Filtering affects the appearance of a report by setting certain criteria. If we create a pivot chart, it will be formed based on the data from the pivot table. If we change something in it, the chart will also change. Is this possible to do in traditional Excel reports? Yes, if you have an Office 2021 or Office 365 subscription, with the new XLOOKUP function. This is a simple method by which you can get effective reports.
So far, you have been able to read several “recipes” on this blog which were about Data Validation and lists. Office365 (Microsoft365) subscription users have access to dynamic array functions that easily handle variable-length lists. But what should users with an older version of Excel do? In the text that follows, you will learn how to solve this problem with the help of the named ranges, OFFSET and COUNTA functions.
Many years ago I worked for ECOFINANCE company where, at my time, I wrote an Excel invoicing application. It seems to me that it was quite easy to use. Partly because it was enough to enter part of the name of the code or product to find the desired item. The seller would then only select the quantity and packaging and could quickly continue to enter items until the document is completed. Today this can be achieved much easier, without any VBA programming …
If you are, as the author of this blog, in “serious” years, then you probably sometimes need close-up glasses because you can’t read those small letters on the product declarations. The same thing can happen with documents on the screen. Fortunately, all MS Office applications have a zoom option. In the text that follows, you will learn how to use it, and you will be able to see a few more nifty tricks for dealing with “small letters”.
The FILTER function can also contain multiple criteria, and if we want to consider them all at the same time, they must be in parentheses, separated by an asterisk. This is a convenient way to filter sales results by date, and set the criterion by changing the year and month values from the drop-down list we have created by using Data Validation option.