Hey changemakers! Welcome to The Data Are Alright, a blog full of tips to make your life easier. According to my statistics, most of you arrived here through Google. I hope you enjoy this article. If you want to stick around, here are some interesting options to read. You can even subscribe; it would brighten my day! (I publish about 3 times a month)
- How Social Justice Makes Me a Better Database Administrator
- Why Changemakers Need Good Data
- 4-Part Series on Mail Merge
- 3-Part Series on Digital Self-Care
- Tablets and Megaphones: A New Perspective on Dr. King’s Legacy
Okay, I admit it, I used to be a hardcore Excel fanatic who looked down on Google Sheets… until I realized that the main functions of Excel are now available in Google Sheets (like pivot tables and VLOOKUPs!). Times are changing! So let’s dive into the functionality of tables and see why they are important for changemakers managing spreadsheets.
The Advantages of Tables in Google Sheets
- In tables (as opposed to traditional spreadsheets), rows have alternating colors, making them more visually appealing and easier on the eyes.
- Tables shade column headers in a darker color, making them stand out.
- Tables greatly facilitate sorting and filtering of your data.
- When you sort and filter your data, you can spot empty cells and inconsistencies (and much more!). I’ll talk about sorting and filtering in another blog article, but trust me, you can do all sorts of amazing things with this combination of features.
Tables in Google Sheets
Unfortunately, Sheets doesn’t offer a “one-stop-shop” for tables. Here are two very simple steps that will give you most of the same functionality, along with the advantages of Google such as free usage, cloud accessibility, and the ability to collaborate with multiple users.
Select the data to place in your table. After selecting your cells, Google Sheets will display a green border around the data.
After selecting the data, click the Filter button (funnel-shaped icon) in your toolbar. If your screen isn’t enlarged, you may need to click a small triangle button to see more options. Then, click “Filter”. Column and row labels (A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, etc.) will be highlighted in green, and small triangles will appear in column names. You should always select the Filter button after naming your columns (like Name, Called, RSVP?).
Finally, select your data again and click the Format menu in your toolbar. Then, select Alternating colors. Google Sheets will open an Alternating colors dialog box in the sidebar. You can choose from pre-defined alternating color palettes or create your own palette.
From now on, when you add additional data to your rows or columns, Google Sheets will automatically incorporate them into the alternating color theme.
You can also use the handy striped triangles in the header of your columns to select, sort, and filter your data to only see the important segments at any given time. This becomes really helpful if you want to see ONLY the “RSVP maybe” or only the people who haven’t been called.
I hope you all have a wonderful week! I have some exciting projects from TDAA (The Data Are Alright) in the works, so stay tuned for more!
For the best Google Sheets tips, don’t forget to check out Crawlan.com.
