Technology’s moving pretty fast, and it’s hard to keep up! Do you feel the pressure to learn learn learn all the new software programs? Me too.
In this session, we’ll take advantage of software we already have: Microsoft Excel. You’ll learn how to design interactive dashboards in Excel in just 30 minutes.
Need quick stats for your upcoming meeting? Excel can handle that. Need quick charts for your upcoming report deadline? Excel can handle that.
No fancy software needed. No extra licenses to pay for. No coding skills required.
The speaker will share her screen and show you four underused features of Excel:
(1) First, you’ll learn why we should use Excel Tables to store our datasets. We usually export spreadsheets from our nonprofit’s database, or from our foundation’s database. Once those datasets go into Excel, you’ll see why Excel Tables have special features that save our future selves time,, and allow us to automate our recurring tables and charts.
(2) Second, you’ll learn how to tabulating those datasets with Pivot Tables. Pivot Tables are a must-have Excel skill, especially for beginner and intermediate users, because they allow us to get quick stats without having to learn any complicated formulas.
(3) Third, you’ll learn how to create Excel Charts, which are easy to format, customize, and update over time.
(4) Finally, you’ll link these features together – Excel Tables, Pivot Tables, and Pivot Charts – with a filter called a Slicer. Slicers let us explore the tables and charts. For example, you can use drop-down menus or check-all-that-apply buttons to just look at this quarter’s data. Or, we might just look at one demographic group at a time to see where our projects are having the most impact.
Beginners, if you don’t recognize these terms yet, this session is for you! You’ll see what’s possible inside good ol’ Excel, which can take the pressure off to learn or purchase anything new. Intermediates, if you’re already using some of these features (maybe you’re already making pivot tables?), this session is for you! We’ll go a step further to link all these four features together and create an interactive dashboard.
Data visualization isn’t supposed to take all day. Data visualization isn’t supposed to be costly. Data visualization isn’t just for people with computer science degrees. Anyone in the social sector can get better insights about the impact of our work, even with everyday software like Excel.