Understanding Outlining

8/4/2020

Excel has a feature that allows you to outline your data. When you use this tool Excel analyzes your data and assigns different rows to different "levels". These levels can then be hidden or displayed, according to your requirements. An outline allows you to get a quick understanding of large amounts of data.

There are several ways to create an outline:

Inserting automatic subtotals. To do this select a cell in a data list, then click on the display the Data tab of the ribbon. Select Subtotal in the Outline group.
Letting Excel automatically outline your data list. Select the list that you want to outline and then select the Data tab of the ribbon. Click on Group from the Outline group, then click on Auto Outline.
Manually outlining your data list. Highlight the data you consider to be detail information and then display the Data tab of the ribbon. Click on Group from the Outline group and then click Group. Repeat this process for all the other detail information in the data list.

When your data is outlined, outline symbols will appear on the left side of your worksheet. You can display the different levels of data by using the mouse to click on the various symbols.

Alan Salmon

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Authors

Ward Blatch
Ward provides consulting and training services as the Managing Director of K2E Canada Inc. He joined K2E Canada in 2005 and is responsible for the Canadian operations of this international consulting group, which provides professional development technology education for accountants across Canada and the US. Ward lives in rural Nova Scotia and can be reached at ward@k2e.ca.

Tommy Stephens
Tommy is one of the shareholders in K2 Enterprises, affiliating with the Firm in 2003 and joining as a shareholder in 2017. At K2, Tommy focuses on creating and delivering content and is responsible for many of the Firm's management and marketing functions. Tommy resides in the metro Atlanta area. You may reach him at tommy@k2e.com.

Randy Johnson
Randy is a nationally recognized educator, consultant, and writer with over 40 years experience in Strategic Technology Planning, Accounting Software Selection, Paperless, Systems and Network Integration, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning, Business Development and Management, Process Engineering and outsourced managed services. Randy can be reached at randy@k2e.com

Bernie Smith
Bernie coaches businesses to develop meaningful KPIs and present their management information in the clearest possible way to support good decision making. As the owner of Made to Measure KPIs, he has worked with major organisations including HSBC, Airbus, UBS, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Lloyds and many more.

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