Welcome back to our ongoing series on Dr. Wayne Winston's invaluable Excel tips! I am Wayne Winston, your trusted guide through the realm of Microsoft Excel. In today's session, we will delve into a groundbreaking Excel feature that can significantly enhance your everyday accounting tasks. Whether you are charting the financial landscape or exploring personal interests, Excel's New Data Types can make your data analysis journey smoother and more insightful.
Residing in Bloomington, Indiana, alongside the legendary John Cougar Mellencamp, I often find myself curious about my surroundings. Imagine if I could effortlessly download detailed information about my small town directly into Excel. Similarly, if you are a music enthusiast like me, craving insights into Adele's discography, the prospect of manually searching the internet for album details may seem daunting. Fear not, as the New Data Types feature in the latest version of Office 365 simplifies this process, enabling you to download a plethora of information seamlessly into Excel.
Unveiling the New Data Types
To check if you have access to the New Data Types, navigate to the Data tab's Data Types group. If you spot the list of data types showcased in Figure 1, congratulations, you have the latest data types at your disposal.
Figure 1: New Data Types
[Image: New data types in Microsoft Excel]
A brief overview of these data types is presented in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Description of New Data Types
[Image: Description of New Data Types]
Before exploring these new features, it's essential to make Excel recognize the appropriate data type. In the downloadable Excel workbook accompanying this article, we have compiled examples of the available information. To initiate recognition, select the desired items, then choose "Automatic" from the Data Types group. Excel will attempt to identify the data type and display an icon accordingly.
For instance, if you input 17 items in row 3 of the data worksheet and choose "Automatic," Excel will assign icons representing the detected data types to the corresponding cells. If a question mark appears, you can manually select the correct data type from the options displayed at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen.
Navigating Excel with Data Types
Once Excel associates a cell's content with a data type, you can seamlessly access relevant information. Type the cell address in another cell, and a list of available data appears.
For example, if cell F5 contains a zip code (47401), typing F5 in a new cell reveals information related to that zip code, as illustrated in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Information available on a Zip Code
[Image: Information available on a Zip Code]
In cell F6, selecting "average house value" with the formula =F5.[average house value] provides the corresponding data. Similarly, typing Adele in cell E10 and using the formula =E10.albums in cell E11 generates a list of all Adele's albums, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: All you ever wanted to know about Adele
[Image: New data types on Adele's albums]
Explore the myriad of information obtained through data types, including a captivating picture of a particularly slim Beagle!
Pro Tips for Data Types
Here are some additional tips to enhance your experience with Data Types:
Converting Data Types to Text:
Right-click on a cell, select Data Type, and choose Convert to Text to revert a cell with a data type back to text.
Refreshing Information:
Right-click on a cell, select Data Type, and choose Refresh to update all information related to a data type.
Formula Replication:
Formulas involving Data Types can be copied just like ordinary formulas. This allows for streamlined analysis across multiple data points.
Embracing a New Era in Excel
In conclusion, these new data types represent a revolutionary leap for Excel. Their applications extend beyond individual tasks, promising to reshape education and business analytics. From evaluating nutritional content in daily diets to leveraging demographic information for market analysis, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
Join us next month as we demonstrate how to harness Data Types for historical weather data. The journey with Excel's innovative features continues, and I am eager to explore it with you! Excel has truly outdone itself with these data types, and together, we'll unlock their full potential for your analytical endeavors.