It could be sent out to a client or key stakeholders. Who will be looking at it? Maybe it’s for internal use. It’s important to design a spreadsheet that is appropriate for your audience. If you design a spreadsheet that contains complex formulas and you expect others to update those formulas or perform calculations, you need to ensure they have had the appropriate level of training or you will spend a lot of time fielding questions or fixing errors. If you are sharing the spreadsheets you create with others it’s important to ensure that everyone who will be working on that spreadsheet has the appropriate level of knowledge and competence in Excel. Whilst your Excel skills might be top-notch, other people might not be. This makes your files easy to search for and find in File Explorer and gives you an idea of the file contents without opening it first. Or maybe name them by client, ‘INV_Microsoft_01032022’ etc. For example, if you have a folder of ‘January Invoices’, consider naming them ‘INV-JAN-03.xls’, ‘INV-JAN-04.xls’. Implement a consistent file naming convention so that it’s easy to identify files. Use tab colours to organize data File Names Ensure it’s easy to read the data and you don’t have a light font on a light background and vice versa. If you have a theme applied, choosing colors from within the theme palette works well. Stay away from anything cursive or quirky like Comic Sans.Ĭolors should also be consistent but you don’t necessarily only have to use one color. In general, fonts like Arial, Calibri, and Cambria work best. It’s better to stick to one or two and ensure that the fonts you pick are professional. Spreadsheets that contain multiple font styles can be difficult to read. Regardless, it’s important to keep fonts, colours, cell styles, tab colours, and file names consistent. It might be that you work at an organization that has its own standard with all colours and fonts used adhering to company branding guidelines. It’s important to adopt a consistent standard when working on a spreadsheet. How to Make a Line Graph in Excel? 4 Best Line Graph Examples Excel Spreadsheet Design – 7 Golden Rules Rule 1 – Adopt a Standard And Stick To It Can you remember what the formatting in each cell means? Or why did you put that formula in a cell?Įmploying these basic principles when creating a spreadsheet is not only going to give others guidance when working on your spreadsheet but also minimize the amount of time you spend fixing issues or updating the data.Įasily Make a Bullet Chart in Excel-2 ExamplesĬreating a Dynamic Pivot Chart Title Based on Slicer(6 Easy Steps) Or, maybe you put together a spreadsheet 6 months ago and are now revisiting it. People might have varying levels of skill in Excel and accidentally edit a formula, effectively breaking it. It might not be clear to your colleagues where to input data, which cells can be edited, and which ones should be left alone. You share it with your wider team and within a day, you’re fielding lots of questions about the spreadsheet or even worse trying to fix accidental errors from less-skilled staff members. You’ve spent two weeks putting together an amazing spreadsheet with lots of complex formulas and formatting. Spreadsheets that make sense to you, might be confusing to your colleagues. This is particularly important when sharing spreadsheets with others. Neglecting to think about these things can result in a spreadsheet that is inconsistent, full of errors, and hard to update. When creating a new Excel workbook, most of us simply dive in and start inputting data without giving too much thought to longevity, ease of use, and future-proofing.
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