Welcome back for more Excel videos! Excel Video 32 shows you how clicking the Total Row the Table Tools Design Tab puts a total row at the bottom of your table. The cool thing is that next to each cell in the total row is a drop-down arrow with a variety of choices for that column. You can sum, count, and average the data. You’ll also see how the min and max functions work in this video.
The total row is great, but it stays at the bottom of the table. If you want to change filters and see what happens to the totals, you have to go to the top of the table to change the filter and then back down to the total at the bottom to see the result. Here’s a trick you may find helpful. Add a few rows above the top of your table, then use the Freeze Panes command on the View Tab to lock those rows so you can always see the first couple of rows of your spreadsheet. Once the rows are locked in place, copy the formulas from the total row to the new rows at the top of the table. Once you’ve finished, it’s much easier to change the filters and immediately see the results. Don’t get too hung up on what Excel’s doing with the formulas, we’ll review these Structured References in a future Excel video.
Try adding the total row to your next table. Don’t just look at the sum, but use a few other functions as well. There are a wide variety of medical practice metrics that can be analyzed with tables in Excel 2007. Dollar for dollar, I’ll bet your biggest bang for the buck would be to put your accounts receivable data in a table and go to work. Give it a try.
