Data Layout in Microsoft Excel
A Microsoft Excel worksheet gives you roughly 65,500 rows and 255 columns of space to play with when you’re making spreadsheets. That’s a huge canvas, and if you ever manage to fill one up with calculations, don’t dare email it to anyone, since it would probably cause a virtual apocalypse on their incoming mail server, not to mention a nasty clog in their inbox.
So when you’re ready to keep track of contacts, sales, expenditures, or whatever it is you’re using Excel for, you’ll always have plenty of space to grow – but that doesn’t mean you should use it all right away.
Data layout in Microsoft Excel is hugely important because it organizes what you’re tracking in such a way that you can easily manipulate the data, create formulas to work with the data, or even export it to various formats and link it into existing applications (i.e., Database Applications).
Below are some guidelines to follow to help keep your data nice, neat, and easy to work with:
Keep your data in one contiguous block. This means that you’ve got field names across the top row, and data starting directly underneath (row 2). Don’t skip any rows in order to “break up” the data (you can easily use colors instead), and don’t leave blank or unnecessary columns cluttering up your sheet. If you don’t use it, get rid of it. Organized data is happy data.
No titles/headers! If you need to use a header, do not—under any circumstances—use the top two or three rows for the header, and then keep your data underneath. This is the biggest stumbling block when importing data, since programs like Microsoft Access look at Row 1 for your column headings, and all subsequent rows for your records. Use the Header & Footer menu option if you must have a worksheet title when your Excel file is printed or previewed.
Keep your data types straight. Always refrain from using apostrophes in front of numbers or text. Using the apostrophe tells Excel to store whatever it is you’ve typed as text. And why would you want numbers stored as text? You don’t. If you need leading zeros, you can use a format to accomplish it. If you need to sort numbers stored as text, they will sort incorrectly.
By following those three simple rules, you’ll be on the fasttrack to easy data analysis and manipulation!
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