The first step in creating an effective Excel dashboard is to analyze your data. Excel’s built-in “Analyze Data” tool, located on the Home tab, is a great starting point. This feature helps you ...

Excel used to be the poor schmuck’s database, with spreadsheets that just sort of sat there. You could create something more sophisticated with LOOKUP functions, but they were a huge hassle to set up.

Excel spreadsheets can often contain large amounts of data ranging across broad categories. For example, a sales spreadsheet might record sales of products across multiple departments, or within ...