powerpoint presentation on excel formulas

Excel Tips Powerpoint: Essential Tips to Create Impactful Spreadsheets for Your Presentations

Microsoft Office programs are essential for any professional, and familiarity with Excel is particularly valuable. With its many functions and features, Excel can help you organize, analyze, and present data in a clear and concise manner. This article will provide you with essential tips and tricks for mastering Excel in PowerPoint presentations.

Whether you're an experienced Excel user or just starting, you'll find helpful information in the following sections. We'll cover everything from the basics of Excel to more advanced features like macros and pivot tables.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways:

• Excel proficiency is essential for creating impactful PowerPoint presentations.
• Mastering the basics of Excel is crucial for more advanced techniques.
• Formatting and validation techniques improve data visualization and accuracy.
• Advanced data analysis tools like sorting and filtering provide deeper insights.
• Collaboration tools and macros can improve efficiency and productivity.

Understanding Excel Basics

Before we jump into advanced Excel tips, it's essential to have a solid grasp of Excel basics . Understanding the foundational features and functions will help you get the most out of this powerful tool.

Excel is a spreadsheet program used to organize, analyze and manipulate data. Learning Excel can be a game-changer, whether you are a student, researcher or business professional.

The Excel Interface

The Excel interface consists of a workbook containing sheets that let you enter and store data. Each sheet has a grid of rows and columns called cells that hold information. The ribbon at the top provides access to different tabs containing various commands and functions.

Basic Functions

Excel has several basic functions, including:

• AutoSum: a function used to add up a series of numbers automatically.
• Average: calculates the average of a range or cell selection.
• Max/Min: returns the maximum or minimum value in a range or cell selection.

These basic functions lay the foundation for more advanced formulas and functions that can help streamline your workflow and boost productivity.

Data Types and Formatting

Excel has several data types, including dates, currency, percentage, and more. Applying formatting to data can help make it more visually appealing and understandable. You can adjust font styles, color, size and borders.

Keyboard Shortcuts

If you want to work more quickly, using keyboard shortcuts is a great way to save time. Here are some useful shortcuts:

• Ctrl+C: Copy
• Ctrl+V: Paste
• Ctrl+Z: Undo
• Ctrl+Y: Redo

Navigating Excel

To navigate your spreadsheet, you can use the mouse or the arrow keys. If you have a large spreadsheet, you can use the Ctrl and arrow keys to navigate to the end of the data. Using the Home and End keys can help you move to the start or end of the current row or column.

Formatting Tips and Tricks

Formatting is a crucial aspect of Excel that can make your tables and cells stand out. Applying formatting techniques can make your data visually appealing and more accessible to readers.

Let's explore some of the tips and tricks for formatting your Excel tables and cells:

Adjust Font Styles and Colors

Excel offers a wide range of font styles and colors to choose from, making it easy to customize your data and emphasize important information. Choose a font style that is easy to read and use colors that complement each other.

Tip: Avoid using too many different font styles and colors, as it may distract readers and make your data look cluttered.

Insert Borders and Lines

You can use borders and lines to separate different sections of your data or highlight specific cells. Excel offers a variety of border and line styles that can be adjusted to fit your needs.

Tip: Use borders and lines sparingly and consistently to maintain a professional look and make your data more readable.

Apply Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting is a powerful tool that allows you to highlight cells based on their values or formulas. You can use it to create color scales, data bars, and icon sets to visualize your data more effectively.

Tip: Use conditional formatting to draw attention to the most critical data points in your spreadsheet.

Use Cell Styles

Cell styles are formatting templates that you can apply to your data to save time and maintain consistency across your spreadsheet. Excel offers a variety of built-in cell styles that you can use or customize to fit your needs.

Tip: Create your cell styles to match your branding or presentation theme and use them consistently throughout your spreadsheet.

By applying these formatting tips and tricks to your Excel tables and cells, you can create visually appealing and easy-to-read spreadsheets that help you communicate your data more effectively.

Data Entry and Validation

When working with Excel, entering and validating data accurately is crucial. In this section, we'll explore some efficient techniques for data entry and validation.

Auto-filling

Auto-filling is a smart Excel feature that enables you to quickly and easily fill values into a series of cells. Simply enter the starting value and drag the fill handle (the small square at the bottom right corner of the cell) in the direction you want to fill the values. Excel will automatically fill in the rest of the series, saving you time and effort.

Data Validation Rules

Data Validation is another useful tool in Excel that allows you to control what data can be entered in a cell. You can set rules such as "numbers only" or "maximum characters", ensuring data accuracy and consistency. To set up data validation, select the cell or range of cells that you want to restrict, go to the "Data" tab, and click "Data Validation". From there, you can choose from a variety of validation criteria to fit your needs.

Ensuring Data Accuracy

Ensuring data accuracy is crucial in Excel. One way to do this is through conditional formatting, which highlights cells that meet specific conditions. For example, you can use conditional formatting to highlight cells with data that don't fit a specific format or range. To set up conditional formatting, select the range of cells you want to apply it to, and go to the "Home" tab. Click "Conditional Formatting", and choose from the various options available to suit your needs.

With these techniques, you can maintain data accuracy and consistency, making sure your Excel spreadsheets are reliable and efficient.

Formula Magic

Excel formulas are an essential tool for automating calculations and saving time. Whether you're creating a simple spreadsheet or a complex financial model, mastering formula basics is crucial.

Basic Formulas

There are many built-in formulas in Excel that can help you perform basic arithmetic operations, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. To create a formula in a cell, start by typing "=" followed by the formula you want to perform. For example, if you want to add the values in cells A1 and A2, type "=A1+A2".

Excel also offers a range of built-in functions that can help you perform more complex calculations. Functions are predefined formulas that take specific inputs and return a result. The most commonly used functions include SUM, AVERAGE, MAX, and MIN.

Advanced Techniques

To perform more complex calculations, you can combine basic formulas and functions with advanced techniques such as absolute and relative referencing, named ranges, and array formulas. These techniques can help you create dynamic and flexible spreadsheets that can handle complex data and calculations.

"Formulas are the lifeblood of Excel. By mastering the art of formulas, you can automate calculations and save time, giving you the power to make informed decisions faster."

Pivot Tables and Charts

Excel pivot tables and charts are powerful tools that enable you to analyze and present complex data in an easy-to-understand visual format. With pivot tables, you can quickly summarize and aggregate large data sets and customize the view of your data by rearranging rows and columns. In addition, Excel charts allow you to create eye-catching visuals that further enhance your data presentation.

To create a pivot table in Excel, start by selecting your data range and clicking on the "Insert" tab. Then, click on the "PivotTable" button and choose your desired location for the pivot table. Once you have created your pivot table, you can start organizing your data by dragging and dropping fields into the appropriate areas. You can also use filters and slicers to refine your pivot table view by selecting subsets of data.

Excel charts offer many customization options, including chart types, styles, and layouts. You can easily create a chart by selecting your data range and clicking on the "Insert" tab, then selecting the chart type that best suits your data. You can also add chart elements, such as titles and legends, and format individual chart elements to enhance the visual appeal of your chart.

When presenting your data in PowerPoint, you can easily copy and paste your pivot tables and charts from Excel into your presentation slides. To ensure that your pivot tables and charts update dynamically in your PowerPoint presentation, use the "Paste Special" option and select "Link" to create a dynamic connection between your Excel and PowerPoint files.

Advanced Data Analysis

If you're looking to take your data analysis skills in Excel to the next level, there are a few advanced techniques you can use to gain valuable insights. Let's explore some of these features in more detail:

Sorting data in Excel can help you quickly identify patterns and trends. To sort data, select the column you want to sort by and click on the "Sort & Filter" button. From there, you can choose to sort A to Z, Z to A, or by custom order.

Filtering allows you to narrow down your data based on specific criteria. For example, you can filter by date range, numerical range, or even text values. Simply click on the "Filter" button and choose the criteria you want to filter by.

Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting lets you apply formatting to cells based on specific conditions. This can be useful for highlighting important data points or identifying outliers. To apply conditional formatting, select the cells you want to format and choose "Conditional Formatting" from the Home tab.

Creating Custom Formulas

Excel's built-in formulas can be powerful, but sometimes you need to create your own custom formulas to analyze data in the way you want. Use the "Insert Function" button to create your own custom formulas.

"Effective data analysis requires being able to quickly sift through large amounts of data to find important information."

Collaboration and Sharing

Excel is a powerful tool for productivity and data analysis, but it can be even more effective when shared with others. Collaboration and sharing features allow multiple users to work on the same document, making it a great tool for team projects and group analysis.

Sharing and Co-Authoring

When working on a project with others, it's essential to ensure everyone has access to the same document. Excel offers several ways to share files, including OneDrive and SharePoint. With these services, collaborators can access and edit the document directly from the web, using any device without needing to download it. As a result, working remotely and despite different time zones and physical locations becomes incredibly easy, boosting collaboration among peers and colleagues.

Another valuable sharing feature is Co-Authoring. Co-Authoring allows multiple users to edit the same document simultaneously, ensuring everyone is up-to-date on any changes that have been made. This feature is incredibly useful for projects that require input from multiple team members or data sources.

Tracking Changes

When working with others, it can be challenging to keep track of who made what changes or when. Excel's tracking changes feature makes that much easier. It records every edit made to the document, providing a history view of any changes made. The feature also allows document owners or managers to review or accept or reject made changes that were submitted by other team members.

Excel Comments

Comments are a helpful way to add notes and additional information within an Excel spreadsheet. They allow team members to add context, instructions, and warnings about specific data cells or elements in the document. Comments provide general transparency and make it easier to communicate effectively when working on the same data set. It is also essential to add comments between the cells for data validation or any calculation disputes between users when there are inconsistencies or mistakes in the spreadsheet.

Automation with Macros

Excel macros can help you save time and avoid repetitive tasks by automating functions and processes. Macro is a series of commands and instructions which can be recorded and performed repeatedly with a click of a button. Here's how you can create and customize macros in Excel:

• Record a Macro: To record a macro, go to the Developer tab, click on Record Macro, and then perform the task you want to automate. For instance, you could record a macro that adds a formula to a row of cells.
• Run a Macro: Once you have created a macro, you can run it by clicking the button associated with the macro or by using the keyboard shortcut you assigned. This will automatically repeat the task you recorded in the macro.
• Customize a Macro: You can customize macros by editing the Visual Basic code that Excel generates. This way, you can add more commands and functions to your macros to make them even more powerful.

To summarize, Excel macros can help you automate repetitive tasks and increase your productivity when working with spreadsheets. Use the Developer tab to record and run a macro, and edit the Visual Basic code to customize it.

Tips for Presenting Excel in PowerPoint

When creating a PowerPoint presentation, Excel data and charts can be an effective way to convey complex information to your audience. Here are some tips for incorporating Excel objects seamlessly in PowerPoint:

Linking Excel Objects

One way to add Excel data to your presentation is by linking the spreadsheet to a slide. This allows you to update the data in real-time, without having to recreate the chart or table in PowerPoint. To do this:

• Open both Excel and PowerPoint, and navigate to the slide where you want to insert the object.
• In Excel, select the chart or table you want to use, and press CTRL+C to copy it.
• In PowerPoint, go to the Home tab, click on the dropdown arrow next to Paste, and select Paste Special.
• Choose the Paste Link option from the dialog box, and select Microsoft Office Excel Chart Object. Click OK.
• This will insert the chart into your slide, and any updates you make to the original chart in Excel will be reflected in the PowerPoint slide.

Embedding Excel Objects

Another way to incorporate Excel data into your presentation is by embedding the object directly into a slide. This method is useful if you want to edit the chart or table within PowerPoint, or if you need to share the presentation with others who may not have access to the original Excel file. To embed an Excel object:

• In PowerPoint, go to the Insert tab, click on the Object dropdown, and select Microsoft Office Excel Chart or Worksheet Object.
• Select the Create from File tab, and click Browse to locate the Excel file you want to embed.
• Choose the chart or table you want to embed, and click OK.
• The chart or table will now be embedded in your PowerPoint slide, and you can edit it as needed.'

Formatting Excel Objects

Before inserting Excel objects into a PowerPoint slide, it's important to make sure they are formatted correctly. This includes adjusting fonts, colors, and sizes to match the overall design of your presentation. To format an Excel object:

• Select the chart or table you want to format, right-click on it, and choose Format Object.
• From here, you can customize the fill color, font, and other design elements of the object to match your presentation.
• Be sure to preview the slide to ensure the formatting looks good in the context of the overall presentation.

With these tips, you can confidently integrate Excel data and charts into your PowerPoint presentations, ensuring a compelling and informative visual experience for your audience.

In conclusion, mastering Excel in PowerPoint presentations opens a whole new world of possibilities for professionals. With the tips and tricks we've provided in this article, you can take your skills to the next level. By understanding the basics of Excel, formatting tables and cells effectively, entering and validating data, using formulas, pivot tables, and charts, advanced data analysis, collaborating with others, automating repetitive tasks with macros, and presenting Excel data in PowerPoint, you can achieve impressive results.

Remember, Excel is not just about numbers and formulas. It's a powerful tool that can help you make informed decisions, communicate data effectively, and save time. Start practicing these techniques, and you'll soon become a proficient user of Excel. We hope this article has been helpful. Thank you for reading!

What are the basic features of Excel?

Excel is a powerful spreadsheet software that allows users to create, manipulate, and analyze data. Some of its basic features include creating tables, performing calculations, creating charts, and data validation.

How can I apply formatting to my Excel tables and cells?

To apply formatting to your Excel tables and cells, you can use the formatting toolbar or the Format Cells dialog box. You can adjust font styles, colors, borders, and other visual elements to make your data more visually appealing and easier to read.

What techniques can I use for efficient data entry in Excel?

Excel offers various techniques for efficient data entry. You can use the drag-fill handle to auto-fill data based on a pattern, use data validation rules to validate input, and use shortcuts like Ctrl+Enter to quickly enter data in multiple cells.

How can I automate calculations in Excel?

Excel offers a wide range of formulas and functions that can help automate calculations. You can use basic formulas like SUM and AVERAGE, as well as more advanced functions like VLOOKUP and IF-ELSE statements. These formulas can save you time and ensure accuracy in your calculations.

How can I analyze and visualize data in Excel?

Excel provides pivot tables and charts to help you analyze and visualize data effectively. Pivot tables allow you to summarize, filter, and manipulate data to gain insights, while charts help you present data visually through various chart types like bar graphs, pie charts, and line graphs.

Are there any advanced techniques for data analysis in Excel?

Yes, Excel offers advanced features for data analysis. You can sort and filter data, apply conditional formatting to highlight specific data patterns, and create custom formulas to perform complex calculations. These techniques can help you gain valuable insights from your data.

How can I collaborate with others on Excel spreadsheets?

Excel provides tools for collaborating with others on spreadsheets. You can share files with colleagues, track changes made by different users, and use comments to communicate and provide feedback. These collaboration features help streamline teamwork and increase productivity.

Is it possible to automate repetitive tasks in Excel?

Yes, you can automate repetitive tasks in Excel using macros. Macros are recorded actions that can be replayed to perform multiple tasks. You can customize and assign macros to buttons or keyboard shortcuts to automate tasks and save time.

How can I incorporate Excel data into PowerPoint presentations?

To incorporate Excel data into PowerPoint presentations, you can link or embed Excel objects in your slides. Linking allows you to update the data in PowerPoint automatically when changes are made in Excel, while embedding allows you to have a copy of the Excel file within the PowerPoint presentation.

How can I become proficient in Excel and PowerPoint?

To become proficient in Excel and PowerPoint, practice is key. Familiarize yourself with the software's features and experiment with different techniques. Take advantage of online tutorials, courses, and resources available. With dedication and practice, you can master these tools and enhance your productivity and presentation skills.

Excel Tutorial 3: Working with Formulas and Functions

Mar 30, 2019

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Excel Tutorial 3: Working with Formulas and Functions. Understanding Cell References. To record and analyze data Enter data in cells in a worksheet Reference the cells with data in formulas that perform calculations on that data Types of cell references Relative Absolute Mixed.

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Excel Tutorial 3:Working with Formulasand Functions

Understanding Cell References • To record and analyze data • Enter data in cells in a worksheet • Reference the cells with data in formulas that perform calculations on that data • Types of cell references • Relative • Absolute • Mixed New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Using Relative References • Cell reference as it appears in worksheet (B2) • Always interpreted in relation (relative) to the location of the cell containing the formula • Changes when the formula is copied to another group of cells • Allows quick generation of row/column totals without revising formulas New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Using Absolute References • Cell reference that remains fixed when the formula is copied to a new location • Have a $ before each column and row designation ($B$2) • Enter values in their own cells; reference the appropriate cells in formulas in the worksheet • Reduces amount of data entry • When a data valued is changed, all formulas based on that cell are updated to reflect the new value New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Formulas Using an Absolute Reference New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Using Mixed References • Contain both relative and absolute references • “Lock” one part of the cell reference while the other part can change • Have a $ before either the row or column reference ($B2 or B$2) New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

When to Use Relative, Absolute, and Mixed References • Relative references • Repeat same formula with cells in different locations • Absolute references • Different formulas to refer to the same cell • Mixed references • Seldom used other than when creating tables of calculated values • Use F4 key to cycle through different types of references New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Working with Functions • Quick way to calculate summary data • Every function follows a set of rules (syntax) that specifies how the function should be written • General syntax of all Excel functions • Square brackets indicate optional arguments New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Excel Function Categories New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Excel Functions New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Working with Functions • Advantage of using cell references: • Values used in the function are visible to users and can be easily edited as needed • Functions can also be placed inside another function, or nested (must include all parentheses) New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Choosing the Right Summary Function • AVERAGE function • To average sample data • Susceptible to extremely large or small values • MEDIAN function • When data includes a few extremely large or extremely small values that have potential to skew results • MODE function • To calculate the most common value in the data New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Inserting a Function • Three possible methods: • Select a function from a function category in the Function Library • Open Insert Function dialog box to search for a particular function • Type function directly in cells New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Using the Function Library to Insert a Function • When you select a function, the Function Arguments dialog box opens, listing all arguments associated with that function New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Using the Insert Function Dialog Box • Organizes all functions by category • Includes a search feature for locating functions that perform particular calculations New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Typing Functions Directly in Cells • Often faster than using Insert Function dialog box • As you begin to type a function name within a formula, a list of functions that begin with the letters you typed appears New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Entering Data and Formulas with AutoFill • Use the fill handle to copy a formula and conditional formatting • More efficient than two-step process of copying and pasting • By default, AutoFill copies both content and formatting of original range to selected range New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Entering Data and Formulas with AutoFill • Use Auto Fill Options button to specify what is copied New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Entering Data and Formulas with AutoFill • Use AutoFill to create a series of numbers, dates, or text based on a pattern • Use Series dialog box for more complex patterns New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Entering Data and Formulas with AutoFill New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Working with Logical Functions • Logical functions • Build decision-making capability into a formula • Work with statements that are either true or false • Excel supports many different logical functions, including the IF function New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Working with Logical Functions • Comparison operator • Symbol that indicates the relationship between two values New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Returns one value if a statement is true and returns a different value if that statement is false IF (logical_test, [value_if_true,] [value_if_false]) Using the IF Function New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Working with Date Functions • For scheduling or determining on what days of the week certain dates occur New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Financial Functions for Loans and Interest Payments New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Working with Financial Functions • Cost of a loan to the borrower is largely based on three factors: • Principal: amount of money being loaned • Interest: amount added to the principal by the lender • Calculated as simple interest or as compound interest • Time required to pay back the loan New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

Using the PMT Function New Perspectives on Microsoft Office Excel 2010

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11 Best Excel Presentation Tips in 2024

Brandon Pfaff

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Join the Excel conversation on Slack

Ask a question or join the conversation for all things Excel on our Slack channel.

There’s more to a spreadsheet than just the numbers on the page. It is equally important to make your spreadsheets look professional, easy to read, and visually appealing to your viewers.

The same way a lawyer with a crooked tie and disorganized papers might raise an eyebrow in court, your Excel presentation won’t hit the right marks with your audience if it looks clumsy and bland, no matter how many hours of research goes into making it or how important the information contained within it is.

Whether you are creating a spreadsheet for personal use, to pass information to your team or share with your project manager, the secrets locked away in this post will be of immense use to you. Let’s take a look at the best Excel presentation tips to help you create standout spreadsheets .

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1. Get a template online

If you are a busy person, and you cannot fit an Excel presentation design into your schedule, enter the ex machina: pre-made Excel templates. You can choose from an array of purpose-specific templates with beautiful designs, fonts, and colors. Simply enter your values to customize it, and you are ready to go.

Of course, using a template means you will not get better at designing things yourself. If getting things done is your priority instead of getting better at designing presentations, then, by all means, use a template and be done with it. On the other hand, if you want to know how to make your Excel presentation better on your own, then find someone to teach you or stick around until the end of this post.

Check out our 50 best Excel templates to make your life easier  and our  33 Excel business templates for workplace productivity .

2. Name your worksheets correctly

Excel presentation is all about clarity. For this single reason, the importance of a correct and reliable project or worksheet name cannot be overemphasized. It could be a sentence, a phrase or just a word. Just make sure it is easy to understand by you or by anyone you will be sharing the file with.

You also must make sure it is distinct from the names of other worksheets stored on your computer. After all, what is the use of all the tips you will learn here today if you will not be able to find the worksheet you applied them on?

3. Define your header/title

Your header and title can be anything but it needs to stand out. Your header must be able to speak to the reader and make the reader know at first glance what the header is.

To do this, try a larger font for your header, underline and embolden it. You should center align it and use a different font color. It has to stand out but also blend with the template color scheme and overall aesthetic look. You can also use a different readable for your header. Just remember, we want to make it distinct, not isolated.

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4. Dos and don'ts of fonts

Full transparency: Fonts make or break your spreadsheet. Always use a uniform font for your data, you can use the same font for your header or you can change that of the header. You can use three fonts in a single presentation and that is the recommended maximum, else you would be pushing it. In this case, less is infinitely better.

These are the guidelines to follow in selecting the right format for your font.

Here is a quick tip, fonts of the sans-serif group are the best for your Excel spreadsheet if readability is your goal. Calibri, Helvetica, Arial or Playfair are few examples. If used with the right alignment, spacing, and color, they can bring out the best in your Excel presentation.

This ultimately depends on your presentation but officially, font 12 is often advised with double spacing to improve readability. As stated earlier, the header font can be larger. The headers should be larger than sub-headers which in turn should be larger than data fonts.

You want to create a sharp contrast between the text color and the background colors e.g. a light color text on a dark background and vice versa. This is where the "zebra stripes" rule comes in, which will be discussed later in the post.

People don’t often use the alignment tool in Excel. If you want to make your presentation look beautiful and business-like , you will need to maximize the alignment feature.

5. Create space for breathing room

When you see tightly packed, clumsy or wordy text or spreadsheet, your brain automatically gets tired of reading it before you even start. But when there is breathing space and the spreadsheet is divided up into categories, it becomes more pleasant to the eyes and ripe for interpretation by the brain.

This brings us to the B2 rule. Try to start your presentation on column B, row 2. Leaving the A column and the first row blank. It works like magic. You should also make sure that the column and row dimensions are the same.

Additionally, don't autofit the height and width of your document. You need to have flexibility and creative control of your workspace. Instead, manually adjust the height and width so that they have just enough white space but not too much to give your presentation some breathing room and improve readability.

6. Add an image

Whether it’s a photograph, an artistic sketch or your logo, images go a long way in making your spreadsheet better. Images make your presentation look official and possess the professional feel in many of the beautiful presentations you have seen. Pictures speak a thousand words. While Excel is not designed to accomplish the kind of presentation you can make in PowerPoint, a picture will help you to drive the point home and make your presentation memorable.

7. Go off the grid

Do you know that erasing all grid lines apart from those of your result will have people asking how you did it and if you used the same Excel software they use? Try it today. In your spreadsheet

Go to the View tab on the ribbon.

• Under the Show section, uncheck the box next to Gridlines .

8. Zebra stripes: Excel jungle law

Zebra stripes are alternating dark and light colors on rows lying on top of each other. This helps in a number of ways. First, it has this aesthetic feel that makes your work seem orderly, especially if you are displaying hundreds of rows of data. Second, it helps correlation and readability. A reader can track a row from the right-hand side to the far left and not lose track of what row his or her eyes are set upon.

You can zebra stripe using many methods. When you create a table in Excel, by default this will be zebra striped (Tip- select your data and use the shortcut Ctrl + T on a PC or ^ + T on a Mac to quickly create a table). On the Design tab, under Table Styles, you can change the color and style of your zebra stripes.

It can also be done using a formula in conditional formatting if desired. Conditional formatting is done by highlighting values that satisfy certain requirements (e.g. all odd-numbered rows). It can be copied from cell to cell using the painter tool in the Home toolbar.

9. Use charts, tables , and graphs

Most presentations are incomplete without some form of visual representation. Whether table, graph or chart, you need to visually represent your raw data in mediums that would be understood in a single glance. Charts, graphs, and tables should not be underestimated, especially if you have cumbersome data spanning many columns and rows.

In the Excel ecosystem, the chart, graph, and table features are like symbiotic siblings. You need them to bring out the beauty in the brevity of your work.

10. Create cell styles

Excel has many preset cell styles but you can create your own custom styles that will be more customized, and easier to use and edit because you created it. This is actually an alternative to getting a template if graphics consistency is your goal. After creating a beautiful spreadsheet with the above information, you can save the style so that you can apply it to future presentations.

Now your presentation is perfect with the right feel and style. Simply highlight the cells with your design for saving, then go to the Home toolbar, click on "more" at the base of the style gallery, then select "new cell style". A style dialog box will open, name the style, edit its properties and save.

If it isn't broken and it works efficiently, why change it? You can, however, add a touch of variability by changing the color palette from time to time.

11. Show restraint

You have learned all of these tips and you are ready to start your presentation -  be careful of overdoing it. Use color sparingly and don't combine too many tips at once. You need to tread the fine line between underwhelming and too much to find the "just enough" middle ground. Make sure your presentation is perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

Ultimately, the way your Excel presentation turns out depends on how well you communicate your data to your audience. Although, it does help to know the psychology of colors, good fonts. Browse beautiful spreadsheet presentations online to figure out what the "best" looks like. But at the end of the day, the ball is in your court and we hope that your dedication to practicing, sharpening and perfecting your presentation skills in Excel will be rewarded with cheers.

Ready to design your own Excel presentations?

If you would like to sum up the data on your Excel spreadsheet so that its insights are conveyed in a straight-forward manner, then follow this step-by-step guide. You’ll end up with a presentation that summarizes your data in a way that’s painless to analyze.

If you’re eager to brush up on your Excel skills, check out our Excel course and master the fundamentals to boost your productivity.

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Brandon is a full time CPA specializing in all things tax. When he is not serving clients, he enjoys spending time with his wife and son, real estate investing, and sipping fine bourbon.

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Basic Excel formulas & functions with examples

The tutorial provides a list of Excel basic formulas and functions with examples and links to related in-depth tutorials.

Being primarily designed as a spreadsheet program, Microsoft Excel is extremely powerful and versatile when it comes to calculating numbers or solving math and engineering problems. It enables you to total or average a column of numbers in the blink of an eye. Apart from that, you can compute a compound interest and weighted average, get the optimal budget for your advertising campaign, minimize the shipment costs or make the optimal work schedule for your employees. All this is done by entering formulas in cells.

This tutorial aims to teach you the essentials of Excel functions and show how to use basic formulas in Excel.

The basics of Excel formulas

Before providing the basic Excel formulas list, let's define the key terms just to make sure we are on the same page. So, what do we call an Excel formula and Excel function?

• Function is a predefined formula already available in Excel. Functions perform specific calculations in a particular order based on the specified values, called arguments, or parameters.

For example, instead of specifying each value to be summed like in the above formula, you can use the SUM function to add up a range of cells: =SUM(A2:A4)

Clicking the function's name will turn it into a blue hyperlink, which will open the Help topic for that function.

Tip. You don't necessarily have to type a function name in all caps, Microsoft Excel will automatically capitalize it once you finish typing the formula and press the Enter key to complete it.

10 Excel basic functions you should definitely know

What follows below is a list of 10 simple yet really helpful functions that are a necessary skill for everyone who wishes to turn from an Excel novice to an Excel professional.

The first Excel function you should be familiar with is the one that performs the basic arithmetic operation of addition:

In the syntax of all Excel functions, an argument enclosed in [square brackets] is optional, other arguments are required. Meaning, your Sum formula should include at least 1 number, reference to a cell or a range of cells. For example:

=SUM(B2:B6) - adds up values in cells B2 through B6.

=SUM(B2, B6) - adds up values in cells B2 and B6.

If necessary, you can perform other calculations within a single formula, for example, add up values in cells B2 through B6, and then divide the sum by 5:

=SUM(B2:B6)/5

To sum with conditions, use the SUMIF function: in the 1st argument, you enter the range of cells to be tested against the criteria (A2:A6), in the 2nd argument - the criteria itself (D2), and in the last argument - the cells to sum (B2:B6):

=SUMIF(A2:A6, D2, B2:B6)

Useful resources:

• Excel Sum formula examples - formulas to total a column, rows, only filtered (visible) cells, or sum across sheets.
• Excel AutoSum - the fastest way to sum a column or row of numbers.
• SUMIF in Excel - formula examples to conditionally sum cells.
• SUMIFS in Excel - formula examples to sum cells based on multiple criteria.

The Excel AVERAGE function does exactly what its name suggests, i.e. finds an average, or arithmetic mean, of numbers. Its syntax is similar to SUM's:

Having a closer look at the formula from the previous section ( =SUM(B2:B6)/5 ), what does it actually do? Sums values in cells B2 through B6, and then divides the result by 5. And what do you call adding up a group of numbers and then dividing the sum by the count of those numbers? Yep, an average!

The Excel AVERAGE function performs these calculations behind the scenes. So, instead of dividing sum by count, you can simply put this formula in a cell:

=AVERAGE(B2:B6)

To average cells based on condition, use the following AVERAGEIF formula, where A2:A6 is the criteria range, D3 is he criteria, and B2:B6 are the cells to average:

• Excel AVERAGE - average cells with numbers.
• Excel AVERAGEA - find an average of cells with any data (numbers, Boolean and text values).
• Excel AVERAGEIF - average cells based on one criterion.
• Excel AVERAGEIFS - average cells based on multiple criteria.
• How to calculate weighted average in Excel
• How to find moving average in Excel

MAX & MIN

The MAX and MIN formulas in Excel get the largest and smallest value in a set of numbers, respectively. For our sample data set, the formulas will be as simple as:

=MAX(B2:B6)

• MAX function - find the highest value.
• MAX IF formula - get the highest number with conditions.
• MAXIFS function - get the largest value based on multiple criteria.
• MIN function - return the smallest value in a data set.
• MINIFS function - find the smallest number based on one or several conditions.

COUNT & COUNTA

If you are curious to know how many cells in a given range contain numeric values (numbers or dates), don't waste your time counting them by hand. The Excel COUNT function will bring you the count in a heartbeat:

While the COUNT function deals only with those cells that contain numbers, the COUNTA function counts all cells that are not blank , whether they contain numbers, dates, times, text, logical values of TRUE and FALSE, errors or empty text strings (""):

For example, to find out how many cells in column B contain numbers, use this formula:

=COUNT(B:B)

To count all non-empty cells in column B, go with this one:

=COUNTA(B:B)

In both formulas, you use the so-called "whole column reference" (B:B) that refers to all the cells within column B.

• Excel COUNT function - a quick way to count cells with numbers.
• Excel COUNTA function - count cells with any values (non-empty cells).
• Excel COUNTIF function - count cells that meet one condition.
• Excel COUNTIFS function - count cells with several criteria.

Judging by the number of IF-related comments on our blog, it's the most popular function in Excel. In simple terms, you use an IF formula to ask Excel to test a certain condition and return one value or perform one calculation if the condition is met, and another value or calculation if the condition is not met:

For example, the following IF statement checks if the order is completed (i.e. there is a value in column C) or not. To test if a cell is not blank, you use the "not equal to" operator ( <>) in combination with an empty string (""). As the result, if cell C2 is not empty, the formula returns "Yes", otherwise "No":

• IF function in Excel with formula examples
• How to use nested IFs in Excel
• IF formulas with multiple AND/OR conditions

If your obviously correct Excel formulas return just a bunch of errors, one of the first things to check is extra spaces in the referenced cells (You may be surprised to know how many leading, trailing and in-between spaces lurk unnoticed in your sheets just until something goes wrong!).

There are several ways to remove unwanted spaces in Excel, with the TRIM function being the easiest one:

For example, to trim extra spaces in column A, enter the following formula in cell A1, and then copy it down the column:

• Excel TRIM function with formula examples
• How to delete line breaks and non-printing characters
• How to remove non-breaking spaces (&nbsp;)
• How to delete a specific non-printing character

Whenever you want to know the number of characters in a certain cell, LEN is the function to use:

Wish to find out how many characters are in cell A2? Just type the below formula into another cell:

Want to get the total count of characters in a range or cells or count only specific characters? Please check out the following resources.

• Excel LEN formulas to count characters in a cell
• Count the number of characters in cells and ranges

AND & OR

These are the two most popular logical functions to check multiple criteria. The difference is how they do this:

• AND returns TRUE if all conditions are met, FALSE otherwise.
• OR returns TRUE if any condition is met, FALSE otherwise.

While rarely used on their own, these functions come in very handy as part of bigger formulas.

For example, to check the test results in columns B and C and return "Pass" if both are greater than 60, "Fail" otherwise, use the following IF formula with an embedded AND statement:

=IF(AND(B2>60, B2>60), "Pass", "Fail")

If it's sufficient to have just one test score greater than 60 (either test 1 or test 2), embed the OR statement:

• Excel AND function with formula examples
• Excel OR function with formula examples

CONCATENATE

In case you want to take values from two or more cells and combine them into one cell, use the concatenate operator (&) or the CONCATENATE function:

For example, to combine the values from cells A2 and B2, just enter the following formula in a different cell:

=CONCATENATE(A2, B2)

To separate the combined values with a space, type the space character (" ") in the arguments list:

• How to concatenate in Excel - formula examples to combine text strings, cells and columns.
• CONCAT function - newer and improved function to combine the contents of multiple cells into one cell.

TODAY & NOW

To see the current date and time whenever you open your worksheet without having to manually update it on a daily basis, use either:

=TODAY() to insert the today's date in a cell.

=NOW() to insert the current date and time in a cell.

• How to insert today's date in Excel - different ways to enter the current date in Excel: as an unchangeable time stamp or automatically updatable date and time.
• Excel date functions with formula examples - formulas to convert date to text and vice versa, extract a day, month or year from a date, calculate the difference between two dates, and a lot more.

Best practices for writing Excel formulas

Now that you are familiar with the basic Excel formulas, these tips will give you some guidance on how to use them most effectively and avoid common formula errors.

Do not enclose numbers in double quotes

Any text included in your Excel formulas should be enclosed in "quotation marks". However, you should never do that to numbers, unless you want Excel to treat them as text values.

For example, to check the value in cell B2 and return 1 for "Passed", 0 otherwise, you put the following formula, say, in C2:

=IF(B2="pass", 1, 0)

Copy the formula down to other cells and you will have a column of 1's and 0's that can be calculated without a hitch.

Now, see what happens if you double quote the numbers:

=IF(B2="pass", "1", "0")

Don't format numbers in Excel formulas

Match all opening and closing parentheses, copy the same formula to other cells instead of re-typing it.

Note. After copying the formula, make sure that all cell references are correct. Cell references may change depending on whether they are absolute (do not change) or relative (change).

How to delete formula, but keep calculated value

When you remove a formula by pressing the Delete key, a calculated value is also deleted. However, you can delete only the formula and keep the resulting value in the cell. Here's how:

• Select all cells with your formulas.
• Press Ctrl + C to copy the selected cells.
• Right-click the selection, and then click Paste Values > Values to paste the calculated values back to the selected cells. Or, press the Paste Special shortcut: Shift+F10 and then V .

Make sure Calculation Options are set to Automatic

If all of a sudden your Excel formulas have stopped recalculating automatically, most likely the Calculation Options somehow switched to Manual . To fix this, go to the Formulas tab > Calculation group, click the Calculation Options button, and select Automatic .

This is how you make and manage basic formulas in Excel. I how you will find this information helpful. Anyway, I thank you for reading and hope to see you on our blog next week.

You may also be interested in

• How to make formulas in Excel
• Microsoft Excel formulas with examples
• Excel formulas not working, not updating, not calculating

Table of contents

409 comments

I need the Excel formula number combination

One hundred and ten units (HTF) : 345,345,678,890,567

Summary of analysis results from 5 data If there is no incorrect information 036-037-046-047-056-057-058-158-258-358 368-369-378-379-458-468-469-478-479-558 568-569-578-579-588-589 (26 sets / total 26 sets)

Sorry, I have no idea exactly what the task is. It's hard to tell exactly what you're asking for as it's currently written.

For me personally It's clear that actually "seeing" something written down is easier to understand and remember than "hearing" it, but both together is even better.

Post a comment

How to Link Excel Data to Your PowerPoint Presentation

You can easily update your PowerPoint file by linking your Excel spreadsheet data to your presentation. Here's how to do it.

You always want to have the latest data available if you're making a presentation. That way, you can ensure that your slides are accurate and reflect the realities on the ground.

However, there are times when you have to create a presentation as your colleagues are still compiling data. How can you ensure that any change they make in your Excel database reflects in your PowerPoint slide?

This is where the Paste link function comes in. Here's how to use it to ensure you always have the latest database and chart info on your presentation.

Linking Your Excel Data to PowerPoint

To link your Excel table to your presentation, it first must exist. If your colleagues haven't created it yet, you can create a placeholder table you can select and copy and then have your teammates update its content. Once you've made the initial data, follow the steps outlined below.

• Select the table you want to copy over to your presentation.
• Click on Copy or press Ctrl + C ( Command + C for Mac users).
• Open Microsoft Powerpoint .
• Open the file presentation you're working on if you already have one; otherwise, click on Blank Presentation .
• On a blank slide, go to the Home menu ribbon .
• Click on the down arrow under the paste icon .
• Choose Paste Special…
• In the Paste Special window, choose the Paste link radio button.
• Choose Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object .

Once done, you'll see the table you copied from Excel appear on your PowerPoint presentation.

However, you need to access the source Excel file to edit the content or formatting of the table you added. To do so, you can open the file where you saved it; or, you could double-click the table, and it will automatically open the source file.

Related: How to Organize Your Spreadsheets in Excel

Creating a Dynamic Chart

One of the easiest ways to visualize, compare, and analyze data and trends is to use charts. However, if you want to create a chart from the linked Excel table you just created, you must do it from its source file first. Once you've made the chart, you can copy and link it to your PowerPoint file. Here's how to do it.

• Select the chart you create in Excel.
• Go to the slide where you want to place the chart you just copied.
• On the Home menu ribbon , click on the down arrow under the paste icon .
• In the Paste Options , you can either choose Use Destination Theme & Link Data (L) or Keep Source Formatting & Link Data (F) . These are the third and fourth icons, respectively. The first option lets you use the theme you're using for your presentation, while the second one retains the look and feel of your source Excel file.
• Once you've pasted your chart, you can move it around to suit your needs.

Related: How to Create Powerful Graphs and Charts in Microsoft Excel

Updating Your Chart

Unfortunately, if you need to make changes to your chart, you'll have to open its source data in Excel. If you have access to the Excel file, you can just make changes directly, and it should automatically reflect on the PowerPoint chart.

If you don't have the Excel file open, you can right-click on the PowerPoint chart, then choose Edit Data > Edit Data in Excel in the context menu. You can also select Edit Data > Edit Data to open a small window if you only need to make minor changes.

In case the changes you make don't automatically reflect on the PowerPoint chart, you can manually update it. To do so, click on your chart, go to the Chart Design menu ribbon , then click on Refresh Data . This will pull in the latest information from the linked Excel file and update the information displayed on your PowerPoint chart.

Formatting Your Excel-Linked PowerPoint Chart

Unlike your Excel data table, any changes you make to the chart design in Excel will not affect your chart in PowerPoint. For this reason, you have to finalize the design and feel of the chart you're copying from in Excel before copying it over to your presentation.

Alternatively, you can make design changes to your PowerPoint chart independently. That means you can change how your presentation chart looks without affecting the chart you copied from Excel.

To make those changes, click on your chart, then go to the Chart Design menu ribbon . You can choose how the chart feels under Chart Styles . If you think that the current chart type doesn't fit well with your presentation, you can even change it.

Click on Change Chart Type to open a new window. From there, you can pick out any chart type you like in the left column.

Related: How to Make a Line Graph in Excel

Finding Linked Files

Sometimes, you cannot remember if the tables and charts in your presentation are linked to an Excel file. Or it might be the case that you linked your PowerPoint data to a spreadsheet but can't remember where you saved it.

You can check the PowerPoint file directly if it's linked to any file and where these files are. To do so, click on File in the menu ribbon . In the full-screen menu that opens, go to Info on the left-hand column .

Under the Info window, on the right-hand column, go to Related Documents . Click on Open File Location to see where the linked files are saved.

If you moved the linked Excel files, click on Edit Links to Files . A Links window will appear showing each linked object and the file's location attached to it. The window gives you four choices:

• Update now : Update the object's data to the latest changes in the linked file.
• Open Source : Opens the linked Excel file.
• Change Source… : Opens a File Explorer window to change the linked file.
• Break Link : Removes the link from your presentation.

Always Stay Updated

This nifty feature first appeared in Microsoft Office 2010 and has since been available to all Office users. So, whenever you're making a presentation based on incomplete data, you no longer have to worry about updating it manually in the future.

By copying the Excel information and then pasting it into your presentation as a linked item, you're guaranteed to have the latest data updated into your PowerPoint file automatically.

Formulas and functions

This document provides an overview of key concepts for working with formulas and functions in Excel, including: - Formulas allow users to perform calculations in Excel using cell references, numbers, operators, and functions. - Common functions include SUM, AVERAGE, MAX, MIN, and COUNT, which are used to total, average, find the maximum/minimum values in a range. - There are different types of cell references - relative, absolute, and mixed - which determine how formulas update when copied to other cells. - Functions make it possible to easily perform complex calculations in Excel and must follow specific rules regarding syntax and arguments. - Other topics covered include creating basic and compound formulas, using formulas with text, named Read less

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• 2. • Introduction about Excel • Formulas in Excel • Creating a Basic Formula • Using Compound Formula • Using Formula on Text • Cell Range • Cell reference and its Types • Cell reference of Another Worksheet • Formula Errors • Functions • Common Functions • Function Library • Managing Worksheet • Exercise
• 3. Introduction About Excel :- • Excel is a software program produced by Microsoft that allows users to organize, format and calculate data formulas using with a spreadsheet system. • A spreadsheet, also called an electronic work sheet, is a computer program that organizes data into rows and columns. • Each intersection of a column and a row is called “cell.”
• 4. Formulas in Excel :- • Formula is an expression that can be include cell addresses, numbers, arithmetic operators, and parenthesis. • Using formula, you can perform simple as well as complex calculation. • A formula must begin with equal to (=) symbol followed by cell references and operators. It may contain few or all of the below mentioned element. Reference:- A cell or a range of cell that you want to include in your calculation. Operators :- Operators are symbols used in a formula to define the relationship between two or more cell references, or between two or more values. Constant:- Numbers or text values that does not change. Functions :- Predefined formula in Excel
• 5. Basic formula involves only one type of operator in it. Example :- a1+a2+b1+b2 To create simple formula in Excel:- Step1:- Insert some data. Step2:- Click on the cell B8 (where you want to display the result) and type ‘ = ‘ sign. Step3:- Click on the cell B2. A dashed border called marquee will appear around it. Its address appear in the cell B8 and in the formula bar. This method of clicking on the cell to add its reference to a formula is called Pointing. The Status bar will display the status of point. Creating a Basic Formula:-
• 6. Now type the ‘+’Step4:- symbol. Step5:- Repeat the above steps till B7 or type: = b2+b3+b4+b5+b6+b7. The different coloured boarders appearing around these cells. Step6:- Press the Enter Key. Cell B8 will display the total of all the values from B2 to B7.
• 7. • Microsoft Excel follow the BEDMAS rule to evaluate the mathematical expression. • Excel uses this method automatically when a formula contains more than one operator. Let’s Know More:-
• 8. Compound formula are used when more than one operator is required to perform calculation. Ex- Simple Interest = P*R*T/100 • Enter the data • Click on the cell B6 and type ‘=‘. • Click on the cell B2. The cell address of B2 appears in the cell B6. • Type the symbol ‘*’ and on the cell B3. Again type the symbol ‘*’ in B6 and click on the cell B4. Now type the symbol’/’followed by 100 in the cell B6 and press the enterkey. The cell B6 display the calculated Simple Interest. Note:- The result appear in the cell, but the actual formula is visible on the Formula Bar. Using Compound Formula:-
• 9. • We can perform addition on character and String data type. • Other operation like subtraction, multiplication, division, etc…. are not allowed on string data type. • The Ampersand(&) is used to perform addition. • Addition of two or more text value is called Concatenation. Example:- • Enter any string type value in cell A1 and B1. Like “Kips” in A1 and “India” in B1 • Enter the formula =A1&B1 in cell C1 and press the Enter key. • It will display KipsIndia in cell C1. Note:- You can add space between the join values by enclosing single space with quotation marks. Example:- In above case, = A1& ” ” &B1 will show the result as : Kips India Using Formula On Text:-
• 10. A range is a collection of cells, which form the shape of rectangle. We specify a range by writing the starting cell address followed by the ending cell address, both separated by a colon(:). For Example:- A1:A4 indicate a range starting from cell A1 and ending with A4 Cell Range:-
• 11. • Click o the first cell in the range and while holding down the left mouse button, drag it to the last cell OR • Click on the first cell and hold down the shift key while you press the arrow key to extend the selection OR • Select the first cell in the range and then press F8 to extend the selection by using the arrow key. • To stop extending the selection press F8 again. Selecting Range:-
• 12. • Type the data in cell as show click on in image, the cell A5 and type the formula =SUM(A1:A4) • Press the Enter Key. The total will be display in the cell A5. Using Range in Formula:-
• 13. Excel provide us with another option of referring a range of cell by giving a suitable and meaningful name to the cell range. To define a name for a range:- • Select the range of cells that you want to name. Let us say B4:B9. • On the Formulas tab, in the Defined Names group, click on the define name option. • The New Name dialog box appears. • In the Name field, enter the name that you want to specify for the range, say ‘Unit_Sold’. • In the Scope box, specify the ability of the range name by choosing ‘Workbook’, if you want this to be known to all the sheets in the workbook. If you want to limit the scope of this range to a particular worksheet only, then select the name of that worksheet. Naming a Range:-
• 14. • Write some text in the comment section if you want to attach some comment with this name. In the Refers to field, make sure that the required range is specified. • Click on the OK button. The defined name is now ready to be used in the formulas.
• 15. Let us use the above created name “Unit_Sold” in calculating the value for total:- • Click on the cell B10 ad type the formula’ =sum( ’ • Now click on the drop-down arrow of the Use in Formula option in the Defined Names group on the Formula tab and select the name ‘Units_Sold’ from the displayed list. • The name get pasted in the formula. Now type the closing bracket to complete the formula definition. The formula would look like =Sum(Units_Sold). • Press Enter key to get the result in the cell. Using a Named Range:-
• 16. Note:- Range names are not case sensitive. The First character must be a letter, an underscores, or a backslash The range name must not be the same as a cell address.
• 17. • File extension of Excel 2007 (and later versions of Excel) is .xlsx • There are 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 (XFD) columns in Excel 2007 (and later versions of Excel) • To enter or modify a formula in a cell, you can also press F2 after selecting the cell. Any changes thatyou make in data will be reflected in the formula result. • To copy the formula from the above cell, press ctrl+’(apostrophe). • To get the sum of the values of the adjacent cell, press Alt+= key combination, instead of clicking the Autosum button ∑. Quick Review:-
• 18. The cell address that we use in the formula is known as the cell reference. Example:- A1, where A denotes the Column name and 1 denote the Row number. Types of Cell Reference:- Cell Reference and its type:- Cell Reference Relative Reference Absolute Reference Mixed Reference
• 19. In relative reference Row and column are not fixed. If you copy the formula from one cell to other cell the cell address(cell reference) will automatically changed. Ex:- In given fig. we write formula in A4 cell. A4=A1+A2 . If we copy this formula and paste into B4 cell, the cell address will change automatically and it show like B4=B1+B2. Relative Reference:-
• 20. • Absolute reference is used when we do not change the address of the cell while copying the formula to another cell. • To use absolute reference in a cell, you need to add dollar($) sign before the column and row number. • In absolute reference row and column are fixed. Ex:- $B$2( is absolute reference ) Absolute Reference:-
• 21. It is a combination of Relative and Absolute reference. In this type of reference , either row or column has toremain fixed. Ex:- B$2, is example of mixed reference. Where B is column and 2 is row. Mixed Reference:-
• 22. We can use the cell reference of one worksheet in another worksheet. This can be done in two ways:- • Using copy-paste option • Using sheet reference Using Copy – Paste Option:- Click on the Sheet2 tab and enter the data Click on the Sheet1 tab. Now, click on cell A7 where the addition formula is used. Copy the formula using Ctrl+C Click on the Sheet2 tab and click on cell A7. Paste the formula using Ctrl+V. Cell Reference of anotherworksheet:-
• 23. Using Sheet Reference :- It use sheet number, exclamation mark, and cell address. For example:- Sheet1!B7. Let us try to use the sheet reference. • Click on the cell B6 of sheet2 • Type = B2+Sheet1!B7 to add value from the cell B7 of sheet1 to B6 of sheet2.
• 24. Formula Error:- In Excel, if any formula is entered incorrectly, then Excel display an error message instead of the value and assist you identifying and fixing the problem. Some of the common error along with their possible reasons are listed below.
• 25. Function are the predefine formula in Excel to perform both simple and complex calculation. Function must save the time and eliminate the chance to write wrong formulas. They accept Arguments and return Values. Arguments are the input values to function upon which calculation are performed to find the final result. These values can be numbers, text, etc…and areenclosed within parenthesis. Function begin with equal to (=) sign followed by the function name and then the list of arguments separated by comma within the parenthesis. For example:- Function name(argument1,argument2) Function:-
• 26. • All excel function must begin with = sign. • Function name must be a valid Excel name. e.g:- SUM, AVERAGE. • Function name must be anfollowed by opening and closing parenthesis. in are the • Arguments enclosed parenthesis. • e.g:- SUM(A1:A4) Rules to Enter a Function:-
• 27. AUTOSUM:- Common and fastest way to find out the total of the given numbers in a range, also provides options to find Average, Count, Max, Min etc. You can find this option in two places:- • In the Editing group on the home tab. • In the Function Library group on the Formula tab. Common Functions:-
• 28. SUM():- The SUM() return the total of the range values. AVERAGE():- Average function returns the average of the range values. MAX():- It is used to find the largest value in the given range. MIN():- It is used to find the lowest value in the given range. COUNT():- It is used to count the number of elements like numbers, formula, and date given in a given range. TODAY();- It is used to show the current date. Common Functions:-
• 29. Note:- For Month:- MONTH(TODAY()) For Year:- YEAR(TODAY()) For Day :- DAY(TODAY()) To display the values in text form: For month = TEXT(TODAY(),”MMMM”) For Day = TEXT(TODAY(),”DDDD”)
• 30. Function Library Divides Functions Categories. Here, you can search and select Excel functions based on categories such as Financial, Logical, Text, and Date & Time. The Insert Function:- Insert function is one of the options in the Function Library group which helps us in creating a formula. Let us see how to use this option. • Click on cell in which you want to enter a formula. • Click on the insert function button present on the formula tab. OR Click on the Insert Function(𝒇𝒙) button present on the formula bar. Functions Library:-
• 31. • A Insert function dialog box will appear. • Then you can search for a function by typing a brief description of what you want to do in the search for a function. If you do not remember the function name.
• 32. • In OR select a category list box, you can select the category of the function like, Math & Trig for LCM. • Select the desired function from the displayed list and then click on OK. • This will open Function Argument dialog box where you will enter the cell reference or values and then click on Ok to get the result of the select function.
• 33. Renaming a Worksheet:- There are certain rule for renaming the worksheet:- • Right click on the sheet tab in the worksheet • A shortcut menu will appear. Click on the rename option. OR Double-Click on the Sheet tab • The name of the sheet gets highlighted, Type new name for sheet and press Enter key. • After pressing Enter key, the new name of sheet tab is appeared. Managing Worksheet:-
• 34. Deleting Worksheet:- You can delete a worksheet if it is no use to you. For deleting a worksheet:- • Right click on the sheet which you want to delete. • Click on the Delete option. Changing Colour of Worksheet:- You can also change the colour of worksheet. For changing colour of the worksheet:- • Right click on the sheet tab and select the Tab colour option from the shortcut menu. • Select any colour from the displayed choices and observe the change.
• 35. Calculation Cell reference Absolute reference Arguments &
• 36. F F F T F Using MAX() and MIN() =15000+(15000*10/100)
• 37. Qus1:- What is Formula? Explain with the help of Example? Ans:- A formula is an expression which calculates the value of a cell. It can be include cell addresses, numbers, arithmetic operators, and parenthesis. e.g.:- = A2+B2*5-SUM(E3:E5) Answer the Following:-
• 38. Qus2:- What is cell reference? Mention its types. Ans:- The cell address that we use in the formula is known as the cell reference. There are three type of Cell Reference Cell Reference Relative Reference Absolute Reference Mixed Reference
• 39. Qus3:- What do you know about Absolute Reference? Explain with the help of an example. Ans:- An absolute reference is an cell reference that does not change when an formula is copied. To use absolute reference in a cell, you need to add dollar($) sign before the column and row number. e.g:- $A$1 In given example we fix Column A and Row 1 with $(Dollar) sign.
• 40. Qus4:- What do you understand by the term Concatenation? Explain with the help of Example. Ans:- Addition of two or more text value is called Concatenation. e.g:- • Enter any string type value in cell A1 and B1. Like “Kips” in A1 and “India” in B1 • Enter the formula =A1&B1 in cell C1 and press the Enter key. • It will display KipsIndia in cell C1.
• 41. Qus5:- What do you mean by a function? Name some of the Function. Ans:- Function are the predefine formula in Excel to perform both simple and complex calculation. There are some commonly function used in excel are:- SUM():- The SUM() return the total of the range values. AVERAGE():- Average function returns the average of the range values. MAX():- It is used to find the largest value in the given range. MIN():- It is used to find the lowest value in the given range. COUNT():- It is used to count the number of elements like numbers, formula, and date given in a given range. TODAY();- It is used to show the current date.
• 42. Qus6:- What are the rule to enter a Function? name. Ans:- There are some rule to enter function in excel:- • All excel function must begin with = sign. • Function name must be a valid Excel e.g:- SUM, AVERAGE. • Function name must be followed by an opening and closing parenthesis. • Arguments are enclosed in the parenthesis. e.g:- SUM(A1:A4) Arguments

Think Outside The Slide

Create a graph in PowerPoint using data and formulas from Excel for increased functionality

Using the default copy and paste for an Excel graph into PowerPoint results in a link back to the Excel file. If that file is on a drive you can’t access, you can’t edit the graph. If you use the Embed workbook option when pasting the graph into PowerPoint you make the PowerPoint file large, expose confidential information in other worksheets, and increasingly end up with a broken link due to problems in PowerPoint.

This video shows you a better option: Creating a PowerPoint graph using the data and formulas from Excel. Full editing, full functionality, and automatic updates to the graph when data is updated.

Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world . His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don’t overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked over 17,000 times on YouTube.

By Dave Paradi

Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world . His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don't overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked over 17,000 times on YouTube.

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Can you display Formulas from Excel on a Powerpoint presentation?

I have data in Excel that contains formulas and I want to move this Data across to a Powerpoint Presentation.

I want the powerpoint to copy across the formulas in a way that allows for the reviewer of presentation to view all the formulas used.

Is this possible?

I tried "Object" and all that did was allow me to open up the excel document.

Hoping to not have to share both the Presentation and Excel document.

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Hey Stacey,

The method; s uch as via>Insert>Object> Create from file > Browse > Select Link > Ok. Worked.

And seems to be the only way.

Only question I have, is how to insert the exact snippet of data you want? It seems to cut off some of the data i want displayed.

Did not quite understand the Worksheet Object selection as it did not come up for me.

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How to Insert an Excel Spreadsheet Into Powerpoint: A Step-by-Step Guide

Inserting an Excel spreadsheet into PowerPoint is a straightforward process. All you need to do is open your PowerPoint presentation, click on the slide where you want the spreadsheet to appear, and then use the Insert Object function to add the Excel file. Once you’ve completed these steps, your Excel spreadsheet will be embedded into your PowerPoint slide, ready for you to present.

Step by Step Tutorial: How to Insert an Excel Spreadsheet Into PowerPoint

Before we dive into the steps, let’s understand what we’re aiming to achieve. By inserting an Excel spreadsheet into PowerPoint, we’re looking to display data in a more visual and interactive manner during a presentation. It could be a sales report, a project timeline, or any kind of data that you’ve crunched in Excel and now want to share with your audience in PowerPoint.

Step 1: Open Your PowerPoint Presentation

Open the PowerPoint presentation where you want to insert the Excel spreadsheet.

Make sure you’re on the right slide where you want to insert the Excel spreadsheet. If you haven’t created a slide yet, you can easily add a new one by clicking on “New Slide” in the Home tab.

Step 2: Click the Insert Tab

Navigate to the Insert tab on PowerPoint’s ribbon.

The Insert tab is where all the magic happens when it comes to adding different types of content to your PowerPoint slides, including tables, images, and, of course, Excel spreadsheets.

Step 3: Click on Object in the Text Group

In the Text group, click on Object.

When you click on Object, a dialog box will appear, giving you the option to insert various types of content. For our purposes, we’re interested in inserting an object from a file—specifically, an Excel file.

Step 4: Choose ‘Create from file’ and Browse for Your Excel File

Select ‘Create from file’ and then click on ‘Browse’ to find the Excel file you want to insert.

Navigating to your Excel file might take a bit of digging, especially if you’ve got a lot of folders and files to sift through. But once you find the file, select it, and click ‘OK’, you’re almost done.

Step 5: Click OK to Insert the Spreadsheet

After selecting the file, click OK, and your Excel spreadsheet will be inserted into your PowerPoint slide.

Your spreadsheet won’t just be a static image; it’ll be a fully functional Excel sheet. This means you can double-click on it to make changes, and those changes will be reflected in the PowerPoint presentation.

After completing these steps, your Excel spreadsheet will be part of your PowerPoint slide. You can resize it and move it around to fit your layout. The beauty of this is that you can interact with the spreadsheet right from PowerPoint, which can be really useful if you need to make last-minute changes or highlight certain data during your presentation.

Tips: How to Insert an Excel Spreadsheet Into PowerPoint

• Always save your Excel file before inserting it into PowerPoint to ensure all changes are up-to-date.
• If your Excel file is large, consider linking to it instead of embedding it to avoid making your PowerPoint file too heavy.
• Resize the Excel object in PowerPoint to ensure that the text is readable and the data is visible.
• Use the ‘Format Object’ options in PowerPoint to add a border or shadow to your Excel spreadsheet, making it stand out on the slide.
• Remember that if you update the original Excel file, you will need to reinsert it into PowerPoint for the changes to take effect unless you’ve linked to the file.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i edit an excel spreadsheet after inserting it into powerpoint.

You can double-click on the inserted Excel spreadsheet, and it will open in Excel for editing. Once you save the changes in Excel, they will be updated in PowerPoint.

Can I link to an Excel spreadsheet instead of embedding it?

Yes, when inserting the Excel file, choose ‘Link’ instead of ‘Insert’, which will create a link to the file instead of embedding it. This way, any updates to the Excel file will automatically reflect in PowerPoint.

What if I only want to insert a part of the Excel spreadsheet?

You can copy the specific range of cells in Excel that you want to display and then paste it into PowerPoint as an embedded object.

Can I insert multiple Excel spreadsheets into one PowerPoint slide?

You can, but it might make the slide look cluttered. It’s best to insert one spreadsheet per slide for clarity.

Will my Excel formulas work in PowerPoint?

The formulas in your Excel spreadsheet will remain functional when you embed the spreadsheet into PowerPoint. However, if you paste the cells as an image, the formulas will not be active.

• Open your PowerPoint presentation and select the slide for insertion.
• Click the Insert tab on PowerPoint’s ribbon.
• Click on Object in the Text group.
• Choose ‘Create from file’ and Browse for your Excel file.
• Click OK to insert the spreadsheet.

Inserting an Excel spreadsheet into a PowerPoint presentation can add a whole new level of detail and professionalism to your work. Whether you’re presenting financial results, project timelines, or any other data-heavy information, having the ability to display and interact with Excel data directly in PowerPoint is a game-changer. It ensures that your audience can see the exact figures and calculations that you’re discussing, which can help to clarify points and answer questions on the spot.

Just remember to keep your slides uncluttered, make sure any inserted data is relevant to your presentation, and always double-check that the data you’re showing is accurate and up-to-date. With these tips in mind, you’ll be well on your way to delivering a powerful and informative presentation that leverages the best of both Excel and PowerPoint.

Matt Jacobs has been working as an IT consultant for small businesses since receiving his Master’s degree in 2003. While he still does some consulting work, his primary focus now is on creating technology support content for SupportYourTech.com.

His work can be found on many websites and focuses on topics such as Microsoft Office, Apple devices, Android devices, Photoshop, and more.

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Automatically Create PowerPoint Slides from Excel (3 Easy Ways)

Microsoft Excel is indeed an extremely effective software. We may perform countless operations on a given dataset using Excel’s tools and features. We frequently need to make PowerPoint slides from Excel files. When we have to do it repeatedly, copying information from Excel and making PowerPoint slides is very time-consuming. This article will discuss three unique and easy ways to create PowerPoint slides from Excel files automatically. Therefore, you should go through these 3 easy ways to Automatically Create PowerPoint Slides from Excel.

How to Automatically Create PowerPoint Slides from Excel: 3 Easy Ways

As an illustration, we will explore a sample dataset. The following dataset, for example, has sales representative Names and Areas. We are going to show the Excel data in PowerPoint slides using all 3 of the approaches. Moreover, I will go through the benefits and drawbacks of using these strategies. In addition, I have yet to mention that I have been using the Microsoft Excel 365 version for this article; You are free to choose any other edition that you find most convenient.

1. Automatically Create Slides Using Insert Command in PowerPoint

The Insert command is the simplest method. Using this Insert Command, slides are kept up to date immediately after any modifications are made to the Excel file. The issue is that we need to utilize the insert command for each slide. We will insert the Excel object using PowerPoint’s Insert command to automate the procedure. To complete the work, please follow the instructions below.

• First, launch PowerPoint.
• Then, select the Insert  tab.
• Next, click Text , and later on the Object  option.

• As a result, a new dialog box will pop up at this time, and you must click on Create from file .
• After that, click on Browse to find the Excel document you want to add to your slides.

• Consequently, the Insert Object dialog box pops up again, allowing you to check the Link box and click OK .
• Hence, as demonstrated below, it will yield the desired output in MS PowerPoint.

Read More: How to Insert an Excel File into PowerPoint as an Icon

2. Apply Paste Special Feature to Generate Slides from Excel

Another interesting way is to use the Paste Special feature. We can make slides in PowerPoint with the specified and selected data from Excel through the paste feature. Here, as the data in the Excel file is updated, the PowerPoint slide is also updated. To do the procedure, follow these instructions.

• First, open Excel’s saved worksheet to insert data.

• Secondly, move the mouse over the portion of the data you wish to link to PowerPoint. Then click on Copy .
• Now, open PowerPoint and click on the slide where you wish to connect the Excel data. Later on, click Paste and Paste Special  feature.

• And a new dialog box appears. Choose the Paste link After that, click As Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object and hit OK .

• As a result, it will return the required output in the PowerPoint slides, as shown below.

Read More: How to Copy Chart from Excel to PowerPoint Without Link

3. Create PowerPoint Slides from Excel Through VBA

There is a unique way of creating PowerPoint Slides automatically using Excel VBA. The only difference between previous methods is that slides are not updated as we change the Excel file. To use the Excel VBA Code, we must add the Microsoft PowerPoint 16.0 Object Library. However, since we are using this approach, we don’t need to create a VBA code for each presentation. Through modification of the code, we can generate dozens of slides.

• First of all, select the active sheet of the workbook to begin.

• Secondly, navigate to Developer and then Visual Basic .
• Later on, select Insert and now click on Module .

• Next, put the following code into the Module box. Remember to change the cell’s range.

• Finally, click the Run button or press F5 .
• So, this is where the output will go.

To overcome the error, follow these:

Step 1 : Hover over Tools => You will see the References option => Click on References .

As a result, the References – VBAProject window will open.

Step 2 : Check Microsoft PowerPoint 16.0 Object Library => You will see the OK button in the top right corner => Hit OK to resolve the error.

Download Practice Workbook

You can get a free copy of the example workbook that was used during the discussion which was just below here.

You can automatically create PowerPoint slides from Excel from this point forward by using the procedures that we just discussed. Keep using them, and let us know if you come up with any other strategies to get the work done or if you have any new ideas. Remember to post questions, comments, or recommendations in the section below.

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Lutfor Rahman Shimanto, BSc, Information Technology, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, has worked with the ExcelDemy project for over a year. He has written 50+ articles and provided solutions of 100+ comments for ExcelDemy. Currently, he works as an Excel & VBA Developer and provides support and solutions in the ExcelDemy Forum. He has solved 100+ ExcelDemy Forum problems. His work and learning interests are in developing various Excel & VBA and Desktop applications. Outside of work, he enjoys Chess... Read Full Bio

Hi and thanks for your post data;

When I use your VBA code I got this error:”user defined type not defined” How can I fix it?

Best Regards

Thanks for reaching out and posting your comment. You are right about the raised error. If you do not add the Microsoft PowerPoint 16.0 Object Library , you must see the User-Defined Type not defined error.

To solve the issue, follow these: Step 1 : Hover over Tools => You will see the References option.

Step 2 : Click on References => In the References – VBAProject window, check Microsoft PowerPoint 16.0 Object Library , and you will see the OK button in the top right corner.

Step 3 : After clicking OK , you will be able to run the code like the following GIF .

Hopefully, the solution will help you overcome your situation. Good luck.

Regards Lutfor Rahman Shimanto

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How-To Geek

6 ways to create more interactive powerpoint presentations.

Engage your audience with cool, actionable features.

Quick Links

• Add a QR code
• Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)
• Embed a Live Web Page
• Add Links and Menus
• Add Clickable Images to Give More Info
• Add a Countdown Timer

We've all been to a presentation where the speaker bores you to death with a mundane PowerPoint presentation. Actually, the speaker could have kept you much more engaged by adding some interactive features to their slideshow. Let's look into some of these options.

1. Add a QR code

Adding a QR code can be particularly useful if you want to direct your audience to an online form, website, or video.

Some websites have in-built ways to create a QR code. For example, on Microsoft Forms , when you click "Collect Responses," you'll see the QR code option via the icon highlighted in the screenshot below. You can either right-click the QR code to copy and paste it into your presentation, or click "Download" to add it to your device gallery to insert the QR code as a picture.

In fact, you can easily add a QR code to take your viewer to any website. On Microsoft Edge, right-click anywhere on a web page where there isn't already a link, and left-click "Create QR Code For This Page."

You can also create QR codes in other browsers, such as Chrome.

You can then copy or download the QR code to use wherever you like in your presentation.

2. Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)

If you plan to send your PPT presentation to others—for example, if you're a trainer sending step-by-step instruction presentation, a teacher sending an independent learning task to your students, or a campaigner for your local councilor sending a persuasive PPT to constituents—you might want to embed a quiz, questionnaire, pole, or feedback survey in your presentation.

In PowerPoint, open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, and in the Forms group, click "Forms". If you cannot see this option, you can add new buttons to the ribbon .

As at April 2024, this feature is only available for those using their work or school account. We're using a Microsoft 365 Personal account in the screenshot below, which is why the Forms icon is grayed out.

Then, a sidebar will appear on the right-hand side of your screen, where you can either choose a form you have already created or opt to craft a new form.

Now, you can share your PPT presentation with others , who can click the fields and submit their responses when they view the presentation.

3. Embed a Live Web Page

You could always screenshot a web page and paste that into your PPT, but that's not a very interactive addition to your presentation. Instead, you can embed a live web page into your PPT so that people with access to your presentation can interact actively with its contents.

To do this, we will need to add an add-in to our PPT account .

Add-ins are not always reliable or secure. Before installing an add-in to your Microsoft account, check that the author is a reputable company, and type the add-in's name into a search engine to read reviews and other users' experiences.

To embed a web page, add the Web Viewer add-in ( this is an add-in created by Microsoft ).

Go to the relevant slide and open the Web Viewer add-in. Then, copy and paste the secure URL into the field box, and remove https:// from the start of the address. In our example, we will add a selector wheel to our slide. Click "Preview" to see a sample of the web page's appearance in your presentation.

This is how ours will look.

When you or someone with access to your presentation views the slideshow, this web page will be live and interactive.

4. Add Links and Menus

As well as moving from one slide to the next through a keyboard action or mouse click, you can create links within your presentation to direct the audience to specific locations.

To create a link, right-click the outline of the clickable object, and click "Link."

In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, click "Place In This Document," choose the landing destination, and click "OK."

What's more, to make it clear that an object is clickable, you can use action buttons. Open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, click "Shape," and then choose an appropriate action button. Usefully, PPT will automatically prompt you to add a link to these shapes.

You might also want a menu that displays on every slide. Once you have created the menu, add the links using the method outlined above. Then, select all the items, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then use Ctrl+V to paste them in your other slides.

5. Add Clickable Images to Give More Info

Through PowerPoint's animations, you can give your viewer the power to choose what they see and when they see it. This works nicely whether you're planning to send your presentation to others to run through independently or whether you're presenting in front of a group and want your audience to decide which action they want to take.

Start by creating the objects that will be clickable (trigger) and the items that will appear (pop-up).

Then, select all the pop-ups together. When you click "Animations" on the ribbon and choose an appropriate animation for the effect you want to achieve, this will be applied to all objects you have selected.

The next step is to rename the triggers in your presentation. To do this, open the "Home" tab, and in the Editing group, click "Select", and then "Selection Pane."

With the Selection Pane open, select each trigger on your slide individually, and rename them in the Selection Pane, so that they can be easily linked to in the next step.

Finally, go back to the first pop-up. Open the "Animations" tab, and in the Advanced Animation group, click the "Trigger" drop-down arrow. Then, you can set the item to appear when a trigger is clicked in your presentation.

If you want your item to disappear when the trigger is clicked again, select the pop-up, click "Add Animation" in the Advanced Animation group, choose an Exit animation, and follow the same step to link that animation to the trigger button.

6. Add a Countdown Timer

A great way to get your audience to engage with your PPT presentation is to keep them on edge by adding a countdown timer. Whether you're leading a presentation and want to let your audience stop to discuss a topic, or running an online quiz with time-limit questions, having a countdown timer means your audience will keep their eye on your slide throughout.

To do this, you need to animate text boxes or shapes containing your countdown numbers. Choose and format a shape and type the highest number that your countdown clock will need. In our case, we're creating a 10-second timer.

Now, with your shape selected, open the "Animations" tab on the ribbon and click the animation drop-down arrow. Then, in the Exit menu, click "Disappear."

Open the Animation Pane, and click the drop-down arrow next to the animation you've just added. From there, choose "Timing."

Make sure "On Click" is selected in the Start menu, and change the Delay option to "1 second," before clicking "OK."

Then, with this shape still selected, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then Ctrl+V (paste). In the second box, type 9 . With the Animation Pane still open and this second shape selected, click the drop-down arrow and choose "Timing" again. Change the Start option to "After Previous," and make sure the Delay option is 1 second. Then, click "OK."

We can now use this second shape as our template, as when we copy and paste it again, the animations will also duplicate. With this second shape selected, press Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, type 8 into the box, and continue to do the same until you get to 0 .

Next, remove the animations from the "0" box, as you don't want this to disappear. To do this, click the shape, and in the Animation Pane drop-down, click "Remove."

You now need to layer them in order. Right-click the box containing number 1, and click "Bring To Front." You will now see that box on the top. Do the same with the other numbers in ascending order.

Finally, you need to align the objects together. Click anywhere on your slide and press Ctrl+A. Then, in the Home tab on the ribbon, click "Arrange." First click "Align Center," and then bring the menu up again, so that you can click "Align Middle."

Press Ctrl+A again to select your timer, and you can then move your timer or copy and paste it elsewhere.

Press F5 to see the presentation in action, and when you get to the slide containing the timer, click anywhere on the slide to see your countdown timer in action!

Now that your PPT presentation is more interactive, make sure you've avoided these eight common presentational mistakes before you present your slides.

How to use Copilot in Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, and more

How to use copilot in microsoft teams, word, excel, and more work smarter across your entire microsoft 365 workflow with these expert tips..

From everyday prompt engineering to specialized functionalities across Teams, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, Microsoft Copilot is designed to save you time. Integrated directly within Teams and the Microsoft 365 (M365) suite, Copilot accelerates processes and helps you get a head start on your tasks.

But when a new tool claims it can do it all, figuring out how to start is overwhelming. This is especially true with generative AI, and Copilot is no exception.

With practice and a little know-how, Copilot can make quick work out of repetitive, time-consuming tasks and improve the way you collaborate, communicate, work, and present.

SHI’s Microsoft experts are here to show you how to effectively use Copilot across Teams and M365.

Start by writing good prompts

No matter how you use Copilot , your results will only be as good as your prompts, which are the written commands that send Copilot to action.

As a generative AI built on large language models (LLMs), Copilot performs at its best when your prompt includes four key aspects: the task , the persona , the context , and the format .

Depending on your use case, some of these aspects may not be as necessary as others. For example, you likely won’t need to give Copilot a persona to summarize your Outlook inbox, and formatting may not be important if you’re asking simple questions.

But for complex or creative requests, you’re more likely to get your desired result when you give Copilot an explicit task to perform, a specific persona to align with, context for why Copilot is performing the task, and a precise format in which Copilot should deliver its results.

As we explore how to use Copilot across Teams, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, we’ll include sample prompts to help you get started.

Collaborate better in Teams

For knowledge workers, Microsoft Teams is by far the most popular application for using Copilot. Whether you’re returning from vacation to a bazillion notifications or need notes from an hour-long meeting, Copilot simultaneously simplifies and enhances collaboration within Teams.

In Teams, you can use Copilot to:

• Generate a bulleted recap of your messages.
• Suggest future meetings and action items based on your message recaps.
• Schedule meetings based on the best mutual availability of all attendees.
• Summarize meetings based on their transcriptions.
• Provide meeting notes, recaps, action items, and even highlight where attendees had differing opinions.

Sample prompts for Teams

To best leverage Copilot in Microsoft Teams, experiment with prompts like the following:

Recap messages: Provide a bulleted summary of all my messages from the past week, highlighting any action items or potential future meetings.

Schedule a meeting: Schedule a meeting next Tuesday to discuss the department-wide Copilot rollout. Include myself, Jane Doe, and John Doe, and select a time during which we all have zero scheduling conflicts.

Give meeting notes: Provide notes for Tuesday’s Copilot meeting, highlighting any action items for myself, Jane, or John. Include a bulleted list and headers to denote when our discussion changed subjects.

Craft the perfect response in Outlook

Everyone has botched an email. Whether responding to a client, contacting a prospective customer, or replying to a thread, it’s been a rite of passage for people to fail at conveying humor, misinterpret and respond angrily to a casual message, or mess up a thread by accidentally replying to a weeks-old email.

Copilot puts an end to the embarrassment, helping you manage your inbox, craft the perfect response, and stay organized and in the know. In Outlook, use Copilot to:

• Craft emails with professional grammar and your intended tone.
• Recap your inbox after a long absence.
• Summarize long email threads.
• Contextualize emails with Teams messages from the same contact or group.

And because Copilot is integrated within your existing M365 tenant, it can pull from your contacts, SharePoint files, and groups to write and manage emails with depth and precision.

But remember: while Copilot is great for quickly starting tasks or creating a first draft of a response, it’s by no means a replacement for human thought. Trust your final discretion to determine whether an email generated by Outlook actually matches the messaging you want to convey, and adjust accordingly.

Sample prompts for Outlook

If you want to take the legwork out of managing your Outlook inbox, prompts like these can be great starting points:

Craft an email: Write an email to Jane Doe with the subject line, “The AI webinar you won’t want to miss.” Jane is an IT professional in the pharmaceutical industry, and through this email, we want her to register for our upcoming webinar titled “How to use AI like a pro.” Use a friendly, casual tone and include a bulleted list of ways AI benefits her role within her industry.

Recap your inbox: Catch me up on all my emails from the past week. Highlight any internal emails from my management, action items from my team, and external emails from my customers.

Summarize email threads: Summarize the email thread with Jane Doe about the AI webinar. Highlight any action items or potential future meetings.

Jumpstart your first draft in Word

The empty stare of a blank page in Microsoft Word can often be the biggest obstacle when writing statements of work (SoWs), reports, or documentation. With Copilot and a strong prompt, creating your first draft can become the easiest part of your project.

And if you’re on the opposite end of the spectrum, and you’ve been tasked with reviewing a 50-page proposal by the end of the workday, Copilot can also summarize and answer questions about existing documents.

Use Copilot in Word to:

• Create a first draft for SoWs, reports, documentation, blogs, and more.
• Summarize and answer queries about documents.
• Generate content according to your chosen persona and tone.

As you use Copilot in Word, it’s important to consider any content it generates as a first draft . Take time to edit the content, make it yours, and verify any factual statements. Generative AI can be a terrific way to end writer’s block or start your projects, but you should never submit its content as a final product.

Sample prompts for Word

Don’t let blank pages and novel-length documents drag you down. Get a head start on your projects with prompts like these:

Draft a report: Write a report about our AI webinar leveraging information from the email thread “AI webinar retrospective.” Write it from the perspective of an IT Systems Admin in an informative and concise tone. Include analyses of our data usage, adoption rate, and helpdesk SLAs.

Summarize a document: Summarize this document with bulleted lists categorized by headers that match those found in this document.

Answer questions about a document: What is the most expensive line item in this statement of work and to which service is it aligned?

Generate entire presentations in PowerPoint

When you’ve spent days or weeks compiling information for a client, manager, or partner, the last thing that’s on your mind is what it all should look like when you’re presenting it. You know exactly what you need to say – and with Copilot, you don’t need to think about how it all comes together on a slide deck.

In PowerPoint, Copilot enables you to:

• Create a first draft of a presentation with just a prompt.
• Generate custom images for your slides.
• Create a presentation using a Word document as an outline.
• Add slides to existing presentations.

Just like when using Copilot for Word, you should consider any slide Copilot creates in PowerPoint as a first draft . Review it, fact check it, and tinker with the visuals to align with your organization’s branding – and never move forward with an unedited presentation from Copilot as your final draft.

Sample prompts for PowerPoint

Use prompts like these to save time and brainpower when making your next presentation:

Create a first draft of a presentation: Create a 10-slide presentation about AI. I’m an IT professional presenting to a tech-savvy audience. My audience particularly cares about data center sustainability and the amount of power and cooling AI demands. Conclude the presentation with a Q&A slide .

Generate custom images: Generate an image of a data center server rack in the style of a surrealist painting. Add the image to Slide 4.

Create a presentation from a Word document: Create a 15-slide presentation from the attached document, which is a quarterly helpdesk SLA report. I’m an IT helpdesk professional presenting to my direct manager. Emphasize my high satisfaction survey scores, fast time to resolution, and high percentage of issue resolutions.

Refine spreadsheets in Excel

For many knowledge workers, Excel is a keystone application for their workflows. But as spreadsheets grow and data becomes more complex, it can be far too easy to get bogged down in the details.

With Copilot, you can apply revisions, additions, filters, and more to your spreadsheets by simply using natural language in your prompts – which can be a huge advantage for those who get a migraine from formulas, conditional formatting, and other features that make Excel a great but intensive program.

In Excel, you can use Copilot to:

• Analyze data and generate charts in your spreadsheet.
• Create new columns with custom formulas.
• Highlight specific data points via conditional formatting.
• Automatically sort individual columns.

As you tinker with Copilot in Excel, it’s important to remember generative AI tools aren’t quite the mathematicians we’d all like them to be. These tools are getting better at math skills over time, but you should review formulas before applying them to your spreadsheet to ensure Copilot understood and correctly equated your prompt.

Luckily, Copilot in Excel provides formulas and the logic behind their generation before you apply them to your spreadsheet, making it easy to discard results that aren’t ideal.

Sample prompts

To get started with Copilot in Excel, try using prompts like the following:

Analyze data: What is the average duration of page view time in seconds?

Create a formula column: Add a column for the percentage of page viewers who filled out the form to the nearest whole number.

Highlight specific data: Add green, yellow, red conditional formatting to the page view time column, in which green is any duration above 60 seconds, yellow is any duration between 30 and 59 seconds, and red is any duration less than or equal to 29 seconds.

Successfully adopt Microsoft Copilot with SHI

Microsoft built Copilot to save you time across your entire Teams and M365 workflow – including in Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. You can use Copilot to:

• Summarize lengthy Teams meetings.
• Craft emails in Outlook.
• Draft reports in Word.
• Draft presentations in PowerPoint.
• Create new formulas in Excel.
• And so much more!

But without strong governance and thorough adoption, your organization risks entering the AI future with insecure data and an uninformed userbase.

With SHI’s M365 Copilot Enablement program , our Microsoft experts will help drive successful, widespread Copilot usage while preventing unintended access to the data Copilot creates.

During our M365 Copilot Enablement program, we’ll work with your teams to:

• Gather requirements, plan for AI integrations, identify goals and outcomes through stakeholder discovery sessions, and activate Copilot.
• Train users on prompt engineering and using Copilot for M365 and lead the way for change management and messaging.
• Conduct a comprehensive analysis of data usage and health status within M365 and prepare your data and people for the use of AI.
• Evaluate AI priority personas, roll out Copilot for M365 to test groups, and establish early adoption frameworks and education.
• Implement production persona scenarios for AI, deploy Copilot for M365 to your organization, and provide a clear path forward to solidify tool adoption.

Learn more about our M365 Copilot Enablement program or contact us to adopt Copilot like a pro!

Start using Copilot like a pro with SHI!

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• Draft and add content
• Rewrite text
• Chat with Copilot
• Create a summary
• Copilot in Word on mobile devices
• Frequently asked questions
• Create a new presentation
• Add a slide or image
• Summarize your presentation
• Organize your presentation
• Use your organization's branding
• Copilot in PowerPoint for mobile devices
• Draft an Outlook email message
• Summarize an email thread
• Suggested drafts in Outlook
• Email coaching
• Get started with Copilot in Excel
• Identify insights
• Highlight, sort, and filter your data
• Generate formula columns
• Summarize your OneNote notes
• Create a to-do list and tasks
• Create project plans in OneNote

Create a new presentation with Copilot in PowerPoint

Note:  This feature is available to customers with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 license or Copilot Pro license.

Create a new presentation in PowerPoint.

Select Send . Copilot will draft a presentation for you!

Edit the presentation to suit your needs, ask Copilot to add a slide , or start over with a new presentation and refine your prompt to include more specifics. For example, "Create a presentation about hybrid meeting best practices that includes examples for team building.”

Create a presentation with a template

Note:  This feature is only available to customers with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 (work) license. It is not currently available to customers with a Copilot Pro (home) license.

Copilot can use your existing themes and templates to create a presentation. Learn more about making your presentations look great with Copilot in PowerPoint .

Enter your prompt or select Create presentation from file to create a first draft of your presentation using your theme or template.

Edit the presentation to suit your needs, ask Copilot to add a slide , organize your presentation, or add images.

Create a presentation from a file with Copilot

Note:  This feature is only available to customers with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 (work) license. It is not currently available to customers with a Copilot Pro (home) license.

With Copilot in PowerPoint, you can create a presentation from an existing Word document. Point Copilot in PowerPoint to your Word document, and it will generate slides, apply layouts, create speaker notes, and choose a theme for you.

Select the Word document you want from the picker that appears. If you don't see the document you want, start typing any part of the filename to search for it.

Note:  If the file picker doesn't appear type a front slash (/) to cause it to pop up.

Best practices when creating a presentation from a Word document

Leverage word styles to help copilot understand the structure of your document.

By using Styles in Word to organize your document, Copilot will better understand your document structure and how to break it up into slides of a presentation. Structure your content under Titles and Headers when appropriate and Copilot will do its best to generate a presentation for you.

Include images that are relevant to your presentation

When creating a presentation, Copilot will try to incorporate the images in your Word document. If you have images that you would like to be brought over to your presentation, be sure to include them in your Word document.

Start with your organization’s template

If your organization uses a standard template, start with this file before creating a presentation with Copilot. Starting with a template will let Copilot know that you would like to retain the presentation’s theme and design. Copilot will use existing layouts to build a presentation for you. Learn more about Making your presentations look great with Copilot in PowerPoint .

Tip:  Copilot works best with Word documents that are less than 24 MB.

Welcome to Copilot in PowerPoint

Frequently Asked Questions about Copilot in PowerPoint

Where can I get Microsoft Copilot?

Copilot Lab - Start your Copilot journey

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Copilot for Microsoft 365

Enhance productivity with an AI-powered copilot.

Technology Services is currently piloting Copilot for Microsoft 365 across various departments, engaging selected faculty and staff to explore the potential of generative AI. See timeline below .

Take your productivity to the next level with Copilot for Microsoft 365! The innovative AI-powered solution is designed to streamline workflow and enhance daily operations.

What is Copilot for Microsoft 365?

It's an AI-driven feature seamlessly integrated within Microsoft's suite of apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. It assists users with tasks like writing, editing, summarizing, note taking, creating data visualizations, presentations, searching, managing inboxes, and more.

Why Copilot?

Technology Services aims to leverage cutting-edge technology and innovative methodologies to boost productivity. This pilot project aims to assess the practicality and broader applications of generative AI technologies at Texas A&M by experimenting with artificial intelligence in partnership with our campus community. The pilot is focused on using generative AI in widely-used tools like Outlook, Teams, Word, and PowerPoint, to improve productivity, boost creativity, and simplify workflows.

Who is using Copilot?

Technology Services is currently testing Copilot for Microsoft 365 with about 100 campus members representing units across campus. During the pilot, Technology Services will host training sessions, investigate how units are using Copilot for M365, sharing use cases with other pilot participants, and gathering overall feedback.

Learn more about Microsoft Copilot

Popular Copilot for M365 Applications

When your license is activated, the Copilot icon will appear in the toolbar of each application. There is no need to download or install Copilot.

Copilot in Outlook

Start emails quickly, generate a summary, and catch up on long emails easily.

Scenario: An advisor in the College of Engineering wants to use the Draft with Copilot feature to compose a follow up email about a meeting.

Prompt: “Please create an email asking for more information about the meeting agenda, specifically the line item about advising sessions this fall.”

Copilot in Teams

Have more effective meetings, easily catch up on chats, and find information faster.

Scenario: A Texas A&M staff member joins a meeting late and wants to get caught up.

Prompt: “Please summarize the discussion and action steps related to the communications for this project. Also, let me know if I was given any action items and what the deadline is to complete those items.” *Note: Meeting must have recording or transcription turned on.

Copilot in Word

Start a draft, add to an existing document, rewrite text, or generate a summary.

Scenario: A faculty member needs help drafting a syllabus.

Prompt: “I am teaching a course on AI. Help me create a syllabus from January 2025 - April 2025 that lasts for 15 weeks with a one-week break between weeks 11 and 12. Include the required language for all Texas A&M University syllabus policies, such as copyright, sexual harassment, hardware requirements, attendance, ADA, and Academic Honor Policy. The Audience will be Texas A&M graduate students in the Bush Business School. Make sure it is accessible for all users and is based on the AI textbook chapters from Artificial Intelligence and an introduction to machine learning by Neopolatin and Jain (2018).”

Copilot in Excel

Go deeper with data, identify insights, generate formulas, and more.

Scenario: An analyst wants a copilot to provide a unique insight data table of data.

Prompt: “Please create a few pivot tables to surface unique insights and summarize key points. Create companion charts for each to help visualize the data. Also, try to project potential charges for next year.”

Copilot in PowerPoint

Create beautiful presentations, organize and summarize presentations, and more.

Scenario: A department head wants to create a presentation from their notes.

Prompt: “Using these notes taken from a brainstorming session with other department leaders, create a presentation for next week's upcoming meeting. The audience for the presentation is for the other department leaders. Limit it to 10 slides.”

To learn more about the prompts you can use in a scenario, visit the Copilot Lab to try prompts in all Microsoft applications.

Copilot for M365 vs. Using Copilot Online

We understand you may have questions about the differences between Copilot on the web and Copilot for Microsoft 365 . Copilot Chat is a separate product that comes with Microsoft’s A5 licensing. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is embedded into popular apps (Word, Excel, etc.) offering a more integrated experience with AI.

AI is the future and we must explore all of the use cases that can help our campus be more efficient, productive and creative. Through the Microsoft 365 Copilot Pilot beginning at the end of May, we will learn more about acceptable use cases in every unit and division.

Pilot Timeline

Pilot planning.

Pilot begins - participants receive a pre-pilot survey.

June-August 2024

Optional Training

Optional training events for pilot participants. The project team gathers use cases and promotes the use of tools.

August 2024

The pilot ends, and the project team will share the final feedback survey.

What people are saying about Copilot

*These statistics were provided by research from the Microsoft Early Adoption Program. Texas A&M University was not included in the Microsoft Early Adoption Program.

said they were more productive.

said they didn't want to give up Copilot after using it.

said they spend less time processing email.

How do I participate in the pilot?

What is responsible ai, where can i learn more about how copilot protects my privacy, can i use copilot for m365 with hipaa or ferpa data, which applications have copilot for microsoft 365, do i need to install copilot how do i start using it.

Once your license is activated, it may take up to five days for Copilot to show up in all your applications. You do not need to install or enable it on your device.

Additional FAQs are available in the Knowledge Base .

Copilot YouTube Playlist

Browse many short videos introducing you to Copilot, show you ways to use it across your Microsoft 365 applications, and provide tips and tricks to get started.

Microsoft 365 Copilot

Copilot for M365 Learning Path

This learning path created by Microsoft spans three key modules that will walk you through the basics of Copilot, showcase its versatility across applications, and offer advice on maximizing its potential.

Get started with Copilot for Microsoft 365

Copilot for M365 Latest Updates

Stay up-to-date with Copilot's latest features and improvements to achieve better, more personalized results.

Latest updates for Microsoft Copilot

Technology Services is here to help. Email [email protected] with questions/feedback regarding this pilot.

Copilot FAQs

May 16, 2024

Create accessible PDFs with Microsoft 365 apps

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Howdy, Microsoft 365 insiders! My name is Peter Wu, and I’m a Principal Engineer on the PowerPoint team. I’m here to explain how to use several Microsoft 365 apps to create accessible PDFs, so that everyone can access and enjoy the content of your creations.

Create accessible PDFs with Microsoft 365

Global Accessibility Awareness Day occurs every May, and this year we’re reminding you to make sure that your documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and other content remains accessible by the more than 1 billion people in the world with disabilities.

Many people who you communicate with could have disabilities that you are not aware of (studies show more than 70% of disabilities are invisible). Making your content accessible can help empower them to understand your message and fully participate in whatever activity or concept you are communicating. Practice and make it a habit ! 

We know many of you distribute your content in PDF format, which is why we’ve been continually making improvements to the way Microsoft 365 apps preserve the accessibility of content when exporting to PDF. In most cases, you can do all your accessibility work within your favorite Microsoft 365 apps, without costly add-ins or other remediation steps.

How it works

• Start with a template or theme that has good semantics and color palette, such as the new default theme in Office . All six of the accent colors in this theme contrast well with the default text color and font size in PowerPoint, and three of the six accent colors contrast well when using smaller font sizes.
• By default, the Accessibility Checker runs while you work. A notification is displayed in the Status Bar. If any accessibility issues are detected, simply click the notification to open the Accessibility Assistant pane and review the list of issues found.

• In  PowerPoint , Excel , and Outlook for Windows , after you have the Accessibility Checker open, the Accessibility ribbon tab also appears at the top of the window providing the tools that help you make your content accessible all in one place. 
• Beta Channel users can also access a preview of the new Accessibility Assistant in Word and Outlook for Windows by selecting Review > Check Accessibility . This tool makes it even easier to create accessible documents in those apps.
• Tip: Don’t use Print as PDF , since that command doesn’t produce an accessible PDF.
• If there are accessibility issues in the content, a notification appears when saving or exporting it as a PDF in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Windows, reminding you to make it accessible.

PDF accessibility improvements in Microsoft 365  

Recent improvements to PDF accessibility in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint include:

• Exporting accessible PDF on iOS and Mac (when using the Best for electronic distribution and accessibility option) in Excel as well as Word. This feature is also available in PowerPoint to all Current Channel (Preview) users.
• Bookmarks for sections and slides in PowerPoint and headings or bookmarks in Word to help people more easily navigate PDF content.
• Over 100 improvements to PDF/UA tags, which provide essential information for people who rely on a screen reader to read and understand PDF content.
• The most suitable tags for Shapes with text, Alt Text, and Equations
• <Formula> with Alt Text for Equations in Excel and PowerPoint
• <Figure> with Alt Text for every other type of graphical object
• Flat <Figure> (no nesting) for SmartArts and Groups in PowerPoint
• WordArt preserved as text
• Hyperlinks aren’t nested in <Figure> in PowerPoint
• Artifact and no tags for Decorative objects, objects on slide master, headers, footers, cell borders, and more
• Removed unnecessary <Span> and <P> tags
• <Span> tags for different languages and no Actual Text
• <THead> and <TH> for table headers
• Merged table cells have rowspan and colspan in PowerPoint
• Lists have proper nesting and <Lbl> for the bullet
• Footnote and Endnote <Link>s
• <BlockQuote> for Word Paragraph Quote and Intense Quote styles
• <Quote> for Word Quote style
• <Title> for Word Title style
• Heading levels beyond <H6>

Availability

These features are generally available in the latest releases of Microsoft 365, except where noted above. Availability may vary by product. 

We want to hear from you! Please click Help  >  Feedback in any Microsoft 365 product to submit your thoughts about a PDF accessibility feature. 

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