Office Excel 2007 - Sort and Filter Data for Print

Sometimes there is a need to print certain ranges of cells that contain a group of data values.

A fairly simple procedure that bypasses the need to create a Pivot Table is to use the built in filter.

Take a spreadsheet that tracks the number of hours for a task or tasks over a given period of time. In this case the period is one year.

The following screen shot shows the group of data after sorting by the last name:

1. Once sorted, click in cell A1 to remove the A column highlight.
2. Click on the Sort & Filter button on the Home ribbon.
3. Click on the Filter option.
• A down arrow style button will appear beside each heading in row 1.
4. Click on the relevant data column's down arrow to find available options.
• The following screen shot shows what you should see:
  
5. In this case we are looking for people whose total in the last column is at or below the value of 10.
6. We choose "Less Than Or Equal To..."
7. The Custom AutoFilter dialogue window comes up where we punch in 10.
• The AutoFilter:
  
8. Click OK.
9. Print the results.

The results screen shot:


This is a simple way to quickly pull some relevant data from what can be a very complex spreadsheet.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists