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Intermediate Spreadsheet Skills Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

Intermediate skills relating to spreadsheets, including sorting, filtering, formulas, and charts.

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

What is a Spread­sheet?

A spread­sheet is software that helps to organize, calculate and display data. Spread­sheets are especially useful for keeping track of numeric data—data in the form of numbers. You could use spread­sheets to record how much money goes into and out of bank accounts (accou­nting), to display statistics for games and sports, to do scientific research, and much more!

Important skills

Sorting data
Displaying data in a certain order, i.e. from the largest number to the smallest.
Filtering data
Deciding which data is displayed based on some criteria.
Creating charts
Making visual aids that explain data, e.g. pie charts, bar charts, line charts...
Writing formulas
Using math and special functions to combine the contents of cells in different ways.

Example: Sorting and filtering data in Excel

Once you have selected the data that you want to sort or filter, you may click on the Sort & Filter button in Excel's Home ribbon.

Image Source: Sort Data. Authored by: Shelli Carter. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attrib­ution

Sort orders

Smallest to Largest
Sorts numbers (including currency, etc) from the smallest to the largest. Ex: 1, 4, 8, 16.
Largest to smallest
Sorts numbers (including currency, etc) from the largest to the smallest. Ex: 16, 8, 4, 1.
A to Z
Sorts letters from A to Z, or sorts characters in increasing order by their ASCII codes. Ex: A, Ba, Bb, C.
Z to A
Sorts letters from Z to A, or sorts characters in decreasing order by their ASCII codes. Ex: C, Bb, Ba, A.
Oldest to Newest
Sorts dates and times starting from the oldest. Ex: 1906-0­1-01, 1976-0­5-05, 2013-0­8-08.
Newest to Oldest
Sorts dates and times starting from the most recent. Ex: 2013-0­8-08, 1976-0­5-05, 1906-0­1-01.

Example: Choosing what to filter

After you turn on filtering for your data, you can click on the triangle button ( to choose what data to show and hide. When you're done, simply click "­OK", and Excel will activate your filter.

Image Source: Filter Data. Authored by: Shelli Carter. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attrib­ution