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.

Stop treating PivotTables as the finish line—add Slicers and Timelines to turn your spreadsheet into an interactive dashboard ...

Microsoft Excel worksheets are convenient places to store limited amounts of data. Excel is a spreadsheet application, but an Excel file can also serve as a database for your website if you can ...

Please note: This item is from our archives and was published in 2018. It is provided for historical reference. The content may be out of date and links may no longer function. Because the field names ...

For the most part, you're probably accustomed to using Microsoft Excel for tasks such as preparing reports, forecasts, and budgets. However, Excel is much more powerful than that. It can be used to ...

Originally, Excel was not designed to be a real database. Its early database functions were limited in quantity and in quality. And because every record in an Excel database is visible on the screen ...

Have you ever felt like your Excel skills hit a ceiling, no matter how many pivot tables you create? You’re not alone. While standard pivot tables are a reliable tool for summarizing data, they often ...

Excel validation lists avoid blanks and errors with TOCOL(ignore) plus FILTER; the spill range stays stable across worksheets.

Q. In your November Tech Q&A article on Excel’s Scenario Manager, you mentioned two other “what-if” tools: Goal Seek and Data Table. Can you show how those work like you did with Scenario Manager?

These four overlooked Excel features completely changed how I design spreadsheets.