Excel 2007 For Dummies
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You can create a table in Excel 2007 (a list or database in previous Excel versions) to help you manage and analyze related data. The purpose of an Excel table is not so much to calculate new values but rather to store lots of information in a consistent manner, making it easier to format, sort, and filter worksheet data. Typically, an Excel table has only column headings and no row headings.

An Excel table is not the same as a data table that can be used for what-if analysis. You use a data table to show how changing one or two variables in formulas affects the results of those formulas.

Enter your table's column headings.

Click the blank cell where you want to start the new table and then enter the column headings (such as ID No, First Name, Last Name, Dept, and so on) in separate cells within the same row. Column headings are also known as field names. The column headings should appear in a single row without any blank cells between the entries.

Enter the first row of data immediately below the column headings you typed in Step 1.

These entries constitute the first row, or record, of the table.

Click the Table command button in the Tables group of the Insert tab.

Excel displays a marquee around all the cells in the new table. The Create Table dialog box appears, listing the address of the table in the Where Is the Data for Your Table text box. (If the address displayed here is incorrect, drag in the worksheet to select the correct range.)

Click the My Table Has Headers check box to select it.

These headers are the column headings entered in the first step.

Click OK.

Click OK.

Excel inserts and formats the new table and adds filter arrows (drop-down buttons) to each of the field names in the top row.

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Greg Harvey has authored tons of computer books, the most recent being Excel Workbook For Dummies and Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 For Dummies, and the most popular being Excel 2003 For Dummies and Excel 2003 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies. He started out training business users on how to use IBM personal computers and their attendant computer software in the rough and tumble days of DOS, WordStar, and Lotus 1-2-3 in the mid-80s of the last century. After working for a number of independent training firms, Greg went on to teach semester-long courses in spreadsheet and database management software at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
His love of teaching has translated into an equal love of writing. For Dummies books are, of course, his all-time favorites to write because they enable him to write to his favorite audience: the beginner. They also enable him to use humor (a key element to success in the training room) and, most delightful of all, to express an opinion or two about the subject matter at hand.
Greg received his doctorate degree in Humanities in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Asian Studies and Comparative Religion last May. Everyone is glad that Greg was finally able to get out of school before he retired.

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