on the Home tab and then select one of the many
options provided.
APPLYING CONDITIONAL FORMATTING TO
CELLS
STEP BY STEP Apply a Specific Conditional Format
 1. OPEN the Conditional Formatting data1 file Patient Visits.
 2. Select D4:O8.
 3. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Conditional
Formatting, and then select Highlight Cells Rules > Greater
Than. The Greater Than dialog box appears.
 4. In the Format cells that are GREATER THAN box, type
600.
 5. Leave the default fill color. Click OK.
APPLYING CONDITIONAL FORMATTING TO
CELLS
 Cells that contain a value greater than 600 are formatted
with a light red background color and a dark red text
color.
 This data represents the months in which the
physicians were seeing more than the ideal number of
patients.
 6. SAVE the workbook.
 Conditional formatting feature is used to specify how cells that
meet a given condition should be displayed.
APPLYING CONDITIONAL FORMATTING TO
CELLS
 With conditional formatting Excel applies formatting
automatically, based on established criteria.
 When you analyze data, questions that would often be asked
include:
 Who are the highest performing students in the grade book?
 Which sales representatives exceeded their sales goals and in
which periods?
 In what months were sales highest or lowest?
 Conditional formatting helps answer such questions by
highlighting relevant cells or ranges of cells. You can even
establish multiple conditional formatting rules for a data range.
APPLYING CONDITIONAL FORMATTING TO
CELLS
Using the Rules Manager to Apply Conditional Formats
 Excel’s Rules Manager enables you to choose from preset specific
conditional formats that provide a visual analysis of a worksheet
or selected range of data.
 You can apply a single rule or multiple rules, and you can modify
preset rules to display formats the way you like.
STEP BY STEP Use the Rules Manager to Apply Conditional
Formats
 1. Select D4:O8.
APPLYING CONDITIONAL FORMATTING TO
CELLS
 2. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, open the Conditional
Formatting menu and select Clear Rules > Clear Rules from
Selected Cells.
 3. Open the Conditional Formatting menu again and select
Manage Rules. The Conditional Formatting Rules Manager
dialog box appears.
 4. Click the New Rule button. In the New Formatting Rule
dialog box, select Format only top or bottom ranked values.
The dialog box changes.
APPLYING CONDITIONAL FORMATTING TO
CELLS
 5. In the Edit the Rule Description section, click the % of the
selected range check box.
 6. Click the Format button. The Format Cells dialog box
opens.
 7. Click the Fill tab, and then select the light red (pink) color
box, the sixth color in the third row. Click OK twice.
 8. In the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager dialog box,
click the New Rule button.
 9. In the New Formatting Rule dialog box, select Format only
top or bottom ranked values.
APPLYING CONDITIONAL FORMATTING TO CELLS
 10. In the Edit the Rule Description section, in the first drop-
down list on the left, select Bottom, and then click the % of
the selected range check box.
 11. Click the Format button.
 12. In the Format Cells dialog box, click the light yellow
background color on the third row of the Fill tab, and then
click OK twice.
 13. Click OK. The Rules Manager applies the rules to the
selected cells.
 This view enables you to see the top 10 percent and bottom
10 percent values in the range.
APPLYING CONDITIONAL FORMATTING TO CELLS
 14. SAVE the workbook.
 Excel Rules Manager enables you to create, modify, apply,
remove, and manage conditional formatting, including multiple
criteria.
 In addition, you can display the Rules Manager to see what rules
are in effect for the worksheet and apply those rules at an
appropriate time.
 From the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager dialog box,
you can add new rules, edit existing rules, or delete one or all of
the rules.
APPLYING CONDITIONAL FORMATTING TO CELLS
 Rules are applied in the order in which they are listed in the Rules
Manager.
 You can apply all the rules, or you can apply specific rules to
analyze the data.
 Formatting is visible when the Conditional Formatting Rules
Manager dialog box is open. Thus, you can experiment with the
formats you want to apply and the order in which they are applied.
IMPORTING DATA

 You can use data that already exists in another file in a workbook
instead of typing it manually.
 If the data you need for a workbook is from a source outside of
Excel, then Excel needs to be able to import that data in such a
way that it can make sense of where cell entries begin and end and
where records begin and end.
 Even simple text files, such as .TXT or CSV files, where values
are separated (delimited) by commas can be imported, because
commas act like fence posts, and Excel recognizes fence posts.
IMPORTING DATA
Opening Non-Native Files Directly in Excel
 Excel has two main data formats:
 One whose files end with .XLS extension,
 One whose files end with .XLSX extension, it is XML-based
 Many programs now publish data to a format that Excel accepts.
 Excel can import data provided in XML format, in this case, there’s no
guarantee that the columns will all be aligned properly or that the headings
will be in the place Excel expects them to be for a table.
 .TXT or .CSV file, use certain characters, such as commas and quotation
marks, as delimiters—characters that separate data entries from one
another—and that Excel will not interpret as part of a cell entry.
IMPORTING DATA
STEP BY STEP Open a Non-Native File Directly in Excel
 LAUNCH Microsoft Excel and OPEN a blank workbook.
 1. Click the Data tab, and then in the Get External Data
group, click From Text.
 2. In the Import Text File dialog box, locate and click
Importing Data2.csv. Click Import.
 3. In Step 1 of the Text Import Wizard, notice the preview at
the bottom.
IMPORTING DATA
 This is Excel’s best guess, for the moment, as to how the
data should be formatted.
 There are population figures rendered in “quotation
marks” with commas between each figure.
 Each comma acts as the delimiter, and it’s difficult to
judge whether each figure between the commas will be
the same length.
 Under Choose the file type that best describes your data,
choose Delimited and then select My data has headers.
IMPORTING DATA
 4. The preview shows the headers starting on row 3. Thus, for
the Set import at row option, choose 3. Click Next.
 5. In Step 2 of the wizard uncheck Tab because the preview
does not indicate long spaces between the figures. Check
Comma. Set Text qualifier to “ (quotation mark).
 Scroll down the Data preview pane, and notice now that
Excel has found the column separations between figures.
Click Next.
IMPORTING DATA
 6. Step 3 of the wizard lets you establish the data type for each
discovered column. Click the first column in the Data preview
pane. Then, under Column data format, click Date. Click
Finish.
 7. In the Import Data dialog box that appears next, leave
Where do you want to put the data? set to Existing worksheet.
Click OK.
IMPORTING DATA
 8. Change the width of column A to 16.
 9. The worksheet that Excel has generated, shows United
States population estimates for each month from April 2010
to December 2012.
 Excel could not make sense of the dates in column A, so it
left the data type set to General for most of the cells.
 However, it did make an error in attempting to convert the
year in cell A25.
IMPORTING DATA
 To correct it, begin by selecting and deleting rows 2, 12,
and 25 (be sure to select all three rows at the same time
before deleting them).
 10. Click cell A2, type April 2010, and then press Enter.
 11. Drag the fill handle from cell A2 down to cell A34. Excel
changes the entries in column A to proper months.
 12. Delete rows 35 through 40.
 13. SAVE the workbook.
IMPORTING DATA
Getting External Data
 In computing, there are databases and data files. Databases are
stored in files.
 A data file stores a series of records in a relatively simple format,
and Excel is a program that uses data files in this manner.
 A database is a complex system that can store a large amount of
related data, which requires a program to be able to assess and
extract that data.
IMPORTING DATA
 When Excel imports data from a database as opposed to a data
file (as in the previous exercise), it begins a communication
process with that database program, and instructs it to process
the data it requires.
 In the following exercise, we will use a file from Microsoft Access.
STEP BY STEP Get External Data
 LAUNCH Excel and open a blank workbook.
 1. Click the Data tab, and then in the Get External Data group,
click From Access.
IMPORTING DATA
 2. In the Select Data Source dialog box, locate Importing Data
Contacts3.accdb database file.
 Select it and click Open.
 3. In the Select Table dialog box, click Customers (the table we want
to import) and then click OK.
 4. In the Import Data dialog box, click Table. Under Where do you
want to put the data, click Existing Worksheet and ensure the text
box reads =!$A$1.
 5. Click OK.
 Excel displays a formatted table, complete with AutoFilter
buttons in the column headers.
IMPORTING DATA
Appending Data to a Worksheet
 After you import data from another format or database into a
worksheet, you’ll probably spend a good deal of time reconciling
that data with existing records. In the previous two exercises, you
imported data into blank worksheets. In most situations, however,
you’ll import data from other sources into an existing worksheet.
IMPORTING DATA
STEP BY STEP Append Data to a Worksheet
 OPEN the Append Data4.xls workbook.
 1. Click cell A21.
 2. Click the Data tab, and then in the Get External Data group,
click From Other Sources and then click From XML Data Import.
 3. In the Select Data Source dialog box, locate and select the
Append Data Import5.xml data file.
 Click Open. A dialog box named Error In XML might appear at this
point. If so, click OK to dismiss the dialog box and proceed.
IMPORTING DATA
 4. In the Import Data dialog box, click Existing worksheet and
then click OK. Although a list of customers is appended to the
end of the worksheet, the columns don’t line up. This is
typical of appended data.
 5. To correct the problem, begin by moving the first names
from cell range E23:E75 to B23:B75. Overwrite the existing
contents in column B.
 6. Move the last names from cell range H23:H75 to A23:A75.
Overwrite the existing contents in column A.
IMPORTING DATA
 7. Repeat the process for the states in column J that should be
in column E,
 the ZIP codes in column K that should be in column F, and the
phone numbers in column I that should be in column G.
 8. Delete columns H through L.
 9. Delete rows 21 and 22.
 10. Replace all 11 instances of Dell City in column D with Del
City.
 11. Adjust the column widths to fit the data.
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING DATA
TYPES)

 When typing in Excel validation helps to ensure that data gets

entered correctly, before it gets processed incorrectly.
 Excel’s data validation tools can help you set up rules that keep
users from entering invalid or unusable data, or from failing to
enter data when it’s required.
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY
(CHANGING DATA TYPES)

Restricting Cell Entries to Certain Data Types

 Most telephone country codes has three digits. You can set up a
rule in Excel that pings the user whenever he types a two- or
four-digit code by mistake.
 The user may then respond by dismissing the message and
starting over, or cancelling the entry altogether if the user didn’t
mean to type anything into this cell in the first place
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING
DATA TYPES)

STEP BY STEP Restrict Cell Entries to Certain Data Types

 OPEN the Data Integrity6 workbook file.
 1. Freeze rows 1 through 4 in both worksheets in the
workbook.
 2. In the Client List worksheet, select column L (Area Code).
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING DATA TYPES)

 3. Click the Data tab, and then in the Data Tools group, click
Data Validation. The Data Validation dialog box opens.
 4. Click the Settings tab.
 5. In the Allow list box, choose Text length.
 This is the first step in the creation of a rule governing how
many characters each new entry should contain.
 6. In the Data list box, choose equal to.
 7. Click the Length box and type 3.
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING DATA
TYPES)
 8. Click the Input Message tab.
 This tab displays a message when you select a cell in the
validation range.
 9. Click the Title box and type Rule:.
 10. Click the Input message box and type Please enter a three-
digit area code.
 11. Click the Error Alert tab.
 Excel can display an error alert message when a user
attempts to enter data that is invalid.
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING DATA TYPES)

 12. Click the Title box and type Data Entry Error.
 13. Click the Error message box and type Only three-digit
area codes are recognized.
 This message is displayed in a dialog box whenever an
invalid entry is made in column L.
 14. Click OK.
 15. To test the new validation rule, click cell L57.
 You should see the notification message you typed into the
Input Message tab.
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING
DATA TYPES)

 16. Type 40 and then press Enter.

 Excel displays an alert dialog box with the message you created.
 17. Click Cancel. The partial entry in cell L57 is erased.
 SAVE the workbook.
 Note: Excel’s validation rules pertain only to new data that is
entered into the workbook, not to data that existed in the workbook
prior to creating the rules.
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING DATA
TYPES)
Allowing Only Specific Values to Be Entered in Cells
 In data entry, it’s easy for someone to slip and enter an invalid
character. You can preempt events like this by building a rule
that restricts entry to a handful of valid characters.
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING
DATA TYPES)

STEP BY STEP Allow Only Specific Values to Be Entered in Cells

 1. Click the Patient List tab.
 2. Select column D.
 3. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Data
Validation.
 4. In the Data Validation dialog box, click the Settings tab.
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING
DATA TYPES)
 5. In the Allow list box, choose List. The Source box appears at the
bottom of the dialog box.
 6. Click the Source box. Type M,F,N (being careful to include the
commas).
 7. Uncheck the Ignore blank box.
 8. Click the Input Message tab. Click in the Input message box and type
Male, Female, or Neutered.
 9. Click OK.
 Now anyone entering a new patient into the database must specify the
animal’s gender from a drop-down list in the cell.
 10. Select column E (Owner #).
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING
DATA TYPES)

 11. In the Data Tools group, click Data Validation.

 12. Click the Settings tab. In the Allow list box, click List.
 13. On the right side of the Source box, click the Collapse
Dialog button.
 14. With the Data Validation dialog box collapsed, click the
Client List worksheet tab.
 15. Select column A (Client #).
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING
DATA TYPES)
 16. At the end of the Source box, click the Expand Dialog button.
The full dialog box returns, and the Source box should now read
=’Client list’!$A:$A.
 17. Unselect the Ignore blank and In-cell dropdown boxes.
 18. Click the Error Alert tab. Choose Warning from the Style
box.
 19. In the Error message box, type Owner must be the number
for a pre-existing client.
 20. Click OK. Now the Owner # column may contain only
numbers for clients who appear in the Client # column of the
Client List worksheet.
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING
DATA TYPES)
 21. To make sure your new validation rules are working, in the
Patient List worksheet, at the bottom of the list, click cell A57
and attempt to type the following data: Murdock Dog
Rottweiler B 61
 22. After you attempt to enter B into column D, respond to the
error dialog box by clicking Retry and by typing M.
 23. After you attempt to enter 61 into column E, respond to
the error dialog box by clicking No and typing 31.
 SAVE
ENSURING YOUR DATA’S INTEGRITY (CHANGING
DATA TYPES)
 It is still possible for an invalid value to remain in a worksheet
after the user has been warned that it’s invalid.
 For example, in the previous step if you were to click Yes
instead of No, the value 61 would remain in column E, even
though there is no client numbered 61 in column A of the
Client List worksheet.
 Possibly, this way you can purposefully enter a new canine(dog)
patient into the list without an owner, if you intend to add the
owner’s information later
SORTING DATA

 Sorting a data range in Excel helps you to locate the precise data
you need.
 For example, you might want to sort customers in a table by their
last name rather than a random customer number you won’t
remember.
 When you enter a new customer, you might find it easier to enter
the name at the bottom of the list and then resort the table
alphabetically.
 This way, you don’t have to manually insert a blank row in the
middle of the worksheet, at the appropriate alphabetical
location.
SORTING DATA
Sorting Data on a Single Criterion
 A Criteria or Criterion is an element used in executing a function.
 For instance, a telephone directory is sorted by phone owners’
last names.
 The last name is one criterion of the sort. Because many people
share the same last name, lists of students can then be sorted by
their first names, and then by their middle initials when they’re used.
 This leads to two different criteria for such a sort. When individuals
in a database are indexed by number, however, and that number is
guaranteed to be unique, it forms a single criterion for a common
sort operation.
SORTING DATA
STEP BY STEP Sort Data on a Single Criterion
 1. Use the current workbook Data Integrity6.
 2. In the Patient List worksheet, click cell E5.
 Note this is the first cell in the Owner # column and its
entries are all numerical.
 3. On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click the Sort
Smallest to Largest button (with A on top of Z, and an arrow
pointing down). The list is now sorted in ascending numerical
order by Order #, which was the column you clicked in before
performing the sort.
SORTING DATA
 4. Click cell A5.
 5. Click the Sort A to Z button. This time, the list is sorted by
Patient Name, and again, the first column you clicked in before
performing the sort. Murdock the Rottweiler, which we previously
added to row 57, now appears in row 44. SAVE the workbook.
 If your sort is based on a single column in an Excel table, you can
select the entire table range or any cell in the column you want to sort.
 Be careful not to select only a portion of the table (such as a single
column) before sorting, or Excel will sort just the selected data and
the rest of the data will remain intact, resulting in mismatched
records.
 Excel warns you before performing this type of sort.
SORTING DATA
Sorting Data on Multiple Criteria
 A proper database containing records of people divides each element
of their names into, at the very least, last names and first names, and
might also include optional elements such as middle initials.
 For this reason, any time you sort a database, range, or table by names,
you want to sort by multiple criteria.
STEP BY STEP Sort Data on Multiple Criteria
 1. Click the Client List worksheet tab.
 2. Select the range A4:N56.
 3. Name the range Clients.
SORTING DATA
 4. On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Sort.
 The Sort dialog box appears.
 5. In the Sort by box, under Column, choose Last Name.
 6. Click Add Level.
 7. In the Then by box that appears, choose First Name.
 8. Click Add Level.
 9. In the next Then by box, choose MI (middle initial).
SORTING DATA
 10. Click Add Level again.
 11. In the next Then by box, choose Suffix.
 12. Leave My data has headers checked, so that Excel won’t
treat the headers row as part of the range to sort.
 13. Click OK. The clients list is now sorted alphabetically,
with people sharing the same last name sorted alphabetically
by first name.
 Although the client numbers appear all out of sort, the data is
unchanged and the database itself retains its full integrity.
 SAVE the workbook.
SORTING DATA
Sorting Data Using Cell Attributes
 Excel is capable of sorting records based on the conditional
formatting that is applied to its cells.
 Excel can sort and group those records whose cells have these
special formats applied to them.
SORTING DATA
STEP BY STEP Sort Data Using Cell Attributes
 1. On the Patient List worksheet, which should still be sorted in
ascending order on column A, select column E.
 2. Right-click the column and then click Insert in the shortcut
menu.
 3. With column E selected, on the Data tab, in the Data Tools
group, click Data Validation.
 4. In the Data Validation dialog box, click Clear All. Click OK.
 When creating a new column to the right of one with a data
validation rule, the new column acquires that same rule even if it’s
intended for a different purpose.
SORTING DATA
 To clear this rule, select the new column, bring up the Data
Validation dialog box, and then click Clear All as we have just
done in step 4.
 5. Click cell E4 and type Spayed/Neutered. Change the width
of column E to 17.
 6. In column E, type S for the following row numbers: 6, 15,
19, 21, 22, 25, 34, 37, 46, 50, and 56.
 7. In column E, type N for the following row numbers: 5, 7, 8,
9, 10, 13, 16, 17, 20, 24, 27, 30, 31, 32, 36, 40, 41, 43, 47, 48,
52, 54, and 57.
 8. Select column E.
SORTING DATA
 9. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, click Data
Validation.
 10. In the Data Validation dialog box, click the Settings tab.
Under Allow, choose List.
 11. In the Source box, type N,S.
 12. Click the Input Message tab. In the Input message box,
type S = Spayed, N = Neutered. Click OK.
 13. Select the range E5:E100. Click the Home tab, and then in
the Styles group, click Conditional Formatting. Click New
Rule.
SORTING DATA
 14. In the New Formatting Rule dialog box, choose Format
only cells that contain in the Select a Rule Type list.
 15. In the list box, under Format only cells with, choose No
Blanks.
 16. Click Format.
 17. In the Format Cells dialog box, click the Fill tab. Choose
the sixth color swatch from the left in the third row. Click
OK.
 18. Click OK. Now both spayed and neutered animals should
appear shaded.
SORTING DATA
 19. Select the range A4:F57. Name the range Patients.
 20. in the Sort & Filter group, click Sort.
 21. In the Sort dialog box, in the Sort by, choose
Spayed/Neutered.
 22. In the Sort On, choose Cell Color.
 23. Click the down arrow next to No Cell Color. The list box
that appears shows only those colors that are actually in use for
conditional formatting—in this case, only one swatch. Click
the color swatch.
SORTING DATA
 24. Click OK. The sorted worksheet should now appear.
 All the “N” and “S” animals are grouped together at the
top, with the two types mingling among each other.
 All the non-operated-on animals are bunched toward the
bottom.
FILTERING DATA

Using AutoFilter
 An AutoFilter is the quickest means for you to find values.
 With AutoFilter only rows or columns that meet simple criteria
(for example, just the students from a particular city, or students
who have joined a particular association/club can be displayed.
 With filtering you can control both what you want to see and also
what you want to exclude
 It converts the headings row of your table into a set of controls, which
you then use to choose your criteria and the select the data you want to
see.
FILTERING DATA
STEP BY STEP Use AutoFilter
 1. Click the Client List worksheet tab. In the Name box, type
Clients and then press Enter.
 Excel highlights the data range for the Clients table.
 2. On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Filter.
 Excel adds down arrow buttons to the field names in all of
the columns in the list. Scroll up and click cell A5 to
deselect the range.
FILTERING DATA
 3. Click the down arrow beside the Client # heading in
column A. Excel displays the AutoFilter menu.
 4. To sort the table by client number, click Sort Smallest to
Largest.
 This gives you a shortcut for sorting.
 5. To show just the clients with addresses in Ohio, click the
down arrow beside State. In the AutoFilter menu that
appears, uncheck the (Select All) box to clear all check boxes
and then check OH. Click OK.
 SAVE the workbook.
FILTERING DATA
 When an AutoFilter is active, so that you see filtered results
rather than the complete table, Excel applies special notation to
the AutoFilter buttons and to the row numbers.
 E.g. the button for the column used in the sort now contains an
up arrow, whereas the button for the column used in the filter
contains a funnel symbol.
 Also, notice the row numbers are colored blue and are not
consecutive. If you look closely, you’ll see that where
nonmatching rows are hidden, Excel puts a double-border
between the numbers. For instance, between rows 17 and 20 and
between 46 and 54.
FILTERING DATA
Creating a Custom AutoFilter
 A custom AutoFilter uses a rule that you create, instructing
Excel how to evaluate the entries in each row.
 The result of that evaluation determines whether rows are displayed or
filtered out. With a simple AutoFilter, Excel looks for contents based on
actual samples from the column.
 For example, with the previous task, Ohio (OH) and Indiana (IN) were
choices because both were featured in the State column; no other states
were listed.
FILTERING DATA
 By contrast, with a custom AutoFilter, you can create a rule instructing
the worksheet to display only records whose values in one given column
are above or below a certain amount.
 Essentially, your rule tells Excel to compare each value in the
column against something else. Whether that value is displayed
depends on the terms of the comparison—is it equal? Higher?
Lower? Is it among the ten highest or lowest?
FILTERING DATA
STEP BY STEP Create a Custom AutoFilter
 1. Switch to the Patient List worksheet, and insert a new
column between the existing columns D and E.
 2. Clear the validation rules from the new column E.
 3. Add the title Hepatitis Inoculation to cell E4 and widen the
column as necessary to display the heading on two lines.
FILTERING DATA
 4. Type the following dates into the cells shown:
E8 01/18/2016
E11 08/16/2015
E13 05/15/2016
E18 03/01/2013
E22 10/19/2014
E26 07/05/2016
E32 02/02/2015
E37 08/15/2016
E38 07/14/2015
E43 09/01/2016
FILTERING DATA
 5. Select the Patients data range. The range should
automatically include the new column.
 6. On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click
Filter.
 7. Click the down arrow beside Hepatitis Inoculation. In
the menu, point to Text/Date Filters and then click
Custom Filter. The Custom AutoFilter dialog box opens.
 8. In the first list box just below Hepatitis Inoculation,
choose is before. In the box to the right, type 1/1/2016.
 9. Click the Or button between the two rows of list boxes.
FILTERING DATA
 10. In the second list box below Or, choose equals. Leave the list
box blank (literally meaning “blank” or “nothing”).
 11. Click OK.
 After the dialog box disappears, Excel filters out all entries in
the patient list where the patient is known to have had a
hepatitis inoculation in 2016 or later.
 What remains are both the animals known to have been
inoculated in 2015 or earlier, or whose inoculation dates are
not known.
 12. Click the filter button beside Hepatitis Inoculation again. In
the menu, point to Text/Date Filters and then click Custom Filter.
FILTERING DATA
 13. In the second list box that currently reads equals, choose the
blank entry at the top of the list. The box should now be
empty.
 14. Click OK. The list should now show only the two/five
animals known to have been inoculated in 2015 or earlier.
 15. Click the filter button beside Hepatitis Inoculation again.
In the menu, choose Clear Filter from “Hepatitis
Inoculation”. SAVE the workbook.
FILTERING DATA
 When conditional formatting is applied to a column of cells, that
formatting is something that Excel can recognize when filtering
data.
 We can say that the formatting is the value to be looked for during
the filtering.
 So you can easily have a filter “hide rows where cells in a column
don’t have a particular format”, such as a shaded background or
a font color.
FILTERING DATA
STEP BY STEP Filter Data Using Cell Attributes
 1. In the Patient List worksheet, click the Spayed/Neutered
button down arrow.
 2. In the menu, click Filter by Color.
 3. In the popup menu, choose the pink swatch. Excel now
shows only those animals that have been spayed or neutered.
 SAVE the workbook.