How to Use Autofilter in MS Excel

Microsoft Excel is still the standard in spreadsheet software. It's versatile and it can keep you organized when you've given up hope. Autofilter can take an enormous spreadsheet and reduce it to usable numbers in seconds. Excel can also be intimidating, but try learning one trick at a time and before long you'll be the neighborhood expert!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Computer with Microsoft Excel installed
• Spreadsheet file (.xls) with data to be sorted

1. Look at your data and decide what columns (or rows) you want to be able to sort with. Highlight those columns or rows and select "Data" on the main menu. Then select "Filter" and then click on "Autofilter."
2. You now have drop down arrows in each title box. Each arrow can be clicked on to filter your data according to that column. Whatever you click on will become the only data visible.
3. If you go to the "DRAFT" title cell and click on the arrow, then click on "3/25/2008" in the autofilter column, you will be left only with data that matches.
4. Notice that the arrow in "DRAFT" is now blue. This tells you that the spreadsheet has been filtered by that column's data.
5. You can apply additional filters. Click on the arrow in the "WRITTEN" title cell, then click on "3/28/2008." You now have only data that meets those two criteria, drafted on 3/25 and written on 3/28. You notice that both of those arrows are now blue.
6. There are two ways to go back to your original data. You can remove all the autofilters. To remove all the autofilters at once, click on "Data" then click on "Filter" then click to remove the check mark on "Autofilter." This will restore all your data and remove the check boxes.If you just want to restore your data one column at a time, click on the arrow, then click on "all." All the data in that column will be visible again.The illustration shows both methods.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the "blank" setting to pick only cells with no data.
• You can also filter your data in other ways by using "NonBlanks," "Top10..." or "Custom..."
• Don't panic and think you've lost your data. You've merely made it invisible for the moment.
• Even if you save your document in its filtered state, all the data is still there. Remove the Autofilters (Step 6) to make your data visible again.

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