Learn BI Reporting with Free Lessons & Tips

Power BI vs Tableau

Tableau is considered as one of the leading tools in the BI market. Power BI is considered as an emerging tool in close competition with Tableau because of its backend data manipulation features and connectivity with the list of data sources. Tableau is one of the best data visualization tools in the market and is used by medium and large enterprises. Power BI is closely integrated with Office 365 suite, and hence it is compatible other sources such as SharePoint.

i. Quick Print:

If you want to print a copy of a worksheet with no layout adjustment, use the Quick Print option. There are two ways in which we can use this option.

• Choose File » Print (which displays the Print pane), and then click the Print button.

• Press Ctrl+P and then click the Print button (or press Enter).

ii. Adjusting Common Page Setup Settings:

You can adjust the print settings available in the Page setup dialogue in different ways as discussed below. Page setup options include Page orientation, Page Size, Page Margins, etc.

• The Print screen in Backstage View, displayed when you choose File » Print.

• The Page Layout tab of the Ribbon.

iii. Choosing Your Printer:

To switch to a different printer, choose File » Print and use the drop-down control in the Printer section to select any other installed printer.

iv. Specifying What You Want to Print:

Sometimes you may want to print only a part of the worksheet rather than the entire active area. Choose File » Print and use the controls in the Settings section to specify what to print.

• Active Sheets: Prints the active sheet or sheets that you selected.

• Entire Workbook: Prints the entire workbook, including chart sheets.

• Selection: Prints only the range that you selected before choosing File » Print.

i. Workbook Security:

We can apply security to the workbook by the concept of protection available in the Review Tab of ribbon. MS Excel's protection-related features fall into three categories.

• Worksheet protection: Protecting a worksheet from being modified, or restricting the modifications to certain users.

• Workbook protection: Protecting a workbook from having sheets inserted or deleted, and also requiring the use of password to open the workbook.

ii. Protect Worksheet:

You may want to protect a worksheet for a variety of reasons. One reason is to prevent yourself or others from accidentally deleting the formulas or other critical data. A common scenario is to protect a worksheet, so that the data can be changed, but the formulas can’t be changed.

To protect a worksheet, choose Review » Changes group » Protect Sheet. Excel displays the Protect Sheet dialog box. Note that providing a password is optional. If you enter a password, that password will be required to unprotect the worksheet. You can select various options in which the sheet should be protected. Suppose we checked Format Cells option then Excel will not allow to format cells.

iii. Protecting a Workbook:

Excel provides three ways to protect a workbook.

• Requires a password to open the workbook.

• Prevents the users from adding sheets, deleting sheets, hiding sheets, and unhiding sheets.

• Prevents users from changing the size or position of windows.

iv. Requiring a Password to Open a Workbook:

Excel lets you save a workbook with a password. After doing so, whoever tries to open the workbook, must enter the password. To add a password to a workbook, follow these steps.

• Choose File » Info » Protect Workbook » Encrypt With Password. Excel displays the Encrypt Document dialog box.

• Type a password and click OK.

• Type the password again and click OK.

• Save the workbook.

v. Protecting Workbook’s Structure and Windows:

To prevent others (or yourself) from performing certain actions in a workbook, you can protect the workbook’s structure and windows. When a workbook’s structure and windows are protected, the user may not Add a sheet, Delete a sheet, Hide a sheet, unhide a sheet, etc., and may not be allowed to change the size or position of a workbook’s windows respectively.

To protect a worksheet’s structure and windows, follow the below mentioned steps:

• Choose Review » Changes group » Protect Workbook to display the Protect Workbook dialog box.

• In the Protect Workbook dialog box, select the Structure check box and Windows check box.

• (Optional) Enter a password.

• Click OK.

i. Pivot Tables:

A pivot table is essentially a dynamic summary report generated from a database. The database can reside in a worksheet (in the form of a table) or in an external data file. A pivot table can help transform endless rows and columns of numbers into a meaningful presentation of the data. Pivot tables are very powerful tool for summarized analysis of the data.

Pivot tables are available under Insert tab » PivotTable dropdown » PivotTable.

ii. Pivot Table Example:

Now, let us see Pivot table with the help of example. Suppose you have huge data of voters and you want to see the summarized data of voter Information per party, then you can use the Pivot table for it. Choose Insert tab » Pivot Table to insert pivot table. MS Excel selects the data of the table. You can select the pivot table location as existing sheet or new sheet.

This will generate the Pivot table pane as shown below. You have various options available in the Pivot table pane. You can select fields for the generated pivot table.

• Column labels: A field that has a column orientation in the pivot table. Each item in the field occupies a column.

• Report Filter: You can set the filter for the report as year, then data gets filtered as per the year.

• Row labels: A field that has a row orientation in the pivot table. Each item in the field occupies a row.

• Values area: The cells in a pivot table that contain the summary data. Excel offers several ways to summarize the data (sum, average, count, and so on).

After giving input fields to the pivot table, it generates the pivot table with the data.

i. Charts:

A chart is a visual representation of numeric values. Charts (also known as graphs) have been an integral part of spreadsheets. Charts generated by early spreadsheet products were quite crude, but thy have improved significantly over the years. Excel provides you with the tools to create a wide variety of highly customizable charts. Displaying data in a well-conceived chart can make your numbers more understandable. Because a chart presents a picture, charts are particularly useful for summarizing a series of numbers and their interrelationships.

• Column: Column chart shows data changes over a period of time or illustrates comparisons among items.

• Bar: A bar chart illustrates comparisons among individual items.

• Pie: A pie chart shows the size of items that make up a data series, proportional to the sum of the items. It always shows only one data series and is useful when you want to emphasize a significant element in the data.

• Line: A line chart shows trends in data at equal intervals.

• Area: An area chart emphasizes the magnitude of change over time.

• X Y Scatter: An xy (scatter) chart shows the relationships among the numeric values in several data series, or plots two groups of numbers as one series of xy coordinates.

• Stock: This chart type is most often used for stock price data, but can also be used for scientific data (for example, to indicate temperature changes).

• Surface: A surface chart is useful when you want to find the optimum combinations between two sets of data. As in a topographic map, colors and patterns indicate areas that are in the same range of values.

• Doughnut: Like a pie chart, a doughnut chart shows the relationship of parts to a whole; however, it can contain more than one data series.

• Bubble: Data that is arranged in columns on a worksheet, so that x values are listed in the first column and corresponding y values and bubble size values are listed in adjacent columns, can be plotted in a bubble chart.

• Radar: A radar chart compares the aggregate values of a number of data series.

ii. Creating Chart:

To create charts for the data by below mentioned steps:

• Select the data for which you want to create the chart.

• Choose Insert Tab » Select the chart or click on the Chart groupto see various chart types.

• Select the chart of your choice and click OK to generate the chart.

iii. Editing Chart:

You can edit the chart at any time after you have created it:

• You can select the different data for chart input with Right click on chart » Select data. 

• You can change the X axis of the chart by giving different inputs to X-axis of chart.

• You can change the Y axis of chart by giving different inputs to Y-axis of chart.

MS Excel offers many keyboard short-cuts. If you are familiar with windows operating system, you should be aware of most of them. Below is the list of all the major shortcut keys in Microsoft Excel.

• Ctrl + A: Selects all contents of the worksheet.

• Ctrl + B: Bold highlighted selection.

• Ctrl + I: Italicizes the highlighted selection.

• Ctrl + K: Inserts link.

• Ctrl + U: Underlines the highlighted selection.

• Ctrl + 1: Changes the format of selected cells.

• Ctrl + 5: Strikethrough the highlighted selection.

• Ctrl + P: Brings up the print dialog box to begin printing.

• Ctrl + Z: Undo last action.

• Ctrl + F3: Opens Excel Name Manager.

• Ctrl + F9: Minimizes the current window.

• Ctrl + F10: Maximize currently selected window.

• Ctrl + F6: Switches between open workbooks or windows.

• Ctrl + Page up: Moves between Excel work sheets in the same Excel document.

• Ctrl + Page down: Moves between Excel work sheets in the same Excel document.

• Ctrl + Tab: Moves between Two or more open Excel files.

• Alt + = : Creates a formula to sum all of the above cells

• Ctrl + ' : Inserts the value of the above cell into cell currently selected.

• Ctrl + Shift + ! : Formats the number in comma format.

• Ctrl + Shift + $ : Formats the number in currency format.

• Ctrl + Shift + # : Formats the number in date format.

• Ctrl + Shift + % : Formats the number in percentage format.

• Ctrl + Shift + ^ : Formats the number in scientific format.

• Ctrl + Shift + @ : Formats the number in time format.

• Ctrl + Arrow key: Moves to the next section of text.

• Ctrl + Space: Selects the entire column.

• Shift + Space: Selects the entire row.

• Ctrl + - : Deletes the selected column or row.

• Ctrl + Shift + = : Inserts a new column or row.

• Ctrl + Home: Moves to cell A1.

• Ctrl + ~ : Switches between showing Excel formulas or their values in cells.

• F2: Edits the selected cell.

• F3: After a name has been created F3 will paste names.

• F4: Repeat last action. For example, if you changed the color of text in another cell pressing F4 will change the text in cell to the same color.

• F5: Goes to a specific cell. For example, C6.

• F7: Spell checks the selected text or document.

• F11: Creates chart from the selected data.

• Ctrl + Shift + ; : Enters the current time.

• Ctrl + ; : Enters the current date.

• Alt + Shift + F1: Inserts New Worksheet.

• Alt + Enter: While typing text in a cell pressing Alt + Enter will move to the next line allowing for multiple lines of text in one cell.

• Shift + F3: Opens the Excel formula window.

• Shift + F5: Brings up the search box.

Formulas in MS Excel:

Formulas are the Bread and butter of worksheet. Without formula, worksheet will be just simple tabular representation of data. A formula consists of special code, which is entered into a cell. It performs some calculations and returns a result, which is displayed in the cell.

Formulas use a variety of operators and worksheet functions to work with values and text. The values and text used in formulas can be located in other cells, which makes changing data easy and gives worksheets their dynamic nature. For example, you can quickly change the data in a worksheet and formulas works.

Elements of Formulas:

A formula can consist of any of these elements:

• Mathematical operators, such as + (for addition) and * (for multiplication):

  Example: =A1+A2 Adds the values in cells A1 and A2.

• Values or text:

  Example: =200*0.5 Multiplies 200 times 0.15. This formula uses only values, and it always returns the same result as 100.

• Cell references (including named cells and ranges):

  Example: =A1=C12 Compares cell A1 with cell C12. If the cells are identical, the formula returns TRUE; otherwise, it returns FALSE.

• Worksheet functions (such as SUMor AVERAGE):

  Example: =SUM(A1:A12) Adds the values in the range A1:A12.

Creating Formula:

For creating a formula you need to type in the Formula Bar. Formula begins with '=' sign. When building formulas manually, you can either type in the cell addresses or you can point to them in the worksheet. Using the Pointing method to supply the cell addresses for formulas is often easier and more powerful method of formula building. When you are using built-in functions, you click the cell or drag through the cell range that you want to use when defining the function’s arguments in the Function Arguments dialog box. 

As soon as you complete a formula entry, Excel calculates the result, which is then displayed inside the cell within the worksheet (the contents of the formula, however, continue to be visible on the Formula bar anytime the cell is active). If you make an error in the formula that prevents Excel from being able to calculate the formula at all, Excel displays an Alert dialog box suggesting how to fix the problem.

i. Built In Functions:

MS Excel has many built in functions, which we can use in our formula. To see all the functions by category, choose Formulas Tab » Insert Function. Then Insert function Dialog appears from which we can choose the function.

ii. Functions by Categories:

Let us see some of the built in functions in MS Excel:

• Text Functions:

  • LOWER: Converts all characters in a supplied text string to lower case.

  • UPPER: Converts all characters in a supplied text string to upper case.

  • TRIM: Removes duplicate spaces, and spaces at the start and end of a text string.

  • CONCATENATE: Joins together two or more text strings.

  • LEFT: Returns a specified number of characters from the start of a supplied text string.

  • MID: Returns a specified number of characters from the middle of a supplied text string.

  • RIGHT: Returns a specified number of characters from the end of a supplied text string.

  • LEN: Returns the length of a supplied text string.

  • FIND: Returns the position of a supplied character or text string from within a supplied text string (case-sensitive).

• Date & Time:

  • DATE: Returns a date, from a user-supplied year, month and day.

  • TIME: Returns a time, from a user-supplied hour, minute and second.

  • DATEVALUE: Converts a text string showing a date, to an integer that represents the date in Excel's date-time code.

  • TIMEVALUE: Converts a text string showing a time, to a decimal that represents the time in Excel.

  • NOW: Returns the current date & time.

  • TODAY: Returns today's date.

• Statistical:

  • MAX: Returns the largest value from a list of supplied numbers.

  • MIN: Returns the smallest value from a list of supplied numbers.

  • AVERAGE: Returns the Average of a list of supplied numbers.

  • COUNT: Returns the number of numerical values in a supplied set of cells or values.

  • COUNTIF: Returns the number of cells (of a supplied range), that satisfies a given criteria.

  • SUM: Returns the sum of a supplied list of numbers.

• Logical:

  • AND: Tests a number of user-defined conditions and returns TRUE if ALL of the conditions evaluate to TRUE, or FALSE otherwise.

  • OR: Tests a number of user-defined conditions and returns TRUE if ANY of the conditions evaluate to TRUE, or FALSE otherwise.

  • NOT: Returns a logical value that is the opposite of a user supplied logical value or expression i.e. returns FALSE if the supplied argument is TRUE and returns TRUE if the supplied argument is FAL.

• Math & Trig:

  • ABS: Returns the absolute value (i.e. the modulus) of a supplied number.

  • SIGN: Returns the sign (+1, -1 or 0) of a supplied number.

  • SQRT: Returns the positive square root of a given number.

  • MOD: Returns the remainder from a division between two supplied numbers.

Python is a general-purpose interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, and high-level programming language. It was created by GuidovanRossum during 1985- 1990. Like Perl, Python source code is also available under the GNU General Public License (GPL). This tutorial gives enough understanding on Python programming language

Python is a high-level, interpreted, interactive and object-oriented scripting language. Python is designed to be highly readable. It uses English keywords frequently where as other languages use punctuation, and it has fewer syntactical constructions than other languages.

i. Python is Interpreted: Python is processed at runtime by the interpreter. You do not need to compile your program before executing it. This is similar to PERL and PHP.

ii. Python is Interactive: You can actually sit at a Python prompt and interact with the interpreter directly to write your programs.

iii. Python is Object-Oriented: Python supports Object-Oriented style or technique of programming that encapsulates code within objects.

iv. Python is a Beginner's Language: Python is a great language for the beginner-level programmers and supports the development of a wide range of applications from simple text processing to WWW browsers to games.

Python Features:

Python's features include:

i. Easy-to-learn: Python has few keywords, simple structure, and a clearly defined syntax. This allows the student to pick up the language quickly.

ii. Easy-to-read: Python code is more clearly defined and visible to the eyes.

iii. Easy-to-maintain: Python's source code is fairly easy-to-maintain.

iv. A broad standard library: Python's bulk of the library is very portable and cross-platform compatible on UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh.

v. Interactive Mode: Python has support for an interactive mode which allows interactive testing and debugging of snippets of code.

vi. Portable: Python can run on a wide variety of hardware platforms and has the same interface on all platforms.

vii. Extendable: You can add low-level modules to the Python interpreter. These modules enable programmers to add to or customize their tools to be more efficient.

viii. Databases: Python provides interfaces to all major commercial databases.

ix. GUI Programming: Python supports GUI applications that can be created and ported to many system calls, libraries and windows systems, such as Windows MFC, Macintosh, and the X Window system of Unix.

x. Scalable: Python provides a better structure and support for large programs than shell scripting.

Apart from the above-mentioned features, Python has a big list of good features, few are listed below:

i. It supports functional and structured programming methods as well as OOP.

ii. It can be used as a scripting language or can be compiled to byte-code for building large applications.

iii. It provides very high-level dynamic data types and supports dynamic type checking.

iv. IT supports automatic garbage collection.

v. It can be easily integrated with C, C++, COM, ActiveX, CORBA, and Java.

Python is available on a wide variety of platforms including Linux and Mac OS X. Let's understand how to set up our Python environment.

Local Environment Setup:

Open a terminal window and type "python" to find out if it is already installed and which version is installed.

i. Unix (Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD, AIX, HP/UX, SunOS, IRIX, etc.)
ii. Win 9x/NT/2000
iii. Macintosh (Intel, PPC, 68K)
iv. OS/2
v. DOS (multiple versions)
vi. PalmOS
vii. Nokia mobile phones
viii. Windows CE
ix. Acorn/RISC OS
x. BeOS
xi. Amiga
xii. VMS/OpenVMS
xiii. QNX
xiv. VxWorks
xv. Psion

Python has also been ported to the Java and .NET virtual machines