Word vs Excel

People have a tendancy to use the software they feel most comfortable with. And I completely get that.
But...
Sometimes we make it harder on ourselve by trying to use a butter knife instead of an actual screwdriver.

Once of my students had a roster done in word. She had two issues.

1. Sorting her clients
2. Creating totals by type

First off let me just say you CAN sort and you CAN do formulas in Word. The formulas are pretty limited though. I'll post on that later. 
The tip to which software on this particular project is the totals. She needed to see how many clients were Current, Pending, New and Cancelled.
This is the original Word page. (Names have been changed)

My student was manually adding up her totals.
I took her list, a simple Copy and Paste, and put it into Excel for her.

I split her names up, Text to Columns feature in Excel, and added her totals at the top using the COUNTIF function.

This is how the COUNTIF function works:
=COUNTIF(range,criteria)
Think about it like this, 
what do I want to find (criteria)
where is that data located (range)
I listed all the types of status she wanted to track at the top, then put my COUNTIF beside it.
My criteria for Current became cell C3
And my range was the entire column of G
=COUNTIF(G:G,C2)

Sometimes you should just go find a screwdrive and leave the knives for cutting steak!
Blog ACME Clients.xls

Viewing 2 Sheets at the Same Time in the Same Excel Workbook

Hello,

I took several classes with you at Cal Poly and the last was the PPT class.

I have an Excel question. Is it possible to see two worksheets from the same workbook at the same time? If so, how do I do this?

Thanks,

Kathy

Hi Kathy,

Yes it is.

First you will need to create a 'new window', basically this creates another window with the same workbook in it.

Go to your View Tab and click on New Window. 

You should see two references to the workbook Name; 1, Name; 2.

Now to arrange them side by side:

Click on View again and click Arrange. I recommend Tiled as the choice.

 

You should now be able to click on different tabs in the same workbook.

Let me know if you have any more problems.

Kelly