Microsoft Excel 2010

Description

            The MS Excel is one way of doing a computation in easier way. Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that allows users to insert and manipulate data, inserting cells, mathematical functions, and sorting lists. The Excel menu contains the Quick command and the Preferences option that allows you to customize the Excel program.

New and Improved in MS Excel

Ø Ribbon

First introduced in Excel 2007, the ribbon makes it easy for you to find commands and features that were previously buried in complex menus and toolbars. Although you could customize the Quick Access Toolbar in Excel 2007, it wasn’t possible to add your own tabs or groups to the ribbon. In Excel 2010, however, you can create custom tabs and groups and rename or change the order of the built-in tabs and groups.

  Ø Recover previous versions  

You can now recover versions of files that you closed without saving. This is helpful when you forget to manually save, when you save changes that you didn't mean to save, or when you just want to revert to an earlier version of your workbook.

  Ø Protected view 

Excel 2010 includes a Protected View, so you can make more informed decisions before exposing your computer to possible vulnerabilities. By default, documents that originate from an Internet source are opened in Protected View. When this happens, you see a warning on the Message bar, along with the option to enable editing. You can control which originating sources trigger Protected View. You can also set specific file types to open in Protected View regardless of where they originate.

  Ø Trusted documents   

The trusted documents feature is designed to make it easier to open workbooks and other documents that contain active content, such as data connections or macros. Now, after you confirm that active content in a workbook is safe to enable, you don’t have to repeat yourself. Excel 2010 remembers the workbooks you trust so that you can avoid being prompted each time you open the workbook.

Ø Sparklines

You can use sparklines—tiny charts that fit in a cell—to visually summarize trends alongside data. Because sparklines show trends in a small amount of space, they are especially useful for dashboards or other places where you need to show a snapshot of your business in an easy-to-understand visual format. In the following image, the sparklines that appear in the Trend column let you see at a glance how each department performed in May.

   Ø PivotTable labels 

It's now possible to fill down labels in a PivotTable. You can also repeat labels in PivotTables to display item captions of nested fields in all rows and columns.

   Ø Enhanced filtering  

   

You can use slicers to quickly filter data in a PivotTable with the click of a button and see which filters are applied without having to open additional menus. In addition, the filter interface includes a handy search box that can help you to find what you need among potentially thousands (or even millions) of items in your Pivot Tables.

   Ø Search filter  

When you filter data in Excel tables, PivotTables, and PivotCharts, you can use a new search box, which helps you to find what you need in long lists. For example, to find a specific product in a catalog that stocks over 100,000 items, start by typing your search term, and relevant items instantly appear in the list. You can narrow the results further by deselecting the items you don't want to see.

   Ø Filter and sort regardless of location 

In an Excel table, table headers replace regular worksheet headers at the top of columns when you scroll down in a long table. AutoFilter buttons now remain visible along with table headers in your table columns, so you can sort and filter data quickly without having to scroll all the way back up to the top of the table.

   Ø SmartArt graphic layouts  

With new picture layouts, you can tell your story with photographs. For example, use the Captioned Picture layout to show pictures with nice-looking captions underneath.

Comparison

The calculation speed is a little faster. Spark lines are improved. They are improved charts. Microsoft improved statistical, financial, and math functions. The functions are better. Fill patterns which were removed in 2007 are back.  However do not upgrade just to get fill patterns back.  A quick search on the internet will find several free fill pattern add-ins for Excel 2007. If you are a heavy user of conditional formatting, then upgrading to 2010 should benefit you.  In 2007, a lot of conditional formatting would bring Excel to its knees. 

Issues

Problems                                                 Solution

I have two lists that I need to combine containing addresses but one list uses "Street" while the other uses the abbreviation "St” Do I have to change all of the addresses manually?		No, you don't. The Data Cleaner can do this task for you!  You simply create a set of edit rules (ex: change "Street" to "St".   And, you can store the edit rules so you can use them again and again.
I need to rearrange many rows in my spreadsheet but it is a very tedious task of cutting and pasting.		The List Assistant contains several different buttons that help you organize and cleanup worksheet rows quickly and easily. You can move rows anywhere on your spreadsheet with one click of a button.
I have to open a text file that has over 100,000 data lines and Excel won't open it, what can I do?		Use the Text File Importer to quickly and easily import text files that contain over one million rows of data.

Reflection

          The MS Excel gives users a large variety of tools that they can use to make their data more flexible and useful. You can also make a mountain of data in more manageable ways. The Excel 2007 or 2010 gives users the ability to put a data or either inserting a workbook or a new one. You can operate the sort and filter data in many ways, and can also add summaries and subtotals. Additionally, users can add formulas to the workbook to analyze the data. Excel 2010 also includes new and improved features to analyze, manage and share information in more ways than ever before.