Tip of the week # 662
8 July 2021


Analyse your data - the easy way (Excel for Microsoft 365) *

Good training doesn't have to be long or torturous to be effective, which is why I've been running 60-minute sessions for years. This week I've taken it a step further and developed and delivered a five-day 15-minute series - bitesize portions, that fit into a busy schedule and are easy to digest.

Tomorrow is Feedback Friday, when the group gets together - virtually - to see which functions helped them work smarter and faster and be more productive, so I'm going on my gut instinct and share what I believe was well received ... one of those underused and overlooked new buttons available for 365 subscribers (also on the Mac, I think): the Analyze Data button at the far end of the Home tab.

Excel will look at your data and display visuals such as PivotTables and Charts that can be inserted into your workbook. It's simple, fast and intuitive and there are many examples, so I'd say ... open one of your workbooks and go and explore.

Here's how:

  1. Click anywhere in your data. (No need to select it, unless you only want Excel to look at a specific part of your data.)
  2. Click on the Analyze Data button in the Analysis group at the far end of the Home tab.
  3. Scroll through the options, click on one of the pre-defined suggestions at the top or type your own question.

By the way, when you click in your data you might spot the Quick Analysis button pop up - another fab, underused feature which I'll talk about in a separate tip.

Related tips

Create PivotTables - no know-how necessary - tip_624.php


* Unless stated otherwise this tip is written for Microsoft 365 desktop apps and Windows 10 users, but might also be useful in Office 2010, 2013 and 2016.